Bali Baby!

So since I last left you I was in Malaysia. I can say that except for the other travellers that I met at the guesthouse I didn't care for it much. I couldn't leave when I wanted to because of the Chinese new year that lasted 4 days and everything was closed and buses weren't running. I finally made it to Kuala Lumpur to catch my flight to Bali, but here is where it gets interesting. I had heard that a 2 month visa was available opon entry to the country, that was false. I spent the 15 hours in K.L. sleeping about 4 hours and then going to the Indo embassy trying to get a visa that takes two days to get in one day. Keep in mind that if I couldn't get the visa that means about $250 extra to do a visa run a month from now and I'm on a budget people. Luckly my hard work and puppy dog eyes got me a visa 2 hours prior to my flight leaving which sounds great but the airport is an hour drive away and check-in closes 45 mins. prior to departure. I had a taxi driver wait for me to get my visa and then book it to the airport. I get to the airport with time to spare and end up having a feast on the plane considering that I had not eaten since 7am and it was now 5:30pm. Then the captain of the plane comes on the loudspeaker and says "Excuse me for a second folks, but I just thought that you would be happy to know that the weather in Bali is 95 degrees and is sunny with clear skies. At this point all I want to do is sleep and wake up in beautiful Bali. I get about an hour of sleep before the plane hits some serious turbulence which continues for the remaining 2 hours. My second stroke of good luck is that my plane was the last to land before the closed the airport because we had been flying through the storm that was hitting Bali at that moment. It was pissing down rain and I thought 'damn it is going to suck to try and find a guesthouse in this weather'. By the time I got through customs and get a taxi to the area I was going to stay it was clear and ended up being a beautiful night. Now the hunt is on for a surf board and some good breaks. The next post will be shortly after my first Balisian barrell.
Until next time,
Jason

Malaysia

Well I just got into Penang, Malaysia late last night from Ton Sai, Krabi, Thailand. Oddly enough I ran into a dive instuctor that I met on Koh Tao at the guest house that i am staying in. He was on a visa run with a couple of other dive instructors and the night was quickly filled with J. Daniels(J. Daniels is the cheap Malaysian version of Jack Daniels) and socializing. I can easily say that so far Malaysia is the most similiar to L.A., McDonalds, Starbbucks, KFC, Bordiers Books, it is really a trip to see all the same crap from home in such a beautiful place. i will see what I need to see and then book it to Indo for some surf, sand and even more fun than i am having now. Oh yeah, just wondering how your 9 to 5 is treating you?

Thailand, again.

Well I have been back in Thailand for about two weeks or so and realized how much I miss the beach and the ocean. My first stop was to Ko Phi Phi off of the west coast of Thailand. It was absolutely beautiful. The island has an isthmus in the middle with lots of really breath-taking views. the only bad part about it was that there were some many people. It was like spring break with a busy night life. It wasn't that bad considering that i met up with some friends from Long Beach and we couldn't think of a better way to catch-up than have a couple of Thai buckets and an evening swim.

From Phi Phi, we took off for Ko Tao for a little more mellow setting and some scuba. The overnight ferry that we took was more of a cargo ship that had a little deck space on the top for the 30+ people it was also carrying. it was a long night to say the least, but we made it. The island was awesome! The rest of the Long Beach crew wanted to get their open water scuba cert. and myself and another wanted to get our advanced cert. so it worked out perfectly for all of us to do 4 days of diving. My advanced dives consisted of a deep dive(100ft.), a navigational dive, search and recovery, fish identification, and a night dive. The night dive was my favorite out of all of them seconded by the deep dive. I could definitely feel the nitrogen narcosis at the end of that day and a cold beer chang never tasted so good.

At this point, since my birthday was right around the corner, we decided to make our way to Ko Phangan for the full moon party that just happened to be on my birthday. Pure craziness! there was probably 20 to 30 thousand people on the beach with all sorts of fire dancing, buckets, and anything else you can imagine. truly an experience to be a part of the whole thing. a word to the wise, use caution when at a full moon party. their were a couple of fatalities, one of which was right in front of our tuk-tuk on the ride back from the party. He was riding his motor bike and drinking a bucket at the same time. Use your head and know your limits!

