I've done an awful job of keeping up with this blog and now that I've been sucked into the whole Facebook thing it's doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon. That being said I'll try to give a brief overview of our time since leaving Indonesia.
First we flew out of Denpasar on Bali to Kuala Lumpur to walk three hundred steps up into the Batu Caves with over a million Indians in Arizona-style heat and the next day we caught a train to Taman Negara the biggest national park in Malaysia and the oldest rain forest in Asia to hike and pick leaches off our feet and eat meals on large platforms floating in the river for a few days before taking the Jungle Railway north to Kota Bharu where we got stuck in a great guesthouse that had a television and a box of hundreds and hundreds of dvd's so I stayed up every night until seven in the morning then slept until after noon and did the same thing for five days until we had finally had our fill of movies and decided to cross over into Thailand for the second time and we spent the next two days on the train traveling from the very southeastern corner to nearly the northern border to Chiang Mai where we did a lot of walking and eating and music playing with some new friends and after a certain time every night we did a lot of saying no to the prostitutes which gets old really fast and after a few days of really enjoying ourselves in one of our favorite new cities we took a very small very cramped bus five hours north to Pai where we relaxed in the mountains and enjoyed the cold weather for the first time in quite some time and met back up with our two new favorite people Faye and Luke from England and the four of us went on the most epic motorbike journey 200 KM into the mountain range and back and near the very end Nate crashed coming around a very sketchy hairpin turn but other than some cuts and bruises he is just fine and since Thailand only gives out 15 day visa stamp for anyone entering the country on foot we were forced to leave earlier than we would have as Northern Thailand is one of the nicest places we've yet been so the four of us caught a bus to Chiang Rai to spend one last night in Thailand that wasn't all too exciting as I had spent the night before in the throws of a horrible fever and somehow passed it on to Nate for the day but luckily the next day we woke up and felt much better and were of to Chiang Khong on the Laos border and after crossing the Mekong on a small boat and then paying our $36 visa fee we were in Houay Xai to spend one night before taking the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang which was truly slow but such a great time as we met three more people to add to our growing posse, Lisa from Holland and Alex and Will from England, and a river cutting it's way through enormous mountain passes with Laos on your left and Thailand on your right is not a bad backdrop to spend a couple days viewing and after the first days trip we stopped in small Pak Beng for the night where we found out about a local celebration that we were invited to attend and when we got there it was about five hundred locals drinking Beer Lao and dancing quite badly to live music so naturally I fit right in so we all drank and danced for a while before retiring to our guesthouse where they shut of all the water and electric at a certain hour and the next morning we had to get up far too early for our second day on the boat which was much different than the first as my seat was directly next to the engine and it was so deafening that I couldn't hear anything or carry any type of conversation and it took a good day for my hearing to fully come back after arriving in Luang Prabang but it eventually did and now I have a great story of my nine hour boat journey with what sounded like a helicopter directly beside me and either way it was worth it because Luang Prabang is so lovely and slow nestled between rivers and there are three vegetarian buffets that all cost 5000 Kip (about 60 cents) and everyone sells fruit smoothies and there's even a bowling alley where I proved my incredible bowling skills by bowling a 96 two nights ago on Nate's 28th birthday and right now there are seven of us traveling together and somehow we all really enjoy each other's company and have plans to stay together for the near future and Will has even changed his plane ticket to Australia to stay and travel through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam with us until Nate and I fly to Hong Kong on the 27th of April so it will be a nice change and a different mode of travel for us for the next seven weeks and we're both really looking forward to all of it but before any of that today we rent bicycles to cycle around the city for a few hours before wondering the night market, eating some cheap vegetarian food and settling down on the roof of our guesthouse with a great view of the city for some beer Lao, cards and conversation until the early morning as we've done every day since we've been here and will probably continue to do until we find some reason to leave the incredible peace covering the city.
Love to all,
B
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Good things
Twice in the last two weeks I have found myself in truly alien landscapes, looking around only vaguely understanding where I am, putting it all together very slowly, allowing myself to be taken by it and relegating the understanding to a later day.
The first was at Gunung Bromo, an active volcano in Eastern Java, which constantly spews a steady stream of sulphur and rests in the shadow of another much bigger volcano that shoots ash into the sky every ten minutes. The very lazy take a far too small horse from the base of Bromo to the foot of a staircase that carries you the rest of the way to the summit, but I, along with Anna and Joanne my two new Dutch travel partners, decided to hoof it for the twenty minutes it takes, half amused and half horrified by the fat tourists weighing down their horses. At the summit you stare into the heart of it, a very unusual chalky color flecked with deep maroons in places, then turn to view the surrounding hills and flat lowlands, giants buried in the earth with their spines exposed, colors as rich as you think possible.
