Update

Above Machu Picchu, Peru. March 2011.

Ok, back in action....

I've been in Jamaica for the last week, attending the Vernacular Architecture Forum conference here in Falmouth, and will be here all week nosing around, hanging out with the UVA Field School crew, and trying to stay dry...Coming blog attractions include some interesting rainwater collection strategies, thoughts on louvres, and general love for one of my favorite places in the world.

Also, interspersed - thoughts on Peru, which I visited in early March for two weeks. 

I hope you'll leave your own comments and thoughts too - I will be traveling from now until early September, and my basic itinerary is something like this [research sites are bolded, I'll be spending 10-14 days in each research city]: 

Falmouth, Jamaica

USA: Boston, Philly, Lancaster

Beijing, China

Trans-Mongolian Railway

Ulan Bator [and countryside adventures], Mongolia

Seoul, South Korea

Hanoi, Vietnam

Hoi An, Vietnam

Kuala Lampur, Malaysia

Malaka, Malaysia

Singapore

Perth, Australia

home!

I'll be logging about 18,000 air miles, and traveling by train, bus, boat, foot, ox cart, horse, jeep, subway, tram, taxi, and hopefully a few things as yet to be discovered. I have 1 backpack, 4 sketchbooks, 1 camera, 2 pairs of shoes, 1 tinwhistle, 5 phrasebooks, among some other things. I plan on seeing the Great Wall in China, living with nomads in Mongolia, taking the train the length of Vietnam, seeing the stars from the southern hemisphere [again!], and filling my sketchbooks. And, seeing some sweet architecture.