After some much needed R&R at the Mayfair Hotel in Sandakan, it was time to head off for our next adventure in Semporna. Semporna isn't much of a city, but what's special about it is that off it's shoreline, lies one of the most beautiful dive sites in the world called Sipadan. Sipadan is an island that is heavily protected and only 120 people are allowed to dive a day.
To warm up for our dive to Sipadan, we signed up for for diving on one of the other islands with a company called Scuba Junkie. Scuba Junkie was in our guidebooks and was one of the only dive shops that showed up on google for the area. They had reasonable prices and the dive site sounded pretty sweet too.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our dive at Mataking Island which is about 1.5 hours away. Before we even got to dive we were having equipment difficulties. Joeys regulator (for those of you non divers: breathing apparatus) was not working very well because the air gauge needle kept on bobbing up and down everytime he took a breath, which means it's broken. Mine seemed fine on the boat but half way through our dive, mine started to do the exact same thing. Luckily it didn't cause any complications. A problem like this isn't necessarily catastrophic, but with diving it is always best to be on the side of caution.
Our first dive was pretty cool. More so of a drift dive. The cool thing about Mataking is that most of the things you are looking for are micro. So the entire time we looked for things like shrimp, frog fish, and nudi branches. Joey and I are all about finding big stuff. The little things could interest us less, but it was still diving and we had a great time. Our guide was very knowledgeable and passionate about the little things.
That night we rested up for our big day at Sipadan. We had to move hotels because Scuba Junkie had no more room. We moved to Borneo Global Backpackers, which was the company we were gonna be diving with for Sipadan. This whole trip Joey and I have been able to avoid dorms, unfortunately this time to save money (cuz Sipidan was prettttty expensive) we decided to stick it out in a dorm. LUCKILY there was only one other person in our 8 person dorm, it was a french girl who was very quiet! We were so happy.
The next morning we set out for Sipidan. We were sort of scared because the people diving with us looked like pros. It was a couple, and the guy actually turned out to be an instructor in Australia. Joey and I both had a sigh of relief when we found out his girlfriend only had a few more dives than us. We are still really bad on sucking up our air quickly, and there was no way that we wanted to ruin another person's Sipidan experience by having to come up early.
Our guide that morning said he had saw a group of hammerhead sharks about 100 metres away from the reef, so that is where we set off. In Sipidan the aim of the game is to look for more macro animals such as sharks, but the reef itself is amazing in itself. Unfortunately we did not run into any hammerheads, but we did see lots of white tip reef sharks. Whoop de doo... We've already seen lots of them. The cool thing about Sipidan was that they were EVERYWHERE. After our 3 dives, I bet we saw atleast 30 white tip reef sharks.
For our last dive we went to Turtle Tomb. The dive site is basically a huge reef drop off that goes down 600 metres. We only went to about 25 metres in total, but there was nothing beyond that anyways. The reef wall was absolutely beautiful covered in soft and hard corals of all different colours. There were all different types of tropical fish as well. One of the highlights of the dive was going into a cave they call Turtle Tomb. Sadly, turtles sometimes swim in there and can't find their way out and then they die :( I am glad we didn't see any turtle skeletons. It would have made me sad because I LOVE LOVE LOVE sea turtles.
The next day, Joey and I were exhausted after 2 full days of diving. There was a big festival going on in Semporna. It was a boat festival with lots of beautiful coloured boats in the harbour. We were both amazed at how many people were at the festival in the streets. You could barely get anywhere. What used to be a 2 minute walk turned into 20 minutes. What annoyed me most was the fact a lot of woman had umbrellas to cover themselves from the sun. Normally a woman walking down an uncrowded street with an umbrella is perfectly fine, but when the streets are packed with vendors and thousands of people, an umbrella is not a wise choice, especially when every woman does it. There were many times I feared for the safety of my eyes. There's this new invention called sunscreen, maybe you should try it sometime. Both Joey and I found the festival quite intense because of the sheer volume of people. Another thing we experienced in Borneo was that everyone just stares at you forever. Peninsular Malaysia was fine for this because I guess they are used to seeing white people, but in Borneo it edged on the side of ridiculousness.
Joey and I barricaded ourselves in the room for most of the days because it was too hot and crazy outside during the festival. We were glad to leave Semporna on a night bus. Malaysia is known for it's plush overnight buses. This bus was no exception except the windows were all smashed in and kept together with black saran wrap. Very safe... The driver blared Pitbull, Lady Gaga and Beyonce all night, until I got Joey to tell him to turn it down. When the driver did, the people around us didn't like this. They decided to torture us with their cellphones on speakerphone, and listening to their craptastic music full volume. Don't try to take music away from South East Asians, it won't end well.
Finally Joey and I got some shut eye... we were abruptly woken up by the guy behind Joey puking into a barf bag about half a foot away from Joey's face. I was glad to learn that we were very close to our destination of Kota Kinabalu.
When we arrived to KK, we headed to Borneo Global Backpackers to see if we could rent a room for 5 hours to get some much needed sleep. We were very thankful that they gave us a discounted rate so we could get some shut eye! Later that day we walked around KK, just waiting for our flight to Manila. On to our last country!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Beautiful Borneo! Part 1
We flew to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on the Malaysian side of Borneo. Kota Kinabalu was a cute little city on the water. We were picked up by our hotel, which is so nice getting of a flight and seeing that someone is holding a sign with your name on it. It's not nearly as good as being greeted by friends and family, but it's still pretty sweet!
Our room was nothing special at Borneo Global Backpackers, but the staff were really awesome and helpful. Joey and I had tried to book a dive at Sipadan (For those of you who don't know it's one of the top dive sites in the WORLD) but were unable to with a couple of dive companies who were fully booked up. Sipadan was a victim of dynamite and cyanide fishing, so now it is heavily protect and is only allowed to have 120 divers a day. This books up pretty fast. We were so so so happy when we found out that the hostel who has a dive company at Sipadan had space available! Despite it being expensive, we were totally stoked.
A couple of other things we wanted to do while we were in Sabah was climb Mt. Kinabalu and see Probiscis monkeys. One thing that really sucked about Sabah was that EVERYTHING we wanted to do, had to be booked through some package tour. Every package tour Joey and I have ever booked on this trip has been not very good, and in general, are way way more expensive than doing it yourself. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu was out of the question when we learned it would cost us $300 CDN each. That's a lot of money for a 1.5 day climb up a stair case.
After a couple of days of enjoying the amazing seafood and friendly people of Kota Kinabalu we headed off to a city called Sandakan. Sandakan itself, has absolutely nothing to offer. It's the orangutan and probiscis monkey sanctuaries in the surrounding areas that are the prime sights. We were happy to stay in Sandakan because we found an amazing hotel for a reasonable price. The place was called Mayfair Hotel, and it wasn't spectacular looking but it was so clean. The highlight was the big screen plasma screen in our room, and the thousands of dvds in the lobby free for our viewing. All Joey and I wanted to do was veg out for a couple of days and do nothing! Which is exactly what we did.
The guy running the Mayfair was hilarious, in a non funny way. He was such a serious Chinese guy, but would say the funniest things with the straightest face. His gruff and rude demeanor made him likeable. Who would have thought? He also knew everything there was to know about Sandakan and the surrounding area. Great for asking questions.
One of the days in Sandakan we decided to go see the Probiscis monkey sanctuary. For those of you who don't know what it is, google it, and I'm sure you will be chuckling in no time. These monkeys are very very funny to look at. When we got to the sanctuary we were a bit disappointed to see that these monkeys were living in such a small area of jungle. A lot of Borneo is covered in Palm tree plantations for the making of palm oil. It's not what you would expect in a place with such a reputation for beautiful forests and unique animal species. It was actually quite depressing to have driven an hour and only seen plantations. Miles upon miles of palm trees.
The sanctuary was quite small, and there weren't trails to walk around, so we just waited until the monkeys came for their feeding at 11am. You could tell a lot of monkeys knew exactly what time it was because you could see them lingering in the trees nearby. When the food was down on the platform they came running. You could see that the monkeys had distinct families because different groups would wait their turn for different platforms. You could also tell who was boss. The bigger the nose, the more dominant the male. They also liked to announce they were coming with slamming of fists and big jumpy actions on to the platforms. The lower caste monkeys hid under the platforms hoping to get some scrapes! After the feeding we were transported to a resort for lunch, which was rather uneventful. The food was crap and overly priced. We had to wait around 2 hours for the next feeding.
The next feeding was similar to the first. Both of us were getting a bit bored, but were soon fascinated by these little fish who live in the puddles near the sanctuary, called Mudskippers. They can actually sort of walk around on the mud and can live through the dry season in holes they dig for themselves. They were actually quite cute! After the second feeding we headed home to watch some more dvds!
Our room was nothing special at Borneo Global Backpackers, but the staff were really awesome and helpful. Joey and I had tried to book a dive at Sipadan (For those of you who don't know it's one of the top dive sites in the WORLD) but were unable to with a couple of dive companies who were fully booked up. Sipadan was a victim of dynamite and cyanide fishing, so now it is heavily protect and is only allowed to have 120 divers a day. This books up pretty fast. We were so so so happy when we found out that the hostel who has a dive company at Sipadan had space available! Despite it being expensive, we were totally stoked.
A couple of other things we wanted to do while we were in Sabah was climb Mt. Kinabalu and see Probiscis monkeys. One thing that really sucked about Sabah was that EVERYTHING we wanted to do, had to be booked through some package tour. Every package tour Joey and I have ever booked on this trip has been not very good, and in general, are way way more expensive than doing it yourself. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu was out of the question when we learned it would cost us $300 CDN each. That's a lot of money for a 1.5 day climb up a stair case.
After a couple of days of enjoying the amazing seafood and friendly people of Kota Kinabalu we headed off to a city called Sandakan. Sandakan itself, has absolutely nothing to offer. It's the orangutan and probiscis monkey sanctuaries in the surrounding areas that are the prime sights. We were happy to stay in Sandakan because we found an amazing hotel for a reasonable price. The place was called Mayfair Hotel, and it wasn't spectacular looking but it was so clean. The highlight was the big screen plasma screen in our room, and the thousands of dvds in the lobby free for our viewing. All Joey and I wanted to do was veg out for a couple of days and do nothing! Which is exactly what we did.
The guy running the Mayfair was hilarious, in a non funny way. He was such a serious Chinese guy, but would say the funniest things with the straightest face. His gruff and rude demeanor made him likeable. Who would have thought? He also knew everything there was to know about Sandakan and the surrounding area. Great for asking questions.
One of the days in Sandakan we decided to go see the Probiscis monkey sanctuary. For those of you who don't know what it is, google it, and I'm sure you will be chuckling in no time. These monkeys are very very funny to look at. When we got to the sanctuary we were a bit disappointed to see that these monkeys were living in such a small area of jungle. A lot of Borneo is covered in Palm tree plantations for the making of palm oil. It's not what you would expect in a place with such a reputation for beautiful forests and unique animal species. It was actually quite depressing to have driven an hour and only seen plantations. Miles upon miles of palm trees.
The sanctuary was quite small, and there weren't trails to walk around, so we just waited until the monkeys came for their feeding at 11am. You could tell a lot of monkeys knew exactly what time it was because you could see them lingering in the trees nearby. When the food was down on the platform they came running. You could see that the monkeys had distinct families because different groups would wait their turn for different platforms. You could also tell who was boss. The bigger the nose, the more dominant the male. They also liked to announce they were coming with slamming of fists and big jumpy actions on to the platforms. The lower caste monkeys hid under the platforms hoping to get some scrapes! After the feeding we were transported to a resort for lunch, which was rather uneventful. The food was crap and overly priced. We had to wait around 2 hours for the next feeding.
The next feeding was similar to the first. Both of us were getting a bit bored, but were soon fascinated by these little fish who live in the puddles near the sanctuary, called Mudskippers. They can actually sort of walk around on the mud and can live through the dry season in holes they dig for themselves. They were actually quite cute! After the second feeding we headed home to watch some more dvds!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Gili T
We needed to get away from the chaos of Bali. Kuta was too dirty and too expensive. Both of us were aching to find some white sand and some crystal blue water. Gili Trawangan off the coast of Lombok was where we could find this paradise.
Joey and I purchased transport tickets that included bus and boat to Gili T. We were told that it would take approximately 9 hours to get there. We could deal with a long day of traveling considering the 2 hour fast boat alternative was triple the price. The day started off with a very early morning. Up at 5 and out of the room by 6 am.
After 12.5 hours of a lot of hurrying up and then waiting around. That is the theme of Asia. Hurry up, and then wait. We dealt with a pretty horrible sales guy who was trying to sell us a ticket back. I seriously thought he was going to fight Joey at one point. Joey wasn't sure when we wanted to come back or how we were coming back so he said he didn't want the ticket. The guy was like "Well how are you going to get back?", Joey somewhat frustrated but said jokingly "I'll swim." The guy obviously was not pleased with this answer and started to get really rude to us. Finally we caved and bought a ticket from him for a better deal, but I was still not impressed by his crappy sales tactics.
We didn't get to see much of Gili T when we arrived because we arrived 3.5 hours later than we were supposed to. This posed as a dilemma because we didn't know where we were staying and we were almost too tired to find a good deal. Luckily some guys had a relatively cheap room with breakfast. It would do for the night.
Later on we met up with our good friends that we met in Penang, Tim and Hayley. Joey and I met them in Rudy's at a local bar. We were exhausted from the long day of travel so we went back to our hotel pretty quick, except we got lost and spent half an hour looking for it. When we finally did, a bed never felt so nice.
The room that we had was actually really nice at Gili Gecko. The only thing that really sucked was that you could hear every little thing happening in the other 3 rooms. You could hear someone brushing their teeth, or farting. We had already arranged with Tim and Hayley to check out a place they found down the beach that was reasonably priced and right on the beach. We all met up and made the 30 minute trek there with our loaded backpacks. The group of us finally found it and were relieved to take our packs off.
The rooms weren't the nicest at Nusa Tiga, but they were 50ft to the beach, and breakfast was included. What more could you ask for $11 a night? Some of the best snorkeling on the island was right in front of our beach too!
Later on that day I met up with Tori which was a friend that Joey and I had met up in Laos. We had been trying to get together forever, but Joey and I were always a couple days ahead of Tori. It was so nice to finally meet and catch up. I liked hearing about Tori's recent adventures. Tori also saw some other friends she had made in Thailand in Gili T, a couple named Gwen and James. It was like one big happy family.
The next couple of days were spent laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. We'd go for the occasional snorkel. Life was really good. After a bunch of weeks of traveling non stop, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. Good friends, beer, the beach and the sun. Gotta love life.
One evening while the tide was going out and the sun was setting, some of us decided to go searching for sea turtles on the reef by our beach. Tim and I were the first to go out, and luckily we discovered a sea turtle. It was so amazing. He was just cruising around, eating coral and occasionally coming up for air. I was in love with this little guy. I didn't want to be selfish with my snorkel so I swam back so Joey could experience the turtle too. On my way back I found another cute turtle.
After a few days of doing nothing, Joey and I knew we wanted to do some diving. We though we'd finish up our Advanced Open Water certification with Blue Marlin. We signed up for a deep dive, a navigation dive and a night dive.
Our first dive was the deep dive, which just so happened to be very close to our hotel beach. I was a bit disappointed because I had already seen a lot of the reef, but going 30 metres below the surface gave me another perspective. There were a lot of fish down there, and we even saw a turtle and a black tip reef shark. The diving itself was challenging because the current was so strong. There was this cleaner fish called a remora that had been on the turtle, but decided it wanted to be on me instead. The rest of the dive I was trying to scare this thing off of me. I wasted half my air nearly screaming. I like fish, but I don't like them cleaning my skin and cuts. Joey was beside himself with laughter. He wasted so much air he had to use the emergency air supply.
In between dives we went to the dive centre where were worked on our work sheets. Joey wanted to get a little R&R in the hammock near the front of the shop. Next thing I know, he's lying on the ground not really sure what hit him. He had broke the hammock! People in the dive centre restaurant were laughing hysterically and so was I. Joey sheepishly got up and pretended as if nothing had happened. It was hilarious.
The navigation dive was rather uneventful. I am not very skilled with the compass. I realllllly don't understand how they work; they are beyond my comprehension! We fumbled around and did the set tasks and barely saw any cool animals. Oh well, we had been prepared for this boring dive.
The night dive later on was quite cool. The scariest part was actually jumping out of the boat into the water. Once we starting going down, it was like going down to another world. The reef wasn't all that impressive, but it was really neat to see the fish sleeping. A lot of the fish you see in the day were getting some shut eye by resting up against rocks or the sea floor. Both Joey and I were getting annoyed because the other two people on our dive were higher up then us. They would not control their buoyancy and then all of a sudden be dropping on top of you. My buoyancy also wasn't the best because I was too heavily weighted down. It was my first time wearing a wet suit, so I took on extra weights. I kept on almost touching the ground which is not a safe thing to do at night because you don't know what's on the sea floor.
Later on in the dive we turned off all the flash lights and just swan through darkness. All the particles and organisms that were floating in the water turned a glowing green colour. This is called phosphorescence. I had heard about this before, but had never experienced it. It was such a cool feeling to be floating around in the ocean with no light, except for dancing green dots.
After the dive we were filling out our dive books when this woman in our dive group started talking to our dive instructor about spirituality. I was having hearing problems because of some water in the ear so I couldn't hear much. I heard some really random things about this adventure our instructor had gone on that involved lots of puking, pretending he was a cat, and then seeing UFO's. I later clued in to the fact he was on peyote. It made sense. The conversation was getting a bit weird, especially because Joey and I weren't being included. I just wanted to be like "k sign our log books now..." but I had to wait for the perfect opportunity. It took about 45 minutes of extremely weird conversation to get my piece in. Joey and I were exhausted and had a really early morning back to Kuta.
The next morning we woke up and hurried to the ferry. We were sad to say good bye to the island that was our home for over a week, but were also excited to get on with our adventure. We were off to Borneo next!
Joey and I purchased transport tickets that included bus and boat to Gili T. We were told that it would take approximately 9 hours to get there. We could deal with a long day of traveling considering the 2 hour fast boat alternative was triple the price. The day started off with a very early morning. Up at 5 and out of the room by 6 am.
