Back to the Grind – Remix

This is long overdue, but that’s what life without a computer will do to ya.  Always seems to happen once I’m back on Maui.

Three months ago I had the incredibly difficult dilemma of choosing between being flown to Samoa and helping sail a boat back to Hawaii, or accepting the job at the dive shop that I’ve been trying to get for two years.  Seems like it would be an easy choice, huh. It took everything I had in me to turn down a free travel opportunity.  They were willing to fly me out there, pay for airfare, food, everything.  One of the main reasons I didn’t go that route was because, it was a delivery passage.  Had they been planning on stopping at countries along the way, It would have been a no brainer, that’s my favorite part of the world.   But I knew that I should maybe try thinking about what would be best in the long run.  And so far it has paid off three times over.

I can’t even express how grateful I am to be able to experience what I do on a daily basis.  Waking up to the sunrises, cruising along between the ocean and the mountains to go hang out in a dive shop and talk about diving all day, spend a ridiculous amount of time with dolphins, sharks, rays and other sealife, the sunsets, it’s so great to call it home. Plus been spending a lot of time with a certain someone lately. Excited to see where that goes!

Been at the dive shop for 3 months now, and I still really enjoy it. The benefits are just as I imagined they would be, if not better.  And they have made becoming an instructor much easier than it would have been otherwise.

However, if there was one piece of advice I could have gone back and might not have followed it would be, “Don’t ever get a credit card. Pay for everything with cash. Otherwise you’ll be paying it off forever.”   While this is very true for the majority,  I really feel it would have benefited me more than hurt.  Because now, through these times that I could really, really use it, I can’t get one. And I’m in debt anyway. Thankfully though, things worked out, like they seem to always have a way of doing.

I think we can all agree that September was upon us before we could even blink.  I was not looking forward to that month at all, I knew it was going to be one of the toughest ones this year. Mainly because of the instructor course, which impacted everything else. Could only work the three remaining days of the week, paycheck was cut dramtically, didn’t have time to cut loose or relax, and didn’t spend a single dollar on food the entire month. And of course, that’s when my friends and family decided to come visit finally.

Thankfully it all happened moment by moment and went pretty smoothly. And I somehow still found time to sleep and go to the gym six days a week.  Been in a little contest at work, whoever looses 25 lbs before halloween gets all the money in the pot.  I’m down 15 lbs, but time’s running out so now I’m back to just doing it for me.  It all just kind of started as a “I’m just gonna do this for a month, and see what happens..”  Now three months later I’m still motivated and putting effort into it. That’s unheard of!  Anyone who knows me well enough knows this is completely opposite of how I normally feel about exercising.

Anyway, now finally an instructor after two years in the making.  Will eventually take that to liveaboard boats or just other countries in general.  I am hoping to take off again in the spring or maybe summer at the latest. It all depends, it’s way too far away for anything concrete yet.   I will, however, be in Oregon again for five days starting Nov. 10th, I am so excited.  It’s the closest I could get to coming home for the holidays.

And now that the IDC is over, I have turned my focus on other activies. Going to start bustin out the crafts again, take on arabic, and delve more into astronomy.
 
Life is good.

 

Homeward Bound

I’m pretty positive that I won’t be eating rice for a very, very long time.   Wasn’t really a big fan in the first place, but now, there’s no hope for it.

My last couple weeks in Asia have been pretty uneventful.. mainly contacting all the airline officials and bank employees, watching a shit ton of movies (over thirty in a week), and trying not to lose my mind.

Thankfully Adrian came back from the Philippines for work and is keeping me company.  The hotel we’re staying at is pretty amazing.  I’m not used to such accomodations.  We’re talkin a king size bed that’s basically a huge pile of feathers with six feather pillows, and there’s a telephone on the wall next to the toilet… not really sure why you would need that, but yeah.  Goin out in style.

This little thing was on the ceiling of the hotel room… apparently they put it there for the muslim people, so they know which way to pray towards Makkah (Saudi Arabia).

We went out with some of his friends on my last night.. had some malaysian shisha and stopped by a whiskey bar and met up with some other people.

(The perfect ice cube.)

Pretty sure my poor laptop has seen its last days… first the power cord, and now the wireless capability wont turn on.  Oh well, it has hit its life expectancy anyways.  Definitely been worth the money.  I just can`t believe it`s actually making it back to the states in one piece. 

Apparently the Kuala Lumpur International Airport has received an award(s?) for being one of the nicest airports.  The first time I was in it, I was too distracted by my missed flight to really notice, but this time I had time to check it out.  They have this little rainforest boardwalk thing, its kind of random and free entry, so not a bad way to pass the time while waiting for a flight. 

Sitting in Tokyo at the moment… found the most perfect bench to sleep on for the next seven hours, except for its so cold I can see my breath, INSIDE.   And yeah, maybe I’m not exactly dressed for the occassion.   The best part (ha!) is that the next layover, in LA, is 12 hours.  Why can’t these airports be the ones that have those reclining chairs/sleeping areas? That is so genius… followed closely by the free internet places.. which is where I am now.  A cafe with like 50 laptops hanging around so people can use them.  Sydney had them too,  I love that. 

