drifting_with_dervla

Photos: Indonesia 2014

driftingwithdervla — Sat, 5 Jul 2014 17:28:00 GMT

Bali, Gilis, Lombok, Komodo, Flores, and Beyond!

Ireland: Cork, Galway, Tipperary, and Kerry!

driftingwithdervla — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:36:00 GMT

Last time I updated my blog, I was sitting in Innishannon, Cork watching Obama’s visit to the Emerald Isle. Now I’m sitting in San Diego, California watching some hummingbirds feast outside my window – what a difference! The last six months of travel have been so incredibly eye opening and life changing and even with my blog, there are so many moments that I cannot adequately express and share with words. However, I will try to wrap up my last five weeks in Ireland as best as I can.

After spending some time in Innishannon, I headed to Blarney, home of the infamous Blarney Stone. I was there for a few days and reunited with Nicola, my travel partner all through India. I finally got to meet her family that I had heard so much about throughout our travels and time in Korea and we ended up having a few nights out over the weekend with her sisters. We had a pub session at a seedy joint in Blarney one night and then went into a posh club in the city called The Bodega the next night, so I got to see a wide variety of Cork nightlife! After spending a few days with Nicola and her crowd, I went to stay with my Auntie Mary, who is my father’s sister. She lives very close to the center of Blarney town and I was able to walk into town and do a good bit of touring. The highlight of my trip there obviously being my trek up Blarney Castle to kiss the stone of eloquence at the top. Apparently kissing it gives you the gifts of charm and conversation, so naturally I haven’t noticed any changes (hardy har har!!).

From Blarney, I returned to Innishannon to regroup for a day before catching a bus up to Galway to stay with my mother’s sister, my Auntie Lucy. Auntie Lucy is my godmother and the aunt I’ve been closest with over the years, so I was really looking forward to seeing her and catching up with both her and her husband Tom. Lucy and Tom live in Gort in a gorgeous house where you can easily walk down into the village. While staying in Galway, I got to catch up with my Auntie Pat (Mom’s sister) and her daughters, Auntie Bernie (Mom’s sister) and her daughters, Andrew (cousin on my Mom’s side) and his wife and daughter over the course of my stay. Galway is a beautiful place and Lucy and I have somewhat schemed that I’ll move there in a few years time once I have my masters and clinical license in tow!

Following my incredibly enjoyable trip to Galway, I caught yet another bus to Dublin where I went to visit and stay with my Mom’s friend since college, Mary, and her husband Aidan. They have an amazing house in an even more amazing part of Dublin and I was able to see a good bit of the city during my weekend there. It was a short visit however as I had to catch yet another bus back out to Clonmel (in County Tipperary) as I wanted to visit my Auntie Phil (Mom’s sister) again before my trip out to Dingle that I’ll get to in a minute. Auntie Phil cooked me up yet another incredible dinner and we had a great evening of conversation. The following day she took me back to her and my mom’s hometown of Ballylanders so I could visit my grandparent’s graves again as I have no idea when I’ll be able to do that again. Sadly, it was a very short trip with Auntie Phil and after doing a bit of upkeep of the graves, she drove me to Mitchelstown where I caught a bus to Cork where my cousin Sean picked me up.

The next day, Sean and I headed to the coastal town of Dingle that is in the county of Kerry. Dingle was such a highlight of my trip as the scenery was breathtaking and I genuinely had a great time there. In Dingle, we hooked up with Sean’s university friend Micheal who had actually come out to California and stayed with my family while I was in Korea - so we finally got to meet after hearing so much about each other! Micheal showed us the nightlife of Dingle and of course we did a pub crawl down the main street that ended up with a visit to the chipper at the end of the night! The next day we headed out on Micheal’s boat to look for Fungie, the famous dolphin of Dingle, who hasn’t left the bay for nearly thirty years. We ended up spotting Fungie, but unfortunately I was only able to get pictures of the after splash of his jumps as my camera wasn’t quick enough to catch the man himself! That afternoon, we did the Slea Head drive and looked out at the Blasket Islands and made a plan to head out to them the next time the three of us find ourselves in Dingle. The following day, Sean and I had a lovely tea overlooking Dingle Harbour before doing one last look around the town and then headed out to Micheal’s house to meet his mom and have one last ‘cuppa’ before our drive back to Cork. We then ended up driving back out towards Mizen Head (Southwest Cork) to pick up my cousin Cathal on the way back to Innishannon.

At that point, I only had a few days left in Ireland, so I went into Cork city and met up with my Uncle Bernard, his wife Rotua, and baby Martha to say our goodbyes. I also got to meet up with Nicola and two of her sisters to have one last pint of Bulmers and a rather teary farewell on Oliver Plunkett Street! The next day was my cousin Aine’s birthday so we had a lovely dinner in the town of Kinsale and that was my last full day in Cork as I went up to Galway the day after to stay with my Auntie Lucy and Tom as it is very close to Shannon Airport where I caught a flight to Heathrow before the last long leg onto Los Angeles.

I know it will take me some time to digest the trip of a lifetime that I have just completed and I’m sure I’ll look back on these blog entries and wish I had shared more details, but I love carrying certain stories with me as they were something that truly had to be experienced firsthand. I have seen so many remarkable and wonderful things during these last few months and I am so proud and pleased that I was able to do something like this and make it home safely. Who knows when my next trip will be, but wherever it is, I’ll be sure to write about it here. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of my trip, either by being along for the ride or reading about it here!

Photos: Ireland: Cork, Tipperary, Galway, and Kerry!

driftingwithdervla — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:43:00 GMT

Photos: England: London, Kenilworth, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Coventry

driftingwithdervla — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:03:00 GMT

From Kanyakumari to West Cork!

driftingwithdervla — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:13:00 GMT

Wow! So much has happened since my last update! The last time I was able to sit down and write up about my travels, I was at the Amritapuri Ashram near Karanagappaly. Because so much has happened from then, I'll break up my travels into sections as I have been in India, England, and Ireland since my last update.

India Wrap Up: Kanyakumari, Varkala, Munnar, and back to Mumbai!
After staying at the Ashram for a few days, Nicola and I took a train down to Kanyakumari which is the southernmost tip of India. We had an incredible time there and really enjoyed ourselves as it is an Indian holiday spot and since we were the only foreigners around, we really got to see the real deal. Kanyakumari is such a relaxing and breathtaking place and I always enjoy looking out over the ocean no matter where I am. While in Kanyakumari, we tried lots of new foods, explored the surrounding area, and I even went and saw a palm reader who thankfully only had good news for me! We only stayed there for two days as we only had about two weeks left of our trip and we wanted to move on so we could squeeze in a few more places. From Kanyakumari, we took a six hour bus up the country into the state of Kerala and ended up in a gorgeous place called Varkala.
Now I have had the opportunity to be in a lot of beautiful places (Bali, Jeju-Do, and Goa) but Varkala is truly the most immaculate and incredible beach town that I have ever been to. Is has the perfect combination of white sand, palm trees, and very friendly locals. It was such a clean and comfortable place to visit and our trip that was intended to be for two days turned into eight!! We ran into a Norwegian girl that we had met at the ashram a few days before and then on the beach, I spotted an Italian guy that we had met in Jaipur at the start of our journey, so we ended up having a great big gang for our time in Varkala. In Varkala, we spent our days swimming, lying on the beach, and doing a bit of shopping! Varkala is such a well kept secret and I can't understand why so many tourists go to Goa instead of this magnificent spot, but I'm glad that it is not overwhelmed with droves of people and I would absolutely love to return there someday!
From Varkala, we took a train up to Fort Cochin and then made our way to a bus station where we caught a local bus to the mountainous town of Munnar. Munnar is famous for its tea plantations and during our few days there, we toured tea factories, fields of tea, and most importantly, did a lot of sampling! Being the tea fanatic that I am, I really enjoyed this place and seeing all the different types of tea that there are. Since Munnar is up in the mountains, it is much cooler than the rest of India, and it was the first and only time that we had to layer up with our jackets and scarves the entire trip! Most people that go to Munnar hire a taxi and tour guide to take them around, but after all of our time in India, we wised up and simply hired a local rickshaw driver who took us around and doubled as our tour guide and he had formally worked in one of the tea factories for a nominal fee. After a few days and nights in Munnar, we were down to only a few days in India, so we had to figure out how to get up to Mumbai in order to catch our planes out of the country.
We ended up taking another local bus back to Fort Cochin and stayed the night at a lovely homestay with an incredibly warm and friendly family. The owner and husband of the homestay suggested we do a tour the next day and we ended up doing an elephant washing tour! We literally got into the river with a gang of elephants and scrubbed them down with a coconut that had been split in half. It was an equally terrifying and exciting experience and I cannot describe how it felt to be among such elegant and giant creatures but I can only advise that you all try it, if ever given the chance! After we gave our elephants a good scrub, we went to an breathtaking waterfall and hung around there for a bit, we even got in the water and splashed around to try and cool ourselves down in the Indian sun!
After our tour for the day, we returned to our homestay where we prepared ourselves for the over thirty hour train ride we were about to embark on in order to get to Mumbai in time for our flights. We got on the train on Thursday night around 9PM and didn't get off until nearly 6AM on Saturday morning. Needless to say, we did a lot of reading and eating on the train, but we're just glad to have survived the ordeal without going stir crazy. Upon our arrival in Mumbai, we walked around in the early hours of the day as our hostel wouldn't let us check in until noon. We went to the famous washing ghat, where all of Mumbai's laundry is done by a group of men in an mind bogglingly organized manner! Close to noon, we returned to the hostel and reunited with my university friend Sarah who we hadn't seen since the very beginning of my trip and we basically spent our last day resting and packing before heading out at night for a final walk around and dinner. The next morning, we were up early with the crows and at the airport by 7. From there I had to part ways with Nicola as I was flying to London via Cairo and she was flying to Paris via Kuala Lumpur.
Flying out of India was bittersweet as I had become so attached to the people and culture. India was such an eye opening experience and the extreme colours, sights, sounds, and magic of the country is something that must be experienced and could never be properly described. I've heard that people either hate or love India and either go once or can't stop going back and I can guarantee that I am the latter. I truly anticipate returning to India someday as I think that in my two months there, I only scratched the surface. From Mumbai, I flew into Cairo and spent a day there before continuing onto London, which I will describe next.

