"Real" life update.

Hello everybody! Been just over three weeks at home now and still no one has offered me any deep-fried tarantulas to eat. That's alot for helping me with my transition everybody! It is surprising that I've only been back for 3 weeks. It really does seem like my trip was forever ago, and that is a little bit of a sad realization. Part if it has been just how much has happened since I've been back. My job stuff had really come together perfectly. I've landed both of those jobs that I've talked some about and they seem to be fitting together nicely. One of them I was able to start on literally the first work day I was back and the other is just starting to really ramp up now. Still, I haven't been too busy to spend the necessary time to get buy and set-up a new computer, fix our hot tub, work on the yard, take the dogs on walks, set up my home-office, and even sneak out for the occasional mid-week bike ride. Not too bad. But many full days. I need to work on that and try harder to channel a little more "Laos" attitude.

I was interviewed by the Winters Express last week about my trip. I'm going to be a celebrity in town. (Can you be a celebrity in a town where everybody knows everybody?). If it prints this week, I'll send out the link. Actually, the picture above was taken by a professional photographer in who I met while in Cambodia. He sends stuff to magazines in Europe (and the US, I think?) so if he is successful, maybe I will be a celebrity. Not sure if I look quite horrified enough in the picture though for it to make the press...

While getting work has been going well, doing work has been harder. My ability to focus has been greatly compromised. Hopefully it is just atrophy from lack of use, not a permanent loss from a realization that there are better things to do than work. Sooner or later successful getting combined with the unsuccessful doing might catch up to me. Hopefully the fear of that will help sharpen the focus some.

OK, break in the rain. Gonna go work in the yard some. Easier to focus on that than trying to write about energy efficiency light sources...

-erik

Top 5

Mowed the lawn today. It was as surreal as I expect it to be. Otherwise, adjusting pretty well. Things are seeming more "normal" every day, which of course is good and bad. Having pretty much finished Katie's "honey-do" list, I started working in earnest today. Have a meeting tomorrow on my potential "big" project....

Time now for what might be a reoccurring feature: a "Top 5" list ala High Fidelity.

Top 5 Favorite Countries that I visited:
5. Malaysia: Malaysia (and Borneo in particular) was interesting enough to suck up almost a 1/3 of my trip, but it wasn't my favorite place. OK, it was my least favorite, but I still liked it (that's how good the trip was!). The outdoor activities were world class (trekking, scuba, mt climbing), but the culture, food, lack of massages and abundance of leeches all hurt the Malaysia's overall score. The people were friendly when you got to know them, but were largely more reserved and/or serious than folks in most of the other places I went...
4. Singapore: Was great for 2 days. Then was ready to leave. Which was perfect because that's when I left.
3. Cambodia: Just a couple clicks away from totally anarchy, which earned alot of plus points and alot of minus points. I guess that's why it's in the middle of the pack. I'd stay it was easily the most unique place I visited and as an"adventure traveller" that is worth alot. In this "globalization" world, so many places just seem the same. Cambodia is not the same as anything I've ever seen. Not even close. Demerits for generally lame massages more than made up for by the awesomeness of the Temples of Angkor (you all by now know how much I value massages, so that should really tell you something about Angkor...)
2. Laos: Everybody sez that Laos is "laid back" but until you get there, its hard to understand what people mean. But by the end of my first week there, the idea of taking a nap in a public place (like the sidewalk...) didn't seem to be at all that strange. I don't know why or how; that's just Laos. Food: Baguettes with breakfast, sticky rice with dinner...awesome. People: Super friendly, not at all pushy. Massages: Kip for kip, the best massages on the trip.
1. Thailand: Pretty much the only bad thing I can say about Thailand is that everyone else loves it too. Too many tourists, but everything else is perfect. Easily my favorite people: so friendly, smiley and always joking. Joking with you joking with each other, joking with animals, etc. Food: the best. I never, ever got tired of Thai food. (Occasional hamburgers are Thai food, right?). Massages: central to the culture. Beautiful places everywhere. Unbelievable beaches with water that is almost too warm. I know I will be back to Thailand, hopefully many times.

(Note: I just remembered that I also went to Japan! Oops. Not sure where that would have been in the list. Not the top, not the bottom. I liked it for sure and Noriko took great care of me and showed me so many places. But doesn't even seem like it should be on this list. Such a different place...)

OK. Other Top 5's to come, potentially including:

• Top 5 experiences of the trip
• Top 5 SE Asian Beers
• Top 5 travel mishaps
• Top 5 pictures
• Top 5 funniest broken English signs

OK, Seeya...

-erik

Home!

I made it! I'm here! In North America!

The flight home went about as smoothly as 17hrs of flights can go. Got some sleep, didn't have anyone too large encroaching on my seat, didn't have to pay for airplane food, had no more than the average number of crying babies in my immediate vicinity. I do think that the 3 months of travel have made me "more comfortable being uncomfortable" as I've said before, which made the flight more bearable.

While it is great to be home and see Katie, Mocha, and Zipper, it is also strange to be home. But strange not in how different everything is, but in how normal and familiar it is. Really has that "was it all just a dream" feeling. Gonna take some time to adjust as I expected. Also going to take some effort to integrate the perspective that I've gained from the trip into my everyday life, because it is clearly easy just to slip right back into the old routines and patterns without even noticing. The fact that I'm changing jobs and going to have to start anew should force a certain amount of reinvention though, and that's probably good.

My body is almost back to Pacific Time. And expect to legitimately start working tomorrow (even though its Columbus Day! My new boss is a real slave driver!) This weekend has mainly about sleeping, hanging out with the family (we all went on our favorite hike by Lake Berryessa today!), and starting to go through the chores that Katie's been staving up for me. And watching footballs games where you can use your hands. And baseball. Ah, glorious baseball...

Went to Costco yesterday to look at laptops. That was surreal. Night Markets in Laos and Costco have very little in common. And there are sooo many Americans in America. I'm not used to it.

Anyway, that's it for now. Definitely have some alot more though to talk about, so stay tuned. Also I plan to sort through my (literally) 1000's of pictures at some point to put together a little package for y'all that is a little more digestible. Any of you that actually want to see the 1000's should probably just go to SE Asia. It would probably be faster and certainly more entertaining.

OK, hope to see many of you soon!

-erik

One (more) Night in Bangkok

The last day of the trip. Tomorrow I'm on that 17hr flight, seeing the sun rise twice and somehow arriving only 2 hrs after I leave. Certainly bittersweet having it all come to an end. I am definitely ready to be home: tired, homesick. But also I have had a pretty amazing trip and I hate to see it end. I hope it isn't another 37 years before I get to take a trip like this again.

It's been nice to be in Bangkok again, though I really haven't been too active. Another nice "last place" for me to be because, since I've spent a fair amount of time here before, I don't feel the pressure to "see it all." Just been doing the usual walking around, eating and getting massages. (had 2 hr massages each of the last 2 nights. feel like i've been beaten on, and I guess I have. I normally would skip it tonight, but its my last night be pete-sake, so that doesn't seem like an option!). Today I will do a little site seeing, taking a river boat to my favorite temple (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). And tonight, they are closing the (major) road in front of my hotel for a huge Hindu festival centered around a Hindu temple close-by. So that should be interesting. (Bangkok really is 95+% Buddhist, so this Hindu festival is a bit of a fluke I think...)

Starting to gear up a little for work. I've had a number of conference calls in resent weeks setting stuff up. Even had one paying call for a 1-hr consulting job (that paid me the equivalent of 5 nights in a hotel in Laos!). I have one job solidified that I will be working on literally at the beginning of next week. And the other "big-job" is looking better and better. Have had 3-4 phone "interviews" now and will probably have a face-to-face meeting next week with them in the City, hopefully to finalize.

OK, better get out there and experience the last day. Probably my last blog from Asia, but keep checking in though because I have alot more thoughts/experiences that I'll share from the comfort of my own laptop on my own couch...

See many of you soon!

-erik

Tear-Gas-Free Bangkok

A very quick note to let y'all know that I made it to Bangkok and so far have not been caught up in any of the street protests. I wonder if tear gas is any less effective in a city where the air is so bad that it makes your eyes run on normal days? Anyway, if there are no repeats of airport-closing protests, I should be home this Friday! Crazy!!

More later soon...

-erik

No rest for the road-weary

Well, didn't take the day off yesterday as planned. Went to the waterfall instead. The fall was incredible, one of the nicest I've every seen. Huge. (the pict on left is just a little place that I swam and played around with camera shutter speeds after hiking the falls...). Today is the rest day, although I haven't been resting too much. The alarm woke me up at 8AM (oh, the humanity!) and I quickly turned on CNN to catch the VP debate. After I had about 30-40 minutes of that, I needed a break, so I went and had breakfast, and then came back for the end. The idea of Palin with her finger on the button is not only scary, but just bazaar. Shouldn't we have more safeguards than that in place? I think she probably thinks that Russian troops tried to invade Atlanta last month... I caught the clip from SNL where Tina Fey spoofs her by saying exactly the same thing (word for word) as in her Katie Curric interview. Classic. Anyway, enough of that.

After the debate, to the internet, then lunch, then walking around, then cafe. Then internet again (now), soon massage, back to room for nap (time permitting...), and then hopefully to see the evening monk prayers. Also, tonight I might sign up for a 2 day/1 night trek to hill tribe villages (starting tomorrow). We'll see what's available/interesting. The overnight should be very primitive, maybe more so than my camping was in Borneo. But 1 day should be OK.

Can't believe I'm just 1 week out from getting on a plane back to the States. Reentry is going to be strange. Please forgive me if I have forgotten who you are, who I am, what I do, how to speak English, how to drive, what side of the road to drive on, how to dress when I have more than 3 shirts to choose from, etc. Gonna take a little time I think. Am looking forward to somethings though:

• seeing friends and family (of course!)
• seeing Mocha and Zipper (of course!)
• my own bed
• Peets coffee
• cheese and good bread (although I'm getting both in Laos)
• low humidity
• Mexican food
• Mt. Biking
• Cal Football
• Leech free hikes (I broke my "no more leeches" pledge with one sucker yesterday and can expect many more if I trek tomorrow)

Things that I will miss though from SE Asia:

• Strangers that are actually friendly
• cheap, quality food
• cheap, quality massages
• cheap, quality most things
• the predictability in which unpredictable things happen
  

Probably many more for each list, but that's it for now as the massage calls. One note about massage that I meant to write before: I think I mentioned that I got a massage from a blind lady in Cambodia that was awesome. What I'm not sure if I mentioned or not was that sure was ridiculously strong and just about ripped my (very tight) hamstrings apart. I certainly like a strong, deep massage, but if someone is working your hamstrings and you can feel their fingers on the underside of your quads, they are pushing too hard.

Lastly, I've slowly been adding more pict to my site. There is now an Angkor Wat folder that is slowing getting filled. Pictures are trailing my by about a weeks I guess...

-erik

Be Here Now

This morning started early. I got up at 5:30 to give offers (sticky rice) to the over 200 monks that live and study in Luang Prabang. It was a pretty special experience. (but not a single one said thanks! monks today, geez!!) The monks come out of their various temples around the city and walk a circuit around town where towns people line up with food. I went with my hosts from my guesthouse - they go everyday. I am probably going to go to the afternoon/evening prayer session today too. Each evening, you can hear the Buddhist chanting in various parts of town and certainly only enhances the overall "cool" that the town already has.

Really trying to take it slow here with moderate success. This is a great place just to be, but there are also alot of tempting sites and activities in the area too. Yesterday I took a boat trip up the Mekong to a cave that has 700+ Buddha statues inside. The day before was mt. biking (pretty mellow...), waterfall and swimming (nice!), kayaking back to town (fun, but rained the whole way, which got old...). Today I really want to get some quality cafe-time in, but being tempted by the sunny day and a potential trip to another (supposedly better) waterfall. What to do, what to do...

Can't quite believe I'm coming home in a week! Does actually feel like I've been gone for a long time though. I certainly will need time to reflect (probably when I get back) but as far as I can tell right now, the trip has been exactly what I hoped it would be. I had fun adventures, I got lots of rest, I ate strange foods, I met nice people, I spend long periods not thinking about work. Right now, I think one of the biggest take-aways is that travel has a way of forcing you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. I've definitely gotten there. This is something that I hope to bring back and transfer to my everyday life. Also, I do feel ready and excited to jump back into work in a way that I don't think I've really felt for years. I was really hoping that would happen and relieved that it did (it was either gonna be that or a realization that I never wanted to work again, so the "I'm ready to work again!" road should certainly be less disruptive...)

OK. Gonna run for now (partially because this is the 2nd worst keyboard of my trip....) but Ill touch base again soon. Just added some more pictures from Phnom Penh to the site, but seems like it didn't load them all...grrr. But that's OK, I'm comfortable with that....

-erik

Looking for office space

Luang Prabang is so nice, that I've decided that this is were I'm going to base my consulting out of. OK, maybe that isn't realistic. (or is it?...I just spent an hour being interviewed via Skype by a company that paid me an ungodly sum as an expert (suckers!) to help when with a marketing study....) But I really do like it here. Am pretty sure that I'm gonna more or less spend the next 10 days here with maybe some 1-2 day side trips in the neighborhood. Leaves alot (almost all actually...) of Laos unexplored, but I'm happy here and it seems like a good point in my trip to start winding down. Planning on flying directly from Luang Prabang to Bangkok where I'll probably spend a few days (and hopefully get a dental check-up from my favorite dentist!) before flying home. So looks like no more 10 hour bus rights for me.

As you can see from the photo, as well as enjoying a croissant, cappuccino, and beautiful Wat view, I'm also still working my way through Walden. I'll dedicate a blog to Walden at some point as it is awesome and a perfect travel read, especially for me at this "transitional" period of my life. He certainly knows how to "enjoy the now" although he also can seem to a bit of a jerk sometimes too. But I'll save the book review for later. I think I'm on pace to finish it, especially if i can make myself lay-low here. That said, I think I might go whitewater rafting tomorrow. sigh...Off to night market and cheap eats now....

-erik

Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Laos

All I can really say upon arriving in Luang Prabang (Laos) is "wow." The change between frantic & chaotic Cambodia and sleepy & beautiful Laos could not be more striking. As opposed to falling asleep to discos and waking up to honking, last night I fell asleep to...silence...and woke up (at 4:15am?!) to mellow Buddhist drumming and chimes (which soon stopped and I went back to sleep, but it was actually a pretty awesome way to wake up). The French influence here is strong with beautiful buildings, great food (great bread!), and superior coffee. I might not venture far from here for the rest of my holiday, and although there isn't much to do here beside eat and sleep, I think that will be just fine. This really is the perfect antidote for Cambodia, as well as to 2.5 months on the road. (I say that even though I really enjoyed Cambodia and being on the road in general.)



I have a very nice room with a balcony overlooking the Mekong River ($30/nt, includes breakfast...oops, sorry...) where I might just settle in for a long relaxation. Speaking of relaxation, did have a "lao massage" last night (of course) and it was pretty good; very similar to Thai as you might expect, but a little different. And only $4/hr (ok,ok, I'll stop!!). There are suppose to be alot of outdoor activities and trekking options from LP, and I'll probably do something in a few days. Might be nice to do an overnight or 2 somewhere (hill tribe village, etc), then come back to my cushy hotel. I'd like to do a mt. bike trip, but so far the ones i've seen all look like they are "fun for the whole family" and we all know that's not what I'm looking for (I want a trip where most of the family break collarbones...).


Finally, a few final thoughts on Cambodia (see Angkor Wat below...), before I forget about them:

Cambodia really does seem like a place you could just disappear in. I mean that in pretty much every possible way: you could just be abducted and no one would bother to look for you; you could hide from your creditors/government/family/etc and the lawlessness would help keep you hidden; you could lose yourself to your own demons with all the vice that is offered by the kilos on the streets daily. I happy to report that I made it out though!

• Drunk driving is not a problem in Cambodia. I don't mean that they don't drink and drive, I mean that when they do, it's not a problem. This is mainly because everyone there already drives like they are drunk, so any actual difference is just lost in the noise. I discovered this on first hand on one night of vice I had (mainly just Angkor beer...lots of Angkor beer...) in which my tuk-tuk driver was drinking with me eventually could not walk straight, but fit in with Cambodian traffic just fine. Note: do not try this at home...
• I really don't think I stress enough the overall impressiveness of the temples, so let me say this again: They were very impressive.

Ok, maybe that's enough for now. I'm currently doing a walking tour of LP and taking a brief timeout here as the mid day heat is killer (I thought is was suppose to be cooler here?). But I should be back to it. At least until I walk past a french cafe with some good looking chocolate pastries...

-erik

Angkor-whelming

I've spent the last two days ruin-hopping around Angkor Wat with one more day to go tomorrow. I have a little of the inevitable "it all looks the same, I just want to go back to my room and sleep" feeling, but to a much larger extent, I'm in a perpetual state of awe. Angkor Wat was of course ridiculous. Not the highest temple ever, but the footprint is gigantic, and the entire perimeter of one of the interior walls is covered in non-stop, detail carving: I think about 1 kilometer! But more than that is just that fact that Angkor Wat is really just one of many. Many many many. Ever new temple just adds to the overall effect. Why can't we have infrastructure projects like that? I think the new Bay Bridge would be sweet if it had seven-headed sea-serpents along the whole length of the bridge. It is pretty strange though seeing all this stuff in a country that is so underdeveloped and poor. While Cambodia is clearly developing fast (almost certainly too fast), one has the sense that visitors and locals both see this as a land whose greatest days occurred 1000 years ago. And in a much more dramatic way that Greece or Rome, just because of the current state of things here.

Notes:

• I'm sick again with a cold. Sucks, but if I end this trip with nothing worse than 2 colds, I will certainly count myself lucky.
• Being sick, I had Khmer chicken soup today for lunch and it was great! There was a bug in the soup though and realizing that it would be somewhat awkward complaining about a bug in my soup in a place that bugs are commonly eaten on purpose, I just fished it out and kept eating...
• The temples here are completely overrun, not only by encroaching forests, but by encroaching touts. Most are very cute little girls (between 7-12 years old?) selling t-shirts, bracelets, scarfs, water bottles, pineapple, etc. They are relentless. I'm actually the worst type of tourist for this, because I am teaching them that some people will say "no" 5000 times and then still buy something from them. (Don't get too excited Katie: I mainly just bought water...)
• These kids all ask were I'm from and when I say America, they say "which state" and when I say California, they say, "the capital is Sacramento! Now will you buy something from me!?" Then i say no again. Some times they tell me that Arnold is my governor. Sometimes they tell me the population of the US. Sometimes they name other capitals. Sometimes they count to 10 in several different languages.
  
• Tomorrow I will have counter-measures for the kids: Candy! "I will give you this is you leave me alone..."
  
• Finally getting my first real bout of home-sickness and road-weariness. The cold probably helps. Back in just 2 weeks from tomorrow. It really does go fast. Before I know it I will be at home weed-whacking the yard, just like I was never gone.
  
• Speaking of weed whacking, they literally weed-whack here. Lawns are moved by men on the knees swinging machetes. I will try to stop complaining when I do our lawn (but I'm sure I'll complain anyway...)
• Massage update: Something that I've always dreamed about finally happened yesterday during a massage. No, not that. Yesterday I had a "4-hands massage". 2 masseuses at once for an hour. At times it was confusing and at times it seemed like one of the ladies was just killing time on the legs because she couldn't get anywhere else, but there were moments of true inspiration. They were like synchronized swimmers: when they were in sync, they were more beautiful than they possibly could be alone, but when they were out of sync it was obvious and awkward. Anyway, for $10/hr (only $2.50/hr per hand!) it is definitely something I'm going back for...
  

OK, much more, but I'm tired. Hmm, 4 hands...

-erik

Swimming in Cambodia

Phnom Penh (which I now believe I've learned how to spell...) has lived up to all its contradictory hype and warnings. On my first day it blew my mind (which it's general craziness) and broke my heart (at the Killing Fields and genocide museum). As much as I think I will be eager to leave here in a day or 2, I can honestly say this is one of the most interesting places I've ever been. I seems like so many cities are the same, even here in Asia. Well, Phnom Penh is like nothing I've ever seem before. Probably the closest thing is Bangkok, but in comparison Bangkok seems orderly and comprehendable, which is funny to say because it really is neither.

Flying in to Phnom Penh, I was struck from the air how similar it looked to Sacramento: long, wide valley, big winding rivers surrounded by houses and flood planes. But as I got closer to the ground and realized all the roads I could see were dirt, I got my first indication it would be pretty different. Maybe more like West Sac! (Haha. Sorry, inside joke for us "valley people.") I believe that PP is over 1.5 million, but it feels smaller as there no buildings over 4 stories or so. I never thought I would say this, but the craziness on the roads exceeds anything I saw when I visited China. Almost no lights or stop signs at any intersections with only marginal slowing down through intersections for anyone. They drive on the right side of the road here (yipee!!) except for sometimes when everyone seems to switch sides for no apparent reason (oh no!!). All sorts of vehicles on the roads together (from pedistrian and bikes through Semi-trucks) with all sort of passengers and cargo (I saw a guy on a scooter yesterday with no less than 50 dead (i hope?) chickens.)

For the most part things are cheap here and you know exactly what you spending. The currency of choice: US Dollars! Pretty surreal getting greenbacks out of an ATM in the PP airport...Even though it is pretty cheap, everyone really is out to make a buck (literally this time...) off you. I have found that it is somewhat less frustrating it consider this a "service fee"rather than being ripped off. (Example: my tuk-tuk driver helped me get a new SIM card. he acted like he was just being helpful. The reality is i paid more than normal at the phone shop and he got a kickback. this rip-off pissed me off, but this "service fee" was more understandable...)

Yesterday was pretty active with the genocide museum (which is at a site where over 20,000 people where tortured to death) , the Killing Fields, and the Royal Palace. Like I said, the genocide museum/Killing Fields were stunning. I did everything I could before to prepare myself, but you just can't be prepared. You walk through there and all you can do is say "Why? Why?"to yourself over and over. It was truly haunting and heartbreaking. The evil of man and the fear it can create is still tangible here some 30 years later. I'm not the most intuitive person, but I could even feel it just stepping off the plane. That said, the people here are remarkably friendly and upbeat. Not surprisingly (since 3 million people died between 1974-79) most of the people you meet are younger- most under 30 and thus born after "the events."

Today, I'm going a little slower - catching up on a few things and then maybe going to a massage place where all the masseurs are blind. Suppose to be really good and supports blind people. Also hopefully going to a market and the city's main temple. Tomorrow or the next day (haven't decided yet...) heading off on a long bus ride to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

More later. Sorry not too many jokes this time. Hard to do when talking about genocide I guess...

-erik

Worst Blog Post from Best Airport

I'm at an internet kiosk in the Bangkok airport during my 5 hr layover before my flight to Cambodia. This keyboard is terrible, so excuse my typing please. (it sometimes just starts typing in Thai...see:ำพรา ยฟเำ รห แนนส)

Anyway, aside from this keyboard, this is perhaps the best airport ever to have a 5 hr layover. Some reasons:

• massage at airport at minimal mark-up from going rate. do i actually need to list any other reasons or are you already as sold as me...(keyboard has no question mark....grrrr)
• airport is about 1 year old, so clean, big, neato,fancy etc.
• endless opportunities to check out old-white-man with young-thai-woman couples and contemplate the social, moral and creepizodial aspects of these relationships.
• food is pretty good; has a starbucks.

OK, so Singapore actual is a better airport (better food, more english, and free internet with real keyboards) but that first bullet trumps all, and this is the better place to be. I got a foot massage here earlier (by accident really: i ordered a shoulder massage which apparently is 30 minutes on feet, 30 on shoulders...) and it was awesome. Maybe I can catch a later flight and have another!

Fly into Phenom Phen tonight and need to find hotel and then find a phone set up (Skype or new SIM card) as it sounds like I might have a phone interview tonight for a long term consulting gig that would start as soon as i get back. PP sounds pretty wild west and is probably the most dangerous place i'm going through on my trip (but still probably safer than most US cities...). Should be a bit of a culture shock after friendly, mellow, easy Thailand...

I'll try to post again once I settle in and get to a real computer with a real keyboard...

until then, ะฟาำ แฟพำ นด ันีพหำสอำห.

-erik

Katie's Gone...

(Author's Note: it is with great restraint that I decided to use this photo instead of the "toilet seat up" photo I took this morning. You're welcome...)

Well, the 2 week intermission from SoliDuding is over now and Katie should be on a flight somewhere over the Pacific now. We did have a nice time together, though Katie was a little travel-frazzled by the end. Her visit I think confirmed what we thought when we planned: (1) it was a very good idea for her to come it the middle of the trip and (2) it was a very good idea that she didn't travel for more than a few weeks. But we had alot of fun - ate good food (alot!), saw beautiful places, swam, slept, etc...

And it really wasn't in the middle of my trip. It was near the end. I only have just over 3 weeks left!! How the hell did that happen? I know it would, but jeez...So here is "the Plan" from here for me:

• 2 more days chillin' in Thailand


• fly to Cambodia. A few days in the capital Phenom Phen, then several days in Siem Riep, which is the town new Ankor Wat (the largest religious monument in the world that is suppose to be crazy cool...)
  
• fly from Siem Riep to Luang Prabong in Laos on Sept 27. LP is suppose to be an amazing place to be (beautiful, laid back, cheap, great French/Laotian food, etc), which great adventuring around if needed.
  
• Fly home on Oct 10th from Bangkok, so some time to figure when and how to get from LP to Bangkok...

OK, maybe that's it for now. Its about 1000 F in this internet cafe and I'm starting to feel faint...

-erik

Fun in the (sometimes) Sun

Greetings from Erik and Katie both! (SoliDuding is suspended for another 4-5 days...). Here's a picture of us from tonight eating (waaay too much...) at our new favorite restaurant Papaya on Koh Phi Phi. Today was the first truly sunny day we've had and Katie capitalized on it by getting totally sun burnt. That's making efficient use of her short visit! (We also look so shiny because, as is the custom here, we are sweating, and because we just both got oil massages. mmm, daily massages....). Yesterday was a good one too. We took an all-day boat cruise with snorkeling, swimming and kayaking. We thought the weather was great because it only looked like it was going to rain the whole day, but never really did. While snorkeling we saw a cute sea turtle, a (big!) jelly fish with long (scary!) tentacles and some (cute!) Nemo fish and many other colorful fish and corrals. And Katie even hand fed some monkeys pineapple on Monkey Beach....until they tried to steal our kayak, at which point we fled...Tomorrow we are splitting up. Oh, we mean we are doing different things. Erik is going scuba diving (hopes to see a whale shark!) and Katie is taking a Thai cooking class (hopes to make a mean green curry!). That's about it from us for now. Hope y'all are well and we'll talk to you later....

Erik & Katie

Katie's Here!!!

She made it!!! Katie found her way to meet me in Singapore and after a fun 1.5 days there, we are now we are now in Phuket Thailand (and didn't even have to fight our way through any picket lines at the airport!). The weather has been a little crappy (so that's why they call it the "wet season"...), but that doesn't really affect the massages or the eating and drinking, so we are doing fine and having fun. (speaking of which, please excuse the many typos that are certainly in this entry, as we just had a massage and then split a "Phuket Paradise" and then a "Tequila Sunrise" - it's happy hour here now...). Off to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow and hopefully we'll find some sun there. I guess a better near term goal should be that the weather is good enough so that we don't both get sea sick on the ferry to Phi Phi...In Phi Phi, Katie might even try her hand a scuba with me. That'll be fun! Anyway, definitely nice to have Katie here, though I think she is quickly remembering why it hasn't been too hard for her to live without me these past weeks. We're getting along well though and, so far, I've been pretty good about putting the seat down. OK, I think its just about time to go eat again...Later....

-erik (and katie!)

Wild Times

Ok, I'm sure putting this picture in the public domain will come back to haunt me, but there it is. This is me and one of my new friends from Borneo out during the jungle trek. I told you things were pretty basic there, but did you believe me?

Anyway, in Singapore now and it seems pretty nice. Glad I accidentally got an extra day here. Singapore is soo organized and clean that it is like a vacation from SE Asia, right in the middle of SE Asia. And I'm actually enjoying that quite a bit right about now. An example: as far as I can tell most Asian cultures do not que up in lines: they just go. To the Westerner, this means that they are always cutting in front of you. This pisses me off, even though I know that it is a cultural thing and they mean nothing by it. Anyway, when I got off the bus from Malaysia in Singapore, the first thing I saw was a line of about 50 people waiting for a bus. But the really remarkable thing was this line was super ordered. I mean it looked military-perfectly straight, perfectly spaced. I swear. I should have taken a picture but I was too shocked to think to reach for the camera.

Ok, now the random mumblings:

• I've seemed to establish a "brief narrative followed by bulleted items" format. Bite sized nuggets for the MTV generation. Is it working for y'all?
• Speaking of y'all: I was talking to a Danish woman the other day (sooo many Danes here!!!) and she told me that she had just met some loud Texas in Amsterdam. The thought of Texasan in Amsterdam representing America really freaked me out. Why didn't we let them do that lone-star state thing? I think they still want to do it, and the rest of us probably want it too. Is it too late? We can let them out and DC in and we wouldn't even need to change the flag.
  
• Katie arrives in about 6 hours! Can't wait to see her!! I just looked up her flight and I looking like it flies from SFO to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Singapore. I know about the Hong Kong stop, but not the Bangkok stop. Luckily she will probably be to tired to be mad at me for finding that "great" flight.
• Speaking of Katie being mad at me, it seems that 37 years of "put the toilet seat down" training are no match for 7 weeks of SoliDude traveling. Actually it was probably in week 2 that the automated reflex was last seen. I hope she doesn't fall in...
  
• Now that I have fast internet, I've put a zillion new pictures on my Picasa site. Once again for those of you who have made my picture page your homepage (oh right, because my blog is your home page...) it's at: http://picasaweb.google.com/erki666. I think every folder there that was added/updated in August/September is new or has new stuff in it...Yes, there are more embarrassing pictures of me buried in there...
  
• Looks like I'm starting to finally set some solid job stuff lined up! So I might actually be able to come back and pay off the credit cards that I charged up for the this trip afterall (rather than just staying here and hiding from my creditors...). One of the job leads is from somewhat that might actually be reading this blog and wants to hire me to write something. How crazy are they?
• Actually, I've gotten many nice compliments about my blog from people, and I appreciate that. On a related note, when I took a big step back and thought "what do I really want to do" not "what should I do" with regard to my career, the idea of being a travel writer was something that came up pretty strong. (Probably happens to everyone who travels, but...) So if any of you really do like my blog and have super connections into the world of travel writing, hook me up! (Travel writers have editors, right?(
• Speaking of travel writing, I think I have a super-sweat travel related scam I want to try out. Background: The Lonley Planet guidebooks are KING here. I know they are everywhere, but I literally don't think I've seen another guide book on my trip. I was thinking that if I had a notebook that said something like "2009 Lonley Planet Update notes" casually displayed at hotels and restaurants as I traveled, good thinks might follow. (Until i leave it unattended and they see that it just has blank pages and misc doodles in it...). I might try it anyway just for kicks...

OK, gotta run. Been in here too long....Seeya later...The next SoliDude entry might be a TogetherCouple entry instead.

-erik

Almost a big screw-up

Another quick pictureless blog from an airport...(I have sooo many great pictures too! grrr...). Flew from Mulu to Miri today. Suppose to fly from Miri to Singapore tomorrow and arrive a few hours before Katie. Or so I though. I stopped by the AirAsia ticket office after landing in Miri to see what they had to say about the Phuket (Thailand) situation. They didn't know. But they did take the opportunity to tell me that they don't fly from Miri to Singapore tomorrow! Upon closer review, I must have booked the wrong date, and was scheduled to go the following day - a day after Katie gets in! Oh, she wouldn't have liked that! Anyway, $40 later, I got a seat on the flight that goes out today (in about 45 minutes...) so I'll be there a day before Katie now. That was a close one. Probably my biggest travel goof so far, and only a $40 penalty (and I actually get there earlier...) so I guess that's not too bad after almost 2 months of travel...

Mulu was amazing, as I said before. It is mainly all about the caves in Mulu, but the rainforest there is pretty awesome too. I believe Mulu has the worlds largest cave passage, the worlds largest cave chamber and one of the worlds longest underground rivers. And it was a cave (the cave passage one actually) that has approx 2-3 million bats in it that come out at night to hunt. They stream out like smoke - it is pretty unreal. I got alot of nice pictures (and videos) or that. Aside from that, caves are great, but don't make for great pictures, though I tried. In any case kopefully I'll have a change to upload some shots tomorrow in Singapore.

Final note: I didn't get any leeches at all today!!! (that I'm currently aware of...)

Gotta run. Really don't want to miss this flight...

-erik

Last Days in Borneo

It's not to often that you sit down to check your email and you get shat on by a (very large) gecko. But that just happened. Ah, Borneo. I have been here for about 4 weeks now and I'm pretty ready to leave. That said, when I think about all the things I've down, I really wouldn't have skipped a thing. The natural beauty and outdoor activities here are never ending. Culturally and culinary, it is not super exciting, but the nature...wow. Anyway, just another quick, pictureless blog from an expensive, slow computer. I'm in Mulu National Park today (day 3 of 4 here) and its amazing like everything else here.

Some quick notes:

• What the hell is going on in Thailand?! Katie and I are suppose to fly into Phuket (which was shut down for several days because of protests) in about a week! I wish those Buddhists would more passively resist...
• I am sooo ready to be done with leeches. Had some extreme leech adventures on my visit to Long Pasia and then again some here in Mulu yesterday (including one that settled in for dinner way to close to the area that no man wants a leech...)
• After a week in Long Pasia, where the toilets ranged from delux (shared, squating pot-a-potie) to basic ("walk that way, make sure you are downsteam of where we do the dishes") I've very excited to have my own sitting, flush toilet again. I sometime just going in there to hang out just for fun.
• Speaking of toilets (sorry...) the "jungle toilet" is actually a little tough here because you are hard pressed to find a sq. foot of earth without a least a dozen insects (many that look strange and possibly nasty...). Certainly doesn't make you want to stay and read the paper...
• Speaking of insects, there are alot here. There is pretty much always an insect on your arm and it is pretty much always one you've never seen before.
• I've barily had any alcohol for the last month because Malaysia is muslim and they aren't into that. In fact I gather that muslims don't drink or eat pork and can't touch dogs. Those are 3 of the most important things in my life! Guess I can rule out converting to Islam...

OK, gotta run. really want to wash this gecko guano off me. Hopefully I can post again and share some of the incredible pictures I've gotten withing the next few days to a week.

Seeya!

-erik

I'm alive!

That's about all the time I have for now. Things have been wild but good. At airport, boarding now, gonna run...much more soon i hope.......

-erik

Long Pasia

I'm in a remote village at the end of a 4 hr 4WD dirt road. And there is (one, very slow) internet connection here! I'm not sure if i'm excited or mortified. (No pictures for now because of internet speed...) Anyway, very nice and very simple here. Almost all the 400 residents are farmers or hunters. I am certainly the only "white guy" here, although they are setting up a homestay program (that's what i'm doing) so they get approx 100-200 visitors a year.
The local people here are formerly head-hunters but are now Christians. (Boy though missionaries got arround). When I told my guide I was American, he got very excited about Billy Grahm. The drive here on the rough road in the pouring rain, with lighting and thumber with Christian rock music blaring is certainly an experience to remember.

Today I'm touring the village and resting. I met the "chief" this morning. The food is a little strange of course (I had deer soup, tapioca leafs and rice last night...) but so far so good. Add my host family is very nice, with the wife, Magdelana, speaking some English. Tomorrow I go off with one guide and one porter (not the beer type...) for 3 days/2 nights of jungle treking. I think i am suppose to sleep in a hammock or something. I think we are bring some food, but I think we are also planning to eat what we find/kill in the jungle. Will be interesting.

Anyway, just a brief hello. Don't want to monopolize the whole towns internet anymore. Should resurface again a few days.

-erik

I'm back!

Back from 5 days of diving in the Sipidan! The sharks didn't kill me but the 10 hour overnight bus ride last night almost did. The diving was great, enough to make me stay for an extra day (despite the very primitive accommodation's). I ended up doing 14 dives overall there! Saw sharks, turtles, barracuda, sea snakes, morey eels, cuddlefish, and a billion other things. It really was an amazing place. I think I need to stop diving forever now because I'm pretty sure everything else will be a let down.

Today is a recovery day: from the diving and from the bus ride. I'm actually staying in the Hyatt in Kota Kinabula today - the most expensive place I've stayed so far by a factor of 2. I'm splurging partly because I've been sharing a room with a mouse that has no private bathroom at a "resort" that has no hot water and only a few hours of electricity a day... And partly because I couldn't find anything else. Anyway, its very nice! Tomorrow I head back out to the sticks: a small village in the middle of nowhere for a 4-5 day homestay. I expect some pretty basic accommodation's again. But that's OK, it is part of getting away.

I actually really liked the place I stayed in the Sipidan. It wasn't actually on Sipidan; you can't stay there anymore ever since terrorist/pirates from the Philippines abducted a group of tourists from there and held them hostage for over a month. The terrorist were from a group called the Muntando Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF. Look it up. On second thought, you might not want to google that...My "resort" was on Mabul Island, which had a sizable local population. Actually it just seemed to have a sizable child population. I think the number of humans on the island under 10 was probably 3-4 times more than those over 10. I really don't think I'm exaggerating. I think that it wasn't because there were locals were especially, uh, frisky, but because many of these adults work in other areas and leave the kids with relatives. Or, seemingly, alone. There were roaming bands of kids everywhere all the time. Luckily the kids were ridiculously cute and friendly. And all the stereotypes about poor kids being happy to play with what little they have certainly applied. I saw so many little made-up games with sticks and plastic bottles and rocks. Anyway, I took a billion pictures of the kids and put it on my picasa site:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/erki666/SoliDudeBorneo

OK, now here are a few random notes:

• Malaysians think that we eat hot dogs and beans for breakfast. When you order and "American Breakfast" that is the only difference from the standard egg breakfast. Strange.
• Aside from the Liberian flag (which is a blatant rip off...) show me a flag that is more like the stars and stripes than the Malaysian flag. You can't.
• Almost ever local will ask me if I'm traveling alone, and when I say that I am, there always respond, "What? No friends?" I now respond, "No, I don't have any friends. No body likes me." Starting to hurt my self esteem a little.
• Locals also tell me that Americans do not travel here much. Except for a travel spike that happened a few years back after Survivor: Borneo. Perfect.
• I learned to count to 10 in Thai on my last day in Thailand.
  
• I've become a "one language translator" on several occasions. Trying to help Europeans with poor English understand Malays with poor English.
  
• The Olympic coverage here is super if you are a fan of badmitten or ping pong. I can not believe that I actually am starting to know who's who in the world of badmitten...

OK, I need to go eat. I'm totally going to eat something without rice, chicken or fish. It will be wonderful...

-erik

Happy Anniversary Katie!

Today/Yesterday was Katie and my 11 year anniversary! Happy Anniversary Katie!! (All those of you who think I’m a lame husband for only wishing my wife a happy anniversary on my blog, you should know that I actually called too. I even called twice: once on August 16th in Borneo and once on August 16th in California. So there…) (But, yes, I am a lame husband for leaving my wife for 3 months) (She is coming here to celebrate our anniversary though…so that’s something, right?)

Anyway, here in Borneo grows the Rufflesia, the largest flower in the world. There is one in full bloom here were I’m staying and is all roped off from the public to protect it. I was able to convince the gardener to let me into the “forbidden area” to get a picture with the flower for Katie. So here you go Katie: here is the biggest flower in the world for you. Happy Anniversary! Can’t wait to see you! Hurry up because this flower probably isn’t gonna look so good in a couple weeks though…

Kinabula

Well, I’m alive, but only just. The climb up Kinabula was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And I never want to do anything that hard again. It was actually going pretty well up until the last 2K. I didn’t get altitude sickness or anything, but the thin air above 12,000 feet made ever step a struggle. But I made it. I have a certificate that sez so. Pay no mind to the fact that I don’t have any pictures at the summit (it was cloudy, raining…) or that my GPS mysteriously stopped working (too close to satellite?). Any suggestions that I paid the guide 100 ringgit to give me the certificate are slanderous!

Now I’m (appropriately…) at a hot springs resort near the base of the mountain. It is a little busy here during the day (the tour buses roll in early, out late…) but peaceful in the evening. And the tubs are just what I needed. I almost slept in it last night. Still can barely walk though.

Europeans are screwing everything up...

I'm currently a little pissed off at Europeans. It's more about quantity that quality; all the Europeans I've met have actually been quite nice, it's just that there are waaaaay to many of them here (what, do they all get the month of August off or something? Oh....) and it is impossible to do anything here without booking 2 weeks out. Literally. I almost booked a flight this morning for Sumatra, but I assume they will be there too. Jeez. This has had several significant impacts for me:

1. Climbing Mt Kinabula: I want to do the 7200 foot climb to the top of Mt Kinabula. (formerly the highest peak in SE Asia, but I guess new satellite mapping decided something else is higher). This is a 2 day trip with a stop at a rest house 1/2 way up. Well, guess what? Guest house booked. So tomorrow, I'm getting picked up at 5AM to go and try to bag Kinabula in one day. I am excited that I'm getting a chance to do it, (er, rather try to do it) but I'm a little freaked out that I might actually die.
2. Diving at Sipadan: I mentioned that I was going to try to go to this best-place-in-the-world dive stop before. Guess what? Booked. I've now shuffled things around, will go later and now stay in a hostel instead of a resort (probably anyway as I'm burning the cash quicker than I'd hoped. Would people be cool with me selling add space on the blog?). The long and short of it here is I have to do some significant backtracking now and will spend about an extra 16 hours on buses (including an overnighter) to get to Sipadan. But at least I'm going.
3. Hiking at Mulu National Park: Super-awesome Park: Booked. I did manage to get 3 nights there in 2 weeks from now (I wanted to go tomorrow and stay for 1 week...). But at least I'm going...

What does this mean to you? Well every European I talked to was salivating about the dollar/euro exchange rate and almost all are planning on coming to the States next summer. So if you what to go to San Francisco or Yosemite or Yellowstone or anywhere next summer, book now...they might even just buy your depreciated-value house, kick you out and just stay there. I don't trust those guys anymore...

Anyway, I might die on Kinabula tomorrow and/or be out of internet land for a few days. If I make it out alive, I expect to have some pretty nice pictures. Can't wait til September when I should start getting rid of the Euro's as well as those annoying college summer-breaker's.

Stay tuned...

-erik

Katie's Cookbook!

Forgive the non-travel entry, but here's some breaking news: Katie's Cookbook is finally done and published! You can buy one right now! You can check it out at :

http://www.lulu.com/content/1183494

Good job Katie!!! A multi-year labor of love, and it really did come out great!

The Jungle Report

Just back from 3d/2n in the jungle. I think I probably could go the rest of my life without seeing another monkey and I would still have had my fill. But I'm sure I will see many more on the trip, and that's OK too. In the jungle I saw the following: proboscis monkeys (only found in Borneo), orangutans, macaque monkeys, silver lipped moneys, a crocodile, a pit viper, the biggest butterfly i've ever seen and a zillion bazaar looking birds. No elephant or python sightings, though they were suppose to be around. It was pretty awesome and definitely wild. But I was certainly back on the tourist track. There were more people than monkeys and many sites (and there were alot of monkeys!) so that was a little lame. Where aren't their tourists? Winters, I guess...I did make some friends and nearly got adopted by a very nice Dutch family (wife, husband, 14-yr old son). There headed to Sipidan today for diving and I almost went straight there with them, but some (boring-to-you, important-to-me) logistics got in the way. Might still get there and meet up with them.

Ok, here is the picture of the pit viper:

My favorite part about seeing the viper was not getting bitten by it. The boat driver navigated the boat so that the snake was directly over my head, with the snake about 3-4 feet away. And while I will say that no one probably deserves to be bitten by a pit viper, this French lady in front of me got pretty darn close (to deserving to be bitten and to getting bitten...). The snake is in that attack position in the picture because she stood up when the guide told her to sit down, grabbed a branch about 1 foot from the snake that was blocking her view, then stuck her camera literally less than a foot from it. Holy Maird! Any, if that would have made the snake fall and bite me, it sounds like I would have up to 2 hours to kill her before dying myself.

There were also many many bugs in the jungle, as you might expect. And they also bite me quite often, as you might expect. There are almost always bugs crawling on you and there is always sweat dripping on you, so it is hard to tell when to slap about in a panic. So I just bitten. Its OK, I'm taking malaria pills.

So, the proboscis monkey was really the star of the show. We saw them everywhere. You'd seen pictures of them before I'm sure. They are the one with the really big noses. No? Ok, here are some pictures I took of them:

The are actually quick large. The largest, or one of the largest monkeys on the planet. And they jump around (tree-to-tree) alot. Which is pretty neat.

OK, that's all for now. Need to rest and try to figure out had to get to wherever it is I'm trying to go now.

Oh, BTW, today is my 1 month SoliDuding anniversary. So far, so good. Definitely looking forward to Katie's visit though. Getting adopted into a Dutch family would have been nice, but there is no substitute for real family...

Talk at you all soon...

-erik

North Borneo: Not Boring

Well, it seems like I’ve finally fallen off the tourist trail. I’m in Sandakan in northern Borneo now and things have certainly gotten more “foreign.” But mainly in a good way. Very few tourists here. Much less English spoken. But finally have the feeling that I am exploring now instead of having pre-digested adventures spoon fed to me. I’m sure I will accidental find my way back on the tourist track sooner than I want. It seems to be pretty well beaten. Now the random notes:

• Today was a “business day.” I changed hotels (more on that later), did laundry, booked a 3 day/2 night trek (with option for extra days), tried (and failed) to get my cell phone working, got a hair cut, made some travel plans for Katie’s visit, and ate a lot. And now updated my blog!


• Paying $2 for a haircut from a guy that doesn't speak English is a little scary. I look a little geeky, but not too much more than normal. (Someone once told me that all guys look like nerds for 3 days after a haircut, so should be OK)


• The people in Sabah (north Borneo province) are pretty "cool." A little depressing, though not all that surprising, that even kids in Borneo are more hip than I am. They are all spiky-haired, tight-jeaned, cigarette-smoking, shiny-belt-wearing, grungy-T-shirt-sporting cool (see photo above). And I'm wearing zip-away pant/shorts. Looooser.


• Even though its a billion degrees here, I'm wearing pants because everyone (except the few uncouth tourist around) else is. You wouldn't understand; its a Muslim thing...


• And these cool Sabahniese (?) are also pretty tough looking despite that fact that I don't think I've seen one yet that is bigger than me. I would not want to meet any of them in a dark alley. Which is unfortunate as there are many many dark alleys here.


• Last nights hotel: Was OK for $20 (i know i was going to stop doing that, sorry...) but was on a super noisy street. I had to sleep with ear plugs in and take one of the sleeping pills that I had brought over for overnight plane/bus trips. Wow those pills are nice. What a sleep. Almost seems worth getting addicted.


• Plans: so the next 3-4 days, I'm on a river boat going up the biggest river in Borneo. Spend the night in 2 different juggle lodges. Maybe stay an extra night in one of them. Lots of mini-treks, boat safari's etc. Then when I come back, I'm gonna head to Sipadan, which is suppose to be one of the best dive spots in the world. Me and my 6 dive-history will have to see about that. Then I'm not sure. Probably head to central Borneo and/or go to hike some really big mountain they have here. And I might go and try to "do Bali" before Katie comes on Sept 5.

Well that's it for now. Unless one of the juggle lodges has satellite Internet, I'm probably AWOL for a few days. I hope you all can survive it.

Stay leech free and don't let the bed bugs bite...

-erik

Kuala Lumpor: Kinda Lame

Greetings from Kuala Lumpor. Arrived here as scheduled yesterday evening and leave for Borneo tomorrow(unless I change my mind at the airport, which I'm actually 25% considering...) KL is OK, but not blowing me away. Kinda seems like a SE Asian version of Minneapolis. Lots of friendly people, but surprisingly little to do or see for a city this size (1.5 million). I'm sure there is a super-cool underbelly that I haven't found, but it seems to be hiding pretty well. Very different from Bangkok which has a billion sites and an energy that just oozes out in all directions (for better or for worse.) Aside from some small pockets (like Chinatown, where my hotel is...) it seems like all there are here are Bank headquarter buildings. Though it does have the Petronas Towers which I went and which are awesome. I thought they'd be cool, but they were cooler than I imagined. I actually went twice: once in the morning to get my "first-come, first served" ticket for going up to the skybridge, and once again at 6pm to actually go up to the skybridge (which was also even cooler that I thought it would be...). Aside for that, hoo-hum.

A few misc observations:

• Guess what the language is here: English! Who knew? I didn't. (BTW, why the hell doesn't the Lonely Planet guide discuss how easy/hard it will be to get by in various countries speaking English? Kinda useful to know...) Ok, so the "first" language is Malay, but pretty much everyone speaks English, both because it was an English colony for some time and because it is a pretty international place and English is the common tongue. I was talking to a local (in English!) and he said that people who move to KL will live here for years without learning any Malay because it is so easy to get by with just English. Nice for me...
• Apparently it is not a social taboo to pick ones nose in public in Malaysia. This trend seems to hold true for restaurant workers too, which is more than a little bit troubling.
  
• Apparently it is also not a social taboo to look at porn in an internet cafe. The user at computer #1 appears to have several dozen explicit webcams open, while the user at #3 prefers a site called "gayromeo.com." (for the record, i am not on computer #1 or #3...)
• Horrible generalization: Thai people (men, women, and ladyboys) seem to be overall much more attractive that Malaysians for whatever reason. The people here really do seem nice though. They do seem more serious though. I have gotten very use to constant joking/kidding that is a standard Thai conversational tool. Doesn't seem to a factor here.
• Speaking of Thai conversations: my English has seemed to morphed in to version of English that Thai people speak. For example if someone asks, "What did you do today?" instead of saying "I hiked to a waterfall, but got caught in a rainstorm and got a billion leeches on my feet" I now say, "I hike to waterfall. Much rain. Many many leeches. Not good." This has happened slowly and unintentionally. I've noticed that it has carried into my conversations with Katie ("I go to Borneo soon. Maybe no have internet. I call soon as I can.") and even the voice in my head ("Very tired, but must get up for free breakfast buffet now. No need pay for breakfast. Can sleep later, OK?"). So you can probably blame at least some of my typos on that.
  

OK, speaking of sleep, it is 12:45AM, so I better quit. Oh that reminds me one more thing though: My current hotel room has no windows at all. At first that seems like a bad thing. But its actually pretty awesome. The darkest sleeping room I've ever had. I was like sleeping in a sensory deprivation chamber. I might have actually slept for 32 hours last night, I don't know. Might get to the airport tomorrow and find out I missed my flight by a day. I need to leave for the airport at around noon tomorrow and I'm probably gonna set my alarm for 11am just to be sure. And its super quite too. If I ever build a custom home, I'm totally gonna add a windowless "sleeping chamber" off the "bedroom." Why don't people do that? Can I patent that?? OK, clearly someone needs some sleep.

Thanks for reading...

-erik

Slideshow Update

Here comes another update, but I think I will use more visual aides this time. I'm back in Phuket (just back today) and catching a flight to Malaysia in 2 days. I just spent 3 mostly good days in Khao Sok national park. Here are some of the things that I experienced there...

I did a 2 day, 1 night "trek" with these people...

The overnight, we stayed in this place...

(brief aside: this place had no bathroom (barely had a roof) so I wasn't able to collect more info on the Thai ADA for bathroom door height, but a 2nd place now has had a 5'9" bathroom. I think that might be the national standard.) It was a wonderful "raft house" in an extremely isolated spot. Gorgeous. We trekked to a cave...

we trekked into a cave... we trekked to a mountain view spot...

on the way, I swung on a vine because that's what you do in the juggle...

Speaking of trekking, I am not totally sure why they call it trekking instead of hiking here, but I believe that the presence of leeches might have something to do we it. If you are out on a hike, and you get a leech, then you are now on a trek. That is now my definition anyway. With that I can tell you that yesterday, I went on a major trek. I literally pulled about 50 leeches off of feet during the 15 miles trek....

I also pull more than a dozen off this random dog that decided to do the whole trek with me. Off his paws, nose, lips, gums...

I also nearly stepped on this poisonous snake in Khao Sok that was on the stairs to my room. The guide at the guesthouse didn't know the English word, but the Thai word for the snake translates to "Arrow of God." That doesn't sound good...

One other interesting thing. I didn't get a picture, but there are some jungle insects (might even have been cacattas?) that made this incredibly loud and constant noise. The closest thing I can think of to describe it is the sound that BART makes between the 12th St and West Oakland stations. Also sounds alot like wet mt. bike disc brakes. Was pretty cool actually.

Ok, I think I might pause it there for now. Maybe more later before I head to Malaysia. I did just post alot of new pictures here if you want to see more:

http://picasaweb.google.co.th/erki666

Ok, see you later.....

-erik

Misc Notes

Internet even more expensive here (3 baht/min!!) so this will be brief i hope. I'm about to go to a national park that might have no internet (oh the humanity!) but i'll be back in cheap internet + disposable time land soon after that. For now, here are some notes:

• I went rock climbing today. That is me possibly upside down climbing. It was pretty cool. I was the only one in the class to do the "long climb" up 100 feet. I have blisters on my toes and limited mobility on my arms now though.
• There clearly is not Thai version of the American with Disabilities Act. All sidewalks are discontinuous and I literally thought I broke my toe the other day from a massive stubbing. Why?
• On a related note, the bathroom door in my current hotel is approximately 5' 9" tall. Not a good thing for a 6' person that occasional using the facilities at night. You only make that mistake once though.
• When I checked into the hotel here, the attended killed what he said was a "dangerous" snake just outside my from door. This is the second place I've stayed at in a row that has had a snake at the front door. (I saw the other one when I was alone. It was big and green, but not sure if it was lethal or not). Now I take me flashlight with me when I'm coming home late...
• I'm starting to master the art of eating-alone-and-looking-like-you-don't-care. I'm almost fooling myself now. Especially strong test here in Railay as everyone else here seems to be on a honeymoon.
• Another reason to travel with a partner. I literally have a sunburn on my back that perfectly reflects/illustrates the spots on your back which you can not self-administer sunscreen. nice white arcs on the shoulders (like a windshield wider coverage pattern) over a pinkish lower-back. Ouch
• All that lonely complaining aside, I'm actually starting to get into the soliDude groove a little. Invited myself into a beach frisbee throwing game today. Had an ice crean cone with a (honeymooning?) Canadian couple last nice.
• Finally almost not sick.
• Ok, must stop the baht-clock. More later. Also, when I get back to a 1 baht/min internet sight, I will post gobs of new photos...

Seeya!

-erik

ps: What happened to all the blog view comments? Anyone still reading this??

Sweat

This picture should tell you much about Thailand. Two primary take-aways: (1) it is frickin' hot here. (2) restaurant health codes are, uh, different. This shot is actually from a restaurant I've had 2 very good and very cheap meals in. (I've decided to try to stop saying how much/little i'm paying for things. It's like a Prius owner telling you their millage; no one wants to hear that...). Last night I had the basil and chili chicken. When ask if i wanted "hot or medium" I thought I was making the wise choice in saying medium. It didn't occur to me til later to wonder why mild wasn't a given option. Needless to say, it was extreme. I was able to more of less finish the dish, but I was sweating out of pours that I didn't even know that I had. My lips were sweating. I think my tongue was sweating. (Tongue side note: my laundry soap spilled in my toiletries back the other day and got on lots of stuff. I didn't realized until too late, that one thing it got on was my toothbrush. In case you ever need to know, it appears that laundry soap will make your tongue completely numb for approximately 45 minutes....)

Anyway, I'm about to hop on a fairy for Railay on the mainland. Hopefully the internet is cheaper there than here on the islands. These blogging costs are killing me...Before I go, here is one more picture that i took at a restaurant last night. I'm not sure, but I think this might NOT have just been a joke...

Cough...Ack...

Pretty sick now. Just a cold, but now a somewhat nasty one. Felt pretty good yesterday and went scuba diving (which was pretty awesome) but seems as if it might have set me back a bit. Gonna take a little hike to a viewpoint today, but that's about it I think. Probably shouldn't even do that...

The water was pretty rough on the dive (at the surface anyway) thus the visibility was also compromised. "only" 15 meters or so. The water temp here is ridiculous: 84 F! Wow. you really can stay in the water all day. Probably won't be able to dive again here though because of this cold. Darn...

I'm probably here in Koh Phi Phi for 2 more nights, then on a fairy to Krabi/Railay: on the mainland, but another beach spot. A few nights there I might head to a national park for some off the beaten track stuff plus jungle, waterfalls, etc. Then make my way back to Phuket for another night or two before flying to Kuala Lumphor (Malaysia) for a few days then another flight to....Borneo! I think i'm going to opt for a Borneo adventure rather than Sumatra. Sounds a little more exciting and a little easier to get to. More to do, not as many pot-holed roads to get to it. Currently looking at around Aug 8th for the flight to Borneo (I haven't found a flight yet that is more than $100 including taxes!). This will give me almost a month in Borneo plus where ever else I might want to explore fore meeting Katie in Singapore in early Sept.

Ok, that's all I got for now. I've been slowly adding some picts to my picasa account when I find places with good computer connections, so keep looking there....

laters...

The water is warm at Phi Phi island

Sorry for cheesy title. Too easy. The water is very warm though... Arrived on Koh Phi Phi yesterday (this is the island group made famous by the movie "The Beach"....)

Pretty amazing here. I have caught a bit of a cold though, so that's sucks some. I stepped on a sea urchin yesterday, while i would strongly advise against. So I think I'm gonna move to a nicer hotel today (last night was borderline disgusting) and try to lay low. Raining pretty hard and steady today anyway.

Diving is suppose to be great around here and there have been frequent whale shark sightings lately. How cool would that be! But gonna try to get a little heathlier and then go for the scuba, perhaps tomorrow or the next day.

Got a chance to do a skype video call with Katie and Zipper this morning! Was great to see them both! See:

Anyway, gotta run. pretty tired... More soon I hope...

-erik

Today, I inhaled underwater...on purpose

Finished my scuba certification today. Was very fun and I definitely will be doing more scuba on the trip. I finally feel pretty comfortable underwater breathing and all.

Still a little freaked if I need to take my mask off underwater for some reason. (can't convince my brain that my lungs are not connected to my eyes for some reason...)

But the water was great (warm, clear) the instructor was good (was just me and his assistant for all dives). Fish & coral amazing. We saw moray eels, a sea snake, an octopus, scorpion fish, garden eels, leaf fish, and much more. Nothing "big" though. Still pretty fun. My 2 dives today were both down to 60 feet.

Not sure what to do tomorrow yet. Might leave Phuket for Ko Phi Phi. Might do a sea kayak thing (either as a day trip or a multi day). Or might just stay here and sleep some...

More when i figure it out. Also, will upload the dive photos soon....

-Erik

Yesterday I ate a bug. On Purpose...

Part of the motivation of this trip was to experience new things. Yesterday I certainly did that. I ate a fat little grub for my own personal "man vs. wild" experience. As bad as you might think eating a grub might be, I can now verify that it indeed is probably worse than that. Cross that off of your collective "things to experience" list. I experienced it for you all and it was dreadful. I thought it was safe (or safe-ish) because it was deep friend (and everything deep fried is good, right?). But is was still rather gooey on the inside. not good texture. Not good taste. And the only thing near by to wash it down with was a durian, also an acquired taste to say the least. Think its back to pad thai tonight...