Not Sure About Cambodia...

I've been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capitol city, for a couple of days now and, for the first time on this trip, I'm not really liking a place. There are all kinds of reasons why I should like it - broad avenues, good food, friendly people, lots to do and plenty of culture; but for some reason it's not moving me like other places have.

My first day here, I toured the Toul Sleng genocide museum also known as S-21. It was a local high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture prison and holding area for the Killing Fields 15Km away. Of the scores of thousands who were imprisoned here during the five years of insanity that swept this nation, only seven survived. Seven.

Right after, we were taken to Choeung Ek also known as The Killing Fields where thousands of truckloads of peasants, teachers, ex-soldiers, politicians, businessmen, women, children and the elderly were made to kneel down, then clubbed and had their throats cut, then dumped into pits and buried in mass graves.

Sounds like the same old 20th century story, doesn't it?

Maybe part of why I don't like it here is the shabbiness of these two sites. I guess I was expecting something more moving, more feeling, with more of a sense of import. The museum where so many were betrayed, tortured, (including waterboarding interestingly enough,) and condemned to mass execution, is falling apart and looks like crap, and the exhibits are thrown together without any apparent care. The fields where all those people died is covered in mud, weeds and litter, with open pools of nasty water, and there are beggars and livestock roaming all around. It's like they don't even care, but I know that can't be the case.

Maybe it's the way the same people who take you to these chilling places try to convince you to go to a shooting range immediately after to fire AK-47s, toss grenades, and I've even heard rumors you can shoot a rocket at livestock for kicks. I have no problem with guns and I like target shooting, but the thought of firing a weapon the genocidal killers might have used right after visiting the grisly results of their insanity is distasteful, to say nothing of what an RPG would do to a cow. What kind of person would be in that business and who would want to go do that?

Sick people.

I try to tell myself that it all happened just a couple of years ago, (the Khmer weren't completely eradicated until 1998!) the wounds are still too fresh and the people are still dealing with the horror of their own government killing about a third of the population. It must be some country-wide case of PTSD and I should give them some slack, I know...

Maybe it's the way the local population mistreats their own world. There is a huge amount of rotting garbage and flies everywhere - much more than any other place I've been. And it seems that everyone, with no effort to hide what they are doing, just goes to the bathroom anywhere. Now I've done way more than my share of taking a leak in nature or behind a dumpster after a long night out, but here I see it 20 times a day, at least - and no one even turns around to do it. One little naked kid almost peed on my feet, and I was walking in the road at the time!

(Wow, I sound like a prude!)

I know that poor farmers are flocking to the city to try to make money and they might not know about basic sanitation, but why isn't the government trying to do some education just for health reasons?

Things I like:

I went out to dinner last night at a beautifully decorated restaurant named Romdeng, it's a training restaurant for street kids but you would never know it. The food was wonderful - all authentic gourmet Khmer, and the service was, well, perfect.

I like the way so many Cambodian and International Organizations are here helping the homeless, limbless, parentless, penniless, and hopeless learn trades so they get make a living and don't have to just beg until they die.

I've walked all across this city these last two days and absolutely everyone is friendly - my smile is always instantly returned and people rush to help me if I look lost or struggling to communicate something.

Phnom Penh reminds me a of a city I love, Buenos Aires, there are lots of wide boulevards with parks running down the middle, and European architecture and balconies with plenty of green plants hanging down. There are lots of cute little art galleries and native music performances, and they seem to really be doing a good job of preserving and supporting local handicrafts, too.

I really love roaming the local markets, trying to figure out the meats and produce, (trying to ignore the blood and smells,) and everyone smiles at the lone white man squeezing through the crowds along the narrow walkways. I try very hard to keep my size 11.5 hobbit feet out of the displays;)

My hostel is nice, the other guests are super friendly, and the staff is fantastic.

I really like the cafe culture around the city, lots of rattan, ceiling fans, and cool corner balcony bars where you can sip G&T's and watch the Orient slip by... I just need a linen suit and a planter's hat!

So why am I feeling such antipathy? I thought maybe I'm just in a little mood because my fun in SE Asia ends in less than a week; but I am REALLY looking forward to the Seychelles, so that's not it.

I guess in the end, it doesn't much matter. Just becasuse a place is new and exotic doesn't mean I have to fall in love with it. A place is just a place like any other - some good, some bad - and I'm off to Saigon in the morning!

Good Night,

Clement

Three Days At Angkor Wat

I just got to Cambodia's capitol city, Phnom Penh, last night after spending almost three days in Siem Reap, home of the ancient Khmer temples known as Angkor Wat. The first thing I learned is that it's not just one temple, but over two hundred spread all around the countryside. The one we always see the pictures of (like in my last blog entry,) is the Angkor Wat, but any of the others are just as notable, old, and magnificent.

I arrived from Bangkok in the afternoon, found a place to stay and got some lunch at the local pushcart lot, (the ones in Cambodia look waaaaaay scarier than those I've visited in previously, but my fear factor is also much lower - no major intestinal problems yet...) As I crossed the street to get there, I almost got run over by a flock of scooters - after two straight months of British style left-side driving, I was looking the wrong way for traffic when I stepped into the street! Amazing how fast you can get used to something. Once I was safely across, I roamed the lot, looking in all the carts and noticing what the people were already eating, then I pretty much ordered by pointing. It's been working for two months, why change now?

Next up, I found myself a driver named Sahmboy, (sp?) hopped on the back of his moto and headed to the fabled temples with plenty of time to catch a sunset. Entry is $20 a day or three days for $40 and I was already regretting getting Riels, the Cambodian currency at the airport. Everything here is in $US! I got a decent 3800r to the dollar exchange rate, but the street rate is 4000r so I was losing money, oh well.

