Under, over, and through

Sawadee Ka from Thailand!

I've been here just over a week now and have been keeping very busy. First stop was Phuket (flew in for 30 day visa). The whole reason for me going there was to dive. So I did :). But before that I went to an Obama innaguration party at an expat bart in Phuket town (it happened at midnight in Thailand). It was fun. The bar did a special with Obama burgers and bourbon. Anyway diving. I went over to Karon beach for diving. The beaches were nice as was the $6 massage on the beach. The diving was terrific! I did my first wreck dive (got to swim through the boat to the prow) on the first dive. Then we went to shark point and saw 2 leopard sharks. I got to lay down next to them. The highlight of the third dive was a huge moray eel (we saw 2) but we also saw a bamboo shark on that one. All and all a great day underwater!

After Phuket I decided to head to the jungle so I am now in Khao Sok which is a huge jungle in South Thailand. After a short day hike the first day I was here, I did a 2 day trip into the jungle. The first day we hiked into a cave. The cave had loads of bats and spiders and frogs and crickets and water. So much water that we had to swim at some parts while our guide scaled the rocks with the cameras. So cool! We spent the night in a floating rafthouse on a lake. Like literally you could see the water through the floor of the rooms. And the food was terrific! They put down plates of like 3 different mains and you just served it on up. Curry, sweet and sour, noodles, ginger.. I love Thai food! Day 2 we went for a longboat ride in the morning and saw 4 kinds of monkeys. Most were too far away to get good photos of, but we saw black monkeys, longtail macaques, shortail monkeys, and my favorite (because they act like acrobats in the trees) gibbons. Later we did a hike over a hill and went for a swim before heading back.

Today I decided to go for a short hike to a waterfall. Was supposed to be 4km. I don't know what the person doing the measuring was smoking but after nearly 3 hours of hiking there was no sign of the falls. What I did see loads of, however, mostly on my feet, were leeches. I was hiking with a French couple when I first saw a few on my foot. I was wearing Keens (sandals) for the river crossings (and because it is the dry season when there are few leeches- but it had rained yesterday) and when I took them off I had about 9 leeches drinking away. The French couple (wearing long pants and hiking boots) freaked out about the leeches outside their clothes and went back. I continued on stopping every now and again to pull another few off my feet. Honestly, it was a rather gross way to spend an afternoon but I'll chalk it up to experience. A couple of random facts about leeches- they are harmless in that they don't make you sick or anything and don't hurt at all. In fact you really cannot feel them. They release an anticoagulant when they start drinking the blood so it takes a few minutes before you can start to clot. I could go on here but I bet I am totally grossing you all out, huh? Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them. My camera was in my backpack and upon seeing leeches on my feet I couldn't make myself wait to get out the camera and take a shot before frantically ripping them off. I should take a pic of the marks on my feet though. Note to self.

Tomorrow I start heading up to Bangkok. Going to do a muay thai kickboxing class for a week before Jaclyn and Mish come meet up with me for 2 weeks. Can't wait to see them!!

The picture is of the floating rafthouses where I stayed. Cool, huh?

Food coma

How funny, I was totally getting ready to compose a post about food and I saw Jen's comment asking for info about it. Jen, you totally read my mind! I'm currently in Penang, my last stop in Malaysia and a place totally known for its food and well, I am totally trying my best to taste it all. Right now I am killing time between dinners 1 and 2 (but, hey, I skipped lunch). Before I go off on food though, let me catch up to Penang briefly and then I'll go off.

My last day in the Cameron Highlands I did the half day tour where in 3 hours they take you to a strawberry farm (yum), tea plantation, honey farm, butterfly garden, rose garden, buddhist temple and market. It is a whirlwind but really interesting! Then I headed up to the island of Langkawi where I spent 5 days doing not a whole lot. But that was kind of the point. Langkawi is actually a group of 99 islands about 100 km off the coast of Malaysia and near the Thai border. The biggest island is just known as Langkawi as well and that is where I stayed. It has loads of great beaches and is great for relaxing. The island is also duty free so beer, cigarettes, and chocolate are cheap. Big contrast to the rest of Malaysia where these things are taxed heavily (did I mention Muslim?). Other than hanging out on the beach, eating, and drinking with the people I met on Langkawi, I did an island hopping excursion. First we went to a limestone created freshwater lagoon surrounded by ocean for a swim. Then we headed to a mangrove island with loads of eagles and finally we went to a beach island with clear water for swimming (it is a bit murky on Langkawi and jellyfish are rampant). Yesterday I came down to Penang and tomorrow I'll fly from here to Phuket in Thailand (thanks to that stupid new visa thing).