The flight from Malaysia to here was pretty good… Had no one sitting next to me, so got to sprawl out with a few pillows and a few blankets… and got to play some Pong action. And tetris.  I couldn’t find the  ‘change to english’  button so for hours I just tried to understand japanese.  Didn’t work out so well.

 

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It’s been a few days since I’ve been back and like usual, I’m getting antsy again already.  The idea was to keep myself really busy immediately after I got back so I would stay distracted and avoid the post-traumatic-travel-sydrome, but it’s never that easy. I wouldnt mind starting to work again right away but I don’t have a car this time and it’s a little restricting. There’s not a lot of work opportunities in the vacinity of my current location, which is my dad’s attic.   One of the bad parts of traveling so much is not having your own place to go back to.  But I think it’s a good compromise most of the time.  

Some things I have learned on this adventure are..  
- That I will not be going anywhere during monsoon/rainy/hurricane season ever again.
- We definitely have the best food, music, customer service and movies.
- I will not ever go back to Asia unless it’s to go to India or Russia.
- Other countries are way more strict about not watching movies or listening to music online.
- Cell phones and cell phone plans are way better here.

And I have been taking advantage of full sized kitchens and all the readily available ingrediants here, and so far have made some cheesy crab bites, and some hot cocoa cookies…

The weather has held out so far too… amazingly cold, but dry and occassional blue skies. Not bad for January.   Buuuuuut nonetheless,  I am pretty sure sometime in the next week or two I will be headed back to the rock.   Might as well be on Maui until I come back here for work in the summer.  Can’t wait to step back into that life and see mis amigos.

Pirates? Nah, just angry fisherman.

Before leaving the last port, I was sent on a wild goose hunt for impossible things to find.  First was just a simple supermarket.  I had precise directions and even a damn GPS device thing in the rental car. (Which was a disaster in itself… wheel is on the opposite side and well as driving on the other side of the road… can’t read the street signs.. don’t know what the lines on the road even meant.. etc etc..)  

(I wish I could have gotten a picture of the sign with just a picture of an umbrella on it. Seriously.)

Once I reached the area I knew I was supposed to be in, I started pulling over and asking the locals where it was.  Every single person pointed me in the same direction, so I figured it’s got to be right.  Even the GPS agreed with them. This is where everyone/thing sent me:

If you look at that picture closely, you will see that it is abandoned. Fenced in and abandoned.  Why the hell would everyone think I want to go there? I’m surprised no one mentioned that it isn’t even there anymore.   The malaysian guy at the reception at the marina later told me, “Oh yeah, they just sold everything last week.” …  And so I guess that means that don’t want to restock it anymore.

After that, I was determined to find a grocery store, so I looked on the handy dandy GPS again ( I HATE these gadgets) and followed directions to another place… and this was where it led me:

Another closed down, abandoned building.  I was over it after this.  Where do the people buy their food around here??

 But I did see this cool sign while I was out and about..

…but alas, no elephants.  There was a monkey sign too, with a monkey sitting in front of it. It was awesome.

The next day I was sent to a town two hours away to go find a little electronic chip for the boat at a marina.   This marina was the hardest thing I have ever had to locate in my entire life.   It took me two whole days and a full tank of gas to get there.  The biggest problem was that there were only two streets, both going their opposite directions, with NO WHERE to turn off.  I passed the marina twice but couldn’tt do anything about it because there was a guardrail for like at least two miles. When I arrived (after trying not to go into Singapore just to turn around) I just sat in the car and cursed the entrance.   I found the office and went to ask about the chip.  They told me to come back in a half hour.   I went and found these delicious things to keep me busy..

 So after lunch I went back and they told me to come back in another half hour.  Getting a little irritated I went and found the book swap table and found a couple good ones, and went to the car to read.  This map of the area was above the table of books. I thought it was hilarious. Especially the part at the bottom that says, “To cross the road, ask the chicken”…

 After that time was up, I went back and finally the guy was in there.  I showed him the chip that I had and asked if he knew where to get them.  All he had to say was “umm.. hm.. yep. Singapore.” Then he walked away.  I could have blown steam out of my ears I was so mad. I came all that way, went through all that effort, all those hours, and that’s all he had to say about it? 

So another mission, unsuccessful.

Look at how small the boat is compared to the catamaran that pulled in next to us.

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These are the little tiny flags we’re supposed to dodge at all hours.

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Sailing the Straight of Melacca is proving to not be the funnest thing ever. We are having to switch off every two hours the entire day.. even at night.. I swear the minute your eyes close you’re being woken up again to be back on watch.   At one point of the night I couldn’t even tell what color the lights were on the big ships coming up behind us because my eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t keep them open long enough for them to focus.

While the captain was on watch he decided to go below deck and get something to eat real quick, and thankfully I was still up and decided to enjoy the night a little more before resting.  I noticed a red blinking light right in front of us, getting closer. At first I thought it was a tiny boat, but then i saw that the tiny boat was NEXT to the red light and someone was flashing a very, very bright light in my face. As if trying to say hello or tell me something. After a minute or two, I finally mentally woke up enough to realize what was going on…. I called to the captain and asked if a red blinking light was a buoy.    He rushed up on deck immediately, let a few swear words slip and cranked the boat to the right.  It was too late though… we had already been caught on a very long line of huge, heavy intense fishing nets.  We didnt know if it was caught in the propeller, the rudder or just the keel.. it’s a little unnerving when you hear your captain say “shit.. what do i do??”  (There have also been a couple times that he has asked me if the right side of the boat is the starboard or port side… that never ceases to entertain me.)

