Ijen Crater

This past weekend we spent over 8 hours (one way) to get to our newest weekend location. This was Ijen Crater, an active sulfur mine, where (i assume) active lava flow under the earth is heating up and expelling sulfur at a high rate. Sulfur comes out in the form of gas, and the technicians have build pipes to channel the sulfur into one area, where it condensates into a thick yellow liquid and then oozes out of the tubes, where men are waiting to let it cool, then chip big bricks of it off and carry it up and out of the crater to sell.

The view of the valley in the morning (5am)

The trip started bright and early and we drove for hours, only stopping for the bathroom and when getting lost on the way. We arrived just before sundown far far away in the Ijen area at a little home stay hotel. The car ride actually went by fast, as we kept ourselves busy playing games, puzzles, listening to music and napping. Good company makes the trip fly by. Also, usually when we hire cars there are 7 of us crammed into every possible seat to make it cheaper, but only 4 of us went this weekend, so we had room to spread out and really enjoy the trip.

Hooray for acidic sulfur lakes!

Once at the hostel, we walked around the little town set up next to it and looked around at the local scenery. In the area are lots of agro-tourism places and farms where the tourists can sleep and enjoy lazy afternoons in a semi-cooled atmosphere. We hung out at the hotel, played cards and had some dinner before an early bedtime.

The yellow color is sulfur that has crusted all over the place over the years

We woke up at 330 to some coffee and tea and a snack before driving 40 minutes to the entrance of the hike up the side of the crater. It's not a particularly hard hike, and its uphill the whole time. You see some miners also making the trek. Its about an hour or so to the top, where the wind really picked up and we were being blown around. By this time, we had befriended a miner, who was 25 and had been working there for 3 years. We spent the whole walk up chatting with him and asking about his life and working in the mines. Its really hard work, and dangerous, and extremely bad for your health as you are inhaling toxic fumes and the sulfur burns your eyes and lungs, and they do this trip multiple times a day, for weeks and years at a time with only a week off holiday every couple weeks.

Our guide being bad-ass with his gas mask

At the top of the hill, you see how the edges of the crater have gone barren to the toxicity of the sulfur, and can see down into the crater. There is a lake there, which is as warm as a bathtub, and an area where the steam is billowing out. We then climb down into the crater for about 25 minutes to the bottom, where we can see the men mining the yellow rocks and using gas masks and masks in feeble attempts to keep the smoke out of their eyes and mouths.

A death cloud taking my unsuspecting friends

As I mentioned, it was windy, so on the way down it was a nice easy walk, the wind blew everything away from us, and you could hardly smell the sulfur. Luckily, the winds changed, and the clouds floating over the turquoise waters turned, and soon we were enveloped in a cloud of toxic smoke. Your eyes start burning worse than if you rubbed an onion in them, and you have to cover your mouth with a piece of wet material (shirt, scarf, hat). Anything to stop the sulfur. You end up holding your mouth so tight you forget to breath, and when you gasp for air, it chokes your lungs and you start coughing uncontrollably. But, the winds change again, and soon you are enjoying the views, watching what is going on, and almost forgetting about the near pass-out/vomit episode you just had. Then the winds change again. Its a scramble for cover, behind rocks, away from the wind, anywhere you think it may help. We spent about 25 minutes doing this happy/hell change due to the prevailing winds, until we all hit a stage of near vomiting and an inability to see that we aborted the plans and escaped to higher grounds.

My eyes after the event (and after the hour hike down)

It was really cool and I wouldn't have changed the experience for anything. It was worth my eyes burning an additional 2 hours and feeling nauseous for the drive back to the hotel. The miner we befriended was really great, and funny and gave us all the information he would with his English, and even game me a piece of sulfur he broke off from the mine when we arrived at the bottom.

Some Sulfur art the miners make to sell

We then checked out a local waterfall, which wasn't too bad, before we started our 8 hour drive back home. Once again the trip went pretty fast, and we napped as much as we could, because we were all exhausted after the early wake up, hike and sulfur attacks. It was another great weekend, and I cant believe I'm doing so much stuff out here. In a couple days I continue my trips, but this time have 9 whole days of vacation, and a group of us are heading into the jungle for animal sightings and trekking. It should be a lot of fun!