At this point 4 of the girls from long beach have left and I'm hear in Krabi with the remaining two. They head out in a couple of days and so will I. Time to do some kayaking and rock climbing before i head off on my next adventure.

Jason

some picture for all of yall

Inside a cave called "amazing cave" in Halong Bay.

How about shooting an M60 at the Chu-Chi tunnels outside of Siagon.

This is a couple of sand dunes just outside of Mui Ne, Vietnam.

Hue and Hanoi

this was the first city where i didn't really feel welcome. After seeing the citadel and trying to find where my father lived while he was in the war, i constantly was told of how bad America was and is. i constantly felt like there was someone over my shoulder and someone trying to get into my pocket.
i had the same felling in Hanoi. i did a quick trip to halong bay which was beautiful but found out that i payed twice as much for the same trip as everyone else, i was also the only american on the trip.
i then made the decision to get out of there and head down to some sun in southern thailand and meet some friends and relax a little bit. i flew out of hanoi to bangkok and the jumped another plane to krabi. tomorrow i will head to Ko Phi Phi to meet the crew. nothing but beaches and fun from hear on out. . . . hopefully.

Hoi An

This place is a nice quite travelers city that specializes in hand made garments. I had to indulge by buying two suits, four shirts, and one par of shoes. For $220.00 how could you say no. i thought that i would stay until the next day until my clothes were ready and then leave. What really happened was i met a local teacher that took me on his day of to see some sight for free and then later thaqt night i met his family and had coffe with them. this was a real reality check. i was the first forigner to ever set foot inside his house and was able to see how the other side lives. his family was so poor that they lived in an 8'x8' room where the 5 of them slept. the kitchen was 5'x3' and also doubled as the bathroom. i was invited to the wedding but due to visa constrants iwas unable to attend. It really makes me feel luck for what i have and how i live. i will always remember teacher Tung and his family.

Nha Trang

It was supposed to be a nice beach town, but turned out to be the beginning of 2 weeks of bad weather. The highlight were an amusement park called Vinpearl which is an island off the coast that is accessible by the worlds longest gondola water crossing. It didn't hold a candle to the parks back in Cali. but is was something to do while the weather was bad.

the best part was new years. some how i meet a bartnder that worked at the only night club in the city that was on the beach. i asked if he needed a bartender in return for free drinks for the night. he didn't need one but did give me the job of helping the party get started by giving me and some other youngsters free booze for us as well as to give to the other patrons of the club. it was a lot of preasure, but i was able to pull it off and had one hell of a new year.

Christmas Time

I had booked a guesthouse in Mui Ne in Siagon because i was assured, by the travel agent, that all of the guesthouses would be full for the holiday. So i booked a room for 5 days and paid in advance for the whole amout. When i arrived there was no rooms available and the travel agant did not know what i was talking about. However, after some frustration that turned into a gaint(me) getting a little "upset" with the people that had skewed me, i got a very nice room and many apologies that made the holiday worth it.

I went out with a group of 9 people for a christmas eve dinner that turned into a vietnamese christmas party. The free drinks were flowing and the music was pumping and the limbo was getting lower and lower. I got second place in the contest which got me a stuffed animal and a sprained knee. After that long night i thought that i would take it easy on christmas and have a mellow dinner at the guest house with the family that owned it. After many "yo's", the vietnamese word for cheers, i was right back where i was the night before, dancing on a knee that needed more rest than spankin the planks. All in all, it was a great christmas with strangers that felt like my best friends.

Siagon, Vietnam

Siagon had a really cool atmosphere to it especially because it was just before christmas. I ventured out of the city a bit to see the Chu-Chi tunnels which were the underground tunnels that the Viet Con used in the "American" war. They were very small and dark tunnels with many levels to them. The guide that i had was vietnamese and had no problem walking through the tunnels. I had a bit more difficult time and had to crawl on all-fours most of the time. The guide was average vietnamese hieght of 5'7" and I am 6'4", you do the math. Afterwards there was a shooting range where i was able to shoot an AK 47, M 16, and a big ass M60. F*#&ing awesome.

After that i went to the war remnants museum, Which was called until 5 years ago the American war crimes museum. It was very anti-American and i went by my altar ego of Mason from Canada for most of the day.

I figured that was enough of the city and went north to the city of Mui Ne for Christmas.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

This place was a breath of fresh air. On the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, it was my first time seeing the ocean in 2 months. It was a great place to lose track of time. My day went as fallows. I would wake up and have breakfast at my guest house and then head down to the beach foe the rest of the day where I would get at least one massage a day, multiple games of pool, and fresh lobster in the afternoon. Then to rap the day up i would go to the cinema and watch a movie or two and have a couple beers. The total days expenses were about $10. Talk about having a tough life. I did mix it up a little bit and went scuba diving one day about 2 hours of the coast in some amazing coral reefs.

Phnom Penh, The Capital

Phnom Penh was different. I had to go to see the historical importance, but then had to get out. Here's a little info about its history. In 1975 a man named Pol Pot became the leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. He had this idea was to kill off all the "intelligent" people to have a society that was very simplistic. These "intelligent" people were anyone that wore glasses and asked questions. He starved his people to death and killed them if they un-lawfully ate food that wasn't given to them by the the Khmer army. How would the Khmer army know if you have been sneaking food, with daily feces checks of course. Between 1975 and 1979 there was somewhere between 2 million and 3 million people killed. The army would often kill and buried these people in mass shallow graves known as the killing fields. It was definitely an eye opener. You can understand why i say that it was different. i got out of there the very next day to a more relaxing setting.

Ankor What?

I arrived in Siem Reap to see the mother of all wat's(temples), Ankor Wat. That consisted of a 4 a.m. wake-up call to be able to hit the road by 4:30 on our bikes to see the sunrise at these amazing temples. To our advantage, the owner of the guesthouse gave us some insider tips on where to go first to avoid the 500 plus tourists that go to see the biggest temple every morning. Myself and a Canadian fellow, Blair, that I had been traveling with for the past three weeks or so were real go-getters and busted out most of the temples on the first day which consisted of about 45km of riding. As a side note, the bikes we had were ok, but lacked in the comfort zone.

Needless to say the second day we hired a tuk-tuk or a motor-bike taxi to all of you at home, to literally save our asses for the second day of the temples. At the temple where tomb raider was filmed was the most touristy and was impacted with Japanese and Chinese tourist that all wear a neon green, pink, green, etc. hats to stay with the tour group. Blair and I tried to fit in with a couple groups but the jig was easily up when we stood a foot taller than the rest without hats.

That night we decided to giv'er and hit the night life at a bar called none other than Ankor What? There was much fun and meet a halarious Brit and we paint6ed the town.

First of all. . .

I would like to apoligies for the lack of blog posts in the last month. what can i say . . . . . vietnam does not like google blogger. I couldn't post or even look at other blogs (i.e. Brandon and Kirsten's or my parents) which really sucked because that is the best way to see what is going on back home and in South American. I am now back in Thailand, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, let me fill in the last month.

Cambodia

From the islands I went into Cambodia to a town off of the beaten path called Ban Lung. The first day there a Canadian and I rented moto bikes for the day and we both had some trouble with them. I was on a 125cc dirt bike and he was on a 100cc scooter. In that late afternoon my bike stalled and I couldn't get it started again. Being about 15 Km outside of town, I pushed it to a grease monkey 300 meters down the road. He checked it out and could not figure out what was wrong with it. I had my friend go back to town to get the owner to help us out. He laid his bike down going about 30km/h and got some abrasions on his leg and arm but was ok. Meanwhile, I started to push the bike back to town. After an hour of pushing I ran into the owner and he informs me that his bike stalls sometimes and is really easy to get started if you know the secret touch.