So one of us had to jump in, in the middle of the night, and swim under the boat in freezing water, and not get caught in the net ourselves.  He looked at me and asked if I felt comfortable doing it. Ha!    I told him if i had a tank, then yes, I could dive under, but no way in hell was I doing it with a snorkel. Snorkeling freaks me out now after I have been diving so much. Weird I know.  Plus shit kind of hit the fan between us in the past day or two so it kind of made me happy to see him force himself to feel the water temperature and jump in and do it himself. Had it happened a couple days prior, I would have been in the water before he fully realized what was going on.

At this point, the fishing boat had motored over to us and was screaming at us in broken english and malay..informing us that we were ruining his net (as if we werent aware of it.  I was standing on the deck, looking overboard  with a huge bright light at the massive tangle of net coming out from under the boat.   At first the malaysian guy was demanding 1,000 ringgit which is like a little over three hundred dollars… then it went up to 2,000.   Which obviously we didn’t have. 

Finally I heard him come up above water and say that the net is loose.  So he hopped on the boat again, took off his fins and put the boat in reverse…. meanwhile the malaysians are still very unhappy.. I started to realize that this was a major way of income for them.. foreigners running over one of their many, many nets and then they demand money.    The conversation starts going like this:

malaysian: “My friend! My friend! Only 100 ringgit! (yes, he dramatically reduced the price now)  You break my net!”
captain: “My friend! No problem! I fix your net!”
malaysian: “My friend! You no good! You no good! 100 ringgit! “
*second boat comes zooming up to our boat.. both boats have two locals in them each*
second malaysian: “HEY!…… HEY!!… STOP!!   MONAY MONAY MONAY!!”

I start to realize that it won’t take long for ALL the boats in the area to see and hear the commotion and all of them against us? No thanks.

So now we are slowly trying to motor away from the area.. unaware that they actually dragged the fishing nets all the way around us until we would give them money so we couldn’t leave… and both boats are on either side of us, four angry malaysians yelling, threatening to get the police involved…. at one point the second malaysian guy whipped out a rope or something and was ramming his boat into ours and trying to hook on to it.  I debated whether i should lock the door to the stairs below deck.  I also debated if I should get the VHF radio or the flare gun (to fire at them, not into the sky).  This made me laugh, even under the circumstances. made me miss Christin.  

In the meantime, the captain was trying to get the crazy one to call down, he had a certain look in his eye that made me shake. So I went and grabbed 50 ringgit from my bag and after that they still weren’t satisfied.. they wanted 50 more.  We kept telling them we had no more, and they kept calling us liars. Saying, “Rich man! Rich man! “… he had found out that the boat was from Brazil (Later I had told the captain that he should have just spoke portugese from the beginning, saying ‘No ingles no ingles!’ the whole time.).   

After awhile he demanded the motor from the dinhgy instead.  The captain laughed at him and told him, “No way, thats like 2000 dollars!” … I was like, “Dont tell him that, are u crazy?”

Finally I started getting a little nervous because things were only getting worse and worse by the second, and I’m pretty sure had I let it go on another couple minutes, we would have had four angry guys on board our little boat in the middle of the night in their neck of the woods. I reluctantly got another 50 ringgit from my bag and gave it to them.  Immediately they let go of the boat and said, “Ok, ok, very good, thank you! come again!  thank you! “

If it happens again, I don’t care, I’m getting the flare gun and firing it at their boat.

The entire day was crazy.  More dolphins, rainbows, the angry fisherman pirates, and then the stars came out.  It’s been a long time since i have seen the milky way with such pristine clarity.   I remembered a few constellations and I started wishing I could remember more of I used to know.  What planet was hanging out by the north star, where the dragon is… I still was able to find ursa major and minor, orions belt and cassiopea though..    at this point I also started reminiscing about bubble domes and good times with Lily.  Miss you girl.

There were hundreds of jelly fish in the water recently.  The tentacles were like two or three times my arm span.

This part of the course made me feel like I was in Alaska again.  The mountains  were similar, the fishing boats, the jelly fish.  It was just a tad bit warmer.

This makes me so happy to see (as well as flying fish, but that’s another story).. you know their little wings get tired from flying over large bodies of water.  I would do it too, just debris hop across the ocean.

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A few days later, which happens to be today.   We just arrived in Penang.  A very popular island on the west side of Malaysia.  I told the captain a couple days ago that I wanted off the boat.  This wasnt a very pleasant conversation, but things seems to be ok now. I think I will stay on the boat tonight in the marina, then either find a host here for a day or two, or probably just go straight back to Kuala Lumpur.   There I will stay with a friend until I get my tax return and my package that’s being delivered.  After that, I will decide what’s next.    Either fly to Hawaii or Portland (best case scenario), try very hard to find a boat going to the states (that will let me come aboard for free), or….. still coming up with options.  Trying to stay away from Plan Z.

I’ve never seen a bridge being built before, it’s crazy how much is put into it.