England: London, Kenilworth, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Coventry
Upon arriving in Heathrow, my Uncle Brendan whisked me off to a hotel near Paddington Station where I immediately showered and climbed into bed as I was wrecked from the journey from India. The next morning, I hopped on a double decker bus and toured the city. I did the typical spots such as Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Oxford Street, and so forth but the highlight of a day was doing a Thames River Cruise. It was freezing but it was incredible to see the city from the river and was definitely a great experience. During my eight days in London, I got to meet up with my cousins Michael and Brian and had a great time catching up with them and experiencing the London nightlife with them and their girlfriends. After a week of touring the city solo, Michael and I headed to the infamous Borough Market first thing Saturday morning and took in all of the fresh cheeses, meats, fish, and produce. From there, we headed to East London where we met up with Brian and the boys' girlfriends. We had a great day going around and doing a bit of a pub crawl. East London is a great scene to take in and is definitely where I would be hanging around if I ever moved to London.
The following day, Michael and I went off for our Sunday Roast and after headed to a pub to take in a Chelsea v. Man U match. We ended up running into a score of Michael's friends who are also Irish and we all had a great Sunday. The next day was equally exciting as I met up with two of my friends, Jenny and Ellen, from Korea. I met both of them while living in Korea and was lucky to meet up with the two of them as Jenny is currently living in Leeds doing a masters and Ellen was in town for a wedding. The three of us did a bit of touring, stopping in the middle of the day to take in a beer garden, and then carry on to Oxford Street to check out the shops. I had a great time catching up with them but it was so surreal to see them outside of Korea! The next day, I met up with Jenny and my cousin Brian for a bit of a goodbye lunch and then caught a train up to Warwickshire to spend my remaining time in England with my mother's brother, my Uncle Gerald.
My Uncle Gerald lives in Kenilworth in an amazing old cottage that even old Oliver Cromwell stayed in many moons ago. He has an incredible house and the peace and quiet his house and surrounding countryside offered after the noise of London and India was very much welcomed. You can see cattle grazing from his sitting room and sitting there next to the fire, looking out over the fields, and reading a book was pure bliss. I love the English countryside and was so happy to be there after the hectic few months I had had travelling through Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India. From Kenilworth, I went up to Stratford-upon-Avon for a day and really enjoyed taking in Shakespeare’s hometown. I did a cruise of the River Avon and followed that with a fine feed of fish and chips! After that, I did a walking tour of Stratford where we were shown Shakespeare’s birthplace as well as the houses of his immediate family members. We also checked out his theatre, grave, and a few other spots and I truly had a great time taking in all of the history and roaming the same streets, that Old Willie would have walked around while writing his plays!
Over the next few days, I went to a town called Lemington Spa to have a look and also my Uncle Gerald took me to a place called Coventry. Coventry has that typical English town feel but it has a bleak history as it had been bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War II. During the bombing, their cathedral was destroyed. Their bombed cathedral now stands side by side by one that was built next to it and it was such an eerie and beautiful sight. Walking through the old cathedral, I could really feel the greatness of the place and it stood in such contrast to the modern cathedral next to it. They are each beautiful and impressive in their own way and this is definitely a site to be taken in if you ever find yourself in the area!

I had an incredible time with my Uncle Gerald and I really look forward to visiting him again in the future but unfortunately our time together drew to an end and I had to catch a flight to Cork, Ireland where I am now!

Ireland: Innashannon, Cork City, Ballylanders, Fethard, Goleen, and Oughmina
I arrived in Ireland last Saturday on the 14th and was met by my Auntie Eileen (Dad's sister) and my gorgeous cousin Sarah. They scooped me up from Cork Airport and brought me back to the homestead in Innashannon where I reunited with the rest of Eileen's gang. We had a great dinner that night and spent the spent the next day, Sunday, going to mass and then going to my cousin Sarah's camogie match, which is the female version of hurling. From my Auntie's house in Innashannon, my cousin Sean dropped me at the bus station in Cork City and I took a bus out to Mitchelstown where my Auntie Phil (Mom's sister) picked me up and took me to go see my Great Auntie Dorella's house (near Ballylanders where my mother was born and raised) where I had an enjoyable afternoon and got to meet a few of my second cousins. I spent a few days with my Auntie Phil and had a great time catching up with her as it had been about seven years since I had seen her last. After my few days out in Fethard with her, I caught a bus back to Cork City where I was met by yet another auntie, my Auntie Rotua (Dad's sister-in-law), who just had my baby cousin Martha this last year and I spent a weekend with her and my Uncle Bernard. Yesterday, Bernard drove us out to his hometown (my Dad's hometown, as they are brothers) and I got to go back to his house in Oughmina which was formally my Grandparent's house that my father was raised in. Being back there was surreal as I hadn't been there in so long and had only been there once since my Grandparent's both passed away.
From there, we went to the Mizen Head which is the southwesternmost point in Ireland and a place that I've visited many times over the years. I couldn't help but notice that only a month before, I was at the southernmost tip of India and now here I was at Ireland's! From the Mizen, we went to a pub and restaurant called The Crookhaven Inn, in a sheltered inlet, where I spent a lot of summers as a child going out on my Grandad's boat and getting good feeds of fish and chips while the grownups were having their fun at the pub! At the Crookhaven Inn, my Uncle Kieran (Dad's brother-in-law) and my cousin Cathal came to have lunch with us and it was great to see Cathal as he was just a kid the last time I saw him and he is now a young man. I can't believe that I'm getting tot he point in my life where I comment on how fast the young ones are growing up! After a great lunch, we went to the church in Goleen where I placed flowers on my Grandparents' and Auntie Patricia's (Dad's sister who died young) graves. It was definitely sad to be there but I was immediately cheered after as we went to my Great Auntie Pat's (Dad's aunt) house where she made us hot whiskies and had us rolling with her lively conversation and great sense of humour. Her similarity to my Granny is striking and it was almost like being back with my Granny Eileen for the evening.

After our visit with Great Auntie Pat, Bernard brought me back here to Innashannon where I'm planning my next plan of attack. But for today, I'm going to stay in to stay out of the stormy weather and follow Obama's visit on the telly! Thanks for following and I'll update again soon!

Photos: India Part Four: Kerala (Kanyakumari, Varkala, Munnar, Fort Cochin) and Mumbai

driftingwithdervla — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:38:00 GMT

Photos: India Part Three: Goa (Anjuna Beach, Baga), Kerala (Cochin, Alleppey, Backwaters)

driftingwithdervla — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:40:00 GMT

Goa (Anjuna Beach, Baga), Kerala (Cochin, Alleppey, Backwaters)

Photos: India Part Two: Varanasi, Agra, New Delhi, Amritsar, and Chandigarh

driftingwithdervla — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:52:00 GMT

Malaysia and India Update At Last!

driftingwithdervla — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:03:00 GMT

Many apologies for such a delay in updating my blog. Computers in India are far and few between and finding an internet café with both electricity and internet has proven to be quite difficult. Because of the delay, I will try and describe the last few weeks concisely as to not take up too much of your time. The last time I was able to sit down and share my travels I was in Indonesia and let me tell you, so much has happened since then. After leaving Indonesia, I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and spent nine days there by myself before my friend Nicola came to join me to travel onto Mumbai, India. Whilst in Kuala Lumpur, I did a lot of touring. I saw the Petronas Twin Towers, Petronas Science Center and Aquarium, China Town, Little India, Chow Kit Night Market, and a few other spots. However, the highlight of my trip to Kuala Lumpur was seeing the Batu Caves which are a series of natural caves that has been turned into a Hindu Temple Complex and it is the largest Hindu pilgrimage site in the world outside of India. You must climb hundreds of steps to get to the top and the view from there is breathtaking. I really enjoyed my time in Kuala Lumpur and I even squeezed in a trip to the Cathedral there for Ash Wednesday mass which I thoroughly enjoyed as being in a Church is so comforting when you are far away from home. The food in Kuala Lumpur was amazing and the mix of Indian, Chinese, and Malay people and food led to a very interesting and delicious stay in KL!