OK, on to food. I keep hearing that people lose weight when they travel. Those people either aren't traveling in Asia or don't share my love of Asian cuisine... In New Zealand the food was very Western so I tended to cook in the hostels (great kitchens in Kiwi hostels). But from Indonesia on, I've been loving the food! In Indonesia the staples are fried noodles or rice with meat (or veggies), curries, BBQ fish, satay, and gado gado whcih is steamed veggies in peanut sauce and sometimes includes some or all of the following- fried egg (huge in Indo), rice, tofu, and/or tempe. There are other dishes and each region has its own specialties, but those are the basics. Malaysian food tends to0 be similar to Indonesian food with some additional types of noodles. Once again, varies by region and I am simplifying. Also in Malaysia there are large Chinese and Indian populations so those cuisines are widely available in the bigger cities. This is what I have been living on! I love the Ma Po Tofu (only found it in KL) and in the Cameron Highlands we had this awesome steamboat where you get 2 kinds of broth and loads of raw meat and veggies and cook it in the broth. It is all you can eat and there were 6 of us so we had quite the feast. Here in Penang I had some great dim sum and a terrific wan ton noodle soup. For Indian I quite like roti canai for breakfast. It is a flatbread kind of like a pancake served with curry sauce for about 50 cents. There is loads of briyani and tandoori and many buffets where you get a plate of rice and pick from the random food on display. Tonight I tried the banana leaf where you get rice and about 5 different kinds of veggies with a bit of dhal soup served on...wait for it... a banana leaf. As much as I am looking forward to Thai food, I am totally going to miss all of this!

OK, I guess that is all. More from Thailand! Keep the comments coming please! I love them.

Pic is sunset on Langkawi and the rest of my Malaysia pics are up:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stacyb/Malaysia#

And into Malaysia

Hello again!

So I made it safely and uneventfully into Malaysia. I spent the first day and a half in Kuala Lumpur (which means "muddy confluence"- random tidbit). I quite liked KL. I mean its a city but I thought a nice one. None of the other travelers I've met since seemed to like it much, but then again, they weren't coming from Jakarta :). The first day I wadered around a bit and had terrific Ma Po tofu (loads of Indian and Chinese people in Malaysia so there are many restaurants from both). I had (and am still not over) this terrible cold so I crashed early. The next day I did the hop on hop off bus tour of KL which I found very interesting. I went to the National Museum and learned about Malaysian history (it was conquered by the Portugeuese, then the Dutch, and then the English before gaining independence in the 1950's). And then I made plans to head to Taman Negara the following day.
I went back and forth about going to Taman Negara because it is the rainy season and I'd read that leeches are rampant at this time of year. But in the end I couldn't resist a visit to the 130 million year old rainforest. It really is "the" National Park in Malaysia (in fact, Taman Negara means "National Park"). On the bus ride there (4 hour bus and then 3 hours on a wooden longboat to reach the park) I met Tess and Lauren from England and Felix from New Zealand and Dustin from the US. This became the TN crew. We arrived late so we just had dinner in a floating restaurant on the river and grabbed a few beers (expensive beers- Muslim country). The next day we headed into the park to do the Canopy tour which is a series of swinging bridges hanging up to 50 meters off the ground. Pretty neat. We followed that with a hike through the jungle and then Felix, Dustin and I got ready to spend the night in the jungle. They have these structures called hides that are near natural salt licks in the jungle. For 5 ringets (about $1.50) you can sleep in one. So we hiked 4 km to one of them for the night. We had the place to ourselves with the exception of a giant lizard (quite loud) and a spider the size of my head which resided in the bathroom. Dustin and I were spared leeches (although we saw loads! They sit on leaves and wait and latch onto your shoes as you walk past) but Felix had one in his shoe. We took photos of the bloodsucker before getting it off of him. He took it quite well (and they were his favorite socks...). Sleep was hard to come by since there are no mattresses- just wooden beds, but it was really neat to spend the night in the jungle. In the morning an animal (I think it was a tapir) fed just beneath the hide and we sat and listened to it. That night we went on a 4WD night safari and saw 6 slow loris, a leopard, a frog and a bunch of birds. Awesome!

