The Secret of the Ages

First night in Copenhagen

2010-07-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm now in Denmark, the land of the Little Mermaid, Existentialism, and Bluetooth (An ancient King of Denmark was named "Bluetooth").
For me personally though, when I think of Copenhagen I think of Niels Bohr and his formulation of Quantum Mechanics. After a long nap, I went walking to explore the area near my hotel. Sure enough, I didn't walk more than 3 minutes before encountering a bust of Niels Bohr.

The weather is nice, warm enough to eat outdoors and most restaurants have outdoor seating. The restaurants are good, but expensive. A seafood linguini cost me 240 DKK (about $40).

After dinner I went to a Jazz festival; heard an amazing group called the "Portico Quartet". Not your typical jazz group, they were quite fresh and innovative. I might describe their style as "Jazzy Soundscapes", with extensive use of loopers and other special effects.

UK & Scandanavia Trip

2010-07-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

At O'Hare, on my way to Copenhagen! That's where I start my trip to some parts of Scandanavia, and the UK.

End Of The Journey: Reflections And Summary

2009-06-26T23:45:00.001-07:00

I'm back home now and I've had a chance to process and reflect upon my trip. I can now write this blog entry giving a summary of my trip and final thoughts. I wrote 55 blog entries for this trip (including this one), but those were only some of the highlights. It still doesn't cover the total range of experiences I've had.

This has been a truly epic journey for me, exactly four months long and the longest trip I've ever taken. It's definitely one of the best if not the best trip I've ever taken. In fact I run out of superlatives when trying to describe it to friends and find it difficult to convey just how great this trip really was. I saw so many new things, went to so many new places, met so many new people, made so many friends, and had so many great experiences that I will certainly never forget it, and I feel that my life has been so very much enriched because of it.

In some ways it was also a personal test, to see if I could handle being away from home for so long -- and I passed the test! Four months seemed like a long time to me, but then I met several others who were traveling for much longer periods of time: 6 months, 8 months, 1 year, even 2 years!

On any trip of this this length there are usually things that go wrong, such as losing important or valuable items, losing luggage, getting sick or injured, getting robbed or pick-pocketed, getting scammed, major delays in transportation, or having bad experiences with other people. But I was extremely lucky not to have any significant mishaps at all! I did have several close calls, but they all turned out OK in the end. I lost several items, but always recovered them. In Vietnam my camera fell out of my pocket in a jeep and I didn't notice it until I got back to the hotel and the jeep had left. Fortunately I was able to get a hold of them and get it back. In the same place my phone stopped working when I was caught in a heavy rain and it got wet. But the phone magically came back to life after a couple days. My camera broke in Thailand, but I found someone who was able to repair it (something unheard of in the US)! Twice I left my card in the ATM machine, but was able to recover it later each time. Parts of my suitcase broke a couple of times to the point of becoming unusable, but I was able get it repaired each time. Except for getting sick once near the beginning of my trip, I was in very good health for the remainder of the trip. In fact with all the activity I did, I was quite a bit more fit and in better physical shape than normal.

Here are some statistics regarding my trip:

I traveled well over 25,000 miles (greater than the circumference of the Earth) in total.
I touched 11 different countries, of which: 2 were merely in transit; 9 I spent a significant amount of time in; 7 were new countries I had never visited before.
I took over 2400 photos and videos, including about 200 underwater.
I made 38 hops (point-to-point transfers), of which: 20 were by plane; 9 by bus (including a sleeper bus); 6 by boat (of which 4 were ferry boats); 2 by train; and one by car
Besides the above modes of transportation, I also rode:
- tuk-tuks
- elephants
- motorbikes
- jetskis
- cable cars
- mountain bikes
- kayaks
- inner tubes
- ziplines
- swings
- bamboo rafts
- a skywheel
I ate the following: buffalo, crocodile, fried insects, ant larvae eggs, hundreds of hot Thai peppers
Visited at least a dozen islands
Met 3 friends from before: one in Chiang Mai, one in Langkawi, one in Fiji.

I started my journey with a quote from Science Fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin. I now end it with another quote, from architect Anthony Lawlor:

The pleasure of the soul appears to be found in the journey of discovery, the unfolding revelation of expanded insight and experience.

--Anthony Lawlor, "A Home for the Soul"

My Amazing Cambodian Sandals

2009-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

I did not bring a pair of sandals with me on this trip so I decided to buy a pair at the first opportunity, which was in Cambodia. They had normal sandals for about $2-$3 (after bargaining). I saw another pair of the sport sandal type that looked to be more durable and better quality, but much more expensive: $8. I decided to splurge and bought that pair. Now I have worn those sandals every single day ever since (the one exception being during my Mt. Kinabalu climb, when I wore my walking shoes). I have easily walked over a hundred miles in them, over asphalt, cement, dirt, sand, rocks, hills, valleys, all sorts of rough terrain, through rivers, lakes, streams, beaches, grassy plains, meadows, rainforests, caves, climbed trees, towers, and thousands of stone steps. They have taken quite a lot of abuse. I almost lost them several times, but always got them back. My trusty sandals served me admirably and lasted my entire four-month trip! They are well-used, but still in wearable condition today! I have never had a pair of sandals withstand that kind of use and last this long. Hooray for my amazing Cambodian sandals!

Kingdom of Tonga - Where Time Begins

2009-06-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

The marketing slogan for Tonga is "Where Time Begins". This refers to the fact that Tonga is the first country west of the International Date Line, so each day officially starts here ahead of the rest of the world.

For some reason I expected Tonga to be more primitive than Fiji, but it turned out to be the opposite. Tonga is more advanced and developed than Fiji. In fact the shower in my hotel room was the most technology advanced shower I had ever seen! It was electronically operated, with a control panel to control the lighting, radio, jets, and water temperature. Tongan culture is also more distinct and advanced than Fiji culture.

I arrived in Tonga on a Saturday night. This turned out to be the worst possible day of the week to arrive. Because the plane was delayed by two hours, it was too late to do anything that evening. No problem, I thought, I can schedule some activities the next day. However it turns out that the entire island completely shuts down on Sundays, and I mean completely. Of course all shops and businesses are closed. But also all transportation - airline flights, buses, even taxis are unavailable. Even the hotel was shut down, closing the restaurant and front desk and all hotel staff left the hotel, leaving the guests in their rooms but with everything else closed. So an entire day was wasted. They even turned off the wireless routers before leaving, so I couldn't even pass the time on the internet.

[Update: After walking all through town I finally did find one place that was open -- a pretty good Chinese restaurant, and had dim sum there]

[Update: A nice guy took me on a tour of the island (you can drive around the whole island in about 2-3 hours), so the day wasn't wasted after all!]

Giant Manta Rays!

2009-06-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

Swimming with a Whale Shark at Sail Rock was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Another highlight occurred today, while swimming with giant Manta rays! I had seen Stingrays before while swimming and scuba diving, but never a Manta ray, and I had no idea that they could get that big. The biggest Stingray I had seen before was about 4 ft. wide. The Manta rays I saw today were up to about 13-15 ft! And they have been known to grow up to 25 ft! My friend Patrick took the picture on the left. I took a video of the Manta rays with my new underwater camera!

Fiji - Yet Another Tropical Paradise

2009-06-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

When I started my trip I hadn't the remotest idea that I might end up in Fiji. The idea was planted in my head by my friend Pat, who was going to spend some time there after sailing from New Zealand. As I was winding down my tour of SE Asia, I decided it would be cool to meet up with him on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific. It also made logical sense, since it is sort of on the way home.

It was also harder than I thought to get to Fiji from where I was at the time (Borneo). But I'm really glad I decided to stop in Fiji.

Climbing Mt. Kinabalu

2009-05-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

On May 29 (1953), Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary conquered the summit of the mighty Mt. Everest. On May 29 (2009), I conquered the summit of the mighty Mt. Kinabalu! It was one of the toughest hikes I've ever done. Now Mt. Kinabalu is only 13,435 ft, less than half the height of Mt. Everest (29,029 ft). But that's still a respectable height, and it's the tallest mountain in all of SE Asia. Since I was touring all over SE Asia, what better way to cap and already epic journey? So I set my sights on conquering this magnificent peak.

The trail is relentless, with no flat or rolling sections, just steps all the way up! Every hiker is required to go with a guide. It's about 6 km to the base Laban Rata lodge at about 10,000 ft. -- doesn't sound like much, but it takes about 5-6 hours to get there due to the steepness of the climb and the altitude. There you eat dinner and take a nap til 2 AM, when you wake up to hike another 3-4 hours of even steeper rocks in pure darkness (you absolutely need a flashlight) to reach the summit by dawn. The last 100 meters is even steeper and you have to use the cables to pull yourself up.

Above 10,000 ft you really start to feel the altitude and the difficulty of breathing due to the thin air. My heart rate went up high and I'd go anaerobic every 100 meters or so and had to stop frequently. I honestly thought of stopping and turning around several times during the climb, but I just kept driving myself forward and upward, step by step. It was also freezing cold, and I did not have suitable clothing. The best I could do is layer 2 t-shirts together.

But it was totally worth it!! The sense of accomplishment, the spectacular views from the top, and the feeling of being on top of the world, all make it worth the Herculean effort.

It was definitely one of the (many) great highlights of my trip.

Hanging With The Sultan of Brunei

2009-05-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Just kidding! I didn't really hang out with the Sultan, though I did want to meet him. I found out that I could meet him and shake his hand, but only at the end of Ramadan when he opens his house to the public and holds a buffet for everyone one day a year. The rest of the time you can't even get near the Palace. I found Brunei a somewhat strange place, a tiny country in the middle of Borneo, surrounded by Malaysia (in between Sarawak and Sabah). It's an Islamic country so there is no alcohol allowed, even in the hotels, and no nightlife.

But Brunei does have a beautiful rainforest, with a great rainforest canopy walk.

Lounging Around In Langkawi

2009-05-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

I went to Langkawi, an island just off the west coast of Malaysia near the Thai border, mainly to meet up with my friend Derick. He kindly let me stay at his house, which made it very comfortable for me. Normally this place would be full of tourists, but this is low low season, so it's deserted.

I also went parasailing here.

Kuala Lumpur

2009-05-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day in Thailand. I stayed in Thailand for about two months total (although I entered Thailand 4 separate times!) but I finally left and moved to Malaysia. Though I had been to Malaysia earlier on the Star Clipper, I didn't see much and so decide to make a second pass.

My first stop was Kuala Lumpur (everybody here calls it KL), and my first stop in KL was the Petronas Twin Towers and took the free tour to the skybridge connecting the two towers. Kuala Lumpur is known for having the world's cheapest five-star hotels. I stayed at the top hotel in KL (Shangri-la) and it cost me about $150/night. Other five-star hotels were $100 or less.

I was amazed at the variety of food available in KL. Just about every Asian cuisine is represented there. KL also has a Chinatown section (Petaling Street), where you can get good Chinese noodles, and cheap goods. I got my feet massaged by fish here!

KL has two main transit systems: a monorail above ground and a light rail underground. There are also express trains and buses to and from the airport.

Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan!

2009-05-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

I did the infamous "Full Moon" party on Koh Phangan. It's a massive dance party on the beach, with lots of drinking, debauchery, and body paint. Perhaps it was cool at one time, but it's too over-hyped now. They also now have "Dark Moon" parties, and "Half Moon" parties; basically a party every week so there's nothing even special about it any more. Still, it was useful to check it out if only to check it off my list.

