http://www.jasontopia.com by jason niedle Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:13:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en UPDATE!! (29 June 2011) We are fundraising CHICKENS for our Maasai family. We want to give them 500 chickens so they can sell the eggs for about $50/day ... which means their entire village has enough income to survive on. Pretty good investment, at just $6/chicken. How many can you ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/06/19/arrival-in-the-mara/ The Wedding World Tour continued from the USA wedding -- an outrageously fun and beautiful party -- on 11 February 2011, to our incredible, spiritual, loving wedding in Lampang, Bangkok on 18 February ... and now on to Kenya for our Maasai ceremony on Wednesday, 23 February. We took an overnight ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/27/giraffe-manor-kenya/ Okay ... the title of "One Night in Bangkok" isn't entirely accurate: we actually had one night surrounded by two afternoons in this vibrant, contradictory, crazy city. But before we arrived that Saturday afternoon ... there was still Northern Thailand. We left Lampang early -- after a bittersweet goodbye to our ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/24/one-night-in-bangkok/ Immediately following the Thai Wedding and brunch of our 4-wedding world tour, we took the chance to turn up the AC and take a short nap while our friends went shopping and got affordable Thai massages. (I think they said they were $3 or $5 for an hour.) Then on ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/23/thai-village-party/ The second of the four weddings on our Wedding World Tour took place in Lampang, Thailand on 18 February 2011 ... just one week to the day after our first USA ceremony. It's only been a week, but since we had unbelievably great flights on Emirates, toured Chiang Mai and saw ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/16/thai-wedding-of-our-wedding-world-tour/ It is 17 February 2011, and after an intense, amazing day with elephants, we slowed down a bit and attended a cooking class through Thai Cooking Farm. As an aside, there was an elephant story that I forgot to mention on that post: April and her Mahout (her elephant's trainer) had ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/11/thai-cooking-farm-chiang-mai-day-3/ Swimming with elephants. Three words that can only give a hint at how incredible of an experience we all had at Patara Elephant Camp, near Chiang Mai, Thailand. It had been 6 days since our USA wedding -- the first of four on our Wedding World Tour -- and tomorrow was ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/08/patara-elephant-camp-chiang-mai-day-2/ Just a quick note to let you know that pictures were added to our post on our fabulous journey on Emirates on our Wedding World Tour. See the new pictures here! http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/03/04/pictures-added/ To continue the tale or our Wedding World Tour chronologically, I must continue onward from the post below, "Out of Asia...". As I was writing, Lynn -- a 15-year old female Rothschild giraffe -- walked up to my spot on the lawn at Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya, and was eating ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/28/chiang-mai-day-1-continued/ We return to “civilization” today not as “April Malina Niedle and Jason Niedle,” but as “Saruni Ole Mpeti and Nasieku Nne Mpeti.” These are the names that have been given us by Kenya’s historic Maasai tribe in our unbelievable ceremony with them. They have adopted us into their culture, and ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/24/return-from-maasailand/ Surreal. It's the word that comes to mind over and over again as we circle the globe on our Wedding World Tour -- four weddings in four vastly different cultures. At the moment I'm sitting outside an old colonial style mansion in Kenya. It's Monday, presumably February 21, 2011. April is ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/21/out-of-asia/ It's now late night on the 17th of February, and not only is internet access sparse out here, but having time and electricity to sit at a computer is also nearly impossible. Tomorrow is our Thai wedding (the second of 4 ceremonies in our Wedding World Tour), and we have to ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/17/wedding-world-tour-update/ This was one of those incredible moments that I'll remember for the rest of my life ... thank you, my love. http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/16/april-sings-at-our-wedding/ Life, it is often said, is about the journey and not the destination. I wouldn't quite say that's true, as I'm really looking forward to our destinations of Chiangmai and Lampang (Thailand), Nairobi and the Maasai Mara (Kenya), Dubai (UAE), and Athens and Santorini (Greece). But thus far, about 30 ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/14/the-journey/ We're off! The fantabulous Emirates car is taking us to LAX and we finally -- finally!! -- feel like we can relax. The planning for 4 weddings and an around-the-world trip -- on a very tight budget, mind you -- was NOT at all easy. (I've slept about 7 hours ... http://www.jasontopia.com/2011/02/13/were-off/