Lauren, Tess and I took the shuttle to the Cameron Highlands the next day and Felix and Dustin headed back to KL. Cameron Highlands is higher in elevation so cooler which is nice. Today I did a jungle hike and tomorrow I think we are going to hit up a tea plantation, butterfly farm, strawberry farm, and some other local sights. Plus I need to sort out getting to Thailand. The Thai government decided to change the visa structure so you only get 15 days coming overland. So now I need to fly to get 30 days. I'm not happy about it. And they did it very quietly (thank you Lauren and Tess!). It isn't even noted on the US State Dept website. Ah well. I'll sort it out.

No pics just now but I'll try to add one later. Over n out!

A taste of Java

Salamat Siang and Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a terrific holiday!

After the Gilis I spent 2 long days traveling from Lombok back to Bali and then I took a plane to Surabaya followed by a bus to Solo and when no accomodation could be found there, a train to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta or Jogja for short). Jogja, like Solo was completely packed with Javanese people on holiday (mostly from Jakarta) for New Years, but luckily I was able to find a room. Traveling in Java is very different from Bali and the Gilis. Far fewer peaople speak English and Westerners are definitely few and far between. It was cool because I have felt like I have gotten to see some of the "real life" Indonesian people, but it has also posed some challenges. Women traveling alone attract a LOT of attention. Most of it is harmless, but you literally can't walk 10 feet without hearing the cries of "hello miss (or missus or mister)" and "where are you going?" "where are you from?", and of course "do you need transport?". Today I was stopped by a group of Muslim women who had me pose in pictures with each of them. When I was hanging out with other travelers, the attention decreased about 90%. Like I said, interesting.

So Jogja. I didn't love Jogja. It was totally packed with people and many of the sits were closed while I was there due to the Muslim New Year (Dec 29 this year). The Water Palace was pretty cool. Oh and everyone there is trying to get you to buy batik and most people who come up and speak English and pretend to be your new best friend are trying to get you into a batik shop (the only official one, or my family's, etc). I met a erally nice Indonesian man named Ibnu who took me out to the beach on his scooter to see the tradtional New Year celebration. Unfortunately it was canceled due to rain, but we got to see some of the chanting and puppet performances on the way. The highlight of my time in Java came when I was in Jogja. I took a day trip to Borobordur. We left at 5 AM so we got to Borobordur at 6 AM before the crowds. Borobordur is a Hindu temple complex that was built between 750 and 850 AD and was abandoned shortly after completion. Volcanic eruptions covered the temples but they were discovered and restored and now rank with Angkor Wat as one of the most amazing temple ruins in SE Asia. The temple complex is surrounded by volcanoes and thick forest. It is truly amazing to see. We also went to the temples at Prambanan, but after Borobordur, they were anticlimactic.

On New Years eve day I took a train to Jakarta. I arrived in the early evening and met a Dutch couple, Valter and Kari at dinner. The three of us joined the thousands of Jakartans heading to the National Monument for New Years. We arrived at 11:30 (after weaving through more people, buses, and motorbikes than can comfortably fit on one roadway) and waited for the excitement at midnight. We were quite surprised when midnight came and went and nothing happened. No fireworks (save for some families lit), no cheering, no acknowledgement whatsoever. We yelled Happy New Year and all but that was it. About 12:30 most people startde to leave so we went back to our hotel area and went to a bar and watched Indonesian teens butcher American and Dutch pop songs (Indonesia was a Dutch colony until the 1950's). I've been here in Jakarta for 2 days since New Years and have walked much of the city and took a day trip to the botanical gardens in Bogor. Tomorrow I head to Malaysia.

I have posted all of my Indonesia pictures. It took forever (slow connection) so I have not had time to caption them. Sorry there are so many, but I am using Picasa as my backup for photos. At a later date the plan is to delete a bunch and/or put together a highlights album. Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stacyb/Indonesia#