Beach Bungalow on Koh Samui

2009-05-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely luxury beach bungalow on Koh Samui. I've stayed in several beach bungalows on this trip, but this was definitely the nicest one.

I loved the outdoor shower.

Included a mini-fridge.

My living room.

The bathroom was nice, with separate room for tub and shower.

My own Spirit House, probably the nicest one I've ever seen!

Swimming With A Whale Shark -- Dreams Do Come True!

2009-05-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got my scuba certification last summer it's been a dream of mine to swim with (and photograph) a whale shark. I selected the whale shark for the photo on the back of my Advanced Open Water card. It even became a major goal for this trip. Well that goal was accomplished today!!

I did a dive at the "Sail Rock", a circular coral reef formation near Koh Tao (even though I started from Koh Samui). We were not in the water for five minutes when a huge whale shark came swimming by within about 20 feet of me. I was stunned at first, in awe and amazement at the sheer size of it. It's by far the biggest thing I've seen while diving. I estimate the length to be 5+ meters (you can get an idea of the scale by the divers in the background). In spite of its bulk, it glided through the water with silent grace and stately elegance. What a beautiful creature!

I snapped several photos, then jetted straight toward it (abandoning my buddy and dive group in violation of normal diving protocol!) until I was close enough to touch it. It then occurred to me that even a casual flick of its powerful tail could send me reeling, so I backed off a little but continued to follow it, taking several more photos. It obligingly turned towards me at one point so I got a good look at the head and mouth. It wasn't spooked at all and seemed totally at ease with the divers in the water. It's hard to describe the feelings I had at this point, but it's something I'll never forget.

Who says dreams don't come true??

Ao Nang, Krabi

2009-04-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

After Phuket I took a bus to Ao Nang beach in Krabi. This was quite a pleasant place, with more perfect beaches and good pubs and restaurants. Here I went on a longboat ride around some of the islands, and a kayaking trip to the "Garden of Eden". You kayak up a river and then into a low rock tunnel. It gets completely dark in the tunnel, so you have to kayak blindly for a while. Then, you emerge into a lush river lagoon with no other exit. We also kayaked to a cave containing petroglyphs from 2000 B.C.

I also went to the Cobra Show, involving several hissing Black Cobras, and the biggest King Cobra I'd ever seen! (bigger than the previous biggest one I'd seen in Penang)

Koh Phi Phi

2009-04-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Koh Phi Phi is another beautiful island with gorgeous sandy beaches and clear blue-green waters near Phuket. I took a day cruise out to that and neighboring islands. Visited Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Lei, Viking Cave, Monkey Beach.

Thai Cultural Program - A One Man Show

2009-04-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

I went to a One Man Show tonight. Not that there was only one performer; there were in fact a couple dozen performers. But there was only one person in the audience -- me! Let me explain. It was a Thai cultural music and dance program at the Phuket Cultural Center and Orchid Farm. This was some distance away from the part of the island I was staying at, so you had to take a motorbike or taxi. I had come here earlier on a Sunday, only to find that was the only day they *didn't* have a performance. So I came here again on another day (making sure it was not a Sunday). However when I arrived the place was again deserted and the theater was empty. Finally a woman came by and explained that they canceled that evening's show because there were no attendees! Bummer. This is the second time I made the trip all the way out here, only to be denied again. She must have seen the disappointed look on my sulking face, because I saw her make a few phone calls and after a few minutes she informed me that the show was on again. They would put on the whole show just for me, a one-man audience! One by one the performers came on stage and performed a traditional Thai music and dance number. I began to feel a little guilty that they had to perform just for me and hoped they weren't resentful, but I really appreciated the effort. The dancers are supposed to make eye contact with the audience members, but since there was only one person they all had to look at me! After each item, I applauded as loud as I could to make up for the lack of audience. In the end I have to say I really enjoyed my first one-man show!

Oh, and the orchids were pretty good too.

Fantasea

2009-04-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is not your typical dinner show, but a high production values extravaganza comparable to one of the big Las Vegas shows, featuring live animals (elephants, goats, even chickens!), aerial acrobats suspended from the ceiling, and stage magicians. There is a theme park built around it with the usual carnival games, rides, and vendor booths. They also had a huge and magnificent white tiger. I was so captivated by the beauty and raw power of this animal that I just stayed and watched it for more than half an hour. For some reason my camera flash always reflected in his right eye as orange light, and in his left eye as green light!

Butterfly Garden

2009-04-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Many places in Thailand and Malaysia have Butterfly Gardens which house hundreds of beautiful species of butterflies (often including rare ones) and provide an opportunity to see them up close. These are generally worthwhile to visit. I had missed a chance to see one earlier in Malaysia, so I went to one in Phuket. I actually wanted to go to the Cultural Show but it was closed, so I went here instead. I rented a motorbike and rode into town, to the Butterfly Farm.

Oh, Phuket (Revisited)

2009-04-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is my second time in Phuket. The first time we zipped right through from the airport to the clipper ship in the marina with no time to spare. So I came back here to do it right.

Phuket is a hotbed of decadence. If Pattaya is Sodom, then Phuket is Gomorrah. A friend described it as "too touristy and overrun by Eurotrash". This is certainly true, but there are still lots of good things about Phuket. For example, there are beautiful islands you can visit just off the coast of Phuket, such as Koh Phi Phi.

Phuket of course will always be remembered as one of the major sites hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. It sustained heavy damage and widespread flooding, but there aren't many signs of that now. It's been rebuilt so that the obvious signs of the tsunami are gone. But the legacy of the tsunami remains with the many "Tsunami Evacuation Route" signs all over town. And of course the memories of the tsunami linger in the minds of the locals here who lived through it. I talked to some of them. One of them described lots of gold jewelry floating in the streets, due to the tsunami hitting the jewelry shops and washing their inventory out.

Songkran -- The Mother Of All Water Battles

2009-04-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Songkran (derived from the Sanskrit word "sankranti") is the Thai New Year (by the Thai Lunar Calendar) Festival. It last 3 or 4 days and is the biggest festival in Thailand. Activities include a Miss Songkran beauty pageant, sand temple building contests, parades and processions from the temples. But by far the biggest activity is the water fights. Everyone throws water on everyone else. If you are outside during this time you will get wet. And I don't mean a little wet. I mean totally drenched. And this is totally expected. The only way to avoid getting soaked is to stay indoors for 3 days. I cut my trip to Vietnam short (only spent 2 weeks there) because I wanted to return to Thailand in time for Songkran. I did, and had so much fun!

Lessons learned from Songkran:

On the tuktuk ride from the airport to my hotel I got splashed with water 4 times. This is well below the national average.
Nothing, not a squirt gun, a supersoaker, or any other high tech water weapon can beat the good old fashioned bucket.
It's the only time when you can pour a bucket of water over someone's head, and they will smile and thank you
Ammo (water) can be enhanced by placing a huge block of ice in your supply barrel, or with food coloring
Keep essentials (money, cell phone) in a waterproof pouch; then you're good to go.

Notes On The Vietnamese Language

2009-04-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Vietnamese was the hardest for me to learn even a few words than any of the other SE Asian languages. There were also several other factors that made it even harder. One was the extreme difficulty in pronunciation. Vietnamese has many sounds that are utterly unpronounceable by the Occidental tongue. So learning a word from a phrase book is of no use, since you still don't know how to pronounce it properly. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that pronunciation changes markedly from city to city. Another difficulty was the fact that it bears no linguistic connection to the Thai or Lao languages, so I could not use my knowledge of those to gain any leverage. It does bear a distant connection to Chinese, but they long ago abandoned the Chinese system of writing, in favor of an incredibly retarded transliteration system devised by incompetent French linguists. In fact it took me more than a week to get over my anger at the French linguists before I could settle down and start learning some Vietnamese words. To date, no competent linguist has looked at the Vietnamese language and devised a better transliteration system (this is something I could do, but I don't have the time). This last item was by far the biggest barrier to learning Vietnamese.

Vietnamese has a number of unique features that I have not seen in any other language. One is the use of titles in place of personal pronouns in many cases. For example, to say "I love you" you would not use the pronouns "I" and "you", but replace them with titles. So you would say "Anh yeu em" (man speaking to woman). This means something like "Mister loves Miss". If she returns your affection she would say "Em yeu anh" ("Miss loves Mister").

Here are some more Vietnamese phrases I learned:

gam an	thank you
sin jao	hello
dam biet	goodbye
khong go zee	you're welcome
sin loy	sorry

Halong Bay - Natural Perfection Ruined

2009-04-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Halong Bay is a serene fantasy-like seascape of stunning limestone karsts and stone structures in bizarre unfamiliar shapes, jutting vertically out of the water, rising high above it and shrouded in dreamy misty fog. Unfortunately, the natural beauty is rapidly becoming spoiled by overtourism. The bay is crowded with hundreds of noisy tour boats and thousands of tourists, destroying the inherent peacefulness of the place. Never once during our cruise were we alone -- we were always surrounded by at least a dozen other boats in view. The promotional pictures and postcards always show a single junk boat with the Chinese-style sails in an otherwise empty bay. Such a picture would be impossible to take today, as it would always contain a plethora of boats within the frame. It turns out the Chinese-style junk boat sails are also fake. While beautiful, they are fake -- just for show. None of the boat actually uses the sails for propulsion; they have large diesel engines instead. The bay is also becoming extremely polluted, with all the boats dumping all their raw sewage right there in the marina. The signature shot of Halong bay is a pair of stone structures called "The Fighting Cocks", vaguely resembling two roosters facing each other. However we were not even able to approach it closely as there was a major boat traffic jam all around it (and even one boat collision).

In spite of this, it was still impressive and enjoyable. There is a massive cave, a little floating village (complete with a local bank branch), and a kayak-able sea tunnel. My cabin onboard was fairly luxurious -- better than many of the hotel rooms I had been staying in. All in all, it was a worthwhile trip. It's just a shame that such a beautiful natural wonder is being spoiled by over-exploitation.

Staying At The Hanoi Hilton

2009-04-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hanoi is a bit cooler than the other places I've been to in Vietnam. By "cooler" I mean under 80F, maybe as low as 75F. But under 80F is not considered "cool" by the Vietnamese; they consider it freezing. As soon as the temperature drops below 80F, they don thick sweaters and snow jackets.

They actually have a Hilton hotel in Hanoi, and I stayed there one night just for fun so that I could say "I stayed at the Hanoi Hilton (and escaped!)".

Gulliver in the Land of the Lilliputians

2009-04-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

All SE Asians are small but the tiniest of all are the Vietnamese, and you really notice it here. Probably because everything here is downsized for the Vietnamese body size (much more so than the other SE Asian countries): houses, doors, furniture, vehicles, utensils, everything. Shower heads are often at chest height. See the table and chairs in the photo on the left? The table is at knee height and the plastic chairs are the type we buy for small children. But it's not a children's playset. It's found in every restaurant and is perfectly sized for the Vietnamese adult. There are no decent bicycles anywhere in Vietnam. In fact there is only one type of bicycle here -- a girl's frame single-speed cruiser with a basket in front, like the old Schwinn bikes from the 1950s. Even with the seat raised to maximum height, my knees were hitting my chest. Even so, I must have been pedalling unbelievably fast by vietnamese standards, because I always drew amazed looks, and motorbike riders would turn around and marvel that I was going nearly as fast as them.

In general the whole country is appears to be constructed for an eight-year-old American child, which is the same size as a Vietnamese adult. I am not tall by any means -- just average height -- but I positively *tower* over everyone here. I now know what Gulliver must have felt like during part of his travels.