Now I will try and summarize the last month in India, breaking it up into segments.

India, Part One: Mumbai, Jaipur, New Delhi.

Arriving in Mumbai was something I had dreamed of and planned for so long, that when it actually happened, it felt so surreal. I finally understood the saying that India is an overload on the senses as I immediately took in millions of smells, sights, and sounds during that first taxi ride to the hostel from the airport. After settling in at the airport, Nicola and I made our way to the train station where we toured around for a bit and ended up at Juhu Beach which was a lovely place to spend an evening and we even watched some Hari Krishna’s celebrate as they prepared for Holi, a holiday that I will explain later on. We spent a few days in Mumbai, getting ourselves comfortable with public transportation and visiting the India Gate, Taj Hotel, Ghandi’s Home, and a number of other spots before taking the train to Jaipur, Rajasthan. The train ride was almost 24 hours but we got ‘Sleeper Class’ tickets so we were at least able to lie down and attempt to sleep with all of the noise and bustle going on around us. We arrived in Jaipur and found that the hostel we had booked was actually a Villa and it was a gorgeous colonial home with gardens in the back where we had our meals. On our first day in Jaipur, we hired a rickshaw driver who took us around to see the Amber Fort, Water Palace, and even managed to talk us into going into a textile shop where we did indeed end up buying a few things. I bought two blankets, one was brown with elephants and mirrors and the other one was white with silk string elephants and I decided to FedEx them home to avoid carrying them across the globe and I’m happy to say that they arrived in San Diego safely where my parents are enjoying them! I met a few fellow travelers in Jaipur and we arranged to meet them for the next morning to go to the Elephant Festival. The Elephant Festival was an amazing event. It is a parade where elephants are adorned with mirrors, paints, and whatever other accessories their owners see fit before they are judged on their overall attractiveness. It certainly felt like some kind of elephant drag show to be quite honest. After that, there were a few different events like ‘tug-o-war’ before they started throwing around flowers and colored powders and by the end of the day we were all multi-colored and happy. It was a wonderful celebration and the combination of loud music, vibrant colors, and floral scents made me feel like I was experiencing a true Indian celebration. That same night, Nicola and I took an overnight bus to New Delhi where we checked into a hostel in the wee hours in anticipation of her sister Joanne meeting us the next day, which would be Holi. Holi is essentially the day that marks the start of Spring, as well as the triumph of good over evil, and it is celebrated by people throwing both liquid and powdered dyes on each other in good fun. Our gang from the hostel all went around town together and we had a great day of color bombing each other and taking photos with the locals. Joanne made it to India from Ireland without any problems and she got into the swing of Holi right away. The next day we just tooled around New Delhi and starting planning our trip east to Varanasi and Agra…

India, Part Two: Varanasi, Agra, New Delhi, Amritsar, and Chandigarh

From New Delhi, we took another overnight train to Varanasi and because we arrived at four in the morning and the town was still sleeping, we couldn’t find any proper accommodations and it took a lot of driving around in the rickshaw until we could find somewhere reasonable to sleep. After a quick nap, we took off into town and headed straight for the Ganges. We paid for a small boat to take us out and around the Ganges and it just so happened that there was a cremation happening so as we passed the cremation site, we were able to see a funeral in process but I definitely saw and smelt things at that spot that I don’t care to describe or endure again. After touring around the Ganges and attending another ceremony at one of the main stations, we had some dinner and a few hours later I got an extreme case of vomiting and Delhi Belly that I never hope to experience again. Luckily, that was my only time getting extremely sick and I consider myself lucky to get off that easily as so many others have found themselves much sicker here. After our trip to Varanasi, we headed to Agra and were so excited to see the Taj Mahal. It was so incredible to see in person and we spent an entire day there taking in the building that we had seen in so many pictures and videos over the years. The Taj is an amazing site and I am so pleased to have seen it. We also made a trip out to Agra Fort but it was only a quick one as we decided to catch a bus out of Agra so that we could return to Delhi and prepare for our journey to the north.

While In Delhi, I managed to meet up with an Indian friend of mine that I had met in Korea and he showed us around. We even ended up at a Korean Culture and Food Festival in Delhi where we found ourselves taking a Korean cooking class in the middle of India – who would have guessed that that would happen?! After Delhi, we took yet another train up to Amritsar to see the epicenter of the Sikh religion, and that is the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple has attached accommodation so we were able to sleep and eat just across the street from the temple for only a small donation. The Golden Temple is literally made of gold and to see it surrounded by the holy pond is a majestic site and you can’t help but feel humbled by this beautiful structure that has survived such volatile attacks from opposing religious groups. The Sikh people are extremely peaceful and we spent our time there simply reflecting and meditating to the soundtrack of chants that was constantly going in the background. While in Amritsar, we took a day trip out to the Pakistani border and attending a ceremony where both India and Pakistan lower their flags and give each other a peaceful salute at sunset. It was great to see such a passive and diplomatic exchange between to the two countries and I’m happy that they can have such an event every day in this part of the world. After Amritsar, we went to Chandigarh, which is unlike any other city in India. It was rebuilt in recent decades and was segmented into sectors, so the town is very organized and geometrical compared to the rest of the country. The city overall seemed to be very aware of recycling and keeping clean, which is in stark contrast to the rest of India where you’ll see people chucking their rubbish all over the streets, fields, and waterways. Chandigarh is a very modern and clean city and I definitely recommend it as a stopover, if only to see the Rock Garden, where a man has taken old garbage and turned it into a mystical land full of people, creatures, and formations. It is a real fantasy land and it is made up entirely of rubbish. After a few days in Chandigarh, we headed to Delhi for the third and final time, in preparation of heading south…

India, Part Three: Goa, Kerala (Cochin, Alleppey, Amritapuri Ashram)

From New Delhi, we decided to catch an inexpensive flight to Goa (on the Western Coast) as we felt that we had endured enough overnight trains and busses for the time being. We arrived in Goa in no time and headed to our lodgings at Anjuna Beach. Because of a glitch in the system, the owners of our hostel said that they couldn’t host us in their dorms but that they could give us a rooftop apartment with a balcony and kitchen if we didn’t mind. Hah! We were over the moon! We finally struck hostel gold and we were able to get these amazing digs for only $5 a night per person. We absolutely loved Anjuna Beach and spent our days laying on the beach, renting scooters, and exploring Old Goa and the Catholic Churches that were remnants of the Portuguese that had come in so many years ago for spices. Goa is an amazing and beautiful place and I highly recommend that anyone who comes to India to backpack treat themselves to a few days here as it is inexpensive but absolutely lovely! Once we finally were able to drag ourselves away from the utopia of Anjuna Beach, we took yet another long train down to Cochin in the state of Kerala. From there, we took a bus to Alleppey where we arranged to do a houseboat tour of the Keralan backwaters for a few days. The houseboat tour was so relaxing and we felt like queens as they served us fine meals and tea around the clock. Because we had a large boat to ourselves (for $75/person), we were able to just soak up the sun, read, explore, and drink at our leisure. It was just as relaxing and lovely as Goa but again, we couldn’t afford to stay on the boat forever, so we left the houseboat and grabbed a water boat down to the Amritapuri Ashram, where we are currently staying. The ashram is a holy Hindu complex where people come to study and develop their faith. This one is open to the public, so the girls and I are able to stay here despite the fact that we are not Hindu for a nominal fee of 200 rupees a night, which is around $5. The guru here, Amma, preaches the middle way within Hinduism and she believes in selfless service to others and lots of devotion and meditation. I don’t plan on going Hindu anytime soon, but it’s nice to stay in such a peaceful place where we are free to attend meditations, devotions, yoga classes, and receive darshan (blessings) as we please. We’ll probably stick around here for another few days before continuing on south to the very tip of India.

Well, that wraps up the last six weeks and I hope to be able to update more frequently in the future. The last month in India has changed my way of thinking so much and I look forward to the coming weeks that I have remaining here. Nicola’s sister Joanne has just left us here at the Ashram to make her way back up to Delhi and onwards to home in Ireland, so it’s just the two of us again. Thank you to everyone for reading this and I hope you enjoy the photos that I am uploading as well. Namaste!