I knew there were a bunch of temples, but I had no idea there were so many and that they were so spread out. Sahmboy was cruising right by the picture book one to get to the one popular with the sunset crowd and I had to ask him to stop for some evening pics. Drivers are not allowed to accompany tourists around, (maybe to make sure we hire guides and double the employment...) so I hiked up on my own - dodging Chinese tourists all the way. I arrived in plenty of time but the temple was still crawling with tourists, all looking for that perfect spot. The steps up were as steep as any on the Mayan temples I've climbed and when I saw pools of blood on a couple of steps, I helped some poor lady who had skinned her shin pretty good a minute or so before I got there. Then I roamed the top of the temple, snapping pics in an effort to figure out the new camera, and looking for a good spot. As far as sunsets go, it was not the best - some low clouds on the horizon got in the way and it fizzled a bit, so many left early. But I got to poke around in the dusk and quite enjoyed myself.

After a ride back, I invited my moto pilot out for a beer and we made our plans for the next few days. We got along really well, it turns out we were born about 3 weeks apart and we wound talking for a couple of hours, comparing lives. He was just seven when the Khmer Rouge came to power and began their reign of terror that eventually killed over two million men, women, and children around him. His story was pretty harrowing and he reminded me of a Jewish Holocaust survivor who gave a talk at my High School one time. But for a geographic luckout of birth, I could have been him...

The next day, Sahmboy showed up bright and early with my guide for the day, Siya, and a tuk-tuk - a little three-seat cart hitched to his motorbike. I sat with Siya in the back and we got to know each other a bit on the way to the temple complex, making our plans for where and what to see. I could tell he was feeling me out a bit, figuring what kind of info and sights I wanted. So I cut to the chase and said, "Skip the dates and King's names, I like all stories and explanations of the lives of the people who lived here and built the temples. Describe what they and their society were trying to say with these huge stone works. I want to see as much as possible so go ahead and try to wear me out!" Siya came through big time and by the end of the day, I almost felt overwhelmed. He described building practices, explained the meaning behind the carvings, the history of the re-discovery and preservation efforts, and told me all the story-behind-the-story type stuff I like. We raced all over, barely stopping for lunch and saved Angkor Wat till last where we wound up running the length of the causeway in pouring rain to finish the day. My team did such a great job that once again, I treated everyone to beers to wind down from our day.

There is a lot of nightlife around Siem Reap, and I had a good time each night. Any town with streets with names like Bar Street and Pub Street is definitely a place for fun! Maybe too many people have a good time as one "professional" lady actually offered me "boom-boom!" Where was I? Saigon in the '60's? I wound up hanging out with a Chinese girl, a German guy, and two Indian sisters from Oslo who were all going to school in Singapore. Whew, talk about a worldly bunch! But alas, the only trouble I got into was at a fantastic used bookstore, where I somehow limited myself to just three.

The next morning, it was just Sahmboy and I at 5AM on the moto to go catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. First we stopped for gas - not at a gas station, but at a little roadside stand where the fuel is dispensed from old Johnny Walker Scotch liter-sized bottles. Since there were no pumps, I guess this is the way everyone knows exactly how much gas you are buying and there is no hassle over measuring. Then we took a 36Km ride to the little visited but very beautifully carved Banteay Srei and then hit three more complexes on the way back to catch my noon bus to Phnom Penh.

I definitely got the most out of my short visit and I was so happy with Sahmboy that as a big tip, I had him take me to the Cambodian equivalent of Staples to stock up on school supplies for his five kids.

If you ever go to Angkor, give yourself lots of time and make sure you get a great driver and guide like I did!

Stay Wet, (I'm sadly dry,)

Ciao for now,

Clement

Random Indonesia And Travel Thoughts

It was my Grandmom's 94th Birthday this week and you wouldn't believe how thrilled she sounded when I called to wish her all the best and give her my love.
"You're calling from Bangkok!!??!!"

The topic of what favorite food we miss came up the other day in Bali.
Fast Food? Nope.
Burgers? Nope.
Pizza? Nope.
Italian? Had some spaghetti bolognese and it was lame, but nope.
Mexican? Nope.
An hour went by and as I was replaying the conversation in my mind I thought, "Wow, I really don't miss that stuff..." Then I suddenly realized - "CHIPOTLE!!!!" and couldn't stop thinking about a nice Barbacoa Burrito fixed just the way I like it. More than ten days later, I'm still thinking about it... Shit.

Ok, so I found something I really miss.

People in Indonesia react and reflect on the Bali Bombings there in 2002 & 2005 the same way we look at 9/11. It's a kind of defining moment in both cultures and everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the moment it happened. The difference is they want to talk about it (while I don't like talking about it,) and make sure we realize a horrible thing happened to them, too.

In the airport at Ujung Pandar the other day, I saw three women in chadors, (full-length black veils with only their eyes showing,) huddled together playing a PSP, making noises and fighting for their turn at the game. It made me feel good to know that even though we seem very different, we are all still very similar. I wonder if they like Halo2...

I love spicy food. The hotter the better. I like it like the locals like it and I have been in heaven here in SE Asia, trying all kinds of new tastes, ingredients and spices. But I have met my match in Indonesia and it's called (phonetically,) "Booga Booga." Don't laugh, that's the name. This Bunaken home-made condiment looks like a cross between salsa and the regular pepper sauce, but it really packs a wallop... The sweat popped out on my forehead, my nose ran like crazy and I was drinking glass after glass of water as it wrecked my mouth for a day!

