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