Photos: India Part One: Mumbai, Jaipur, and Delhi

driftingwithdervla — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:07:00 GMT

Photos: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

driftingwithdervla — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:26:00 GMT

Photos: Sulawesi (Makassar, Bira Beach, Toraja)

driftingwithdervla — Tue, 1 Mar 2011 22:11:00 GMT

Sulawesi and Beyond!

driftingwithdervla — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:39:00 GMT

Greetings everyone! It has been quite the exciting few days since I've last updated, so I'll take it from the top. Back in Bali, my friend Jeff contacted me and we arranged to meet here in Makassar and travel around Sulawesi. I flew out to Makassar on the 19th where Jeff and his local buddy Yudhi picked me up from the airport. From there we grabbed dinner and then found ourselves at a nightclub after where the Bintang Beer was flowing and the live band was covering every nineties song you can imagine! The following day, we pottered around Makassar. We went to the mall, the beach, and later that night went to a fish market where I got to pick out my own prawns to be grilled and the cook even let me take control of the tongs and cook my own prawns for a bit. After dinner, we were in the mood for a sing-a-long, so we found a karaoke room and I think we did ourselves proud with our horrible renditions of 'today's hits and yesterday's favourites"!

The next morning, we decided to head to Southeastern Sulawesi to a placed called Bira Beach and Yudhi was our driver for the six (or was it seven?) hour sojourn. We ended up getting there at night, so all we could do was take a walk along the beach but it wasn't until the next morning that we could see the beautiful white and powdery sand. Bira Beach was lovely and we ended up having a great time, despite our room's random shortages of both water and electricity. We only ended up doing an overnight trip to Bira Beach since Jeff and I had previously decided to head north to a placed called Toraja, so on Tuesday afternoon, we left the beach and headed back to the city of Makassar. After getting back to town, Yudhi took us to dinner where we met some of his local friends and I ended up having a great chat with them!

The following morning, Jeff and I had to be up early as we had a morning bus to catch that would take 10+ hours to go up the countryside to the mountainous area of Toraja. The ride was bumpy but we got so see some amazing panoramic views and were more than happy to get off the bus at nearly nine o'clock that evening. Before leaving Makassar, we ran into a travel agent that gave us a package tour that included our hotel, driver, guide, breakfast, and funeral donation (I'll explain that later) for the two of us for four days/nights, which we thought was a great deal. The hotel was built in the the middle of the mountains and rice paddies, so we had extremely peaceful and beautiful surroundings. We also ended up getting the most amazing driver and guide in all of Toraja! Our guide's name was Amos and he made our time in Toraja so amazing and his knowledge of the surrounding people, culture, and environment was astonishing - and he was able to tell us all of this in English, even more amazing!

Our first morning in Toraja, we got ready to go to a local funeral ceremony. In Toraja, you must be officially invited to the event and bring a donation, so Amos was our invite and our donation was a giant carton of cigarettes that was used to suffice the needs of the men doing all of the heavy work that day. When we arrived to the funeral site, we were immediately offered snacks and cups of tea and it wasn't long before we realized that some animal sacrifices were about to begin. The funeral grounds were surrounded by buffaloes and pigs bound to bamboo sticks and after deciding which animals would be killed that particular day (as the funeral is spread out over three days), two buffaloes were brought front and center where the chosen man, with knife in hand, hit them across the neck. I won't go into too much detail, but it's safe to say that there was a good amount of blood and squealing that morning and I couldn't help but think of "Silence of the Lambs" the entire time. After a number of animals were given the kiss of death, we were offered pig meat cooked in bamboo sticks and apparently Jeff and I weren't traumatized by the killings at all because we were more than happy to find shelter in a hut and get our grub on!

After the funeral, Amos took us to see some traditional Torajan hanging graves. In Toraja, the deceased aren't placed in the ground, but hung from carved caves/cliffs. Since many of these burials are hundreds of years old, you can see where a lot of coffins have come crashing down and there are dozens of mismatched bones and skulls lying all over the place as the locals do not want to disturb the dead. We saw a few different caves like this and then went to visit a village where we could see traditional houses. The Torajan people were initially sea-fearing people, so their houses are designed to look like boats. The houses also have a number of buffalo horns hanging in the front that represent how many buffaloes they have sacrificed over the years. Needless to say, I don't think I'd want to be a buffalo in Toraja!! Later that night we ate some buffalo stuffed bamboo from the sacrifice we witnessed that morning and being that it was my first time trying that particular kind of meat, I thought it was really good. I honestly wouldn't think it was something other than regular beef if I hadn't of known.

The next few days were a whirlwind of touring around with Amos. We saw a number of natural and man-made caves, an area set up for children's graves, an animistic "living tree" that was full of deceased babies, and a number of panoramic views. Toraja is lush, fresh, and green and every picture I took felt like a postcard. Our last day, Amos took us to a some grounds that were covered in carved megalith stones (God only knows how they carried them up the mountain), and after that he took us trekking through some backwoods. The trek started off wonderfully but about half way through it started raining so we had to run to a nearby grouping of houses to find refuge under a rice hut. Once there, we saw a few children who were begging for candy, and sadly I only had a half roll of mentos. I thought I'd hand them out, but all of a sudden, a swarm of children came out from nowhere and I ended up feeling horrible that I didn't have enough for everyone. Seeing such poor children and not being able to provide any kind of sweet was difficult and although I apologized for only having enough for a handful of them, I felt like a total tool for giving false hope to the majority of them. After the rain let up and we could move on, we continued our trek and after that Amos took us to a place where the women still do traditional weaving and that was the end of our sightseeing. Jeff and I ran into a French Canadian guy at our hotel, so we ended up going swimming with him and then having our last supper with him later that night. The next morning, Jeff caught the bus up North to the village he's living with and I took another bumpy ten hour ride back here to Makassar.

Now it's Monday and I'm here at an internet cafe sorting through photos and TRYING to upload my videos from the trip to share with all of you. I'm headed back to Bali tonight and then it's only a few days until I head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! Thanks again for following my trip and I'll get to the photos/videos as soon as I find internet fast enough to upload! : )

Burning Up in Bali

driftingwithdervla — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:04:00 GMT

My first few days in Bali were lovely. I was soaking up the sun, reading, relaxing, cycling, and eating delicious Balinese and Padang food. This is my second time in Sanur and coming back to a place I'm familiar with felt so comfortable after the whirlwind of a trip I had in Taiwan. Unfortunatley, however, I managed to get the roasting of a lifetime and a week ago burnt myself to a crisp. Now I've had my fair share of sunburns over the years, but for the first time in my life, I had turned so purple and swollen that I could barely move, let alone walk. This resulted in me spending the better part of the last week on bedrest, only getting up for cold showers and a fresh layer of aloe vera. If I've learned anything from this whole experience, it's that I should never take my health for granted and that SPF 30 does absolutely nothing for an albino like me. Now that I'm peeling and on the road to recovery, I've managed to tour around some more and was absolutely delighted to be contacted by a University friend of mine, Jeff, who is currently in Sulawesi (doing research for his Master's thesis) and wanted to hook up since he's taking his first vacation since arriving in Indonesia.

I'll be flying out of Denpasar to Makassar, Sulawesi tomorrow to meet up with Jeff. From there, we're thinking of going 'up the country' to Toraja where the Toraja tribal people live. Hopefully we'll be able to catch an auspicious ceremony or dance and I'm sure we'll have loads of pictures by the end. We'll be travelling together for over a week at which point Jeff will be returning to his field site and I'll be coming back to Denpasar for a few days before taking off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before the Balinese holiday of Nyepi. Sorry for not having anything too exciting to report due to the sunburn but I promise to have some fabulous stories for the next post!

Celebrated the Year of the Rabbit in Taiwan!

driftingwithdervla — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:54:00 GMT

It's time for my first dispatch. After a fifteen hour flight out of LAX, I arrived in Taipei, Taiwan last week to meet my Korean friend Lisa for Chinese New Years. Upon arrival, I found a bus that took me into Taipei city, where I walked around for about 20 minutes before finding the hostel. After finding Lisa and dropping off my bag, we walked around the city for a few hours. We had an amazing lunch where I sampled some Chinese beef wraps, hot soup, and vegetables before heading back to the hostel for a nap. Later that afternoon, Lisa's boyfriend Brian arrived from the Philippines and after we all geared up again, we invited a Korean girl staying in the hostel to come along with us to check out Taipei 101. Taipei 101 was very impressive in person and the views from the top were breath taking. It's amazing to think of what humans have achieved as far as architecture is concerned, seems like we'll have buildings to the sky in no time! After Taipei 101, we took the subway to the famous Shilin Night Market. There we sampled tons of delicious food including beef spinal meat, noodles, spicy Chinese chicken, and of course we had to have boba teas. At the market we hooked up with our new Korean friend Ji's friend and he hung out with us for a few hours explaining all of the different foods and shops. After a rather exhausting first day in Taipei, I was more than happy to head back to the hostel for a good kip and was ready for action by morning.