 

Sailing The Java Sea

A lot of people ask me what I have to do when I’m on a boat.  Of course there’s helping clean it, getting it ready to sail (groceries, fuel, fixing things), taking turns making breakfast, lunch and dinner, and most importantly, doing night shifts.  You have a shift during the day too but usually you aren’t the only one awake so it’s alright.  The length of your shift depends on how many crew there are. There are three of us on the boat, so the shifts are four hours each.  Mine are from 2AM – 6 AM and from 2PM – 6PM.

Thankfully I take over the captains shift (his is from 10PM – 2Am) so I know that everything is set the way it should be for awhile.  This is an example of how a night shift would go…

Before he goes to bed he will give me instructions that go something like this, “The wind has been pretty unstable so if it changes direction, tack the sails, and make sure you don’t go more than five degrees in either direction. Good Night”

Sounds easy enough… The first hour or so will drift by and I’ll occupy myself with my ipod, looking at the stars and moon (if I’m lucky enough to be graced with their presence), daydreaming and watching the ocean, or I’ll go make a snack, or read  with a flashlight, or threaten the boat to not have any issues.  Then out of the darkness straight ahead will be a ship.  Just a small dot of light at first, like a star, but as we get closer I can start to see the outline of the ship, and all the different lights on it.  If we are in shallow water they are usually fishing boats that are anchored, but most of the time they are big cargo ships that for some reason always need to cross directly in front of us. 

Now at this point I would try to figure out what direction they are going, and the only way to do that is to see what color of lights are visible.  A red light means I’m looking at the left side of the boat so they’re crossing in front of us, same with a green light except for they would be going the other direction because the green light is on the right hand side.   A big yellow light means you’re seeing the back of the ship and if you see the red and the green together it’s coming right at you.

Once I establish the direction, I keep my eye on it and make sure the boat steers clear.  You would think you have all this space out on the open water but I swear the boat loves going directly towards them. It’s hard to see exactly where we are headed since the wind and waves are constantly pushing us back and forth.  Then the sails start flapping around, which is bad news cause that can ruin them. So I would try to turn the boat a little more downwind.  If that doesn’t work, maybe the wind has changed direction, so I switch over the head sail and the main sail to see if that helps.  Then I notice a huge black low pressure cloud straight ahead.  You know, the kind that looks like it connects directly into the ground since it’s pouring rain?  These are one of the shittiest things to encounter and they are very, very common here.  It’s where all the monsoons come from this time of year.  But I give it time because waking up the captain is not fun, especially over nothing.  So I wait to see if it’s small or breaks up a little, and I watch the ocean for white caps and/or increasing speed and waves.  By now I should be reefing the head sail, which means winding it up so we have less speed and power in the heavy wind.  When the main sail starts flapping like crazy and the rain starts, I should have already woken the captain so he’d have a little time to put on his rain gear.  Which I laughed at at first.  But trust me, you need it.  We’re talking like torrential downpours.  And to have to sail and navigate through that?  Insane.  Especially at night, when there’s still a ship about 100 ft in front of you now.

Finally all that nonsense passes and I’m alone again.  The rest of the night is spent dodging the neverending ships, continuing to keep the sails under control, and constantly eyeing the horizon. Six in the morning is by far my favorite time of day.  Where I can pass on the duties and instructions to the poor unsuspecting russian girl.   Then I hurry and go below deck and am thankful that’s over.  At least until the next night.  And the next. And the next.  Where is the next port anyway damn it??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This will be the longest time I’ve spent at sea as of yet.  About two weeks.  Before this my record was five days.  So it’s a bit different.  You get used to constantly being slammed into things.  Trying to walk around or do anything is like trying to do it when you are completely inebriated.  Constantly have to hold on to something or you will fall over.  Or sometimes you still do anyway.  It gets a little out of hand at times and I loose my patience every now and then.   Like trying to get some cereal but instead just pouring milk all over the stove and behind it.  Trying to take a ‘shower’ (out of a 20 oz coke bottle) in a little 2×2 room with awkward and sharp obstacles.  You’re at a forty five degree slant and still slamming back and fourth.  Don’t get me started on trying to cook three meals a day for three people with a stove that should be illegal it’s so small. And swings violently with the boat.

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This was a paragraph in the book I was reading and I loved it..

Underwater  there is just temperature, no time, no words, no gravity.  It is the kind of thing monks discipline themselves for, junkies destroy themselves chasing.  Is it what dolphins and birds have now and then, a still point in the center of things? Murders? Marathon runners? Artists?

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Travelling has made me come full circle.. At first despising the U.S.  and how closed minded it can be.. All the other countries were new and exotic and different.  But now I find myself longing for many, many things back home.  Simple things you don’t really think about, like peanut butter and roasting marshmellows to bigger things like how damn friendly most americans are compared to most other cultures, the differences in senses of humor are astronomical.  Also it seems to be a continous fad of people always avoiding my questions.  They aren’t personal questions or anything, just simple harmless things, but they awlays completely change the topic.  So government and fast food chains aside, maybe America ain’t so bad afterall.

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To combat post traumatic travel syndrome, this time I think I will go to Hawaii for a few months again first.  Then maybe to Oregon for the summer to work, then come winter, when it’s time to migrate.. I’m thinkin I will head to Canada for a second, then fly to Mexico, and head down through Central America and finally to South America.

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More lines from the book I liked..

Half of what you do in traveling is simply missing things, sensations, people.