Maria's Birthday Party

2009-04-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

Maria turned 23 today (though here they call that 24), so Stefan and I took her out for her birthday. Stefan is a nice fellow from Sweden whom I befriended here in Mui Ne. Maria is a girl who works at Gecko, out favorite bar/restaurant in Mui Ne, owned by a Frenchman. Her real Vietnamese name is Thanh, but like a lot of young Vietnamese girls these days, she's adopted an English nickname. She mentioned yesterday that her birthday is today and that she really, really wanted a birthday cake. Stefan and I discussed it and we decided it would be fun for the three of us to go out and celebrate Maria's birthday.

There's not much in Mui Ne, so we hopped in a taxi to the next bigger town. First stop was the bakery, and Maria picked out the biggest cake they had. We had them write her name and age on the cake. By then it was lunch time. I love goat meat, so I picked the restaurant -- a place called Lao De (Goat Soup), and we ordered the Lao De and also BBQ goat. We went to an outdoor fair and took some birthday photos. Then we went to the mall to buy some small gifts for Maria. Stefan bought her a pair of earrings, and I bought her a book and a balloon and a photo frame. Finally we went to the Karaoke place. They give you a private room and your own karaoke machine. We alternated between singing Vietnamese and English songs, and ate some of the cake. All in all it was a fun day, and Maria was thrilled and very, very happy. Of course Stefan and I paid for everything. Maria makes about $68/month in her job. We probably spent about that much in total today, so she'd never be able to afford something like this on her own.

A Tale of Two Coconuts

2009-04-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

I arrived yesterday in Mui Ne, a nice beach town about 4 hours from Saigon. Today I hiked to the "Fairy Stream". The stream is only a few inches deep, so you can walk in the stream itself. The water is a deep red-brown, from the color of the soil, and intricately carved limestone structures. I didn't see any actual Fairies, but I felt sure they must live in these structures. There did seem to be something magical about the place.

Like many other places, there are kids nearby who run up to you and try to be your "guide" where no guide is necessary. They will walk with you for a while, and then expect to get paid for their "services". I usually dismiss them but this time I allowed a couple of kids (brother and sister) to "guide" me because they were cute and funny, and I played with them along the way.

As we were walking I heard a loud "THUD"! A coconut had just fallen a few feet to my right. I looked up -- there were coconut trees all around me, and there was a strong wind. If that coconut had fallen on my head it would surely be fatal. I recalled Newton's Laws and started to mentally calculate the speed of a falling coconut when I heard another "THUD" -- a coconut had just fallen a few feet to my left. I screamed and ran. My kid guides giggled and ran after me. We ran like that all the way to the "waterfall". I put that it quotes because it's really an abuse of the term to call it a "waterfall". It actually should be called "a little stream of water pouring over a few rocks".

When I returned back I paid my kid guides for their "services". I found they weren't that concerned with the amount, but the sister was adamant that she should not get less than her brother.

While the stream may have been fancifully named, I felt it was an enchanting experience nevertheless.

Vietnam: First Impressions

2009-03-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, and most people still call it that). My first experience was a cheap immigration scam. I already took care of getting a Vietnam visa beforehand, so I thought I was all set, but the Immigration Officer asked me for an additional form. Usually, if there are any forms to fill out the airline will give them to you in advance, but they gave none. He looked shocked that I didn't have the form as if this was something very unusual. So I said "No problem, where are the blank forms so I can fill it out now?". He said there are no blank forms anywhere(!). I just stared at him blankly for several seconds. Finally he pulls out a form and offers to fill it in for me, for a $5 bribe. A few minutes later I got into a taxi, for which I prepaid. As soon as got in the driver says, "Ok sir, you give me tip ok?". With these and many more incidents, I quickly realized that this town is full super-greedy money-grubbers, far more than any other Asian city I've been to (with the possible exception of some Indian cities). Everything is negotiable here just like every other Asian city, but you have to bargain much harder to get to a decent price. This becomes annoying after a while.

I just got a Vietnam SIM card (my 3rd SIM card) so that my phone works here. I noticed some special "Tourist Police" around town. This is only the second city I have seen to have that (the other is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Traffic here is insane. There is basically no traffic control (there are a few stop lights, but they are mostly ignored). Instead there is an organically developed system where everyone is playing a video game like Asteroids, where you simultaneously track multiple moving obstacles and try to steer a course which narrowly avoids them. As a pedestrian, if you want to cross the street you can't just wait for for a gap in the traffic (because there is no such thing as a "gap in traffic" here). Instead, you simply wait until you can move 2 ft into the street without being immediately run over. Then you establish a constant speed, and walk in a straight line. Then based on your speed and direction, the approaching scooters and cars will make a decision to zip by just behind, or just ahead of you. It all works out fine if you understand the system. If you stop or change direction suddenly, then you could be in real danger.

There are lots of "hug taxis" (motorbike taxis where you sit on the back of a scooter) around town. Most of these guys are complete idiots.

Most of the ex-pats here are Australian.

Save Your House -- Build a Spirit House!

2009-03-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Everywhere in Thailand, Cambodia, and Lao, people build "spirit houses" in front of their houses or place of business. The people in this region believe that normally, evil spirits will haunt your house and bring you bad luck. So the idea is that if you build a spirit house, then they will live there instead and leave your house alone. Spirit houses range from about the size of a mailbox, to about a Barbie Dream house. Some are quite elaborate. But it's not enough just to build a spirit house; you also have to feed the greedy spirits. So people will put out some rice and flowers in the spirit house every day. The spirits are happy, you're happy. Everybody wins.

Ventiane, Capital of Lao

2009-03-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

Ventiane (actually it's pronounced "Vieng Jen", but the French messed up everything as usual). I was very surprised by the size and development of Ventiane. Granted, it's the capital city of Lao but I was expecting something similar to the other two cities I visited in Lao -- Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng.
I could not have been farther from the mark. Ventiane has several high-rise condos and several five-star hotels. Just for fun, I walked into a luxury apartment building and inquired about the price -- and was totally shocked. The rent was almost comparable to rents in SF!!

The French influence is quite apparent here, in the architecture of many buildings, and there are several French bistros and restaurants. The bowling alley here is better than the one in Luang Prabang. There is a Chinese-Indian fusion restaurant here that is pretty good.

I spent about 4 days here.

The Water Cave

2009-03-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

The terrain around Vang Vieng is really beautiful -- when you can see it. Unfortunately the air quality in Lao is so poor because of the slash-and-burn farming that is done all over the country. It fills the entire sky with smoke and ash, and blocks out the Sun for months. It only clears up after a heavy rain. when it is clear, you can see that the area is surrounded by sheer limestone karsts that suddenly rise up vertically from the ground. Most of these limestone structures are riddled with caves. Today I went with Roland to the Water Cave, about 20km outside of town. We rented bikes again and rode there. Once along the way I received a nice ego boost when I stopped to ask a woman for directions (in Lao of course). She asked me how long I had been in Lao and was very surprised when I told her it was only about a week. She thought I must have been there about one year to learn that much Lao!

The Water Cave itself is pretty cool. It's filled with water rushing out from a large underground spring deep within the cave.
They give you an inner tube to float on the water and there are ropes to pull youself along to explore the cave. The cave went a lot deeper than I expected, and we never did really reach the end. Again, we were a bit late in returning the bikes but didn't get charged any late fee!

BTW, the best mojitos (main drink of Cuba) in Vang Vieng are found at Bamboo Bar (they also have a great vegetarian buffet). Everything at the bar is made from bamboo: the tables, benches, the bar itself, and it's surrounded by bamboo trees. The mojito is served in a bamboo mug with bamboo straws!

Spotting The Rare Cave Leopard

2009-03-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Today I went on another bike ride with Roland, Steffi, and Dan. We visited the Leopard Cave. There are tons of caves around here, and typically each one will have a handwritten sign with a paragraph of text hyping it. Not all the caves live up to their hype The Leopard cave did though. The caves are pitch dark once you get inside, and you need too bring your own lighting, or sometimes you can rent a flashlight. The cave was quite deep, with multiple narrow passageways. We were not even able to explore all of them, or be sure that we had reached an end. Along the way we saw a huge cave spider about the size of your hand, with reddish legs and a stark white body, and glowing white eyes! Following what seemed to be the main passageway, we eventually came to a massive rock formation descending from the ceiling of the cave. After staring at it in awe for a few moments, we all agreed that it resembled a leopard, running in full charge. This cave earned its name! Just outside the cave was a spring-fed pool with cool clear water that we all swam in -- so refreshing!

After that, I took them on another book distribution mission to a small remote village. We went to the school but the students had already left. So we left lessons for them on the blackboard :)

We then raced back to get to the bike rental place in time (we arrived about 20 minutes late but didn't get charged extra!).

The Strange Tubing Culture Of Vang Vieng

2009-03-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

Vang Vieng has become a huge party town. This in itself strange, because you don't expect to find an almost Ibiza-style or Cabo-style party hot spot in the middle of otherwise very rural Lao. There are several makeshift outdoor bars/dance clubs on the river island, which no doubt have to be rebuilt every year since the island gets submerged during high water season.

The key to the party culture in Vang Vieng though, is tubing. Tubing nominally refers to renting an inner tube and floating down the river on it. But you only float a few feet before coming to the first riverside bar. They toss you a line and pull you in. You hang out there and drink and dance for a while. Before you know it, an hour has already passed. Most of the riverside bars also have huge rope swings or ziplines, where you jump off platforms from dizzying heights (30-40 ft or so), swing high up in the air, and then let go and jump into the water. The more acrobatically inclined will try double backflips or elegant swan dives. I have to admit it is scary at first, but once you do it successfully, it is so thrilling and you get such rush of adrenaline that you get practically giddy, and you keep doing it over and over again. So, basically "tubing" here means floating a few feet to the next bar, drinking, dancing, swinging, jumping, and then floating a few more feet to the next bar. Many people get stuck and never get past the first few bars. Actually a tube is not even necessary at all. In fact only the first timers rent tubes. The party veterans know it's a waste of time and expense to rent a tube, because you can just as well swim from bar to bar. In many places the water is so shallow you can even walk. After "tubing" all day, you then return to town and prepare to go party at the island bars all night. All the bars are supposed to close as midnight, but one or two will always pay off the police to be allowed to stay open later, til 2 or 3 am. So, partying all day and partying all night -- this is the essence of the Vang Vieng party culture. The typical story is that people plan on spending maybe 2 days here, and end up staying about 10 days instead. This is what happened to me.

In town, there is only ONE ATM machine, and almost nothing but: restaurants/bars, guesthouses, travel agencies, and internet cafes. Most bars/restaurants have the pillow bench tables, where you can lounge around on pillows, even take a nap. The thing I found the strangest is that many restaurants have nothing but reruns of "Friends" playing nonstop on the TV (there is also one restaurant playing "Family Guy", and one playing "The Simpsons" nonstop). I avoided all these restaurants on principle.

Compared to Luang Prabang, prices in Vang Vieng are as follows:
-lodging and laundry are 1/2 X
-internet is 3X (but the speed is much better)
-other things are about the same or a little cheaper

Also, for some strange reason there is no ice cream anywhere in town although there was in Luang Prabang.

The Blue Lagoon, Revisited

2009-03-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Rented a bike and met up with Karl, Nick, Jules, Rosa, and Amanda. We rode to Poukham Cave and the Blue Lagoon, which was a cool refreshing swimming spot with rope swings you can jump off. If you just follow the signs that say "Blue Lagoon" you will end up in the wrong place because there are several (fake) spots called the "Blue Lagoon", but only if you follow the signs to "Poukham Cave" do you get to the real Blue Lagoon. The water is actually blue and clear because it is fed from a spring, not from the muddy river. After lunch I took Karl and Rosa with me on another book distribution mission. We rode to a rural Hmong village (Na Son). We went into the school which was nearing the end of the session. As soon as one kid saw us approaching all the kids immediately jumped to the doors and windows to get a peek at the strangers. They clearly don't get many visitors, and few tourists venture out this far. This was a primary school with kids aged from 5 to 11. The school building is fairly primitive with bamboo walls with many holes in them, and a few wooden benches and tables. Probably you could rebuild the entire school for $1000. I handed out pens and books, which again were received with great enthusiasm. The teachers had to stop teaching because we were creating too much of a distraction, but they didn't seem to mind us at all and seemed pleased with our gifts to the students. Rosa didn't bring books but she got the idea of making little origami animals for the kids, which were a big hit. We stopped by the village store to get some water and it turns out of the girls I had given a book to is the daughter of the store owner. Her name is "Mai Li". She came running home excitedly to tell her father about the "falang" (foreigners) who had given her a book.

"Khab Chai Lai Lai"

2009-03-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why it's spelled "Laos" in English, because the "s" is not pronounced at all. It's really "Lao" (rhymes with "now"). So I will say "Lao" from now on. BTW, I've been learning some Lao language so that I can talk to the local people at least a little bit. I can even read a little bit of the script! Here are a few phrases in Lao:

khab chai lai lai	thank you very much
sabaidee	hello/good morning/etc
jao seu nyang?	what is your name?
jao aanyu chaak pi?	how old are you?
nee aan dai baw?	can you read this?
mee maak phao sot baw?	do you have fresh coconut?
baw pen nyang	you're welcome/it's ok/never mind
ao iik neung bia	one more beer please
hawn lai	it's very hot
khoi hak jao	i love you

The Magic Power Of Books

2009-03-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

Today we (Wolle, Johanna, and I) went on a mountain biking/kayaking trip. We cycled on a winding bumpy dirt road along a river, through some rural areas, passed by the Elephant Mahout Training Center, ate lunch at a tiny hut cafe on the side of the river, and kayaked back home down the river.

Knowing we would be passing a few rural villages, I wanted to take some things to give to the village kids. Many people give out things like candy, but I wanted to do something more meaningful. So I bought a bunch of books for children -- mostly books for helping Lao children learn English or Arithmetic, but also some storybooks with pictures and coloring books for the younger children. Then, whenever we passed by a rural area I would give away the books. But I didn't just hand the books to them and leave. Usually I would stop and chat with the kids, sit down with them, read to them out of the books, point to pictures in the book and ask them to identify the object, etc. Lao kids are very respectful to strangers and almost all of them from the age where they can speak will yell out the greeting "Sabaidee!" (Good day!) as you pass by. (I'm not sure if they are specifically taught to do this, or if it's just part of their culture). But if you approach them directly they become very shy and apprehensive. Of course as you talk with them they become more at ease. But nothing makes them instantly lose all fear and become wide-eyed with excitement than when you pull out a book and show it to them. Immediately a big circle of kids forms around you as they rush in to get a glimpse. Now, these books cost maybe 50 cents to produce. But most of these kids come from families that don't own a single book. Most don't even go to school but even the ones that do only have blank workbooks. There are no textbooks; the teacher writes all the lessons on the blackboard. So a book is a real treat for them, and it shows in the excitement on their faces. The books also allow me to interact directly with the locals and experience the local culture more directly. These interactions were really among the highlights of my trip. I found them so rewarding and gratifying that I would later repeat this activity several more times. Every few days I would buy a bunch of books, rent a bike, ride to some remote village, and hand out the books.

Candy would give them about five minutes of pleasure, but books have the power to possibly change and improve their lives. And that's almost magic.

Two Caves And A Waterfall

2009-03-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world. But the seem to be having a surge of tourism recently, which should help them a great deal. Laos is actually a communist country (one of only 6 communist countries left in the world).
Today I did an all-day tour consisting of a boat ride to a couple of Buddhist caves in the side of a mountain, stopping at a rural village on the way. At this village I bought a nice black pajama pants with fancy colorful embroidery. They were sewing and weaving clothes with handmade looms. This became my "party pants" in Laos. I also tried a local fried flat bread that was slightly sweet -- it was delicious! I never saw this bread again at any other place, so maybe it was unique to this village!

Then we visited the Buddhist caves. These were nice and interesting. They are fairly old caves, being in use for hundreds of years. There is a high cave requiring a climb up many step and a low cave. This cute little girl tried very hard to sell me a "Wish" bird for a dollar. You make a wish or prayer and then release the tiny bird from the cage and let it fly away. I said no but she persisted. She put on her saddest face and said things like "my family is poor", "we have no money", "we have to go back to our Laos village". She was real good. So I told her I'd give her a dollar if she just posed for a picture, which she did. I showed her the picture and she beamed. Then I gave her 40 Thai Baht (a little more than a dollar) and her eyes lit up like she had just won the lottery. Completely gone was that sad face she had the whole time previously. When I passed by her again on the way back, she was still smiling and specially waved and said goodbye ("sabaidee") and thank you ("khab chai") to me.

In the afternoon we went to Kuang Si Waterfall, a very scenic and picturesque waterfall and good hiking and swimming opportunities.

On the way back we stopped at a very poor Hmong village.

Helping A Monk With His Homework

2009-03-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

I ran into Wolle again (he came on the speedboat with me) and along with Johanna from Austria, we visited the Phou Si Buddhist temple on top of the hill. This temple is fairly impressive and affords the best views of the city of Luang Prabang. They have multiple Buddha statues -- one for each day of the week. There is also a giant Buddha footprint in the rock. And there is a fortune telling Buddha too. I explained the procedure to Wolle and Johanna and they both got a fortune. The procedure is as follows:

1. put a donation in the box
2. pray 3 times - once for Buddha, once for yourself, once for the teachings of Buddha.
3. take the can filled with wooden sticks and shake it gently while tilting it.
after a while one of the sticks will fall out or stick out farther than the rest.
4. pick up that stick a look at the number written on it. then walk over to the fortune board and pick up the slip of paper with that number written on it.

However the fortunes are written in Laos so I told them to find a local to translate for them.

On the way back we stopped to chat with a couple of Monk Novices (student Monks). There are hundreds of Monks and Novices in Luang Prabang all wearing the bright orange robes. One of them was working on a homework assignment from school (the one on the left in the picture). The assignment was to write a short essay in English about some embarrassing incident that had happened in your life, and answer some questions about it. He clearly knew many English words but he was having trouble constructing grammatically correct sentences and understanding some of the questions. So I helped him write the essay and complete the assignment. In return he translated the fortunes for us, and everyone was happy!

"Same Same... But Different"

2009-03-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

A common phrase heard often around here is "same same". For example while riding in a tuktuk we got into a traffic jam. I asked the driver about it and he said "same same traffic everyday". An even funnier variant is "same same but different", which a local might say if you ask how another town compares with this one. This phrase has become so common it's found on many t-shirts.

Faaast Boat To Laos

2009-03-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

The pace of my travel has slowed considerably and I'm spending a longer time in each place, taking the time to thoroughly cover all there is to experience in each particular locale.

After about 10 days in Chiang Mai, I decided to take a longer side trip to Laos. It takes several days to reach Luang Prabang from Chiang Mai. It takes one day to get to Chiang Kong by bus, right at the border. Then spend an overnight there and then the next day get a Laos visa and hire a boat down the river to Luang Prabang. Most everyone takes the slow boat which takes 2 more days, but is more relaxing, you can walk around the boat, talk to each other, etc. I opted for the speed boat which takes only 6 hours, but is more of a thrill ride (during wet season the boat can make the trip in as little as 4 hours). When I say "speed boat" you might be thinking of a racing cigarette boat or high-powered super-yacht. Better think again. Someone described it as a surfboard with a car engine on it, which isn't far from the truth. The boat pilot has to be very familiar with the river to avoid hitting any of the rocks at high speed. I was glad I chose this option, but I wouldn't recommend it for those concerned with safety or comfort. In Chiang Kong I met several young mostly European backpackers. I made friends with several of them and would continually run into some of them and hang out together in subsequent travels Laos. I thought I was traveling for along time, but most of these people are traveling for much longer -- 4-8 months,or even years!

I left my big suitcase in Chiang Mai with my friend Mark and took only a small bag, which turned out to be perfectly adequate for traveling in Laos.

My Thai phone SIM card doesn't work here at all; I had to get a Laos SIM card.

Chilling in Chiang Mai

2009-03-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

A funny thing happened in Chiang Mai: I got comfortable -- perhaps too comfortable, because I ended up staying here a lot longer than I had planned. I rented an apartment for $10/day, and a motorbike for about $2.50/day. A meal can be had for $1-$3, and the food is so good! Fresh, healthy, and super spicy!

I did visit the Tiger Kingdom, a park where you can pet wild tigers!

I also did a two-day trekking into one of the Hill Tribe villages. This included an elephant ride, a bamboo raft ride, sleep overnight in a primitive hut, mingling with the Hill Tribe people, and a lot of trekking. For breakfast our guide made us omelet with ant larvae eggs!

Singapore Slingshot

2009-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Stayed overnight at the Rendezvous Hotel downtown. Took the Silkair flight the next day to Chiang Mai. Singapore has changed a lot since my last visit (it's a lot more developed).

Missing Malacca

2009-02-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

Malacca was our last stop in Malaysia. Unfortunately I completely missed this one because I got sick on this day (most likely due not being careful with the ship's water).

Tea Tasting at Sea

2009-02-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

I had picked up four varieties of fine chinese teas during my layover in Hong Kong, along with a little travel tea set. This came in handy today, since the whole day was spent at sea. I decided to hold a "tea tasting" seminar, where I let fellow passengers try each of the four varieties of tea, while giving a mini-lecture on the various types of tea. It was a big hit!

In Penang, For Heaven's Snakes

2009-02-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

Today we sailed away from the Thai coast and crossed over to Malaysia. We arrived at Penang, an island off Malaysia connected by bridge to the mainland. We got to spend the whole day in Penang. I blew off the regular tour group and did my own tour. I negotiated a taxi to take me around to all the points of interest in the city in the morning. Lunch at Eastern & Oriental Hotel. In the afternoon I opted to visit the Snake Temple. Janet wanted to tag along so I took her with me.

The Snake Temple was created in the 1800s by a Taoist Monk, who built this temple in the middle of a jungle. After he built the temple, a bunch of the snakes from the jungle (green pit vipers) came and took up residence in the temple. However the snakes did not bite anyone. To explain this fact, the locals imagined the snakes must be really deities and guardians of the temple. So the snakes were allowed to remain in the temple ever since. Now, there is no more jungle; the temple is in the middle of a city, surrounded by tourist shops. The snakes no longer freely roam the temple, but are carefully placed by hand every day on tree branches in the temple. In the back there is a "snake farm" where snakes are raised and exhibited. They had a really big python (9 meters in length) and a *huge* King Cobra!

Ko Adang

2009-02-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

Another beach day, this time at Ko Adang ("ko" means "island"). More waterskiiing and kayaking. We also had a BBQ lunch on the beach. I also did my second scuba dive (#31) at a shallow reef near Ko Adang. Here are some underwater pictures from the second dive.

Cruising The Phang Nga Bay

2009-02-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

Unlike the Similan islands, there are far too many islands to count. Phang Nga Bay is the scene of dreamlike fantasy seascapes: soaring limestone karsts, rising straight up from the water. At sea level, the water erodes away holes or caves in the rock. We anchored in the morning, and a parade of speedboats came zooming out from behind the rocks to meet us. These were our tender boats. They first took us to Ko Tapu, but everyone now calls it "James Bond Island", after the same movie "Man With The Golden Gun" was filmed here. You'll recognize the picture on the right which looks just like the beach scene in the movie.

Then we visited a Muslim fishing village (Ko Panyi) where the whole village is built on stilts, basically on piers. There is a fairly large elementary school, several restaurants and tourist shops. On the way there, we went through a sea tunnel through one of the limestone karst formations.

The Nine Islands

2009-02-22T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today we arrived at the Similan Islands ("similan" is the Malaysian word for "nine"). Landed at island #4, did a lovely hike to the top of the island where I got a fantastic panoramic view of the bay. Near the top the trail gets very steep and you have to use ropes.

Afterwards, I spent some free time on the beach doing water sports, such as waterskiing and kayaking.

In the afternoon, we did our first scuba dive of the trip (dive #30 since PADI certification last summer). I had my brand new underwater camera (the Sealife DC800) and was anxious to try it out. You can judge for yourself how well it worked. Here are a few underwater photos:

Clipper is a Star

2009-02-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

The beautiful old style clipper ship I'm sailing on, the Star Clipper, is a Luxembourg-flagged ship of the line, Belgian-built, and operated by a Swedish company. I was very pleased to discover that the wonderful sails, rigging, and vintage instruments are all fully functional and not fake. I was a little worried that the magnificent sails might be mostly for show, and the ship really gets around by motoring. Thankfully this is not the case; we were purely under wind power for most of the time we were moving. The top speed is 11 nauts under power, and 19.5 nauts under full sail. However this requires a very strong wind. Much of the time our speed under sail was about 5 nauts.

There are 8 power winches that can be used for any of the lines, but many times the crew hauls on the lines manually. The captain is a personable young Russian man, Captain Sergey. The Captain also teaches the Tai Chi classes every morning.

There are 102 passengers on board, and about 70 crew. This is nice, because this is significantly under full capacity. The interior is beautifully appointed in fine polished wood.

The Star Clipper is also the tallest tall ship in the world. It's part of a fleet of three clipper ships. The other two are the Star Flyer, and the Royal Clipper. The Royal Clipper holds the Guinness world record for largest total sail area: "It measures 133.8 meters in length with 5202 square meters of canvas on five masts with 42 sails reaching 60 meters and was launched in July 2000."

Here's a video of a 360 degree pan from the bowsprit.

Here are some photos of the ship:

Navigational Compass:

Power Winch:

One of the 4 Masts:

Piano Bar:

Tropical Bar:

Pool:

Deck:

Ship's Library:

Control Panel:

Bowsprit:

Oh, Phuket!

2009-02-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

Phuket seems like a pretty cool beach town that I would love to hang out for a few days. Unfortunately, the tour didn't allow for that. We boarded the ship immediately upon arrival. The ship is incredible! It's too dark for pictures of the exterior, but here are some pics of my luxurious cabin.

Man with the Golden Temple

2009-02-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

Back in Bangkok again for one more day. We visited the Palace Temple complex. It was impressive, but jam packed with tourists. It seems the Thai people never forgot that the James Bond movie "Man With The Golden Gun" was largely filmed here, and they never miss a chance to impress this fact on tourists. Here is one of the Thai longboats, now called "James Bond boats". These boats appear to be basically a long narrow boat with V6 engine on the back end, connected to a long shaft with a propeller on the end. When they crank up the engine and lower the propeller shaft into the water, it really gets moving! Also saw the humongous Reclining Buddha.

It Takes A (Floating) Village

2009-02-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

I blew off the rest of the tour group today and made my own tour.
Instead, I made my own tour. I hired a tuktuk (pronounced "took-took") to take me to lake Tonle Sap (literally means "freshwater lake" in Cambodian). Then I hired a boat to take me to the "Floating Village". When I got there a little Cambodian girl ran out to me with a camera, snapped a photo of me, and then ran away again. Hmmm.... I feel so exploited, haha!

Then I hired a river boat to take me around the lake to the "Floating Village". The Floating Village is an entire community of approximately 1200 floating houses.
There are floating schools, floating restaurants, floating basketball courts, floating markets... it's a veritable floating *world*!

They let me drive the boat all the way back (we switched back before reaching the floating Police Station, obviously).

Some videos here will be uploaded later when I get access to a fast connection (the ship internet is slow and expensive). Keep checking this blog entry for updates.

Lara Croft's Taproom

2009-02-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Visited the Ta Prohm temple today. If you say it fast it sounds like "taproom". Like Angkor Wat (see previous blog entry), it was sacked by Siamese invaders. Unlike Angkor Wat it was then abandoned, and the jungle was allowed to take over the temple. This gives it the classic "ancient ruined temple in the jungle" look, with tree roots intermingling with the stones of the temple, as seen in such movies as "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The movie "Tomb Raider" was actually filmed here and the depiction of the temple in the movie was quite accurate. The photo on the right is the tree Angelina Jolie fell off in the movie. She then discovered the treasure map at the bottom (supposedly, I didn't see the movie).

I bought a handmade wooden mouth harp here for $1, just to see if it works (it kind of did).
Spent the afternoon exploring the area around the Old Market and Pub Street in Siem Reap. Most dishes in restaurants are about $3. Draft beer (Angkor) is $0.50. I got a very good 1 hr massage for $5.

Anchor What?

2009-02-18T02:44:00.000-08:00

Left Bangkok to fly to Cambodia. Visited the fabled temple of Angkor Wat. I'm here for two more days. Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple built in the early 12th century. It was sacked and damaged by invaders a couple of times, and converted to a Buddhist temple in the 14th century.

The temple is quite impressive, in its scope, artistic skill, and architecture. It motivated me to try an ink drawing of it. Here's a pic of "Lan", a cute clothing vendor. I bought one Cambodian shirt from her.

At the hotel there was a lovely dance program during dinner. Here are some videos of these dances:

Bangkok Not So Dangerous

2009-02-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Just landed in Bangkok. My inflight movie was "Bangkok Dangerous", another dumb "killer with a conscience" movie with Nicolas Cage. But it did have some good scenes around Bangkok. I will see if I can recognize some of those places. We toured Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was the American entrepreneur who really brought the Thailand silk trade to the western world. He disappeared in 1967 in mysterious circumstances. Hot and humid here as expected. Had dinner at a lovely riverside Thai restaurant, complete with beautiful Thai dancing girls. Also, the special of the night was a Papaya Salad. Whenever anyone one ordered this dish, the waitresses would all come and do a song and dance around your table. This happened several times that night.

Hong Kong Fooey

2009-02-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

In transit in Hong Kong...

Our airports have food courts with fast food type of places. HKG has a Caviar & Prunier bar, with $200 caviar and $300 bottles of champagne. I had breakfast here. I had the Scottish salmon. Mmmmmm, so civilized :)

I met a Canadian guy here wearing a Borneo t-shirt. I asked him about it and he told me about Borneo. Now I'm thinking of adding it to my itinerary. See how easily things can change!?

"It is the journey that matters..."

2009-02-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

Thus reads the caption on the back of the t-shirt I'm wearing right now. It's a quote from a noted science fiction author[1] and it seemed an ideal sentiment to summarize my feelings as I get ready to start my Big Asia Tour, 2009.

This will be a very open-ended and spontaneous tour. Except for the first two weeks, I have neither schedule nor itinerary. I have only a general idea of the countries I wish to visit; the specific dates, places, and order of travel will be decided by me on a day to day basis.

The first of my trip will be sailing down the coast of Thailand and Malaysia on this old style clipper ship. Isn't she a beauty!? This will include short trips to Cambodia and Singapore as well. After that, I may visit the following countries: Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka. But as I said, this is all subject to change. On this trip I expect to do: sailing, swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, sightseeing, trekking, eating, drinking, partying, meeting old friends, making new friends, painting, drawing, writing, talking, laughing, and ... other things :)

I have my little travel laptop (cutest laptop in the world) with me, so I expect to be blogging on a daily basis, and you dear reader, are invited to follow me and share in my adventures! I invite your comments to these blog entries as well (but please don't use my real name -- just address me as "Panini").

[1] Here is the full quote:

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” –-Ursula K. LeGuin

The Last of the Kalinago

2008-07-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today I visited the Carib Territory, a 3700 acre Reserve which is where 3000 of last remaining Caribs in the world live, and learned about their history and culture. There are no gates or fences delineating the territory, nor is access restricted in any way. The territory consists of 8 small villages, and a lot of rainforest jungle.

Kalinago is their real name (although technically this refers only to the men; the women are called Kalifuna). Columbus named them "Caribs" after the Carib word karibna ("person"). I imagine an exchange something like this took place:

Columbus points at himself and says "Italiano". He then points at the Carib chief with a questioning look. The Carib chief then points at himself and says "I'm a person" ("karibna"). Columbus later writes in his journal: "Today I met the Caribs ...".

It turns out many of the European names for things in this region were based on similar misunderstandings. For 150 years it was believed the native name of the island was "Ceyre",
because when one of Columbus' crew pointed towards Dominica from a neighboring island and asked an Arawak woman the name, she replied "acaera" ("island").

The actual Carib name for the island is Wai'tukubuli, from which the name of the local beer Kubuli comes from. The name means "Tall is her body", referring to the islands mountainous nature. The Caribs were expert boat builders, which allowed them to populate and dominate most of the Caribbean islands for a thousand years. They originally came from South America, in the regions around Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, etc. The Arawaks on the other hand probably came originally from the Yucatan.

The pure Caribs (not of mixed descent) are markedly different in appearance from the other Dominica locals. They have attractive physical features, lighter skin, straight black hair, and beautiful eyes. They are extremely friendly and gentle in demeanor.

I visited the Kalinago Barana Autê, a model village and cultural center. Here is an ajoupa (lean-to structure for shade) with equipment to make cassava bread. I wanted to try some cassava but the bakery had run out of it by the time I got there :(
I met a really cute Carib girl there -- her Carib name was "Mishu".

Afterwards, I went down to Castle Bruce to the Islet View restaurant and bar (this was another recommendation from Andrew & Emmy). First of all it has a killer view of some small islets on the Atlantic side of the island. The food here is exceptionally good, in authentic West Indies Creole style. But what really sets this bar apart is Rudy's incredible collection of about 30 different flavors of infused rum. Infused with all kinds of things, like pumpkin, celery, guava, spinach, coffee... anything you can imagine. I tried the "Meze Maweee" flavor -- it was very good, but VERY strong!

Gorge-ous Waterfalls

2008-07-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Today I did some hiking and exploring of the interior rainforest in the central mountains of Dominica. The first stop was Titou Gorge. This was really cool. At the entrance to the gorge warm water from a hot spring streams down from the wall. Past the entrance however, the water turns cold. You keep swimming upstream into the gorge and you find yourself in an enclosed box canyon and it becomes dark. Keep swimming and you see some light streaming in from the far end, and hear the splashing of water. A little further yet, and you can see a neat little interior waterfall at the end. This waterfall creates the current that you are swimming against. The current is light at first, but increases exponentially in strength as you approach the waterfall. The goal/challenge is to reach the waterfall. I paused for a breath, then swam full speed toward the waterfall. As I reached a point a couple feet from the waterfall I was swimming as fast as I could but my progress stopped dead. I gave an extra final kick, reached up my hand, and touched a bit of the waterfall. The real challenge though, is to swim through the waterfall until you are past it and touch the wall behind it. I might have been able to do this but it probably would have taken several tries. Next time!

