Ironically, Backpacker's District on Khao San Road has become one of the top attractions for tourists in Bangkok.  For one, many visitors are likely to stay there.  Khao San has, by my estimate, about 100 hostels.  But these hostels come with the added price premium of being located in the Backpacker's District.  Frugal travelers, travelers "in the know," and worn travelers who scorn touristy areas shun Khao San and stay elsewhere.  Yet nearly all, I am told, venture there at least once during their trip, if only to gape at the bleary-eyed Westerners.

For me, Khao San was an attractive introductory course in Bangkok.  Here, and nowhere else, street foods are occasionally labeled in English, which allowed me to get a sense of what I was ordering -- a sense largely missing from looking at the item's color and shape.  Vendors catering to all Western tastes cram into the short street, and spill over into neighboring streets.  So a short walk introduced me to all kinds of massages, stores, vendors, and, through the travel agencies, events and sights that I later bargained for away from Khao San.

Brits, people speaking German and Americans are the predominant species in Khao San's ecosystem.  Brits are mostly rising college juniors on summer vacation after a nearly ubiquitous junior-year internship.  The German-speakers I saw have always been in families or large groups.  The Americans seem scarce, or at least don't announce themselves the way Americans traveling through Europe do

Yesterday at the night market I got a belt in return for $5 USD and my own belt.  I wonder how much that hawker will sell my belt for.  It's worn, and perhaps that gives it the rustic feel some travelers expect in the goods they buy in Thailand.  It's also about to fall apart -- another aspect of wares bought in Thailand that travelers do, or should, expect.  But the belt I bought definitely won't fall apart any time soon.  Definitely.

Today I encountered one of the more interesting scams that tuk tuk drivers run in Bangkok.  A guy is crossing a street intersection with me as I head to the temple complex across the street.  He asks me if I'm going to the temple.  I confirm.  He tells me that the temple is closed until 3pm because the monks are praying.  So far this is a typical Bangkok scam - he is about to tell me to visit a silk or fabric factory while I wait for the temple to re-open.  He asks to see my map.  Here we go.  But instead, he offers me a 3-point route:  one buddha statue, a silk emporium, another buddha statue, then back to the temple complex area -- all for $2 USD!  The scam works for them because the tuk tuk drivers get commission from the "silk emporium" for bringing foreigners there.  But the scam also works for me, because I am not obligated to stay at the emporium long, and end up paying for about 3 hours of getting driven around for 2 bucks.

The American Airlines flight operated by Cathay Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong runs on the Boeing 747-400, which I estimate seats 1,000 people.  Most of the passengers are Chinese, given the flights destination. About 1 in 10 is Caucasian.

The best line from my trans-Pacific flight comes from the movie "The Ghost Writer" that I watched on the plane: "I know of a reporter on the Guardian who uses the gym!"  One innovation of their entertainment system I have not seen elsewhere is that this one calculates the duration of the film you're watching and, if it exceeds the amount of time you'll be on the plane, asks you whether you want to proceed.  A small but useful update.

The New York Times released an fascinating and incisive analysis of the myriad pages of classified information that it, along with two other newspapers, was granted access to by the website WikiLeaks.  I think this analysis clearly shows that American involvement in Afghanistan is not going as well as American military and political leadership wishes, and not as well as it portrays those efforts to the American public.  I cannot help but feel that the lack of adequate governance in Afghanistan, especially relative to the presence of strong governance in Iraq, plays a key role in stifling our efforts to rein in corruption, defeat the Taliban, and strengthen Afghani military and political institutions.  Afghanistan has more territory than Iraq, fewer people, is less economically developed; its political institutions are less centralized and more corrupt.  The success of our efforts there, it seems, rests on America's ability to strengthen political institutions so that Afghanis have no need to turn to the Taliban to resolve their political or territorial or other claims, and strengthening military and para-military entities such as the police force so that they can defend their territory against invasion attempts by Taliban troops.  The strengthening of political institutions sounds like a long process that requires financial and military commitment from the United States over a very long period of time.  The Afghanistan war has already taken 10 years.  I have doubts that America can maintain the level of investment needed in Afghanistan to build the political and military institutions in the face of disruptive Taliban forces and the recently-revealed extensive involvement by Pakistani intelligence.  In light of these difficulties, perhaps American goals in Afghanistan should be curtailed to simply be the creation of a central Afghanistan government free of Taliban personnel.  And that increasingly sounds like a government that has cut a deal with the Taliban of some Taliban governance or power in return for non-agression.

