Book Review: A Walk in the Woods

A little while ago I picked up A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Despite my general interest in science based books, I had a hard time getting into this book. It was like rereading everything I learned in science classes as a kid, plus bunch of things I wasn't really that interested in. So when I picked up another book, A Walk in the Woods, for my San Diego trip this week, I was surprised that it was by the exact same author. This book was easy reading though, and was much more to my interest. It's about Bryson's hiking experience on the Appalachian Trail.

The Appalachian Trail is a 2,000+ mile stretch from Georgia to Maine. I first heard this crazy notion of people actually hiking the entire trail in one-go (known as thru-hiking) back in 2002. I overheard this short plump little girl in my karate class telling another of her plans to quit her job to join her boyfriend on this hike. Back then, I considered it one of those crazy things other people did. However, after my own crazy adventure around the world the following year, anything seemed possible. So I put "hike the A.T." on my list of things I might do in my lifetime.

Now that I am back in the States again and resigned myself to living a rooted life for at least a few years (I'm buying a house, but more on that later), I am finding it difficult to even do a short vacation, much less take 6 months off to tackle the A.T. Still, I was curious as to what the experience would be like. I haven't actually met anyone who has done the hike. I don't even know anyone who knows someone who has done it. So when I saw A Walk in the Woods in the bookstore, I thought I'd check it out.

I didn't expect a thru-hike on the A.T. to be easy. I love hiking, but not so much with anything more than a light day pack. There'd be no way around doing the A.T. w/o a full pack. Then there's the grundge factor. You'll go many days w/o a shower or a wash. I think the longest I went w/o a shower was 3 days on the Inca Trail. Even then I had enough wet wipes to clean off each night. Then there's the prospect of hiking in bad weather, the loneliness on the trail (not that I'd do it alone), etc. etc. Still, it was on my list of things I want to do.

Reading A Walk in the Woods gave me some insight on what it would be like to hike the A.T. The book starts off by rattling off all sorts of things that can go wrong on the hike. Things I hadn't even though of - like bears, bugs, snakes, and diseases. The book doesn't get any more encouraging actually. The author never completes the entire trail himself. Half of the books is on history surrounding the trail rather than his experience on the trail. Of what he does recount of his experience, it was mostly of the hardship. He pretty much just affirms that this isn't something an ordinary Joe Schmo accomplishes. Hiking the A.T. just got really low on my list of things I want to do in my lifetime. I don't have any shortage of adventures I want to embark on tho, so I reckon I won't get to it in this lifetime. I wonder though, how that one girl did on the hike.

A Walk in the Woods was a great read though. Bryson has a good sense of humour and I enjoyed it alot. Check it out - especially if you have any inkling of wanting to do the hike.

Gold Sash

In my last post on Kung Fu I talked about the difficulties of transitioning to Kung Fu from karate. Since then I have completed my requirements for my first test and passed it earlier in the month. I have now officially been promoted to "beginner" level, indicated by my new gold sash. For the first test, one is required to know the stepping form, punching form, and the 10 Tan Tui. Now I am learning the first Jow Ga form - Sei Ping. I still have a long ways to go to become proficient in Kung Fu, but at I am starting to feel more comfortable in class. I no longer feel clueless, and I can keep up better with drills. Perhaps my prior experience in martial arts is helping afterall. Every now and then tho, the instructor tells me to stop doing things like karate, and I'm sure I will hear it a few more times still. Anyways, now I feel like there is hope - I can be good at Kung Fu too!

National Postal Museum

I made a short stop through the National Postal Museum in DC today. Most people probably don't realize such a museum even exists, but it's actually worth a look. We all take for granted the mail delivery service we get through USPS, but after seeing the museum, I developed some new found respect for these people. If you think about it, these people deliver our mails to all corners of our country, rain or shine. Videos in the museum gives you some interesting history on the development of our postal system. If you're into stamp collecting, they have a pretty massive collection of them available for viewing. There are also some other interactive exhibits that may be fun to try.

The museum is located right next to Union Station. Also next to the museum is Capitol City Brewing Company, which is a good place to get beer and grub if you're sick of the museum cafes. Their chili was pretty good.