The waterfall near our guesthouse

Kaliandra

For the weekend, 16 fellow teachers and friends loaded up in Bemos (public minivans, with bench seats) and drove about 2 hours up to a mountain resort called Kaliandra. It's set in a beautiful mountain slope, with dramatic peaks soaring up above you and  gorgeously landscaped grounds wrapping around the side of the mountain.

One of the best things about the place is simply its location, and clean air (Surabaya, where I live, is quite polluted). You can see the stars, it gets cold at night, there is fresh air, the smell of trees and flowers, and you can hear wildlife. It was just a great way to relax and spend some time out of the city. The grounds are huge, and in the middle is a private residence, which looks like something out of a hollywood movie set in old england in the 1700's. A manor house. It was unrealistic compared to what we're used to seeing.

The ground have gardens, organic food growing, some exotic animals (private owners) two pools, two restaurants, great views and a chilled out environment.

They have loads of stuff to do also, as they cater to big groups, and you have the ability to do ropes courses, learn Gamalon music (type of music) you can do Batik, which is a traditional way to make materials and designs. We chose to do the Batik the next morning and it was really hard, and we all make horribly done patterns. You start with melting wax, and using a special "pen" to apply designs in wax. Note that it's hot, it drips everywhere, and most of us ended up with a "dotted" look to our painting, not to mention wax all over us. Once you finish the wax, you dip in in dyes to make the colors, and then you put it in hot water to remove the wax, so that the design you made is white against whatever color background you decided upon.

We went for a birthday of one of the teachers at my school, and she had a wonderful time. She was really happy to spend a weekend out of the city, relaxing, reading books and hanging out with everyone for the 2 days of freedom from work.

The place we stayed was a bungalow made for 6 people, with a private room upstairs and a communal 4 person bed taking up one whole side of the house. We ended up with 7 people downstairs sleeping like sardines, and the birthday girl and her boyfriend got their own private room. The bathroom was really great, and opened up for lots of sunlight and breezes, and there was a tub outside we filled up and smashed three people in to watch the stars and enjoy the coolness of the night in a hot tub.

It was one of the places I know Nancy and Diane would have really enjoyed. Guess you'll just have to come out to Asia and see these places for yourselves! That's all I have now, as it's Friday, I have class all day and leave at 630 in the morning for my next adventure. See ya!

Solo

This past weekend I went to Solo with two teachers from my school.  One of their boyfriends lives in Solo as a teacher, so she went to meet up with him, and the other teacher and I just wanted to explore Solo and the temples around.

We took the train at 7 am, which would have been fine if I hadn’t decided to have a house party the night before, and made everyone stay up past 4 am.  Needless to say we were exhausted on the train and passed out nearly the whole time.  When we arrived on Solo, we found a nice little place to stay where were the only ones.  It cost $6 between us, so can’t complain on that front.  Basic, clean and nice, with mandi showers (which is where you bucket shower by dumping buckets of water over yourself).

Flowers at our guesthouse

We spent the first afternoon walking around Solo, checking out some traditional clothing called Batik and also checking out markets.  The best was the bird market, where they had thousands of animals, mainly birds but also some bats, owls, we saw a monkey and some dogs and cats, some snakes and squirrels, chickens, hens, crows ravens, sparrows, etc etc.  Its not the best conditions for the birds, but I’d never seen an own up close that I can remember, or even a bat almost 2 feet long, hanging wrapped in itself.  There was also some adorable dogs, very well kept and clean, which were starving for attention so we pet them and hung out with them for a while.

Little stone masturbating man

We ended up going to a “open green” area of all dead grass and watching kids play on the carnival rides set up and did some shopping at the makeshift market they had set up.  For dinner we met a couchsurfer and two of his friends to eat and then go to the night market.  We sat next to Warong Cobra, where you could pick your cobra, they kill it, skin it, and take off the meat which you can have fried up or made as sate (on a stick).  It was interesting to watch them kill and de-meat the snakes, but we didn’t want to try eating it. 

Temples in the hills

After dinner we walked to the night market, which had some live music and loads of local crafts for sale.  They sell some pretty hilarious stuff in these markets so it’s always fun to check them out.