I ran around Bangkok, setting up my next journey to Cambodia and Viet Nam. To make room for all the extensions I did, (Koh Tao, Phuket, Perhentian, Sulawesi,) I had to cut 'Nam back to just Ho Chi Minh City and drop Chiang Mai altogether. But no worries, I know I'll be back.

My camera semi-died in Gili T. and has been limping along ever since, but it was definitely on its last legs. Having lived in Bangkok for a while, Theresa sent me to the five floor electronics-only mall where she bought her awesome camera and housing and I decided to splurge and wound up getting a new Canon G9 with its own underwater housing! Much cheaper than in the US, but still a lot, though I feel better remembering that I found my first camera on the bottom of Lake Rawlings and am ahead of the game in the Grand Scheme Of Things.


I arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia today and caught the sunset over the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. Wow, just - wow.



The book count is now at 27 and I just started on Milan Kundera's "Book Of Laughter And Forgetting." Just a little lighthearted story about the Prague Spring of '68.

And with that, I am now caught up with my posts! Hooray!!

Now I just need to figure out the new camera and get my pics updated...

Stay Wet And Stay Warm - I know it's autumn,
Clement

The Most Amazing Reef I've Ever Seen -

...is in Bunaken, North Sulawesi.

I left Bali on the 18th for this remote part of Indonesia to visit my German Buddy Theresa, who had invited me along to dive with her where she was finishing off her DM classes. Now, I've known that Indonesia diving is supposed to be the some of the most abundant, colorful, and diverse on earth, but seeing sure is believing! The life here blew my mind - every dive was like something from the cover of a dive magazine, and I had trouble recalling all the cool stuff for my logbook.

Beyond the fact that all the dive sites were amazingly colored walls that seemed to descend to the far side of the planet, there were clouds of vibrantly hued reef fish everywhere along with sharks and plenty of turtles. With the constant currents doing all the work carrying us gently back and forth along the vertical reef, my shortest divetime was 75 minutes! The special things that really made my dives were all of the exotic small animals we found - pygmy seahorses the size of 1/4 of your pinky-nail, all different kinds of strikingly colored nudibranchs, mandarin fish, lionfish of many different species under every rock, 5 different kinds of moray eel. Do you want me to go on? OK, I will. Flatworms, mantis shrimp with powerful claws, super poisonous kraits and seasnakes, tiny anemone crabs and finally on my last dive, the one tiny little strange creature I'd always hoped to see - an ornate ghost pipefish!

What? You want more? OK, try to imagine a boat speeding across a glass-calm ocean to the next dive site when a gigantic pod of about 130 dolphins & calves starts leaping out of the water all around and playing in the bow wave. And they play with us for about 15 minutes!

If you're still not impressed, I quit.

The dive op was Two Fish Divers,

http://www.twofishdivers.com/

run by an English couple named Tina and Nigel, and everyone was really friendly. All the meals were local food served family style and every night we hung out and sang along while the DMs and staff played guitars and sang. While I was there we celebrated two birthdays and a successful IDC, but we never really needed the excuse to pull out the palm wine (think sweet and toxic,) and Bintangs and start a party...

My bungalow was up the road a bit and it was back to the old nightime-only electricity, mosquito nets, and cold showers again; but frankly - it was absolutely perfect. I walked home each night up the islands main road (which was noticeably less substantial than some driveways I've had,) guided by the bright moonlight and nearly deafened by the chorus of crickets, geckos and tree frogs. Pelan, pelan, (slowly, slowly) is the refrain for the musical life these Bunakens lead and we should all take note 'cause they are doing it right: the island is a big mix of Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and animist and everyone gets along and respects each other just fine. The pace of life (and lack of internet,) could make you forget there was even a world outside and I felt so at peace. I loved it - though I think Bunaken might actually be too quiet for me to live, it's still one of the best places I've ever been.

The week flew by and once again, leaving was very painful, but I headed back to Bangkok to salvage whatever I could from my tattered schedule.

(I'll try to add more pictures later - my hard-drive is acting up, grrrrr.)

Ciao,
C

We'll All Be Planning Out A Route...

...We're Gonna Take Real Soon...

If you realized that's the opening line to a Beach Boy's greatest hit, then you also easily guessed one of the super cool things I got to do in Bali! That's right, I climbed on an eight foot long board in breaking waves and tried to balance on it and avoid the (many) bad things that can happen to you when you are surfing. I couldn't help noticing all the various coral shreddings and bruises around town...

But first, let's talk about Ubud.

I arrived in Ubud kind of late in the evening, but Derek & Melinda from Denver had spent at least a week there so they had me prepped and ready to go. I checked into the Hotel Ibunda - faithfully following their recommendations (and since she runs a spa back home, I felt very safe trusting her.) My room was cool, artsy, boutiquey, centrally located and best of all cheap - I was liking this town already. (Actually, the best part of my room at Ibunda came the next morning when I got into the hot shower, my first since staying in Omar's posh passion pit in Phuket (say that 5 times fast,) almost a month ago!) After checking in, I wandered around and found something to eat (difficult with so many interesting choices,) then hit the bed after booking my next day's adventure.

Derek had recommended an all day biking tour of Ubud and the surrounding towns and country-side that also included breakfast at the Batu volcano, a tour of some botanical gardens, lunch, and a trip to the Monkey Forest. My pickup was scheduled for 8:15 and after a long long hot shower I was just about ready at ten past when there was a knock at my door. It seems the group had been waiting out front since 8 - I was OK since they told me quarter past, but since some had been picked up an hour before while I was still snoring, I still felt kind of bad. But the whole day wound being even better than it sounded, the tour leader knew so much about Balinese culture and was very eager to share as much of it as he could. By the end of the afternoon, my head was so stuffed with new knowledge, I was dizzy. One of the coolest details is how they name their children - by birth order, one through four plus a personal name and then repeat with a prefix if there are five or more kids. For example, as the oldest, I would be I (long e sound,) Waiyan Clement - first brother Clement. Neat huh? We also learned a ton about Hindu and Community or Banjar culture - very complex with everyone belonging to temples for family, village, avocation, and specific gods, too. Biking through was a wonderful way to really see and connect with the area, plus it was so fun waving hello to EVERY kid we passed - they were all so overjoyed to see us!

