The Plunge...

I figured out the cheap yet pimpin route from USA to Europe!

missy_carrie_gee — Thu, 3 Feb 2011 04:46:00 GMT

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but next time I go to Europe, I'm taking a 1 way cruise from Florida to either Spain, Holland, London or Italy.

Check out cheap last minute cruise fares on: www.vacationstogo.com

For example, I can cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome on a 4.5 star ship for $549. That's cheaper than buying a flight, PLUS, I get a 13 day pampered vacation with meals and entertainment on the way.

Or, I can get from Florida to Spain on a 5.5 star ship for $799... OR, choose a 5 star ship to take me there for only $699!

I can't think of a better way to get to Europe than cruising there- screw the overpriced, bare bones flights. I'll take the pre-vacation before the European vacation. Fattening up on lobster and steaks before busting out my backpack and surviving on bread and beer when I get to expensive Europe ;)

Japan!!!!!!!! Am I still in Asia… or have I landed on the Moon?

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:48:00 GMT

Arriving in Japan is like landing on the moon. Seriously. Its got this eerie, clean, perfect Stepford Wives kinda vibe. There is no garbage on the streets, or in the subways. A huge contrast compared to the rest of Southeast Asia. There’s lots of neon lights, and Kanji writing everywhere. Its sensory overload. And I still haven’t found the apostrophe on the Japanese keyboard!

I assumed that Osaka would have more stuff in English, but outside the tourist area, everything is in Japanese. I just look at the menu and point and hope for the best. It’s a good thing I eat ANYTHING! Lol.

And explanations for everything are in Japanese. So I have been bumbling around and making mistakes left, right and center. I nicknamed myself “Geijin-Zilla”. Geijin means foreigner. Zilla stems from Godzilla, a big beast that descended upon Japan, causing panic and despair. I think Godzilla was just misunderstood, and he couldn’t read Japanese.

Some of my funny mistakes include not taking my shoes off before entering the fitting room. I got screamed at for that one. I just heard a screeching panicked voice outside the fitting room, so I opened the door, and the woman was frantically pointing at my shoes and screaming at me. That was unnecessarily embarrassing. I also washed my face with shampoo, because I thought it was face wash. My eyes nearly burned out of my head for that mistake! I sat down at a booth in a restaurant, and a little old woman starts giving me a big long explanation in Japanese and pointing at the counter. I thought she meant she needed to clean the table first. Or she would prefer if I eat at the counter since I was alone. Then an old man appeared out of nowhere. Apparently I took his seat while he was in the bathroom!

Every transaction, whether its buying some food, ordering a drink, buying a train ticket, asking directions is always the same: I ask a question in English, I get a response in Japanese. Neither me or the person I ask understands a single word each other said. I’ve become a big goofy pantomime. Dancing around to ask for the toilet, making wild gestures with my arms for directions, pointing at pictures and hoping I get something vaguely close to what I want to eat.

People are fashionable beyond belief. Everyone is amazingly cute, stylish and good looking. Fashion seems to be divided into groups: Business chic, bohemian flirty chic, and rock and roll. The business look involves no color beyond black, navy, and grey. But will stylish touches of flair. Pointy glitter shoes. An outlandish cell phone charm… a rock star haircut. The bohemian flirty chic look is huge. This involves a delicate flower pattern available in hundreds of different colors and patterns, but always tiny flowers. And lace. Short skirts and tiny shorts with leggings underneath and high high heels. Cutsy little pant suits and rompers. Yes, onesy rompers, like children wear now come in adult sizes. Straw hats with bows, like “Little House on the Prairie” complete the look. The rockers look like a “Poison” cover band. And then there’s the “Cartoonie Loonies”. Adults who dress in as many different cartoon printed clothes layers as possible, with little stuffed animals hanging out of every crevice. These folks are rare, but I’ve seen a few. Its like something off “Mad TV”.

Sitting still in a coffeeshop, and looking outside the window is funny because the people who walk past the window seem to be on fast forward speed. Like when you watch time lapse fast forward National Geographic films, and you see ants moving around in their daily lives.

My I-pod is my companion here. Because I don’t speak Japanese, and nobody speaks English, I haven’t found anyone to hang out with. And the few people I’ve met are super busy and they work a lot to be able to pay for the high cost of living. So I walk around by myself, listening to music. And enjoying the spectacle of a modern Japanese city by myself. I’m beginning to go mute.

I went to a BBQ after a week of solitude here. I was invited to join some geijin English teachers and their students. I got to eat some really good food off the grill (although I suspect one thing I ate and could not chew was chicken butt hole). The real spectacle was 2 guys who had too much to drink, and they proceeded to wrestle each other. When one guy had his friend subdued, he proceeded to dram on his face with permanent marker! The guy was so humiliated, I thought he was going to throw himself off a bridge. He struck back on the guy who drew on him, and wrestled him into submission and drew on his face. This was an odd exchange… so of course I took pictures! Japanese people get all crazy and goofy when they drink. I heard that the few crimes of Japan are committed by drunks: stealing bicycles and umbrellas!

The umbrella is everywhere as soon as it rains. Or even if a single drop falls out of the sky. Everyone has one. Even if its not raining. The umbrella even gets its own parking spot outside of peoples apartments and restaurants. Its coin operated and locks onto your umbrella, keeping it safe from naughty drunks!

I got swatted at in a Pachinko joint. By an old lady. These places are loud and flashy, with tons of bells, and sounds and flashing lights. I had no clue how to play, so I just loaded in $5 and got 500 balls. You turn a knob and try to get the ball to go into a small hole. I have no clue if there really is skill involved, but I kept getting the balls into the hole that makes the video screen turn into a slot machine and then pushing on the button to get the symbols to stop rolling around. I got really into it, even though I had NO CLUE how to play, and everything was in Japanese (even the characters I was trying to match!) So I just screamed and shouted when I got the balls in. The old lady next to me is sitting in a deafening environment, and yet I see something out of the corner of my eye swatting at me…. She was telling me to be quiet, and holding her ears! In a Pachinko place! Those places are so loud, you come out of there with ringing ears! Crazy…..

I hung out with 2 really fun Portugese guys in Osaka. Diogo and Tiago. They’re a dynamic duo. Really nice guys, and tons of fun. They were as lost in Japan as I was, and when we both admitted that Japan wasn’t all that great (from Osaka/ Kyoto side it isn’t- Tokyo is way cooler) we were friends for life! Me and Tiago went on a day trip to Kobe, where I learned the secret to cheating the fares on the subways. We went on a mega-walk to Kobe island (across a huge bride) and afterwards, we sang on the train and danced on the platform. Took tons of goofy photos. Being a Geijin (foreigner) in Japan is liberating in so many ways. The whole society is pretty closed off to foreigners, and its hard to make sense of things, so you can pretty much let loose and be goofy because even when you try to fit in and play by the rules, you don’t, so why try? I had so much more fun when I let loose and stopped trying (unsuccessfully) to fit in. I think this lesson can be applied to life in so many ways…

Photos: Indonesia

missy_carrie_gee — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:13:00 GMT

Jogjakarta and Bali

Jakarta, yes 1 night is really enough time!

missy_carrie_gee — Tue, 6 Apr 2010 02:13:00 GMT

I went to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for 2 days. It has really crazy traffic, its dirty and the sidewalks are so messed up. You can’t just walk, they are smashed apart and there’s holes in them with open sewage flowing underneath, so I had to watch out like crazy while walking. I took the bus all over and saw as much as I could, which was pretty much nothing! I went to Kota, the old part of town and went to a museum- of an old bank! Give me a break, do I really want to see old bank books and telephones and registers? Pssssh. The ceramics and art museum was also lame. I spent 10 minutes in there, wondering where they hid all the real art!

I added 2 more things to my list of bizarre foods while in Jakarta. I ate durian fruit, the really stinky one that people either love or hate. I think I would describe it as “Smoked Fart Custard”. Lol. It was really soft, but not so stinky. I don’t know what the big deal is.

After I ate durian fruit, guess what I ate? Cobra! Seriously….. They had live cobras in a cage, and they had the meat skewered and made BBQ satay sticks with it dipped in peanut sauce. It was chewy, and not so good, I don’t know if it was mental or the traces of venom, but after I ate it, I felt sick. Dizzy and gross. But I’m ok now. Yeah, so that was my latest weird food experience. The woman at the stand showed us her wrist, which was scarred and discolored from a poisonous bite she got from her lively-hood.

I realize this blog is long and detailed and is more of a journal than a quick highlight of Indonesia, but its fun for me to recap the experience and have something to remember it by. Its also my way of filling Phil in on my adventures while he’s in boot camp. I miss him lots and can only write letters to him, so this is a good way to tell him about the adventures of Asia in a way that he can hopefully almost picture.