The following morning we headed straight to the High Speed Rail staion where we caught the day down to the southern city of Kaohsiung. There we hooked up with Lisa's Taiwanese/New Zealander friend Fiona who was the hostess with the mostess! She picked us up from the staion with her friend Mina and we immediately headed to the beach for a delicious lunch that was matched by an even more amazing view. After the beach, we headed into town a bit to check out the Art Walk part of town where there were several museums, art installments, and exhibits. We took a break from walking to chow down on some amazing ice creams that were as big as our head and by evening, it was time to track down our hostel. After dropping our bags once more, we all loaded back into the car and went to a dumpling restaurant close to Fiona's home where we feasted on dumplings, beef/pork wraps, and a type of boiling fish soup. At this juncture, my jet lag was kicking in and I could barely stay away on the drive to Fiona's aunt's home. There, we were overwhelmed with more snacks and teas while chatting away to Fiona's family who were all in town for Chinese New Years. By eleven, everyone was ready to hit the pub where I barely was able to keep my eyes open until they were ready for bed. Unfortunately, I was in a seperate room from the others and when I got in had to find my way to my top bunk bed in the dark but was finally able to konk out for the night.

The next morning, we met up with Fiona at the subway station where we walked to a local shopping mall for a Japanese lunch. After lunch, Fiona's friend Jack came to meet us for coffee as well as a walk around the local street market. We walked around for an hour or so before we decided to take a taxi to Love River. Love River is a beautiful spot in the middle of Kaohsiung and once there, we bought tickets for a small ferry that took us around but being that the tour was in Mandarin, we were mostly just cracking jokes and taking pictures since we weren't able to get much info out of the tour guide. From there, we walked around the river until we ran into Fiona's parents who were so lovely and her Mom offered to drive us to the High Speed Station as we had to catch the train back to Taipei that night. Back in Taipei, our short sojourn in Taiwan was coming to an end and I ended up staying in that night and chatting to different people in the hostel as I had to be up by six the next morning to catch a bus to the airport.

After waking up, packing, and bidding farewell to Lisa and Brian, I made my way to the bus station only to find out that there weren't any buses running to the airport that early in the morning. I considered taking a taxi, but being on a backpacking budget, I just wouldn't give in. I kept looking around until I saw a bus bound for the airport. It ended up being a packaged tour bus for a group of Japanese business men who had come to Taiwan to golf. After much persuasion and the flashing of $5 USD, I was let on the bus and was delighted to make it to the airport just in time. After running through security, I caught the China Airlines flight to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia where I am currently staying with my Uncle and his family. The weather is lovely and warm here, however a bit too humid for my taste. The food and people are as beautiful as I remember and I am having a lovely time just tooling around town and trying all of the different cusine. That's all the news I have at the moment but I'll be sure to check back in after I've decided what my travel plans are as far as going out to Lombok, Gilis, Komodo, and Flores Island. I'm thinking of going out to Flores to do a dive course so that I will be PADI certified and will be able to dive anywhere in the future. Hope everyone reading this is well and sound and thank you for the encouraging emails!

Photos: Taiwan - February 2011

driftingwithdervla — Tue, 8 Feb 2011 15:49:00 GMT

Taipei and Kaohsiung

Bon Voyage!

driftingwithdervla — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:20:00 GMT

It all started off with a conversation about India....

While teaching English in Korea, my friend Nicola and I chatted about meeting in India after her teaching contract finished. This conversation would ignite me buying a ticket to India as well as arranging to stop off at a few places both before and after. I am starting my journey in Taiwan where I will get to spend a few days with my good friends Lisa and Brian. From there we will go down to the southern city of Kaohsiung to celebrate Chinese New Year with some friends before returning to Taipei. After Taiwan, I'll be shooting over to Indonesia to explore Bali, Lombok Island, the Gili Islands, and hopefully Komodo Island before heading to Malaysia. I'll have over a week in Malaysia, where I plan to arrange a trip to Langkawi Island as well as the historical town of Melacca that I've actually had a poster of up in my room for years now! By mid-March, I'll be meeting up with Nicola in Kuala Lumpur and heading off to India for two whole months! After India, I'll be going back to the motherland of Ireland for a bit before exploring mainland Europe. I'm also in the process of getting hired for an English camp in Spain that will start over the summer, so I'm hoping to go home with a bit of cash at the end of the journey!

I anticipate using this site as a place to share my stories, pictures, and thoughts. I hope to entertain you all and many thanks for following!

Singapore Sling

driftingwithdervla — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:52:00 GMT

Right, so. Time to fill in the last leg of the journey! The flight to Singapore ended up being a breeze as I was set next to some handsome, young Bali boys that were flying onto Barcelona where they would be working on a cruise ship for eight months. We exchanged travel stories, drinking stories, and future plans the whole flight, and before I knew it.. we were already landing four hours later. The boys ended up being a real laugh and every once in a while when I have fellow passengers as friendly as them, I am so grateful; especially after all the times I've had to deal with windy auld ones or children that don't understand that screaming is not advised in planes. I hung out with the lads a bit after landing and we exchanged info and all that, so next time I find myself in Bali or wanting to take a cruise, I have two friends on the inside that can make it happen. After getting a shuttle to the losman I had arranged, I quickly realized that Singapore is a 'fine' city indeed. The second you get off the plane, you are ordered to throw away your gum, as it is illegal! Can you imagine? In Singapore it is illegal to chew gum, smoke, spit, yell, display affection, etc. etc. in public. Basically you can only walk to and from work and that's exactly what people do. Everywhere I went, I'd see people of every age with a briefcase in tow, looking straight ahead and walking with a purposeful manner. I believe that the restrictions in Singapore are a great idea, as I have never seen streets so clean, people so successful, and no one spilling out of pubs in the early hours.

So the first night I'm in Singapore, it's already eleven at night.. so I only opt to do a quick walk around the 'hood to scope out an internet cafe so I can let mis padres know I made it to Singapore okay, and lo and behold, there was one right down the block that I ended up hitting up enough times during my stay in Singapore that I got to know the owner and his family well and they offered a room at their house for the next time I find myself in Singapore. Anyway, during my late night walk I discovered that I was right next to the Lavender Market, which is a market I knew about from being a Bourdain fan, haha. The Lavender Market is a true Singapore staple and they serve everything from fresh soya bean milk to frog porridge, definitely not for the faint of heart. The market was amazing, my only problem was that anytime I'm in a market or cafe, everyone turns to look and see what a western girl on her own is going to do, I think they expect me to go running for a McDonalds at any given moment haha, but I've grown to love Eastern food and am sometimes simply amazed to see the 'creativity' that is Eastern cooking. But I was boring that night as I decided to settle for something simple like green tea and kare ayammie.

The next morning I walked around until I found a different market and had the best breakfast ever... braised bean curd! MMMM. So good! They gave me a huge bowl of rice with a bubbling hot bowl of bean curd in a savory curry with carrots, cucumbers, and onions, and some other veggies that I couldn't quite identify. I think any one of my vegetarian friends would have loved it, and the dish is something that I'm going to try and recreate if my friends down at Trader Joe's can make the ingredients happen. Afterbrekkie, I cought a bus to Rocher Road where I tracked down the famous Bugis Street Market.. where you can buy anything! The market is a few blocks and four stories and is full of stalls. Everything from fake designer watches, to tattoos, to wheat grass juice, to hair extensions. Despite the fact that I was supposed to be watching the cash flow, I thought that since I was nearing the end of the trip, it was time to finally do some shopping and I ended up getting a beautiful pure silk chinese shirt and a Puma bag since I've been reppin' Puma for over twenty years now! After picking up the bag I ran into a guy named Alvin (hello, globalization!) who apparently was 'the' hat designer of Singapore. Nice Malaysian guy who charges hundreds of dollars for hand painted trucker hats basically. Even though I couldn't buy any of his wares, he was nice enough to give me a tour of the area and if anyone wants a personalized hat from Singapore, he insists that you email him, haha. After Bugis Street market I walked to the famous Arab Street and it felt like a whole new world. The streets are lined with shops full of expensive silk, Persian rugs, hookahs, and gold... gold everywhere! And Arab Street is where I met my next friend. I was literally walking down Arab Street when I was dragged into a restaurant, told to sit, and had a big plate of murthabak ayam put in front of me (juicy, curry chicken inside a savory pancake). The guy that ushered me in was the owner of the shop and instead of me asking him questions about his food/culture, he wanted to know absolutely everything about the Western world. What we eat, how we date, what we read, everything.... a true anthropologist at heart.... so we got along great as we ate and chatted for a few hours. Eventually I had to leave though as I had wanted to walk to Little India and had to do so before the sun went down, because as a solo western woman, I know better than to make a half hour walk in the dark. And let me tell you, Little India was brilliant. The smells, the people, the tea! Oh, the tea! Even if I wasn't already a tea addict, Little India made me fall in love all over again... big, cheap cups of black, milky tea.. my favourite! I spent a few hours in Little India admiring the small shops and almost had to fight off the older women who kept insisting that I should henna my hands, but after travelling so much, you realize that the second you give into gimmicky tourist junk, is the second that the locals see you as that much more of an intruder and mocker of their culture. Before walking back to my losman, I grabbed some curry in Little India and when I was sitting there with my map, made yet another friend, talk about Singapore being friendly, haha. The lad was a forty-something ozzie who went to Singapore almost twenty years ago on a business trip and decided to quit his job, leave the wife, and stay put. Now he's running a hostel and I think he's perfectly happy with his new life. We chatted for a good bit about Australian hot spots (since I told him that my cousin was living in Perth and we were planning to rent a camper and have a road trip down unda in the next few years), and he gave me a few emails so I'd have some freeaccommodations along the way. After we parted ways, I walked back to my place and changed into my classy gear since I had decided even before going to Singapore, that my first night there I would go to Raffle's Hotel to get a real Singapore Sling. I cleaned up and caught a bus to Raffle's Hotel and wow, it was more than I had expected, a bit overwhelming I'll admit. I thought I was looking pretty snazzy in my linen pants and smart black top, but the women there were basically dripping in diamonds and I felt a little out of place. But going to Raffle's was something my mother had wanted to do and once there I knew that it was a moment I'd cherish forever. I walked around the lower restaurant and bar but decided that the Long Bar was where I'd head. The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling was actually invented and the pub is amazing. I sat up at the bar, ordered the drink I'd waited years for, and had the bartender take a picture of me, haha. After a bit, a Norwegian guy next to me and I started chatting and it turns out that he's working on his PhD and is in Singapore doing his field work, my kind of guy. We exchanged skype names and arranged to meet the next day, but it was great to talk to someone with similar academic pursuits... and at Raffle's Hotel, of all places. Although I took the bus there, I decided I'd better take a taxi back to be safe and ended up paying nearly twenty Singapore dollars because the taxis are allowed to automatically tack on six dollars if you use them between midnight and six in the morning, lame!