After, the monkey forest, (ho-hum, beautiful park and spoiled little animals,) I wandered around town and checked out all the galleries and artists' studios - I could fill a huge home with all the amazing paintings, statues, and beautiful wood furniture I saw. Ubud is really a thriving culture center, with lots going on. In the evening, I discovered a local community theatre that was performing gamelan music and traditional dances. The next day was more of the same, exploring the countryside and rice terraces and enjoying the art, music and architecture of the area.

Then I was back on the road for the hour long ride to Kuta beach, center of Bali's beach culture and a magnet for surfers from around the world. Now if you think Dive Instructors are laid-back and chilled out, you must meet the team at Prosurf! After an hour of theory and practicing hopping to our feet on surfboard shaped mats next to the pool, we hit the waves to try the real thing. Ade, Jake, and the rest must have done a great job because I rode a wave all the way to ankle deep water my first try! I wish I could say every wave was that easy, but I definitely had my share of silly slips and gnarly wipeouts too. By the end of the afternoon, I was venturing out further and further on my own, catching 2 meter waves and starting to make some turns. I was more exhausted from paddling out through the fairly heavy surf than the surfing itself, but we all had to be practically dragged in by the end of the day. I know I personally begged "one more wave," at least four times - one from each of the instructors with us. After we cleaned up, a bunch of brand new surfers hit the beach for beers and the sunset, telling hours-old surf stories and using our hands to describe our experiences in a way that every real surfer would instantly recognise.

While it won't replace diving in my life, surfing is a sport I will be doing again, as soon as I can...

I had planned to head back to Bangkok next to head out to Viet Nam and Cambodia, but then Theresa, my German friend from Koh Tao, e-mailed me several weeks before to invite me along to dive Bunaken Island. For those of you like me who don't have the 17,000 islands of Indonesia geographically memorized, it's off North Sulawesi, on the South side of the Celebes Sea. T was completing her DM course, so I changed plans again. Sulawesi is reputed to be some of the absolute best diving on earth and I was not disappointed!

Until Next Time -

Stay Wet,

Clement

Does It Get Any Better Than Diving In Bali?!!!?

I flew in to Bali after midnight after a long night and day travelling on a train from Malaysia to Singapore, taking a whirlwind taxi tour of that city, then flying out after dinnertime. Since I arrived at the train station in Jerantut at midnight, it had been a 24 hour plus day! First thing on my long list of things to do (very long, Bali has a huge array of "must-see" places and "must-do" activities,) was to leave again. But I didn't go far, after a quick stay at a guesthouse in Sanur Beach, I was hopping on a ferry to the nearby island of Nusa Lembongan - a secluded surfer's haven and where the elusive mola-mola (oceanic sunfish,) can be spotted if you're lucky.

The boat dropped us knee-deep in the surf and I hauled my stuff up the beach to Bali Hai Diving Adventures, which, according to a show I caught on the Discovery Channel, was THE dive shop to find these huge, gentle, strange fish. Andy, the Brit working in the dive shop, got my kit sorted out and I was all set to catch the afternoon dive with hours to spare so I went to find a place to stay, (gotta love my priorities,) and got lucky. Oka 7, right next to my dive shop, had one room left and I talked them down to 120,000 Rupiah a night (sounds bad but because of a 9300Rp to the dollar exchange rate, it's actually less than $14 - you should have seen me almost freaking out when I withdrew 2 Million from an ATM, I thought I'd misplaced the decimal and emptied my account!) The grand room had an upstairs ocean view with a shaded outside room large enough to have a daybed and a living room set to match my double queen beds and own bathroom inside! I felt silly bouncing around that huge space by myself and had to spread all my stuff out as much as possible to make it homey. It was wonderful to gently come awake to the sound of roaring surf in the mornings. All the other guests were a group of German surfers, and weren't too interested in making friends with a solo American diver. Not to worry, I had a chance to spot Mola-Mola, one of the "Big Five" sea-creatures to spot, (I'm not sure what the other four are, but I would imagine whale sharks and manta rays are two of them - anyone know? Post a comment if you do.)



In no time, I was backrolling into the water at Crystal Bay, the "best" site for an encounter, and instantly found it was COLD! Andy had told me this, and made me wear a loaned 5mm wetsuit, but it was so beautiful and tropical looking, I hadn't completely believed him until that first rush of water into the suit quickly convinced me. Once my heart re-started, (on its own, thanks,) I consoled myself with the knowledge that the 19C water temp was the reason those funny-looking big fish could be found here as they usually prefer cooler deep water, but take advantage of upwellings around Lembongan to rise up to the reef to visit cleaning stations where smaller fish pick the parasites off of them. It should have been a great dive - excellent vis, clouds of colorful reef fish, all kinds of new ones I'd never seen before, massive healthy coral all around, but I felt like it was a bust because there were no Mola. After a repeat shutout the next morning, I was beginning to wonder if I was fated to miss out when "Bingo!" I saw one ahead and above us, just hanging in the sunbeams with cleaner fish flitting all around. We watched in awe for a while until it gently and weirdly moved away. That was like the floodgates opening, and as the dive continued I saw 6 more. At one point, there were 5 right next to me, patiently waiting for their chance to get cleaned. And of course, I saw them on every dive after that, even on one drift where we were looking at Blue Ribbon Eels in a spot where the Mola didn't usually show up, we saw one.