Next blog will be from Manila, round 2! Can’t wait!!!! Thanks for reading!

Bali is a magical, beautiful place...

missy_carrie_gee — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:06:00 GMT

Bali is amazing! Very cheap and yet its niiiiice. Most other cheap places is Asia are a lot crustier and more boot-leg. Don't get me wrong, this place is still ridden with oddities and weird little 3rd world touches, like, for example, the light in the bathroom turns on, but the bathroom stays dark anyways! And the door to my room stays locked with me inside, and I have to unlock it from the inside with a key (total fire hazard death trap!) and the sidewalks are war torn ankle twisting, toe stubbing nightmares.... but you can get a $5 massage and eat a meal fit for a queen for less than $8 US.

The Kuta/ Legian area of Bali is a mess of shops selling every kind of souvenir imaginable. Clothes, carved masks, crazy helmets with Viking horns, and bumper stickers with horrid sayings, like: “eat the peanuts out of my shit”. A famous thing sold all over the place is wooden penis carvings. Some are ashtrays, some are bottle openers! Even the beach has people selling stuff like laser lights and toys for kids. You have to pay for everything here. To use the toilet, to park a moped, to go look at a temple, even to check out a viewpoint! The beach is over rated, but if you’re a surfer then the waves are great. There’s breaks of different sizes for miles in both directions. So every board gets their own slice of the action! Overall, the Legion area is very touristy, and not very fun, but it’s a good place to relax and enjoy getting spoiled.

Driving mopeds all around Bali:

One of my top 5 best experiences from my 5 months in Asia so far has been riding ALL over Bali on a moped. I’ve ridden a moped for 8+ years now, but after Bali, I feel like I’ve earned the right to call myself a moped driver! The roads are crazy (not as crazy as Saigon or Colombo, which are the top crazy spots) and there’s no real driving laws. You just go for it. People drive fast, and there’s always someone who overtakes you from the right. Sometimes the left. And if you take your eyes off the road for a second, there could be a moped or truck flying straight at you while trying to overtake each other. Not only that, but one evening, it started pouring rain (actually, every day I was in Indonesia, it rained on me, even though rainy season is “over”).

We were on our way to Ubud, and while we stopped to enjoy the spectacular views of the rice paddies and have a cup of Balinese coffee, the sky began to pour. Not rain, but dump buckets. Within the ½ hour while we waited for the rain to subside, the roads flooded! And it got dark early. So not only is it dark, but its pouring rain and there’s 2 feet of water gushing down the streets! Rivers began to flow in the streets with literally 3 feet of water in certain places. It was Armageddon. There was purple lightning slashing through the sky and chest thumping claps of thunder versus the 5 of us on our mopeds! We made it safely through the storm and arrived in Ubud cold and wet, but safe. That was probably the hardest 20 minute drive of my life. And when we got to Ubud, we still needed to find a place to stay. So Josh and Wayne went in search of affordable lodging, which is not easy in Ubud, and Rah, me and Cliff hung out under a carport and realized how cold and hungry we were. It was so wretched, our only response was to laugh about it. And dance around in the dark to try to keep warm. And sing retarded songs to boost morale. We actually scared 1 couple from crossing our path, because they turned around and went back up the hill again when they heard us laughing and lurking in the carport shadows. I still had my helmet on the whole time…

Aside from the dangerous roads and crap weather, renting the mopeds allowed us to see a different side of Bali. One that isn’t for viewing if you just stay in Kuta or Legian or even Ubud. The countryside is amazing, and full of culture, and religious ceremonies and everyday rural living. The people are friendly, beautiful souls who smiled as we drove past. The sights and smells were enhanced as we drove on mopeds, with the wind in our faces, and the power to stop and check things out gave us a sense of freedom unknown to tour buses of people. The smell of incense pervades the Balinese air, the warm sunshine enhancing the colors and the smells of village life. Kids play on the side of the road, while stray dogs laze around or scratch themselves. Old people with baskets on their heads carry produce or laundry, keeping busy despite being long overdue for retirement. Roadside shops provide every service imaginable from haircuts to pig slaughtering- on the side of the road! We smelled pig manure going through certain towns and saw older people perfectly balancing heavy baskets of pig feed on their heads. We also saw a freshly slaughtered pig on its back on the side of the road with its tongue hanging out being butchered and sliced on the side of the road by 4 guys. The entrails were washed in gutter water and placed on the ground. We saw people working the fields, and harvesting baskets of cabbages, green onions, etc. Artisans expertly and prolifically carve wood to make a living, taking folk art to factory status.

At one point we found a monkey hangout with about 30 monkeys of all ages eating food on the side of the road in front of a beautiful lookout vista of fields below. The rice terraces and fields were postcard perfect. A topless older lady was walking down the country road from her afternoon shower. We passed roadside stands with perfectly stacked parcels of exotic fruits and smelled the sweet aroma as we passed. We turned our heads to check out ancient stone temples, and due to the full moon coinciding with our trip, we saw lunar festivals in the streets. Balinese Hindus dress in traditional clothes and parade offerings of fruit, flowers and incense to the temples, while playing traditional instruments that sound like bells and drums. We pulled over to ask directions and while we were talking to the father, his 2 little girls ran out to greet us. School kids walking down the street in their school uniforms shout “hello” and wave excitedly to us from the side of the road. These are some of the sights and sounds of our rural Bali experience.

We went to a rural school near Lovina beach and Rahim and Cliff taught about 15 kids how to play Frisbee. Rah had visited earlier in the morning and spoke with the principle, who said it would be fine to teach Frisbee to a class. The teachers received us with a smile, but the children roared with laughter and applause! They were so focused and intent on the instructions and learning how to play this new sport with a flying disc. It was something new to their usual game of soccer. The field out back was a dirt floor with chickens running around and a huge mud puddle, which the kids managed to avoid. The game went over well, with the kids taking turns catching and throwing and then playing monkey in the middle. I played photographer/ videographer, and enjoyed watching the kids run around with huge grins on their faces. After the session was over, Rah gave the school 2 frisbees and we took a group photo. I played interviewer and asked one little boy what his favorite subject was, and he said the most enthusiastic, “English!!!” I’ve ever heard. I asked a little girl what she wants to be when she grows up and she said, “a teacher!”. Such beautiful, happy smiling kids. It seems the less that kids have, the more they enjoy whatever they receive. We were literally the heros of their school day, if not the highlight of their week! Such a happy and heart warming hour of time to give.

So, a “pepperoni” pizza in Indonesia is a pizza with red, green and yellow peppers. I asked a local guy what is up with that, and his response is that it was copied from another menu and is a local interpretation, since pepperoni isn‘t a local meat, and it sounds like “pepper only“, so that’s what you get!

The last highlight of my trip to Bali was getting to go scuba diving for the first time ever! I really got into it, and was able to see stuff I never saw while snorkeling. I dove at “Snake Farm” which is off a beach named Sanur. I saw a seahorse, 2 sea snakes (1 was HUGE!!!!), a sting ray covered in blue polka dots, a sea horse, up close and personal, it swam right at me! And enormous angel fish with fat fins, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And the biggest puffer fish ever. Hanging at the bottom on the sand, looking grumpy. I got a free certificate to go diving b/c I went to a party to celebrate the awards from an ultimate Frisbee tournament that my friends were in, and most of the players who won prizes either left or had to leave before they could use the certificates, so I got a free dive and a free kite surfing lesson from Rip Curl. So lucky!!!

Diving allowed me to go so much deeper than snorkeling, since I could just hang out and not have to go up for air. You just breathe normally, and look around. Its very relaxing b/c you just breathe oxygen and enjoy. Its peaceful and silent down there, except for the rhythmic sound of the tank releasing air. The fish are so calm, and graceful. The vest with the tank can be inflated or deflated so you feel weightless. I was a bit scared to go, but I figured if I got a free certificate then I should GO for it. No excuse not to anymore!

As for kite-surfing, it was really hard b/c there’s so much you need to know. Very technical. I didn’t get to actually get in the water, Since it’s a lesson, the 1^st one, you have to learn how to set up the kite and safety stuff. Super boring and complicated. And it seems like a very hard sport. But oh well. I learned that I don’t really wanna do it.