After 12.5 hours of a lot of hurrying up and then waiting around. That is the theme of Asia. Hurry up, and then wait. We dealt with a pretty horrible sales guy who was trying to sell us a ticket back. I seriously thought he was going to fight Joey at one point. Joey wasn't sure when we wanted to come back or how we were coming back so he said he didn't want the ticket. The guy was like "Well how are you going to get back?", Joey somewhat frustrated but said jokingly "I'll swim." The guy obviously was not pleased with this answer and started to get really rude to us. Finally we caved and bought a ticket from him for a better deal, but I was still not impressed by his crappy sales tactics.
We didn't get to see much of Gili T when we arrived because we arrived 3.5 hours later than we were supposed to. This posed as a dilemma because we didn't know where we were staying and we were almost too tired to find a good deal. Luckily some guys had a relatively cheap room with breakfast. It would do for the night.
Later on we met up with our good friends that we met in Penang, Tim and Hayley. Joey and I met them in Rudy's at a local bar. We were exhausted from the long day of travel so we went back to our hotel pretty quick, except we got lost and spent half an hour looking for it. When we finally did, a bed never felt so nice.
The room that we had was actually really nice at Gili Gecko. The only thing that really sucked was that you could hear every little thing happening in the other 3 rooms. You could hear someone brushing their teeth, or farting. We had already arranged with Tim and Hayley to check out a place they found down the beach that was reasonably priced and right on the beach. We all met up and made the 30 minute trek there with our loaded backpacks. The group of us finally found it and were relieved to take our packs off.
The rooms weren't the nicest at Nusa Tiga, but they were 50ft to the beach, and breakfast was included. What more could you ask for $11 a night? Some of the best snorkeling on the island was right in front of our beach too!
Later on that day I met up with Tori which was a friend that Joey and I had met up in Laos. We had been trying to get together forever, but Joey and I were always a couple days ahead of Tori. It was so nice to finally meet and catch up. I liked hearing about Tori's recent adventures. Tori also saw some other friends she had made in Thailand in Gili T, a couple named Gwen and James. It was like one big happy family.
The next couple of days were spent laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. We'd go for the occasional snorkel. Life was really good. After a bunch of weeks of traveling non stop, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. Good friends, beer, the beach and the sun. Gotta love life.
One evening while the tide was going out and the sun was setting, some of us decided to go searching for sea turtles on the reef by our beach. Tim and I were the first to go out, and luckily we discovered a sea turtle. It was so amazing. He was just cruising around, eating coral and occasionally coming up for air. I was in love with this little guy. I didn't want to be selfish with my snorkel so I swam back so Joey could experience the turtle too. On my way back I found another cute turtle.
After a few days of doing nothing, Joey and I knew we wanted to do some diving. We though we'd finish up our Advanced Open Water certification with Blue Marlin. We signed up for a deep dive, a navigation dive and a night dive.
Our first dive was the deep dive, which just so happened to be very close to our hotel beach. I was a bit disappointed because I had already seen a lot of the reef, but going 30 metres below the surface gave me another perspective. There were a lot of fish down there, and we even saw a turtle and a black tip reef shark. The diving itself was challenging because the current was so strong. There was this cleaner fish called a remora that had been on the turtle, but decided it wanted to be on me instead. The rest of the dive I was trying to scare this thing off of me. I wasted half my air nearly screaming. I like fish, but I don't like them cleaning my skin and cuts. Joey was beside himself with laughter. He wasted so much air he had to use the emergency air supply.
In between dives we went to the dive centre where were worked on our work sheets. Joey wanted to get a little R&R in the hammock near the front of the shop. Next thing I know, he's lying on the ground not really sure what hit him. He had broke the hammock! People in the dive centre restaurant were laughing hysterically and so was I. Joey sheepishly got up and pretended as if nothing had happened. It was hilarious.
The navigation dive was rather uneventful. I am not very skilled with the compass. I realllllly don't understand how they work; they are beyond my comprehension! We fumbled around and did the set tasks and barely saw any cool animals. Oh well, we had been prepared for this boring dive.
The night dive later on was quite cool. The scariest part was actually jumping out of the boat into the water. Once we starting going down, it was like going down to another world. The reef wasn't all that impressive, but it was really neat to see the fish sleeping. A lot of the fish you see in the day were getting some shut eye by resting up against rocks or the sea floor. Both Joey and I were getting annoyed because the other two people on our dive were higher up then us. They would not control their buoyancy and then all of a sudden be dropping on top of you. My buoyancy also wasn't the best because I was too heavily weighted down. It was my first time wearing a wet suit, so I took on extra weights. I kept on almost touching the ground which is not a safe thing to do at night because you don't know what's on the sea floor.
Later on in the dive we turned off all the flash lights and just swan through darkness. All the particles and organisms that were floating in the water turned a glowing green colour. This is called phosphorescence. I had heard about this before, but had never experienced it. It was such a cool feeling to be floating around in the ocean with no light, except for dancing green dots.
After the dive we were filling out our dive books when this woman in our dive group started talking to our dive instructor about spirituality. I was having hearing problems because of some water in the ear so I couldn't hear much. I heard some really random things about this adventure our instructor had gone on that involved lots of puking, pretending he was a cat, and then seeing UFO's. I later clued in to the fact he was on peyote. It made sense. The conversation was getting a bit weird, especially because Joey and I weren't being included. I just wanted to be like "k sign our log books now..." but I had to wait for the perfect opportunity. It took about 45 minutes of extremely weird conversation to get my piece in. Joey and I were exhausted and had a really early morning back to Kuta.
The next morning we woke up and hurried to the ferry. We were sad to say good bye to the island that was our home for over a week, but were also excited to get on with our adventure. We were off to Borneo next!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Ballin' Bali
Joey and I were off to Kuta beach against the recommendations of pretty much every travel we had ever met. When we arrived, I could see why no one liked it here. The beach was infested with garbage and "rastafarian" Indo guys. No thanks. Accomodation was ridiculously high, and the restaurants were crap! It is one of those places you have to check out to experience the sheer craziness of it all. If Khao San road was on a beach and was a bazillion times bigger, this would be it.
We were there for the surfing. There were lots of surf schools who had reasonable rates. We spent our first day trying to find a good place to dive with. We settled with a place called Big Kahuna. Our class was to start at 7am the next day.
That morning Joey and I got up early to scrounge up some breakfast at the Circle K. We found some processed banana bread. The breakfast of champions. Joey and I met up with our teacher and we were off to the beach across the street.
The waves were decent size first thing in the morning and both Joey and I were standing up pretty much right away. I was slightly annoyed with our instructor because if you fell over he never had any feedback as to why you fell off or couldn't stand. I know surfing is not necessarily something someone can 'teach' but you can give useful feedback to the student. That's not too hard to ask? The waves started to get really big and started coming front on and from the side. I was getting tossed around everywhere and drifted into the swimming area. I was getting frustrated because our instructor clearly saw we were having difficulty battling the waves and didn't make an effort to help us out, or move somewhere else along the beach.
After getting our asses handed to us by the waves, both Joey and I needed a break. We sat on the beach with some water and watched our 'instructor' (might I add we paid this guy a lot of money) take our board out to ride some waves. He wasn't the most talkative guy that was for sure. We attempted the waves again, and they kicked our butts again. So it was time to take a break.
That afternoon we went surfing again with the same company. This time it was with a big group of people, which I thought would be great cuz it's always fun to meet new people. We met 3 really cool Scottish people and had a great time until the waves started filling up with other surfers. I would try to catch a wave but someone else would already be on it, or there would be someone directly in my way. It was still a good time but we cut our surfing short because it was too hard to get through the crowds.
That night we met up with our newly found Scottish friends for dinner and some drinks. Jodie and Pam both teach at International schools in Taiwan and Malaysia. Teaching english abroad is something that really interests both Joey and I. We have met a lot of people who have done it that find it very rewarding. Not too mention a lot of schools will pay for your return flight, your accomodation and give you plenty of vacation time! This is something we may consider doing in the future.
The next morning we heading off to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Our friend's Tim and Hayley would be there waiting for us. It was going to be nice to check up with eachother again!
We were there for the surfing. There were lots of surf schools who had reasonable rates. We spent our first day trying to find a good place to dive with. We settled with a place called Big Kahuna. Our class was to start at 7am the next day.
That morning Joey and I got up early to scrounge up some breakfast at the Circle K. We found some processed banana bread. The breakfast of champions. Joey and I met up with our teacher and we were off to the beach across the street.
The waves were decent size first thing in the morning and both Joey and I were standing up pretty much right away. I was slightly annoyed with our instructor because if you fell over he never had any feedback as to why you fell off or couldn't stand. I know surfing is not necessarily something someone can 'teach' but you can give useful feedback to the student. That's not too hard to ask? The waves started to get really big and started coming front on and from the side. I was getting tossed around everywhere and drifted into the swimming area. I was getting frustrated because our instructor clearly saw we were having difficulty battling the waves and didn't make an effort to help us out, or move somewhere else along the beach.
After getting our asses handed to us by the waves, both Joey and I needed a break. We sat on the beach with some water and watched our 'instructor' (might I add we paid this guy a lot of money) take our board out to ride some waves. He wasn't the most talkative guy that was for sure. We attempted the waves again, and they kicked our butts again. So it was time to take a break.
That afternoon we went surfing again with the same company. This time it was with a big group of people, which I thought would be great cuz it's always fun to meet new people. We met 3 really cool Scottish people and had a great time until the waves started filling up with other surfers. I would try to catch a wave but someone else would already be on it, or there would be someone directly in my way. It was still a good time but we cut our surfing short because it was too hard to get through the crowds.
That night we met up with our newly found Scottish friends for dinner and some drinks. Jodie and Pam both teach at International schools in Taiwan and Malaysia. Teaching english abroad is something that really interests both Joey and I. We have met a lot of people who have done it that find it very rewarding. Not too mention a lot of schools will pay for your return flight, your accomodation and give you plenty of vacation time! This is something we may consider doing in the future.
The next morning we heading off to the Gili Islands on neighbouring Lombok. Our friend's Tim and Hayley would be there waiting for us. It was going to be nice to check up with eachother again!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Waterfalls, Volcanoes and Craters, oh my!
Joey and I had signed up for a tour that would take us to Bromo, then to Ijen, and then to the ferry where we would head over to Bali. Getting to these places can be tough on public buses. I think it would require a lot of patience and time. At this point, these are two things we have little of. Even if a ticket to do all three things through a tour company is a bit more expensive, atleast the tour takes care of the 2 nights accommodation and breakfast.
The first day of the tour sucked. We left Yogyakarta at 9 and didn’t reach Bromo until 8pm. 11 hours on a bus is no fun! I guess we did meet a number of interesting people on the mini bus though! By the time we arrived at our hotel (which wasn’t the one Joey and I wanted to go to, but whatever) we were exhausted. I was unimpressed with the cold weather, and most importantly, the shitty menu that our “hotel” had. Honestly, anything but fried rice/noodles would be amazing. Indonesians do not deviate from their daily foods consisting of nasi campur (rice, fish and veg), nasi goreng (fried rice)and ayam soto (chicken soup). Most restaurants only serve these things, and if they do serve western food, you probably don’t want it. I think Joey and I have officially given up hopes on getting a decent western meal. Although, we have had some good pizza.
We got to bed by about 9:30 and set our alarms for 4am. Ouch. I was not looking forward to waking up that early. The group of us in the mini bus had managed to gang together and rent a jeep so we didn’t have to do the 3 hour trek to the look-out point. It was a bit more expensive to get the jeep, but I don’t like strenuous exercise any time before 12pm. In our group of people there was a really cool Spanish girl named Atina, two British girls, and a very annoying American guy. This guy just loved to hear himself talk about anything and everything, but especially he liked to talk about himself. I struggled to hold a conversation with him because of his constant interruptions. I felt bad for the girl who had to sit with him for the 12 hours the previous day.
Well he was back at it at 4:30am and was chatting away, mostly to himself. Most of us had not had coffee yet, so none of us were quite interested. The jeep ride was fairly uneventful. Joey was let down that it was a Toyota. Both of us were especially let down that we didn’t go off-roading, and because the guy driving didn’t really know what he was doing. When we got to the top of the lookout point to get our sunrise glimpse of Bromo there were tons and tons of people up there. We managed to find a place with less people and took a bunch of really awesome photos.
Our group was then herded back to the jeep where we drove to the foot of Bromo, where we would climb (actually, walk up a staircase) to the top of the crater. There was about a bazillion local men with little horses who were offering dirt cheap prices to ride the 500metres to the base, but honestly after 12 hours on a bus the day before, I felt I could use some of the exercise. One thing that really bothers me about these countries is that there is no control over people and making money. One guy a long time ago thought of an idea to use his horse to shuttle lazy tourists 500metres to Bromo, next thing you know literally 200 men with their horses come and try to do the same thing. They ask incredibly reasonable prices. There are just far too many of them, and I hardly doubt that any of them are making a good living by doing this. This is just one example of a business idea being taken on by everyone and their neighbour.
We got to the top of the volcano which was pretty neat. There was a big sulphurous cloud coming from the middle, but other than that there wasn't much volcanic activity. The view was gorgeous though. You could see all the jungle(whats left of it)rice fields and agricultural land for miles. We stayed up there for a bit but had to be down in order to get our mini bus so we could head on to Ijen.
Joey and I were the only ones in our group who were going to Ijen; the rest were heading on to Bali. Some Canadian friends we met in Sumatra had highly recommended Ijen for it's natural beauty and lack of crowds. It's also surrounded by beautiful coffee plantations.
That night we met our guide named Amos in the minibus as we drove to Ijen. The ride was slow going because the roads were so washed out. We started talking and Amos seemed really friendly. He was only 19 but seemed to already possess the skills to be a good guide. He liked his job because he got to practice English and meet people from all over the world. When we go to the hotel Joey and I went into the hotspring fed whirlpool. It wasn't exactly hot but it was nice anyways.
The next morning was an early one. Annoyingly so, it didn't have to be. Our door got knocked on at 4am so we could be up and ready to leave at 4:30 to catch sunrise. Joey and I get ready quickly and wait outside for what seems like forever. 5:15 rolls around and we still haven't left. Amos finally lets us know that we are waiting for another couple. Joey told him to go wake them up because we were going to miss sunrise. What we didn't know was that it was a muslim couple who were at the mosque for prayer. Amos apologized profusely for them being at prayer. What he didn't know was that we were pissed because if he knew we were giving them a ride to the base of Ijen and they had prayer at 5am, then why the hell were we woken up at 4? Sleep is a very valuable thing to Joey and I, especially because we had been up at 3:30am the night before!
We totally understand if someone is Muslim and needs to prayer. We have nothing but respect for them, but when you sign up for a sunrise tour, pray later! Don't make everyone else (It was only me and Joey, but still) wait. What annoyed me even more was that when we got to the base of the crater, they didn't even start climbing right away. I was very disappointed.
The walk up to Ijen was too strenuous for that early in the morning. I was hungry because the crap breakfast(who in their right mind thinks that chocolate sprinkles between two white pieces of bread constitutes as breakfast, seriously are you trying to give me diabetes?!) that our hotel provided didn't fill me up in the slightest. The scenery was beautiful and could have been even more beautiful if there hadn't been garbage absolutely everywhere. In parks like this you pay upwards of $3 for "park conservation" but they can't even pick up the garbage. The combination of lack of sleep and nutrition made me more sensitive to the garbage. I feel in Canada and other nations we spend a lot of time, effort and money to preserve our nature and lesson our carbon footprint. Then you come to these countries and they just throw garbage wherever they can. Such little compassion for nature sent me into tears. Our guide was so weirded out that I was crying. I told him everything was so beautiful here, but it's sad that their is so little control over waste dumping.
When we got to the top of the crater the walk up steep hills was worth it. In the middle of the crater was a huge steaming lake. You could see near the shore of the lake the sulphur miners who get the sulphur from the ground and haul it down the mountain. It looks like an incredibly tough job!
On our way back down Joey and I started asking Amos questions. I was quite surprised to see his views on things. He had said some contreversial things such as Muslims being superior to Christians because Christians don't prayer 5 times a day like Muslims do, and that he called African American people the N word several times, and to add insult to injury he said that all of them are mean and very violent. I don't blame Amos for having these views. He comes from a very religious family, and like other Indonesians, thinks that Westerners (black or white) behave exactly like the do on tv or the movies. How can you blame them if it's their only glimpse into our world? Most of them will never come to our countries.
After the walk and the talk I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was glad to be heading to Bali that day where Joey and I could get some rest! We said our goodbyes to Amos and headed on our way to Aussie wonderland of Bali.
The first day of the tour sucked. We left Yogyakarta at 9 and didn’t reach Bromo until 8pm. 11 hours on a bus is no fun! I guess we did meet a number of interesting people on the mini bus though! By the time we arrived at our hotel (which wasn’t the one Joey and I wanted to go to, but whatever) we were exhausted. I was unimpressed with the cold weather, and most importantly, the shitty menu that our “hotel” had. Honestly, anything but fried rice/noodles would be amazing. Indonesians do not deviate from their daily foods consisting of nasi campur (rice, fish and veg), nasi goreng (fried rice)and ayam soto (chicken soup). Most restaurants only serve these things, and if they do serve western food, you probably don’t want it. I think Joey and I have officially given up hopes on getting a decent western meal. Although, we have had some good pizza.
We got to bed by about 9:30 and set our alarms for 4am. Ouch. I was not looking forward to waking up that early. The group of us in the mini bus had managed to gang together and rent a jeep so we didn’t have to do the 3 hour trek to the look-out point. It was a bit more expensive to get the jeep, but I don’t like strenuous exercise any time before 12pm. In our group of people there was a really cool Spanish girl named Atina, two British girls, and a very annoying American guy. This guy just loved to hear himself talk about anything and everything, but especially he liked to talk about himself. I struggled to hold a conversation with him because of his constant interruptions. I felt bad for the girl who had to sit with him for the 12 hours the previous day.
Well he was back at it at 4:30am and was chatting away, mostly to himself. Most of us had not had coffee yet, so none of us were quite interested. The jeep ride was fairly uneventful. Joey was let down that it was a Toyota. Both of us were especially let down that we didn’t go off-roading, and because the guy driving didn’t really know what he was doing. When we got to the top of the lookout point to get our sunrise glimpse of Bromo there were tons and tons of people up there. We managed to find a place with less people and took a bunch of really awesome photos.
Our group was then herded back to the jeep where we drove to the foot of Bromo, where we would climb (actually, walk up a staircase) to the top of the crater. There was about a bazillion local men with little horses who were offering dirt cheap prices to ride the 500metres to the base, but honestly after 12 hours on a bus the day before, I felt I could use some of the exercise. One thing that really bothers me about these countries is that there is no control over people and making money. One guy a long time ago thought of an idea to use his horse to shuttle lazy tourists 500metres to Bromo, next thing you know literally 200 men with their horses come and try to do the same thing. They ask incredibly reasonable prices. There are just far too many of them, and I hardly doubt that any of them are making a good living by doing this. This is just one example of a business idea being taken on by everyone and their neighbour.
We got to the top of the volcano which was pretty neat. There was a big sulphurous cloud coming from the middle, but other than that there wasn't much volcanic activity. The view was gorgeous though. You could see all the jungle(whats left of it)rice fields and agricultural land for miles. We stayed up there for a bit but had to be down in order to get our mini bus so we could head on to Ijen.
Joey and I were the only ones in our group who were going to Ijen; the rest were heading on to Bali. Some Canadian friends we met in Sumatra had highly recommended Ijen for it's natural beauty and lack of crowds. It's also surrounded by beautiful coffee plantations.
That night we met our guide named Amos in the minibus as we drove to Ijen. The ride was slow going because the roads were so washed out. We started talking and Amos seemed really friendly. He was only 19 but seemed to already possess the skills to be a good guide. He liked his job because he got to practice English and meet people from all over the world. When we go to the hotel Joey and I went into the hotspring fed whirlpool. It wasn't exactly hot but it was nice anyways.
The next morning was an early one. Annoyingly so, it didn't have to be. Our door got knocked on at 4am so we could be up and ready to leave at 4:30 to catch sunrise. Joey and I get ready quickly and wait outside for what seems like forever. 5:15 rolls around and we still haven't left. Amos finally lets us know that we are waiting for another couple. Joey told him to go wake them up because we were going to miss sunrise. What we didn't know was that it was a muslim couple who were at the mosque for prayer. Amos apologized profusely for them being at prayer. What he didn't know was that we were pissed because if he knew we were giving them a ride to the base of Ijen and they had prayer at 5am, then why the hell were we woken up at 4? Sleep is a very valuable thing to Joey and I, especially because we had been up at 3:30am the night before!
We totally understand if someone is Muslim and needs to prayer. We have nothing but respect for them, but when you sign up for a sunrise tour, pray later! Don't make everyone else (It was only me and Joey, but still) wait. What annoyed me even more was that when we got to the base of the crater, they didn't even start climbing right away. I was very disappointed.
The walk up to Ijen was too strenuous for that early in the morning. I was hungry because the crap breakfast(who in their right mind thinks that chocolate sprinkles between two white pieces of bread constitutes as breakfast, seriously are you trying to give me diabetes?!) that our hotel provided didn't fill me up in the slightest. The scenery was beautiful and could have been even more beautiful if there hadn't been garbage absolutely everywhere. In parks like this you pay upwards of $3 for "park conservation" but they can't even pick up the garbage. The combination of lack of sleep and nutrition made me more sensitive to the garbage. I feel in Canada and other nations we spend a lot of time, effort and money to preserve our nature and lesson our carbon footprint. Then you come to these countries and they just throw garbage wherever they can. Such little compassion for nature sent me into tears. Our guide was so weirded out that I was crying. I told him everything was so beautiful here, but it's sad that their is so little control over waste dumping.
When we got to the top of the crater the walk up steep hills was worth it. In the middle of the crater was a huge steaming lake. You could see near the shore of the lake the sulphur miners who get the sulphur from the ground and haul it down the mountain. It looks like an incredibly tough job!
On our way back down Joey and I started asking Amos questions. I was quite surprised to see his views on things. He had said some contreversial things such as Muslims being superior to Christians because Christians don't prayer 5 times a day like Muslims do, and that he called African American people the N word several times, and to add insult to injury he said that all of them are mean and very violent. I don't blame Amos for having these views. He comes from a very religious family, and like other Indonesians, thinks that Westerners (black or white) behave exactly like the do on tv or the movies. How can you blame them if it's their only glimpse into our world? Most of them will never come to our countries.
After the walk and the talk I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was glad to be heading to Bali that day where Joey and I could get some rest! We said our goodbyes to Amos and headed on our way to Aussie wonderland of Bali.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
I like your tattoo sir.. want to see my batik?
After we got back from our trek that night both of us were pooped! It wasn’t even a strenuous hike, we were just out of shape and not used to sweating that much. Joey and I wanted to get a good night’s sleep before our early morning bus ride to Medan to catch our flight. That night the people in the room above us for incredibly inconsiderate and loud! Stomping around, laughing loudly and talking/yelling. This started at 11pm when we had just fallen asleep. It went on until about 1:30am. We finally got some decent sleep but were woken up at 4am to the guy upstairs getting ready for work/prayer (I’m not sure). Joey had repeatedly banged on the roof and told them to shut up. At this point, I don’t think it’s impolite.
Our alarm went off at 5am and we dragged ourselves out of bed. We had quite a hike to the bus station and we wanted to be out of Bukit Lawang on the 7am bus. Eventually we found our way to the bus station and pretty much left on the bus as soon as we got there. This is not a common occurrence in Indonesia. Generally the buses wait until the bus is packed, regardless if it was supposed to leave an hour ago. In exchange for a timely bus, we were surrounded by screaming children and techno on the speakers. None of us was going to get the sleep we were depending on! That’s transport for you in Indonesia!
When we finally made it to the airport we found out that our reservations for our flight were cancelled. We couldn’t buy tickets on Batavia’s website because they don’t accept any credit cards that aren’t Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean. Joey got one of the girls at our hotel in Danau Toba to make our reservation because the people at the call centre had horrendous English. Despite our tickets being cancelled, we were able to book another ticket anyway. It actually worked out to be better because the tickets were cheaper than originally quoted on the phone.
Around the airport there were lots of warungs (Indonesian word for restaurant/foodstall). Both Joey and I had not had breakfast so we were starving. We chose one place that had an English menu, but unfortunately no one spoke English. We were surprised considering we were at an airport. I ordered nasi goreng (fried rice) but it never came because apparently the server didn’t know I ordered? Now emanciated, we walked to another warung, where no one else spoke English again. I took out our guidebook and attempted to order water and fried rice without meat. I was laughed at. At this point I burst into tears because I was so tired and hungry; I really just didn’t feel like being laughed at. The server probably had no idea what was going on. I felt bad for the guy, but honestly if someone is trying to speak your language don’t laugh at them! It doesn’t make them want to try even if it wasn’t malicious laughter!
Our flight was rather uneventful. We got to Yogykarta just in time to see the sunset. It was just as hot in Yogya as it was in Medan. We went to the common backpacker area and a guy helped us find a place (either because he got commission or because he wanted us to look at his paintings after). I get that Yogykarta is very cultural, but the locals really ruin it by constantly asking to show you their batik or to take you to their friend's batik store. It's even funnier when they try to convince you it's easy to pack around a huge canvas painting when you're backpacking for another 2 months!
The next day we walked around our area of town, but didn't really care to see much because we were in trip planning mode. We needed to know when we would be arriving in Sipadan (an amazing diving place that is heavily protected and only 100 people are allowed to dive a day so things get booked up fast), and also where we wanting to spend the rest of our time in Indonesia. We knew we didn't want to go to Borobodur which is a buddhist temple just outside the temple. Trust me, we've seen enough buddhist temples for a life time. I'm still not even convinced if you say it is as spectacular as Angkor Wat (which I'm sure it isn't). So we only stayed in Yogykarta one full day and two nights.
We booked a 3 day tour that took us to Gunung Bromo (a volcano) and Ijen (a crater filled with a hotspring lake) and then to the ferries where we would go on our way to Bali. It was quite cheap because we mentioned that our friends had told us about it. Only 500,000. We know a lot of other people paid quite a bit more!
Our alarm went off at 5am and we dragged ourselves out of bed. We had quite a hike to the bus station and we wanted to be out of Bukit Lawang on the 7am bus. Eventually we found our way to the bus station and pretty much left on the bus as soon as we got there. This is not a common occurrence in Indonesia. Generally the buses wait until the bus is packed, regardless if it was supposed to leave an hour ago. In exchange for a timely bus, we were surrounded by screaming children and techno on the speakers. None of us was going to get the sleep we were depending on! That’s transport for you in Indonesia!
When we finally made it to the airport we found out that our reservations for our flight were cancelled. We couldn’t buy tickets on Batavia’s website because they don’t accept any credit cards that aren’t Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean. Joey got one of the girls at our hotel in Danau Toba to make our reservation because the people at the call centre had horrendous English. Despite our tickets being cancelled, we were able to book another ticket anyway. It actually worked out to be better because the tickets were cheaper than originally quoted on the phone.
Around the airport there were lots of warungs (Indonesian word for restaurant/foodstall). Both Joey and I had not had breakfast so we were starving. We chose one place that had an English menu, but unfortunately no one spoke English. We were surprised considering we were at an airport. I ordered nasi goreng (fried rice) but it never came because apparently the server didn’t know I ordered? Now emanciated, we walked to another warung, where no one else spoke English again. I took out our guidebook and attempted to order water and fried rice without meat. I was laughed at. At this point I burst into tears because I was so tired and hungry; I really just didn’t feel like being laughed at. The server probably had no idea what was going on. I felt bad for the guy, but honestly if someone is trying to speak your language don’t laugh at them! It doesn’t make them want to try even if it wasn’t malicious laughter!
Our flight was rather uneventful. We got to Yogykarta just in time to see the sunset. It was just as hot in Yogya as it was in Medan. We went to the common backpacker area and a guy helped us find a place (either because he got commission or because he wanted us to look at his paintings after). I get that Yogykarta is very cultural, but the locals really ruin it by constantly asking to show you their batik or to take you to their friend's batik store. It's even funnier when they try to convince you it's easy to pack around a huge canvas painting when you're backpacking for another 2 months!
The next day we walked around our area of town, but didn't really care to see much because we were in trip planning mode. We needed to know when we would be arriving in Sipadan (an amazing diving place that is heavily protected and only 100 people are allowed to dive a day so things get booked up fast), and also where we wanting to spend the rest of our time in Indonesia. We knew we didn't want to go to Borobodur which is a buddhist temple just outside the temple. Trust me, we've seen enough buddhist temples for a life time. I'm still not even convinced if you say it is as spectacular as Angkor Wat (which I'm sure it isn't). So we only stayed in Yogykarta one full day and two nights.
We booked a 3 day tour that took us to Gunung Bromo (a volcano) and Ijen (a crater filled with a hotspring lake) and then to the ferries where we would go on our way to Bali. It was quite cheap because we mentioned that our friends had told us about it. Only 500,000. We know a lot of other people paid quite a bit more!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monkeys Everywhere!
One thing you have to do when you are in Sumatra is check out the orangutans of Bukit Lawang. We took the public bus to Bukit Lawang from Medan and were immediately pounced on by 3 guides. There are over 150 guides for this one small village and there is usually only 20 tourists at a time so competition is fierce! It was rather unfortunate that the guides have to follow a set price for treks because the price was ridiculous. It was something like 25 euros (Almost $55CDN) for each person to do a full day trek. This is probably the highest we have paid for something like this. Oh well, Joey and I really wanted to see our ginger haired friends of the jungle!
We set out early in the morning and the humidity was very high. We were sweating our skin off by the time we even got to the jungle's edge. The thing about humidity is that your sweat never goes away. I could tell this would be a long, but very exciting day. Our guides for the day were Eddie and Erwin. We also had a german and an austrailian couple on the trek. About 20 minutes in to the hike our group ran into our first orangutans. It was a female named Sassa and her male friend, who was absolutely massive. Most of the orangutans at this park have been part of the pet trade and are now in rehabilitation. Unfortunately being a pet or having so much contact with humans has made these monkeys reliant on people for food which causes them to become aggressive. After Sassa saw that we did not have any bananas for her she started to charge us. It was quite scary. What was the most upsetting about the situation was that our guides kept on going back and asking us if we wanted to take more pictures. We had already alienated Sassa and her mate enough. A few of us were getting upset especially when another treking group came by to take pictures.
They asked us one more time if we wanted to take more pictures and I pretty much said LETS LEAVE THEM ALONE. You pay high regulated prices for "licensed guides" but you can tell that the welfare of the animals in this rehabilitation forest isn't really respected. I was getting quite annoyed that we had bugged this monkey for more than 20 minutes and had put her life and our lives in danger. Really responsible guys. It certainly didn't set the mood for the rest of the trek. Especially for the Australian girl, Hannah, who had been attacked by wild monkeys in Vietnam. She was trying to overcome her fear, but being chased by a 40kg orangutan wasn't helping her any!
After our group got away from the madness it was a nice peaceful trek through the forest. We were lucky to see some cheeky monkeys, a group of macaques, one lone brown gibbon and 10 other orangutans. At one point we were taking a break on a log, when an orangutan named Jackie (who had a tiny tiny baby on her back) came over to Joey and sat on his lap and put her arm around him. She sat on his lap for a good 5 minutes. Joey started to feel a bit uneasy because this is a wild animal and she could kill him with her very strong hands or jaw. Luckily she was a gentle monkey and was just attracted to the kind nature of Joey.
Joey and I were really happy to have seen all those monkeys that day. Although our guides could have been better, the money was worth it to see these amazing creatures being protected in a forest where they can keep on being monkeys instead of pets.
We set out early in the morning and the humidity was very high. We were sweating our skin off by the time we even got to the jungle's edge. The thing about humidity is that your sweat never goes away. I could tell this would be a long, but very exciting day. Our guides for the day were Eddie and Erwin. We also had a german and an austrailian couple on the trek. About 20 minutes in to the hike our group ran into our first orangutans. It was a female named Sassa and her male friend, who was absolutely massive. Most of the orangutans at this park have been part of the pet trade and are now in rehabilitation. Unfortunately being a pet or having so much contact with humans has made these monkeys reliant on people for food which causes them to become aggressive. After Sassa saw that we did not have any bananas for her she started to charge us. It was quite scary. What was the most upsetting about the situation was that our guides kept on going back and asking us if we wanted to take more pictures. We had already alienated Sassa and her mate enough. A few of us were getting upset especially when another treking group came by to take pictures.
They asked us one more time if we wanted to take more pictures and I pretty much said LETS LEAVE THEM ALONE. You pay high regulated prices for "licensed guides" but you can tell that the welfare of the animals in this rehabilitation forest isn't really respected. I was getting quite annoyed that we had bugged this monkey for more than 20 minutes and had put her life and our lives in danger. Really responsible guys. It certainly didn't set the mood for the rest of the trek. Especially for the Australian girl, Hannah, who had been attacked by wild monkeys in Vietnam. She was trying to overcome her fear, but being chased by a 40kg orangutan wasn't helping her any!
After our group got away from the madness it was a nice peaceful trek through the forest. We were lucky to see some cheeky monkeys, a group of macaques, one lone brown gibbon and 10 other orangutans. At one point we were taking a break on a log, when an orangutan named Jackie (who had a tiny tiny baby on her back) came over to Joey and sat on his lap and put her arm around him. She sat on his lap for a good 5 minutes. Joey started to feel a bit uneasy because this is a wild animal and she could kill him with her very strong hands or jaw. Luckily she was a gentle monkey and was just attracted to the kind nature of Joey.
Joey and I were really happy to have seen all those monkeys that day. Although our guides could have been better, the money was worth it to see these amazing creatures being protected in a forest where they can keep on being monkeys instead of pets.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Down to Danau Toba
The night before Joey and I left for Danau Toba we met some locals at the mall who asked us to join them for beer at the park later on. They were our age and seemed really nice so we decided to go. When we got there the park was full of kids who were bmxing on the half pipes and lots of bystanders were either eating or drinking and watching the kids for entertainment. It was actually a lot of fun. The locals we met up with also had really good english so we could pretty much carry on a conversation without having misunderstandings. It was awesome to converse with young people our age from Indonesia. They were pretty much just like us. It's weird to think that despite coming from completely different worlds, how similar we are.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our minivan ride to Danau Toba. It was one cramped ride. I think the cheap public bus option could possibly have been more comfortable. Our driver was absolutely an insane driver. Constantly speeding up and slamming on breaks. Passing dangerously. I was so sick. Both Joey and I have gotten used to crazy driving and rarely get car sick, but this guy was nuts. We were certainly glad to arrive at the ferry in Patapan.
The lake was absolutely stunning. So big and vast. It felt like being back home on the lake. I love the smell of lake water and the engine fumes from boats. Brings back good memories of my Papa's Rum Runner on Harrison lake. It was a change from being on a boat in the ocean. The ride wasn't so windy and bumpy! I could relax. On the boat ride there we met a Malaysian couple named CJ and Matthew. We were planning to stay at the same place so we just started talking. They seemed really cool so we planned on renting motorbikes the next day and exploring the island of Samosir.
That night we joined up with our new found friends for some dinner. Matthew and CJ were doing as the locals do and enjoying a magical mushroom omelette. Joey and I decided to pass. By the way, magic mushrooms are completely legal in Indonesia because it is apart of so many indigenous people's culture. Next thing we know Matthew is in La La land and cannot stop laughing. Meanwhile CJ has a headache and doesn't feel anything. I imagine that it was just as fun to watch Matthew as it would have been on mushrooms. It made for an interesting night! I'm sure CJ had a great time trying to take Matthew back to the room that night.
The next morning, Matthew was back to his normal self and we were all ready to set out on an adventure around the island. We stopped to enjoy the scenery and take some pics. Matthew and Joey got to talk about cameras a lot. CJ and I got to pretend we were interested a lot. Haha. The scenery was amazing. Lush green rice fields on the beach and rolling hills in the distance. Such a great place to spend the day.
We headed to the "Batak Museum" which turned out to be pretty lame, but had a toilet so that was cool. We had been told about the hotsprings at the other end of the island that were apparently quite nice. When we got there there was garbage floating in the water and big pipes that redirected the hot water to some pools at this one really dirty looking place. We took one look at the pools and decided it was better not to. There was a lake right there anyways. There had been a really nice beach we had seen along the way that had bright blue water and thats where the four of us decided to go. The water was quite nice. Not too cold, but refreshing!
After our swim we thought it would be a good idea to check out a lake on top of the mountain that apparently changed colours at different times of the year. We headed up a treacherous road where Joey and I nearly bailed off our motorbike a couple of times due to slipperyness and huge potholes. Finally we made it and the scenery paid off. The lake was just a normal lake colour but the rice fields and water buffalo grazing in the pastures was still very beautiful!
The next day we said good bye to our new found Malaysian friends. We spent most of our morning planning out our trip which was quite frustrating. In Indonesia you can only purchase plane tickets online if you have an Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean credit card. If you don't have one of these you must brave the english barrier and give the airline a call. It was horrible. It was like calling a call centre in India. I had to spell everything out using the Police Alphabet. Skype also didn't make matters better when it decided to end my call! Joey convinced one of the women that worked at the hotel to help us out. We found out we had to go to the airline's store to pay, or pay on the day we left at the airport.
Later on I took a cooking class with a lady named Hetty. I had a great time learning how to make traditional batak indonesian food. Especially because I chose vegetarian options. Hetty was a really great teacher. She was also very friendly and great to talk to. Joey worked while I played in the kitchen but he joined me for dinner later on. During dinner we met an American couple named Meaghan and Matt. They were really friendly so we invited them to try some of my creations. We invited them to play some cards later on that night.
Meaghan and Matt met us at our hotel to play cards (they were staying there too) and we had a great time just talking and playing rummy. During all of this there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. It was so cool to see the whole sky light up every time lightening struck.
The next morning Joey and I were up bright and early to start our journey to Berastagi. We had to be quite creative to get there by public bus because there is no direct public bus between the two places. We had to transfer a lot and try to get over language barriers. After about 7 hours of traveling we were finally in Berastagi. We had heard so much of this place, but were quite disappointed at what we saw. It just looked like another junky, dirty Indonesian town.
Joey ran into Ali and Rachel who were some Canadian girls from Victoria that we met in Medan. We were trying to plan a trek with them, but Joey and I ended up opting out of the trek and left the next day to Bukit Lawang because we wanted to see monkeys!
Joey and I really enjoyed Danau Toba because it wasn't too hot and it was just so relaxing.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our minivan ride to Danau Toba. It was one cramped ride. I think the cheap public bus option could possibly have been more comfortable. Our driver was absolutely an insane driver. Constantly speeding up and slamming on breaks. Passing dangerously. I was so sick. Both Joey and I have gotten used to crazy driving and rarely get car sick, but this guy was nuts. We were certainly glad to arrive at the ferry in Patapan.
The lake was absolutely stunning. So big and vast. It felt like being back home on the lake. I love the smell of lake water and the engine fumes from boats. Brings back good memories of my Papa's Rum Runner on Harrison lake. It was a change from being on a boat in the ocean. The ride wasn't so windy and bumpy! I could relax. On the boat ride there we met a Malaysian couple named CJ and Matthew. We were planning to stay at the same place so we just started talking. They seemed really cool so we planned on renting motorbikes the next day and exploring the island of Samosir.
That night we joined up with our new found friends for some dinner. Matthew and CJ were doing as the locals do and enjoying a magical mushroom omelette. Joey and I decided to pass. By the way, magic mushrooms are completely legal in Indonesia because it is apart of so many indigenous people's culture. Next thing we know Matthew is in La La land and cannot stop laughing. Meanwhile CJ has a headache and doesn't feel anything. I imagine that it was just as fun to watch Matthew as it would have been on mushrooms. It made for an interesting night! I'm sure CJ had a great time trying to take Matthew back to the room that night.
The next morning, Matthew was back to his normal self and we were all ready to set out on an adventure around the island. We stopped to enjoy the scenery and take some pics. Matthew and Joey got to talk about cameras a lot. CJ and I got to pretend we were interested a lot. Haha. The scenery was amazing. Lush green rice fields on the beach and rolling hills in the distance. Such a great place to spend the day.
We headed to the "Batak Museum" which turned out to be pretty lame, but had a toilet so that was cool. We had been told about the hotsprings at the other end of the island that were apparently quite nice. When we got there there was garbage floating in the water and big pipes that redirected the hot water to some pools at this one really dirty looking place. We took one look at the pools and decided it was better not to. There was a lake right there anyways. There had been a really nice beach we had seen along the way that had bright blue water and thats where the four of us decided to go. The water was quite nice. Not too cold, but refreshing!
After our swim we thought it would be a good idea to check out a lake on top of the mountain that apparently changed colours at different times of the year. We headed up a treacherous road where Joey and I nearly bailed off our motorbike a couple of times due to slipperyness and huge potholes. Finally we made it and the scenery paid off. The lake was just a normal lake colour but the rice fields and water buffalo grazing in the pastures was still very beautiful!
The next day we said good bye to our new found Malaysian friends. We spent most of our morning planning out our trip which was quite frustrating. In Indonesia you can only purchase plane tickets online if you have an Indonesian, Malaysian or Singaporean credit card. If you don't have one of these you must brave the english barrier and give the airline a call. It was horrible. It was like calling a call centre in India. I had to spell everything out using the Police Alphabet. Skype also didn't make matters better when it decided to end my call! Joey convinced one of the women that worked at the hotel to help us out. We found out we had to go to the airline's store to pay, or pay on the day we left at the airport.
Later on I took a cooking class with a lady named Hetty. I had a great time learning how to make traditional batak indonesian food. Especially because I chose vegetarian options. Hetty was a really great teacher. She was also very friendly and great to talk to. Joey worked while I played in the kitchen but he joined me for dinner later on. During dinner we met an American couple named Meaghan and Matt. They were really friendly so we invited them to try some of my creations. We invited them to play some cards later on that night.
Meaghan and Matt met us at our hotel to play cards (they were staying there too) and we had a great time just talking and playing rummy. During all of this there was a massive thunder and lightening storm. It was so cool to see the whole sky light up every time lightening struck.
The next morning Joey and I were up bright and early to start our journey to Berastagi. We had to be quite creative to get there by public bus because there is no direct public bus between the two places. We had to transfer a lot and try to get over language barriers. After about 7 hours of traveling we were finally in Berastagi. We had heard so much of this place, but were quite disappointed at what we saw. It just looked like another junky, dirty Indonesian town.
Joey ran into Ali and Rachel who were some Canadian girls from Victoria that we met in Medan. We were trying to plan a trek with them, but Joey and I ended up opting out of the trek and left the next day to Bukit Lawang because we wanted to see monkeys!
Joey and I really enjoyed Danau Toba because it wasn't too hot and it was just so relaxing.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sweet Sumatra
After having a not so welcoming first couple of hours in Sumatra, we are warming up to Medan. Despite it being such a city infested by rats and covered in garbage, the people are amazingly nice. A lot of them just want to practice English so they will talk to you about anything. Joey and I are still skeptical when talking to locals in these countries because there have been so many times when the person talking to you just wanted money, and actually didn't care to talk. Here you can tell most of them, if not all are genuine, which is awesome.
Yesterday we decided to go to Hotel Sumatera which turned out to be a nightmare. The room was gross, and their idea of a shower was a bucket with water. Plus the staff was just not friendly at all. We decided to move to a place called Pondok Angel which is a bit better and the staff are a lot nicer. Last night we stayed up having beers with some of the staff and their friends, as well as with 2 Canadian girls (One is from Victoria and we have mutual friends), and 2 Aussie guys. It was nice to have a group of people together talking and drinking beers. This is probably my favourite part of traveling.
That night we went back to our hotel room and had the absolute worst sleep ever. We were right by a karaoke bar and the sound from traffic on the road was horrendous. We had to keep the windows open because our fan barely worked and it was so so so hot. We made many mosquitoes happy last night. Looking at my arms today, I guess I was tasty. Just when traffic had calmed down and the karaoke bar closed the Mosque down the road blared their call to prayer music as they could. Absolutely brutal!
Today has been quite uneventful. We moved to Pondok Angel, and slept most of the afternoon to catch up on much needed sleep. When we walked around the town we met lots of locals wanting to practice their English. They love to ask questions. What would maybe seem invasive back home is totally normal for them. Both of us certainly don't mind being asked every question under the sun because it really is nice to see a piece of life the locals lead.
Tomorrow we are heading of to Danau Toba which is the biggest freshwater lake in South East Asia. Apparently it is beautiful and very relaxing. Both of us can't wait.
Yesterday we decided to go to Hotel Sumatera which turned out to be a nightmare. The room was gross, and their idea of a shower was a bucket with water. Plus the staff was just not friendly at all. We decided to move to a place called Pondok Angel which is a bit better and the staff are a lot nicer. Last night we stayed up having beers with some of the staff and their friends, as well as with 2 Canadian girls (One is from Victoria and we have mutual friends), and 2 Aussie guys. It was nice to have a group of people together talking and drinking beers. This is probably my favourite part of traveling.
That night we went back to our hotel room and had the absolute worst sleep ever. We were right by a karaoke bar and the sound from traffic on the road was horrendous. We had to keep the windows open because our fan barely worked and it was so so so hot. We made many mosquitoes happy last night. Looking at my arms today, I guess I was tasty. Just when traffic had calmed down and the karaoke bar closed the Mosque down the road blared their call to prayer music as they could. Absolutely brutal!
Today has been quite uneventful. We moved to Pondok Angel, and slept most of the afternoon to catch up on much needed sleep. When we walked around the town we met lots of locals wanting to practice their English. They love to ask questions. What would maybe seem invasive back home is totally normal for them. Both of us certainly don't mind being asked every question under the sun because it really is nice to see a piece of life the locals lead.
Tomorrow we are heading of to Danau Toba which is the biggest freshwater lake in South East Asia. Apparently it is beautiful and very relaxing. Both of us can't wait.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Bad luck
So we started the day off with some bad luck. Apparently we are idiots and booked our flight for Thursday, not Tuesday. So we ended up having to buy a ticket today because we didn't want to spend another minute in Snorin' Singapore.
After a mad dash to our gate, we boarded the plane, and now we're here in Medan. Unfortunately Joey's luggage did not arrive, and neither did the raincover for my backpack. Crappy thing is that their English is very limited, so we don't know what the hell is happening with his bag. We're stuck in Medan, when we really wanted to go to Berastagi. Hopefully everything works out.
After a mad dash to our gate, we boarded the plane, and now we're here in Medan. Unfortunately Joey's luggage did not arrive, and neither did the raincover for my backpack. Crappy thing is that their English is very limited, so we don't know what the hell is happening with his bag. We're stuck in Medan, when we really wanted to go to Berastagi. Hopefully everything works out.
Spend Spend Spend Singapore
Joey and I were expecting accomodation in Singapore to be ridiculously expensive so we used our trusty couchsurfing.org account and set up a couch surfing date with a guy named Ren. Getting to the MTR station where we were going to meet him was easy peasy. Transportation in Singapore is something you could in a coma. It's that easy.
Our host, Ren, took us to his place where we dropped off our bags. After we got a bit settled he took us to a couple of local hangout spots in Singapore. It was a Saturday night after all. We decided to hang out total backpacker style. Go to the corner store and buy your beer there and then find somewhere nice to drink. There were tons of young Singaporeans and backpackers in the Clarke Quay party zone. Many were dressed to the nines and the smell of expensive perfume hung in the air. I was content wearing my grubby lululemon's and a tiger beer in hand, while sitting on a bridge. Joey and I like to keep it classy. People watching was fun enough for us anyways.
We walked around the club area and saw quite a few interesting bars. There was one that was hospital themed where the seating area looked like a waiting room and some of the chairs were wheelchairs. The coolest thing was that your drink could come in an IV with it's very own stand. Absolute pure genius. There was also a Burger King bar. If I liked Burger King that would have impressed me. There were lots of other bars, but most of them were just your typical fancy pants ones.
The next day, all three of us checked out Little India. We walked around and took in the sights of beautiful saree's, fresh vegetable and fruits stand, and the scents of curries and incense wafted in the air. Joey and I were craving Indian food. (Not unusual for us) so we went to a vegetarian restaurant for some thali's. For those of you who don't know what a thali is, it's either bread, rice (biryani) or both, with tons of curries, sauces, and chutneys. It's an array of delicious things. They are very filling, and some places also do unlimited refills. Its a cheap way to get ridiculously stuffed.
Later that day, Ren had to go to work, so Joey and I braved Orchard street. We (well, really it was me) had to exercise self control not to buy all the cool things for sale in the many malls on this road. We searched far and wide for the Lonely Planet Indonesia guide but came home with nothing.
Later that night we met up with Ren again and a few of his friends to check out the Mosaic music festival. Ren wanted to see the Philippino band that was playing. I don't know what it is about Singaporeans but they are absolutely the worst audience for music festivals, especially hiphop or any music you can dance to. First off, everyone was sitting. No one was dancing. In a sea of over 200 people, there was maybe 5 people nodding their heads or moving slightly. Another 100 were watching the show through their camera as they took video. The others sat in silence. Joey and I couldn't believe it, so we tried to compensate for their meekness with hooting and hollering. You could tell the artists on stage were quite frustrated with their comatose audience. I felt embarrassed for Singaporeans. This was a very bad representation of their coolness/liveliness. After that luke warm experience, we headed home because we were all tired.
Joey and I had to wake up early to continue our quest for the Indonesia book. Our day was quite uneventful. It involved the MTR and a bazillion malls. Finally we found our book and it was about time to meet Ren for dinner. We met him at city hall and walked to an outdoor market with every food you could possibly imagine. It was awesome. We were really thankful to be with someone who knew a little about the city. Ren is from Manila and only moved to Singapore a couple of months ago. We enjoyed seeing the inside scoop of Singapore despite there not being much. Overall both of us found Singapore to be a very boring city because we didn't have money to buy monetary goods. We were glad to be leaving this morning to somewhere more adventurous. Like Sumatra.
Our host, Ren, took us to his place where we dropped off our bags. After we got a bit settled he took us to a couple of local hangout spots in Singapore. It was a Saturday night after all. We decided to hang out total backpacker style. Go to the corner store and buy your beer there and then find somewhere nice to drink. There were tons of young Singaporeans and backpackers in the Clarke Quay party zone. Many were dressed to the nines and the smell of expensive perfume hung in the air. I was content wearing my grubby lululemon's and a tiger beer in hand, while sitting on a bridge. Joey and I like to keep it classy. People watching was fun enough for us anyways.
We walked around the club area and saw quite a few interesting bars. There was one that was hospital themed where the seating area looked like a waiting room and some of the chairs were wheelchairs. The coolest thing was that your drink could come in an IV with it's very own stand. Absolute pure genius. There was also a Burger King bar. If I liked Burger King that would have impressed me. There were lots of other bars, but most of them were just your typical fancy pants ones.
The next day, all three of us checked out Little India. We walked around and took in the sights of beautiful saree's, fresh vegetable and fruits stand, and the scents of curries and incense wafted in the air. Joey and I were craving Indian food. (Not unusual for us) so we went to a vegetarian restaurant for some thali's. For those of you who don't know what a thali is, it's either bread, rice (biryani) or both, with tons of curries, sauces, and chutneys. It's an array of delicious things. They are very filling, and some places also do unlimited refills. Its a cheap way to get ridiculously stuffed.
Later that day, Ren had to go to work, so Joey and I braved Orchard street. We (well, really it was me) had to exercise self control not to buy all the cool things for sale in the many malls on this road. We searched far and wide for the Lonely Planet Indonesia guide but came home with nothing.
Later that night we met up with Ren again and a few of his friends to check out the Mosaic music festival. Ren wanted to see the Philippino band that was playing. I don't know what it is about Singaporeans but they are absolutely the worst audience for music festivals, especially hiphop or any music you can dance to. First off, everyone was sitting. No one was dancing. In a sea of over 200 people, there was maybe 5 people nodding their heads or moving slightly. Another 100 were watching the show through their camera as they took video. The others sat in silence. Joey and I couldn't believe it, so we tried to compensate for their meekness with hooting and hollering. You could tell the artists on stage were quite frustrated with their comatose audience. I felt embarrassed for Singaporeans. This was a very bad representation of their coolness/liveliness. After that luke warm experience, we headed home because we were all tired.
Joey and I had to wake up early to continue our quest for the Indonesia book. Our day was quite uneventful. It involved the MTR and a bazillion malls. Finally we found our book and it was about time to meet Ren for dinner. We met him at city hall and walked to an outdoor market with every food you could possibly imagine. It was awesome. We were really thankful to be with someone who knew a little about the city. Ren is from Manila and only moved to Singapore a couple of months ago. We enjoyed seeing the inside scoop of Singapore despite there not being much. Overall both of us found Singapore to be a very boring city because we didn't have money to buy monetary goods. We were glad to be leaving this morning to somewhere more adventurous. Like Sumatra.
Don't let the bed bugs bite!
After our brief rendez-vous in the Perhentian Islands it was time to hit the big city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (KL for short). We had heard it was quite a boring city with not much to do. This was definitely the case but Joey and I made the best of it by making an effort to see this sites the city does have.
We arrived by night bus (surprise surprise) quite early in the morning and started to walk over to the monorail through a somewhat sketchy part of town. It was 6 in the morning and not many people were out, which made it even more scary. We made it to the monorail safely and were on our way to the Golden Triangle which is a section of town where all the nightlife and shopping is. It's also apparently where the guesthouses don't have bedbugs, unlike the Chinatown neighbour!
Our guesthouse was on top of what seemed to be an abandoned restaurant. We were greeted by the guesthouse owner who was very nice and helpful. Joey and I still had plenty of time to sleep so we could be refreshed and awake for our day of sightseeing. When we got into our room we inspected for bedbugs because thats what Lonely Planet said to do. It looked like the bed was clear from bugs so we slept soundly!
After our 4 hour nap to make up for the bad sleep on the bus the night before we headed for Chinatown and Little India. Both of which were quite disappointing. It's not like in Canada where there is traditional Chinese architecture and paintings. It's pretty much a modern part of town with a market running through it, not too mention full of other tourists! After that we headed to Little India, which was a little bit more authentic without all the dirt! The smell of curry and incense was delectable.
We decided to make the most of our day and head over to the National Mosque. For those of you who don't know, Islam is Malaysia's official religion and a vast majority of Malays are muslim. The mosque wasn't exactly what Joey was expecting but I thought the architecture was quite modern and pleasing to the eye. Joey was expecting a more traditional looking mosque. Both of us had to wear ugly purple robes. Joey had to cover his tattoos and I had to cover everything but my face. I'm glad the robe was my favourite colour because I may have otherwise been not too pleased. We got a nice tour from a volunteer lady who gave us some insight to the meaning of the architecture in the building. She also showed us some pamphlets on Islam. I am quite curious about this religion for many reasons. This brochures were very informative about why they dress the way the do, what jihad is, what is Ramadan, and why they don't eat pork. It was actually quite interesting.\
That night we woke up to a bedbug feast. Would have been ok if I hadn't been what they were feasting on! We found about 20 bedbugs in the bed. Many of which were full of my blood when we killed them. They weren't attracted to Joey at all, but loved me. After a killing spree we felt ok to go to sleep again. 2 hours later I woke up and turned on the light to see more of the pests in the bed. After another raid, I had a hard time falling back asleep. Despite paying $20 a night for a room, we were still having to deal with bedbugs. It is definitely an apparent problem that guesthouses in KL have to deal with on a daily and weekly basis. We know the place we were staying in was clean and it wasn't because of them (it's more likely other travelers who transfer the bugs) so we decided to stay there for a second night. The next night we just armed ourselves with DEET and checking the bed every 3 hours. We were okay!
The next day Joey and I made our way over to the Petronas Towers which are the 5th tallest buildings in the world. Big whoopty doo. We went quite early in the morning to get our free ticket to go to the bridge that connects the two tours. We had to wait until 4:45 for our showing, so we ended up staying in the mall all day. Both of us bought rash guards for diving and then we saw Alice in Wonderland in the theatre which was quite fun. The bridge itself was only 42 storeys up so it was nothing spectacular, neither was the 3D propaganda Petronas movie we were forced to watch.
The next day we were glad to be getting out of KL. Although it was a nice clean city, there wasn't much to do, and besides it's a city. Joey and I have learned from this trip we don't like cities. Unfortunate for us we were headed to Singapore!
We arrived by night bus (surprise surprise) quite early in the morning and started to walk over to the monorail through a somewhat sketchy part of town. It was 6 in the morning and not many people were out, which made it even more scary. We made it to the monorail safely and were on our way to the Golden Triangle which is a section of town where all the nightlife and shopping is. It's also apparently where the guesthouses don't have bedbugs, unlike the Chinatown neighbour!
Our guesthouse was on top of what seemed to be an abandoned restaurant. We were greeted by the guesthouse owner who was very nice and helpful. Joey and I still had plenty of time to sleep so we could be refreshed and awake for our day of sightseeing. When we got into our room we inspected for bedbugs because thats what Lonely Planet said to do. It looked like the bed was clear from bugs so we slept soundly!
After our 4 hour nap to make up for the bad sleep on the bus the night before we headed for Chinatown and Little India. Both of which were quite disappointing. It's not like in Canada where there is traditional Chinese architecture and paintings. It's pretty much a modern part of town with a market running through it, not too mention full of other tourists! After that we headed to Little India, which was a little bit more authentic without all the dirt! The smell of curry and incense was delectable.
We decided to make the most of our day and head over to the National Mosque. For those of you who don't know, Islam is Malaysia's official religion and a vast majority of Malays are muslim. The mosque wasn't exactly what Joey was expecting but I thought the architecture was quite modern and pleasing to the eye. Joey was expecting a more traditional looking mosque. Both of us had to wear ugly purple robes. Joey had to cover his tattoos and I had to cover everything but my face. I'm glad the robe was my favourite colour because I may have otherwise been not too pleased. We got a nice tour from a volunteer lady who gave us some insight to the meaning of the architecture in the building. She also showed us some pamphlets on Islam. I am quite curious about this religion for many reasons. This brochures were very informative about why they dress the way the do, what jihad is, what is Ramadan, and why they don't eat pork. It was actually quite interesting.\
That night we woke up to a bedbug feast. Would have been ok if I hadn't been what they were feasting on! We found about 20 bedbugs in the bed. Many of which were full of my blood when we killed them. They weren't attracted to Joey at all, but loved me. After a killing spree we felt ok to go to sleep again. 2 hours later I woke up and turned on the light to see more of the pests in the bed. After another raid, I had a hard time falling back asleep. Despite paying $20 a night for a room, we were still having to deal with bedbugs. It is definitely an apparent problem that guesthouses in KL have to deal with on a daily and weekly basis. We know the place we were staying in was clean and it wasn't because of them (it's more likely other travelers who transfer the bugs) so we decided to stay there for a second night. The next night we just armed ourselves with DEET and checking the bed every 3 hours. We were okay!
The next day Joey and I made our way over to the Petronas Towers which are the 5th tallest buildings in the world. Big whoopty doo. We went quite early in the morning to get our free ticket to go to the bridge that connects the two tours. We had to wait until 4:45 for our showing, so we ended up staying in the mall all day. Both of us bought rash guards for diving and then we saw Alice in Wonderland in the theatre which was quite fun. The bridge itself was only 42 storeys up so it was nothing spectacular, neither was the 3D propaganda Petronas movie we were forced to watch.
The next day we were glad to be getting out of KL. Although it was a nice clean city, there wasn't much to do, and besides it's a city. Joey and I have learned from this trip we don't like cities. Unfortunate for us we were headed to Singapore!
Diving in the Perhentian Islands
We pretty much had to pry ourselves away from Annie's homestay. We felt like it was paradise and exactly what we needed at this point in our trip. But all good things must come to an end. Both of us were looking forward to sand and sun in the Perhentian Islands on the East side of Malaysia.
One of the sad things about leaving Annie's was that we had to take yet another night bus. Never are these rides ever fun. This busride was especially craptastic because the bus would stop at random stops throughout the country side and the conductor would yell something out. Being all groggy from our sleeping pills, we would walk up in a panic every single time. To make matters worse, the bus was freezing cold. The Asian addiction of A/C is sometimes unbearable, especially on buses and in movie theatres! Of course it's too hot outside to even think of bringing a sweater, so Joey and I always suffer. Such a hard life!
We arrived in Kuala Besut around 6:30, just in time to buy a ticket for the 8am boats leaving to the islands 15 km off the coast. The boatride was quite calm and when we got to the islands the water was amazingly clear. blue Even being in 8 metre deep water you could see the bottom. We arrived at our resort and had a much deserved 3 hour nap so we could deal with the rest of our day of lazying on the beach.
When we woke up Joey and I went on the search for a diving place that had cheap dives for our Advanced open water certificate. We decided to dive with Alu Alu. The owner seemed kind of slimey but our dive instructor Karl seemed really cool and down to earth. The dives we chose were a wreck dive and a dive to practice our buoyancy.
Our first dive involved a 330 foot long ship wreck (Sugar Wreck) in open ocean. I was quite nervous at first because the waves were choppy and the current was strong. When we began our dive my fears were lessened because the ship looked so neat. It is only a 10 year old wreck so it isn't totally taken over by coral but you can see how fast the sea works to make something unnatural part of itself. So many fish and other sea life surrounded the ship. Our plan was was to dive around the side into the cargo areas that were open instead of actually penetrating the inside which is too advanced for Joey and I at this point. It was kind of eerie to go through the small passage and see all the fish that were hiding in the darkness. The dive was great aside from the poor visibility. The dive season in the Perhentian islands just started so visibility is still not at it's best.
The second dive was at Shark Point quite close to the beach where our resort is. The coral was stunning. Just like in a movie. We saw lots of different coloured fish. First we had to do some boring stuff like float upside down and work on our breathing and buoyancy. Then we go to go through an obstacle course to prove our skills to our instructor. It was kind of neat, but what I really wanted to do was see some sharks and some sea turtles. After the instructional stuff was over we did a bit of a fun dive. We ended up seeing lots of cool fish and a reef shark. I was sad that we didn't see a sea turtle though. Hayley and Tim went on two fun dives and saw turtles both times! No fair!
The next day we had a lazy day on the beach and hung out with Hayley and Tim who had arrived a day after us. We knew this would be our last beach for a while and we wanted to savour every moment of it.
One of the sad things about leaving Annie's was that we had to take yet another night bus. Never are these rides ever fun. This busride was especially craptastic because the bus would stop at random stops throughout the country side and the conductor would yell something out. Being all groggy from our sleeping pills, we would walk up in a panic every single time. To make matters worse, the bus was freezing cold. The Asian addiction of A/C is sometimes unbearable, especially on buses and in movie theatres! Of course it's too hot outside to even think of bringing a sweater, so Joey and I always suffer. Such a hard life!
We arrived in Kuala Besut around 6:30, just in time to buy a ticket for the 8am boats leaving to the islands 15 km off the coast. The boatride was quite calm and when we got to the islands the water was amazingly clear. blue Even being in 8 metre deep water you could see the bottom. We arrived at our resort and had a much deserved 3 hour nap so we could deal with the rest of our day of lazying on the beach.
When we woke up Joey and I went on the search for a diving place that had cheap dives for our Advanced open water certificate. We decided to dive with Alu Alu. The owner seemed kind of slimey but our dive instructor Karl seemed really cool and down to earth. The dives we chose were a wreck dive and a dive to practice our buoyancy.
Our first dive involved a 330 foot long ship wreck (Sugar Wreck) in open ocean. I was quite nervous at first because the waves were choppy and the current was strong. When we began our dive my fears were lessened because the ship looked so neat. It is only a 10 year old wreck so it isn't totally taken over by coral but you can see how fast the sea works to make something unnatural part of itself. So many fish and other sea life surrounded the ship. Our plan was was to dive around the side into the cargo areas that were open instead of actually penetrating the inside which is too advanced for Joey and I at this point. It was kind of eerie to go through the small passage and see all the fish that were hiding in the darkness. The dive was great aside from the poor visibility. The dive season in the Perhentian islands just started so visibility is still not at it's best.
The second dive was at Shark Point quite close to the beach where our resort is. The coral was stunning. Just like in a movie. We saw lots of different coloured fish. First we had to do some boring stuff like float upside down and work on our breathing and buoyancy. Then we go to go through an obstacle course to prove our skills to our instructor. It was kind of neat, but what I really wanted to do was see some sharks and some sea turtles. After the instructional stuff was over we did a bit of a fun dive. We ended up seeing lots of cool fish and a reef shark. I was sad that we didn't see a sea turtle though. Hayley and Tim went on two fun dives and saw turtles both times! No fair!
The next day we had a lazy day on the beach and hung out with Hayley and Tim who had arrived a day after us. We knew this would be our last beach for a while and we wanted to savour every moment of it.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Annie's Homestay in Penang
After feeling like an unwanted foreigner in Thailand for the last 6 weeks, Joey and I were in dire need of a place with people who were friendly and wanted to show us a piece of their life. This is where Annie's homestay came into play. It was a little out of the way and our cabbie got lost, but in the end we were on the doorstop of a cute suburban house.
Later on that day after settling into our room and walking around Batu Ferringhi (a suburb/beach are of Penang), we met our other housemates and Annie! Annie was a cute little Indian woman with a big heart and you could feel this from the moment we met her. Both of us felt at home. Her husband Raj and her kids were as equally awesome.
We were able to do what we wanted, which really made if feel like home for us. Able to cook, watch tv, sleep, and lazy around as we pleased. We met another couple named Hayley and Tim who were really awesome. We went out for a couple of meals and just sat around and talked. Joey and I were glad to have friends again! It had been a while since we had another couple to talk to, especially ones that were cool and easy to get on with.
That day Joey and I went for a walk to the Spice Garden that was about 4km out of town. Oh it was so so so hot outside. Joey was sweating buckets and his shirt grey shirt wasn't so flattering. I wasn't feeling to sexy myself. We stopped off a beach to take pictures of a big monitor lizard that we had seen playing in the waves. Little did we know that Joey couldn't get out of the beach because it was surrounded by walls. Finally he used a slimey two by four to climb up! It was quite funny. At the spice garden we got a guide to show us an assortment of spices and herbs. He told us about the origin, related plans, and my favourite: the medicinal purposes! I had a lot of fun, and Joey pretended too. I am glad that he is so supportive of my interests! I don't many people's partners that would join them to see a Spice Garden!
The second night we were in Penang, all four of us met Annie and Raj for some late night cheap beers at a bar close to their house. It was really great conversation on the beach with the stars. Lots of laughter and learning about eachother's culture. We extended the invitation of a place to stay to Annie and Raj if they ever dare to come to Canada. They are a bit too afraid of the cold. The bar that we were in was filled with Malaysians, not expats which is a rarity for most of the bars we've ever gone to. Most SEA countries we have gone to, the locals don't drink that much. We were glad to finally be drinking with some locals again!
The next day me, Joey, Hayley and Tim went to check out Georgetown. Unfortunately the town closes down on Sundays because most people want to spend that day with the family. We went to Little India for some lunch and attempted to look at the limited shops that were actually open. After lunch we decided to take a stroll down Love Lane, which was a road highlighted in our Lonely Planet. Apparently it's an unsafe place at night because travelers have been mugged, so we didn't think that it would be bad in the day. Little did we know that taking a picture of Love Lane would turn into a full on confrontation from a homeless Indian man. Hayley took a picture of the road sign and wasn't really paying attention if anyone was in the picture. Next thing she knows there is a really tall lanky Indian guy running from across the street trying to steal her camera. Yelling at her in broken English.
The other 3 of us went to her rescue. The man started saying that she was "snacking" at him and that Joey and Tim shouldn't allow her to speak to him like that. When in reality all she said was something along of the lines of "what are you doing? I am taking a picture of the sign." He got quite irate and in her face. Pointing his long gross finger at her face and yelling at her. At this point Joey stepped in and said that it was nothing and that Hayley wasn't doing anything wrong. The guy quickly realized there were 4 of us, and 1 of him. That didn't stop him from threatening Hayley by saying "Next time, I will break your head." He walked further down Love Lane and then disappeared. We walked past him a bit later while he was sitting on a chair. We didn't know what to expect, so we just ignored him and went on our merry way.
Later on that night I helped make a feast with the Swedish couple that was staying at the homestay and Annie. We made pouli's (an Indian flat bread), potato curry and a vegetable dish. It was a lot work to do, but thankfully Annie was such an expert and guided us along the whole way. The dinner afterward was very delicious and rewarding. After dinner Annie thought it would be fun to dress me up in one of her saree's. Oh boy was it ever fun. I have always thought that the saree was a very beautiful dress and I was very excited to see how flattering it would be on me. Annie got all of her gold jewelery and bangles for me to put on as well. It was so much fun putting everything on. I could almost compare it to getting dressed for prom!
After I had the saree on, I came down the stairs of the house like I would have on prom night while everyone looked at him, and Joey snapped pictures. It was like playing house! So much fun. I'm so glad that Annie shared this experience with me. I can't wait to go to India one day and maybe wear a saree.
Later on that day after settling into our room and walking around Batu Ferringhi (a suburb/beach are of Penang), we met our other housemates and Annie! Annie was a cute little Indian woman with a big heart and you could feel this from the moment we met her. Both of us felt at home. Her husband Raj and her kids were as equally awesome.
We were able to do what we wanted, which really made if feel like home for us. Able to cook, watch tv, sleep, and lazy around as we pleased. We met another couple named Hayley and Tim who were really awesome. We went out for a couple of meals and just sat around and talked. Joey and I were glad to have friends again! It had been a while since we had another couple to talk to, especially ones that were cool and easy to get on with.
That day Joey and I went for a walk to the Spice Garden that was about 4km out of town. Oh it was so so so hot outside. Joey was sweating buckets and his shirt grey shirt wasn't so flattering. I wasn't feeling to sexy myself. We stopped off a beach to take pictures of a big monitor lizard that we had seen playing in the waves. Little did we know that Joey couldn't get out of the beach because it was surrounded by walls. Finally he used a slimey two by four to climb up! It was quite funny. At the spice garden we got a guide to show us an assortment of spices and herbs. He told us about the origin, related plans, and my favourite: the medicinal purposes! I had a lot of fun, and Joey pretended too. I am glad that he is so supportive of my interests! I don't many people's partners that would join them to see a Spice Garden!
The second night we were in Penang, all four of us met Annie and Raj for some late night cheap beers at a bar close to their house. It was really great conversation on the beach with the stars. Lots of laughter and learning about eachother's culture. We extended the invitation of a place to stay to Annie and Raj if they ever dare to come to Canada. They are a bit too afraid of the cold. The bar that we were in was filled with Malaysians, not expats which is a rarity for most of the bars we've ever gone to. Most SEA countries we have gone to, the locals don't drink that much. We were glad to finally be drinking with some locals again!
The next day me, Joey, Hayley and Tim went to check out Georgetown. Unfortunately the town closes down on Sundays because most people want to spend that day with the family. We went to Little India for some lunch and attempted to look at the limited shops that were actually open. After lunch we decided to take a stroll down Love Lane, which was a road highlighted in our Lonely Planet. Apparently it's an unsafe place at night because travelers have been mugged, so we didn't think that it would be bad in the day. Little did we know that taking a picture of Love Lane would turn into a full on confrontation from a homeless Indian man. Hayley took a picture of the road sign and wasn't really paying attention if anyone was in the picture. Next thing she knows there is a really tall lanky Indian guy running from across the street trying to steal her camera. Yelling at her in broken English.
The other 3 of us went to her rescue. The man started saying that she was "snacking" at him and that Joey and Tim shouldn't allow her to speak to him like that. When in reality all she said was something along of the lines of "what are you doing? I am taking a picture of the sign." He got quite irate and in her face. Pointing his long gross finger at her face and yelling at her. At this point Joey stepped in and said that it was nothing and that Hayley wasn't doing anything wrong. The guy quickly realized there were 4 of us, and 1 of him. That didn't stop him from threatening Hayley by saying "Next time, I will break your head." He walked further down Love Lane and then disappeared. We walked past him a bit later while he was sitting on a chair. We didn't know what to expect, so we just ignored him and went on our merry way.