Diving with the Mola-Mola at Lembongan is one dive experience I will definitely treasure...



Gili Trewangan is one of three small islands off the coast of Lombok, a major island east of Bali and my next destination. I had to spend a night in Bali after taking an afternoon ferry back from Lembongan, and I stayed at Hotel Sorga in Kuta Beach - a fun but busy beach in the islands SW side. With a crowd, I sat on the broad white sand beach and watched the sun plunge into the sea, then got dinner from the worgan, or pushcarts you find everywhere, and headed to bed since I had to get up at 5:45AM to catch the fast ferry to Gili T. After another knee deep noon-time surf landing (think MacArthur,) I found myself on Gili T.'s main "street," a mostly unpaved beachside path. Instantly, this island captivated me - no cars, scooters, bemos, or pick-up trucks anywhere! No internal combustion engines! (I found out later no power at all!... until that night, when they got the lights back on.) The taxis were actually tiny pony carts like you ride in when you are a kid - so cute! At least until you step in a present late at night in the dark... I walked no more than 25 meters to Manta Divers, a place a friend had recommended - a great operation and a friendly bunch of folks and once again I managed to get on that afternoon's dive. The only downside was that the Manta agent I talked to in Kuta claimed their rooms were 150,000Rp a night ($16) and when I got there it was 450,000!!! Bit of a shock, but I wasn't upset, I just made the point they needed to straighten out the guy in Kuta. So I walked down the beach a bit and found a good room for 100,000Rp at Big Bubble.

I really liked the diving at Trewangan - nice long drift dives, good reefs with lots of fish, whitetip and blacktip sharks, and at least a turtle on every dive. The eagle-eyed DMs found all kinds of amazing tiny and camouflaged stuff from see-through Leafy Scorpionfish, to juvenile blue-ribbon eels, 2mm long baby squid, to a tiny banded pipefish, plus some amazingly well-hidden crocodile fish and stargazers. The dive groups were kept very small and we had all the time we wanted, as long as that was an hour plus a little... The local DMs were especially amazing as the Muslim Holy month called Ramadan started while I was there, and the practicing DMs worked without food or water until sundown! Kind of neat being awakened by the Muezzin's singing call to prayers, but it got old fast as the holiday seems to call for praying at all hours of the night!

The group a Manta Divers was very welcoming, and I soon found myself at a birthday party for one of the DM candidates where I was introduced to Indonesian vodka (the Polish and Russian industries are safe,) and the local firewater called Arak. I think it's made from rice somehow and even though its rough taste is easily disguised by mixers, it really packs a punch! I soon met a bunch of divers and there was always someone to pal around with the rest of the time I was there. One of the coolest was Becks, a new DM from England who works winters running a ski school at Mammoth Mountain in California, (I've promised to keep up my newly rediscovered skiing, and she has offered me more snowboarding lessons if I visit!) Before getting into diving, she also worked crewing on super yachts - and y'all thought I was the one leading the interesting and glam life!

One of the funniest things I experienced happened at a local bar/restaurant named A Beautiful Life. It has a big theatre type area where you can watch the movies of the night for free if you order a drink or food, as well as little cushioned cozy beach huts where you can pick your flick. It features current 1st run movies such as The Simpsons, Evan Almighty, Bourne Ultimatum (there's that flick again,) and Rush Hour 3; as well as some classics like Halloween. I caught the Simpsons Movie and the scene in the opening credits where Bart is writing over and over on the blackboard, "I will not illegally download this movie," got a big laugh.

Another interesting part of Asian life is all the interesting flavors of potato chips you can find. Of course there is the normal BBQ and Sour Cream, but I've also seen Curry Chicken, Squid, Durian, and Salted Seaweed. Tried the chicken ones but I don't think I have the courage to try the seafood flavors, we'll see...

One morning at breakfast, all the European divers' cell phones started buzzing and that's how I found about the most recent Indonesian earthquakes. They were many hundreds of miles away in Sumatra and we never felt a thing. No risk of a tsunami either, but thank you for all the concerned emails - I definitely felt cared for and remembered!

This trip of mine is all about discovering new places, but it also seems to also be about leaving great places and new friends and soon it was time to head back to Bali. I had taken the Mahi-Mahi fast ferry to Gili T., but it made more sense to take the regular ferry back to Pedangbai and transfer to Ubud from there - either way, I would arrive around 5PM and the fast boat method costs 5 times more. Or so I thought. Best part was the interesting modes of travel - outboard to Lombok then pony cart to the minibus to the big slow ferry to Bali where another minibus was waiting. Trouble was the crowded docks which kept the big ferry floating
just outside for three hours! Luckily, on the line to the ferry I had met Derek and Melinda from Denver - the first Americans I'd spoken to since Bangkok! They had gotten a bunch of time off work and were doing the Bali area for 3 or 4 weeks and made some suggestions for Ubud. We spent the long ride and wait talking and sharing the ferry's crappy junkfood and swapping book recommendations. They made the day fly by and I was sad to see them off when I caught my mini to Ubud at 8PM... I hope the weather in Denver isn't too cold just yet!

Next installment will be all about the artsy mountain town of Ubud and my surf lessons!
(Hint, I'm still picking sand out of my butt...)

Ciao,
Clement

Exploring An Ancient Rainforest In Malaysia. And Then A Whirlwind Singapore Tour!