Next was the Freshwater lake, source of the waterfall in Titou Gorge, as well as Trafalgar Falls which would be my next stop. I hiked half way up the trail that goes around the lake and back.
I didn't get a chance to visit the Boiling Lake; that is at least a 4 hour hike itself.

Next was Trafalgar Falls, the most famous of Dominica's many waterfalls. This is actually a pair of falls. The one on the left is called the "Papa" falls and the one on the right is called the "Mama" falls. Remarkably, the two falls have totally different sources. The Mama falls is fed from the Freshwater Lake and pours cold water; the Papa falls is fed from a hot springs and pours hot water.

Next up were Bubbling Sulphur Springs, and the Dragon's Mouth.

Finally, a soak in the hot springs at Tia's Bamboo Cottages rounded out a wonderful day of exploration of Dominica's natural beauty!

A Whale Of A Tail!

2008-07-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads
A whale of a tale or two
'Bout the flappin' fish and the girls I've loved
On nights like this with the moon above
A whale of a tale and it's all true
I swear by my tattoo

-- Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea"

After my last dive, I went on a whale watching tour. Dominica is believed to be the only place with a resident pod of Sperm Whales. Sperm Whales are incredibly beautiful animals, gentle giants of the sea second in size only to the Blue Whale. They are incredibly deep divers, able to reach depths of up to 2 miles! (The maximum depth for humans with special scuba equipment is about 200 ft).

This pod currently has seven members, which are all named. Individuals are identified primarily by their tail flukes, since each one is unique. We sighted the first one fairly quickly, when we were just 1 mile from shore. We were not able to identify this one from the photos we had available.

Then we sighted a side-by-side pair. This time we were able to clearly identify them as "Quasimodo" and "Fingers". The whales typically surface for about 10 minutes to breathe and oxygenate their blood cells. Then they prepare to deep dive again. It is at this time that their tail rises out of the water and you get a couple of seconds to try to identify it from the tail fluke pattern. One whale dives first, then the second follows about 20 seconds later. See if you can figure out which is which by comparing the tails in the video to the photo above.

The star though, was clearly Scar who stole the show. Scar is an adolescent male born here to this pod in 2001. He was named for a large scar across his dorsal hump acquired as an infant due to a close tangle with a fast moving boat. But he is very familiar with this particular whale watching boat -- a 50' catamaran -- having seen it frequently since he was 1 month old. He has become a crowd favorite endearing himself to tourists and locals alike. It's said that he would come when called. He would come when you clapped your hands and yelled "Come to Papa!". However, Scar has not been seen since January. It was assumed that he left the pod to seek his fortune in the open ocean, as males of his age will often do. But to the great surprise of the locals, Scar made an re-entrance today!

We sighted Scar in the distance and pointed our boat in his direction. We didn't know it was Scar yet of course, but right away we could see there was something different about this whale. While the other whales were indifferent to our presence, Scar recognized our boat immediately (probably due to the characteristic sound of the motor) and swam straight towards us! We did not have to move at all, just sit and wait for him to come to us. He approached the boat very closely, then swam right under the boat from one side to the other! Then he circled our boat a couple of times, seemingly posing for pictures! Finally he showed us his tail, allowing us to positively confirm it was Scar by comparing it to previous pictures (Sinead is holding the previous Scar photo). We could see that Scar had acquired one new indentation on the right side of his tail that was not present in the last picture.

Seeing whales is always a joyful experience. But to have one approach so closely and bond with us for a few moments is truly special! About the only thing that would have been better is to be be in the water with the whales, with scuba equipment :)

Champagne -- The Toast Of The Caribbean

2008-07-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

I did 4 dives here in Dominica. The diving here is fantastic, some of the best diving in the Caribbean! The underwater topology here is unique, extremely varied and rich with sea life. I don't have any underwater pictures but I found this picture on a website.

The 1st dive was Scott's Head Bay (West Rim), in the crater of an extinct underwater volcano. Max depth 85', 51 min. Saw 2 Moray eels and a brown Sharp-tail eel (first time!). The 2nd dive was Champagne, probably the best dive and most famous dive site of Dominica. This is an underwater hot spring with thin ribbons of bubbles streaming up from numerous vents in the sea floor over a large area. The effect is really like you are swimming in a giant glass of champagne! The water gets suddenly very warm as you approach, and some of the vents are too hot to touch. On top of that, there is a wreck here of a ship from the early 1800s. Of course the wooden hull has long since rotted away, but a few artifacts are still visible, including a cannon and two links of a giant chain. I found this video of the Champagne area.

The 3rd dive was Carib's Leap/Sorcerer's Peak, so named for the sheer 200' cliff wall that rises straight out of the water. According to legend, unfaithful Carib wives were given a final farewell kiss on the top of the peak, then pushed off the edge into the sea. The peak was also the site where the Witch Doctors/Sorcerers would perform magic rituals. The sheer wall (rim of extinct volcano) continues underwater, covered densely with coral up to about 80'. The wall continues into the murky depths that seems to drop off into infinity (perhaps as much as 8000 ft!). Saw several sea turtles (Hawksbill). I was following one for a long while, close enough to touch. The next thing I knew, I was down to over 95'! I love turtles :) I was frequently surprised at how close the various sea creatures will allow you to get to them, as long as you are quiet and make no threatening moves (the situation is quite different when you have a speargun in your hand!).

The 4th and last dive was at Dangleben's Pinnacles/Coral Gardens. Another fantastic dive with two large sharply rising pinnacles. Saw several frogfish (first time). These are bizarre looking fish that look like alien creatures half way between a fish and a frog. The colors vary from orange to fluorescent lime green to bright yellow (they have the ability to alter their color to match the background).

That brings my total to 23 dives on this trip alone -- far more than I imagined I would do when I started! I never even used my brand new wetsuit I bought in Grand Cayman; the water temperature everywhere I went was 80-85 F and made a wetsuit unnecessary. The Caribbean is truly scuba diving heaven!

Dominica, the "Nature Island"

2008-07-01T16:31:00.001-07:00

Having left the Leeward Islands, I’m now in Dominica (pronounced dom-i-NEEK-a; not to be confused with Dominican Republic), the northernmost of the Windward Islands, sipping a rum punch(*). This is my final destination. I initially wanted to visit more of the southern Caribbean islands, but I realized I don’t have enough time to do them justice. So I fell back to my standard travel philosophy (visit fewer places, in greater depth; make multiple trips if necessary to cover all the places).

Note to self: Next time, allocate much more time!

Note to like-minded travellers: At least 3 months are required to do a full Caribbean tour of the type I originally envisioned.

There is one reasonably large and developed city on the island — Roseau (it’s a cruise ship stop after all!). The rest of the island is pretty much pristine lush rainforest (apparently parts of the island get up to 300 inches of rain a year, making it one of the wettest spots on Earth). This is also the only island where there are surviving Carib natives, who had dominated these islands, driving out and slaughtering the more peaceful Arawak and Taino tribes. Part of the island is designated as a Carib reservation. I plan to venture into Carib Territory in a couple of days. It’s said that if Columbus returned now to the Caribbean, Dominica much be the only island he would recognize, as it has changed the least. There are lots of rivers (365, one for every day of the year!), waterfalls, and canyons. Though there are no active volcanoes like on Montserrat, there are 9 potentially active volcanoes.

I’m staying at the Anchorage Hotel/Dive Center on a suggestion from Andrew in Montserrat. It’s a pretty decent dive operation. They have an actual Sperm Whale skeleton hanging next to the bar! The diving here is fantastic!! But I’ll talk more about that in my next blog entry…

* Yes, I’ve drank hundreds of rum punches already on this trip, but this is made in the Dominica style, which is a bit different from other islands. The local beer btw is Kubuli.

Antigua - Heart of the Caribbean?

2008-06-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Antigua is the largest, most developed, and most prosperous of the Leeward Islands. It is a fully independent nation, not a British Territory like Montserrat. It's quite a contrast to Montserrat which is very close, and everyone who was here in 1995 could see the Montserrat volcano eruption from here. It's comparable to the BVI and the Cayman Islands in level of development, or perhaps even more developed than those. It bills itself as a luxury Caribbean resort destination, specializing in weddings, honeymoons, and romantic getaways for couples. It calls itself the "Heart of the Caribbean", though that claim is suspect. I am just staying here one night (because it makes the connecting flights easier and -- I'll admit it -- to increase my country count; I only count a country if I've stayed at least overnight), so I just picked a place at random -- Cocos Hotel. It turned out to be probably the most upscale place on the island. It has individual oceanfront cottages built for 2 or more. They apparently never get singles, because they didn't know what to do with me. Finally, I managed to get a Deluxe Cottage for half the normal double occupancy rate! Most of the other guests are young European jet-setter couples from Italy, UK, and France. The shower is outdoors, on the back balcony facing the ocean. This is an all-inclusive type of resort, with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks included. The type of place people come to get really pampered.

I went kayaking (for exercise) and jet-skiing (for thrills) today. I used a brand new 2008 model jet ski. Jet skis have gotten really powerful! Of course I had to check out the top end -- it maxed out at about 86 kph, which is really flying on the water. I also mastered doing "water donuts". There's apparently good scuba diving here, but I didn't stay long enough to take advantage of that.

Update: My flight arrived here yesterday at 4:25 pm, and my flight leaves today at 4:10 pm -- less than 24 hours so I didn't have to pay the embarkation tax. Ha!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

2008-06-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

This is Arrow's "Manshop". You may not recognize the name, but you know him. He's the guy who wrote the ubiquitous "Hot! Hot! Hot!" song. He sells a strange combination of stuff in his shop: snacks, t-shirts, cds, luggage. I did three more dives (#17 - 19) with Scuba Montserrat (extremely cool people and I recommend them highly!), this time with Emmy as the divemaster and Andrew staying with the boat The first one was "drift diving" -- where we just allow ourselves to drift with the current, and the boat follows with us so it is right there when we surface. This way we don't have to expend any energy fighting the current, just enjoy the reefs. The second dive was the Bat Caves, which featured a cool underwater swim-thru between two caves. The female bats are all in the 1st cave and the male bats are all in the 2nd. We talked Charles (a local fisherman) into taking me scuba spearfishing for the last dive. I speared two fish on my first two tries! Charles made me look bad though -- he speared at least a dozen. Great fun! Now I'm going to see if Charles will cook it for me tonight. I was originally scheduled to leave here today, but I extended my stay another day because of the spearfishing opportunity, and because there is a big local music festival here tonight (an all-nighter type of thing).

I'm really enjoying the local specialty here, goat water, a thick goat soup spiced with cloves

A Modern Day Pompeii

2008-06-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

An eruption of the volcano here that started in 1995 completely destroyed the south side of the island, including the capital city of Plymouth, which is now completely buried in ash. In this sense it was similar to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii (though the Vesuvius eruption was far more forceful). Today I visited the MVO (Montserrat Volcano Observatory). You can also check the current activity report for the volcano on the MVO website. The first picture is the volcano on Montserrat. The actual glowing lava dome is not visible because it is obscured by the clouds. The second pic shows the steam vents shooting out from the Gages side of the mountain (this venting occured over a period of 2 hours and is mentioned in the activity report for this week). The volcano alert level is currently 4 (on a scale of 1 to 6; 6 means major eruption in progress). The area surrounding the volcano is lush tropical rainforest (in contrast the north side of the island is relatively arid). Yesterday I did another 2-tank dive. That makes 16 dives so far on this trip. Just me and the divemaster. We did a site called "Sea Studio", a reef near Rendezvous Bay and the bat caves (inhabited by fish-eating bats). We saw a GIANT lobster, possibly bigger than the one Qen and I saw under the Rhone Wreck. It's antennae were nearly 4' long! Also saw: peacock flounder, finger-cleaning fish, parrotfish, and many others. It was on this dive though, that I feel I achieved the "Zen" level of diving -- that is, a state of complete relaxation and underwater enlightenment. No fussing with the equipment or repeatedly checking gauges or worrying about how I'm breathing. Just a pure enjoyment of the scuba experience. I used up no more air than the divemaster (Andrew, Scuba Montserrat) who has been diving for 20 years and prided himself on his low air usage. After the dive Andrew took me around Montserrat (often abbreviated M'rat) for a mini afternoon beer crawl and hooked me up with some spearfishermen. I might get a chance to try spearfishing later!

Montserrat -- An Undiscovered Volcanic Gem

2008-06-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

When I walked into the Quiet Mon Irish pub yesterday in St. John I didn't know which island I would head to next. So I whipped out my trusty laptop (cutest laptop in the world), and about 4 beers later I decided to go to Montserrat. All the information I got indicated that it is a pretty unique place off the beaten path with very few tourists, and it had an active volcano! (How many islands have you been to with an active volcano?? Ok, not counting Hawaii). Anyway, these are the types of place that appeal to me and it sounded pretty cool. Getting there is not trivial either; it was an adventure and that was part of the attraction too. It took a 6-hop journey: St. John -> West End Tortola (ferry) -> Beef Island (taxi) -> St. Maarten -> St. Kitt -> Antigua -> Montserrat. The first thing that impressed me was the immigration officials. They were actually friendly and said "Welcome to Montserrat!", as opposed to the stern, official businesslike demeanor that is nearly universal around the world. Second thing was my hotel. I could say it's the best hotel in Montserrat but that wouldn't be saying much. It's the only hotel in Montserrat! Still, it's quite elegant. My back balcony opens up to southern views toward the volcano and Katy Hill. My front balcony yields panoramic views of the entire northern coastline. The room even has a kitchenette. It's the best hotel I've stayed at so far on this trip! And it's definitely off the beaten path. I'm told there might be a couple other tourists on the island, but I haven't seen them. Everyone I meet here asks how/why I decided to come here, of all places. I don't really have a good answer for them. I just say something about this place struck me as unique and special, and I decided to check it out for myself.

Although it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to come here, it's clear to me that I made the right decision.

Above and Beyond

2008-06-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

While travelling you necessarily interact with numerous service people: flight reservation agents, bus/taxi drivers, hotel workers, vendors, and an assortment of government agents. They span the entire range of attitudes from polite to indifferent to downright rude. Some will even try to rip you off. Very occasionally though, you encounter someone who is beyond merely polite and goes far out of their way to be helpful, without any promise of personal gain. They do it simply because of their sense of humanity and the goodness of their heart. I encountered such a person today.

I had to catch a 12:15 pm flight from Tortola which meant I had to take the 8:30 am ferry from St. John to Tortola’s West End. All well and good, but when I arrived at the ferry office (Inter-Island Ferry Services) the woman there informed me that the ferry boat had broken down and there was no ferry service that day. To emphasize this fact, she pointed out the disassembled engine parts laying out on the deck of the ferry. This was bad news. If I missed the flight it would mean spending another night in Tortola, buying a new plane ticket, changing my hotel reservations at the next island, etc. Now, she was certainly not responsible for the breakdown and there was no alternate ferry she could refer me to. So she was really under no obligation to help me further, and in most cases it would have ended there. But she must have seen the stunned look on my face because she asked me if I had to catch a flight on Tortola. I said yes and asked her what other options I had for getting across.

She then started working on other options. First she called the captain of another ferry already underway from St. Thomas if he could make an unscheduled stop in St. John to pick me up. He said he would try and see if it was possible. Ten minutes later he called back and said it wouldn’t be possible. She then checked the schedules for all the other ferries to see if there was some indirect multi-hop route that could get me to Tortola, such as going to St. Thomas first and catching another ferry from there. There were such routes available, but none that would get me there in time to make my flight. At this point I had almost lost hope. I was ready to walk over to the docks, waving $100 cash in my hand and ask anyone with a boat if they would take me across. This sort of thing works in many cases but it was unlikely to work here because it involves an international border crossing, and there is a requirement to go through customs, fill out an official manifest, etc. But the woman had not given up yet. She apparently had access to a small fast power boat. But there was some question about who had the keys for it. More phone calls to find out who had the key, where that person was, to send another person to track down that person, fetch the keys from him, and then go and retrieve the boat and bring it over here. By this time a few more people showed up, but she was clearly willing to do all this for me alone. She then got in and drove the boat herself singlehandedly (charging us only the standard fare). There was no one else around to help her. When we reached the other side she had to jump out of the boat and tie up on the dock herself.

I was so impressed with her helpfulness and thankful that I made it in time for my flight that I walked over to thank her specially. I handed her a $20 bill and asked her to please accept it with my utmost gratitude — but she steadfastly refused to take it! I told her that she deserved it for all the extra help and tried again to offer it to her but she still wouldn’t take it. She only smiled at me and said “Buy yourself a couple of drinks and enjoy the rest of your trip!”. So I did

For service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, I am awarding this lady the Panini Service Medal of Honor:

(Mis)Adventures at Coral Bay

2008-06-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

[Anyone reading this blog?? If so please add a comment so that I know someone is actually reading what I write. I fixed it so that you don't have to sign in to a gmail account anymore to leave a comment]

Two incredible things happened today. An incredibly stupid thing, and an incredibly miraculous thing. And they exactly canceled each other out!

I made a journey to the far side of the island — Coral Bay — to visit the Skinny Legs bar, a bar well known for its international patronage boating in from all over. The bus ride cost me all of $1 to travel the entire length of the island.

I got off the bus, walked into Skinny Legs and ordered a beer (since where ever I go I drink the local beer, I’ve been drinking nothing but Virgin Islands Summer Ale on St. John). When I reached for my wallet I discovered to my horror that it was gone! I knew it must have fallen out of my pocket while sitting on the bus. That was the stupid thing. As a seasoned traveler I normally protect my wallet very carefully and have never had it lost or pickpocketed — until now. I also know the odds of recovering a lost wallet in foreign lands is very close to zero. This was a disaster of trip-ending proportions! The only saving grace is that I knew exactly where I had lost it.

I sprinted outside to try to catch the bus coming back from the left fork turnaround, but it had already passed by. The bus then continues down the right fork before turning around again to return to the main fork. I then ran back to the fork to catch it on the return trip. Minutes seemed like agonizing hours. Finally the bus returned and I frantically scrambled onboard and ran to the back of the bus where I had been sitting before. And miracle of miracles, there was my wallet sitting right on my seat!!

That’s two miracles so far on this trip(*). I believe a third one qualifies me for sainthood.

* Previous miracle described in this blog post.

St. John Got My Goat!

2008-06-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today I took the ferry over to St. John in the US Virgin Islands. They are in the middle of their month-long summer Carnaval festival. Too bad I won't be here for the final days in July! I arrived just in time to catch the Coronation of Miss St. John and the inauguration of the Food Fair. There were lots of food and crafts booths. I found one booth that had Mutton Kallaloo.

Linguistic note: they use "mutton" here to refer to goat, whereas we use it to mean sheep. Kallaloo is a type of stew.

That booth was run by Miss St. John's aunt. She proudly wore a t-shirt supporting her niece. The mutton kallalloo was fantastic! It had chunks of goat meat and conch, with spinach and some other veggies, and spices. Yum!! I had been wanting to try goat meat since I arrive in the islands but it was surprisingly hard to come by. None of the tourist restaurants have it. You have to go to a very local West Indies restaurant to find it. But I finally got my goat!

And then a miracle occurred...

2008-06-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

I was wondering what to do about my destroyed camera (see my
previous blog post). Buy a cheap replacement camera? Switch to disposables? I had little hope of finding one here as good as the one I had. But wandering around Roadtown I found they had one electronics store, and that store had one model of a good digital camera very similar to the one I had (and uses the same memory cards). Good news! So I got that and now I can continue to blog with pics. But this is not the end of the story. Something truly miraculous happened. Remember that my memory card was rendered unreadable since it was in the camera at the time it went for a swim? I tried to extract the information off the chip at least a dozen times in different ways, and almost threw the chip away in frustration. But I didn't, and I happened to try it once again today and this time it worked!! This means I lost no pictures at all. Hooray!!

Linguistic Note: Here people say "Good night" as a greeting, whereas we say "Good morning/afternoon/evening" as a greeting, but use "good night" only as a good bye.

Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow or, The Roadtown Blues

2008-06-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Note: This entry is mostly copied from the one I wrote for the Captain's blog at:

http://www.wingandwing.net/wordpress

The only downside of such a fantabulous(sic) trip like this one is that it must eventually come to an end. The mood amongst the crew was somber and subdued, knowing that our 11–day BVI non-stop sailing/partying adventure would end today. But is it really accurate to say the trip has definitively ended if it continues to live strongly in our memories when we relate our various adventures to friends and family, when we review the photos from our trip — each one sparking a distinct memory of experience, when years later someone asks where we got a certain souvenir or memento? In any case the crew split up today to go our separate ways. Moss Landing(*) went with Sadsack Rita and Dive Goddess back to Cane Garden Bay. Captain Cupcake, Twirly Wonder, Guava Bean, and Goat Boy boarded the ferry to Virgin Gorda — leaving me all alone in Roadtown, wandering around a bit dazed and already missing my fellow crew. Although Roadtown is the largest city and the capital of the BVI, it still lacks one thing common to almost every city — traffic lights. That anomaly is about to be corrected, apparently. I found this sign amusing as it seemed to be positively boasting about getting a new traffic light!

My trip continues solo for a another 2 weeks. Tomorrow I plan to visit St. John in the USVI, and then on to other Caribbean islands yet to be determined. My schedule is open and I will play it by ear.

(*) We each had (multiple) nicknames imposed by the rest of the crew. The crew itself had nickname, of which I can only give the acronym: FPCC

Bubbly bliss, Sudden Squall, and Pusser's Disneyland

2008-06-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this blog entry (see previous entry for reason). We headed out from White Bay to Diamond Bay for Foxy's Taboo and the bubbly pool. The bubbly pool is a small shallow ocean-fed pool protected from the sea by large rocks. It's supposed to be filled with bubbles from the frothy waves that make it over the rocks into the pool. But we were at low tide so there were no bubbles -- until it started to rain. Each raindrop hitting the surface of the pool rebounded causing a 3" fountain and a bubble. This was quite a cool effect and we lingered in the warm pool for some time even after it started raining.

Suddenly, the rain increased in intensity and the wind powered up to 37 mph. A fairly intense tropical storm came upon us and the Captain made a decision to leave the area ASAP. The place where we anchored was not the ideal place to ride out a storm if it became more severe. The seas turned very choppy, and the dingy caught some air on the rocky ride back to the boat. When I returned to the boat I immediately pulled up the satellite pics on my laptop to see what was going on. There was a fairly strong tropical storm system, but it was a very small and localized, and luckily it passed by quickly. But there were a few moments of anxiousness there.