Karaoke and Korean BBQ in NoVA

Yakiniku is a popular dish in Japan. It is basically strips of meat marinated in special Korean BBQ sauce and cooked at your table. It is soooooo yummy. Something else very popular in Japan is karaoke. I'm sure everyone knows karaoke is popular in Japan, but most probably do not know that karaoke is usually done in karaoke "boxes" there. Instead of performing in a bar in front of total strangers, you can rent private rooms to party in with just your friends. Song selections are usually wide and varied, including many popular English songs. This is how I like to do my karaoke too.

In Northern Virginia, there is a large Korean community, particularly Annandale it seems. There is a very good Korean restaurant called Yechon. It's packed on weekends, but they are pretty fast at getting people seated and served (Asian efficiency). Prices are reasonable, probably under $20 per person for the meal portion (not including drinks). If you are new to Korean BBQ, go to the bbq section of the menu, order 1 portion of Kalbi and something else (make sure to go with a friend since you have to order minimum 2 servings). With your bbq, you automatically get a portion of rice and many side dishes. The restaurant also serves Japanese food/sushi and variety of other Korean food.

Just down the road from Yechon is Cafe Muse, the closest thing you can get to a Japanese style karaoke box. Probably the ideal group size is max 6-8 people if you want to get your hands on the microphone frequently. I've enjoyed karoke with a group of all sizes though. Prices are roughly $6-10 per person per hour depending on the group size (works out cheaper if there are more I think). They also serve food and drink to fuel you all night, but if you stuff yourself at Yechon beforehand, you'll be good to go for a while.

So for a fun Asian style night out, go check out Yechon and Cafe Muse!

Lost

Since Heroes and Grey's Anatomy were all reruns through the holidays, I started watching Lost. I've heard that it's a great show but I just haven't gotten around to watching it until now. I don't really find the plot of the story as interesting as 24 or Heroes, but good enough to watch. All the show really does though is make me wish I was on a tropical island. I'm a little ways into season 2 and have a while to go before the premiere of season 4 on 1/31. I better get on it....

For those of you want to check out Lost, they have all of the previous seasons on HD streaming through abc.com. (US only)

Boston and Sunapee

This past weekend I went to go visit two of my good friends from grad school, now up in Boston. It was just what I needed, couple of good days with girl friends. It was a pretty laid back weekend tho. We wandered around Boston a bit on Saturday, met up with another friend of mine for a bit, and then spent the evening playing Guitar Hero. On Sunday we got a bit of snowboarding in.

Guitar Hero's a pretty fun game. I can see why it's popular. Unfortunately I had a hard time playing more than a few songs. My pinky started hurting after a while, which makes no sense at all because I didn't use it. Then my right forearm started hurting... then my knees. I think I was making too many unnecessary movements (looking cool was more important than hitting the notes). It's also too bad I didn't know many of the songs on there. Hard rock and heavy metal aren't my thing. One song kind of stuck in my head for a while though. The chorus goes "Here I am, rock you like a hurricane." Hmm, I wish someone would come rock me like a hurricane.

As far as sight-seeing goes, I wouldn't put Boston very high on the must-see list. Sure, there's some history there, but it's not the most interesting stuff. Then again, I didn't really do any research on the place and left it up to my friends to play tour-guide. If there was some must-see or do things there, please let me know.

Sunday afternoon was spent at Sunapee, a ski resort in NH just 1.5 hrs North of Boston. The slopes were icy, tho there were some parts that weren't so bad. I suppose it's about what I expected considering how warm it has been the week before. It was a pretty drive up there though. Lot of the lakes are frozen over. On one lake, there were little box huts where people were ice fishing in. That was pretty neat because it was something I hadn't seen before.

Happy New Year!

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope everyone has had a splendid holiday. Wish I could say mine was exciting, but it was actually quite uneventful because I chose to be lame this year and wanted to spend some time in solitude contemplating life in general. Sorry, no great revelation to share with the rest of the world yet.

One great thing that did occur over the holidays though was a visit from family. I've lived in all kinds of cool places (e.g. Japan, Europe, NYC), and this is the first time they've come to visit. I suppose it doesn't really help tho when I'm not at any of these places for very long. Anyways, so I was really happy that they came and showed them around DC for couple of days. The best part was seeing their smiles. Here's a pic of my nieces that I thought was especially cute: