Following the terrorist bombing in August 2002 of a nightclub in Kuta, Bali, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia state departments issued tourist adviseries encouraging their citizens to avoid all 'un-necessary' travel in Indonesia. Considering that tourism makes up at least 30% of Indonesia's economy the reprecussion of these political decrees-what else can they be but political? No such adviseries were issued for Spain following the attacks there in 2003-was devestating. The immediate impact of the struggling economy will likely be regime change as Indonesia elects a new leader on 20Sep04 and only in America do the people actually even consider supporting an incumbant who has presided over a period of economic decline (see G-dub in 2004). Hooray for Bush and Blair! Regime change without force or blood shed the world should rejoice. But, wait a minute...hasn't the current regime fought terrorism and worked with the US and UK in the war on terror? The answer is yes. Isn't the opposition candidate an evil General? The answer again is yes. Unlike Iraq this regime change has not had much attention but like Iraq, the only certainty with the change will be uncertainty in regards to the war on terrorism. Good job George, making America safe (my arse!). I'm sure most of the subscribers to our blog site do not tune in to hear me wax political, and I apologize but these travel adviseries have had a direct impact on our visit to Indonesia.
First, our visa cost $25 and is only good for 30 days. Used to be 2 months, free. Second, the tourist boom following the economic crises of '97 resulted in many Indonesians becoming dependant on tourism for income. After the bombings and adviseries the number of tourists decreased dramatically and now there are about 10 touts to every tourist (the numbers of tourists visiting Indonesia is increasing but slowly and only as the UK has recently changed its travel advisery). Third, the co$t of traveling in Indonesia increased, substantially. Also, we have found that often people attempt to charge us 10, 20 and even 30 times more than the locals pay! (see the Borobudur section of this blog). Needless to say the misinformation contained in that travel advisary has caused many problems for Indonesia. To tell you the truth, I felt safer in Indonesia than I do in Oakland, we encountered no anti-Americanism in Indonesia (if Mo's encounter in Lovina can be attributed to an asshole) only anti-Bushism and who can blame the people? Anyway, what about Indonesia?
We arrived in Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur on 06Aug04. The city of Jakarta has an excellent modern airport and we collected our bags and set out for the city (20 K). The crowded bus ride to the city center showed us enough of the capital city. Jakarta-especially on approach from the air-appears to be on fire. The surrounding rice paddies were burning and the most popular method of garbage disposal seems to be a burn pile (followed closely by tossing rubbish in the canals and streams). Combined with the car exhaust of a large third-world city the smoke choked out the sun and burned at your lungs. The city is crowded and dirty and we immediately bought train tickets to depart Jakarta for Yoyakarta in the South East of Java. The train departure was not until 8pm so we had time to burn and met several nice locals who wanted to practice their english with us and warn us about pickpockets and other annoyances.
The train to Yogyakarta was an interesting experience. We went business class which meant we had a soft seat (no sleeper) for the 12 hour ride over night. All was fine and dandy except for the incessent noise that made it impossible for me to sleep on the train. All night long the vendors on the train were hawking their goods (mainly food and beverages). The preferred method of advertising what the vendor is selling is to describe the particular item for sale and repeat the description like an echo. At stops additional vendors would jump on and join the fray so all night long you could hear the vendors selling. After a while it was almost melodic, like the call to prayer from the mosque.
We finally got to Yogya at about 0600 and set off to find accomodation. We found a clean room centrally located for 55000 Rupiah/night (rather expensive: $6/night). Yogya is a splendid little city not quite as dirty or crowded as Jakarta. It is also considered the cultural center of Indonesia-but as Indonesia is so vast and spread out with many diverse cultures it is really impossible to have a singular cultural center that represents the diversity of the country. There certainly is a lot of flavor from all over Indonesia and we quickly set off to take in the batik art and spent an evening at the popular shadow puppet show. We also spent a day visiting the local Buddhist ruins at Borobudur. Borobudur is compareable to the ruins at Ankgor Wat and Bagan (Myanmar) and is Indonesias primary Buddhist ruins.
Several tourist agencies run tours to Borobudur but charge high prices for transportation. Mo and I decided we would have a go at it via public transportation. It should be noted here that Indonesia is to buses what the American League is to an aging good contact hitter in the MLB. Buses come to Indonesia to extend their operational carreers 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years. You find buses that are way past their prime. Thus I took to naming the buses: The Paul Molitor express or the Rafeal Palmeiro crap-ride, the Ruben Sierra never-gets-there etc. Anyway, we spent 2 hours to go the 43 K to Borobudur (but save about $5 round trip) and find out that tickets for freigners are US $10!!! I use the exclamations because Mo with her asian looks was able to pass as a local and pay <$1 US. Damn! Score one for Mo though! Of course the locals line took longer than the air-conditioned foreigners line and I was waiting for Mo inside the ruins. Mo found me having my photo taken with local families who found my white face and tall build quite to their liking. I felt like David Hasselhoff in Germany, I was a bigger attraction than the ruins. Classic! The ruins are really fantastic and have been properly preserved (see pictures) and we enjoyed exploring them.
We spent another day exploring the city of Yogya and the evening at the Ramayana Ballet near the Hindu ruins known as Prembanan. It was a good time and the dance was pretty entertaining.
From YogYa we joined a tour to Mt. Bromo (a volcano in South East Java) and on to Bali. The tour included an overnight stay in a village near the still active Bromo crater (45 minute walk!). We decided to get up at 0300 and do the 8K walk up a nearby mountain to a vista point to catch the sunrise and early morning Bromo views. The tourist company said the walk was difficult and took at least 3 hours-of course they offered jeep rides to the top for 70000 Rp. At our hotel a guide soliciting our business said the walk took about 2.5 hours but that the trail was not clearly defined and a guide was necessary. To save money, we went at it alone. It turns out it was a 2 hour hike and the path was like a wilderness expressway-it even had beautiful stairs at one point.
It was an erie hike in the dark. You could see the torch lights from the hikers who opted to take in the sunrise on the rim of Bromo and therefore hiked the valley floor below. The torches shone through the early morning mist like the glowing eye of a cyclopse. The sunrise was spectacular and the views of the still active Bromo and Mt Semeru and Mt Batok were superb (see photos). The hike back was pleasant and only took an hour and a half. We had breakfast and a shower before we jumped on the bus headed for Bali. It would be 12 hours before we reached our guesthouse in Lovina.
Lovina is a beautiful stretch of black sand beach along the North coast of Bali and is generally less touristed than the famous surf spots on the South coast. After 12 hours on several buses we just wanted to find a good clean room to crash in. Amy went one way and I went the other to look at potential accomodation. I was shown a suite complete with hot water (a luxury), bathtub, and sitting area, it was the only room left in the place. The owner showed me the price list and the room was 160000 Rp ($18/night). I said it was way out of my price range and the price magically came down to 60000 Rp for that night and we could move to another room the next day when other travelers checked out (50000 Rp/night). I liked the idea of a big old suite and practically agreed to the room, I just needed to wait for my wife (MoWenck say they are married in SEAsia to avoid the complexities of explaining our domestic situation). Amy in the mean time had agreed to a room next door but upon discussion with me and the owner of the guesthouse we agreed to take the suite for 60000 Rp/night for as long as we wanted. Mo went to tell the other guesthouse owner and fetch her bags. When she came back she was clearly distressed. Apparently the other guesthouse operator (he wasn't the proprietor) took offense to Amy not taking the room. He told her to fuck off and called her an 'American Terrorist'. What an arsehole! Mo, a terrorist, LOL! Anyway, our guesthouse owner-a friendly and jovial bloke, perfusely appologized for his neighbors behavior, emphasized that he was not representative of Balinese people and offered us a welcome drink. We accepted but needed a moment to catch our breath before dinner and drinks.