We then continued on to Soper's hole at West End. Did some souvenir shopping and had more drinks at Pusser's Landing. As soon as we arrived, there was a song playing about the Painkiller drink. There was a drink on the menu called "Jamaican Me Crazy" and I mentioned this to one of my friends and just then a song called "Jamaican Me Crazy" came on. After that, a song about drinking Pusser's rum came on. Someone mentioned that this place was like a Disneyland for rum drinks. And that's really what this felt like.

The guy sitting next to me in the bar asked if I was the same guy in the pirate costume the other day at Bomba's Shack!

Soggy Dollar = Good, Soggy Camera = Bad

2008-06-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

Did another 2-tank scuba dive with Drew, Liz, and Qen on the Wreck of the Rhone. It's interesting enough that it's worth doing twice. During the first dive I must confess I was focussed on the technicals of diving, the state of my equipment, how I was breathing, etc. The 2nd time, I was completed relaxed and able to enjoy and appreciate the wreck itself 100%. The visibility was also much better than the first. I saw the big 300 lb grouper who lives in the wreck. Also saw a GIANT lobster -- the biggest I've ever seen -- hiding underneath the wreck. The divemaster was Abby from Blue Water Divers. They came to our boat to pick us up, and dropped us back at the boat. That's one of the coolest things about this place; the whole culture and economy is structured about boating. There is a supply boat called Deliverance that goes from boat to boat and sells you ice, rum, food, and even hauls away your trash. Other vendors come by in rafts to sell crafts and other goods.

After the dive, we returned to Cane Garden Bay for more drinks (what else?). I met famed local musician Quito Rymer at his restaurant Quito's, and bought one of his CDs. Liz managed to swim back to the boat holding a full glass of painkiller without spilling a drop. Now that's talent!

We then set sail for Jost Van Dyke, and the Soggy Dollar Bar. It gets its name from the fact that there is no dock, and so you pretty much have to swim to shore -- resulting in patrons paying for drinks with wet dollar bills. This is also where the famous "Painkiller" drinks were invented. So that's exactly what I did -- swam to shore to the Soggy Dollar bar. That's when tragedy struck. I had been carrying my camera and cash around in a waterproof container. It works great, provided you make sure the container is closed properly. This time it wasn't, and I opened it to find my camera and money swimming in salt water! Regular water is very bad for electronics, but salt water instantly destroys it. It also rendered the memory card completely unreadable, so I lost about 2 days worth of pictures :(

Dinner was at Corsair's (Foxy's was too busy), which turned out to be quite good. I had the lobster at $35/lb (my lobster was 2 lbs). But what is with the music here?? I have been frequently surprised and dismayed at the music played here at the various bars and restaurants. It's sappy duets like Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton "Islands in the Stream", some lame pop or country songs, or other easy listening garbage. In Blackbeard's name, why? With so much good music around, like reggae or other island music genres and good local musicians, why play this crap? We asked the owner Vinnie if he could put on some better music and he said he would. I was pleased when I heard some reggae beats come over the audio system, but my happiness turned to horror when I realized what was playing was just reggae-ized covers of crappy pop songs. It was like Elevator Reggae music!

Lunatics Out In Full Force At Full Moon Party

2008-06-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Caught another barracuda! And it was even bigger than the previous one. We threw this one back too. Hmm, I seem to be catching nothing but barracuda. Maybe it's time to switch lures. No matter, tonight is the night of the Full Moon Party at Bomba's Shack. These parties are legendary, as is Bomba himself. I dressed up in full pirate outfit, with flashing pirate earrings (one of the funniest things was for several days after the party I would continue to run into people who would come up to me and ask if I was the guy in the pirate outfit at the Bomba Shack party!). Here is a video of Darcie spinning glowsticks at the party.

Diving in the Aquarium

2008-06-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

Caught my 2nd Barracuda. This one was over 20 lbs, I swear! I had obtained an official fishing license which allowed me to do unlimited fishing for 1 month. I purchashed some fishing line (100 lb test), lures, and hooks and we let out about 90' of line to troll behind the boat. I did a scuba dive in the afternoon at a dive site called the "Aquarium", so called beause of the huge variety of colorful tropical fish, it's almost like diving in an aquarium!

Pirate Invasion!

2008-06-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

We left Pirate’s Bight temporarily to do scuba diving. I dove the Indians (large pinnacles that protrude from the surface) with Cupcake and Rita. We returned to the Bight to prepare for our boarding and invasion of the floating boat bar, the Willie T’s. We all dressed up in pirate gear, and rigged a Jolly Roger flag on Qen’s lobster snare. To get us in the right mood, Twirly performed the open passage of Treasure Island. Then we boarded the dinghy and set out for the Willie T’s. As we approached we yelled out nasty threats such as “Arrrrrrghh!” and “Prepare to be boarded, ye scallywags!”, much to the amusement of the other patrons. The captain brought along a flask full of the 15 yr aged Pusser’s rum (definitely the smoothest, best rum I ever tasted. 2^nd best rum is Mount Gay Rum from Barbados), which we all swigged. Took lots of pics on the upper deck, then came back down and started a Limbo line, which got the rest of the patrons excited and they started participating too. By the time we left we were the life of the party and most patrons seemed thankful for our takeover. Including the owner/manager who begged us to return again on Friday when a TV crew was coming to film a special on unusual bars around the world.

Norman Treasure

2008-06-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

We arrived today at Norman Island, the basis of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island. “Spyglass Hill” is clearly visible as our boat approaches the Pirate’s Bight mooring. There is fantastic snorkeling at the nearby Pirate Caves. Lots of the brightly colored Parrotfish. Underwater you can actually hear the scraping noise of the Parrotfish chewing the coral. This chewing creates the fine white sand you see on the beaches around here. There are 2 bars here. One beach bar, and a floating boat bar. Today we went to the beach bar (we have bigger plans for the boat bar). When we reached dock, we saw an amazing sight. Some large tarpon fish (at least 3’ long) and sharks (at least 4’ long) had herded a large school of a smaller fish into a very tight group right up against the dock. This group was so dense at first it looked like just the rocky bottom, but when you looked closely you could see the individual fish moving within it. It was basically a carpet of fish, about 3’ thick and 30’ across!

The beach bar had giant versions of popular games, such as Jenga (played with two-by-fours) and Connect 4. We had rum punches with homemade rum that the bartender had made himself. We left the bar with the Jenga game booby-trapped in an extremely precarious state, where the slightest nudge would send the entire tower crashing down.

Cooper's Island

2008-06-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Home of the world's best conch fritters!

!!!Seriously entertaining!!!

2008-06-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

Can't resist the Key Lime pie.

Lots and lots of rum drinks.

Franklin gave the Captain's meal free and let us take a picture behind the bar.

IXAT

2008-06-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

spells TAXI backwards. This is the taxi we took to go to dinner at the Rock Cafe, a restaurant nestled between actual granite boulders in the Baths of Virgin Gorda.

2008-06-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Some of my fellow crew mates. Here is a video of our first sail!

Bomba's Shack

2008-06-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

A raunchy irreverent bar that is literally a shack. They are famous for their wild Full Moon parties (yes, we are going to that!).

Tortola - Nanny Cay

2008-06-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Our boat, "Kristina". She's a humongous 57' catamaran, with *seven* bathrooms, 8 cabins, and WiFi internet!

Full boat specs

I find I have a hard time thinking of it as a sailboat; to me, it's more like a cruise ship, or a floating condo!

I now start Part 2 of my trip -- where I join up with 7 other friends to sail around the BVI!

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Tortola - Sugarmill Hotel

2008-06-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

The view from the Sugarmill Hotel.

Tortola, BVI

2008-06-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Aerial shot of Nanny Cay Marina. Our boat is actually visible on the dock. Here is a 90 sec video of the landing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2BGkb6YlQg

Tortola - Nanny Cay

2008-06-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

The dive boat that took us to the Rhone Wreck dive.

Condado

2008-06-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

The shore behind the Normandie Hotel, where I did a scuba dive.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

A huge banyan tree right in front of Cafe La Princesa, an excellent open-air restaurant.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

A cool sculpture.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Castillo Morro.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Castillo Morro.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Another way to cool off.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

All the buildings are colorfully painted.
I bought real Panama hat here, high quality, hand woven.

Old San Juan

2008-06-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Estatua de Colon.

San Juan at night

2008-06-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

San Juan

2008-06-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

The rooftop of "WET" bar.

El Yunque - La Mana Falls

2008-06-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

So refreshing to take a dip in the cool waterfall after a long sweaty hike!

El Yunque

2008-06-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Fractal design of nature.

El Yunque - Top

2008-06-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

Used to be a guard tower

El Yunque

2008-06-07T11:16:00.001-07:00

View from the top

The Secret of the Ages

First night in Copenhagen

UK & Scandanavia Trip

End Of The Journey: Reflections And Summary

My Amazing Cambodian Sandals

Kingdom of Tonga - Where Time Begins

Giant Manta Rays!

Fiji - Yet Another Tropical Paradise

Climbing Mt. Kinabalu

Hanging With The Sultan of Brunei

Lounging Around In Langkawi

Kuala Lumpur

Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan!

Beach Bungalow on Koh Samui

Swimming With A Whale Shark -- Dreams *Do* Come True!

Ao Nang, Krabi

Koh Phi Phi

Thai Cultural Program - A One Man Show

Fantasea

Butterfly Garden

Oh, Phuket (Revisited)

Songkran -- The Mother Of All Water Battles

Notes On The Vietnamese Language

Halong Bay - Natural Perfection Ruined

Staying At The Hanoi Hilton

Gulliver in the Land of the Lilliputians

Maria's Birthday Party

A Tale of Two Coconuts

Vietnam: First Impressions

Save Your House -- Build a Spirit House!

Ventiane, Capital of Lao

The Water Cave

Spotting The Rare Cave Leopard

The Strange Tubing Culture Of Vang Vieng

The Blue Lagoon, Revisited

"Khab Chai Lai Lai"

The Magic Power Of Books

Two Caves And A Waterfall

Helping A Monk With His Homework

"Same Same... But Different"

Faaast Boat To Laos

Chilling in Chiang Mai

Singapore Slingshot

Missing Malacca

Tea Tasting at Sea

In Penang, For Heaven's Snakes

Ko Adang

Cruising The Phang Nga Bay

The Nine Islands

Clipper is a Star

Oh, Phuket!

Man with the Golden Temple

It Takes A (Floating) Village

Lara Croft's Taproom

Anchor What?

Bangkok Not So Dangerous

Hong Kong Fooey

"It is the journey that matters..."

The Last of the Kalinago

Gorge-ous Waterfalls

A Whale Of A Tail!

Champagne -- The Toast Of The Caribbean

Dominica, the "Nature Island"

Antigua - Heart of the Caribbean?

Hot! Hot! Hot!

A Modern Day Pompeii

Montserrat -- An Undiscovered Volcanic Gem

Above and Beyond

(Mis)Adventures at Coral Bay

St. John Got My Goat!

And then a miracle occurred...

Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow or, The Roadtown Blues

Bubbly bliss, Sudden Squall, and Pusser's Disneyland

Soggy Dollar = Good, Soggy Camera = Bad

Lunatics Out In Full Force At Full Moon Party

Diving in the Aquarium

Pirate Invasion!

Norman Treasure

Cooper's Island

!!!Seriously entertaining!!!

Swimming With A Whale Shark -- Dreams Do Come True!