The next day I took off walking once more (especially since the bus system is so complicated and the taxis are a no-go price wise) and sussed out the Mustafa Centre that is also a complex shopping center that sells every imaginable item, but I already had my eye on the prize... a Punjab suit. I've been obsessed with India and Bollywood movies (yes, you can laugh) for years and I've always wanted a Punjab suit of my own. And Mustafa Centre is the mecca of fine Indian women's wear in Singapore. After trying on a few suits, it came to zero hour when I had to decide which one to take home. I would have gotten a dozen, trust me, but they are crazy expensive, so I only allowed myself one. I ended up getting a linen suit with a black embroidered top and camel coloured pants and a black-to-tan-grade wrap... I was elated! I think I spent maybe too much time in front of the mirror twirling around like a little girl in my new, fine clotheshaha, I just hope I find a reason to wear it in the states. After picking up the suit, I stopped in at a music shop and picked up a few Bollywood movies and Indian albums for about fifty cents or less a piece, heaven! From the music shop, I picked up a fresh watermelon juice, and found myself in front of Singapore's infamous Thief Market. Thief Market is not a building, but a block or so where [only] men [are allowed to] sell random brick-a-brack that is 'second hand' but mostly goods that are stolen or found. They basically throw down a blanket and on it, there might be a broken watch, a half deck of pokemon cards, and a fanny pack. Anything that they think they might be able to make a quick buck off of. I wanted to walk around more but I felt so out of place, being the only woman for blocks around, that I decided to stick to the outskirts and only takes a few flicks from afar before getting the hell out of there. A few blocks away, I attempting going into a few 'spas' for one last cheap rub down but I kept getting kicked out as every single place I went into was 'happy ending' only and since the girls in there only spoke Chinese, I only got the message that I should get out when I saw that they were 'massaging' in lingerie and high heels... oh, the shame. I had a good laugh because after walking out of the third and last failed attempt of getting a regular massage, I noticed that the parlour had a Taoist shrine outside, I can only assume they were burning incense to beg for forgiveness for their line of business. I felt pretty seedy and dirty for having accidentally walked into three men's parlours, so I decided to stop into a market so I could give my hands a good wash and grab a bite to eat. I innocently ordered chicken dumpling soup, but when I got it, I couldn't quite figure out what was floating on top.. they were anchovies.. uck! Sometimes I wish that Eastern people were a little less innovative with their flavour combinations, never had I eaten an anchovy before and I hope to never encounter them again, especially as a surprise in my soup! After going walkabout again, I noticed that the Indian part of town is stocked to the brim with gold shops... Indian women are completely covered in gold. Necklaces, anklets, nose rings.. everything is pure gold! I'd walk by one of these shops and nearly be blinded by the amount of gold flashing in the window, insane. After walking a few more blocks, I struck figurative gold when I came across the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple and was pleasantly surprised that they allowed me to come inside (sans shoes of course) despite the fact that there was a ceremony running. After visiting a plethora of temples during my time in Indonesia and Malaysia, I was used to getting kicked out or banned from temples when certain ceremonies were being carried out. I tried to videotape from a distance as to not draw attention to myself and took some marvelous pictures, I even met a monk who answered a few of my questions and recommended a tea shop! Talk about my kind of people, now I definitely want to go to India.. I must have been Hindu in a previous life because the food, people, music, and philosophy seem so easy for me. It started to rain so I had to run to the tea shop that the monk had recommended and there I made two new friends who I ended up hanging out with for the rest of the day. I was sitting with my tea when one of the lads, Lasantha, walked up to tell me he had never seen such beautiful blue eyes before (yes, men of every nation have equally cheesy pick up lines) and he wanted to know what I was doing in Singapore. After explaining my interest in Hinduism, specifically in Bali, and the cremation ceremony.. he was hooked and he had a good laugh looking through my notes, pleasantly surprised to find a western woman so interested in something that was so natural and second nature for him. The lads were from Sri Lanka and were in Singapore taking English classes as they had both been tourism majors and had to pass an English exam before they would be able to take over as managers for hotels in Sri Lanka. Hanging out with them was great, as I was able to learn more about Sri Lanka and they were able to practice their English, it was a real win-win! We walked all over and they took me from temple to temple, explaining different shrines and offerings while I filled them in on Western culture. Everyone in the East seems to think that we all live off hamburgers and MTV.. so I think I did a good job of representing the other end of the spectrum of people who don't own televisions and rather have curry over in-and-out any day. I took the boys to Bugis Street since they had never tried wheat grass juice before and before I knew it was already eight o'clock at night, time really does fly when you're in good company! We parted ways since they had to meet up with their fellow students and I wanted to check out a Daoist temple that was close to where I was staying. The temple was lovely but I couldn't go inside as they were having a service, but they invited me back and were fine with me taking pictures.

To wrap up the last few days in Singapore, I did a ton of walking. Checking out the different cultural areas of town, but I almost always ended up back in Little India.. the closest I'll get to the mother land for now. One night I met a few ozzie kids that were stopping over on their way to the olympics and hung out with them for a bit, but decided to go home early and not stay out with them since they were typical tourists. They were smashed by ten o'clock and were being beyond rude to the Singapore girls that were serving their drinks. I can't stand seeing mistreatment of people, especially when you are in their native country. Why bother paying x amount of money, if you are only there to belittle and demean the people that are only there to make your time there more pleasant, disgraceful. I was so angry, I shelled out money for a taxi so I could ditch the ozzie punks after laying down my thoughts on them. Back at the losman, I was perfectly happy with my decision to head back to my own place because I have met so many incredible people that I would never treat someone as my lesser based on economic status. Not trying to rant, but one of the biggest lessons I've learned from travelling is that the most generous people you'll meet along the way are the people with close to nothing. I'd go to a one bedroom house with an entire family in it, and they would still insist on feeding me, even though I could easily reach into my pocket, hand them five US dollars, and feed their entire family for a few days.

Moving on since I don't want to look like the moral police, I had an incredible time in Singapore and am glad of all of the people I met, especially the owner of the Prince of Wales Hostel who offered me a job if I seriously decide to go back to Singapore in the next few years. I'd get free food, accommodations, drinks (the hostel has it's own pub), and twelve Singapore dollars an hour... and all I would have to do is check people in, have the auld chat, and take people out on the town when they first arrive to help them get on their feet. I think it would be the perfect job for me if I wanted to float for a few months and further immerse myself into Singapore, but that's not a decision I have to make for a while now.. as I'm still in University wrapping up my two degrees before May.

From Singapore, I flew to Narita (Tokyo), Japan where I stopped off for a bit before heading back to Los Angeles. Tokyo is as bright and as bustling as I thought it would be and I'm excited to have checked another country off the list. Of course the first thing I did when I landed was suss out a sushi bar and load up on tuna rolls, sashimi, and sapporo beer! So I finally arrived back in the states a few days ago and am back in San Diego, simply trying to get my body back into the right time zone (currently sleeping from six in the morning until two in the afternoon), but I'm sure after a few days I'll get it together, especially since I have so much to do with my trip and project as far as uploading pictures, organizing information, and getting started on my independent project!

Thank you for everyone who has followed my journey and I hope that I can entertain you with equally exciting adventures in the future!

always.