We eventually went to take some dinner and we joined some of the other travelers who were on our bus and had holed up at the guesthouse. Despite our fatigue dinner and a beer led to arak (the local alcohol) which eventually led to vodka. We drank with our new friends-2 English school teachers Crysta and Rachel and an English (Welsh?) bloke named Will. We did not find our way to bed until well past 0200 and considering our early morning hike near Bromo MoWenck were exhausted. The next day was a burn day. We didn't get up until late and we only barely made it to town and explored the beach. We did manage to arrange a snorkling trip to Menjangen Island marine park and a night of Balinese dancing for the next day. That night we had dinner and drinks with the English birds and bloke and a new arrival to our guesthouse an Irish girl Maria on her way home from a year in New Zealand and Australia.
The snorkling at Menjangen was superb, best I've ever experienced. We had 20-25 meters visability in crystal clear blue water. The variety of fish was unlimited and the vividly colorful coral was brilliant! In a word it was awesome. The dinner and dance that evening was entertaining and enjoyable. The room was so nice we decided to spend another day in Lovina before departing for Ubud.
We checked out of our guesthouse and into the Bali public transit system at around 0900. 4 hours and 4 buses later we arrived in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali (seems like everywhere claims to be the cultural center of something or another). We quickly found clean cheap accomodation (w/hot water) and set out to explore our new surroundings and purchase airfare from Denpasar to Jakarta to save time.
Ubud is a pleasant city situated in some foothills surrounded by rice paddies with narrow alley ways (called 'gangs') that wind past family compounds. The main streets are filled with warung (restaurants) and vendors catering to Westerners. While walking around Ubud that afternoon I started observe the particularly strange canine behavior of the city. Like a blind, deaf, dumb dog suspecting the arrival of a stranger at the door fooled by the impaired senses, dogs in Ubud could be found barking at nothing. They were not rabid, I think they were just bored. Anyway, the number of dogs around made quite a bit of noise barking at nothing. In the mornings the noise was only compounded with the everlasting 'cock-a-doodle-do!' of the roosters-which are also numerous in SEAsia. You can literally hear the bark of dogs and cock-a-doodle-do of roosters echoing around the hills of Ubud for hours on end.
Having secured our flights to Jakarta we spent the next day and a half shopping the many markets of Ubud. On the third day we rose again (early) to go for a trek through the rice paddies and countryside art villages of Nyuh Kuning (stone carving)Katik Lantang (wood carving) and Penestanan (painting). Along the way we visited the Monkey Forest Sanctuary where Balinese macaques reign supreme and you have to watch your wallet, camera, glasses-or in Mo's case-your water bottle 'cause the little buggers will liberate your possessions.
In the afternoon we went down to the local Independance Day Celebration (17Aug04 = 59 years of independance). The celebration was jovial and consisted of a cacaphony of sound. Live music was performed on stage while recorded music blared away from speakers, ice cream trucks (really bicycles mounted with coolers) played their distinct ice cream vendor music to attract adults and kids, and thousands of people milled about, it was quite a scene. After watching the strange custom where a tall bamboo pole is greased and the top adorned with prizes and locals-at risk to life and limb-fight each other to climb to the top, we left the celebration for rest and a bite to eat.
We made plans to go to the Jazz Cafe for entertainment but the show did not start until 8pm and the cafe menu was quite pricey so we wondered down the street to another warung. After eating one of the better meals Tyler has had in Indonesia, we wondered back up the street to the cafe not knowing what to expect. Jazz Cafe show review:
Typically we showed up just in time for the set break so we settled in for a drink at a table stage left. The Jazz Cafe (Ubud) is a classy joint on par with Yoshi's at Jack London Square, Oakland, Ca. The crowd that evening was a mix of Euro-trash on holiday (mainly French) and the local musik aficionados. After about 10 minutes-enough time for Tyler to work through his beer-the band took the stage to resume playing for the second set.
