Lara Croft's Taproom

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?

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:

• Coconut Dance
  
• Cardamom Harvest Dance
  
• Golden Mermaid Dance
  

Bangkok Not So Dangerous

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

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..."

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

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

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!

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

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"

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.