To be a real Traveller, you’ve got to not care much, just enjoy the trip.  You know, the going.

~~~~~~~~~

Me: “damn I hate getting sick.”

Russian girl: “Just drink some vodka with some pepper”

Me: “Is that a russian remedy?”

Russian girl: “Yes.. for all illness.”

~~~~~~~~~~

While we were  crossing the busiest channel in the world:

Our brazilian captain: You know dat game with dee cheekin crossing the road?
Me: You mean like Frogger?
our captain: Yes the cheekin.
Me: yeah yeah, ok..
our captain: We are dee cheekin. A very slow cheekin. And dey are fucking fast cars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So now we are in a very nice marina, enjoying the still boat and re-stocking, and going to Singapore tomorrow.. although yesterday we accidentally went through the border two times in a row.   It was pretty ridiculous.

Also, I am officially entering my stranded-red-zone-phase.. no bueno.

Christmas In The Tropics

Surprisingly, the hot humid weather, beach and palm trees aren’t enough to distract someone from the holiday season. Lesson learned, I hope to not miss christmas again.

While still in Kuala Lumpur I went to a cs event, where there were 70 people or so, each bringing a local dish from their country and a gift. The party was on a hotel rooftop with a couple different swimming pools, overlooking KL’s skyline.

After several failed attempts, finally made it to Surabaya, Indonesia. I couldn’t believe that I had missed my flight for the third time. Forced to pay another $50 and wait several hours for the later flight, I arrived in Indo way after the sun had set, so I had to stay the night at the airport. I tried to change what little US dollar I had left, but the first bill they wouldn’t accept because it had a tiny, tiny blue stamp on it. The other bill they wouldn’t accept because it was ‘too old’. So for dinner, thankfully I had enough rupiah to buy what I thought was Top Raman.. but turned out to be more like porridge. I was just happy to have some sort of substance in my stomach.

At one point I found an information desk, so I went and tried to find out about taking a boat to Banjarmasin. While I was talking to them, I realized there were like four or five indonesian guys behind me taking pictures with their cell phones. So after awhile I just gave in, and posed with them, to which they thank me profusely and shook my hand.

After scouting out my bench that I would claim the rest of the night (trying to ignore all the stares.. I was the one and only westerner in the entire airport. And I have never been stared at more than in Indonesia), another indonesian guy came up and started practicing his english with me. He ended up insisting that I come sleep in the medic center instead of where I was. After thinking about this for a few seconds I agreed it would be worlds better. Turns out he was a paramedic there and we crashed on the little patient folding tables in the back until I had to catch my flight at 5 am.

I always dread finding out that there is an airport tax when I am leaving. Even just on a domestic flight, I had to pay 40,000 rupiah.. which is like 5$… but I only had one US dollar, 15 ringgit, and 1000 rupiah… which the ticket  guy finally accepted. I was just relieved he didn’t ask to weigh my bag, I would have had to somehow come up with more money for that because its too heavy for this airline. Most airlines will let you have up to seven kilos (however many pounds that is), but this one only lets you have five. And I finally got mine back down to six point something.

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Like I’ve mentioned, I love Borneo. It’s one of those places that doesnt seem like it has any rhyme or reason for anything it does.  Barely a civilization.  The people that live in the town we were in only see foreigners like once a year, if that.   People of all ages, from little three year olds to old ladies would stand on the dock and just yell my name. Over and over.  Didn’t even matter if I ignored them.  They would start before I woke up and wouldn’t stop until it got dark.  And all they wanted was to just wave at me. 

^ zee boat ^

The police station next to our boat.

Kickin it with the cops while they feed me water, bananas and banana baked goods.

First day I got to Borneo.. this kid wouldn’t leave my side.

Did I mention that he has capsized his boat?? haha and this is the mast-welding job after it snapped in half.. But it’s ok, after I took this picture I painted a couple coats of white over it and blended it in

(the russian girl that I met previously in phuket actually, and our captain)

No idea what anything was in the damn grocery store..

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This part I wrote a couple weeks after the rest of it ^^^. Was going to include it in the sailing post, but considering this one’s title is Christmas in the Tropics, it might be more appropriate here.

3:30 AM
christmas Morning

Cold. Wet. Starving. Alone. Trying to navigate through thuderstorms. Wondering why I’m not with my family.

2:30 PM

Much happier after long sleep and a shower. The sun is even making an appearance. I’ve been wildlife deprived for two weeks.  Where even just a lone bird flying overhead makese me happy right now. If I don’t see any animals for awhile it makes me nervous. It’s not a good sign. 

But then after two weeks, out of nowhere, on Christmas, three bottle nose dolphins and two pigmy dolphins decided to join us for awhile. (And some sea snakes!)

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So Christmas this year, kind of a bummer.. but new year’s is going to make up for it I think. 

Good Morning Vietnam

These two pics are in Cambodia but I couldn’t leave them out..

There were rows of ducks and chickens (mostly) in the market.. some dead, some alive…

I love this, the ice delivery man!

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Like I’ve mentioned to a couple of you, if I were to make a list of the top few countries I never have a desire to visit, Vietnam would be very near the top. I don’t know why, but I’ve never really been interested in it. But none-the-less, I found myself there anyway. Maria had wanted to end her trip here, but had to change her plans and went back to the Philippines right after we arrived in the bus. So I went and met up with our hosts anyway. Had a pretty good time, they were very cool people… and fortunately we escaped the chaos of Saigon to a little beachy town called Mui Ne.