Photos: Sri Lanka

missy_carrie_gee — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:59:00 GMT

Colombo, Kandy & Hikkaduwa

Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Aka Borobudur/ Prambanan-ville

missy_carrie_gee — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:09:00 GMT

Jogjakarta

Before arriving, I had arranged to stay with a local guy, named “Mank”. He’s on Couchsurfing, and had plenty of positive reviews. He described his house as a “Chicken House” and I knew we were in for something basic, but wow! He lives at a boarding house with a bunch of other students and it was really basic and really grimy. The toilet was a squat toilet and the shower was a bucket and water. But Mank was the nicest guy ever… he and his nephew, Ryan took us all around Jogjakarta on motobikes! They literally spent 2 full days showing us all the sites and taking us to local restaurants and local places. We went to Borobudur, Prambanan, the Sultan’s Palace the Water Castle, and the pet market. It was a packed 2 days! But a really great time. Although Mank was not a rich guy, he was so generous with his time and what he had, it was truly an amazing visit with him. It seems the less people have, the more they want to share.

The town of Jogjakarta is a pretty cool stop in Java. I think its technically a city, but it feels like a town. There weren’t very many other tourists, which is kind of nice. The main attractions are Borobudur and Prambanan. Both temples are really cool, very ancient and accessible. By accessible, I mean you can walk in them, touch them and explore. I’ve never seen temples like them before, so I was impressed, but I don’t think they’re as cool as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which is supposed to be the “Real McCoy” and the “Big Lebowsky” of temples in SE Asia. Plus, it was really cool because we rode there on the back of motorbikes! Mank advised us that the visitors office had free coffee and waters up for grabs, so we took advantage of that before entering. It was also nice of them to accept my student ID card for a 50% discount, even though it has no expiration date, and hasn’t been valid since about 2007! Mank was a really good guide, since he knows the layout and best photo opportunities and timing for everything. It was funny because although we were at a magnificent, ancient temple, somehow I became the attraction, and I had literally 50 or more people asking to take photos with me! It was pretty surreal. Most of them were groups of Muslim school girls, but a few older local Indonesian tourists wanted photos as well. One woman even passed me her 1 year old boy so we could take a photo together! Pretty funny, but also nice to interact with really friendly and outgoing locals. That’s never happened to me before. Probably never will again!

At Prambanan, the temples were not as big as Borobudur, but they were really cool looking. It gets really hot during the daytime in Indonesia, so I was sweating buckets. Literally, sweat was dripping down my face even when staying still in the shade! The Water Castle was pretty cool since it has 2 huge swimming pools that the Sultan used to watch his wives (yes, plural) swim around in. When he wanted one of them to come inside and “meet” with him, he would throw a pebble down to them from a watchtower! I think you have to pay a small amount to go inside, but Mank led us through the back of the Castle so we didn’t have to pay! The Sultan’s palace was a weird, huge, spacious palace, but it wasn’t very fancy. We paid a few bucks to get in, then we wandered around rooms that were turned into makeshift museums, displaying everything and anything linked to the royal family possible. Such as their batik cloths, cameras and strainers. Not too interesting… but one of the “famous” sights.

A place I thought was really cool was the local pet market in Jogjakarta. They’ll sell you a monkey for $30. Or an eagle for $10. Or an owl for $5 if you’re on a budget for rare and endangered animals. I think the sale of rare animals is very wrong, and harmful, but at least there was only 1 monkey, 1 eagle and 3 owls for sale, out of all the stands. No tigers or anything like that. I got to hold a baby mongoose and feed it banana with a toothpick (it was THAT little!). And, I touched a fruit bat. I wanted to do that so bad in Australia, but they have no opportunity to get that close.

Overall, Jogjakarta was a good time, but mostly due to Mank and Ryan showing us all around. When we left, they dropped us off at the train station where we took “Executive Class” for 5 hours to get to Surabaya. The ride was quite comfortable, and they were serving food and drinks in a clean, air conditioned environment. All for $8! When we got to Surabaya, we bought tickets going to Probolinggo, the stop for visiting Gudung Bromo volcano. This was at 10:30, and we arrived at 12:30 at night, with an eccentric French man in tow. He was headed the same way. When we got to the station, there was, of course, a bunch of guys asking us where we needed to go. The town center was 2 km away, so we grabbed 3 wheel bicycles and were carted to the hotel like vegetables in a wheelbarrow. Our poor driver was barely able to peddle us and our bags towards the hotel! He was huffing and puffing so hard, Wayne switched and peddled the rest of the way, and then we gave him a big tip because we felt bad! We arrived at 1:30am, exhausted, dirty and sweaty, and looking forward to a shower. But get this: the front desk guy says, “We don’t have a shower”. Whaaaat??? We had to take showers with buckets of water, and the toilet is one of those squat toilets that have become the bane of my existence! Of course nowhere else was open or closeby so we had to stay there. Ick!

The next day, we went to Gudung Bromo volcano. This became an adventure when we decided to rent horses to ride the 3km to the base of the volcano. I swear, the guides picked up 2 wild horses off the side of the road and threw a saddle on them! Right at the beginning of the mountain, it became apparent that the 2 horses hated each other. When we pulled them up side by side to take a photo, both started freaking out!!! My horse was neighing, and pulling at the reigns, while my guide tried to subdue him, but its hard for a petite man to control a horse, so the horse is pulling him around, and bucking up on his hind legs and kicking his back legs like in a rodeo, while I’m freaking out and trying to hold onto the bootleg makeshift saddle!!! I’ve never been so scared by a horse, or ever ridden a wild stallion before, so I held onto him, and then jumped off and ran away as soon as I got a chance, with my heart racing! I kept thinking I was going to get kicked! Wayne wasn’t so lucky. His horse bucked him off and sent him flying. He bruised and cut his elbow! This was our crazy horseback riding experience at Bromo volcano. What’s even more crazy is we got back on the horses afterwards and rode them the rest of the way up to the volcano! They were fine as long as they didn’t get close, but I noticed my horse kept trying to bite the guide, who looked like a robber because he was wearing a full winter hat in the blazing sun with just the eye holess cut out and a logo that said, “Rancid” on the front! Too funny….

After all that excitement, we had to get ready to take the night bus to Bali. 9 hours. The bus was supposed to come at 8 pm, so I went to the store at 7:22. I came back to 7:42, and found out I missed the bus!!!! It came early, which never happens, but this time it did. Luckily, Wayne waited with my bags to tell me the news. We were both freaking out, b/c we’d spent money on the tickets and then the bus left us. In the midst of our dark moments of brooding over how we’d missed the bus, one of the travel agents grabs Wayne’s arm, and shakes him and says, in a very serious voice, “Where are you from?“ Wayne takes about 5 seconds to realize that this guy is asking him the ubiquitous question that every local asks every tourist, at a moment like this. In disbelief, Wayne answers, “Australia”. And the local guy says, “But you look Chinese!“ Lol, such funny, bad timing…..

Fortunately, the ticket office called the bus, which was already 15 minutes away, and they actually came back to pick us up! I was so embarrassed when I got on the bus… We had to cross a busy road, while the bus held up traffic, and the tour agent was flicking his Zippo lighter in a lame attempt to gain us the right to cross the road, while trucks and mopeds flew by! After our lame and slow attempt to cross the road, we finally made it, and there was a big commotion about where to put our bags, because the underneath was full, so the driver threw my huge backpack on some local guy in the front of the bus’s lap and me and Wayne had to march past rows of glaring eyes to our seats. So embarrassing, yet so nice that they came back for us! Unbelievable. I can’t think of anywhere else on Earth they’d do that!

When we got to Bali, it was 4:30 am. Dark and desolate at the bus station. So we took a cab to Kuta, the main drag of Bali, and got taken the long way, of course, since we asked to use the meter (cab drivers are notorious for being cheats here), and then got dropped off in the expensive hotel zone. Of course. We lucked out and found a place with rooms for $10 a night, so that’s where we stayed the first 2 nights.

Travelers’ Pants See the Light of Day- its not pretty.

missy_carrie_gee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:38:00 GMT

It’s a phenomena. There are people making their way across the corners of the earth wearing the most ridiculous, ugly, outlandish pants ever. Things they’re never be caught dead wearing at home. Yet, a good 70 percent of travelers (or more, in certain backpacker areas) have been caught wearing them.

Poofy, printed, garish, neon, ill fitting, mushroomed, Aladdin pants. Its almost a comic statement of, “I just don’t care”.

We’ll see if I break down and buy a pair on this 6 month trip. Doubtful. I may not be a fashionista, but I have some dignity.

I see the function. They are inexpensive, lightweight, comfortable, pack well, and breathe well. Same with Crocs. But that doesn’t mean you wear them… does it?

A night at Jakarta Airport...

missy_carrie_gee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:02:00 GMT

So, I made it to Indonesia, after a grueling trip from Sri Lanka that began at 4am and ended at 11am the NEXT day! Yes, I love Air Asia for their cheap flights, but their timing SUCKS! I flew from Colombo to Kuala Lumpur, had a 5 hour layover there, (drank 4 cups of coffee at Starbucks to pass the time) and then flew into Jakarta at 10pm and had to wait until 6am for my flight the next day. Since check in for a 6am flight is at 4am (thank you Air Asia), I figured I would just “camp out” at the airport. Well… that became an adventure, because I had to go from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3, and they are not very close. Also, getting my visa upon arrival was a bit more of a hassle than I bargained for because they wanted to see my flight ticket leaving Indonesia. I only booked a 1 way, b/c I wasn’t sure when I would want to leave, and its never been an issue before. So I gave them some chocolate covered almonds and promised I would leave within 30 days, and that worked nicely. Time to get to Terminal 3.…

One thing about Indonesia that is obvious from the moment I arrived is that there’s TONS of people trying to sell you something. And most of the ones that hang out in the travel hubs are shiesters. I already spoke with an Air Asia flight attendant, so I knew there was a free shuttle between terminals, but that it stopped at either 10 or 11pm. It was 10:30 when I got my bags. So, I went outside, and was accosted by literally 50 cabbies asking me, “Where are you going?” “Where are you from” “What is your name”- the 3 ubiquitous questions that circulate the travel hub tout club. So I said, “I’m getting the free shuttle to terminal 3- do you know where I need to go“? (I had a vague idea already). Of course, the cabbie starts to tell me, “The shuttle has stopped now, there’s no more, so you need to get a cab”. At that point, something inside me snapped, because I knew he was lying, and so I swatted at him like a fly and growled, “LIAR! Leave me ALONE and get outta my FACE!”. The look on his face was priceless… I thought his eyeballs might drop out onto the floor and roll off of the curb. I had just spent about 18 hours traveling at that point, so I was in no mood for scam artists… and I’m from New York!

So I went upstairs and waited under a sign on a dimly lit street that said “Shuttle stop”. I was praying the last shuttle was really at 11 and not 10. I had a feeling it would work out. About 15 cabs pulled up to ask me where I was going, and I’m almost perfected my “fly swat”, which is a wave of the hand and a shake of the head that says, “get away”. Once you make eye contact or begin to engage, there’s no hope of not wasting time. Luckily, the yellow and blue free shuttle pulled up 5 looooong dark minutes later and picked me up. There really wasn’t any chance to walk between terminals, because we got on the highway in between.

When I got to terminal 3, I checked with security to make sure I could enter the terminal and spend the night there. They said, “no problem”. So I told them I would get some food and come back. I went to a place 10 feet away called CFC and it sold… chicken, of course. After ordering a drumstick, chicken nuggets, fries and a chicken burger, my bill was $67000! About $7 US… I decided to keep my chicken burger for breakfast and headed back to the security checkpoint to enter the terminal. Only now they were “Closed”. So I reminded them of our deal that I could come inside, and they said, “ah, yes, come in!” I thanked them profusely, thinking how lucky I was to enter the desolate airport. And then I was escorted through the lobby, and right back outside again on the other side of the lobby! The waiting area is outside, with the cabbies and stray cats! At this point it was about 11:15pm, and I wanted to cry.

So, after sitting down on a bench with my bags and freaking out a bit, I decided to go to the area where all the security officers were hanging out and go “make friends”. I went over to them and sat down with my book, and of course, after I read less than 3 sentences, they were talking to me. I hung out with about 10 security guards for about 1 hour, and learned some Bahasa Indonesian language, and then one of them said, “if you are tired, please rest. We will watch out for you and wake you up at 4 for your flight”. Bingo!

So I went to sleep on a bench with the feral cats in the “security hang out zone”. I woke up a few times throughout the night to see that all the “security” guys, except for one were sleeping as well! So much for “security”! But everything was ok, I was not robbed or harassed in my sleep. I actually slept quite well, despite the circumstances, because I now carry around my pillow and a blanket and ear plugs! At 4am, I was woken up by a guard to let me know the terminal was open. The only collateral damage was that a feral cat ate my chicken burger! I found it on the ground, mauled with fang marks, so I threw it away. 2 seconds later, a security guard picked it out of the garbage and proceeded to eat it!! After I pointed out the fang marks!!!! He did eat the other side of it, but still….

So, then it was on to Jogjakarta, a town in Java where the World heritage sites of Borobudur and Prambanan are. Both are ancient temples. I met up with an Aussie/ Singaporian guy I met in Kota Kinabalu named Wayne. He’s a bit of a weinie, but he’s good to travel with, because he’s a nice guy, very organized, and he speaks the basics of the language here. So, I killed 3 more hours in Jogjakarta waiting for his flight to arrive, bringing the grand total travel time to something like 27 hours!

Sri Lanka- where are the other tourists?!

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:21:00 GMT

Colombo- the Crazy Capital…

I wound up in Sri Lanka after Borneo. Its one of the most interesting places I‘ve been to. Its not wonderful, but its not horrible either. I guess it’s a bit of a roller coaster here, with ups and downs as frequent as the tuk tuks pull over to ask you to take a ride.. Which is at a rate of about 3-5 tuk tuk solicitations per minute- literally, because there are over 300,000 tuk tuks in the tiny sized city of Colombo! It has cows in the street, tons of mangy wild dogs, and a ridiculously huge population of ear piercing crows. It’s the type of place where you see “Happy New Year and Merry X-mas” written in fake snow in the window of a lamp store in the middle of March! And elephants living in temples and parks.

I met some really cool people and I'm having fun.... but the tourism thing hasn’t quite gotten off the ground yet, and so going places and doing things is a bit of a hassle. Actually everything is a hassle. From ordering food, to finding an address, buying groceries, crossing the street and bargaining prices. Convenience is just not a way of life here, but the locals accept it and have a funny way of bobbling their heads and saying it is what it is and then doing the famous Indian yes, no, maybe wobble with a huge smile. The war is over, but this was only as of May 2009, so there’s virtually no tourists, and there’s men with machine guns all over Colombo! They are guards, so while they make Colombo safer, they also seem kind of scary, because… why do they have to have such big dramatic guns? Is there a reason so many soldiers carry them that I don’t know about?

The streets of Colombo are crazy. Very hot, lots of funky smells, loud horn beeping cars, busses, and tuk tuks, crumbled sidewalks, beggars, touts, armed guards, and no traffic lights, so its always a dash for your life. Its exhausting to walk 3 blocks! But Shawn, the woman I’m staying with has a beautiful apartment that is like a sanctuary to come “home” to after the outside craziness. And the atmosphere of Colombo is definitely exotic and exciting! The transition from high to low, rich to poor, feeling uncomfortable and then feeling like royalty is a constant here.

I turned vegetarian, not by choice but out of necessity. I’m so skeeved out by the meat, even in nice restaurants, its funky. I nearly threw up in the aisle of the “nicer” Keel’s supermarket when I looked into and smelled the meat counter! Sri Lankan food is one of the spiciest in the world. Apparently, it makes Indian food seem bland and Thai spicy taste watered down. But, I love spicy food, and there’s tons of creative vegetable dishes, so I’m loving it. I ate different kinds of vegetable curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same day! The supermarkets have few choices of brands and everything I bought the other day was rotten or tampered with! The instant coffee forms a thick pile of chunky white stuff at the bottom of my cup (and the expiry date isn't til Dec. 2012) and the soy milk I bought was sealed on the outside, but the inner seal was broken and it smells like rotten cow milk. So I can't drink either of them! But, the 5-star hotels serve ridiculously nice meals from about $5-10 US. The irony is that the food at the supermarket is more expensive than eating at 5-star hotels for most stuff. I saw a box of cereal for $16!!!! The cost of living in Sri Lanka is phenomenal compared to the wages most people earn. Minimum wage is about $60 per month.

I went for afternoon tea with Shawn at the Galle Face hotel (big, nice, fancy, famous aristocratic place), and one of the staff dropped a glass behind me, and a shard cut my leg open and I was bleeding a bit. I wasn’t too concerned, but Shawn made a point to tell the staff that I was bleeding. Their response was, “so?“ Shawn: “um, she is BLEEDING. You cut her!“ Staff: “yes, ok.“ Lots of things just don't make sense here...

I saw some interesting deformities. A guy at the train station had 6 toes. And I rented a room from an old man in Hikkaduwa with a pregnant lady’s belly button- it was bigger than a marshmallow! And a man with a freaking cobra in a basket spied me and Shawn from across Victoria park, and proceeded to start playing his flute to get the snake to come out of the basket and dance for him. When he saw the horrified look on our faces and us start to head out the opposite gate he was in charming his snake in front of, he shoved the snake (a freaking COBRA!) back into the basket and proceeded to chase us! The horrified look on our faces turned to terror as we dashed across the major street to get away from snake man, dodging busses and cars instead of his deadly basket.

Another day, Shawn and I rented a tuk tuk with a wild driver named Cristo took us on a nerve shattering ride all over Colombo. Whenever we almost crashed, he would erupt in song and then laugh like a goat! We went in a Hindu temple with beggars, rats, cats and filthy floors. They made us take off our shoes at the front, then pay to enter. Then pay extra to take photos, then the “guide” of the temple begged us for money, then the guy who “watched” our shoes asked us for a ridiculous amount of money to get them back! Cristo rode up in his red tuk tuk like a Singhala speaking hero, and got us back our shoes for only $1 each pair. There’s lots of people waiting around for opportunities to make money from whatever few tourists there are here. And foreigners are definitely charged a higher rate than the locals for almost everything: tuk tuks, museums, retail goods, and admission prices to temples.

I got an aruvedic massage at Siddahlepa, one of the most renowned massage centers in Sri Lanka. That was interesting. First, I had to meet with the doctor, who took my pulse and asked me if I had any ailments. I said, “Yes, my cellulite thighs!” So she prescribed a special blend of oils for my massage. And they use the oil in higher quantities than a fast food restaurant. This was the first massage where I was ordered (very firmly) to “strip off EVERYTHING”, and get on the table. By the end of the massage, I was sliding all around, embarrassed and naked. It was a good massage, but I kept freaking out about how I was fully naked and uncovered in front of the lady who was oiling me up. Then, she gave me a glass of some crazy tasting elixir, and made me walk around on a path where huge rocks were sticking out of the floor. Think hot coal walking, minus the heat! It was a nice place, clean and better value than most. Even though it was my first treatment, I think it was also my last here.

I went to a place called Sari Kingdom in Majestic City that makes custom saris and shovars (tunics). I had 2 tunics made for $25. The cotton material cost $19, yet the labor to sew both customized tunics and a scarf was only $6. Another case where the pricing on stuff seems off. A family of 8 women all work in a store the size of a shoe box. And they are very hard to bargain with. Their materials cost anywhere from $10 for ugly crap, up to $900 for sequined, jeweled works of art. I got some funny pictures of being bossed around by Farina, and shrewd seamstress. But my tunics came out great, and although it was an overwhelming and grueling 2 hour selection, negotiation and fitting process, I’m happy.

I discovered that the Hash Hound Harriers has an active chapter in Colombo. No, they are not drug runners, they are a running club that drinks beer after they run, and call each other silly names and have elaborate ceremonies. I went on a run, and got a ride with someone who works at the embassy. I didn’t realize it, but he was the ring leader, and the dude in the circle who conducted the festivies afterwards. I felt like I arrived in a hornet’s nest after I found this out, because they make sure to call attention to the visitors and the newcomers. If you’re ever joined them for a run, you’ll know what I mean. It was fun to run through a Sri Lankan village outside of Colombo. We ran through a rice paddy, and although I was scared of snakes in the tall, dry grass, I couldn’t help but feel energized by the countryside. A herd of cows crossed the road, and we got to glimpse villagers’ daily afternoon routine. The hash run is $6, which includes all you can drink beer, soda and water, and dinner afterwards. Can’t beat the price, the exercise or the laughs at a hash run!

Yes, Sri Lanka is all very interesting. And it is a bit like a nicer, cleaner, less hectic version of India, which I am skipping on this trip because I’m too freaked out to try to travel there alone! Its got colorful sari’s, Hindu temples, nice scenic countryside, Indian-like food, and wild things living in the streets.

Malaysian Borneo!

missy_carrie_gee — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:42:00 GMT

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is definitely my favorite place so far in my last 3+ months of travel. Seriously. This place is just so unbelievably incredible in so many ways, that I’m humbled and blessed on a daily basis to be here. I’ve experienced so many acts of generosity and kindness and had such a great time here, I’m already planning my return! Malaysia is one of my favorite places overall because it is modern, clean, friendly, and easy to get around, yet, its still exotic, foreign, and multicultural, with spectacular natural beauty that’s teeming with wildlife. But the local people are what make this place so truly special.

First of all, the locals in Sabah are so nice and genuinely friendly, its great to just hang out here and talk with them. Its not just that I’ve met a few cool people, but just about EVERYONE I met has been so lovely and hospitable, from the bus driver to the couch surfers, to the hostel staff to the tour driver to Sukau… Most people speak really great, or perfect English so I’ve had some really good in depth conversations, which is one of my favorite things about traveling.

I know I could be going out every day and doing tours and excursions and all of that, but I like just hanging out and exploring on my own. I’m back in the type of place where people say “hello” when I walk past just because… they know I’m foreign, and they are being friendly. They’re not selling anything, just greeting me. Especially the little kids like to wave and say, “hello!!!”

I’ll divide this blog by places I’ve been to, and write about the experiences that made me feel the way I do about this place:

Kota Kinabalu- The “Big” city…

One of the biggest highlights of this place was meeting a girl named Jaci through Couchsurfing. She lives with her dad and brother, so rather than inviting people to come stay with her, she makes it a point to show visitors a really great time. One night, she met up with me, Emily, Jerry and their friend Greg, and took us out to a Chinese restaurant, and ordered a feast for us to try. Another Couchsurfer, who coincidentally was the dive instructor on the boat we went on earlier that day joined us for dinner after we got to restaurant. We already had our feast laid out on the table and Tiger beers in hand, when she just calmly said, I can’t eat here, because I’m Muslim, and they serve pork. She was really cool about it… I think we were more uncomfortable than her with the situation! After dinner, we all went out to Tajung Aru Beach, where we dropped by the hostel I stayed at for my first 2 nights and hung out with the staff and guests. They were ok with me coming back, and bringing 5 friends! They gave us a warm welcome, and none of the “no non-guests allowed” schpiel most hostels have. After that, we went for a walk on the beach and hit up the local food market for some snacks.

Another highlight for me in KK was joining Jaci for a trip to a beach in front of a really nice resort just outside of the city. We snuck in, and took over 2 comfy beach chairs with big fluffy cushions, and ordered ice creams on the beach, which were delivered to our chairs. They even had these plastic chairs you could sit in the ocean on, and let the waves wash over you. VERY relaxing! Jaci also took me out to dinner for Korean food at a nice restaurant, and then to a movie at the local mall. I was the only Westerner at both places, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, like at some places where you just feel like a whale in the rainforest. It was completely non eventful as far as people staring and laughing, which sometimes happens when a Westerner travels in small towns. Another night, we went out dancing, and had fun playing pool and just hanging out and talking. Jaci was so overly generous about her time, and car, and whenever I tried to buy her drinks, food or even a movie ticket, she kept insisting I was her guest in Malaysia and that I just have a good time! She truly is one in a million. Such a beautiful person that I really enjoyed hanging out with and getting to know.

I really enjoyed talking story with the folks at the Borneo Beach House hostel and learned so much more about Malaysia. The boys there were my intro when I first got to Borneo, and great ambassadors who literally took hours to talk with me and help me plan what stuff to see and do here. The hostel is also really nice with a huge hang out area, with a pool table and nice kitchen, tv, and free wifi. The room is pretty basic, but I snagged a bed right under a fan so it was ok. That was when I got smart the second night and switched to the top bunk. Night one I woke up in a hot sweat!

I hung out at another hostel for about an hour when I went to ask what the pricing was. The guy who worked there was really nice and invited me to sit and chat for a while. When I returned about a week later, he greeted me with, “Heeeey Carrie, how have you been? It’s so nice to see you again, are you going to come stay with us???“ He remembered my name after several days, so I was pretty impressed. We had great conversations and many laughs, including hearing about what its like for a Malaysian guy to work as an African drag queen in a gay nightclub in KL. I learned that if the Muslim police catch a cross dresser, they charge them money for being a “public disgrace”! Crazy…

I'm finding everything easy to do and get around here. Everyone speaks really good English and the streets are easy to navigate. There’s pretty decent and cheap public buses and ferries to take you around. And people are really helpful when it comes to giving directions. The muslim laws are strict so its really safe and the people are very honest. None of the raising prices and cheaping out on change! For example, I tried to get the cell phone I bought in Australia unlocked here. The guy at the cell phone shack tried for 2 hours to figure it out. Then, I asked if I could give him some money for his time and he wouldn't accept it. Most places would ask for money for their time whether they got the job done or not!

One night in KK, I played tour guide to a huge group of USA Navy guys I met, whose ship was docked for a few days, so I hung out with them at the Waterfront restaurant and bar area (the hip yet pricey place to hang out in KK). After a few drinks, they wanted to “go get some burgers” so I made fun of them for being so American, and told them they should try the local food and showed them what to order at a local curry restaurant (they were scared!). They liked the food I recommended so much, they paid for my food and gave me 50 ringgit to take a cab back to my hostel!

I met another guy who grew up working on a palm plantation. He was outcast because he is ½ Caucasian and ½ Malaysian, and partially Muslim through his mom’s second marriage. The government forced him to change his name to a Muslim name when he was 9 years old and tried hard to persuade him to change his religion, as well (but they can’t force it) then took him away from his family (both his mom and real dad) when he was 12, because his mother divorced the Muslim guy. He lived and worked on his own since he was 15 and studied and went to school at the same time. Paying international student fees (even though his mom is Malaysian) which are higher than local fees. Crazy, but yet really interesting, because its so different from America.

I went to get a 1 hour massage and a pedicure for $17. I treated myself after all the hiking and bus riding the past few days. The massage was a proper one, by a trained professional, on a real massage table, with clean towels and sheets in a tranquil air conditioned studio with aromatic oil- 1 hour was only $10 US! When I compare it to Thailand, where cheap massages start at $6 (the good ones start around $15), where they lead you to a scary dim hovel, make you lay on the floor on a thin dirty futon mat, and they twist your body around with no massage oil, talk and laugh about you the entire time to the other masseurs in the room, then demand a huge tip after 50 minutes or so (God only knows how it goes for men who get massages there!)… Malaysia massages are definitely better value!

Sandakan:

On the way to Sandakan, which is a 6 hour bus ride from KK, I had a funny experience. I heard that if I wanted to go visit Kinabalu Park (a World Heritage Site, and one of the most spectacular parks I’ve ever been to) I should get off in a town called Ranau. There was supposed to be plenty of hostels there. So, I got off in this creepy little town named Ranua in the middle of the day in the blazing hot sun and proceeded to walk all over with my bags looking for these hostels I’d heard so much about. There was nothing there! Except for weird old men hanging around outside staring at me. I met 3 school girls and asked them where to find a hostel/ backpackers place. They literally led me to a place that they thought I meant, but it was a grim and scary little brothel looking place! It turned out there was no places to stay in Ranau. I should have gotten off the bus in Kundasang. Dammit!! So I hurried back to the bus stop to get one of the last busses to Sandakan (the whole time I thought I’d get stuck in Ranau overnight!) The 3 schoolgirls led me back to the bus stop, which was really nice of them.

After my Ranau Texas Chainsaw Massacre town experience, I had a another experience on the bus. Since I got on so late in the trip (¼ way into it), there were no seats. So I sat on the floor. 5 minutes after I got on, the police pulled the bus over and marched down the aisle asking to see everyone’s papers. They were looking for illegal immigrants, and didn’t say anything to me, but it was weird all the same. Crouching on the floor of a bus and showing a cop my passport. After the police inspection, the driver’s assistant came to me and told me to come up front. He insisted on giving me his seat, and he sat on the floor-- for 2 hours! The bus driver gave me his personal cold can of coffee, since he could see how hot I was from my walk around Ranau. So nice of both of them! Then, I insisted on switching places with the assistant, so he could sit for a while, and I spent 1 more hour on the floor of the bus until a seat opened up. So I got a seat for the last hour of the trip.

When I arrived in Sandakan, I spent a night at Sandakan Harbour B&B, a hostel right on the waterfront for $6 a night inc. breakfast. I got my own room even though I asked for a dorm, because each room has only 2 beds in it. One minute after going to my room, I tried to adjust the fan and ended up pulling the fan off the wall, which dragged down and broke a mirror! There were shards of glass everywhere, and I was so embarrassed and also paranoid I’d get charged some outrageous amount of money for it (like in Thailand, where every room has an itemized overpriced list of money you have to pay if anything breaks, such as $50 for a remote control, or $500 for the TV). The woman at the hostel’s response was, “Just collect your things, and you can change rooms. Don’t worry about the broken mirror, we’ll clean it up- just don’t cut yourself, and go get something to eat and take care of myself after the long journey.” Sooo nice!

Kinabatangan River Cruise in Sukau

Just when I thought Sabah cound’t get any more country than Sandakan, I went to spend 3 days in Sukau, a town down a country road that runs along a big river. I stayed in a nature lodge named “Sukau Greenview“. They took us out for several boat trips a day to go look at the wildlife in nature, no bars or fences. We saw so many monkeys, including the really rare wild orangutan, crocodiles!, snakes!, huge monitor lizards, birds (beautiful tropical ones with great colors), butterflies galore, otters, and moths and crazy bugs. It was really nice. The guesthouse was run by really nice Muslims who were so over the top helpful to us. I got breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days, my own room for 2 nights, guided hikes and transport and many many boat trips included in my river adventure for $100 US. It was really relaxing to be in the jungle, with no TV and only my book for entertainment. The second night, a fun couple of guys- Bart from Holland, and Nigel from Canada came to stay at the Greenview. We had a good laugh, and I crashed their night cruise, which turned into a booze cruise, with a stop along the river to buy local rice wine! If you ever meet a Dutch guy named Bart, hang out with him… I’ve met 2 in my life so far, and both were a riot! I ended up getting a ride with them back to Kinabalu Park on the way back to KK, which beat the long bus journey. 4 hours from Sukau to Kundasang flew by!

The woman who drove us from Sandakan to the nature lodge and back invited me to stay with her and her family in their home, so I accepted, and stayed with them for 1 night. They lived in a really basic house on stilts in the water, with 8 people in a 3 bedroom house! 5 kids, 2 parents and the mother in law. The parents gave up their bed for me, but I had to sleep next to their 12 year old daughter, lol. Most people would have cringed when they saw the bathroom... a hole in the wooden floorboards that went directly out to the ocean below!!! At night, one of Annie’s daughter’s painted henna on my hand and foot. My finger nails are STAINED bright orange now! What an adventure. The Rohani’s even took me to go meet the husband's brother and wife. When I arrived, they had coffee and cookies waiting for me. So nice of them! Two little girls stopped by the house to ask if they could take a picture with me! The family also kept insisting on paying for our meals and treating me to stuff. I had to force them to let me buy them breakfast the next day. They were so amazingly generous and kind to me. They are building a nature lodge so hopefully it'll be running next time I come to visit. I helped Annie with her business plan, which felt really good, because if they can get their own business up and running they can stop making 4 trips a day picking up/ dropping off tourists that take 2.5 hours each. That’s what I went to school for- to help entrepreneurs with their businesses. It felt really good to be able to use some of my education to help a wonderful woman start her own business.

Kundasang/ Kinabalu Park

The final place I went to was Kinabalu Park, which is a World Heritage Site, and an amazing forest, full of plants, animals and stunning butterflies. Some as big as my outstretched palm! The trail system was clearly marked, so it helped me feel confident enough to go hiking around on my own. The trails are marked with signs every few hundred feet, and the signs include the distance of the trail and some even have time estimates of how long it’ll take to hike it, which I appreciated since I have no clue how far 1000 meters are.

In the park, I hiked up to a lookout point and was enjoying the view by myself, when a huge rainbow appeared right in front of me. The 2 days I spent in the park were one of the highlights of my time in Sabah. The first day, I arrived at the park at 4 pm, and it was raining. I jokingly asked the ranger at the entrance if they offer a “rainy day discount”. His response was to sell me a reduced ticket for people under 18! That was really nice of him. The next day, when returned, he remembered me and asked if still had my ticket stub, and he stamped it for me and let me in for free. I paid extra to see the Botanical Garden and the Conservation Center, but neither were worth it. The garden was really small, and I saw more interesting things on the trails. The conservation center was a sad little pseudo-museum with wretched scrappy taxidermied animals that live in the area. The wall was covered in overly scientific and boring articles about butterfly phylums, ants and other crap. Oh well, the rest of the park more than made up for it! I even got a rare glimpse of Mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in SE Asia. It’s usually covered in clouds. I’m glad I saw it, because I was thinking about trying to climb it, but it looks intimidating! Maybe next time I’m in Sabah.

A return visit here is a definite. I really could have easily spent a month here in Sabah alone. My next stop is Sri Lanka but I’m thinking about coming back to Malaysia and traveling around the West side of the country. We’ll see what happens next…

Photos: Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

missy_carrie_gee — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 04:18:00 GMT

One of my favorite places, some of my favorite people!

Sydney Australia

missy_carrie_gee — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 02:12:00 GMT

If Melbourne is Australia's version of San Francisco, then Sydney is Australia's version of New York. Bigger, more urban, and not as many free and artsy stuff to do. We walked around Darling Harbour, the Opera House, the Botanical Garden (there's a huge pack of bats that live in the trees here- very cool!), the New South Wales Museum, the Sydney Contemporary Art Museum, Chinatown, Paddy's market the Blue Mountains (took a peek at the 3 Sisters rocks), hung out at King's Cross and swam at Bondi Beach. Basically, all the major stuff to do in this city.