Later on that night I helped make a feast with the Swedish couple that was staying at the homestay and Annie. We made pouli's (an Indian flat bread), potato curry and a vegetable dish. It was a lot work to do, but thankfully Annie was such an expert and guided us along the whole way. The dinner afterward was very delicious and rewarding. After dinner Annie thought it would be fun to dress me up in one of her saree's. Oh boy was it ever fun. I have always thought that the saree was a very beautiful dress and I was very excited to see how flattering it would be on me. Annie got all of her gold jewelery and bangles for me to put on as well. It was so much fun putting everything on. I could almost compare it to getting dressed for prom!
After I had the saree on, I came down the stairs of the house like I would have on prom night while everyone looked at him, and Joey snapped pictures. It was like playing house! So much fun. I'm so glad that Annie shared this experience with me. I can't wait to go to India one day and maybe wear a saree.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Fast Forward Through Southern Thailand
Ok... We spent another 3 weeks in Southern Thailand. I will do a brief blog because I would rather be writing about present things because it's way easier to do so. My thoughts are fresh and I would really be sad if I forgot some things about Malaysia! I apologize in advance for this very vague blog about Southern Thailand. What you need to know about Southern Thailand is that it is seriously overrun with tourists, people are always trying to rip you off, you can't really trust anyone, there is lots of partying and prostitutes, and most of the food is hit or miss!
Bangkok ---> Krabi
Joey and I decided to skip out on Bangkok and fly directly to Krabi. This involved spending 8 hours in the Bangkok airport. We decided to pamper ourselves. I got my nails done and Joey got a bad haircut :)
In Krabi we arrived late at night and found it hard to find a place to stay. We finally found a place called Guesthouse No. 7. We got an amazing room called Peachy Peach. It was comfy, had bunk beds and had a/c. For only $15 we were in heaven.
Krabi ---> Ko Lanta
Ko Lanta is an island off the coast of Krabi. It's predominantly a muslim island so it is quite conservative there. It's a great place for families and if you're looking to relax and not party. We found a place called New Coconut Resort. Our room was quite gross and quite literally falling apart. We also had a horrible ant infestation. The plus side was that we were on the beach, so who cared.
Joey and I spent 5 days there snorkeling, hiking and exploring the island. It was quite relaxing after being in stressful Myanmar for the last two weeks.
Joey got a tattoo the night before we left with a guy who had a tattoo place by our resort. This Thai guy used to be a monk and lived in England for 10 years as a tattoo artist. He had a clean workspace and told us all about his sanitation standards. Both of us felt comfortable with him so we decided this would be a good option for Joey because the tattoos in Thailand are considerably cheaper than back home.
Joey started his tattoo at 8pm because the guy didn't have any a/c in his tattoo studio. They stopped to have a break at 1am, and then continued on until the early morning at 5 am. Joey and I had to be up bright and early to catch a bus back to Krabi at 6:30.
Krabi ---> Ko Samui and Oklahoma?
Joey had a tough time in Burma trying to work because of the lack of internet and internet speed. His work was unimpressed with his work and was seriously contemplating hiring someone else for Joey's position. Not wanting to jepordize his job any further Joey decided to go to headquarters in Stillwater Oklahoma for a week to fix some big problems that their umbrella company was experiencing.
Joey had a great time with airport delays. He was so fortunate enough to have lost his baggage in Chicago and only have flips flops and shorts to wear to work the next morning in Oklahoma. The next week he spent fixing problems and socializing with work people.
While Joey was away I head to Ko Samui by myself. I stayed at a great place called Samui Dojo Resort which was ran by a British man named Geoff. Over the next week I got to know him and his family. I also explored the beach of Lamai and focused on getting back in shape by going for runs everynight. I really missed Joey though!
Ko Samui (Joey's back!!!)
Joey and I spent another 2 days on Ko Samui. We rented a scooter and explored more of the island. We went to an amazing restaurant called Radiance. We fell in love with their vegan food. We especially loved the Raw Vegan Pizza. It was absolutely to die for.
Ko Samui ---> Ko Tao
We decided to see what Ko Tao was all about. We had heard that it was a smaller island with amazing diving. Both of us didn't intend on doing our Open Water PADI course in Ko Tao, but we were convinced by a sales guys from a diving school called Ban's. Next thing you know we're doing the confined underwater with our instructor Tom (who was awesome by the way). It was only us two in our class which was awesome because we breezed through things and were super comfortable with the pace of the class. Diving in the ocean for the first time was unreal. There is so much life. Most of it in beautiful colours and shapes. Both of us were awestruck and in love with this underwater world. During our dives we saw all kinds of fish, and coral formations. The coolest thing we saw was a Sea Snake. They are one of the most deadly snakes in the world but they are not aggressive towards divers. Thank goodness! It took us 2 days to complete our PADI.
Ko Tao ---> Ko Samui
Joey and I were desperate to see the Canada vs. USA hockey game. We looked everywhere and had convinced a Swiss guy who owned a restaurant to stay open until 6 am in the morning so we could watch the game. We realized that we didn't want to watch it by ourselves, so we opted to watch a recorded game the next morning in a bar where we knew there would be other Canadians. There was us, 3 other Canadians and 1 American in the bar at 9am. It was a very intense 3 hours. None of us knew the outcome and were willing to kill anyone who dared tell us. When Canada finally won all the Canadians were super stoked! We sang the national anthem and jumped around like crazy. The American guy left before the awards with a pissed look on his face. The staff in the bar were unimpressed by hockey and kept on asking us if it was over so they could put on MTV. We held our own and continued to watch the festivities!
Ko Samui ---> Ko Phagnan
Full Moon party was next on our agenda. We weren't sure what to expect from the biggest party in the world. It was basically a huge drug and drunk fest. Not really our cup of tea! We did have fun taking in the sights and having a few beers. We found some other Canadians during the party and danced with them for a bit. Other than that, we pretty much just walked around and laughed at the craziness of it all.
Islands ---> Krabi
Yet again we were back at good old Krabi. This time we were there for the rock climbing which is some of the best in the world. The scenery is amazing. Climbing up rock right on the beach couldn't have gotten any better. We met up with a really awesome pair of Canadians called Wade and Kerry. Both of us were starting to get homesick and really just wanted to talk to other Canadians. We had a great time discussing hockey, ice fishing and hunting for wild game.
Krabi ---> Malaysia!
Pretty much sat on a bus all day. It was quite uneventful!
Bangkok ---> Krabi
Joey and I decided to skip out on Bangkok and fly directly to Krabi. This involved spending 8 hours in the Bangkok airport. We decided to pamper ourselves. I got my nails done and Joey got a bad haircut :)
In Krabi we arrived late at night and found it hard to find a place to stay. We finally found a place called Guesthouse No. 7. We got an amazing room called Peachy Peach. It was comfy, had bunk beds and had a/c. For only $15 we were in heaven.
Krabi ---> Ko Lanta
Ko Lanta is an island off the coast of Krabi. It's predominantly a muslim island so it is quite conservative there. It's a great place for families and if you're looking to relax and not party. We found a place called New Coconut Resort. Our room was quite gross and quite literally falling apart. We also had a horrible ant infestation. The plus side was that we were on the beach, so who cared.
Joey and I spent 5 days there snorkeling, hiking and exploring the island. It was quite relaxing after being in stressful Myanmar for the last two weeks.
Joey got a tattoo the night before we left with a guy who had a tattoo place by our resort. This Thai guy used to be a monk and lived in England for 10 years as a tattoo artist. He had a clean workspace and told us all about his sanitation standards. Both of us felt comfortable with him so we decided this would be a good option for Joey because the tattoos in Thailand are considerably cheaper than back home.
Joey started his tattoo at 8pm because the guy didn't have any a/c in his tattoo studio. They stopped to have a break at 1am, and then continued on until the early morning at 5 am. Joey and I had to be up bright and early to catch a bus back to Krabi at 6:30.
Krabi ---> Ko Samui and Oklahoma?
Joey had a tough time in Burma trying to work because of the lack of internet and internet speed. His work was unimpressed with his work and was seriously contemplating hiring someone else for Joey's position. Not wanting to jepordize his job any further Joey decided to go to headquarters in Stillwater Oklahoma for a week to fix some big problems that their umbrella company was experiencing.
Joey had a great time with airport delays. He was so fortunate enough to have lost his baggage in Chicago and only have flips flops and shorts to wear to work the next morning in Oklahoma. The next week he spent fixing problems and socializing with work people.
While Joey was away I head to Ko Samui by myself. I stayed at a great place called Samui Dojo Resort which was ran by a British man named Geoff. Over the next week I got to know him and his family. I also explored the beach of Lamai and focused on getting back in shape by going for runs everynight. I really missed Joey though!
Ko Samui (Joey's back!!!)
Joey and I spent another 2 days on Ko Samui. We rented a scooter and explored more of the island. We went to an amazing restaurant called Radiance. We fell in love with their vegan food. We especially loved the Raw Vegan Pizza. It was absolutely to die for.
Ko Samui ---> Ko Tao
We decided to see what Ko Tao was all about. We had heard that it was a smaller island with amazing diving. Both of us didn't intend on doing our Open Water PADI course in Ko Tao, but we were convinced by a sales guys from a diving school called Ban's. Next thing you know we're doing the confined underwater with our instructor Tom (who was awesome by the way). It was only us two in our class which was awesome because we breezed through things and were super comfortable with the pace of the class. Diving in the ocean for the first time was unreal. There is so much life. Most of it in beautiful colours and shapes. Both of us were awestruck and in love with this underwater world. During our dives we saw all kinds of fish, and coral formations. The coolest thing we saw was a Sea Snake. They are one of the most deadly snakes in the world but they are not aggressive towards divers. Thank goodness! It took us 2 days to complete our PADI.
Ko Tao ---> Ko Samui
Joey and I were desperate to see the Canada vs. USA hockey game. We looked everywhere and had convinced a Swiss guy who owned a restaurant to stay open until 6 am in the morning so we could watch the game. We realized that we didn't want to watch it by ourselves, so we opted to watch a recorded game the next morning in a bar where we knew there would be other Canadians. There was us, 3 other Canadians and 1 American in the bar at 9am. It was a very intense 3 hours. None of us knew the outcome and were willing to kill anyone who dared tell us. When Canada finally won all the Canadians were super stoked! We sang the national anthem and jumped around like crazy. The American guy left before the awards with a pissed look on his face. The staff in the bar were unimpressed by hockey and kept on asking us if it was over so they could put on MTV. We held our own and continued to watch the festivities!
Ko Samui ---> Ko Phagnan
Full Moon party was next on our agenda. We weren't sure what to expect from the biggest party in the world. It was basically a huge drug and drunk fest. Not really our cup of tea! We did have fun taking in the sights and having a few beers. We found some other Canadians during the party and danced with them for a bit. Other than that, we pretty much just walked around and laughed at the craziness of it all.
Islands ---> Krabi
Yet again we were back at good old Krabi. This time we were there for the rock climbing which is some of the best in the world. The scenery is amazing. Climbing up rock right on the beach couldn't have gotten any better. We met up with a really awesome pair of Canadians called Wade and Kerry. Both of us were starting to get homesick and really just wanted to talk to other Canadians. We had a great time discussing hockey, ice fishing and hunting for wild game.
Krabi ---> Malaysia!
Pretty much sat on a bus all day. It was quite uneventful!
Yangon again!
Joey and I got back to Yangon on Feb 6th because we wanted to have a day to spend with our monk friend. We had told him that we would be back on the 4th but weren't able to make that deadline. Apparently he was quite worried and had called our guesthouse looking for us. He was worried that we were hurt.
We went over to his monastery to find him but he wasn't there. So we hung out in a tea shop from across the street hoping we could see him walking there before his polyscript class in the afternoon. We finally found out from another monk that he was sleeping! So we waited a bit more and then decided to brave the monastery. We accidentally interrupted a prayer class trying to get to his room. Joey and I decided not to go any further because we didn't want to disturb anyone. Next thing we know our monk friend is running after us!
He invited us into his room and we showed him all the pictures we took of Myanmar. We also showed him pictures of our travels in Cambodia and Vietnam. He was especially interested in the temple pictures. Burmese people can have no dreams of traveling because most of them are either not allowed to leave the country, or don't have the money to do so. Joey and I decided we would show him what we had seen, and even some pictures of Canada. He was very happy. By the end we even had an audience of novice monks who came to look at the pictures. It was really fun.
We said goodbye to monk friend because we had to get ready for our flight the next day and he had to go to prayer. It was quite sad because we truly felt like we made a friend in a foreign country. We also felt sad because we wanted to show him the world and what else is out there. It felt silly to say "Any time when you're in Canada give us a call." It's just not simple like that with the Burmese which is sad.
That night Joey and I got ready to leave Myanmar. Both of us felt like we could have spent more time there, but with Joey's work 2 weeks was all it could be. Maybe one day we will visit this country again and come see our monk friend in his old age. I hope so.
We went over to his monastery to find him but he wasn't there. So we hung out in a tea shop from across the street hoping we could see him walking there before his polyscript class in the afternoon. We finally found out from another monk that he was sleeping! So we waited a bit more and then decided to brave the monastery. We accidentally interrupted a prayer class trying to get to his room. Joey and I decided not to go any further because we didn't want to disturb anyone. Next thing we know our monk friend is running after us!
He invited us into his room and we showed him all the pictures we took of Myanmar. We also showed him pictures of our travels in Cambodia and Vietnam. He was especially interested in the temple pictures. Burmese people can have no dreams of traveling because most of them are either not allowed to leave the country, or don't have the money to do so. Joey and I decided we would show him what we had seen, and even some pictures of Canada. He was very happy. By the end we even had an audience of novice monks who came to look at the pictures. It was really fun.
We said goodbye to monk friend because we had to get ready for our flight the next day and he had to go to prayer. It was quite sad because we truly felt like we made a friend in a foreign country. We also felt sad because we wanted to show him the world and what else is out there. It felt silly to say "Any time when you're in Canada give us a call." It's just not simple like that with the Burmese which is sad.
That night Joey and I got ready to leave Myanmar. Both of us felt like we could have spent more time there, but with Joey's work 2 weeks was all it could be. Maybe one day we will visit this country again and come see our monk friend in his old age. I hope so.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Sorry for being tardy on blog posts
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to apologize for being behind on the blogs. In Burma I wasn't able to write on the blog because it was blocked and I kind of got out the routine. Also, I've been really busy applying for Universities which as taken up a lot more of my time than expected. I will try to get back on track! Just bear with me.
Cheers!
I just wanted to apologize for being behind on the blogs. In Burma I wasn't able to write on the blog because it was blocked and I kind of got out the routine. Also, I've been really busy applying for Universities which as taken up a lot more of my time than expected. I will try to get back on track! Just bear with me.
Cheers!
Mandalay to Inle Lake
After all the temple fun in Bagan we headed to Mandalay where we parted ways with Andrew, Germaine and Eugenie. We arrived quite late but didn't have trouble finding a place to stay. We decided to check out a food stall mentioned in our Lonely Planet called the Chapati Stand. Oh my, was I ever glad that we did. It was just a couple of cooks cooking outside in a make shift kitchen with a bunch of children's plastic chairs scattered around the side walk. Nothing too fancy that is for sure. The food itself was absolutely amazing. We got chapatis, curried chicken and bottomless dhal. We were in heaven. Along with a Myanmar beer, our meal cost us less than $5.
The next day Joey and I did not do much. Most of the sights to see in Mandalay you have to pay a fee. This fee goes straight into the government's pocket. This is something we would rather avoid. So instead, we walked around in the less touristy places of Mandalay and looked through markets scattered around the city. I could see that Mandalay was not as friendly as Yangon, and it was certainly more dirty. We sort of wished that we had gone to see the Amanpura bridge, but we were feeling cheap and didn't want to risk getting caught without a ticket issued by the government.
That night we left on a sleeper bus. All throughout Asia the word "sleeper bus" has it's own meaning. In Vietnam the buses actually had beds, Cambodia had really soft and cushy chairs with blankets and pillows, Thailand had hard chairs that recline really far and sometimes with a pillow... Myanmar, I don't think got the memo. It was pretty much an old transit bus from Korea. The seats were so tiny and they didn't even have a head rest. It's great if you're a midget, but it's a real neck breaker for tall people like us. haha.
We watched a Burmese movie for 2 hours at a very loud volume. We felt kind of left out because the whole bus was laughing quite hard. Joey and I took a couple of sleeping pills and we were out like lights. It was probably the bumpiest ride we have been on and probably the least comfortable. We were glad to have reached the outskirts of Inle Lake at 4 am which was 3 hours earlier than expected. What we didn't expect was the absolute FREEZING cold. Both wearing shorts and a t-shirt with sandals we got out of the bus to catch a songtheaw (a truck taxi with seats in the back box) where we attempted to put on every piece of warm clothing we owned in the pitch black.
The taxi driver drove us around town trying to find a place that would take us in this early in the morning. Unfortunately this involved waking up a lot of people. We finally found a place that had a room available for us. We were so so so glad to be laying our heads down on a bed.
The next morning we walked around the cute town in Inle Lake. It was quite small and not much to see. Joey was glad that they had an internet cafe with internet that wasn't entirely slow. Internet in Myanmar is still agonizingly slow, but it was almost bearable at this one place.
We found a longboat driver to take us for a tour of Inle Lake the next day. He was pretty excited because he hadn't had a customer for 7 days. We promised to meet him in the morning at 8am.
We set off with our boat driver the next morning. It was quite cold so we were bundled up with hoodies and scarves. We first went to the floating gardens which were pretty impressively. Basically they are gardens that float on water. Our driver didn't speak English very well so we never actually learned why they floated like that. It was definitely neat to see all their veggies, herbs and flowers floating beds. It would be be a cool thing to attempt at home but I think it would take practice.
After that we checked out some silver and silk shops. We watched them make silk scarves and silver jewellery. I was more interested in the silk but most of it was quite expensive. The silver jewellery was nothing special. After that we went to a cigarette making place. Joey and I had already bought a big pack of cigarettes from the market to share with all our smoking relatives (you know who you are haha). They are made out of grape leafs, tabacco, bamboo filter and glutinous rice glue to keep it together. We bought 20 or 30 of them for 20 cents. At the cigarette making place they wanted $4 and they were the exact same brand.
We finished the day with a temple and headed back home. All along the way we saw fisherman using different techniques to catch fish. Some of them were even rowing the boats with their legs, which was quite impressive.