Stone carvings at the temples

The next day we spent touring the temples about 40 kilometers out of Solo and up into the hills, where the weather was nicer.  After spending a couple hours not being able to rent motorbikes, we took the bus, in the wrong direction and had to get off and loop back through Solo on the way out.  Luckily for us, performers get on the busses and sing songs and play their little instruments so it was an entertaining ride.  One band even got off with us and helped us onto the returning bus.  We then asked them for special songs to play that we liked and made sure to tip them extra (instead of coins worth pennies, we gave them 5,000 rupiah, about 50 cents)  They were really appreciative of us and our enthusiasm.

One of the fountains at a temple

The temples were really beautiful and had views overlooking canyons filled with little villages and tea plantations.  It was a great afternoon and we ended up missing the buses back to solo and took the motorcycle taxis all the way back.  We then caught the 2 am train back to Surabaya on Monday morning and were back home, ready to change, clean up and head to work for the day.  

Jump fighting on top of the mountain

On a side note, for the past week I was fasting for Ramadhan, to try to experience a piece of Indonesian culture.  During Ramadhan, the people of Islamic faith abstain from food or liquids (not even water) for one whole month.  Obviously if you are sick, pregnant, breast-feeding, too young (though children at 5 or 6 start full fasts) etc you don't have to fast.  It wasn't as hard as I though it would be, but I had to completely change my lifestyle.  I slept in until the last minute and stopped doing anything remotely physical.  I only wanted to try it for a week to see how it was, because this week I'm back to eating at normal hours and hopefully back to the pool and gym.  I was the only person out of 3 who made it the whole week (we had three foreign staff attempt the fast).  I won a free dinner :)  

Wisata Bahari Lomongan

For my birthday weekend, a group of friends and I drove about 1.5 hours northwest of Surabaya to a little beachside amusement park and resort.  This amusement park isn’t what you would think of as a typical one, with giant rides, and thousands of people.  It had a couple rides, ones that were small enough to fit into my backyard (no joke) and lots of different types of amusement activities.  They had a haunted hospital (with dead baby in crib section) they had a water park area, where you walk through a maze and people in a control tower control water guns hidden all over the path. 

Going tribal

There was a “cat house” which consisted of a zoo-like walkabout of domesticated house cats.  If you were a prize winning cat, you were giving a room with aircon.  They had motorbikes to ride (for people under 50kg) and a whole carnival section for children 7-12.  There was a pool and some waterslides, a restaurant out on a pier, some fake penguins and real turtles, kayaking, a beach area and playground.  They also had a wild west section, complete with arcade shooter game, bull riding, novelty photos on a horse with Indians and bow and arrow shooting.  I believe they also had horse-drawn carriages, as we saw a stable of horses.

The band.

We watched a 3-D movie about a kid going to school, and shot some platic balls out of a giant gun to hit targets.  We went to the amphitheater, and they got me on stage singing one of our favorite Indonesian songs.  Luckily, there were 12 people in the audience, us being 8 of them.  There was even an “exotic albino” section of different albino animals from squirrels to peacocks, porcupines and snakes.

Riding the bench into the zoo

There was also a cave, mineral museum, and zoo which we say the day before.  The zoo was depressing, but still fun to walk around, and see some animals, and the cave was extremely hot, had too many colored lights around and music blaring.  Peaceful nature at its best. 

Me and Kevin performing to the sold out theater, singing Indonesian songs to which we only know 1/3 the words...

The resort we stayed at was really nice, and right on the ocean.  We got to sit out and watch the sunset, and eat breakfast overlooking the vast blue.  We got an 8 person dorm room with bunkbeds, and at night we sang karaoke with the hotel band (again I was up on stage) and had a great time.  It was a quick weekend, but very fun and was a great way to spend the big 2 5.

I have enjoyed all the traveling I have been doing, and seeing different things all around east Java.  

Bali

My first experience to Bali was over a long weekend.  I had three days off and planned to spend it in North Bali checking out the sites and relaxing by the beach.  Instead of flying, I took the night train from Surabaya, got off at 5 in the morning, walked to the ferry to cross to Bali and then took a bus to my hotel in Lovina, north Bali.  It was effortless, and 1/6^th the price of flying, so I was happy.  I even beat the people who flew and were meeting me.