Yogyaaaakarta!

driftingwithdervla — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:17:00 GMT

Alright, so. Time to fill in the details of the last week of travelling through Java. I thought touring around Java would be tough, but apparently getting there was the hardest part. To start the bus left Denpasar around two o'clock in the afternoon and I was rather harshly kicked off in rough Javanese (I had no idea what the driver was saying) at around six o'clock in the morning the next day. Not only was I starving the whole trip (for some reason I thought food wasn't going to be an issue), there was no toilet on the bus or ANY stops... so I was definitely feeling the pressure towards the end of the trip as I made the mistake of filling up on water when I realized that we weren't going to be eating any time soon. As soon as I got kicked off the bus onto the street, about a dozen bechak (traditional bicycle-type transport) drivers descend down upon me like a dead carcass and start yelling at me in Javanese and I think I literally stood there for a minute, just trying to take in the situation and what was going on around me in that ridiculously scary, cold, hungry, and tiring environment. Eventually I found an older driver that was the only one to not be breathing down my throat, so I showed him the address to a Losmen I had gotten out of Lonely Planet and we were off. It wasn't until I got to the Losmen, Peti Mas, that I was able to communicate with anyone and I finally calmed down after a big plate of nasi goreng and a shower.

After re-grouping, I hit the streets and ended up meeting up with a university student named Fajar who was nice enough to hang out with me here and there over the next few days and act as my translator/camera man/guide/savior!! I think he felt bad when he saw me standing on the side of the street just looking around at all of the Javanese signs with utter confusion strewn across my face. I can only describe Yogyakarta as a huge New York type city, which can be intimidating in itself, but when there is a complete language barrier, things get a little more difficult to say the least. Right off the bat, I decided to head to the Kraton (Sultan's Palace) and ended up meeting possibly the smartest person I know. Despite the fact that the man I met, Nursalim, had about a fifth grade education, he speaks NINE languages and all self taught, through meeting tourists and watching movies. Can you imagine? He was so humble and simply laughed when I went on about how jealous I was of his knowledge and wish we could switch brains for a year, so I could travel the world as he spoke: Javanese, Indonesian, Malayasian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Nederlands. WOW! Anyway, Nursalim was a nice guy and showed me around the Palace, giving me the inside scoop and afterwards took me to his buddy's Batik Shop, so I could watch the traditional designing pattern of layering wax and dye to make rather intricate, and very beautiful, patterns and artwork; I ended getting to try making something and got a lovely depiction of Rama and Sinta! After the Batik shop, we parted ways and I headed to the Taman Sari (Water Castle) which was the place that many of the older sultan's rested and holiday'd. The place is essentially a series of giant pools, kitchens, and boudoirs where the Sultan could take his wife, girlfriend, or any woman for that matter. I was told that traditionally, the Sultan would hide in his room and throw a flower out the window and whichever woman was quick/strong enough to grab it first, would win the honor of a night in the Castle with him- ooh la la! The even sexier part of the story being that the water is considered holy, and so no clothes are allowed, if you want to take a dip, you gotta bare it all! In addition to the Taman Sari is an underground mosque and I took some amazing pictures of all the secret passageways and crazy staircases that were used to fend off and confuse outside/unwanted intruders. While leaving the Taman Sari, I noticed a rather strange animal market and discovered that it was the famous Ngasem (or Bird Market) of Yogya. This market is insane, you can buy ANY animal imaginable. Bats, cats, owls, frogs, lizards, hedgehogs.. anything; all legal and each animal stall getting more and more exotic than the previous one- I took some incredible pictures. And sorry to my PETA friends, but I took up a shop owner's offer to buy a pigeon so I could throw it into the anaconda cage and watch him eat it. Sounds gory, but the little kid inside me really wanted to see some snake on bird Discovery Channel action go down, haha! Despite the fact of watching the killer scene, I still managed to have an appetite and of course found a Padang Restaurant close by so I could load up on kare ayam while going over maps to figure out what I would do that evening. And wow, I ended up coming up with the perfect plan. I skype'd my new friend Fajar and asked if he wanted to go to Prambanan temple with me to finally see a performance of the Ramayana, and luckily he said yes! So we hopped on his motorbike, headed out to the temple early so I could take a look around and get some pictures in and I ended up having an incredible night. Growing up, all of my girl pals were in love with 'Romeo and Juliet', but I've always adored the love story of Rama and Sinta and couldn't believe that I was finally able to see it live and for myself and not off of an old video tape at the library. Before the actual performance, there was a gamelan group and since I've been working with the 'gender' instrument over the last few weeks, they let me sit in on a song, so I felt like a real rock star as all the Ramayana-goers stared at me, wondering what the white girl was doing on stage, haha. Of course the performance was incredible and now I can finally cross it off the list of things to do before I die, because it was definitely up there on the top ten. After the show, I headed back home and headed to sleep but got a rude awakening around five am when the Muslim call to prayer kicked in and went on for about an hour, talk about a wake-up-call.

The next day was equally exciting as I woke up early (well, a few hours after the call to prayer) and somehow figured out the public bus system of Yogya enough to transfer four buses from the inner city out to Borobudur Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple and absolutely breathtaking. But back to the public buses in Java. First of all, you can smoke on the bus; so naturally, everyone does, including the bus driver, the eight year old in the back, everyone. And instead of the traditional bus stop where the bus slows down and halts long enough for people to calmly get off and on, in Yogya, a guy leans out the permanently open door, yelling that the bus is about to drive by, and you literally have to run/jump into the bus or you'll be stranded for another hour when the next one comes. But back to Borobudor and it's insane beauty; I mean you really have to spend a few hours there to see every last inch and I had a great time climbing up and down the stairs and going through all the secret passageways and trying to follow the carved stories in the stone walls. I was having a great time walking around with the video camera, taking notes, when all of a sudden I had a group of about a dozen 50+ year old men start following me. After a few minutes, one finally approached me and asked in Indonesian if he could have my autograph. Talk about confused! I don't know if these men had me mixed for an Olsen Twin or what, but the whole lot, and eventually more people later on, had me singing shirts, backpacks, pamphlets, and anything else. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the fan club and all but I still don't understand how/why I got picked out of the crowd and better yet, who they thought I was, haha. Who knows? Anyway, after Borobudor Temple; I went to the Indonesian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records and saw everything from the world's smallest painting, to Indonesia's biggest man, etc. A real 'Ripley's' Believe It or Not' type place, my kind of joint. After that, I was starving from not eating all day so I got the bus back into town and found a traditional Pecel, or Javanese, type restaurant; where I had saus kacang (peanut sauce), babat (cow skin), and my favourite.. tempe (friend soy bean cake). Great food and at the restaurant some boys told me about a Dangdut (Indian-influenced Indonesian music) show going on later that night, so I booked it to the spot and quickly felt like a dirty old man. Apparently Dangdut shows have a 99.9% male attendance and the main reason being that the Dangdut girls are barely dressed and really don't do much more than sing horribly while shaking their stuff. So after a few songs and feeling rather seedy for being one of the only women in the audience, I took a few pictures of the band for my ethnomusic notes and headed home where I once again slept soundly until the mosque-wake-up-call.

Over the next few days in Yogyakarta, I tooled around town, did some shopping, held more interviews about the Javanese style music/food, and went to a village where they make silver jewelery the traditional way with the air pump going under bare feet. I saw a few more Gamelan shows and talked with a few more University students about the programs offered and the more students here I talk to, the more and more I want to do post-grad work here as living in Indonesia will be all the anthropology practice I need and more, compared to sitting at a desk in San Diego. Taking the bus back to Denpasar was equally traumatizing as I left Yogya at two in the afternoon and didn't get off the bus until NOON the next day. I felt like I'd been to hell and back but I had to regroup because only a few hours after I got back, I had to wash up and get ready for one of my Balinese friend's wedding. And wow, what a spectacle. A picture perfect wedding at the beach with the clear blue water and skies as the backdrop for the ceremony. I'm not a softy, but even I was feeling the love that night. Speaking of feeling the love, the wedding had an open bar and not in the sense of unlimited drinks, but unlimited bottles. So of course it only took about an hour for everyone to get real chummy and start the traditional Balinese dancing and singing, I obviously had a great time and got some incredible pictures.

Saturday/Yesterday was my last full day in Indonesia and I spent it at the Sanur Village Festival. Eating all of the local foods, watching the Gamelan/Balinese performances, and simply hanging out with all of the friends I've made here for the last time. It was a perfect last day. Being out with the whole community, celebrating the local culture on one of the most incredible beaches around. I couldn't ask for more. I was so sad to say goodbye to my friends, but I had to meet up with my Bibi to have Padang food for the last time haha and head home and pack up evvvverything that I've acquired over the last month in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Early this morning I hit up the local market for the last time to take a final look around and then I hit up the Japanese Buffet, where you pay about eight US dollars for all of the sushi, sashimi, gyoza, miso, etc. you can handle- something I wish existed at home!! After that it was off to the airport and now I'm here in Singapore for a bit before I have to head back home for school. I'm feeling really mushy and lonely for Indonesia but I know that this time next year, there won't be anything stopping me from coming back! Well, now it's off to the hawker center to get my first taste of Singapore!

always.