Instantly I was struck by their sound-almost a Phish like rock sound not really so much jazz-fushion. I told Mo as much and she smiled and laughed in agreement. The front man, just like Trey, had wah-wah paddles strewn all around him like land mines in a Cambodian rice paddie. The second song included an extended vocal jam and drum guitar solos. When they broke into a cover of Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved I was convinced if these guys came to America thousands of 'Bali-heads' would turn up and follow them on tour from city to city. A song to celebrate independance was followed by a cover of Police'sRoxanne. At this point the band was locked in and feeding off the crowd (about 50 peeps). They eased into a Stevie Wonder-esque funk jam that culminated with the bassist dropping more bombs than the US airforce and RAF combined dropped on Dresden at the end of WWII (the big one). A truely phat jam. When they busted out the Balinese bamboo flutes (not like Zamfeer) I about lost it but no! What do they do to close the show? An afro-cuban cover of For Lauddie that brought the house down. Great stuff! The evening was capped with night-snack of street vendor nasi (rice with chicken, beans, noodles, and spices wrapped in a banana leaf) the best I had in all Indonesia.
The next day we spent exploring the art galleries of Ubud and taking in more traditional dance. The dance we checked out this time was a special fire and trance dance where the music is actually all vocals no instruments. The story line is that of Ramayana again (I think I could dance the story myself, I have seen it so frequently now) but was absolutely beyond words-and pictures because it is performed by tiki-torch light. Finally we bid goodbye to Ubud and hopped an early morning bus hoping to eventually get to Amed on the North East cost of Bali.
4 hours and 4 buses later we made it to Amed. Amed is this lonely stretch of remote beaches on the North East coast. It is not very touristed and provides a nice respite from the Kuta's and Ubud's of Bali. We spent three days and nights in Amed, swimming and snorkling in the ocean (the snorkling was not nearly as good as Lovina), watching the sun rise and set, reading, eating and proactively, we hiked up into the mountainside villages. That was quite a nice hike with great views of Mt. Agung-Bali's tallest mountain-and an experience walking through villages where few westerners venture. The kids loved us the dogs barked at us and the adults all asked where the hell we were going. Great time, really. After 3 days we decided to move on to Lombok and leave Bali behind us for awhile. So again we rose early and started the arduous process of travel by public bus and ferry in Indonesia. Destination: Sengiggi, Lombok.
It took us about 8 hours but we finally made it to Sengiggi. The plan was to rest there for a day or two and then arrange a trip to climb Mt. Rinjanni a sacred volcano and look into a tour of Komodo Island to the East. As it turned out there was no time for the Komodo trip. We were able to join a 3-day/2-night trip to Rinjanni the very next day and after Mo bargained the price down to a reasonable amount we packed our day bags and arranged to leave most of our luggage in storage. We left early the next morning (0600) for the village of Senaru where we would meet up with our porters and embark on the climb/hike.
The climb up the sacred mountain of Rinjanni is intense. It seems no one introduced the idea of switch backs to the trail blazers. Although the first day hike was only about 6 K, the elevation gain was 1500 M!! It felt like getting on a stairmaster for 6 hours except the 'stairs' were not evenly spaced and the scenery was quite pleasant. We climbed through banana groves into rain forrest jungle. The ferns were green and thick and there were monkeys (macaques) and I heard-but did not see-a wild boar. As we climbed the vegetation continued to change with the elevation change and so did the weather. We hiked from sunshine into the misty mountains. On this stairway to heavan I started to hear Led Zeppelin in the back of my mind, a little Misty Mountain Hop. The porters cooked us a fantastic lunch and we continued on to our campsite just below the tree line. Our guide brought some 'palm wine' (it turned out to be sweet rice wine) along and we drank it with another scrumptuous meal prepared by our porters. As the sun set it got very cool and we had a small fire to keep warm by. We talked with our guide, the porters, and the two German girls who were on the trek with us. It was a good day.
We woke up early the next day to commence our hike to the volcano rim from there the plan was to hike down to the lake and soothing hot springs to spend the second night. The views from the volcano rim were amazing and we made the decision to camp there for the sunrise and sunset and to just do a dayhike down to the hot springs. It took about 2 hours to hike down from the rim to the sulfur hot springs but the trip was well worth it. We bathed our aching muscles in the healing waters and dreaded our climb back up to the rim (and back down to Senaru). The sunrise and sunsets from the rim were as advertised. All in all it was a good little hike in preparation for our upcoming visit to Nepal.
We made it back to Sengiggi and arranged to head to Gili Air a little island off the West coast of Lombok. Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangen are popular with most tourists and are collectively known as the Gili's. We decided to head directly to Gili Air (population 400) for a few days of beach fun with plans to go to Gili Trawangen (the 'party' Gili) for a few days also. Gili Air was beautiful and relaxing, with decent snorkling available. Every evening the sun set over Gili Meno and further in the distance Bali and Mt. Agung. We watched the sunsets from Legend Bar and met several other travelers winding down their Indonesia travels. After 4 days on Gili Air we were ready for a change of pace. As it turned out a Dutch friend we had just made (named Joris) was planning to go to Gili Nanngu along the South coast. All along we had been told to skip the Gili's and go to Nanngu but we heard it was expensive. Well, Joris called the island and found out that it would not be as expensive as we had heard and so, on a whim we decided to join Joris on Nanngu.
We made our way back to Lembar, Lombok via ferry and bus. When we got to Lembar we were told a ferry ride to Nanngu would cost 150000 Rupiah which was way out of our budget, especially for a place we had not seen and possibly may not like. Joris called them and we found out there may not be a room available for all of us. Just when it looked like we would have to go back to Bali early, the boat from Nanngu resort pulled up. Immediately we were able to get the price down to 75000 Rupiah. The management of the resort happened to be on the boat and assured us that there was room for us and even agreed to take me to town to visit an ATM (they had to get money for payroll). So, away I went with the owners leaving Mo and Joris to work out some arak and snacks for the island. I spent 3 hours in Mataram with the managers of the island. It was quite interesting. We went to the bank where eventually I was entrusted with the payroll money-several million Rupiah-even though I just met these guys. They fed me and when it was all said and done gave me a free lift to the island.
The island was ideal white sand beaches etc. and our accomodation was not bad split three ways (and we even had separate rooms). The restaurant was limited and a bit expensive but it proved to be reasonable in the end. We spent three nights on the island enjoying the full moon and stars at night and the crystal blue water, white sand beaches, and sunshine by day. The sunsets were magnifique and the snorkling good enough. Unfortunately we had to leave the island and get our tails to Kuta in order to catch a flight back to Jakarta.
We said good bye to our little island paradise and sailed for Kuta, Bali.
About 10 hours later we finally made it to Kuta. After a fresh water shower (not available on Nanngu) we had a good meal. We spent the next two nights hanging out with Joris and Sarah (a friend from England we met along the way and met up with again in Kuta) and shopping. We didn't really explore Kuta too much as it is like the Las Vegas of Indonesia.
Now we are back in Bangkok and urgently making all our final preparations for the next 3.5 months of travel to Myanmar, Nepal, and India.
Final Notes on Indonesia:
We have already decided to go back to Indonesia in February on our way to Australia, it was just that nice. So, get off your arse and get out there, Indonesia is amazing.
We didn't meet any other Americans (or Aussies for that matter) until we got to Kuta. If you go to Indonesia, don't just go to Kuta, there is so much more!
Fair Sack Of A Flaming Salevoy can be translated to American English to mean 'golly' or to express disbelief. It is an Aussie/English thing.
ASIANS LOOK ALIKE
Bumping along on a local bus back in Bangkok, I got the only available seat, so Tyler had to stand...his legs were straight, but his head was bent since he was about an entire head too tall. He doesn't seem to mind it much. By now he's pretty used to bumping his noggin on low door frames, low ceilings, low hanging lamps, etc, etc. I, on the other hand, blend right in. Whatever country we're in, they think I'm from there. I think it was Steve who once said I'm multi-ethnic. One minute I'm Thai, next I'm Vietnamese, now I'm Indonesian. Apparently it's not only white people who think all asians look alike. The only country that didn't mistake me for their own was Cambodia. The Khmers have a very specific look, which I don't resemble, and they tend to be taller too.