I have decided to blog my trip throughout Asia.  Today is the first leg of that trip.  I am flying from Boston to San Francisco and spending the day seeing friends and finishing last-minute planning.  From there I fly directly to Bangkok, where I will spend three days.

For this trip -- the longest amount of travel I've done -- I started with an exhaustive packing list.  Lonely Planet recommends packing a multi-function knife, bug spray, umbrella.  After some thought and consultation with friends who traveled to the Mekong region, I decided to pack light and buy most supplies after I land and as I travel through Asia.  The one crucial item I chose to buy in the US and bring abroad: duck tape.

Photo taken by Michael B. in February 2010 at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

This malachite costume of a mask, necklace, arm bands, and rings was created for one of the ancient kings in the area of Mexico.  The king was buried in a sarcophagus, displayed next to this costume, the dimensions of which were so large, and its weight so heavy, that instead of creating the sarcophagus in a workshop and then bringing it into the tomb, craftsmen had to construct the entire thing within the tomb, carving it out of rock they found there. 

I have an exciting trip to east Asia planned for this August.  I am flying from Boston to San Francisco to visit friends there, then to Bangkok, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hanoi, Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, and finally home to Boston.  Orientation for my graduate school program starts on August 24; my plane lands in Boston at 1:30 pm on Aug. 23.

I plan to spend about two non-travel days in each city in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and then about three or four non-travel days in cities in China.  In Cambodia, I will follow the typical tourist route of visiting the temples at Angkor Wat; in Vietnam, I am deciding between the train from Saigon to Hanoi and the plane.  The plane is pricier and faster, while the train affords better scenery and costs less.

A building at Dartmouth College.  Hanover, NH.  Personal photograph by Michael.  2006.

Fishermen leaving the docks in Accra, Ghana. Personal photograph by Michael. 19 May 2008.

The docks were buzzing with activity when we arrived there around six a.m. Fishmongers were readying their tents. Fishermen--all men--were cleaning their boats and pushing them out to sea. Soon they would return and the women would start their work. They would relieve the men of their morning catch and proceed to scale and fry the fish on their charred makeshift grills.

One man stood out in particular. He was taller and larger than the others, and the rest. Perhaps he was a Lord of the Docks, doling out fish and responsibilities. Or perhaps he was a drug dealer. There were several men wandering the docks who offered us to get high.

The entire morning made for a wonderful sociological experience. Somehow, everything seemed to fit -- parts of a complex mechanism that hummed along just fine without anybody's help. The men worked in tandem. The women picked up baskets of fish, balanced them on their heads, and started on their long treks to the villages. The kids would chase stray dogs in and out of rickety huts set up along the shore. Stacks of narrow, charred smoke from the grills wove themselves into the fresh air. It was a sight no picture could fully capture.

Israeli lamppost at Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Personal photograph by Michael. 14 October 2006.

The Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler was commissioned by the Israeli Ambassador to the UK to create the bronze sculptures of Bottom and Topol mounted on the Stratford lamppost pictured above. I remember visiting Meisler's shop-cum-museum off a humble street in Jaffa in Israel. His most ubiquitous work is the Jerusalem Sphere, below.  He gifted a modified version of the sphere to then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  Meisler turned his incredible imagination toward a craft that has elevated the Polish-born sculptor to the honor of the best Israeli sculptor. I am, frankly, amazed that there is no English Wikipedia page for Meisler. I was able to find one in German and another in Russian. No English page exists. 