After I sadly left the wonderful Perhentian Islands, I reassured myself that amazing experiences always lie ahead of me. And I was right.
I caught an early morning ferry back to the mainland and transferred to a minibus for a long drive halfway down the peninsula of Malaysia to Taman Negara - the oldest continuous tropical rainforest on earth!
Scientists have determined that the forest dates back around 135 million years and the Malaysian Government (despite a very questionable environmental protection record,) made it a National Park in the 30's to protect it and its inhabitants from logging.
I was travelling with Maartje, a Dutch friend I met on Perhentian Kecil, and just before dinner time we arrived at Kuala Tahan, the small town at the edge of the park. It is situated right on the river bank and in fact, many of the town's buildings are river boats that have to move up and down the bank as the water level changes! The river is the most major road in town and you get around on these skinny looooooong boats. I got pretty good at getting in and out without capsizing, but the boats are so easy to tip, it always felt like it was about to go over.
We got a really cheap dorm-room to stay in and luckily the place was deserted until the 2nd to last night, when two more Dutch girls moved in. It seemed that everyone we met in the park and in the local town was Dutch - it became a running joke that got weirder and weirder the more true it became!
Malaysia is a pretty seriously Muslim country, and there are no bars or alcohol in the restaurants. At dinner one night on a riverboat, the owner came over to us and said in a very "on the down-low" kind of voice, "Do you want a beer?" We jumped at the chance (withdrawal symptoms from Long Beach possibly?) but the catch was you had to keep the (expensive) can wrapped in a napkin all the time. It felt like college drinking all over again, hiding your drink when everyone with half a brain knows what it is, and I wondered when the RA was gonna bust in!
We went trekking, climbed a mountain, did a canopy tour, and shot the rapids (that's one American phrase that didn't translate well - "Bang bang at the river???") There was also a visit to an aboriginal village where we made blowgun darts for monkey hunting and I even got to do some target practice with one. A blowgun, that is, not a monkey... Along the treks, we saw some wild pigs, all kinds of lizards, milliions of cool bugs, and some massive ants - by far the biggest I've ever seen! On my last day, I had planned an afternoon solo trek to a bat cave, but the skies opened up and the rain kept me in.
Sadly, Maartje needed to head to Kuala Lumpur and back to Amsterdam to go back to work, and I needed to take the overnight train to Singapore where I'd booked a plane for Bali, so the jungle adventure had to end.

The 1:30AM night train turned into the 5:30AM morning train, so I didn't get much time in Singapore. I had an upper sleeping berth, and managed to scratch out a couple of hours before waking up for good to the sound of Muslim prayers at 7AM. I spent the next xeveral hours standing in the open doorway between the trains, watching Malaysia slide by - very cool and I doubt you would be allowed to spend a minute there in the US. We pulled into the city around noon and had to go through the usual immigration and customs, then get back on the train to go to the actual station. After getting cleared, I was snackless and ravenous but a family of Malay women in pretty headscarves noticed my longing glances at their breakfast and shared it with me - one of the warmest and nicest feelings I've had on this trip - or maybe I was faint with hunger and exhaustion. I tried all kinds of unidentifiable things they offered and since they knew about as much English as I knew Malaysian, we communicated by sign language, smiles and a couple of easy phrases - "Terima Kecih," means "Thank You" and the response is "Samo Samo." When I tried what looke like a round tortilla chip and discovered it was an anchovy chip, no language was necessary and they laughed at my expression.
When I got out of the train station, I had about 5 hours until I needed to head to the airport and I hopped into the first cab I saw and made him an offer. "What are you doing until 6:30? I've got $50 US for you if you'll drive me around all day and show me the city..." too bad he got off shift at 5PM, but he found a friend who was willing and we drove all over the city, stopping for me to run around and quickly see the sights. It seemed like a great city - modern and efficient with lots of shopping. I really like how clean and green it was, trees lined every street and there were large parks everywhere. Best of all was their answer to the Sydney Opera House - built on a grand scale of shimmering steel, the shell was covered in points to make it look like a durian fruit!
My cabbie got me to the airport with plenty time to spare and I jetted off to Bali!
Check my flickr page for all the pics as the computer I'm now working on seems to not like my portable hard-drive...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clementpics/sets/
Daag!
Clementje

Holy Smokes!

I just took a quick count in my pocket notebook and realized I've read 18 books since I left home!!!

From Hannibal Rising on the plane to Sydney to some crappy tattered 70's Western I picked up in a guesthouse in Bali yesterday, I've been burning through the lit - some bad, but mostly good. I guess if you are gonna drag a book halfway around the world, it might as well be something you like...

Most hostels have a pile of discarded books and the policy is leave one - take one, but I've had fellow travellers give me one they liked and I've made a gift to others of the ones I found special. There are always lots of really good-looking ones in German, wish I knew the lingo!

The best so far have been Shadow Of The Wind, a story about a bookseller's son in post-war Barcelona (it was awesome - drop what you are doing and go buy this book right now!!) Next best are First They Killed My Father, about Cambodia in the 70's (light reading,) and two books by Bill Bryson the humorous travel writer, In A Sunburnt Country, (Australia,) and A Walk In The Woods, (about the Appalachian Trail.) I also really enjoyed John Irving's Until I Find You, (but I always love Irving,) which was a bonus as it was more than a thousand pages long and got me through a tortuous train ride to Singapore!

The most fun have been The Devil Wears Prada, (yes I like Chick Lit too,) and The Beach, the novel that Leo DiCaprio's movie was based on. Kinda cool reading that book in a Thai Island Hostel on a beach reading about a guy in a nearby spot.

That's all - nothing earth-shaking, just thought I'd share. I'm off to meet some German surfers for Bintangs!

Prost!
Kliment

Perhentian Islands - Paradise Found! Again!

(...When we left our hero, he was hurtling south along the road to the port town of Kuala Besut in Malaysia, loudly singing Elton John, Rod Stewart, The Eagles and Stevie Winwood with a madman cabdriver - dodging goats and Muslim Prayergoers along the way...)