Even the Japanese tourists think I'm Japanese. In Yogyakarta I started chatting up a lady staying in the same guesthouse, and to both our surprises, we're both from Taiwan. There aren't too many Taiwanese or American tourists in Indonesia because both the Taiwanese and American governments discourage traveling to Indonesia. According to the Taiwanese lady, it was difficult for her to find much info on traveling to Indonesia. She wasn't so internet savvy, so that would have been the only option, which wasn't an option for her.
I LOOK INDONESIAN TOO
It's unfortunate that the U.S. government discourages travel to Indonesia. There is a large muslim population, and there has been unrest in the outlying parts of Indonesia. But the media has unduely exaggerated the situation to make it seem the whole country is unsafe and in turmoil. There were two bombs targeting Western tourists in night clubs in Kuta, Bali in 2002 and another bombing incident at the US-owned Marriot Hotel in Jakarta in 2003. So of course travelers should be weary of such places where Western tourists tend to congregate and in my opinion tend to be offensive, rude, and disrespectful of the country's culture. Heavy drinking, inappropriate clothing showing too much skin, and topless or even nude sun bathing abound in a much more conservative muslim country where many women don't even show their hair - of course they'd be offended. Bali is actually mostly Hindu, but they still dress conservatively. And there are still customs to follow especially when entering a temple. There are many parts of Indonesia safe to visit just as long as travelers can avoid places where rude Western tourists congregate, and that's easy to do. It's a beautiful country, as wide, rich, and varied as the U.S. Tyler, the tall whitey, hasn't felt any anti-American sentiment at all. Even though I look Indonesian too, there was an incident where I was cursed at and called a terrorist by an arsehole mad because I didn't want to stay at his guesthouse. But that was a solitary and rare incident. The guys at the guesthouse next door apologized profusely for their neighbor's bad behavior and said he's crazy. There's a bad apple in every barrel I guess. Everyone else I met were very nice and friendly. I feel just as safe here as I do back in San Francisco. After the train bombing in Spain, they didn't discourage travel to Spain. The U.S. should stop discouraging people from traveling there.
When we last came to Bangkok the plan was to arrange travel to Indonesia and get right back on the SEAsia circuit. Fortunately, arranging the travel was not as simple-nor as cheap- as we had hoped. In order to save some coin we decided to postpone our trip to Indonesia a couple of weeks and take a holiday from our travels. A plan was hatched to spend 2 weeks on the beaches of Koh Phan Ngan in the southern Sea of Siam. A sort of holiday from our holiday.
We took an 11-hour overnight VIP bus from Bangkok directly to the ferry port in Surthanni where we immediately-okay, after sitting around for 2 hours-jumped on the ferry to Koh Phan Ngan via Koh Sumui. The ferry ride takes about 4 hours and while we were on the over-crowded vessel we were approached by many bungalow touts soliciting our patronage at their establishment. Since we had no plans, just some general ideas, we settled for a cheap place on the West coast of the island at a place called Laem Son. If you are unfamilliar with Koh Phan Ngan go and google 'full moon party' and you will know what the South of the island is all about and what we wanted to avoid. Laem Son bungalows were as advertised-CHEAP, but liveable. The beach was white sand but you had to wade/walk about 600 meters over dead coral and rocks to get to swimming depth. Needless to say, the reef was not too nice to snorkel. The restaurant-which you were almost obliged to eat at-had decent food (hello Fish & Chips!) but we felt deceived by the tout who claimed great coral and swimming on a relaxing beach. It just was not the case.