Sources

1. Public sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull

Mexica Sun Stone at the Museo National de Anthropologia, Mexico City. Personal photograph. 22 November 2009. 

This stone was discovered on December 17, 1790 under the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, just several miles away from its current residence at the National Anthropology Museum. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the stone weighs 25 tons and spans 12 feet in diameter. The stone was originally believed to be an Aztec calendar because it contains references to dates and seasons. The museum, however, describes the stone as an unfinished sacrificial altar of the Mexicas, the immediate predecessors of modern Mexicans. By that interpretation, the altar, now hung vertically, was intended to lie flat on the ground for sacrifice.

At the San Diego Zoo.  Personal photography by Michael.  30 January 2010.

Welcome to my blog!

As expected, many startup companies are faring poorly in this economic downturn.  Venture capital funding is drying up as VC firms shore up market loses and become more reluctant to lend.  VC funding fell 28% from 3Q to 4Q of 2008, according to the WSJ.  Twitter stands as a counter-example, having raised $35 million in February 2009, despite having no known business plan for generating revenue.  

Right time to enter?  If not for the financing problem, this would be a great time to start a new company.  Although less capital is available, startup costs are drastically lower.  Quality labor is becoming increasingly abundant and cheap as many employees in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street get the pink slip and start looking around for alternatives.  Real estate prices are also near-rock bottom, and equipment manufacturers are offering large discounts.  

Start-ups may also face the problem of fewer and pickier early adopters.  Typically, early adopters have the greatest need for -- or greatest want of -- the start-up's product.  They are also the most tolerant of product shortcomings and more likely to provide feedback for product improvements.  These early adopters should still exist in a market downturn, but the general public's unwillingness to spend money suggests that early adopters will not only buy fewer products, but will expect discounts commersurate with those offered for more mature retail products.

Right time to exit? Although companies like Sherwood Partners, a "firm that specializes in winding down start-ups," are seeing more business, now may not be a great time to exit.  First, the average price for a startup sold in December 2008 is 20% of the price for an average startup sold 5 months before.  Second, that average price is showing signs of rebounding, rising 20-30% over the past month.  Further, no one really knows the speed and magnitude with which the recently-passed stimulus package will affect VC funding and start-up value.

After going to Mike Daisey's performance, "How Theater Failed America," at the Woolly Mammoth theater, I decided to test out his claim that theaters are increasing ticket discounts for young audiences (and stretching the definition of "young" in an effort to increase attendance). I am really excited by the discounts I found in DC: 

• Shakespeare Theater Company.  $10 tickets for people under age 35, for all of their performances!  These tickets are available every Thursday, starting at 10:00am, for performances through the following Sunday, by calling STC at 202-547-1122.  More info here. 
• Woolly Mammoth.  $15 tickets for people under age 25, for all performances except opening weekend.  Tickets are available anytime by calling Woolly box office at 202-393-3939.  More info here.
• Kennedy Center.  50% discount off full price for undergrad and graduate students, available through Kennedy box office at 202-467-4600.
• Theater J. Half-price tickets for people under age 25, with their upcoming performance, The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall, at half-price for all under age 35.
• Email listings.  Theaters have cross-promotional discounts.  For example, Woolly emailings this week give $10 discounts for Theater  J and Synetic Theater for all who enter the Woolly promotion code (sign up for Woolly mailings for receive code).

Updated.  Thanks Rebecca.

I recently found out that Dartmouth's World Outlook plans to publish my essay on democratization in India. Link will be posted once World Outlook uploads its latest edition.

History Matters, an undergraduate journal of historical research, has published the paper I wrote on British democratization during my study abroad at LSE, titled "The Revolution that Began the Evolution." See the current issue of the journal here. Read my paper, the leading article of the issue, here.

Here is the unedited version of my recent op-ed in The Dartmouth.

Nobody (protests) anymore
February 20, 2008

Why don’t we protest as much as previous generations used to?