The waterfall we checked out

The place we stayed at was simple and nice, with good gardens and right on the black sand beach.  It had a pool and restaurant, and was a couple minute walk to the “main” road that had some restaurants, shops and bars.  We spent the days doing daytrips into the island, checking out the lakes and temples around north Bali, and some mountains.  It was really relaxing and fun, and with a big group easy to rent cars and drivers to take us around.  We saw some cool temples, and even some tombs carved into the stone.  The scenery was either dramatic mountains and jungle, vibrant green rice patties terraced on hillsides, or beachside paradise.  It’s understandable how Bali has such a draw for tourism.

The last day, we ended up in Kuta, having a seafood dinner on the beach, with all the tourists.  We ended up having some drinks in Kuta at night, which is the Isla Visa of Bali, filled with drunken young Australians.  The scene was a little too much for us, as we had an early flight, work the next morning, and were overall exhausted from our trip.

Sporting the sarong and sacred belt look

There is still so much more of Bali, and the surrounding islands to see, so I expect I’ll be going back to check it out soon enough.  Bali was a really nice place, and is a Hindu island, and very different from the Muslim island of Java.  It’s nice to have a contrast so close and convenient to us.  I’ll have to go back and try the surfing in south Bail, and some of the temples there are said to be amazing. 

The funny named but good smelling flower

It was another great weekend, and makes the weeks fly by.  Living from one weekend to the next is how I like it out here, doing fun adventures and travels every weekend is great.  It makes the city nice to come home too, without realizing it may not have the most to offer.  Also, when we do stay in Surabaya for the weekend (which I havn’t done in a really long time) it seems nice and full of things to do.

Until the next trip!

Pictures from the last Blog entry finally added because the internet is finally working. finally.

The main waterfall from around the corner

Stolen Picture From a Friend. Bromo Horse

The waterfall I mentioned (right before the main part) with Ruth.

Mt. Bromo 

Mt. Bromo

A couple weeks back, I was lucky enough to go with some friends in a rented car to Mt. Bromo.  It's actually 3 separate volcanoes, but Bromo is the most active of them, still spewing out sulfuric smoke into the air all day, every day.  The town we stayed in for the trip was nestled in the mountains, and crisp cool air and with some stunning scenery of mountainous ridges on either side.

The trip to Bromo starts with a 3 am wake up, followed by a 330 am drive in a jeep up the mountain.  As points the fog is so thick, our guide would get out of his car to see where we were, and we followed tons of other 4-wheel drive jeeps up the windy path to the viewpoint for sunrise.  As the sun was rising, you can start to make out the three distinct volcanoes, and see the steam rising from Bromo.  Luckily we were only 7 of 400 people who happened to go to the sinrise that morning, so we had to fight our way for views of the volcano.

The next part of the trip involved a drive down the mountain and across the sea of sand, a huge flat area surrounding the volcanoes that you slide and slip through on your jeep as he speeds along.  We even saw a couple motorcycles eat dirt, as they too were fighting against the sand.  You reach the bottom of the mountain to horses chasing your cars, and people asking if you want a ride up to the stairs of the mountain.  We walked, as it's not a hard or far walk...

You walk up the side for a while, and then go up 250 steps straight to the top of the crater, and you can look right down into the steam billowing out.  It's a pretty cool site.  The weekend ended with a stop at an unbelievably beautiful waterfall, one of the best I've ever seen, and a fun drive home.  It was a great weekend, and it's nice to know that there are good weekend trips available...

Mt. Bromo

This past weekend, I went to visit a famous sight on eastern Java. It is Mt. Bromo, a still active volcano, which spews out tons of sulfuric gas (or acid) into the air, kind of like a big steam vent. Next two it are two other equally beautiful, granted non-active volcanoes.

We left Saturday morning at 9 am, packed 7 of us into a rented car (with driver) and did a road trip into the mountains of eastern Java, where it's cool and crisp. Such a nice relief from the heat and humidity of Surabaya. We spent the afternoon offering cookies to gas station attendents, hanging out the window and waving and women walking on the road, and challenging children to volleyball games. It was fun.