The next day I went to a really cool volcanic lake that was in the top of an inactive volcano and stayed there until sunset. When I get back to my room I noticed that some things had been moved and $20, my cell phone and ipod were missing. After an hour of arguing with the owner and manager trying to convince them that those items were had been stolen, I use one of their phones to call my phone. I looked on every floor and ended up hearing it ring in a room on the floor above me. The owner and manager open the room, which belonged to 6 of the employees of the hotel, and my phone was hidden in the dresser and was still on. So one down, one to go. Since I now proved that things had been taken the police came to question the 6 residents of the room. They didn't say a thing. At that point I could have them all arrested or not and all i really wanted was my ipod back and no one going to jail for 1 to 2 months. After some scare tactics by yours truely and 3 hours later, the ipod shows up out of no where. The owner of the hotel then made it up to me by buying dinner and drinks for the night for myself and 2 other guest that were helping out. I also didn't have to pay for my hotel room or any other meals as long as I was there. I only spent three nights there, but it felt like a life time.

Now on to Siem Reap.

The 4000 Islands

After visiting the Vientiane, Lao, I headed farther south on an over night bus to Pakse. The bus ride was 14 hours long, thank god that I went to the pharmacy and got some sleeping pills because the 4 Englishmen that sat right behind me decided that downing a couple bottles of $1 whiskey and the more they drank the louder they got. I was starting to get very upset with them until the pills kicked in and I was out until the girl next to me had to wake me cause we had arrived.

The original plan was to stay the night in Pakse and move on to the island the following day. With the help of 20 or so Laotian tuk-tuk drivers and a couple bus drivers, that idea was laid to rest as I as on another bus to the islands. With a couple stops to pick up some locals and their chickens and tie a refrigerator to the roof we were there. I helped pass the time by talking to the parental units and my sister on the phone, it was thanksgiving day, and watching as the Laotian lady get off the bus a puke her brains out and come right back on and sit next to me. i was trying to think small and not make any contact with her. she got off the next stop.

After taking a short boat ride to Don Det, I found shelter and Mr. Phao's Sunset guest house. I lucked out because Mr. Phao is the man. His guest house is on the water and the restaurant that his wife runs is on a patio that extends over the Mekong River. The drinks are on the honor system and you don't pay for anything until you leave the island. The time was past with seeing a waterfall, which is more like a huge rapid that extends 14 km. across the Mekong, playing cards and chess with the other guests, drinking delicious beer Lao, whiskey, and a real ball buster called Lao Lao.

Lao Lao is made from rice and is not sold in stores because it is made by the locals. My encounter with Lao Lao was with 3 other tourist and 8 Laotian fisherman. For 50 cents a coke bottle, that they refill from the gas can that contains the Lao Lao, it is really easy to get stuck talking to a fisherman that has been drinking since he got up at sunrise that day. I also found some time to lay in the hammock on my porch and read a bit. There is no electricity on the island so generators run when it gets dark to about 10p.m. which is the curfew for the island. One night when curfew hit, Mr. Phao told us of a party on a neighbouring that was for a boat race the next day. Mr. Phao was kind enough to drive us to it opn his boat. We were a group of ten people that made up for half of the Falangs(tourists) at the party. There was about 700 Laotians and 20 tourists all together. Some of the most fun that I have ever had! It was a strenuous 8 days.

Given'er on the River

I was just in a small town called Vang Vieng that is truely a diamond in the rough. You can walk across town in about 10 min. The town is in a valley with mountains all around it next to a river. The best part about this place is the tubing on the river. I will try to explain why this is so much fun. It startes at about 10 or 11 in the a.m. and goes until sun down. All you do is float down the river and stop off a bars that have rope swings, zip lines, sand volleyball courts, bocce ball courts, and of course all the semi-cold beer lao you can drink. The only hard part is budgeting your time wisely so that you don't get stuck on the river after dark. I made that mistake only once before to realize that I didn't want to do that again. And yes, the second time was just as fun as the first was.