That night we had a tasty dinner at a tea shop and went to bed early because we had a flight back to Yangon the next day.
The next day Joey and I did not do much. Most of the sights to see in Mandalay you have to pay a fee. This fee goes straight into the government's pocket. This is something we would rather avoid. So instead, we walked around in the less touristy places of Mandalay and looked through markets scattered around the city. I could see that Mandalay was not as friendly as Yangon, and it was certainly more dirty. We sort of wished that we had gone to see the Amanpura bridge, but we were feeling cheap and didn't want to risk getting caught without a ticket issued by the government.
That night we left on a sleeper bus. All throughout Asia the word "sleeper bus" has it's own meaning. In Vietnam the buses actually had beds, Cambodia had really soft and cushy chairs with blankets and pillows, Thailand had hard chairs that recline really far and sometimes with a pillow... Myanmar, I don't think got the memo. It was pretty much an old transit bus from Korea. The seats were so tiny and they didn't even have a head rest. It's great if you're a midget, but it's a real neck breaker for tall people like us. haha.
We watched a Burmese movie for 2 hours at a very loud volume. We felt kind of left out because the whole bus was laughing quite hard. Joey and I took a couple of sleeping pills and we were out like lights. It was probably the bumpiest ride we have been on and probably the least comfortable. We were glad to have reached the outskirts of Inle Lake at 4 am which was 3 hours earlier than expected. What we didn't expect was the absolute FREEZING cold. Both wearing shorts and a t-shirt with sandals we got out of the bus to catch a songtheaw (a truck taxi with seats in the back box) where we attempted to put on every piece of warm clothing we owned in the pitch black.
The taxi driver drove us around town trying to find a place that would take us in this early in the morning. Unfortunately this involved waking up a lot of people. We finally found a place that had a room available for us. We were so so so glad to be laying our heads down on a bed.
The next morning we walked around the cute town in Inle Lake. It was quite small and not much to see. Joey was glad that they had an internet cafe with internet that wasn't entirely slow. Internet in Myanmar is still agonizingly slow, but it was almost bearable at this one place.
We found a longboat driver to take us for a tour of Inle Lake the next day. He was pretty excited because he hadn't had a customer for 7 days. We promised to meet him in the morning at 8am.
We set off with our boat driver the next morning. It was quite cold so we were bundled up with hoodies and scarves. We first went to the floating gardens which were pretty impressively. Basically they are gardens that float on water. Our driver didn't speak English very well so we never actually learned why they floated like that. It was definitely neat to see all their veggies, herbs and flowers floating beds. It would be be a cool thing to attempt at home but I think it would take practice.
After that we checked out some silver and silk shops. We watched them make silk scarves and silver jewellery. I was more interested in the silk but most of it was quite expensive. The silver jewellery was nothing special. After that we went to a cigarette making place. Joey and I had already bought a big pack of cigarettes from the market to share with all our smoking relatives (you know who you are haha). They are made out of grape leafs, tabacco, bamboo filter and glutinous rice glue to keep it together. We bought 20 or 30 of them for 20 cents. At the cigarette making place they wanted $4 and they were the exact same brand.
We finished the day with a temple and headed back home. All along the way we saw fisherman using different techniques to catch fish. Some of them were even rowing the boats with their legs, which was quite impressive.
That night we had a tasty dinner at a tea shop and went to bed early because we had a flight back to Yangon the next day.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Bagan
Tuangoo wasn't much of a town. It was a typical Burmese city with tons of tea shops lining the side of the highway. We quickly settled into our hotel, and made our way to a restaurant. Joey was itching to do some work. With our luck, the power turned off and none of the town had light. We thought the only internet cafe in Tuangoo would have a generator.. Much to our dismay, it did not. We would have to sit in the dark for the rest of the night. Sometimes the lights would flicker on. To my terror, when I was going pee with the light out, when the light turned on there was a gecko on my leg. I flipped out. Not because I was scared of the cute little thing but because when you pick them up their tails fall off. I called Joey into save me and he got the thing off with a shampoo bottle.
The next day we all were treated to a free breakfast at the hotel. Getting free breakfast at a hotel in the morning is always a treat, especially if it's different than your typical baguette and eggs. We were in for a treat because the breakfast involved pancakes and a traditional rice and bean pancake topped with shredded coconut and brown sugar. YUMMMY.
It wasn't too long until we got to Bagan. Within 6 hours we were there. When we arrived we stopped at several hotels trying to find one that was decently priced and not so scary looking. We ended up finding a room for $10 a night that included free breakfast. All of us were pretty stoked that we waited to find a good deal. The rooms were dark and kind of gross, but hey, at $10 you can't really complain.
Joey and I wandered the streets looking for a restaurant to eat at. In Burma, most of the food is of Chinese influence. Not in a good way. Its the obscure chinese food most westerners would rather not dabble with. It'd only been a couple of days and we were already getting sick of fried rice. Joey was also trying to avoid meat because of getting sick from eating at another restaurant in Yangon. We were approached by a man in the street who wanted to show us his favourite restaurant. He started giving us the "I have 3 kids at home and am poor" spiel. If you want money, simply ask for it. Instead this guy had the audacity to sit in the restaurant with us, wait for food he ordered and then leave... saying thank you because we just unknowingly bought it for him. I was quite annoyed that he didn't just ask for food, instead he did it so sneakily. The people at the restaurant were embarrassed and didn't charge us for it.
The next day we had a day full of exploring temples. Bagan has the most temples in a certain square kilometres (can't remember the number but its not very big). All you can see is temples as far as the eye can see. Some are gold, some are limestone, brick. Some are immaculate, some are new and some are ancient and barely standing. It was so diverse. We enjoyed ourselves more than Angkor Wat because there were barely any tourists. The only thing that was rough was all the people trying to sell you stuff. It was really hard to say no to people because you know they are so poor. Joey and I actually found it quite intense. These people were intent on selling you their stuff for way less than it cost just so they could feed their families. Children were everywhere begging for money, food, shampoo, anything. It was very overwhelming because we knew the lives that these people lead and it's not easy being from Burma. We wish we could help everyone but we are not made of money even though the colour of our skin may make them think we do.
At sunset we went to the biggest temple to watch the sun set on the valley of temples. It was an incredible sight to see. Some temples were glimmering with gold and the sheer size of some was really impressive.
The next day we did more temples. Unlike Angor Wat in Cambodia these ones were a lot more interesting because they were more pristine. Some had beautiful cotton paintings on the wall that told stories. We even went into a temple that had a meditation cave. It was like a dungeon underground. It was really neat. It was nice to have a sense of adventure in these caves.
The next day we all were treated to a free breakfast at the hotel. Getting free breakfast at a hotel in the morning is always a treat, especially if it's different than your typical baguette and eggs. We were in for a treat because the breakfast involved pancakes and a traditional rice and bean pancake topped with shredded coconut and brown sugar. YUMMMY.
It wasn't too long until we got to Bagan. Within 6 hours we were there. When we arrived we stopped at several hotels trying to find one that was decently priced and not so scary looking. We ended up finding a room for $10 a night that included free breakfast. All of us were pretty stoked that we waited to find a good deal. The rooms were dark and kind of gross, but hey, at $10 you can't really complain.
Joey and I wandered the streets looking for a restaurant to eat at. In Burma, most of the food is of Chinese influence. Not in a good way. Its the obscure chinese food most westerners would rather not dabble with. It'd only been a couple of days and we were already getting sick of fried rice. Joey was also trying to avoid meat because of getting sick from eating at another restaurant in Yangon. We were approached by a man in the street who wanted to show us his favourite restaurant. He started giving us the "I have 3 kids at home and am poor" spiel. If you want money, simply ask for it. Instead this guy had the audacity to sit in the restaurant with us, wait for food he ordered and then leave... saying thank you because we just unknowingly bought it for him. I was quite annoyed that he didn't just ask for food, instead he did it so sneakily. The people at the restaurant were embarrassed and didn't charge us for it.
The next day we had a day full of exploring temples. Bagan has the most temples in a certain square kilometres (can't remember the number but its not very big). All you can see is temples as far as the eye can see. Some are gold, some are limestone, brick. Some are immaculate, some are new and some are ancient and barely standing. It was so diverse. We enjoyed ourselves more than Angkor Wat because there were barely any tourists. The only thing that was rough was all the people trying to sell you stuff. It was really hard to say no to people because you know they are so poor. Joey and I actually found it quite intense. These people were intent on selling you their stuff for way less than it cost just so they could feed their families. Children were everywhere begging for money, food, shampoo, anything. It was very overwhelming because we knew the lives that these people lead and it's not easy being from Burma. We wish we could help everyone but we are not made of money even though the colour of our skin may make them think we do.
At sunset we went to the biggest temple to watch the sun set on the valley of temples. It was an incredible sight to see. Some temples were glimmering with gold and the sheer size of some was really impressive.
The next day we did more temples. Unlike Angor Wat in Cambodia these ones were a lot more interesting because they were more pristine. Some had beautiful cotton paintings on the wall that told stories. We even went into a temple that had a meditation cave. It was like a dungeon underground. It was really neat. It was nice to have a sense of adventure in these caves.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Yangon
After the VISA ordeal we were on our way to Burma. We had to take a 4am shuttle bus to the airport in order to catch the 7:30 plane. Joey and I both were so tired and annoyed with the disorganization of the mini bus. There were a few other people on the mini bus with us at 4 am, but we waited around for other people who were late until 4:30. At one point this Polish guy starts yelling at the driver "I don't care if some drunks slept in or missed their alarm. I don't want to miss my flight, so let's f***ing go! One thing you don't do in any South East Asia country is yell and get your temper up. People generally don't take it well. It embarrasses them and they usually will laugh or not do what you said, just to spite you. I am glad this wasn't the case. The driver ended up leaving without the other people and we were on our way to the Bangkok airport.
Joey and I had already made reservations at a guesthouse called Motherland 2. I was so happy to see they were waiting for us at the airport holding a sign with our names on it. In a continent where no one knows you, seeing your name on a sign is a nice surprise. The guesthouse was on the outskirts of central Yangon, which meant that it wasn't a very touristy area. Our first impression of Myanmar was that it was a dirty and smelly place. What was even more scary was that most of the men had bright red mouths as if they had been sucking blood like vampires throughout the night and have just returned to their day jobs. We would later find out that the red mouth is caused by the chewing of the betel leaf with tabacco and some other kind of nut. When chewed it turns your mouth red and it also is a stimulant to the chewer.
In most countries we have been so far the dress and makeup has been very similar. Most people in the other countries do not wear traditional dress/clothes or makeup. In Myanmar, the most certainly do. The women wear a clay like lotion on their face in all types of designs. This makeup is meant to moisturize, and most importantly act as sunscreen from the hot Myanmar sun. Many children also wear the white makeup. Most men don't, but what is interesting about the men is that they wear a sarong like thing called a Longyi. Most men don't wear pants, they wear skirts. Who would have thought?
After getting settled in our room we decided it was a good idea to wander around our neck of the woods in Yangon. Not too long into our walk we were approached by a monk named Ashinsandarbartha and his non monk friend,Tun Tun. They were so happy to see foreigners and were excited to practice their english with us. They were so excited that they invited us for tea. Over tea we struggled to make conversation because of their lack of english, but it was still a lot of fun, especially because you could see how happy it made them. In Myanmar when someone asks you out for tea, it means that they want to pay for you. I thought it was really sweet that they paid for us. Joey on the other hand, really wanted to pay because we both know that these people don't have a lot of money.
Joey and I had been on our way to the Shwedagon Pagoda so we invited the two to come with us in hopes they could be our personal tour guides. The pagoda was absolutely amazing. Everything was detailed with gold and shiny stuff. There were more buddhas then I could count. Most importantly you could see this is where locals come. Unlike a lot of other temples we have been to, there were barely any tourists. I think the other tourists were jealous we had a monk as a tour guide. Muahahhaha. It was weird explaining in very few words to a monk that I am not religious. To someone who has dedicated their lives to their religion it's incomprehensible that someone has no faith. I don't not believe in anything. I just don't know what I believe. I wasn't brought up in a religious family. I'm open to ideas and I like a lot of aspects of all different religions, but for now I will remain agnostic. While we were in the pagoda the monk insisted that we go in front of the buddha statues and pray/bow 3 times. Both of us not being buddhist, this felt a bit weird. Especially because there were locals (real buddhists) watching us. It was definitely interesting but it got tiring after the 12th buddha statue.
The monk (That's what I am going to call him because his name is too long and hard to pronounce) and Tun Tun then invited us for dinner. People paying for his food is Joey's worst nightmare. It's insulting not to go for dinner with someone if they invite you. They told us about this great little place they like to go to. It's funny because the monk can't eat unless it's before 11am. He had to watch us eat food. They ordered us so so so much food. Joey and I could barely walk afterwards because we stuffed ourselves so much as to not be rude. Once again they paid, and Joey was bothered. Bothered, but also amazed. These people have no money, but are so overjoyed to spend it on foreigners (who are millionaires compared to them) in exchange for friendship and teaching them English. Myanmar is a very fascinating place.
Then then... you guessed it... invited us for breakfast. Oh no! Haha. We met them in the morning for another meal at a tea shop. They ordered us so much food that we could barely stomach it. At this point we didnt mean to be rude but there was no way I could eat another weird Burmese dumpling. After breakfast we wandered around town and I got to listen to Tun Tun's music while Joey and the monk talked. Tun Tun showed me some Burmese music as well as some kick ass 90's soft rock. Him and I had a great time listening to music. It was nice to take a break from trying to talk in English. Also, at breakfast he had given Joey and I a written note saying that we are very good looking and nice, also that he will miss us when we are gone and that he hopes to see us again. It must have taken him atleast an hour to write. It was the sweetest thing ever.
Judging from our first real experience in Burma, Joey and I were excited to see what was to come. We were also feeling sad that we only had 12 days to discover this country and it's amazing people. We talked to Zaw Zaw at our hotel and he helped us arrange a minivan rental with another couple from France named Erginee and Jermain. We were to rent the van for 5 days all the way until Mandalay where we would part ways.
The next day we met our driver, Andrew and set off for Tuangoo. It was a long ride but we got to stop off in Bago and see some of the amazing temples. Most of Bago's temples and sights are owned by the government, which means we were supposed to pay $10 to see them. We decided to stick with the free temples instead of giving the oppressive government a hand out. We were saving up our sightseeing eyes for Bagan, which is the land of temples.
Joey and I had already made reservations at a guesthouse called Motherland 2. I was so happy to see they were waiting for us at the airport holding a sign with our names on it. In a continent where no one knows you, seeing your name on a sign is a nice surprise. The guesthouse was on the outskirts of central Yangon, which meant that it wasn't a very touristy area. Our first impression of Myanmar was that it was a dirty and smelly place. What was even more scary was that most of the men had bright red mouths as if they had been sucking blood like vampires throughout the night and have just returned to their day jobs. We would later find out that the red mouth is caused by the chewing of the betel leaf with tabacco and some other kind of nut. When chewed it turns your mouth red and it also is a stimulant to the chewer.
In most countries we have been so far the dress and makeup has been very similar. Most people in the other countries do not wear traditional dress/clothes or makeup. In Myanmar, the most certainly do. The women wear a clay like lotion on their face in all types of designs. This makeup is meant to moisturize, and most importantly act as sunscreen from the hot Myanmar sun. Many children also wear the white makeup. Most men don't, but what is interesting about the men is that they wear a sarong like thing called a Longyi. Most men don't wear pants, they wear skirts. Who would have thought?
After getting settled in our room we decided it was a good idea to wander around our neck of the woods in Yangon. Not too long into our walk we were approached by a monk named Ashinsandarbartha and his non monk friend,Tun Tun. They were so happy to see foreigners and were excited to practice their english with us. They were so excited that they invited us for tea. Over tea we struggled to make conversation because of their lack of english, but it was still a lot of fun, especially because you could see how happy it made them. In Myanmar when someone asks you out for tea, it means that they want to pay for you. I thought it was really sweet that they paid for us. Joey on the other hand, really wanted to pay because we both know that these people don't have a lot of money.
Joey and I had been on our way to the Shwedagon Pagoda so we invited the two to come with us in hopes they could be our personal tour guides. The pagoda was absolutely amazing. Everything was detailed with gold and shiny stuff. There were more buddhas then I could count. Most importantly you could see this is where locals come. Unlike a lot of other temples we have been to, there were barely any tourists. I think the other tourists were jealous we had a monk as a tour guide. Muahahhaha. It was weird explaining in very few words to a monk that I am not religious. To someone who has dedicated their lives to their religion it's incomprehensible that someone has no faith. I don't not believe in anything. I just don't know what I believe. I wasn't brought up in a religious family. I'm open to ideas and I like a lot of aspects of all different religions, but for now I will remain agnostic. While we were in the pagoda the monk insisted that we go in front of the buddha statues and pray/bow 3 times. Both of us not being buddhist, this felt a bit weird. Especially because there were locals (real buddhists) watching us. It was definitely interesting but it got tiring after the 12th buddha statue.
The monk (That's what I am going to call him because his name is too long and hard to pronounce) and Tun Tun then invited us for dinner. People paying for his food is Joey's worst nightmare. It's insulting not to go for dinner with someone if they invite you. They told us about this great little place they like to go to. It's funny because the monk can't eat unless it's before 11am. He had to watch us eat food. They ordered us so so so much food. Joey and I could barely walk afterwards because we stuffed ourselves so much as to not be rude. Once again they paid, and Joey was bothered. Bothered, but also amazed. These people have no money, but are so overjoyed to spend it on foreigners (who are millionaires compared to them) in exchange for friendship and teaching them English. Myanmar is a very fascinating place.
Then then... you guessed it... invited us for breakfast. Oh no! Haha. We met them in the morning for another meal at a tea shop. They ordered us so much food that we could barely stomach it. At this point we didnt mean to be rude but there was no way I could eat another weird Burmese dumpling. After breakfast we wandered around town and I got to listen to Tun Tun's music while Joey and the monk talked. Tun Tun showed me some Burmese music as well as some kick ass 90's soft rock. Him and I had a great time listening to music. It was nice to take a break from trying to talk in English. Also, at breakfast he had given Joey and I a written note saying that we are very good looking and nice, also that he will miss us when we are gone and that he hopes to see us again. It must have taken him atleast an hour to write. It was the sweetest thing ever.