I really didnt think it was possible to have even crazier traffic than I had been seeing throughout Asia. But it seems like every country I go to, it gets worse and worse.. Vietnam definitely winning that contest. They dont pay attention to traffic lights (if there are any at all), it’s ok to just drive down the other side of the street, or to turn out in front of the huge cluster of oncoming cars and slowly make your way across them, and when you are walking across all the lanes, you are supposed to go very slowly so that all the cars and motorbikes can anticipate your movements… if you ran across they would most likely hit you. So different from the states.

(This is by far the coolest motorbike on this continent. It’s like a tree with wheels.)

Freshly pressed sugar cane juice.. delicous.

Also, you can buy a fifth of rum for $1 in restaurants!

(Two seconds away from riding an ostriche but I felt bad for them and worried I would ‘forget’ to leave the gate closed..)

Laying on the beach around the campfire, singing songs (mostly japanese reggae), smoking and drinking really, really made me miss life on Maui. Although I buried my feet in a red ants nest at one point in the night. Not fun.

My last night in Vietnam, I found myself drinking straight vodka with a couple older vietnamese people. They later dragged me to one of the nicest clubs/bars/restaurants I have ever seen, and we got to hang out in the VIP room and have dinner, just the three of us. The menu had things like weasel, tortoise, and dove. We were also given chilled towelettes by girls wearing shorter skirts than I have ever seen in my life. By the time the food came, they already had tapped into the 3rd bottle of vodka. At one point, we kind of stopped trying to communicate via sign language and severely broken english and started speaking to each other in our own languages, not caring that we couldn’t understand a single word of each other. I kind of started liking being able to say whatever I wanted without being understood. It was such a hilarious, bizzare evening.

Turns out i’m not really a fan of vietnamese food. Except for the cow tongue and quail eggs.

This actually was pretty good though. Some sort of dessert that tasted like a mix between mango and pineapple but almost like strawberry banana.

And on a sidenote: I have never met anyone that cheers more than the vietnamese! Every thirty seconds it seemed, the were clinking our glasses together.

So I am pretty happy to be heading south again, Bali once again being postponed for Kuala Lumpur. However, This morning I left my passport an hour away from the airport, so I missed my flight to Borneo. I swear I’m really not meant to go to Indonesia, so cross your fingers that the plane makes it there.

 

Cambodia’s Killing Fields

I decided that this should have a post all to itself.

In case you haven’t heard about it, back in 1975-1979  the Khmer Rouge Regime stormed into Phnom Penh and tried  to take over Cambodia.  They evacuated the area and told them they could return in a few days and that America is going to be dropping bombs.  Shortly after that, they started killing anyone they wanted.  Even babies so that they wouldn’t have to worry about revenge in the future.   They took some people to prison and interrogated and tortured them before killing them.  Others they simply led to the fields and threw them into the mass graves.   The summary I just gave was very, very tame.  What happened was horrific.

We got the chance to go to the site, which is now a monument, but it’s still so recent that you can still see clothes and bones coming up through the ground from erosion.  They also have only dug up about half of the mass graves.  They stopped because that was enough evidence to put the Khmer Rouge leaders on trial. 

 

This was originally a school but the khmer rouge used it as a prison.  They covered the front with barbed wire so no one could commit sucide by jumping.

One of the rooms they used for holding a victim, interrogating and torturing them.  The box on the left side was going to the bathroom.

When the building was a school this was used for physical education purposes.  Afterwards it was used to hang the victims upside down and torture them to get information and when the blood rushed to their head and they passed out they would dunk them in foul water (used for fertilizing) to get them to regain conciousness so they could continue torturing.

They turned the classrooms into tiny makeshift jail cells.

This is the actual container they used to shackle the prisons in and drown them.

They took two pictures of every prisoner they brought in when they were alive, then they took another one after they were dead.  They made each of them sit in this chair and have their head propped up.

This is the official monument at the site of all the mass graves.  It has 17 levels inside, the bottom level has all the clothes they’ve recovered and all the other levels are filled with skulls they’ve dug up.  There are about nine thousand so far I believe. And like I said, they’ve only dug up half of the field.

More clothes starting to emerge.

More bones starting to emerge.

You can see the huge mass graves that they forced them to dig before they killed them. Each one had between like 100-450 people in it.

This is a photograph that was taken in the early 80′s, showing that a lot of them still had blindfolds on.

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This is still so recent that they just started teaching kids about it in school last year, and they had to be 16 or older.  And no one will really talk about it.  By the end of the day our guide was in tears pretty much.  

Vietnam finally came and helped stop the regime but the khmer rouge just scattered, some went to the northwest of cambodia, some went to thailand, and some are still in phnom penh.  They will never know.  A lot of the leaders have since died from various things, but a couple of them are still awaiting trail.

 

Bangkok and Beyond

Dried snake, stuffed frog, crickets, tarantulas, full moon party, angkor wat, and the killing fields… so much has happened since I last wrote, where do I even begin? Thailand has really grown on me, and it just might have earned its flag on my ankle.