Laos

So I'm in laos now. I took a two day slow boat to Luang Prabang. The boat was suppost to hold 80 passangers, but they put 150. some people were worried and started to make a fuss to the captain to try and get two boats. The arguement was easly settled by the captain as he says, "Ok, two boat." he then untied the boat and we were off . . . . . . . on one boat still. After about an hour into it everyone was put to ease because the boat seemed to handle it and 80% of the boat brought whiskey bottles. i was one of the masses and soon the other 20% realized how boring an 7 hour boat ride is and joined the festivities. I met a lot of really cool people on that boat and have been have a lot of fun in Laos with all of them. the one down side of the boat was that the Burmese have been throwing the bodies of their dead into the river, so there are a couple of floaters.

Yesterday, about six of us went to a waterfall about an hour outside of town with 10 people. it was really fun and they had some natural swimming pools with a rope swing and a cliff jump were we spent most of the day relaxing. I did have to make a rescue on some dutch girl who swallowed some water under the water fall. i was a hero for the day and got bought a couple beers for my good deed.

Tomorrow I'm off to Vang Vieng for some tubing and fun.
Hope everyone's doing well.

Crazy bus driver

Today I took a bus from Pai to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. The bus driver was freakin CRAZY!!! It was pouring rain and he was bombing down the mountain and swerving in and out of traffic so much that people in the bus were screaming out loud. The driver didn't seem to mind that much. A couple of people in the front of the bus were begging him to slow down which wasn't really working to much until a lady right behind him called the police. He then shaped up quick and slowed down. i would have to say that i have been on a couple crazy rides here in Thailand, but this one takes the cake. Oh by the way love you Mom.

Going to Lao in two days, I'll keep you posted.

So I am in this place called Thailand.

So i have been here for about two weeks or so and have to say that it is amazing. I flew into Bangkok on the 18th of October and have been working my way up north slowly but surely. I got out of Bangkok as fast as i could because it just wasn't my cup of tea. It was very chaotic and I got ripped off twice within an hour that almost got myself a knuckle sandwich if i didn't pay. Since then i have kind of figured out the rules of the road so to speak and have gotten very good at bargaining.

The first stop north of Bangkok was an ancient city of Ayutthaya which had a moat around it as well some really amazing looking temples. From there it was on to Lopburi for the day that had a temple with about five hundred monkeys all over it. These monkeys are considered such a blessing by the Buddhists for the money the bring to the city that they can do what ever they want(i.e. steal food and water from tourists, play on you like a tree in the jungle, etc.).

Then up to Phitsanlok where myself and a Canadian were forced on stage in a local bar to sing some western songs, some of which i had never even heard before. After two or three songs we were allowed to pick songs that we knew and the band started to have much more fun.

I have since gone threw Lampang where i had a cold and then recovered. This place was funny because i tried to get to a national park near by but since it wasn't a very touristy town it took about two and a half hours to figure out that yes, there was a bus but no one knew how to get to it. I have a pretty funny video clip of about ten or so Thais try to figure out where the bus station was. i thought the map would help, it didn't.

In Chang Mai, I took a cooking course on a Thai farm that was all organic. There I found out that I am allergic to some of the spices that they have as well as learning that fish sauce is horrible.

I didn't spend to much time up Chang Mai because i heard about this place called Pai that is a very small city in the basin of some mountains and it is absolutely beautiful. I have only been here four days, but have seen the town and went on a two day river rafting trip. The rapids were only a class three but it was still fun because the guide let myself and one other guy on the trip kayak some of the rapids which made it a little more interesting. Like Jako the guide said, "More danger, more fun!." At the end of the trip there was a 45 foot cliff jump into about 5-6 feet of water that besides the guide i was the only one to do. i had a little bit of a butt check on the bottom that didn't hurt thanks to the sandy bottom, but my knife did happen to fall out of my pocket. oh well. I'll stay here a couple more days before going back to Chang Mai and on to Laos.