Judging from our first real experience in Burma, Joey and I were excited to see what was to come. We were also feeling sad that we only had 12 days to discover this country and it's amazing people. We talked to Zaw Zaw at our hotel and he helped us arrange a minivan rental with another couple from France named Erginee and Jermain. We were to rent the van for 5 days all the way until Mandalay where we would part ways.
The next day we met our driver, Andrew and set off for Tuangoo. It was a long ride but we got to stop off in Bago and see some of the amazing temples. Most of Bago's temples and sights are owned by the government, which means we were supposed to pay $10 to see them. We decided to stick with the free temples instead of giving the oppressive government a hand out. We were saving up our sightseeing eyes for Bagan, which is the land of temples.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bangkok: One crazy place
Seeing as we messed up our trip to Myanmar, we took our extra time in Bangkok to take in the sites and experiences with the city has to offer. This involved a ping pong show, walking through Pat Pong Market (red light district and awesome knockoff clothing and purses), saw the temples along the river and checked out Chatuchak Weekend market. As well as a bit of shopping :)
I knew that on this trip we would be celebrating my birthday somewhere, but wasn't quite sure where. I was hoping it would be on the beach, but Bangkok was still awesome as well. Joey and I spent most of the day lazying around, and then we went for a very fancy river cruise. We had to go all the way to the Marriot Hotel, which was absolutely stunning. After staying in guesthouses for the last two months, Joey and I were envious of the rich travelers who got to stay here. We were merely just visitors drinking their expensive wine.
The river cruise involved a 5 course dinner and various sight seeing along the river. The ambiance was very relaxed and the food was amazing. It was such a unique and great way to spend my birthday. I am so lucky Joey spoiled me. To top it off, he had arranged for them to bring me a cake. Everyone awkwardly sang me happy birthday on the boat (most ppl didn't know who they were singing for, or what my name was, so there was that awkward pause at happy birthday to (insert name) haha).
A couple days later we spent the day sightseeing along the river. We saw the Royal palace, a couple of wats, and then decided to search for some crazy shrine dedicated to fertility. We had heard that this shrine was located in the parking garage of a 5 star hotel on the other side of town. It is where Thai women come to pray to the god of fertility so that they become pregnant. When they become pregnant they come back to bring an offering. Sounds quite normal right? The peculiar thing about this shrine was there was penis phalluses' everywhere. Made of wood, stone, crystal, glass.. you name it. They were various shapes and sizes. Quite a strange shrine to be in a 5 star hotel.
That night we decided to do the North American thing and go to the movies. We watched the movie Pope Joan. Unless you really like epic/history/religious films, it wasn't our cup of tea. It was still decent though! We finished off our night with stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. I've never had it before nor have I ever been to Pizza Hut, but it was pretty good. Not something I would order again though.
The next day Joey and went to Chatuchak market which is a market that happens every Saturday and Sunday. There are 15,000 stalls of everything you could imagine. We were mainly looking for clothes and maybe some weird souvenirs. It was quite overwhelming how much stuff there was. Our favourite part of the market was when we stumbled upon the pet section. There were baby bunnies that you could pick up and pet. Some of them were sooooooo tiny, and also, there were others wearing little dresses. One of the cutest things I have ever seen. There were also lots of puppies and kittens everywhere. Sometimes even in the same cage. One thing that we saw that was heartbreaking was the full grown adult husky in a small cage. Joey was heartbroken because the dog looked so unhappy being in that cage. Who knows how long he has to stay in there, or if he gets walked or properly fed.
On Monday our plan was to go to the Myanmar embassy, pick up our visa and get ready for our trip there. One thing about Myanmar is that they don't have atm's and nowhere accepts credit card. You must bring all the money you expect to spend for your stay with you. If you don't, you can potentially purchase US dollars from high end hotels who will charge up to 30% commision. It is simply more worth it to bring enough money with you and not worry about it.
We had a couple issues getting our money out because I couldn't remember my PIN and Joey had a limit on his cards. Eventually we got enough money to exchange into US. We went to the MBK (Mahboonkrung Mall) in Bangkok where there are lots of different exchange places. The thing about exchange places here is that they sometimes only have $100 US bills, which aren't usually accepted in Myanmar.
At one exchange place we ran into quite the situation. We were approached by a man with a thick accent (we're not sure where from, but more than likely he was middle eastern) who told us he was going to Toronto soon and wanted to see what our money looked like. He still asked if he could see it. He told us about how he had been living in Australia and that he plans to go to Canada for a while. Joey told him that we didn't have any Canadian money, only American. Joey said I don't know you, but the guy's rebuttal was that he had tons of money which he then showed us (a bunch of 100 USD bill in his wallet) and wouldn't want to steal from us. This is when it got weird. He also had a friend who kept on trying to talk to me while Joey was talking to the other guy. I completely ignored him and was intent on standing right behind the guy looking at our money. I was ready to punch him in the face if he started to run away. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I was ready to attack. A conversation that started out as "Do you know what time it is" had turned into a crime scene.
Being the trusting Canadians we are, Joey hands him over the money just to look at. When he went to grab the money back it felt considerably thinner. The guy was folding it and about to put it in his fanny pack. At this point his friend is trying really hard to get my attention, the split second he did, Joey had already grabbed the money back and had pushed the jerk away. They both ran away into the millions of cellphone stalls on the 4th floor of the mall.
We went to security and reported the incident. We weren't quite sure if he had gotten anything but we knew that the wad of cash was only $1's and $5's so it wouldn't have been much anyways. Apparently this kind of thing happens all the time, and the info ladies told us that the criminals are arabic and have tried it many times.
Both of us are embarrassed for being so trusting but also glad that the situation worked out in our favour. Like I said in the last blog post, we are still learning. Unfortunately most of the world isn't like Canada. People here are out to get you and take advantage of our kindness. It makes us more and more jaded. Especially when talking with locals who just want to talk and know about your life and practice their english. It sucks thinking that even cute old men or even monks are out to get you or rip you off. I know it is smart to be skeptical, but sometimes it would be nice to just have an interaction with someone without questioning if they are a good person or not. Unfortunately after this experience with the guy at the mall, Joey and I have our guards up even if it means turning down experiences with locals that mean no harm.
I knew that on this trip we would be celebrating my birthday somewhere, but wasn't quite sure where. I was hoping it would be on the beach, but Bangkok was still awesome as well. Joey and I spent most of the day lazying around, and then we went for a very fancy river cruise. We had to go all the way to the Marriot Hotel, which was absolutely stunning. After staying in guesthouses for the last two months, Joey and I were envious of the rich travelers who got to stay here. We were merely just visitors drinking their expensive wine.
The river cruise involved a 5 course dinner and various sight seeing along the river. The ambiance was very relaxed and the food was amazing. It was such a unique and great way to spend my birthday. I am so lucky Joey spoiled me. To top it off, he had arranged for them to bring me a cake. Everyone awkwardly sang me happy birthday on the boat (most ppl didn't know who they were singing for, or what my name was, so there was that awkward pause at happy birthday to (insert name) haha).
A couple days later we spent the day sightseeing along the river. We saw the Royal palace, a couple of wats, and then decided to search for some crazy shrine dedicated to fertility. We had heard that this shrine was located in the parking garage of a 5 star hotel on the other side of town. It is where Thai women come to pray to the god of fertility so that they become pregnant. When they become pregnant they come back to bring an offering. Sounds quite normal right? The peculiar thing about this shrine was there was penis phalluses' everywhere. Made of wood, stone, crystal, glass.. you name it. They were various shapes and sizes. Quite a strange shrine to be in a 5 star hotel.
That night we decided to do the North American thing and go to the movies. We watched the movie Pope Joan. Unless you really like epic/history/religious films, it wasn't our cup of tea. It was still decent though! We finished off our night with stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. I've never had it before nor have I ever been to Pizza Hut, but it was pretty good. Not something I would order again though.
The next day Joey and went to Chatuchak market which is a market that happens every Saturday and Sunday. There are 15,000 stalls of everything you could imagine. We were mainly looking for clothes and maybe some weird souvenirs. It was quite overwhelming how much stuff there was. Our favourite part of the market was when we stumbled upon the pet section. There were baby bunnies that you could pick up and pet. Some of them were sooooooo tiny, and also, there were others wearing little dresses. One of the cutest things I have ever seen. There were also lots of puppies and kittens everywhere. Sometimes even in the same cage. One thing that we saw that was heartbreaking was the full grown adult husky in a small cage. Joey was heartbroken because the dog looked so unhappy being in that cage. Who knows how long he has to stay in there, or if he gets walked or properly fed.
On Monday our plan was to go to the Myanmar embassy, pick up our visa and get ready for our trip there. One thing about Myanmar is that they don't have atm's and nowhere accepts credit card. You must bring all the money you expect to spend for your stay with you. If you don't, you can potentially purchase US dollars from high end hotels who will charge up to 30% commision. It is simply more worth it to bring enough money with you and not worry about it.
We had a couple issues getting our money out because I couldn't remember my PIN and Joey had a limit on his cards. Eventually we got enough money to exchange into US. We went to the MBK (Mahboonkrung Mall) in Bangkok where there are lots of different exchange places. The thing about exchange places here is that they sometimes only have $100 US bills, which aren't usually accepted in Myanmar.
At one exchange place we ran into quite the situation. We were approached by a man with a thick accent (we're not sure where from, but more than likely he was middle eastern) who told us he was going to Toronto soon and wanted to see what our money looked like. He still asked if he could see it. He told us about how he had been living in Australia and that he plans to go to Canada for a while. Joey told him that we didn't have any Canadian money, only American. Joey said I don't know you, but the guy's rebuttal was that he had tons of money which he then showed us (a bunch of 100 USD bill in his wallet) and wouldn't want to steal from us. This is when it got weird. He also had a friend who kept on trying to talk to me while Joey was talking to the other guy. I completely ignored him and was intent on standing right behind the guy looking at our money. I was ready to punch him in the face if he started to run away. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I was ready to attack. A conversation that started out as "Do you know what time it is" had turned into a crime scene.
Being the trusting Canadians we are, Joey hands him over the money just to look at. When he went to grab the money back it felt considerably thinner. The guy was folding it and about to put it in his fanny pack. At this point his friend is trying really hard to get my attention, the split second he did, Joey had already grabbed the money back and had pushed the jerk away. They both ran away into the millions of cellphone stalls on the 4th floor of the mall.
We went to security and reported the incident. We weren't quite sure if he had gotten anything but we knew that the wad of cash was only $1's and $5's so it wouldn't have been much anyways. Apparently this kind of thing happens all the time, and the info ladies told us that the criminals are arabic and have tried it many times.
Both of us are embarrassed for being so trusting but also glad that the situation worked out in our favour. Like I said in the last blog post, we are still learning. Unfortunately most of the world isn't like Canada. People here are out to get you and take advantage of our kindness. It makes us more and more jaded. Especially when talking with locals who just want to talk and know about your life and practice their english. It sucks thinking that even cute old men or even monks are out to get you or rip you off. I know it is smart to be skeptical, but sometimes it would be nice to just have an interaction with someone without questioning if they are a good person or not. Unfortunately after this experience with the guy at the mall, Joey and I have our guards up even if it means turning down experiences with locals that mean no harm.
Moral of the story is don't stop for food when you need to be somewhere
Joey and I took a sleeper bus to Chiang Mai to Bangkok. For the first hour of the busride the guy behind us complained non stop that the seats did not fully recline and that it wasn't technically a sleeper bus. The entire time I was thinking this was one of the nicest sleeper buses we've been on and that this guy obviously has only traveled in the comforts of Thailand. Good luck in Laos or Myanmar, buddy.
We arrived in Bangkok around 6 am. Khao San road's party scene was still in full swing. Lady boys, prostitutes and very drunken English guys littered the streets. I think we even saw super man. Staying up all hours of the night drinking on a busy road in Bangkok just doesn't appeal to me. We were glad to find out guest house quite quickly and get into the room where could put our heavy packs down.
The plan was to stay in Bangkok for only 3 days. Enough time to get our Myanmar visa and celebrate my birthday. Joey and I had a couple lazy days of shopping in the MBK and seeing a couple sites around our guesthouse. Our first plan was to go to the Myanmar embassy to apply for our visa. It was relatively easy to get to, and the process was quite quick. The only confusing part was that there were three different times posted to pick up our visas in 2 days. One sign said they closed at 3pm, another said visa pickup was from 3-4:30 and another said it was 3-4pm.
The day we needed to pick up our visa we took the ferry down the river to a stop that connects with the sky train. Before that, we had thought it was a good idea to have a nice lunch at the vegetarian place by our guest house. Ideally we should have left our guesthouse around 2pm. We didn't end up leaving til shortly after 3. Time was running out. We anxiously sat on the ferry and when we got to our stop we bolted off the boat and ran to the sky train.
After getting of the sky train it was time to run as fast as we could through hundreds of school children just getting out of school. We dodged parents, small children, old people with walkers and food vendors. Time was cutting closer and closer. When we turned the corner to the Myanmar embassy, we saw the last worker pulling away on his scooter at 4:29. The door was padlocked and we were screwed.
We sat in disbelief and exchanged some words of frustration with our choice of having lunch. It was one of those shoulda, woulda, coulda situations. Joey and I were truly unimpressed with eachother. We started thinking of ways we could make the situation better. Our flight left the next day and we couldn't get into Myanmar without a Visa. Better yet, it was Friday and the embassy wouldn't be open until Monday. UGH!
Joey and I called Air Asia which is the company we booked our flight to Yangon with. We lied saying that the Myanmar embassy didn't have our visas ready in time, and wouldn't have them available until Monday. Air Asia required proof, and because it was less than 48 hours before our flight there was little they could do for us. Even though I threatened to never fly with them again. Silly me thinking that would work.
We were defeated. Sad, mad, frustrated, annoyed and infuriated with the situation we decided it was time for some beers. At this point we knew we couldn't do much to change the situation and that we were out $250 because of not being able to postpone the flight unless we wanted to take a 4am bus to the airport the next day to argue with the desk.
3 hours later we were feeling better and more confident about the situation and we went to an Air Asia store around 11pm. Joey explained the situation and the guy told us he needed proof our visa wasn't ready. We just said they didn't give us any documentation and what else was there that we could do? The guy felt bad for us and called his supervisor. His supervisor didn't pick up the phone and the guy at the office decided to post pone our flight for us anyways. Obviously it was for an additional fee, but atleast it wasn't the full amount of $250.
We had to stay in Bangkok for another 4 days, but we were okay with that because there is a lot to see and do there. In some ways, despite being an expensive mistake, it was a blessing in disguise. That's all you can hope for when traveling. You just hope that everything works out in some kind of way. Roll with the punches and just deal with what happens. Sometimes there is so little you can control and just knowing that helps us deal with a lot of situations. We're still new to traveling so we make lots of mistakes. So far we've had $800USD and a camera stolen from us. We're still here, happy, alive and having the times of our lives. What more can you ask for.
We arrived in Bangkok around 6 am. Khao San road's party scene was still in full swing. Lady boys, prostitutes and very drunken English guys littered the streets. I think we even saw super man. Staying up all hours of the night drinking on a busy road in Bangkok just doesn't appeal to me. We were glad to find out guest house quite quickly and get into the room where could put our heavy packs down.
The plan was to stay in Bangkok for only 3 days. Enough time to get our Myanmar visa and celebrate my birthday. Joey and I had a couple lazy days of shopping in the MBK and seeing a couple sites around our guesthouse. Our first plan was to go to the Myanmar embassy to apply for our visa. It was relatively easy to get to, and the process was quite quick. The only confusing part was that there were three different times posted to pick up our visas in 2 days. One sign said they closed at 3pm, another said visa pickup was from 3-4:30 and another said it was 3-4pm.
The day we needed to pick up our visa we took the ferry down the river to a stop that connects with the sky train. Before that, we had thought it was a good idea to have a nice lunch at the vegetarian place by our guest house. Ideally we should have left our guesthouse around 2pm. We didn't end up leaving til shortly after 3. Time was running out. We anxiously sat on the ferry and when we got to our stop we bolted off the boat and ran to the sky train.
After getting of the sky train it was time to run as fast as we could through hundreds of school children just getting out of school. We dodged parents, small children, old people with walkers and food vendors. Time was cutting closer and closer. When we turned the corner to the Myanmar embassy, we saw the last worker pulling away on his scooter at 4:29. The door was padlocked and we were screwed.
We sat in disbelief and exchanged some words of frustration with our choice of having lunch. It was one of those shoulda, woulda, coulda situations. Joey and I were truly unimpressed with eachother. We started thinking of ways we could make the situation better. Our flight left the next day and we couldn't get into Myanmar without a Visa. Better yet, it was Friday and the embassy wouldn't be open until Monday. UGH!
Joey and I called Air Asia which is the company we booked our flight to Yangon with. We lied saying that the Myanmar embassy didn't have our visas ready in time, and wouldn't have them available until Monday. Air Asia required proof, and because it was less than 48 hours before our flight there was little they could do for us. Even though I threatened to never fly with them again. Silly me thinking that would work.
We were defeated. Sad, mad, frustrated, annoyed and infuriated with the situation we decided it was time for some beers. At this point we knew we couldn't do much to change the situation and that we were out $250 because of not being able to postpone the flight unless we wanted to take a 4am bus to the airport the next day to argue with the desk.
3 hours later we were feeling better and more confident about the situation and we went to an Air Asia store around 11pm. Joey explained the situation and the guy told us he needed proof our visa wasn't ready. We just said they didn't give us any documentation and what else was there that we could do? The guy felt bad for us and called his supervisor. His supervisor didn't pick up the phone and the guy at the office decided to post pone our flight for us anyways. Obviously it was for an additional fee, but atleast it wasn't the full amount of $250.
We had to stay in Bangkok for another 4 days, but we were okay with that because there is a lot to see and do there. In some ways, despite being an expensive mistake, it was a blessing in disguise. That's all you can hope for when traveling. You just hope that everything works out in some kind of way. Roll with the punches and just deal with what happens. Sometimes there is so little you can control and just knowing that helps us deal with a lot of situations. We're still new to traveling so we make lots of mistakes. So far we've had $800USD and a camera stolen from us. We're still here, happy, alive and having the times of our lives. What more can you ask for.
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