The fast ferry to the Perhentian Islands was exactly as advertised - fast! 2x200Hp Yamahas attached to a 35' boat can really move. Made the crossing in about 30 minutes and as we approached the pair of islands around noon, I realized I was in for a treat. They are a pair of islands, named Pulau Perhentian Kecil (Little,) and Pulau Perhentian Besar (Big,) set half a Km apart about 19Km off the East Coast of Malaysia, in the South China Sea. They are gorgeous - green hills, rocky cliffs separating dazzling white sandy beaches, and just bits of progress showing here and there. After dropping some folks off at Big, we crossed the channel to Little's Long Beach - where the fun crowd (ie not honeymooners or families,) is supposed to hang out. After carting my bags through the minimal surf, I looked up to find Spice Divers right in front of me, and made my way across the sugar sand and up the steps onto their big shady deck. The first personn I met was a Canadian DM candidate named Bree, who coolly appraised my backpack and asked me if I needed a room or a dive.
Easy answer: "Can I get on an afternoon dive?"
Bree helpfully replied, "Boat leaves in 10."
I dumped my shit in the office, threw on a pair of trunks in the compressor room and waded out to the open boat for a dive on Sugar Wreck. What is there to say? Vis was mediocre, but that was the only possible complaint as the water was warm, my 3 Danish buddies a bunch of laughs, and the wreck and its tenants were awesome. Lionfish, puffers, big schools of jacks and razorfish (my new fave,) swam all over the the real wreck. Razorfish are small fish that are always oriented head-down and swim around that way using their pectoral fins. A school looks almost like turtle grass, swaying in the water.






Once back on land, I checked out a couple of guesthouses (or as they call them "Chalets," don't be fooled, they were at the low end of basic,) and wound up at Chempaka for 30 Ringgit ($8) a night.



Gappy wood floors and walls, mosquito net, no electricity, and a slimy communal bathroom/shower across the lawn - but it was the nicest one I saw, and it quickly grew on me. Right after I moved in, I opened my back shutter to find myself eye-to-eye with what looked like a Komodo dragon! Nope, just a 5' monitor lizard that roams the area glaring at anyone who crosses its path. I'll tell you this - I sure made good use of my flashlight heading to the bathroom late at night!


The three Danes, who were winding up an 8 month tour, invited me to dinner and showed me around. It was not a big tour - just about 600m of gently curving beach with simple guesthouses, open-air restaurants, and some snorkelling and dive shops sprinkled among the palm trees at the edge of the sand.
The next day, I did three dives, the best was just me and Bree having a good long, slow wander along a beautiful reef, finding turtles and blue-spotted rays in the rocks and coral. It turns out Bree arrived here in April for three days, took her Open Water Class, got hooked and has never left. I bet that story sure sounds familiar to some of us... Considering she is from chilly Alberta, I guess it's not that surprising.


Late that afternoon, I was hanging around on Spice Divers huge deck, having some of their tea and cookies, when I noticed a raucous beach volleyball game going on right out front. I did my usual stand on the sidelines looking hopeful routine, and was soon invited in. It felt like my kind of group - laughing, good-natured trash-talking in 5 languages, diving for hopeless balls and a big cheering section - I had found the Perhentian Volleyball Society! Next thing I know I'm invited out to dinner, then drinks, then it's 4AM and I'm diving in 4 hours!!! Made the dives of course, and all the following days were more of the same - some moved on, but new people always arrived to replace them, most stayed an extra day or two and I wound up extending my stay twice, I was having so much fun. It was about 25 or so Germans, Dutch, English, Norwegians, Italians, Irish, Spanish and me - the lone American. (Honestly, other than Shan who has lived in Koh Tao for 7 years, I don't think I've met another US citizen since Bangkok! I didn't realize that until I met this group on Little and one of them mentioned they hadn't seen many in Malaysia... I wonder if I'm just lucky?) My best memory was at Palm Tree Bar, late one night - an Orangutan and Coke in my hand, (don't ask!) dancing up a storm to Bob Marley with a real rainstorm pouring down outside. I was trying not to think about the laundry that had been almost dry on my porch railing when Pop! the power went out, and no one missed a beat, "Could this be love...? And be lo-ove." We replaced the music with our own, and the power was out so long, it finally devolved to TV theme songs, Happy Days and The Flintstones among them. But the party never even slowed until long after the electricity came back with a cheer.

One day, as I was at lunch, dawdling over a book and a curry at a place called Tummy Rumbles, perched above the beach on the side of a hill - I heard a growing roar and looked up as two Malaysian fighter planes buzzed the beach! They made at least 6 passes during their mini-airshow, one low enough that I was looking down at it as it buffetted the taller palm trees. Turns out a group of Malaysian pilots had taken their leave there 2 weeks previously and had such a great time, they come back every couple of days to check things out again! I know how they feel!

Perhentian Kecil has such a warm, welcoming vibe, and is such a beautiful little island with a perfect balance of wild green jungle, wild life, great diving, a tiny settlement on the edge of the water and cool visitors, it definitely is right at the top of my list of favorite places so far.

Eventually though, the reality of my schedule (in tatters now,) forced me to ignore some pleas of "Just one more day..." and get on the morning ferry to connect to a mini-bus headed to my next stop. Time to play Indiana Jones, and explore the 135 millionn year old rainforest named Taman Negara...

Tune in next time and see what happens...

Cheers!
Clement

Uncle Clement - Just Has To Share This Pic!

This pic was taken just before I left for my grand adventure - classic looks from all three of us!

Hard to believe it, but I'm even more tan now. And I haven't had a haircut since (Gasp!!)

