And now for round two:
Next stop was Danum Valley, a jungle conservation area that has a resort that's a two+ hour drive in on a run down and extremely bumpy logging road (in fact, on our way in, a bridge had collapsed, toppling a logging truck and delaying us until another car could come from the other side and we could cross on foot). Once we were in, though, Danum Valley turned out to be one of the coolest places. It's the furthest place you can go into the Bornean jungle as a tourist. Mom and I have never stayed in a resort before and so everything that might be expected by more experienced resorters came as welcome surprises to us. It wasn't just the resort, though, it was also the incredible diversity and magnitude of wildlife that we saw. We spent two nights and one full day there (we both thought this was much too little) and enjoyed jungle treks, a canopy walk, night walk/drive, delicious meals served in a big, wall-less lodge facing a river and a beautiful, fancy room with an outdoor tub (shielded from human eyes).
Here is a condensed list of the animals we saw: wild boar, long-tailed/pig-tailed macaques (monkeys), red-leaf monkeys, flying squirrels, black hornbills/Rhinoceros hornbill (Bornean birds), mouse/sambar deer, giant squirrels, a whole host of lizards/bugs/birds, and…(drum roll, please)…a family of wild elephants (twice) and two wild orangutan (separate occasions, but both relatively young and medium sized). We also heard the warning call of a huge adult male orangutan, which was very intimidating and powerful. So, yeah, Danum Valley. Pretty awesome, yes?
Note: the other creature we saw in abundance was tiger leeches. These are very different than the fat and black fresh-water leeches that appear in many films. Tiger leeches look like elephant trunks that are standing upright and moving their nose around searching/smelling for an unlucky mammal to feast on. When they want to move, they put their nose on the ground and creep like an inchworm. When they eat, they suck from one end and slowly fill up long ways until they’re nice and fat. I got a couple on me but was able to pull them off before they broke my skin and Mom apparently got “leeched” but didn’t notice until we got back to the room and she was bleeding. Another nightmare-of-a-time (literally, I had nightmares about leeches and would wake up and remember that I was in an impeccably clean room where they could get me, thank goodness), we were getting ready to head out again after a between-trek-rest and Mom found a leech crawling around the inside of the shirt that she was about to put back on (it had been hanging in the room for about an hour). Interesting creatures, leeches, but not ones that are the best to have around.
Speaking of creatures! The next ones we witnessed were all underwater because Mom and I ended our trip on SIPIDAN! Well, actually, we stayed on Mulu, an island nearby, because a few years ago everyone was kicked off Sipidan to preserve the nature and use it as an army base. Sipidan, if you haven’t heard, is one of the top dive spots in the world and is currently up for election for the 7 Wonders of Nature. Basically, it was awesome. Our dive masters and the boat captain were really fun and patient and the diving was INCREDIBLE. I’m not even going to write about the resort we stayed in 1. because it didn’t compare to Danum Valley and 2. because it just doesn’t even matter when it comes to talking about the diving we did. The island is basically surrounded by coral reefs that drop from 6meters to 600meters, so most of the dives are wall dives, which, I’ve discovered, I prefer. Some dives were pretty deep (25 meters) and some were shallow but all of them were amazing.
Picture this: you’re swimming through a school of some pretty big, really colorful fish while checking out some smaller fish swimming around the coral and you go in to look at some brightly colored sea stuff, maybe a clown fish in some anemone, on the wall while still moving slowly and then you realize you’ve come across a turtle, not more than three feet away, that is taking a nap in a little nook. You stare for a bit, but don’t want to disturb him and then you turn around just as another massive turtle is swimming out from the coral right in front of you and you watch it swim up to the surface and then back down and as you’re looking down, you realize there are white-tipped reef sharks that are swimming below you surrounded by some other fish that are almost the same size as the sharks. Whoa whoa whoa. I kid you not; we did nine dives of about 40minutes each over a course of three days that were ALL like this. It was crazy. The problem is, I have no idea what most of the stuff I saw is called. Literally, the ENTIRE cast of “Finding Nemo” was there, including all the extras and about a thousand of each character. Plus, we saw a gigantic eagle ray (they swim rather than settle on the bottom), several puffer fish – including a huge pregnant one and a little orange one with blue spots, an angel/paper fish thing, a small octopus (that was coooool), huge schools of barracuda, a million turtles of all ages, orangutan crabs, several kinds of cuttlefish, big tiger fish, eels, really big sea cucumbers/slugs, gray reef sharks (those are bigger than the other ones) and the list just goes on and on.
Our last day there, Mom and I had to skip the last dive because we were flying too soon afterwards and so I went snorkeling out on the drop-off instead, near where the dive was happening. Even snorkeling was amazing. As soon as I put my face in the water, I got to six turtles before I lost count and they were swimming right next to me, so close I could’ve touched them. I ended up finding the divers and swam over them for a while. I noticed one white-tipped reef shark that swam startlingly close to me but still far enough away but later I found out that when I was looking at that one, the divers were watching another one that was directly under me, so close that I didn’t even see it. Haha, whoops. Lucky for me, reef sharks generally leave people alone.
As you can imagine, mom and I feel pretty spoiled by all we got to see and really, I’m just going to be disappointed by the dives I do after this. I’ll have to keep an open mind and remember that everywhere has something to offer, even if it’s not Sipidan.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Borneo v.1: Mineral
So Mom and I went to Borneo! Our trip was about 17 days with four main stops around Malaysian Borneo, so I’m going to split it in half for blogging purposes.
After two nights and one day in Kota Kinabalu, which consisted of us planning our trip with a travel agent and finding our favorite Italian restaurant that we ended up going to every time we were in KK (it’s surprising how good you can convince yourself mediocre pizza is when there hasn’t been good pizza to be found for four months), we flew to Mulu to explore the caves. If you’ve ever seen Planet Earth and remember the episode on caves, recall the Bornean caves they talk about. Yeah, we went to those.
There are four major caves that you can tour and we did them all in one day. The smaller ones (they’re longer and not that tall) had really cool stalactites and stalagmites and other features that I can’t remember the names of. My favorite cave was the biggest one in the world until about three weeks before we got there when a new cave that’s almost twice as big was found in China or Vietnam (two guides told me different places). The cave we were in was HUGE, big enough – according to Planet Earth – for a flighter jet to fly through. It was awesome to listen to all the bats (too hard to see them in the dark) and walk over underground rivers and everything. Every evening at sunset, swarms of millions of bats circle around the entrance of the caves and then fly off in groups to go find food for the night. There’s a lookout place below the cave for prime picture taking of this event. We got really lucky because it was raining the evening we were there and they usually don’t come out when it rains but they did. It was funny too, because we saw some groups fly out, decide it was too wet, and fly back in again.
Our last day there, I got to go adventure caving which was incredible. We walked into this little cave with just our headlamps (all the caves you tour have pathways and are dimly lit so you can actually see things) and crawled up and down walls of rocks (there were ropes to hold on to) and went through passageways and it was just so cool. We saw little bats that had lost their way and ended up clinging to rocks and walls a long way from their friends. There was also a racer snake that can sense heat but can’t see, really big crickets and really, REALLY big spiders. And these spiders don’t build webs, they can just sense movement and they HUNT. Talk about freaky. I am not a fan of spiders. But that did not stop me from enjoying awesome adventure caving. At one point, in the back of the cave, we all turned off our lights just to see what it was like to be somewhere where there isn’t even a memory of light. It was so tiring. My eyes opened really wide automatically and I kept moving my head and searching for something to see but there wasn’t anything. People’s voices just came out of empty space. It was a little scary but also very interesting.
Moving on: We flew back to KK and went straight to the park at the Mt. Kinabalu. The next morning, we set off up the tallest mountain in SE Asia with our guide, Maikin. We started quite late by mountain climber time (about 11am) so we met a lot of people on their way down. A word to the adventurer: if you are finishing the journey and see people who are just beginning, do not say things such as “Oh, you’re starting LATE” or “Wow, red and sweaty already!” Try for something a little more encouraging.
It took us five hours to get from the starting point to the guesthouse and boy, was it HARD. Maikin must have been bored out of his mind with the pace we were going – he’s been working as a guide for eight years and climbs the mountain TWICE A WEEK. If you think that’s crazy (even if you don’t, I do), you should’ve seen the porters that had to carry everything up to the guesthouse (all the food and gas, etc.). Most of them carried loads that were strapped to boards on their backs that they would hang from straps across their foreheads. We saw one guy carrying a box full of piping that was at least eight feet long and he was balancing it on his head. That really looked like it hurt. All of the porters had these massive thighs and ranged in ages. They were a periodic reminder that I shouldn’t have been complaining about how my body hurt.
At 3am the next morning, Maikin and I set off for the summit (Mom decided she’d had enough getting to the guesthouse). It took me three hours to get to the top and it just got worse and worse as we went. The day before, I’d figured out that if I sang musicals in my head, from start to finish, I was able to distract myself pretty well by concentrating on remembering the lyrics and the order of the songs. On the way up, I’d done Rent. For that morning climb, I did Sound of Music and just when I was getting to the steepest part of the mountain I was having the hardest time remembering what song came next when I realized is was “Climb Every Mountain.” Very fitting. And so cliché it was almost annoying. The mountain was enveloped in a cloud for the last stretch to the top and it was so cold. I kept thinking we were there, but then Maikin would show me where I had to keep going. In fact, when I actually got to the top, I collapsed onto a rock and tried to make my hands feel enough to get out my camera for a misty picture of the sun rising, but Maikin made me get up and actually climb the last few feet to the sign that was really considered the TOP of the mountain. Then I basically had him run down with me until we got to a point where the wind wasn’t as strong. It was really hard to breathe up there because the air was so thin and I seriously could not feel my hands. I also thought it was going to start to rain so my morale was really low but then the sun came up and some of the clouds cleared from the view and I wasn’t climbing UP anymore, I was going down, so I felt better. Plus, I’d made it to the top so there was no turning back anymore because the only way to go was down. Which, by the way, is also incredibly hard. Mom and I were slow going down too because of our knees and it took us much longer than anticipated (about 4 hours?) and I was just way pooped by the end of it. Our legs hurt for four days after that and we tried not to let people see us walk up and down stairs.
I'm really glad I did climb the mountain (and conquered it) but I'm not so sure if mountain climbing is really my thing. I think I'd rather just go climb a rock. You know, with ropes and a harness and stuff.
After two nights and one day in Kota Kinabalu, which consisted of us planning our trip with a travel agent and finding our favorite Italian restaurant that we ended up going to every time we were in KK (it’s surprising how good you can convince yourself mediocre pizza is when there hasn’t been good pizza to be found for four months), we flew to Mulu to explore the caves. If you’ve ever seen Planet Earth and remember the episode on caves, recall the Bornean caves they talk about. Yeah, we went to those.
There are four major caves that you can tour and we did them all in one day. The smaller ones (they’re longer and not that tall) had really cool stalactites and stalagmites and other features that I can’t remember the names of. My favorite cave was the biggest one in the world until about three weeks before we got there when a new cave that’s almost twice as big was found in China or Vietnam (two guides told me different places). The cave we were in was HUGE, big enough – according to Planet Earth – for a flighter jet to fly through. It was awesome to listen to all the bats (too hard to see them in the dark) and walk over underground rivers and everything. Every evening at sunset, swarms of millions of bats circle around the entrance of the caves and then fly off in groups to go find food for the night. There’s a lookout place below the cave for prime picture taking of this event. We got really lucky because it was raining the evening we were there and they usually don’t come out when it rains but they did. It was funny too, because we saw some groups fly out, decide it was too wet, and fly back in again.
Our last day there, I got to go adventure caving which was incredible. We walked into this little cave with just our headlamps (all the caves you tour have pathways and are dimly lit so you can actually see things) and crawled up and down walls of rocks (there were ropes to hold on to) and went through passageways and it was just so cool. We saw little bats that had lost their way and ended up clinging to rocks and walls a long way from their friends. There was also a racer snake that can sense heat but can’t see, really big crickets and really, REALLY big spiders. And these spiders don’t build webs, they can just sense movement and they HUNT. Talk about freaky. I am not a fan of spiders. But that did not stop me from enjoying awesome adventure caving. At one point, in the back of the cave, we all turned off our lights just to see what it was like to be somewhere where there isn’t even a memory of light. It was so tiring. My eyes opened really wide automatically and I kept moving my head and searching for something to see but there wasn’t anything. People’s voices just came out of empty space. It was a little scary but also very interesting.
Moving on: We flew back to KK and went straight to the park at the Mt. Kinabalu. The next morning, we set off up the tallest mountain in SE Asia with our guide, Maikin. We started quite late by mountain climber time (about 11am) so we met a lot of people on their way down. A word to the adventurer: if you are finishing the journey and see people who are just beginning, do not say things such as “Oh, you’re starting LATE” or “Wow, red and sweaty already!” Try for something a little more encouraging.
It took us five hours to get from the starting point to the guesthouse and boy, was it HARD. Maikin must have been bored out of his mind with the pace we were going – he’s been working as a guide for eight years and climbs the mountain TWICE A WEEK. If you think that’s crazy (even if you don’t, I do), you should’ve seen the porters that had to carry everything up to the guesthouse (all the food and gas, etc.). Most of them carried loads that were strapped to boards on their backs that they would hang from straps across their foreheads. We saw one guy carrying a box full of piping that was at least eight feet long and he was balancing it on his head. That really looked like it hurt. All of the porters had these massive thighs and ranged in ages. They were a periodic reminder that I shouldn’t have been complaining about how my body hurt.
At 3am the next morning, Maikin and I set off for the summit (Mom decided she’d had enough getting to the guesthouse). It took me three hours to get to the top and it just got worse and worse as we went. The day before, I’d figured out that if I sang musicals in my head, from start to finish, I was able to distract myself pretty well by concentrating on remembering the lyrics and the order of the songs. On the way up, I’d done Rent. For that morning climb, I did Sound of Music and just when I was getting to the steepest part of the mountain I was having the hardest time remembering what song came next when I realized is was “Climb Every Mountain.” Very fitting. And so cliché it was almost annoying. The mountain was enveloped in a cloud for the last stretch to the top and it was so cold. I kept thinking we were there, but then Maikin would show me where I had to keep going. In fact, when I actually got to the top, I collapsed onto a rock and tried to make my hands feel enough to get out my camera for a misty picture of the sun rising, but Maikin made me get up and actually climb the last few feet to the sign that was really considered the TOP of the mountain. Then I basically had him run down with me until we got to a point where the wind wasn’t as strong. It was really hard to breathe up there because the air was so thin and I seriously could not feel my hands. I also thought it was going to start to rain so my morale was really low but then the sun came up and some of the clouds cleared from the view and I wasn’t climbing UP anymore, I was going down, so I felt better. Plus, I’d made it to the top so there was no turning back anymore because the only way to go was down. Which, by the way, is also incredibly hard. Mom and I were slow going down too because of our knees and it took us much longer than anticipated (about 4 hours?) and I was just way pooped by the end of it. Our legs hurt for four days after that and we tried not to let people see us walk up and down stairs.
I'm really glad I did climb the mountain (and conquered it) but I'm not so sure if mountain climbing is really my thing. I think I'd rather just go climb a rock. You know, with ropes and a harness and stuff.
Monday, June 1, 2009
FMP, yo
By the time I got back to Singapore from Chiang Mai, Mom was on a plane flying over the Pacific, I had an exam in two days and I had to move out of my apartment and be ready to go back to Thailand in four days. The time constraints were really pushing it, plus, (if you've ever met me you'll know) I tend to get pretty emotional and nostalgic so my vocabulary in my last two days in Singapore was limited to little more than, "Oh my God."
My exam was okay, the studying I managed to do ended up being really helpful and Mom helped me pack a little (more like spread all my things around the apartment in little piles - luckily, I have understanding roommates) and she took me and Karlijn on a nice boat dinner that cruised up and down the (or I should say "one of the") coast(s) of Singapore.
I managed to get all my stuff packed in a semi-orderly fashion (what needs to go to KL, Borneo, home, Thailand...), check out of my apartment, say goodbye to the area and have my first meal of laksa as my last meal. Laksa is kind of a curry soup with noodles and beancurd and chicken or prawns or both and Singapore is supposed to have very good laksa, I just never tried it until my last lunch at the Commonwealth hawker center. It was an appropriate (and delicious) last meal.
My friends and I flew to Phuket in southern Thailand, stayed a night there, and then traveled by bus and ferry to Ko Phangon (an island) for the Full Moon Party. This is a party that - you guessed it - happens every full moon. Ko Phangon also has the Half-Moon party, the Dark-Moon party, etc. etc (you can imagine how the island is built around tourism) but the FMP is the most famous. I had several people tell me that if I went to SE Asia, I had to go to this, so my friends and I decided to make it our last adventure together before parting ways.
I had a good time because I was with good people, but it's not really my scene. Literally, it's just a massive beach party of thousands of Westerners who have all been told that they HAVE to go to this party and then they do, discover that really, it's just a party like any other on any other beach (except the massive amounts of glowing body paint), but then leave and go spread the word across the globe to thousands of more Westerners that they HAVE to go to this party. The thing is, most of the time you lose all your friends and your shoes (I wore cheap flip-flops and on the ferry back, I saw a guy wearing one of mine and a different one on his other foot. He looked like he really needed it, though, so I didn't try to get it back) and then you're just kind of there by yourself surrounded by thousands of people. I was lucky I hung on to my two close friends and we had a good night (besides the part where one of them fell on a rock and cut up his foot and elbow - but he's okay!).
On Monday (the party was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), I had to head back to Singapore to meet up with Mom (who, during this time, was getting SCUBA certified on Tioman) and begin our adventuring in Borneo while my friends were continuing to travel north. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Karlijn and Gerrit who were my family over here. I remember before I left the states, I told my friend Katie that I hoped I would meet good people over here and she had assured me I would. Lucky for me, she was right.
My exam was okay, the studying I managed to do ended up being really helpful and Mom helped me pack a little (more like spread all my things around the apartment in little piles - luckily, I have understanding roommates) and she took me and Karlijn on a nice boat dinner that cruised up and down the (or I should say "one of the") coast(s) of Singapore.
I managed to get all my stuff packed in a semi-orderly fashion (what needs to go to KL, Borneo, home, Thailand...), check out of my apartment, say goodbye to the area and have my first meal of laksa as my last meal. Laksa is kind of a curry soup with noodles and beancurd and chicken or prawns or both and Singapore is supposed to have very good laksa, I just never tried it until my last lunch at the Commonwealth hawker center. It was an appropriate (and delicious) last meal.
My friends and I flew to Phuket in southern Thailand, stayed a night there, and then traveled by bus and ferry to Ko Phangon (an island) for the Full Moon Party. This is a party that - you guessed it - happens every full moon. Ko Phangon also has the Half-Moon party, the Dark-Moon party, etc. etc (you can imagine how the island is built around tourism) but the FMP is the most famous. I had several people tell me that if I went to SE Asia, I had to go to this, so my friends and I decided to make it our last adventure together before parting ways.
I had a good time because I was with good people, but it's not really my scene. Literally, it's just a massive beach party of thousands of Westerners who have all been told that they HAVE to go to this party and then they do, discover that really, it's just a party like any other on any other beach (except the massive amounts of glowing body paint), but then leave and go spread the word across the globe to thousands of more Westerners that they HAVE to go to this party. The thing is, most of the time you lose all your friends and your shoes (I wore cheap flip-flops and on the ferry back, I saw a guy wearing one of mine and a different one on his other foot. He looked like he really needed it, though, so I didn't try to get it back) and then you're just kind of there by yourself surrounded by thousands of people. I was lucky I hung on to my two close friends and we had a good night (besides the part where one of them fell on a rock and cut up his foot and elbow - but he's okay!).
On Monday (the party was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), I had to head back to Singapore to meet up with Mom (who, during this time, was getting SCUBA certified on Tioman) and begin our adventuring in Borneo while my friends were continuing to travel north. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Karlijn and Gerrit who were my family over here. I remember before I left the states, I told my friend Katie that I hoped I would meet good people over here and she had assured me I would. Lucky for me, she was right.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sky High On Rocks and Elephants
Basically, I had two exams with ten days in between them to study (HA) and so I said "PEACE" to Singapore and my friends and took off for a solo adventure to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. This is was the one place that I decided before I left the states that I had to go to and the one thing I had to do was ride an elephant. Plus (I didn't realize this until I was on the plane), it's on my list of things to do in life to go on a trip by myself (moving somewhere like Singapore doesn't count - "trip" on that list = destination/hostel/traveling/blah blah blah all on my lonesome). So CHECK CHECK CHECK to all three of those things!
I stayed at this super sweet hostel called Julie's Guesthouse (the dorm room bed I got cost about 2USD a night) that was funky and fun and had excellent muesli and a wonderful rooftop hangout area with big bed/couch things and pillows. I met a girl from England that was very friendly and we became sort of travel buddies, wandering around some of the temples with a group of people we met at the hostel and then going on a two-day trek. The trek was very touristy but most travelers that go to Chiang Mai do it and it involved the elephants, so I had to.
Two-day Trek: first to a market, then the elephant ride, a four-hour trek through the jungle, staying overnight in a village, trek back down the next day, river rafting, then river-cruising on a sinking bamboo raft and then back to your hostel. It was fun and I had good people with me, so I enjoyed myself (one guy was from Russia but had done his Masters at UO! Crazy small world again, eh? - Ger, I'm beginning to sound like you with all my "eh"s).
Notes of interest: Elephant ride! It was cool, I'm glad I did it, but the elephants didn't seem to happy (although I was assured they are not over-worked) and they're getting fed way too many bananas by overeager tourists. Plus, there's a guide sitting on it's head and directing it and stuff, so you really don't get to connect with the animal like I feel like I do/can with a horse. Most of the time I was trying not to fall out of the chair thing on the elephant's back, but at one point I got to sit on it's neck and elephant hair is very stiff and scratchy.
The moment of most distinction for me was staying overnight at the village. The trek uphill had been really hard and after rinsing off with cold water from a bucket, I went to go watch the locals make us curry for dinner (it was SO GOOD). Point is, I was sitting there in my sweater, my legs feeling lose from a day of hiking, watching people cook over a fire and listening to a guy play guitar. I swear, northern Thailand smells just like Oregon sometimes. It felt like camp. Just like camp. And, call me sappy, but that line from Bluest came into my head in Heather's voice, "no matter where you go, there's no such place as far away," and it just all felt like home. Because the Blue follows me everywhere.
Now on to my absolute FAVORITE part of my trip to northern Thailand: I learned to LEAD CLIMB. Rock climbing is probably one of my favorite things to do and I've gotten more and more into over the last year. Nathan and I climbed outdoors together (my first time!) in Krabi in southern Thailand and so I knew I'd have to do it again. And then I was like, you know what? I'll just learn to set up my own ropes! So this Thai guy (he's on the national climbing team and took THIRD in this huge competition in Krabi) took me out to some sweet rocks and taught me how to hook the rope in (it changes depending on which way the quickdraw - carabiner - is facing and which hand you're using), belay a lead climber, set up a top-rope and clean up my route. IT WAS SO AWESOME. Plus, while learning, I met this nice couple from England who have all their own ropes and are planning on being in KL in June or July so hopefully I'll get to climb outdoors with them!
The hard part of my trip was getting back to Singapore because my flight was from Chiang Mai to KL and then I had to grab a bus to the bus station an hour from the airport and then a bus from there back to Singapore that should've only been about three or four hours but ended up being five or six. Luckily, my good friends were still awake at 1:30am when I showed up at their door and we had a nice, midnight-snack reunion.
I learned that I don't mind traveling alone, turns out I didn't even get as much alone-time as I may have wanted/enjoyed, but I think that if I was doing a longer trip, I'd probably want someone there with me. It just gets tiring telling everyone you meet the same story and little facts about yourself and what you're doing out on the road. I think I'd need someone who actually knew me to be a relief from all that, at least every once and a while.
I stayed at this super sweet hostel called Julie's Guesthouse (the dorm room bed I got cost about 2USD a night) that was funky and fun and had excellent muesli and a wonderful rooftop hangout area with big bed/couch things and pillows. I met a girl from England that was very friendly and we became sort of travel buddies, wandering around some of the temples with a group of people we met at the hostel and then going on a two-day trek. The trek was very touristy but most travelers that go to Chiang Mai do it and it involved the elephants, so I had to.
Two-day Trek: first to a market, then the elephant ride, a four-hour trek through the jungle, staying overnight in a village, trek back down the next day, river rafting, then river-cruising on a sinking bamboo raft and then back to your hostel. It was fun and I had good people with me, so I enjoyed myself (one guy was from Russia but had done his Masters at UO! Crazy small world again, eh? - Ger, I'm beginning to sound like you with all my "eh"s).
Notes of interest: Elephant ride! It was cool, I'm glad I did it, but the elephants didn't seem to happy (although I was assured they are not over-worked) and they're getting fed way too many bananas by overeager tourists. Plus, there's a guide sitting on it's head and directing it and stuff, so you really don't get to connect with the animal like I feel like I do/can with a horse. Most of the time I was trying not to fall out of the chair thing on the elephant's back, but at one point I got to sit on it's neck and elephant hair is very stiff and scratchy.
The moment of most distinction for me was staying overnight at the village. The trek uphill had been really hard and after rinsing off with cold water from a bucket, I went to go watch the locals make us curry for dinner (it was SO GOOD). Point is, I was sitting there in my sweater, my legs feeling lose from a day of hiking, watching people cook over a fire and listening to a guy play guitar. I swear, northern Thailand smells just like Oregon sometimes. It felt like camp. Just like camp. And, call me sappy, but that line from Bluest came into my head in Heather's voice, "no matter where you go, there's no such place as far away," and it just all felt like home. Because the Blue follows me everywhere.
Now on to my absolute FAVORITE part of my trip to northern Thailand: I learned to LEAD CLIMB. Rock climbing is probably one of my favorite things to do and I've gotten more and more into over the last year. Nathan and I climbed outdoors together (my first time!) in Krabi in southern Thailand and so I knew I'd have to do it again. And then I was like, you know what? I'll just learn to set up my own ropes! So this Thai guy (he's on the national climbing team and took THIRD in this huge competition in Krabi) took me out to some sweet rocks and taught me how to hook the rope in (it changes depending on which way the quickdraw - carabiner - is facing and which hand you're using), belay a lead climber, set up a top-rope and clean up my route. IT WAS SO AWESOME. Plus, while learning, I met this nice couple from England who have all their own ropes and are planning on being in KL in June or July so hopefully I'll get to climb outdoors with them!
The hard part of my trip was getting back to Singapore because my flight was from Chiang Mai to KL and then I had to grab a bus to the bus station an hour from the airport and then a bus from there back to Singapore that should've only been about three or four hours but ended up being five or six. Luckily, my good friends were still awake at 1:30am when I showed up at their door and we had a nice, midnight-snack reunion.
I learned that I don't mind traveling alone, turns out I didn't even get as much alone-time as I may have wanted/enjoyed, but I think that if I was doing a longer trip, I'd probably want someone there with me. It just gets tiring telling everyone you meet the same story and little facts about yourself and what you're doing out on the road. I think I'd need someone who actually knew me to be a relief from all that, at least every once and a while.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Under The Sea
Alrighty, then! Here I am, back in Singapore after epic adventures avec ma mere in Borneo and preparing to move to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I have to stretch my mind all the way back to over a MONTH ago to tell the story of how I learned to scuba dive. Silly me, I should really learn to do the things on my "To Do" list in a more sensible fashion.
So, here goes:
My friend, Jo, and I decided to get our Open Water PADI certifications (meaning, we can go 18 meters - although now I've gone deeper, whoops! - with a buddy) on a little island off the east coast of Malaysia called Tioman (about a four hour bus from Singapore + an hour ferry + a whole lot of waiting time because it's never on schedule). Our other friends who were already certified spent a few days there as well and the group of us had a grand time sitting on the beach, chatting with the locals and looking for sea shells. It was great.
Jo and I spent three full days learning how to dive, which involved watching movies, reading the textbook, taking quizzes, spending time in the pool with all our gear on and learning how to do skills, as well as learning how to manage and take care of the gear. It was all a little intimidating but totally awesome and worth it in the long-run. Our instructor was good with us, too, and really knew what he was doing, so that also helped. (PS one of the instructors had been on the island for seven years but was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and was a UO duck like me! Small world, eh?)
The first time we went into the ocean was pretty bizarre feeling. We just put everything on, the BCD (jacket thing), air tank, weights, suit, etc., and then just walked right out into the water. Once we got out to a certain point, we put in our regulators (what you breathe through), let all the air out of our BCDs and literally sank into the water. Here's the catch: you're underwater, but YOU CAN STILL BREATHE. "Duh, Maddy, that's what scuba diving is," you say? Well, let me tell you that the first time (and the second, third, fourth...) you do it, it's just way cool and such a weird sensation that I had to keep reminding myself it was the real deal. For some people, it's just too much, but Jo and I found that if you just focus on your breathing and let yourself into this kind of zen mode, it's all just fine and dandy.
Tioman was a great island for diving. Everyone was super relaxed - I didn't wear shoes for four days. The beach we were on just had a little pathway along it and the huts people stayed in, no road or anything like that (although there are beaches with roads on Tioman - mainly just the one with the little airport). And the marine life was so fantastic. Karlijn and I went snorkeling one day and saw so much stuff just off shore! The problem with trying to tell you all about what I saw is that I have no idea what it's all called. So, basically, over the course of the weekend, I saw fish of many colors, sizes, shapes, and patterns, plus two big puffer fish, an eel, two turtles, some black-tipped reef sharks and a cleaner wrasse (small fish with a white stripe) that tried to eat my anklet. What an epic adventure.
This is a concise version of the blog I would have written years ago when it actually happened, but I have a whole long list of other things to share with you and I'm sure you don't want to read a novel about it all! Be prepared - more to come!
So, here goes:
My friend, Jo, and I decided to get our Open Water PADI certifications (meaning, we can go 18 meters - although now I've gone deeper, whoops! - with a buddy) on a little island off the east coast of Malaysia called Tioman (about a four hour bus from Singapore + an hour ferry + a whole lot of waiting time because it's never on schedule). Our other friends who were already certified spent a few days there as well and the group of us had a grand time sitting on the beach, chatting with the locals and looking for sea shells. It was great.
Jo and I spent three full days learning how to dive, which involved watching movies, reading the textbook, taking quizzes, spending time in the pool with all our gear on and learning how to do skills, as well as learning how to manage and take care of the gear. It was all a little intimidating but totally awesome and worth it in the long-run. Our instructor was good with us, too, and really knew what he was doing, so that also helped. (PS one of the instructors had been on the island for seven years but was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and was a UO duck like me! Small world, eh?)
The first time we went into the ocean was pretty bizarre feeling. We just put everything on, the BCD (jacket thing), air tank, weights, suit, etc., and then just walked right out into the water. Once we got out to a certain point, we put in our regulators (what you breathe through), let all the air out of our BCDs and literally sank into the water. Here's the catch: you're underwater, but YOU CAN STILL BREATHE. "Duh, Maddy, that's what scuba diving is," you say? Well, let me tell you that the first time (and the second, third, fourth...) you do it, it's just way cool and such a weird sensation that I had to keep reminding myself it was the real deal. For some people, it's just too much, but Jo and I found that if you just focus on your breathing and let yourself into this kind of zen mode, it's all just fine and dandy.
Tioman was a great island for diving. Everyone was super relaxed - I didn't wear shoes for four days. The beach we were on just had a little pathway along it and the huts people stayed in, no road or anything like that (although there are beaches with roads on Tioman - mainly just the one with the little airport). And the marine life was so fantastic. Karlijn and I went snorkeling one day and saw so much stuff just off shore! The problem with trying to tell you all about what I saw is that I have no idea what it's all called. So, basically, over the course of the weekend, I saw fish of many colors, sizes, shapes, and patterns, plus two big puffer fish, an eel, two turtles, some black-tipped reef sharks and a cleaner wrasse (small fish with a white stripe) that tried to eat my anklet. What an epic adventure.
This is a concise version of the blog I would have written years ago when it actually happened, but I have a whole long list of other things to share with you and I'm sure you don't want to read a novel about it all! Be prepared - more to come!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I AM ALIVE
Hello all!
I know I am crazily behind on this blog but the last month has been all madness and heatness in SE Asia and I haven't been able to keep up. Fortunately, I have a whole long list of things to write about at a later date (I know I know, I'm still unable to catch up! Sorry!), which I PROMISE, I will do.
BUT tomorrow I head off to Borneo with my mom (she made it!) and we'll be there just over two weeks. My hope is that I'll get to crash in front of a computer at some hotel/hostel along the way and tell you all about scuba diving, Thailand by myself and then again for the Full Moon Party (no need to worry, NC Grandma! I didn't go anywhere near Bangkok), exams, saying goodbye to friends, moving out of Singapore, and other minor things that were supposed to be a blog a few weeks ago when I didn't have much to say and then just didn't say anything at all.
ANYWAY, love to you all and I just wanted to stay I'm still out here, sweating my way through SE Asia and I promise an update sometime soon(ish).
Ik mis je! ("I miss you" in Dutch, courtesy of my bestie, Karlijn)
I know I am crazily behind on this blog but the last month has been all madness and heatness in SE Asia and I haven't been able to keep up. Fortunately, I have a whole long list of things to write about at a later date (I know I know, I'm still unable to catch up! Sorry!), which I PROMISE, I will do.
BUT tomorrow I head off to Borneo with my mom (she made it!) and we'll be there just over two weeks. My hope is that I'll get to crash in front of a computer at some hotel/hostel along the way and tell you all about scuba diving, Thailand by myself and then again for the Full Moon Party (no need to worry, NC Grandma! I didn't go anywhere near Bangkok), exams, saying goodbye to friends, moving out of Singapore, and other minor things that were supposed to be a blog a few weeks ago when I didn't have much to say and then just didn't say anything at all.
ANYWAY, love to you all and I just wanted to stay I'm still out here, sweating my way through SE Asia and I promise an update sometime soon(ish).
Ik mis je! ("I miss you" in Dutch, courtesy of my bestie, Karlijn)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Indonesia
Thursday afternoon I took a cab straight to the airport from school and met up with Karlijn and Gerrit (my two absolute favorite people here) and we flew to Jakarta. This turned out to be a pretty crazy trip. I had a revelation about a day in where it just like, "Maddy. This would NOT have been okay with you three months ago. I think we're growing here, girl."
We landed in Jakarta and tried to get a flight from there to, well, anywhere basically (Jakarta is not known to be the nicest place to visit, let alone spend your weekend). Alas, it did not work, so we took option B and rode a bus into the city and found the train station. After a confusing bout of trying to buy tickets that they insisted did not exist, we got a train for the next morning at 8:15am to Yogyakarta (we had wanted to leave the next evening). Although everyone wanted us to take a cab, we chose to walk and finally made it to the street with all the hostels around 9:30-10pm. It's an awesome street with lots of hostels, bars, restaurants, food stalls, and colorful lights. We found a little place with space down a little alley (unfortunately, Karlijn and I got attacked by bed bugs there. Too bad, 'cause it was a cute place with a very nice guy running it). And we found a different hostel that had a mini-van shuttle to Yogy every night. I went to bed (did I mention I had a horrible sore throat and had had minimal sleep the past week because of Joe and Penang? still went, though...) and Gerrit and Karlijn went back to the train station and managed to get a partial refund for our morning tickets.
We spent Friday wandering around Jakarta and I actually really liked it. It was very dirty and polluted and smelly and had a lot of poverty but it was a very real city. Very raw. I think I enjoyed it as much as I did because I was there with good people but the realness and rawness was also an almost refreshing change from rich and regulated Singapore (lots of 'r' adjectives). We took a train (like a poorer version of the MRT) to the old town square (they were filming a car commercial there, actually), had tea in this very elite, colonial but cool restaurant that Lonely Planet suggested (the walls were COVERED, including the bathroom, in framed portraits of all different ages, styles, and people. I saw Bush Senior, Mick Jagger, a young Elton John, the current and two previous queens of Holland - Karlijn pointed them out - Katherine Hepburn and a collection of interesting photos of unidentifiable people) and then spent the rest of the day wandering around. We stumbled upon this very busy and crowded market built into this maze of alleys and ordered nasi goreng (fried rice) because it was the only recognizable thing we could communicate to the smiling guy at a food stall. It was delicious. We also spent considerable time exploring antique shops, which was also very cool.
The mini van that night was supposed to leave at 6pm and arrive at 5-6am. Needless to say, that's not at all what happened. We left aroun 6:45 and drove around Jakarta for about two hours picking up two other guys. That meant that there were seven people in a eight-seater car. It was the three of us (shoved into the middle seat) plus another girl from Holland and then three non-English speakers (including the driver). We made it to Yogy around 10am the next morning - do not ask me how we survived 15hours in the car. The answer probably lies in the four-six bathroom stops (I can't remember the specific number) and our (meaning me, Karlijn, and Gerrit, of course) system of rotating seats so that everyone got slept on the same amount.
Our morning on Saturday consisted of figuring out logistics like a flight back to Jakarta and hostel and temple touring. In the afternoon, we went to beautiful Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century and enjoyed wandering around taking pictures in the rain without umbrella/poncho. Drying off was in order before dinner. We went to a nice restaurant because it was Karlijn's mom's birthday and had some pretty bad food while admiring the food stall below us that had live musicians rocking out. We laughed that we had become so accustomed to eating at relatively sketchy little places and that "nice" restaurants are often not that good - just expensive. I love laughing with them.
Sunday morning we got up suuuuuuper early and went to see the Hindu temple (built in the 9th century as well) called Prambanan. It was a cluster of different towers/temples that were all for different deities, whereas Borobudur was one big temple with lots of Buddhas. Both were made out of big stone bricks with intricate carvings. I wanted to climb them.
Our driver to the temple swung me by the airport at 10am on our way back so I could catch my flight back to Jakarta and then Singapore and I had an easy day of traveling (except they took my deet away at airport security and that did not make me happy). Fit in some good journaling time. Karlijn and Gerrit didn't have class until Tuesday, so got to spend an extra day in Yogyakarta. They should be back now, I'm going to go find out what they did...
I'm so lucky to know such good people all over the world.
We landed in Jakarta and tried to get a flight from there to, well, anywhere basically (Jakarta is not known to be the nicest place to visit, let alone spend your weekend). Alas, it did not work, so we took option B and rode a bus into the city and found the train station. After a confusing bout of trying to buy tickets that they insisted did not exist, we got a train for the next morning at 8:15am to Yogyakarta (we had wanted to leave the next evening). Although everyone wanted us to take a cab, we chose to walk and finally made it to the street with all the hostels around 9:30-10pm. It's an awesome street with lots of hostels, bars, restaurants, food stalls, and colorful lights. We found a little place with space down a little alley (unfortunately, Karlijn and I got attacked by bed bugs there. Too bad, 'cause it was a cute place with a very nice guy running it). And we found a different hostel that had a mini-van shuttle to Yogy every night. I went to bed (did I mention I had a horrible sore throat and had had minimal sleep the past week because of Joe and Penang? still went, though...) and Gerrit and Karlijn went back to the train station and managed to get a partial refund for our morning tickets.
We spent Friday wandering around Jakarta and I actually really liked it. It was very dirty and polluted and smelly and had a lot of poverty but it was a very real city. Very raw. I think I enjoyed it as much as I did because I was there with good people but the realness and rawness was also an almost refreshing change from rich and regulated Singapore (lots of 'r' adjectives). We took a train (like a poorer version of the MRT) to the old town square (they were filming a car commercial there, actually), had tea in this very elite, colonial but cool restaurant that Lonely Planet suggested (the walls were COVERED, including the bathroom, in framed portraits of all different ages, styles, and people. I saw Bush Senior, Mick Jagger, a young Elton John, the current and two previous queens of Holland - Karlijn pointed them out - Katherine Hepburn and a collection of interesting photos of unidentifiable people) and then spent the rest of the day wandering around. We stumbled upon this very busy and crowded market built into this maze of alleys and ordered nasi goreng (fried rice) because it was the only recognizable thing we could communicate to the smiling guy at a food stall. It was delicious. We also spent considerable time exploring antique shops, which was also very cool.
The mini van that night was supposed to leave at 6pm and arrive at 5-6am. Needless to say, that's not at all what happened. We left aroun 6:45 and drove around Jakarta for about two hours picking up two other guys. That meant that there were seven people in a eight-seater car. It was the three of us (shoved into the middle seat) plus another girl from Holland and then three non-English speakers (including the driver). We made it to Yogy around 10am the next morning - do not ask me how we survived 15hours in the car. The answer probably lies in the four-six bathroom stops (I can't remember the specific number) and our (meaning me, Karlijn, and Gerrit, of course) system of rotating seats so that everyone got slept on the same amount.
Our morning on Saturday consisted of figuring out logistics like a flight back to Jakarta and hostel and temple touring. In the afternoon, we went to beautiful Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century and enjoyed wandering around taking pictures in the rain without umbrella/poncho. Drying off was in order before dinner. We went to a nice restaurant because it was Karlijn's mom's birthday and had some pretty bad food while admiring the food stall below us that had live musicians rocking out. We laughed that we had become so accustomed to eating at relatively sketchy little places and that "nice" restaurants are often not that good - just expensive. I love laughing with them.
Sunday morning we got up suuuuuuper early and went to see the Hindu temple (built in the 9th century as well) called Prambanan. It was a cluster of different towers/temples that were all for different deities, whereas Borobudur was one big temple with lots of Buddhas. Both were made out of big stone bricks with intricate carvings. I wanted to climb them.
Our driver to the temple swung me by the airport at 10am on our way back so I could catch my flight back to Jakarta and then Singapore and I had an easy day of traveling (except they took my deet away at airport security and that did not make me happy). Fit in some good journaling time. Karlijn and Gerrit didn't have class until Tuesday, so got to spend an extra day in Yogyakarta. They should be back now, I'm going to go find out what they did...
I'm so lucky to know such good people all over the world.
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