The second was the very next day a few hundred kilometers further into East Java at the Ijen Plateau, a place I new almost nothing about before I came other than that it was to be something beautiful, and to some, quite amazing. What I was never told before is that you are going there to witness humanity in a form completely incomprehensible to most, to see a mountain and it's crater merely as a backdrop . As you walk the hour hike to the top of the mountain you begin to see many workers coming up the hill behind you carrying two baskets suspended between a plank of bamboo. At the moment you have no idea what it's used for. The farther you go up, the more workers you see, and eventually you notice that some of them have incredibly large pieces of sulphur rock filling both baskets. When you finally reach the summit you look down into the crater and see the small sources of sulphur leaking out, the brightest blue lake, the fluorescent yellow and dark red walls, the sand trails snaking through the water; then you see to the very bottom, a very, very long and steep way down and you finally realize what these men are doing, where the rocks are coming from, and how completely impossible it seems that men as old as 60 are carrying out loads of sulphur weighing upwards of 150 lbs from the bottom of a volcano up a steep and extremely perilous path only ever wide enough to barely squeeze two people by at the same time, then all the way down the mountain to unload, a journey they can complete twice a day working ten hours each day, being paid the equivalent of US$6 a day. Every one of these men works for 20 years or until they die, which many do from falling, exhaustion and heart and lung problems due to the fact that they are constantly covered and breathing in sulphur, sometimes so thick that you can't see a few inches in front of you, dependent upon the wind to shift to clear the path again. I walked all the way down the path to the source of the sulphur, talked to many of the workers, saw exactly how they were working, got horribly in the way, surely made their jobs more difficult by my presence but not one of them didn't smile and say hello, offer to give me a sulphur rock or ask me for a cigarette that I wished I would have bought a pack of just to give away. None of us, myself, Joanne, Anna, or Kendra and Irene my new American travel partners could make any good sense of it at the time, and even days later we are still enjoying being completely baffled by it.
I decided to follow Kendra and Irene into Bali, and they invited me to come to Pemuteran with them, a small beach village with few tourists, kind locals and good food. Nate eventually met up with us there, and we all snorkeled every day and spent a lot of time relaxing. After four days we had made many new friends and I had traded my t-shirt with Bang Bang, the cook at our favorite road side food stall.
Nate and I are now in Ubud, after a disastrous trip to Kuta to try and find a bar that played the Super Bowl but failing. It's perfect here, everyone loves art and music and the Balinese culture is evident in most everything you see. Today we played with monkeys and Nate almost got his face eaten off, tonight we'll see a gamelan and dance performance, tomorrow maybe some white water rafting then meeting back up with the girls, the next day touring the countryside, Friday to Denpasar to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Sunday the Indian festival of Thaipusam, after that we have no idea.
For those of you worried, last night Nate and I finally found a bar to watch a replay of the Super Bowl, and it was only fitting that the two Arizona boys were joined by another traveler living in Seattle who was from Pittsburgh. The locals working the bar had no idea what we were watching or why it made us so happy.
Love to all,
B
The first was at Gunung Bromo, an active volcano in Eastern Java, which constantly spews a steady stream of sulphur and rests in the shadow of another much bigger volcano that shoots ash into the sky every ten minutes. The very lazy take a far too small horse from the base of Bromo to the foot of a staircase that carries you the rest of the way to the summit, but I, along with Anna and Joanne my two new Dutch travel partners, decided to hoof it for the twenty minutes it takes, half amused and half horrified by the fat tourists weighing down their horses. At the summit you stare into the heart of it, a very unusual chalky color flecked with deep maroons in places, then turn to view the surrounding hills and flat lowlands, giants buried in the earth with their spines exposed, colors as rich as you think possible.
The second was the very next day a few hundred kilometers further into East Java at the Ijen Plateau, a place I new almost nothing about before I came other than that it was to be something beautiful, and to some, quite amazing. What I was never told before is that you are going there to witness humanity in a form completely incomprehensible to most, to see a mountain and it's crater merely as a backdrop . As you walk the hour hike to the top of the mountain you begin to see many workers coming up the hill behind you carrying two baskets suspended between a plank of bamboo. At the moment you have no idea what it's used for. The farther you go up, the more workers you see, and eventually you notice that some of them have incredibly large pieces of sulphur rock filling both baskets. When you finally reach the summit you look down into the crater and see the small sources of sulphur leaking out, the brightest blue lake, the fluorescent yellow and dark red walls, the sand trails snaking through the water; then you see to the very bottom, a very, very long and steep way down and you finally realize what these men are doing, where the rocks are coming from, and how completely impossible it seems that men as old as 60 are carrying out loads of sulphur weighing upwards of 150 lbs from the bottom of a volcano up a steep and extremely perilous path only ever wide enough to barely squeeze two people by at the same time, then all the way down the mountain to unload, a journey they can complete twice a day working ten hours each day, being paid the equivalent of US$6 a day. Every one of these men works for 20 years or until they die, which many do from falling, exhaustion and heart and lung problems due to the fact that they are constantly covered and breathing in sulphur, sometimes so thick that you can't see a few inches in front of you, dependent upon the wind to shift to clear the path again. I walked all the way down the path to the source of the sulphur, talked to many of the workers, saw exactly how they were working, got horribly in the way, surely made their jobs more difficult by my presence but not one of them didn't smile and say hello, offer to give me a sulphur rock or ask me for a cigarette that I wished I would have bought a pack of just to give away. None of us, myself, Joanne, Anna, or Kendra and Irene my new American travel partners could make any good sense of it at the time, and even days later we are still enjoying being completely baffled by it.