When you drive up to the viewpoint at 4 am, you dont know what to expect, its dark and cold, and everyone is bundled up and huddled together for warmth. You get in a cue of 40+ cars, all offroad jeeps, and herd together with the other hundred tourists there that morning. We got to the top, and found it just as crowded, so we stopped to get some tea and coffee to warm up. We then spent over an hour taking in the sunrise, and how the colors changed when watching the volcanoes. There was also an amazing cloud cover that sat in the valley like trapped water.

After the viewing of sunrise, re drove along the ridges of the mountains, down the valley and into the "sea of sand," which is an absurdly flat area in such a mountainous region. You stop at the base of Bromo, where horses chase your cars offering roundtrip voyages via horseback. We decided to walk. You walk up bromo, and end with 250 stairs to the top, where you can look down into the crater. It was interesting, and in all honesty, I just wanted to jump in.

On the drive back to the guesthouse, i made the driver stop and pick up a girl walking alone, who I swear was familiar, but I couldn't remember how. It ended up we shared a bus and stayed at the same place in Brunei. Small world! It's been over a month and a half, and we run into each other on East Java. Pretty cool. We drove her back into town, and then we all packed up and headed off to see a waterfall we heard was in the area before heading home.

It was easily among the top 3 waterfalls I have ever seen in my life. You have to walk along a trail, crossing the small river a couple times until you walk in an area that has ledges of cliffs hanging over you. The water is sort of cascading down everywhere, so it's like it is raining as you continue to follow the river a little further. When you get to the main waterfall it's a 200+ meter straight drop down into a teal colored pool of water. It was not only the waterfall, but the surrounding rain-falls and the walk there that combined to make it so cool. Pictures won't do it justice, but here's a shot anyway.

We ended up driving back home and spending the evening eating Italian food, before crashing by 10 pm. It was a great weekend, and so nice to finally get out of the city. I expect to be doing more weekend trips whenever I can plan them out!

Slight Update on "Operation: Indonesia"

So,  as my mother has been pressing for an update, looks like it's time to start that now.

 

I have arrived into my new place, Surabaya, Indonesia.  A huge city (though it doesn't feel like it except for when stuck in a taxi in traffic in the streets) on the eastern part of Java.  It's a pretty vibrant city, full of mansion houses and tree-lined streets, huge supermalls and loads of traffic.  As I've only been here a couple days, I'm still figuring out a lot of things, and still rely on taxis and other people to get me around and tell me where I am.

Now it’s been a week, and surprise surprise, I have yet to update.  It’s Sunday night, and I work tomorrow at the early hour of 1:30 pm. That’s the earliest I start all week.  Tuesday and Thursday I start at 3:00 pm, unless I decide to go in early and work.  I finish MWF at 9 pm., and Tuesday Thursday at 7:30 pm.  Not a bad schedule. 

I have started to try to figure out this city, and still have to rely on taxi’s everywhere, which is starting to get expensive.  I am in the search for a gym, to give myself something to wake up for, and one in particular has a pool, which sounds nice, for only about 30 dollars a month.  Pricey compared to my $1.00 a visit gym in Thailand.

The food here is good, and cheap, which is nice, though I haven’t started to explore the culinary options, mainly because I don’t know what is what yet, and how to say anything in Indonesian.  I hope to “start learning” Indonesian soon, but I’m lazy.  The tourism here is pretty dismal, and therefore we’re celebrities wherever we go, which is both humorous and annoying.  Luckily I’m used to this from some time in Thailand.  This being said, they are used to a decent community of expat teachers, probably at least 50+ that I’ve seen, and they’re always out.  However, we still get those fun stares, children pointing, and the general population loving the couple blonds walking down the street together.

All of the teachers are really cool, and range in age from 22-old.  My roommates are 34 and 39, though you wouldn’t guess it, and pretty laid back guys.  Our maid is cool, though I never see her.  When I leave, I make sure all my “to be washed” clothes are in a pile near the door, and that everything is off my bed.  She will come in , sweep, clean, tae my laundry and do it, hang it up and replace it folded and ironed into my closet.  The bed is made and everything is in order. 

 

I will be a very lazy man soon.