Sarawak Survival Skills

driftingwithdervla — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 05:05:00 GMT

Wow! Where to start? Due to a lack of internet, or any kind of comfort for that matter over the last two weeks, I haven't been able to sit down and do a proper entry into this thing, so I will try to sum up the latest adventures with as great of detail as I can.

Alright, I'm not so sure where my last blog left off, so I'll start with the day I left Denpasar and flew to Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia). Needless to say I was quite nervous on the plane ride there as I had no contacts, plans, or a great grasp of the Malaysian language. Upon arriving, it started to pour down raining and I had a rather emo moment as I had dinner alone and watched the rain come crashing down around me. The only thing that cheered me up was the fact that Ricky Martin's 'La Vida Loca' came on and I found some comfort in having at least SOMETHING in English going on around me. I don't know quite how to explain it, other than sometimes here I feel like quite the freak show as people will stop and stare as I walk down the street, eat food, actually anything really... as they must think that western women must do things differently... but I'm sure they are sad to come to the realization that that I love to scarf down nasi goreng (rice) as much as they do. Anyway, moving on. After feeling like a lost puppy in the rain walking around Kuching city, I decided to head into a pub close to where I was staying and ended up having quite the eventful evening. Within minutes of walking in, I had a free pitcher of Tiger beer slopped down in front of me and ended up making some very good friends who made the rest of my week quite a breeze with the inside information and hot spots they shared. The first night in Sarawak definitely was on the opposite end of the spectrum from the earlier part of the day and I ended up partying it up with the "Headhunters" band.

The next day I met a German lad who showed me around town and since it was Sunday took me to see the famous Sunday Market. For anyone that has read about Kuching, you may know this to be the place of a few unlucky peoples untimely demise, as some have fallen off the waterfront in the crocodile infested waters below. I always thought the news was exaggerated when I read about the different traumatic events, but the waterfront is actually quite scary as you can see the crocs tearing apart any unfortunate animals that fall in. Aside from trying a variety of tasty (and not so tasty) foods at the Sunday Market, I split up with my new German friend and headed to Little India where I ended up buying some Pau (a puffy chicken filled dough - had to explain in words really) and a jacket, because as I quickly found out, Kuching only varies between the two extremes of unbearable heat and pouring rain. I spent most of Sunday just walking around asking the different vendors what their top picks were and pulling a complete Andrew Zimmer haha, trying anything from beef foot to bird's nest, chicken heart to shark eyes, these people will seriously take any animal/part and hunker down.

The next day, I woke up early and after much walking around, discovered that I could get transport for about $7 USD to the Sarawak Cultural Village, instead of the $60 USD that the different tour businesses were trying to peddle. The Cultural Village was amazing as I got to meet and interview a variety of tribes, most famous being the Iban Headhunters of course, who I found to be quite warm and friendly haha, despite what the history books have noted. However, every house still proudly displays a net full of human skulls over the door with a fire forever burning underneath to trap the wretched souls and not allow them onto the next lifetime. On top of the spooky stuff, I got to not only spectate but participate in a few musical performances, and so getting a great amount of ethnomusicology information that has only boosted my ambition to continue on with my ethnomusic studies. After walking around for most of the day and finding some transport back into Kuching, I walked around until I could find the most unusual looking restaurant in town, sat down, and in my finest Malaysian asked for the chef's choice. A few minutes later out comes a big pot of duck feather/peanut shop, with an even bigger bowl of nasi topped with fresh duck meat. I'd never had duck before, so I didn't know what to expect.. but amazing! I ended up ordering more duck meat and would recommend that anyone else try the famous duck peanut soup of Malaysia if you ever have the chance. The only thing more famous than duck at this particular joint was cucumber juice, and the owner obligated me into drinking about four of five glasses haha, so I certainly met my cucumber quota that day. The rest of the day was spent down on the waterfront, interviewing different people about their past time and how their particular religion fits into that (Kuching is a mix of Islam, Christianity, Taoist, Hindus, and a ton of smaller "black magic" sects). I ended up meeting a lad named Zul and so was able to get a great night city tour of all of the sites and kitties. Oh ya, I should have mentioned earlier. In Malaysian, "kuching" means cat and the city is named so because there are GIGANTIC cats on just about every corner; with a few cat monuments in important city centers and intersections.

On Tuesday, I put myself on a local bus to Damai Beach, and wow wow.. incredible. The beach off the South China Sea and out of the amazing beaches I've seen in Africa and Asia, this had to be on top. The softest, most powder-like white sand I've ever seen, with warm water, cool breeze. Total Corona commercial, if they ever spread business into Southeast Asia, haha. I spent most of the day at the beach and afterwards, tried skype-ing home, but had little luck of anyone being awake with the sixteen hour time difference. After visiting the Chinese Museum, I headed back to my spot, because of all things, I had a date in Kuching to get ready for. Believe it or not ladies and gentleman, apparently I can still catch boys sans makeup/brushed hair/decent clothes. We went to the James Brooks Cafe (the white raja for those that remember their history books) and tried a variety of local food, which as you may know from reading, has got to the be the hottest food on the planet. Afterwards, we went to the Piccadilli Pub (Ozzie owned obviously) and I was treated to watching Korean business man after man go up and shine as a karaoke master, talk about headache! And of course the top song they all want to sing? Shania Twain's "I Feel Like A Woman", naturally!

The following day, I went walkabout and ended up scoring the jackpot. I was simply walking around a Hindu Temple when all of a sudden, the high priest asks me the basics (where I'm from, what I do, yadda yadda)... about twenty minutes later, I'm sitting behind the Temple in lotus position with about a dozen men enjoying fresh thosai, idli, and roti canai.. which I can only translate as a savory pastry (pancake looking) with warm curry with a side of cold, sweet, milk tea. Jesus, you'd think these people knew me. Had to be the perfect combination of ingredients I like and if I ever end up on death row, would be my choice of last supper! Not only were the men of the Hindu Temple nice enough to feed me, but they let me hang out there all day... doing casual interviews as we prepared the offerings (apparently Krishna has a sweet tooth, because we cut up a ton of bananas, plums, honey combs, etc) for worship as they were currently in the season of the Aadipooram Festival, which is a ten day holiday asking for protection of certain people on certain days (one day being police day, the next being student day, etc). After a long, successful day at the Temple, I had a smile plastered on my face on the way home and felt like a fat and happy kid as I picked up a Boba Tea along the way. Talk about the best day of my professional, better yet, personal life. And following such a religious experience, I stepped into a Malaysian Parlour (accidentally the happy ending type), but they pointed me in the right direction and down the street was the 'regular' massage parlour and I ended up getting candles stuck into my ears, lit, and then the girl walked out without any kind of word, so I simply lay there wondering what happens when my hair catches fire. Luckily, they have the timing down and after about fifteen minutes, the girl returned, blew out the candles, and pulled them out of my ears. Apparently the procedure is done to draw all toxins out of the body/soul, but none of that was explained to me until after I was sat down and had wax shoved in my ear haha. I don't know if it actually did anything, but at least I know that my ears are fire-retardant.

I really didn't want to leave Kuching, I absolutely adore Malaysia, but I had to head back to Denpasar to attend a Birthday party. I spent my last day in Sarawak visiting a few more museums and having my last fill of chicken curry before I snagged a taxi to the airport and headed back to Denpasar. But of course, travelling in Asia is hit or miss. My flight was postponed for a few hours but thankfully I got hooked up with a free meal ticket, so I got to hang out with the pilots in the secret cafeteria, which made me feel very VIP, hah. The rest of Thursday was spent with a cold Bintang in hand,once I got back to Denpasar, and it's safe to say that the birthday activities were quite exciting!

The next day I think I slept in for the first time getting here, since I was wrecked tired from walking from sun up to sun down everyday in Kuching, but after that I got up on my bicycle and went for a nice long, penance type ride through the mangroves to the opposite beach and back. What we'd call a life changing bike ride haha. The rest of Friday was quite fun, it's funny to say this but the people I've met in Sanur have become like family to me, and even after only a few days away, we had a great time catching up. I'm honestly a little worried about how homesick I'm going to get when I leave here. Sad to say, but I really haven't missed the states since leaving, aside from my family of course, I haven't really longingly thought about anyone. Maybe moving here next year will be a breeze after all. Anyway, back to Friday. Friday night I was invited to a beach party in Sanur and well, had a great time. Can't really go into too much detail, but drinks were drank and fun was had by all, haha... we'll leave it at that.

I think I will also leave the blog at that. Saturday and Sunday were mostly spent interviewing and tooling around town on the bike as usual. But on Monday, I had the bright idea to hop a bus from Denpasar to Yogyakarta. And I guess the cliff hanger for the next blog will be that the bus ride here was fifteen hours. no toilet. no stops. no food. and above all, no english speakers. Alright, well I gotta go here, about to catch a Javanese performance tonight, but I'll update the whole Yogyakarta adventure when I get back to Denpasar!

always.