We decided to rent a motorcycle and explore the rest of the West coast and the North for better accomodation. Renting a motorcycle proved to be difficult-everyone requires a deposit of your passport and both of our passports were at the Myanmar embassy getting visa for September-we finally convinced a lady to accept 4000 baht as our deposit and she gave us a real lemon (the tail light broke off when I went over a bump costing me 250 baht!). We found several promising places at Hat Yao before we stumbled onto Coral Bay Resort on the North end of the island near Ban Chalok Lam (a small fishing village). The resort is on a rock outcrop between Chalok Lam Bay and Coral Bay with access to Hat Khom, a coral reef, and large clean bungalows with even larger porches equipped with hammocks and a view of the sunset over Chalok Lam Bay. It was like paradise. The resort would provide snorkling gear and it was only a 15 minute walk to Ban Chalok Lam and we also had access to hiking trails, swimming, etc. The only 'drawback' was that we only had electricity from 1800-0000, which really isn't a drawback at all.
We spent 7 days/6 nights at Coral Bay and had a grand time being active (hiking, snorkling, swimming)and also inactive (reading, sleeping, massage). I also took the time to work on an art project. While traveling I have always stated my job as artist when I complete the forms to enter a country but Amy pointed out that I had as of yet actually done anything artistic. After I got over the initial insult I realized she was right. I immediately started my art project: a puppet made of coral and fishing line found on the beaches, a skeleton puppet. I collected coral and fishing line but alas I did not have the proper tools-I needed a dremel tool and superglue and suprise, suprise, neither was available in Ban Chalok Lam-to assemble the pieces. Instead, I woke up early one morning and assembled the skeleton in the sand on the beach (see pictures updated for Thailand). It was a sell out I know and it has probably been done before but it was original for me.
While we were at Coral Bay we befriended two English couples: John and Sarah who are probably in their mid to late 40's and quite pleasant to talk with. Also John and Sam, in their early 30's from London. Both couples were on the tail end of their round-the-world-trips. At dinner-and for hours after-we would enjoy food and drink together over lively conversation about everything under the sun. From travel experiences to the "triple 'B'" (bashing Bush & Blair), from Birmingham England to Birmingham Alabama and pop culture inbetween. I was curious about John and Sam's experience in America-they spent over a month driving from NYC to Smell 'A'. When I asked they responded almost simultaneously, "we were scared" when they left America. Their experiences within the boarders of the world's only super power left them frightened of American leadership of the world. I continued to probe suspecting I knew what was coming. Eventually they explained how it was scarry how misinformed Americans are about the world. They met people who couldn't point to England on a map. In Texas someone complimented them on their English (they had been mistaken for French!). To them Americans were ignorant of the world they were supposed to be leading!! John and Sarah explained that the people were not unintelligent but generally misinformed. We got into a discussion about American media and we all agreed that the media was a huge part of the problem. They found the media horrible, unobjective and full of spin. To them all news seemed spun far left or far right. I had to agree and could not deny that I don't even consume American media that I turn to the BBC for my news. We all enjoyed a good laugh. It was a good conversation about the responsibility of being world leaders and I will not soon forget.
Eventually we decided to move on from Coral Bay with plans to visit the Eastern coast of the island. We were headed for a resort called the Sanctuary and Wellness center on a stretch of beach called Hat Tien. When we got there, we were disappointed with the beach but more so with the New-Age hippie hell-hole known as the 'Sanctuary'. It was a sanctuary all right for the mosquitos that bred in the stagnate water pools found all over the place and for burn-outs who walked around like zombies recovering from the last Full Moon Party. We spent the night at the other resort on Hat Tien and made plans to move on to Thong Nai Pan Yai the next day.
Thong Nai Pan Yai turned out to be this fabulous stretch of beach nestled in a bay-again in paradise- we just needed to find good accomodation. Our first night was spent in a swell bungalow but it was a bit pricey and at one end of the beach. The next day we walked down and found a small, somewhat dirty yet very convenient-conveniently cheap 125 baht/night-bungalow. We settled there for three nights but eventually an infestation of some weird flies on our porch forced us to find other accomodation at a place callled starlight where we had a clean room and good neighbors. But, back to our other Bungalow where we spent most of our time at the restaurant (the people were very friendly) or on the beach and drinking/talking with two German fellows we met. The Germans were F x 2 or Felix and Flori and had recently completed their MDs. They were on 2 week holiday and spoke fantastic english (they even understood my slang and Simpson's references) and were very intelligent. We pursued many of the same topics of conversation as we had with the English couples at Coral Bay and had a generally grand time with the Germans.