I don’t think I have taken any pictures at all, and therefore have nothing to report on that end.  They have Wendy’s, which means Frosties, so that’s good.  Sometimes you get into a taxi, and he known your whole address and house number, which makes directions easy. 

Oh yes, the job.  The school is near the house, $1.50 taxi, and I teach 13 classes a week (plus any I pick up for sick or on holiday teachers).  As of now, I have kids classes (7-9) some teenage classes and two general English classes of young adults-my age students.  They are all pretty well-behaved and the classes are air-conditioned and small and it’s quite a change from Thailand.  We have books to go by, and really just have to follow the grammar points and make sure they know what’s going on.  Ill update more on that once I have my first week (this week) where I have my own schedule and my own classes.

That’s all I got for now.  Still no one has sent pictures of the cabin L but I have got some pretty funny Dom faces.  Can he talk yet? Tell him to get on that…

Figured you'd like a picture of me at work. Yes, I do work. Yes I wear a tie (while teaching) ...sometimes...

Borneo

As a forewarning, this will be two weeks into one blog.  I'm lazy and it's easier this way.  Also, the Nan has already gone through the whole album so you can ask her.

Kota Kinabalu is the capitol of the Sabah state of Malaysia (Eastern Malaysia) and is where I started this journey.  I got into town, which is... alright and walked directly to the movies to use aircon and relax, as I was meeting a couch-surfer in the early evening to get a ride to his house.  

I spent a couple days in KK, which is a nice enough city, but all cities in Borneo lack any source of entertainment, especially at night, and thus get a little boring unless you have plans.  I took a shared taxi (read, some guys car) to Mount Kinabalu National Park, where I trudged through the rain around the grounds for a couple hours hoping to glimpse the famous peak, which sits over 14,000 feet tall and is half the heigh of Mount Everest.  The next morning offered me a good view, but also was time to take the bus across to Semporna for some Scuba diving.  I couldn't find the direct bus (there were issues as I sat on the highway trying to read the bus signs as they sped around a corner and past me) so I took a bus to Sandakan, hoping for a connection.

There wasn't one and I was stuck in t Sandakan, with no nightlife, and went to bed at 8pm.  I woke up early the next morning and got a bus to Semporna, on the southeastern part of the state.  I booked a trip for scuba for the next two days and put my name on every waiting list for Sipadan (google it).  I spent 3 days diving some of the best spots in the world, and it was amazingly fun.

After that I went back to the Sandakan area, to Sipilok to see the orangutans being rehabilitated back into the wild.  We got some good shots, but its sort of lame, just watching the come from the jungle to a feeding platform, eat and leave.  Better to find them in the wild, which is what I did next.  But not after some relaxing hours by the pool and being a complete bum.

After Sipilok, I booked a jungle river cruise for 3 days and 2 nights, where you sleep on a nature reserve and do river boat trips looking for wildlife at 6am and 4 pm, night walks at 8 pm and free time to do some kayaking through the tributaries.  It was really fun, and we saw pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, a sleeping shadow of an orangutan, loads of birds, a croc, etc.  These are all wild too, so it makes it much better, because you never know what you're going to see.

Then I went to Brunei, a small oil-rich country on Borneo.  It's known for having one of the richest men in the world, the Sultan, and his brother for stealing and spending billions of dollars.  It's really small, very Muslim, and doesn't allow voting or drinking. Ever.

A couple days in the capitol was enough, and I went back to Luala Lumpur, spent another couple days gathering my things and getting visas, and now I'm at the airport to Indonesia, where I start work on Monday.

Whirlwind tour of Borneo = whirlwind blog update.

Taman Negara

After the islands I went to Taman Negara (National Park) to check out the 'steamy interior' of Malaysia. Little did I know how 'steamy' it could be.

The trip involved a 4 am train for 9 hours, then a 3 hour boat ride up the river. It was a long day, but a really nice trip. The train goes straight through the middle of the jungle, so it's a feat of engineering. The boat ride is peaceful (if not a little long for the butt) however, it's calm and nice to just sit back and relax and watch the jungle pass you by. Once you arrive at the park, there is a little town across the river, and you find a overpriced, hot box to share with 7 other people and one fan to attempt to blow around the hot air at night...

The park itself was really nice, however due to my ability to hurt/injure/endanger myself to stunning proportions I was forced to only do a day trip, instead of the two day overnight in a hut trip I had planned...