When you buy something for more than fifty baht (1.50$) at one of the many, many 7-Elevens, you get a little sticker.  You then put said sticker on a blue paper and collect them, and once you reach a certain amount you can win prizes.  It reminds me of the McDonalds monopoly game.

This is something that I probably won’t ever order again..  tasted like metal…

I totally got sucked into buying this cheezy touristy hat, but I figured some halloween or costume party it might come in handy.  The guy next to me at the bar said that he would pitch in money to see my wear it and look stupid the rest of the night.  I was meeting my host a little while later and before he even got close enough to introduce himself he was already telling me to take the hat off. ha.

(happiest street vendor ever)

I really wanted to see parts of Bangkok that tourists never go to, away from the ‘city’, so I met up with a couple other couchsurfers and headed to the train tracks side of town, then over to the cargo ship area. We got so far out of the main area that we had to hitchhike back in a couple 18-wheelers.

(this train was actually coming very fast, having it only a few inches away from you is crazy)

I found myself in a cheap guest house on the river eventually.  Very hard to find, but that made it not very crowded, more personal.  It also had a lot of character. I had to duck under tarps, and walk on skinny planks of wood, and I felt like I was in all the thai peoples homes. 

At this point I had about one and a half days until Maria was arriving from Singapore (met her in Manila, remember?), so at the last minute I decided I might as well check out the full moon party on Koh Phangan.  But I had to hurry because to get there was about a 12 hour bus and boat trip. 

I wasn’t expecting much because I had heard over and over that it’s overrated and that the half moon parties in the jungle are much better. But I still wanted to go see what all the fuss was about.

 

Needless to say, I had an amazing time. I can’t even go into details here, but it’s something I have never experienced and  will never forget.  

The sun came very, very quick. And most of the people still partying ended up at Mushroom Mountain to watch the sunrise and continue the festivities. The music was still pumping at this point, and I was having to try to keep remembering to check the time every so often.  It was about 5 am at this point, and I was supposed to catch the boat back to bangkok at 7.  No bueno.  No one would tell me what time is was, cause no one cared (who could blame them), so I was having to trade sparklers and my last cuban cigar for the info.  After I decided to try one of the infamous shakes, things got pretty crazy and having to find my cabin was quite a task.  

 

(swarm of dragon flies)

(This guy was cracking me up, I couldn’t understand a single word he said because he had a very strong irish accent and he was tripping hard. I don’t think he stopped laughing the entire time I was there.)

(Mushroom milk shakes)

Once I got back, packing just wasnt happening for me. This really annoying person followed me all the way back to my bungalow and when I said I wanted them to leave, they just took a shower instead, so I just grabbed up everything in my arms and left them there.  Somehow made it to the bus, then to the boat, and it was the funniest boat ride ever.  No one had slept yet, so everyone was sprawled out all over the deck, or had their heads down.  I managed to get one picture, which turned out blurry, but somehow appropriate.

I didn’t quite make it back to bangkok in time (I had to find a replacement pair of shoes on the fly since only one of mine had made it back with me), so just met Maria at our hosts house.  So good to see her again! The next day we explored the area and went to see some temples, and met up with Felix (from the train tracks day) again.

 This was by far the most delicious thing I’ve had in Thailand.  Not sure what it is, but some of them have crab in them, some have shrimp, some have some other delicious things, and then a special kind of mayo and another awesome sauce.

After awhile we went and sat in the park for awhile, and saw this enormous three foot lizard thing crawling around, harassing a cat.

Bangkok is pretty lame though, so the next day we headed to Cambodia.  Took the really really early bus and got to see the sunrise, have breakfast and sleep. The muslim girl next to me slept on my shoulder for awhile.

We ended up sharing a two hour taxi ride with another american, which kind of turned into a road trip.  We stopped a couple times, got some beer, got the car washed, it was great.

We went out that night on a hunt for the sleaziest bars we could find. We definitely succeeded. Had such a great time, minus getting jumped by a bunch of little kids. They almost managed to pull me down but Aaron started yelling at them and they stopped after throwing some swear words back at us.  It was crazy. The next day we went and explored good ol’ Angkor Wat. Temples aren’t really my thing but I can still appreciate them and they definitely didn’t disappoint.

Can’t escape the adorable, persistant kids that are trying to sell souvenires. Although I look at all the kids very differently now.

Marias shoe broke and this girl jumped on it, she knew how to fix it instantly.

The three of us jumped on a tuk-tuk and explored the rest of the area. Cambodia is such an amazing, beautiful country. Completely wasn’t expecting that. The people are stunning, and it’s obvious that they really value family.  Every single second I have seen of the scenery has been gorgeous.

Our goal of making it back to a certain temple to watch the sunset didn’t look like it was going to happen since our tire went flat.. not once.. not twice.. three times.  We still  managed to watch the sunset over the rice fields, which was just as amazing.  A little while after I took this picture, when the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, it turned a shade of hot pink/orange that I have never seen in my entire life. It was incredible.  Pictures don’t do any of this country justice. 

(Waiting for our third flat to be fixed.)

We  ended up couchsurfing before taking off to Phnom Penh, and stayed in an awesome tree house. To pass time on the bus the next day, we thought it would be a good idea to eat some bugs. Started with some simple crickets (not too bad actually, but the texture is a little much for me), then worked our way up to the gnarly tarantula.. something that I will be fine with never eating again.  Wasn’t absolutely disgusting, but wasn’t good either. And again, texture, no bueno.