We didn't like the city as much as Melbourne, but we did have a great time with my cousin, Theresa, and her husband, John. They took time to show us some of the highlights, and we enjoyed some great meals together, including kangaroo steak!

Overall, Sydney was pretty expensive, and the distance between things outside of the city was pretty far, but within the city, it was easy and fast to get around. We walked most of the time because the public transportation was really exy (expensive). We ended up hanging out most of the time and opting not to do stuff that required a high priced admission fee because we felt it usually wasn't worth it. One such place was the Jenolan caves, which was $26 each for a 1 hour tour of a cave with stairs and lights and a boring guide. Bleh.

We learned it was good value to go to the RSL Clubs for food, since they offer members a reduced price on food, and we could go as guests since we did not live in the area.

We were glad to say sayonara to Sydney after 10 days...

Photos: Sydney & Perth

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:41:00 GMT

The best reason to visit both of these places for me was seeing my family.

Photos: Melbourne

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 13:17:00 GMT

Mad About Melbourne!

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 13:14:00 GMT

The memories from Melbourne will live in my heart as one of the best cities I’ve ever visited. It’s artsy, vibrant, fun, friendly, clean, modern, eccentric, navigatable, interesting and clean. Around every turn, and on every block, quirky fun things accent the city and bring it to life as an artists’ mecca. A dead tree’s limbs were transformed into a pot holder, with huge flower pots on the end of every branch. A pet rock with a purple Mohawk lives on the railing of a bridge in Kilroy. We found a baby doll combined and mutated with a toy triceratops in a birdcage displayed in the window of a car repair shop. Huge graffiti murals accent building walls with all kinds of themes from killer bugs to mad science labs to jungle scenes. Light posts sprout flowers and benches are mosaics with tiny tiles making beautiful images of landscapes. Architecture in Melbourne is amazing. It’s a mix of old, from about 200 years ago to very modern and colorful buildings with lots of eco-friendly features. One of my favorite things about Melbourne is that it seems people really enjoy life and leisure here. There’s beautiful parks with lots of open green space to enjoy, so it’s a city, but it has a feel of a small town in many ways.

Melbourne city has trams, buses, trains, and an easy layout, so getting around is easy. Lots of locals ride the trams for free, but the fare inspectors ask to see your tickets when you go farther out from the city. The city centre has a free city circle tram and bus for tourists and locals. If you have a bike, there’s plenty of bike lanes and the layout helps riders navigate the sprawling city with relative ease. Definitely a plus! There’s also very few homeless. The minimum wage is about $15 per hour. For flipping burgers, so people make a decent wage in Australia. There’s also the perk of public toilets being abundant, free, and clean. A necessity in a civilized society. Such a welcome change from places like Thailand, where they charge you money to use a filthy hole in the floor with no soap, no toilet paper and no running water! Another perk is the free street performers who work the crowd at Federation Square. You can also soak up some free wifi internet there, and use clean public toilets.

In Melbourne, we got to hang out with some locals we met via couch surfing, which puts people in touch with locals willing to host them. We lucked out with 2 guys, Tom and Tayo, who took us into their homes, and let us stay in their spare rooms, and saved us the outrageous cost of accommodation. The best thing with couch surfing isn’t so much about saving money, but rather seeing a place from a more local perspective. And getting to meet and connect with really cool people. We stayed with Tom and Tayo for a week each, and have definitely made friends for life. I really do hope they come to visit Hawaii one of these days. We cooked some meals with them, met their friends, stayed in really local neighborhoods outside of the busy and expensive city centre. We got to stay in Northcote and Brunswick. Both a long walk or a short tram ride outside of the city.

Tayo, one of our hosts, took us to a really cool restaurant called Lentil As Anything, which is a vegetarian café that is paid for by donation. You can eat however much you like and pay what you feel it was worth! They offered plenty of tasty all vegetarian foods, which is a project that puts recent immigrants to work in a community style kitchen, so the menu is multi-cultural. Its in an old convent, so it has a nice scenic atmosphere, with little café tables outdoors and makes a wicked cup of coffee! Definitely worth a trip off the beaten path to find this place!

Another worthwhile destination in Melbourne is the Royal Botanical Gardens. After paying through the nose for everything in the whole city, this place is a great break. Its huge well kept gardens are actually free, and very nice and relaxing. The place is huge, with all kinds of birds, trees, a lake, and little nooks and crannies to relax in.

We visited the Melbourne zoo one day, expecting to see one of the best zoos ever, especially after paying $25 each to get in, but were a bit disappointed. There were no chimps! They’re always the best part of the zoo! They did have a native animal exhibit, where you can walk around with free range wallabees, koalas and kangaroos, but they hang out behind the barricades where you can’t go up to them. The zoo did offer really nice cages and habitats for the animals, so it gets points for that, but the variety of animals and the way the exhibits were set up wasn’t the best for viewing the animals. Its one of those things, a catch-22, where if the cage is not as nice for the animals (for example, no hiding spaces, and smaller quarters) it makes for better viewing for the people. But the better cages meant we didn’t see much of the animals who were understandably hiding from the scorching mid-day sun. Overall, not worth the price of admission.

As far as wildlife goes, I was surprised there’s not more crazy creatures and wild critters all over Australia. We did see the famous flying foxes (huge bats that live in the city!), a pack of wild kangaroos, a possum, and some birds, but I thought we’d be seeing wild things every time we went to the bathroom at night or opened a closet door!

The Melbourne Museum was definitely a highlight for us. It had a huge exhibit with the history of Melbourne, including a giant taxidermied race horse named Phar Lap, who was a legend in his day. Sadly, he was poisoned to death, but bits of his hair, his entire carcass and his embalmed heart remain. I noticed this museum was fond of taxidermy animals and embalming fluid jars with weird stuff. A giant squid was displayed in a very big case of liquid. We got to check out a bug exhibit, including live bugs in cases, from spiders to beetles, to praying mantis, and even roaches! Their new exhibit, WILD, has an extensive collection of real dead animals, expertly stuffed and proudly displayed. Its kind of morbid, but the thought crossed my mind that the animal viewing was better of the dead animals at the Melbourne museum than at the zoo, because they can‘t run or hide. You can really get a good gawk at them! There’s also an indoor forest inside the museum, including real birds, a river and entire trees! Yes, oddly enough, the Melbourne Museum was better for animal viewing than the zoo. The museum also has the world’s 3^rd largest IMAX screen, which we sprang $22.50 each to watch Avatar on. Well worth the money, as it brought the movie to life in 3-D. We arrived “late” ie. Only 10 minutes before the show started, and had to sit in the second row to the front! The planet of Pandora’s futuristic outer space bugs and plants kept coming out of the screen and into our faces. Great movie, gotta see it in 3-D for the full effect.

People watching is premium here, because people seem to play the part in Melbourne. They dress the role in an outrageous, make no mistake about it way. The bike rider is decked out like they are in the Tour De France. The rocker has a full on rock and roll mullet, tight jeans and band t-shirt. The hippies are decked out in tie dye and dreadlocks, and the business folks wear fully suits and ties to work. it’s a very fun place to sit and have a coffee near a window or in an outdoor café.

Another highlight of Melbourne for us was going to the Rainbow Serpent festival. It was a 4 day campout in an area called Lexton, where 3 different aboriginal lands meet up. There were wide blue skies, rolling pastures and some of the harshest climate we’ve come across so far. It was blazing hot in the daytime then freezing cold at night. The 8 year drought across Australia (some locals call it a 10 year drought) has made the land really dry, so it was dusty as well. Besides the harsh weather, the festival was a lot of fun, because the organizers really put a lot of thought, time, money and love into the campgrounds. There were showers, port-o-potties, shaded areas, 5 stages, water sprinklers for cooling off in the day times, a 6 million dollar lighting system, world class artists, speakers, performers, and workshops. Here’s a prime example of why it was such a great event. Amazingly, even after 4 days, the compost port-o-potties were still nice! I was shocked that nobody pee’d on the seats and destroyed them. The vibe was really friendly and family oriented. There were people there ranging in ages from a few months old (or unborn, if you count the pregnant women!) to 80 years old. People are very helpful and generous there- we were given fruit from an Italian lady, and offered numerous beers, and hellos. There was art installed throughout the venue, lots of vendors with food, and cool clothes and other essentials, like coffee and water, and some really great music. There were bands, DJ’s, circus performers, costumes, craziness, and nonstop music and performances for 4 days straight! A highlight at the Rainbow Serpent was a hike we took up a tall hill behind the festival, where a herd of wild kangaroos came up close to us, hung out for a few minutes, then ran off! We got a better view of them than in the damn zoo!

