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MIT's 150th anniversary came to a grand finale yesterday with the Toast to Tech event, inviting undergraduates, graduates, alumni and faculty to a reception on Killian Court under a colourfully-lit dome. Three MIT alumni greeted the audience from the International Space Station, followed by a fireworks display in front of the Boston skyline, featuring MIT 150 spelled on the windows of the Prudential Tower.
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Situated at the confluence of the Xedone and Mekong rivers, Pakxe was once the capital of the Kingdom of Champasak, one of the so-called "Three Kingdoms" beginning in the 18th century when the Kingdom of Lane Xang separated. Today, Pakxe has become a commercial and trade centre of southern Laos.
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Don Khong is the largest of the so-called "Four Thousand Islands" scattered across the the Mekong River in southern Laos. Unlike the tiny islands further to the south, it has not been transformed much for tourism.
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Vientiane is the capital city of Laos and one of the smallest capital cities in mainland Asia, with a population of only about 750,000. Its name in Pali language means "city of sandalwood".
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A Halloween weekend full of events -- went to the famous "witch town" of Salem, MA twice, carrying a replica of a card from Sanguosha (a popular modern Chinese game), a dinner and party hosted by the MIT graduate dorms, and also wore a Star Wars costume to the Tzu Chi school to help with an event for small children.
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Many thanks for this great opportunity to travel as part of Tzu Chi's 11th relief team to help the victims of Haiti, to all other team members for their compassion and support, to the Haitian volunteers for their unending devotion and heart to help, to the other volunteers in Boston for their guidance and encouragement, to the fabulous work of the 1st-10th teams, to the Haitian people and to Master Cheng Yen for leading us and making everything possible.
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Another 160km of cycling to Taitung. I actually originally planned to cycle around to Kaohsiung or Tainan but did not get enough time after some mild sickness.
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With forecasts of heavy rain and wind, I took the train for the Suao-Hualien stretch as that highway tends to be dangerous for cyclists in bad weather. South of the Taroko gorge, things are dramatically drier and sunnier. Hualien county is home to a number of aboriginal villages, including some of the Amis (阿美族) and Taroko (太魯閣族) peoples. With dramatic cliffs, wetlands, fields of flowers, and turquoise ocean waters it is one of the most scenic parts of Taiwan. Hualien is also the location of the Tzu Chi headquarters, a worldwide community service organisation I volunteer with.
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The first time I had gone to Taipei was with my school orchestra, and spending all day practising for a concert we never actually got out of Taipei, so this time I took my bicycle with me and set out to cycle across the island -- first, over the mountains and to the Yilan plain, full of beautiful wide open spaces, flowers, farms, and ... a lot of rain (which I'm sure the farmers are happy about).
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In my school years, it was in Taipei (台北) that I ever really wandered a city with friends for the first time, as part of a school orchestra trip for a performance together with 5 other schools That was a long time time ago. But a decade later, I set off once again to Taiwan, taking my bicycle with me this time. Some things have changed tremendously: most notably, Taipei 101 sort of appeared. But many things were still rather familiar, and most unchanged was the still-amazing food experience, night markets and the variety of vegetarian food all over the place.
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