So now here we are in Phnom Penh, last night we went and saw a very talented french jazz/rock band.. they  had an electric guitar, bass guitar, acoustic, drummer, bongo drum player, two singers, accordian, three trumpets, keyboard, clarinet, trombone and a sax player. fantastic.

Now about to go see the killing fields.  I never heard about the horrible things that happened here 30-35 years ago, but after reading a book about it, and being here and talking to people about it, I’m really glad to be going and seeing the actual places that it happened.  And it’s so recent, you would think that this poor country would still be a wreck, but its amazing how put together they are right now.

 

Not In Kansas Anymore

Just in case bungee jumping and rescue diving weren’t enough stress for my body, I decided to add more to my tattoo on my back.   It still isnt to my liking, so one of these days when I have more money to burn I will be adding some color, and something else up near the clouds and moon, maybe some night scenery.  I don’t know.   But I also added a couple more flags finally to my anklet.  Fiji and Vanuatu of course.

(this has got to be the worlds smallest bar,  in the front part of the tattoo place)

(this is the center of the town i was living in… loove how small and cozy it is)

(the view off the porch of the last bugalow i was staying in)

I have been really bad about having my camera on me, and there have been some great moments.  I wish I could have shown some of the hills/roads/cliffs whatever you want to call them, that we scaled on the motorbike.  Two of us, on a rickity old bike, in the dark, pouring rain, after a little alcohol. No bueno.  I’m so thankful everything turned out ok. 

“Now just to find ze motorcycle..”

*flash of lightening*

“God just please keep the light on.”

hahah.  I love french accents.   At one point he asked me “You going to make a snooze?”   Meaning, of course, take a nap. 

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I am really happy it hasnt been pouring lately (although thunder and lightening are still a daily thing). Might of well started snorkeling down the streets. There was a huge beautiful white crane that walked into an internet cafe to get out of the rain.  One of the times I wish I had my camera. It was just hangin out next to the people on the computers. It did look a little confused though.

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A couple days ago I jumped on a night boat to the mainland, but the whole time I was wondering if I was on the right one, because there were only like 5-7 people on this huge cargo like boat, with a couple vehicles onboard that they were ferrying across.. and I was the ONLY person who wasn’t thai.  But I will travel by night boat any time I can, because to lay on a mattress with a pillow and blanket on the deck under the stars,  rockin across the ocean is fantastic. 

After we arrived, it was probably four or five in the morning, so they drove me to this little bus station, and a couple hours later, I boarded a bus to Bangkok.   Once again, the only ferang (white person).. and especially through the areas we were driving, absolutely no english.  Even when we pulled over at this little market.  Everyone got off the bus and went and got some food but I had no idea what anything was and couldnt ask so I just pointed at some meat and grabbed some candy.

Got to Bangkok early evening yesterday, but the bus dropped us off way outside of town (I hate when they do that!) so I eventually got in contact with a couchsurfer but he was at work for a couple more hours. So I ventured into the heart of BKK and had a couple beers and waited.  I was not expecting such a New York vibe.  Not a fan, at all.  I will be here for another nine days or so, so hopefully I find the beauty amidst the typical big city chaos.

While at the bar last night I met some interesting people of course. There was a blind man walking around with a karaoke machine around his neck and a tip jar taped to the top.  He was actually pretty good. 

Then there was a guy from Qatar (never met anyone from there, awesome!)  who bought me a few beers, and after awhile tried to convince me that it was raining (it was clearly not) so that we could ‘go somewhere else’… told him I was waiting for someone and he promptly left. Oh brother.

So finally that couchsurfer gets off work, a little later than expected, picks me up in this super nice mercedes (said it is his works vehicle.. although I thought he was just an event organizer) and said that theres been a change of plans, but not to worry because I will be staying in a hotel thats covered. 

Ok. This is by far the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen.  I’m still not really sure what happened or why I was blessed with this for a night, but I didn’t have to pay for it and I’m not going to complain.  So after I dropped my bag off in my room, I ventured back out to a different bar and ordered some crocodile kabobs and listened to some live covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Hell yeah.

But now has come the time where I must say goodbye to my oasis and venture back out into the hectic world of Bangkok.  

Good ol’ Koh Tao

I seem to keep ending up back at the bar with the fire spinners, it mezmorizes me every night.  Even though I’ve been staying on the other side of the island, the drive’s only about ten minutes. That’s how small this place is. 

They have these comfy bean bag chair things you can lounge on and the waves break like twenty feet away. It’s so great.

Smoothies are my favorite part of the day.  Except for they call them shakes (just ice) or lassis (made with yogurt).

(Little BBQ stands)

(The first bungalow I stayed in for awhile.)

( I LOVE this… little mini gas stations everywhere, one bottle = 50 baht  ($1.50), which gives you half a tank)

(This bar was at the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with no real road getting to it.)

Wasnt expecting to see such a huge reptile on the ceiling.  It was awesome, bright red spots, huge claws.

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Other than that, I’ve just finished up my rigorous rescue course finally.  Was going to maybe stay and do my dive master training, but I’ll save that for another time.  Hopefully will be in Bangkok in the next day or two.