I woke up early and had a little breakfast before taking the boat taxi across the river and paying my entrance, camera fee, and hut bunk for the night. I had two big bottles of water and snacks to keep me going. I first wanted to check out the canopy walk, and was told to get there early, so I was on the train by 10 am. early meant 8 am. it opened at 9. I was behind hundreds of Chinese tourists, loudly walking, laughing, yelling and talking. It wasn't peaceful at all. Then when you get to the walk, it's a 3+ hour wait. Abort. I took off on my 6 hour hike to the 'Hide" where I'd be staying the night, listening to the jungle. However. 2 Hours into it, and a long, sweaty two hours it was, I took a break to grab some water and maybe a snack.

I immediately felt some things fly into my head, and I smacked them off. then i felt things land on me, and pain shoot down my arms and back. Something was attacking me, and I couldn't tell what it was. I think it was bee-like things, but I found no stingers on me, just marks, unless these were highly adaptive bees that kill people. I think they were. I ran for my life (remember I was stopping because I was horribly tired and halfway up a huge incline...)

In the process of running, i dropped my water down the mountain and into the lost abyss of the jungle. Now, I had a whole other bottle of water, but the amount I was sweating quickly took its toll on me, and that water went fast. Sweating. I sweat, I get it. I know it. But here, my legs were pouring out sweat and when i took big steps, it beaded through my pants. I was soaking wet. With sweat. It was like hiking in a sauna. My other water ran out, and I didn't want to eat snack as Id get too thirsty. This created a dilemma. About 4 hours into the hike I was exhausted, tired, and getting ridiculously fed up with how hard the hike was turning out to be. Lots of ups and downs as it followed the river. And not little ups and downs, but 'hold onto the ropes and roots of trees vertical' ups and downs...

I was walking, feeling dizzy and knew I needed to get out of the jungle, or at least find someone with water. However I only passed one group of 3 hikers on the way, and early on, so I was fine. I was giving up hope when I heard some noise through the jungle in the direction of the river. I found the closest little watershed creek and walked straight through the jungle towards the noise. I walked out on to a little beach with a tree hanging over rocks for a jumping spot. There were two people on a little romantic getaway, and I came out of nowhere (no path or even remotely path-looking) and asked for water and a ride home. They helped and it all worked out.

place of rescue

I found out I was only 20 min or so from the place I planned to get a boat back, but for hours had seen no one, no boats, no access to the river, and had no idea how much longer I had to trek. Little to say I was defeated by the trek and went back home. Luckily the hostel I had had no water, and I sat in my own filth for a couple hours before teaming up with some girls to get a better room with running water. I took the bus early the next morning the hell out of that devil park and back to KL... stupid jungle.

(special note. I'm R. That's 4 strikes in a row...)

In KL I spent another couple days just hanging out, not really doing anything. I met up with my friends again (Gabriel, the couch surfer who stayed with me, and I stayed with him in KL) and we went bowling, and he had a potluck another night with some amazing dishes. Never thought I'd like being in a city so much... but after sweat fest death hike '09, it was nice...

Gabriel bowling

Perhentian Islands

After the overnight bus to Kuala Besut I haggled my way onto a ferry (at a cheaper price) to get to the islands. Luckily, I was the only foreigner on my boat, and had a big group of Malaysians to talk to, but half way there the police pulled us over and turned us back for not having paperwork. Then since I told them I haggled a price (they payed full) I was told to get off the boat and wait for another, as they were over the limit of people (of course). After a grueling couple hours, I arrived on the island and took the first room I found, up a hill for 5 bucks. Dorm room. Fans. Humid.

The island is really peaceful and nice. It's not the drunkard topless party beach like Thailand, and because of that I think I liked it even more. You go to hang out, dive, eat and relax. There is no electricity running through the island, and everything is on generators. This makes it cool because power is limited to nights and during the day you just roam around and drink cool drinks, swim, snorkel, dive, kayak, etc.

The first day I walked around, and talked to some dive shops about diving. I met a girl Holly who 'worked' at one of the shops and liked her attitude and approach, so I checked out their shop and decided to go with them. They reminded me of people from UCSB, and I liked that. So I booked a course with them and decided to move into the Bungalow that was adjacent to them, to make it easier in the mornings.