This is the question Dr. Rita Colwell posed to a dozen Dartmouth students at dinner last Tuesday. Dr. Colwell, former director of the National Science Foundation, told us about the lack of adequate regulations on beef production (see recent beef recall) and the security and health problems being caused by global warming—and asked why Dartmouth students, and American college students in general, do so little.

Responses ranged from the defensible (“but we are doing something”), to the practical (“being a tree-hugger is ineffective”), to the boring (“we plan to work through the system”).

Lily Ringler ’11 attempted to tackle this question in her Feb. 22 article, “Is Campus Activism Dead?” But Ringler never settles on one answer, seemingly wavering between the elimination of the draft, the success of previous protests, and the end of the ‘60s culture of protest.

The elimination of the draft could not have led to the visible decrease in the intensity of protests. For one, not all protests revolved around the Vietnam war and the ROTC. In 1985, the apartheid in South Africa got Dartmouth students so riled up that they built shanties on the green to pressure the College to divest from that terrible regime. And they lived in them—in November! Apartheid had nothing to do with the draft; the lives of Dartmouth students were not dependent on the outcome of the protest. And the protest did not take place in the turbulent ‘60s, but rather two decades later.

Yet fast forward to the 21st century, and you see a completely different response to a very similar issue. The Darfur Action Group successfully lobbied the College to divest from Darfur by handing out free T-shirts to raise awareness and holding business meetings with College administrators.

That previous protests somehow “took care of things” also makes little sense. As Dr. Colwell pointed out, there is no lack of grievances. Look at America, and you’ll see Bush, Iraq, Katrina, and more. Look at Africa, and you the same need for divestment as the shanty-housed students saw in 1985.

I think two things explain the change in culture of protest. First, we get angry at different things than before. Second, we deal with our anger differently.

During those rare times when Dartmouth students come out to protest, the issue is not a big war, a bad government, or beef—the issue is identity. A “Cowboys and Indians”-themed formal, along with three other incidents, precipitated a massive protest in front of Robinson Hall. The national debate over people who immigrate here illegally led to an Immigration Solidarity Rally on the green. When the College announced its decision to relocate AZD and make way for Beta, 200 students marched to Parkhurst.

Everyone showed up to defend their identity, and to defend their right to defend their identity.

We simply don’t care about many issues that don’t deal with identity. When a few students tried to start up a campaign to boycott Coca-Cola for the injustices the company commits in developing countries. When they “blitzed out,” their publicity director told me, they were surprised at the negative responses they received. They ranged from the ignorant (“Coke can’t be that bad”), to the practical (“there are too many Coke products on campus to boycott them”), to the bitter (“I like PowerAde, so shut up”). It seems that sometimes even the Red Cross Blood Drop has trouble getting students to donate blood.

We also deal with anger differently. Today, many more channels exist to “channel our discontent,” as political scientists say. First, we have more, and more interesting, distractions. We watch DarTV and MTV, play on the Xbox and Playstation, read the New York Times online, and constantly Blitz and Facebook message each other. We may have too much to do to worry about issues outside our comfy moon chairs.

But our level of “discontent” sometimes rises above our level of distraction. To channel it, we have many media outlets. Before, people who wanted to share their views with the public had to submit an op-ed to their local newspaper. With many op-eds submitted, publication was not guaranteed. Or they could call a radio talk show, and wait on the line. Or they could get a few friends together and stand in front of Parkhurst.

Today, those people just get a blog.

There are also many more campus publications. If you’re an angry conservative, you’ll most likely try to join the Dartmouth Review. Angry liberals find themselves in the Dartmouth Free Press. If you’re not sure why you’re angry (or don’t fit into the DFP or the Review cultures), you’ll probably set up your own shop, as the founders of The Dartmouth Independent and The Dartmouth Beacon have done.

Students who prefer verbal complaints to written ones can join one of about a dozen discussion groups on campus. Upset about globalization? Saddened by Sudan? Talk about it at the World Affairs Council, PoliTALK, AGORA, or the First Year Forum over free Mai Thai.

So when we hear about the next genocide or the next product recall, I would be surprised if we do as much as text each other about it or even join a group on Facebook.