There was a strong focus at Rainbow Serpent on respecting the land and the local culture, and leaving the site in good condition. The opening ceremony featured several aboriginal dances, including one where the men danced like kangaroos. Another dance had people in white rags crawling through the dusty ground and doing acrobatics with each other. One thing they did which I thought was a good way to kick off the event and put everyone in the right frame of mind was to ask us to dance our prayers in to the earth- the men did a stomping move and the women pushed the earth over the top of each foot from side to side. The dust that rises from these dance moves rises up into the heaven, and carries our prayers with the dust up to the Creator. The closing ceremony had a group silence meditation and another series of dances to thank the earth, the gods and the elders and chase away evil spirits for the next time the event happens. Overall, we had a really fun time, and we got to meet a bunch of quirky, friendly locals, as well as a surprisingly large amount of international people who traveled to Melbourne specifically for the event. Phil made a funny comment, which sticks with me… “I’ve never seen so many blond dreadlocks anywhere else in the world!“. We really lucked out to be in Melbourne during the Rainbow Serpent and are already plotting or return- possibly with a side trip to New Zealand next time!

One of the few drawbacks of Melbourne is that it is extremely expensive. You get what you pay for, I guess, but with the US $ being equal to the Aussie $, its brutal! The beer is great, but its very expensive beer. A pint in a pub is about $9!!! If you buy it in the store and drink it at home, its about $3-4 per bottle! A 6 pack is about $15-20. There’s good food with decent portion sizes, but expect to pay $10 for a cup of coffee and a croissant. Or, $25-$35 for an entrée in a normal mid-range restaurant. Or $10 for a sandwich. I could go on and on, but I’ll end it with this one: a candy bar (ie. Snickers, Mars, Kit Kat, etc.) costs $2.50. Not the king size, the regular size! Its like living life in an airport or buying all your meals from the concession stand at the movie theatre. Overpriced. But very nice!

Even leaving Melbourne was a pleasant experience. We rented a car to take us to the Rainbow Serpent Festival, and hung onto it to get us to the airport at the end of our stay. The car was filthy from the festival (dust and hay were all over it! Phil rinsed it off, but we were debating whether or not to vacuum it so we wouldn’t get charged extra for the cleaning fee. We decided not to take it too far, and drove it back. We forgot ot put gas in it to top it off, so its tank was just 3/4ths full. The guy told us, “No worries mate. I’ll just check you in as a full tank to save you some money- have a nice day!“ This kind of thing was pretty common in Australia. People will let you off for some change if you buy a coffee and don’t have exact change. Or they’ll let you check in for a flight early. Or let you in somewhere for free because its close to closing. A welcome change from the penny pinching shiesters of SE Asia. But, you get what you pay for!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia rocks!

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:48:00 GMT

Malaysia turned out to be a place I WISH I planned to stay longer. Kuala Lumpur is a modern metropolis, where I felt like I was simultaneously in India, the Middle East, and China all at once! The signs are written in Malay, Chinese, English and Arabic, or some combination of at least 3 languages. There’s a strong Muslim presence with women in stylish, colorful shawls covering their heads. Men in turbans and Aladdin hats make their way around among the falafel and dim sum shops. Just outside of the city, there’s lush tropical forests, with waterfalls, caves, monkeys and huge butterflies. Farther out, there’s the wild wonders of Borneo, and dense, undeveloped rainforests with native cultures from centuries ago.

Me and Phil had a blast in KL. This was mostly due to our friend, Lavi, who’s from there and welcomed us into her home and showed us a great time, making sure we ate at least a 30 courses of meals a day. Her friends also embraced us with much Malaysian aloha. They took us out clubbing, and to some of the best restaurants, to the caves and to swim in waterfalls. Even though the airport is really far from the city, Cassie insisted on driving us there on our way to Australia. Another friend, Raj heard that we recently got engaged, and he gave us a goodie bag with chocolate, nuts, frosted mini donuts and a milk candy, which we were instructed to feed each other, in order to bring us luck and happiness in our future marriage. He put this together for us before he even met us! We had some great laughs and adventures with them, and I already can’t wait to go back.

We got to go visit the Batu caves, which is a Hindu shrine set inside a huge cave. There was many statues paying tribute to Hindu Gods, like Ganesh. Inside the caves, there’s an assortment of semi wild, semi domesticated animals, ranging from pigeons to monkeys to roosters and cats! One monkey tried to steal my water and cashew nuts I was holding in a plastic bag, but Phil stomped his foot and it scampered off. The temple had a HUGE golden figure (who I mistook as a 50 foot Buddah at first) at the base of a massive staircase which had me dripping with sweat after climbing to the top in the high humidity. The cave was a massive, impressive cavern with stalactites hanging from the ceiling, which was punctuated with natural skylights. Monkeys swarmed the walls with their loot plundered from tourists, including one who held a full bag of curry which dripped down the walls as he tried to get away from the others in order to eat it all himself. At the base of the Batu caves, there’s a dodgy little Indian restaurant where they had hair oil on the table which I’m sure people have mistaken for hand sanitizer or condiments, due to the pump dispenser and color.

The restaurants in Malaysia were amazing. Lavi knew all the best places, and we had some of the best Indian food of my life. There’s something called Banana Leaf cuisine, where instead of being served on a plate, you get a huge banana leaf, and then endless food is served to you on there. It was 5 Malaysian Ringit for all we could eat vegetarian food- that’s about US $1.50. We rounded off the meal with a flat buttery spongey bread called Thosai (HIGHLY recommended- you can get it plain, or stuffed with onions or curry potatoes), a few curries (chicken, fish and lamb), some Kueh Kueh (vegetable curry puffs), fried chicken, spicy curry soup, and for dessert, an Appam (a crisp, buttery pancake that we dipped in sweet coconut milk).

One of the best restaurants we hit up is a place called:

Restoran Sri Grand City

61, Jalan Dato Mahmud

46200 Petaling Jaya

Selangor D.E.

Tel: 03-7957-3158

For 6 of us to enjoy the feast mentioned above, it came out to a grand total of US $20.95!!! For everyone, not per person. The food was ridiculously good and cheap, and the kicker was a huge sign near the register that read, “Absolutely NO TIPS accepted”!!!

We got to go to the Kenyataan waterfalls, just outside the city. We went swimming in cold, clear water surrounded by a pristine forest. To celebrate the Friday afternoon, and kick start the weekend, our new friends brought a bottle of vodka to the falls, so we did shots in the water to warm up. According to Raj, “life’s too short to not enjoy the weekend from Friday through Sunday, so let’s do a shot to start the celebration”. In the bigger waterfalls, we swam again, only this time, I felt nibbles on my legs- the same kind of fish they have in the fish spas lived in the pool! Some of them were pretty big, so I had to keep splashing around to keep them from attacking me! We got to sit down in one part of the falls which had rocks, and the falling water created a Jacuzzi effect. When we were all nice and far from the banks of the waterfall and stream, a pack of wild monkeys descended upon our food, and stole our potato chips! They ran off with them up into the trees, opened the packages and ate them, throwing the empty wrappers down afterwards. Phil chased them away and threw rocks at them, b/c they kept creeping back down to steal more! After about an hour, the sky got really dark, and it started to pour rain, complete with thunder and lightning. We ran back to the cars, and when we were picked up from the side of the road (we got to wait under an umbrella while the guys fetched the cars), the car got stuck! A group of Indian guys ran to our rescue, and helped push us out, despite the wheels kicking up water and blasting them in the face with mud! They were so nice and willing to help out, despite the mess they were when we spun off.

Another friendly local Malaysian guy came up to me and Phil in a pub, and asked us where we were from, and told us, “Welcome to Malaysia” (we got so many “welcomes”!!! from strangers we encountered) then sang and dedicated a Michael Buble song about missing home to us on the karaoke mike, AND then sent the bartender over with a pitcher to refill our beers! The bartenders at a fancy club at the top of a hotel gave me and 3 other girls another round after the bar closed because I told them I loved Malaysia so much and was having such a great time.

Hospitality and warm welcomes were the theme in Malaysia, and we really enjoyed our 5 days there. The city was clean, modern, friendly, and had really good food and people. We definitely plan to return someday, and branch out to the countryside, in order to see more of Malaysia and discover why their slogan is “Malaysia… Truly Asia”.

Photos: Malaysia

missy_carrie_gee — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:46:00 GMT

Kuala Lumpur

Photos: Chiang Mai

missy_carrie_gee — Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:24:00 GMT

3 Day trek in Northern Thailand!

Photos: LAOS!

missy_carrie_gee — Tue, 5 Jan 2010 13:50:00 GMT

Vang Vieng, one of the most beautiful places...