More Beautiful Spots In Thailand - Krabi, Ao Nang & Railey Beach

I've been in Malaysia for a week now and internet access has been a bit harder to find than it was in Thailand. But I've got some time waiting for a bus to Jerantut and then a train to Singapore, so I'll try to get down what I remember of my post-Phuket experiences.

I visited Krabi town briefly - the whole area is called Krabi and the actual town is just a simple place about 15Km from the water. The day I arrived we visited several local beach communities and I liked Ao Nang the best and decided to stay there. I had planned to stay in Railey Beach, but it is only accessible by longtail taxi boat and it was raining so I took the easy (and dry,) way out. Shopped a couple of hostel/guesthouses and settled on a cheap one on a block full of similarly forgettable flophouses. Bed - lumpy. Bathroom - damp. Lighting - dim fluorescent. Ambiance - well.... Anyway, it was right next-door to a fun bar named The Irish Rover and that's what I remember best about it.
A quick check of the local dive shops revealed they dove mostly Koh Phi-Phi (which I dove from the Phuket side already,) so I decided to relax on the beaches and do some exploring.
During the days I visited up and down the coast, places with names like Hat Tonsai, Hat Rai Leh, Ao Phai Plong, and Nopparat Thara. All were seriously laid-back beach towns with amazing sand and water views, picturesque rock islands offshore and verdant cliff formations surrounding the bays. Tonsai is so overhung with rocky heights that it has become an Asian tropical mecca for climbers and there are schools and services everywhere for the vertical pilgrims.
At low tide, it was possible to walk around the rocky headlands to the next beach and I discovered a secluded beach resort right next to Ao Nang exotically named Centara Grand. It was a little larger than I like, but the location was perfect! Look it up if you are headed that way for a romantic getaway. I walked under the cliffs and had a drink at the beach bar, then cleared out before the tide's return closed off the way back.
Railey Beach (or Hat Rai Leh,) wound up being one of my favorites. It's actually two beaches (named East Railey & West Railey for the way they face,) on a southern trending spit of land that ends in another of those huge jungle-covered limestone formations. East is the backpacker side with funky places to stay, nifty restaurants and the nightlife. West is connected by a 150m footpath and is the home of the beach resorts, the boat taxi drop-off and a wide wide beach with amazing sunset views. The tiny town in between has cute little restaurants, a used book shop (got a John Irving - couldn't help it,) and two dive operators. On my trek across, I stopped to watch a local volleyball game and soon got invited in. I was the sweaty Westerner, but had a blast anyway and I'm now working on a theory of "volleyball diplomacy" that I'll expand on in a later post. After a spectacular sunset I caught a longtail taxi back to Ao Nang for dinner and to get ready to head off to Malaysia.
While in the area, my meals were mostly road-side stalls and carts (really a la carte!) which are one of the best things about Thailand. Great food, tons of variety, super cheap, and you get to order by pointing as you graze down a row of them. As I sat on a stool at a communal plastic table, I wound up talking to an English girl who has been on the backpacker trail for 20 months! For those of you who think I tell tons of stories (and even repeat myself a bit,) you will be impressed to know that I listened enthralled for a couple of hours at her tales of Australia (all of it - really,) North Africa, Nepal, India, China, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, and every part of SE Asia. She had a month or two left on her journey, but wow! What a trip!

Here's a funny dumb Clement travel story:
I was supposed to catch a 6:30AM bus to Krabi and on to Hat Yai and Sungai Kolok on the Malaysian border where I planned to walk across and catch local bus 29 to Kota Baru. When I got home from talking to the Super Traveller, my guesthouse office was locked up for the night with my important stuff like $$, iPod, and passport still locked in their lockers which were now behind a metal pull-down garage door. Security is a great thing, but they didn't open until 8AM so when my ride appeared, I was hopefully packed - but without a passport, I was stuck. They left without me and when the hostel opened at 9AM I rescheduled to the 11AM Bus. Advertised to arrive at the border at 7PM, reality was closer to 9PM when the border closes so I was stuck in the scariest hotel I've ever slept in for the night. It was 6 stories and I'm sure I was the only tenant. I've never seen a dirtier rug, the door had an actual fist-sized hole through it, and it took two hands to move the uranium density pillow. The one piece of art on the wall..., well you'll just have to check my flickr page for it. It's a classic. I crossed the border bright and early in the AM and caught a cab to Kuala Besut where the ferry boats to Pulau Perhantian Islands collect their passengers. I was lucky to find a cab at all since I had decided to enter Malaysia on the 50th Anniversary of their Independence, whoops! - Imagine trying to find a taxi in the USA at 9AM on July 4th! The cabbie had zero English, but that was fine, as I managed to get him to find me a place to change some money and used a map to point out where I needed to go. He was so nice that he played his one tape of western music for our 2 hour ride to the port city - I'll always treasure my new memory of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" (or as I sing it - "Hold me tight now, Tony Danza...") that we both sang at full volume down the coast road in sight of the South China Sea.
Very surprisingly, I was the better singer...

More on Malayisa very soon, I promise!

Buon Gia,

Clemenje

Falling Behind In My Posts, Sorry!

I know, I know...
I still need to finish my Thailand Postings and I've already been in Malaysia for a week! Perhentian Islands were great and I'm now in Tanam Negara - a huge 135 million year old tropical rainforest! It's the oldest forest on earth and so lush, rugged and achingly beautiful it takes my breath away.

Here's another cool quote I came across:

"There is no plan. We plan, the Universe laughs. It's that simple.
We only win if we buy Murphy a beer."

[Marc Viola, February 2007]

Yeah Marc, I feel you.

Daag!
Clementje