One night we went back to our bungalow and found a huge spider. The thing moved lightning quick and had a body about the size of a silver dollar. It had big arse fangs and its eyes reflected an evil green light when you shined the torch on it-a real monster. I had nothing to defend myself with (my shoes were even in my pack where of course the spider claimed his ground) so I worked to corner him while Mo ran for help.
Amy returns with one of the waiters from the restaurant, the lady boy waiter-if you don't know and are not at work go ahead and google lady boy. She/He comes fully equipped with a machete and she/he starts cutting through the air-and into the floor and walls of the bungalow-in an attempt to kill our uninvited guest. But the spider was game and moved quickly out of the way of each blow. The lady boy squeeled with delight as the spider came at her/him before turning out the door onto the porch. We all pursued our tormentor on to the porch where the lady boy said a prayer (she/he is a Buddhist after all and was attempting to take a living creatures life). While saying the prayer, the spider sensing its own end, made a break for it-the lady boy pounced and with one fatal swing of the machete the spider lost its green eyes and three legs. The spider's body still stuck to the wall while we all said a prayer. The lady boy returned to work after we thanked him. I will never forget the night I was saved by the lady boy from the killer spider-it works wonders for my male ego, let me tell you. Needless to say the next day we moved to the Starlight Bungalows and enjoyed the rest of our time on Thong Nai Pan Yai.
We spent most of our days reading, hiking, swimming, or relaxing. In the afternoons I would head out and play volleyball with other travelers whom of course we made friends with and spent two evenings drinking, talking (mostly pop culture) and eating. All in all we had a grand old time on Koh Phan Ngan, until the day we had to leave.
It was a rainy day, the day before the full moon party, and time for us to go. We were sad to go and I was a bit nervous when I saw the 8-10 foot seas we would be sailing on for the next 4 hours. I get sea sick, bad. I took my dramamine with my lunch and we climbed on board. The ferry rocked as we pulled away from port for the 1 hour journey to Koh Sumui then another 3 hours to Surthanni. Within about 30 minutes I was nauseated with a head ache and I headed up to the top deck in the wind and rain to feed the fish. I wanted to chum, I needed to chum but the fresh air calmed the seas of my stomach as we pulled up to Koh Sumui. Suddenly, the weather started to change, the wind and rain stopped and the sun started to push through the clouds. As we departed Koh Sumui the seas had calmed and within 30 minutes I felt like a billion Baht, sunning myself on the front deck (so much sun I got a sunburn and look like rudolph) alone with my thoughts. Again I contemplated how fortunate I am to be traveling around the world. 400 years ago if I had wanted to travel the world-to see the sea of Siam-or I needed to escape political or religious persecution, I would have been stuck in Europe. The only way to go 400 years ago was by sea and considering my recent 1 hour experience with seasickness I became accutely aware of how impossible 6-8 weeks on the Atlantic ocean would have been. I am very fortunate to live now and have the means to travel and my travels meant that much more to me at that moment.
Of course there was still an 11 hour VIP bus ride to Bangkok ahead of me-a ride that would end in the Kho San area of Bangkok at 0400 where the Tuk-Tuk drivers would try to rip me off: "you want to go to Sukumvit? I take you for 250 baht." Tyler: "No way, it isn't that far." Tuk-Tuk: "It is over 15 K.". Tyler: "This isn't my first time in Bangkok, 75 Baht." Tuk-Tuk: "150 Baht. Taxi same, same." Tyler: "But different. Metered taxi for 70 Baht." Tuk-Tuk driver walks away muttering to self in Thai. Metered taxi costs us 65 Baht, score one for Tyler.
Anyway, that is where we are today. Tomorrow we are off to Kuala Lumpur and then Indonesia for a month. The new pictures have been posted (in the Thailand album) and we hope you are all well and enjoying ourselves. Peace!