I took my Advanced Open Water course with them, and also a refresher course (its been nearly 3 years) and also two fun dives at the end.

The dive sites were amazing, and it was like diving in some rich person's fish tank. They had thousands of fish, schooling and swimming around, fish bigger than my torso, and some decently sized sharks. We saw some really cool stuff. We also got to dive two different wrecks and do some deep diving and some technical stuff too.

Dives:

Sugar Wreck- This is a sunken ship, and you can swim through parts of the outside, and even surface inside it (still over 7 meters deep) and have a conversation without the regulator's air. It's got loads of fish and coral and life all over. Probably my favorite dive I did (I did it twice)

Temple- from the surface of the water it's about 1-2 meters of rock just barely poking out of the sea. Below it's a 25m pinnacle teeming with all sorts of crazy stuff, and we even had a big shark circle us checking us out. You see thousands of schooling fish and nemo's and all sorts of really great stuff

Vietnamese Wreck- An old boxy ship that is in an area of current, so if you're lucky (we weren't) you can see some seahorses chilling out (as they have no real fins or means of transport) and use the current to feed.

D'Lagoon- We stayed in the sand doing all sorts of exercises to increase my skill at buoyancy. Mission Impossible drops, floating on your head, swimming though hoops, upside down, flips, taking off your tank and sitting on it like a rodeo bull... very fun

Tombstone- I did my refresher and navigation dives here, and it's a little reef you can dive straight from the beach and has lots of fish. not the best, but its perfect for teaching.

I really enjoyed the islands, and dove during the day, did a little reading and studying for the course in the afternoons and evenings, and went out for dinner a couple nights with people from the dive shop, day dives, or that we'd met along the way. Its a very nice environment, and I can see how people just stay and enjoy the island for weeks and months.

Penang

Alright! Tine to continue to try to blog here, as the longer I put this off, the harder it will be for me to update all Ive done. I'm already over a week behind. So Penang is an island on the Northwestern side of Peninsular Malaysia.

Penang is a culturally rich island, with a strong colonial and trading past as it was up there in major ports back in the day. Therefore, there's a lot of history and museums and old forts you can check out. It's also (and better for me) known as a highly rich culinary melting pot, as it has Chinese, Indian, Malay and Thai ethnic minorities all over the island. Therefore, when in Penang... you eat!


I couch surfed again while I was in Penang with a man names Ang. He's a Chinese Malay, and works part time at the Chinese cultural center, and also other centers around town. This means he's a huge wealth of information on things to do.

The first night, there was a thrown together BBQ for a group of Singaporeans who were traveling through Malaysia on an eating tour. Last minute looked more like 4 days prep, as there was a HUGE buffet of seafood and meats to BBQ, and homemade dishes and drinks and appetizers. Quite an amazing "last minute" party. I got to meet other couch surfers from Poland, California, Germany, and Malaysia, and some expats from Britain and Japan who live in penang. It's quite the network of people, so once you know someone, you meet half the city.

I also had made some friends from the Cameron Highlands (Switzerland, Canada and Brazil) and I met up with them while I was there. It's always nice to be a completely worldly group of kids roaming around. We spent the next day going to a hill on top of Penang, taking a funicular to the top. The problem was when we got there we had a two hour wait, so we walked (hottest day possible) to some temples and then the funicular took 30+ minutes, and then at the top you had to wait 20-30 minutes before the 30+ minute ride down. It ended up being an all day affair.

After the funicular we went to meet Ang and have dinner at an Indian Cultural center, where everything is free and its run on donations (it was packed) and then to a Disabled Home to meet some people Ang does volunteer work with. It was a good day/night and got to see some stuff otherwise not on the tourist trail, which is always nice.

The last day I spent walking the whole of the city with a couch surfer from CA and was sweating horrible, per usual, until we found hidden aircon machines at the historic Fort in town, in the bunkers, and stood directly in front of them for an extended period of time, before running to the next one. Wasn't too bad of an afternoon, and we had a big couch surfing meetup for dinner, where one of them gave me a ride to the bus station to catch an overnight to the islands on the East coast.