I decided to follow Kendra and Irene into Bali, and they invited me to come to Pemuteran with them, a small beach village with few tourists, kind locals and good food. Nate eventually met up with us there, and we all snorkeled every day and spent a lot of time relaxing. After four days we had made many new friends and I had traded my t-shirt with Bang Bang, the cook at our favorite road side food stall.
Nate and I are now in Ubud, after a disastrous trip to Kuta to try and find a bar that played the Super Bowl but failing. It's perfect here, everyone loves art and music and the Balinese culture is evident in most everything you see. Today we played with monkeys and Nate almost got his face eaten off, tonight we'll see a gamelan and dance performance, tomorrow maybe some white water rafting then meeting back up with the girls, the next day touring the countryside, Friday to Denpasar to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Sunday the Indian festival of Thaipusam, after that we have no idea.
For those of you worried, last night Nate and I finally found a bar to watch a replay of the Super Bowl, and it was only fitting that the two Arizona boys were joined by another traveler living in Seattle who was from Pittsburgh. The locals working the bar had no idea what we were watching or why it made us so happy.
Love to all,
B
Monday, January 19, 2009
Indonesia
Nate and I have been in Indonesia for about ten days now, starting in Jakarta for two days and then on to Bandung for one night. We quickly grew tired of the traffic and the noise and the general rush of both cities, so we moved on as fast as we could, as Indonesia only gives us 30 days on our visa.
Most of our time has been spent here, in Pangandaran, a sleepy beach city (at least outside of tourist season) with good waves for surfing, at least one large rainstorm a day, and food for 80 cents. I've have done almost nothing outside of read, swim, run, eat, walk, sleep.
Nate has taken up surfing, and since it's cheap to learn and to rent a board here, he has decided to stay for a while. So, tomorrow I will be taking off alone for Yogyakarta, where I'll spent a few days traveling around the area to see Borobodur, the Prambanan temples, the Dieng plateau and Gunung Merapi. Then I'll head East to Solo, then off to Gunung Bromo before reaching the Easternmost tip of Java to catch a ferry to Bali, where, at some point and some location, Nate and I will meet up again to fly back to Kuala Lumpur by the 6th, our last legal day in the country.
(About a minute ago there was a massive motorbike accident outside the internet cafe that wiped out about ten motorbikes. Everyone seems alright though.)
But, on the 1st of February I will be desperately seeking out a bar or restaurant or any place that has a television and is broadcasting the Super Bowl so I can watch the Cardinals win their first championship.
Love to all,
B
Most of our time has been spent here, in Pangandaran, a sleepy beach city (at least outside of tourist season) with good waves for surfing, at least one large rainstorm a day, and food for 80 cents. I've have done almost nothing outside of read, swim, run, eat, walk, sleep.
Nate has taken up surfing, and since it's cheap to learn and to rent a board here, he has decided to stay for a while. So, tomorrow I will be taking off alone for Yogyakarta, where I'll spent a few days traveling around the area to see Borobodur, the Prambanan temples, the Dieng plateau and Gunung Merapi. Then I'll head East to Solo, then off to Gunung Bromo before reaching the Easternmost tip of Java to catch a ferry to Bali, where, at some point and some location, Nate and I will meet up again to fly back to Kuala Lumpur by the 6th, our last legal day in the country.
(About a minute ago there was a massive motorbike accident outside the internet cafe that wiped out about ten motorbikes. Everyone seems alright though.)
But, on the 1st of February I will be desperately seeking out a bar or restaurant or any place that has a television and is broadcasting the Super Bowl so I can watch the Cardinals win their first championship.
Love to all,
B
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Year
Don't have a lot of time, but a quick update that Nate and I had a very lively time in Kuala Lumpur on New Year's Eve in which we probably walked well over 15 miles all over the city to catch all the millions of people celebrating across the city.
The next day we woke up early to catch a bus to Melaka, an old historic city once taken over at different times by the Dutch, Portuguese and British, resulting in quite a mix of peoples and architectural styles. We've been here for the last five days, which should say a lot about how much we enjoy this city.
Tomorrow morning we wake up very early to walk a few miles to the bus station, then catch a bus to Singapore where we'll spend two days before catching a ferry to Batam, a small island just off Singapore that is part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, from where we'll fly to Jakarta, a short hour and a half flight away.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Love,
B
The next day we woke up early to catch a bus to Melaka, an old historic city once taken over at different times by the Dutch, Portuguese and British, resulting in quite a mix of peoples and architectural styles. We've been here for the last five days, which should say a lot about how much we enjoy this city.
Tomorrow morning we wake up very early to walk a few miles to the bus station, then catch a bus to Singapore where we'll spend two days before catching a ferry to Batam, a small island just off Singapore that is part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, from where we'll fly to Jakarta, a short hour and a half flight away.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Love,
B
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