Our first official day in Jakarta was quite uneventful. We were all a bit tired from our travels and our last few nights in Bintan so we spent more of the day sleeping and eating in an attempt to recharge our battery. As it turned out we needed our batteries to be more charged than we had anticipated because what we did the next 2 days involved little to know sleep. If you look up Jakarta in the Lonely Planet you will find that it is described as having the best night/club scene in all of Asia. Although it also talks a bit about some touristy things to do (which we did one afternoon) most of the description is about how clubbing in Jakarta is a must. We have trusted our LP thus far and we were not about to give up on it with that advice.
The day after we arrived we got up late, got a bit to eat (we found a place where you could get all you can eat rice for 40 cents so we all felt extremely sick after stuffing ourselves) and then went and checked out some sites around the city. We didn't last too long with this because it was unbearably hot out but we gave it the old college try. That night after it had cooled down a bit (meaning it was still unbearably hot) we headed to a park we had passed on walk earlier that day where there were little soccer fields and basketball courts. We quickly found ourselves involved in a basketball game and once that was finished we moved on to soccer. Whenever we join into games it is always a scene and we end up getting quite an audience because the locals think it is funny to watch a bunch of tall, lanky foreigners run around. By the time we finished up at the park it was close to 8 PM so we headed back to our hotel, cleaned up a bit and then went for food before getting the night officially started.
We did actually get to the club until around 1 AM. The clubs in Jakarta are open from Thursday till Sunday...literally they stay open for 4 straight days and they are filled the entire time. When we got there we were blown away and it was like nothing we were expecting. I thought places like that only existed in the movies but apparently not. Also we somehow got into the VIP entrance (meaning we got rushed right in and didn't have to pay) because Jesus met some rich Chinese man outside before entering that told us to come with him and that he would take care of us..not a bad start to the night. It is hard to describe the scene inside of this place but basically it was dark, smoky, loud, and extremely crowded. We danced our way straight through the night and into the morning. When we finally left it was 8:30 AM. Walking out of the place was a strange experience in itself because being in there we had totally lost track of time and when we came out the day was well underway and people were going about there business. What we couldn't believe was how many people were still in the club when we left and also how many people were just arriving. Who goes clubbing at 8:30 AM?? We were all in a bit of a daze but very happy with the night (and morning) we had just had. For some reason when we got back to the hotel I still couldn't fall asleep so I did some exploring around the local market area and some of the others went off to get food. Needless to say that day was fairly uneventful considering we ended up sleeping from about noon (I couldn't sleep until after 2) until around 7 PM. Now, after a night like that it would be expected that we would have a very laid back and relaxing night and this is what the majority of the group wanted to do. However, Will and I somehow got our second wind and after some major convincing we found ourselves right back on the dance floor of the same club that very night. Again we arrived around 1:30 AM and we didn't leave until just about 7:30 AM.
So as you can see we really did a lot of cultural exploration during our time in Jakarta...
After spending one more night in Jakarta (no round 3) we left the next day for Bali and that is where we are currently. We got in this afternoon around 3 (we found a cheap flight and decided to jump on that rather than do 2 day overland/ferry route) and crashed once we found our hotel. From the little we have seen on Bali so far it seems to be a party town with a lot of surfer bros which is just about the last thing all of us want to experience right now. We plan to hit the beach tomorrow (perhaps try our luck at surfing) and just spend a relaxing day trying to recharge our depleted batteries. That is all for now....goodnight.
-RBC
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The rest of Bintan and the start of Jakarta
So our original plan was to spend a night or two at the most in Bintan. However, after meeting our new friends we decided to extend our stay indefinitely. Each day they would ask us when we were leaving and our response was always "not sure...but probably tomorrow." That went on for 6 nights 7 days (which is the longest we have stayed in a single spot yet). It was just so nice to have a local connection and they were so good too us and really showed us a good time. One our second or third day there they came to our hotel and got us up early (9am) and told us they were bringing us to some beach. We piled 10 of us into one of their cars (free ride is always a beautiful thing) and headed off. They first took us to some run down park type place where we went out a small lake in paddle boats and crashed into each other for a while. We then continued on in the direction of the beach (it was about a 45 min drive...and they were blasting American love songs the whole way so naturally we belted them out). The beach they took us to was amazing. Totally secluded, white sand and crystal clear water. We couldn't believe our eyes when we arrived and we were able to drive the car right up to the beach where there were a few wooden bungalows to hang out under. We spent most of the afternoon there playing frisbee, soccer, and walking through the shallow water looking for random sea creatures (which we found plenty of). That night we went and watched their basketball game (Jesus and Tom played with them...Will and I decided to be lazy and watch) then they took us out on the town. The rest of our time spent in Bintan was just about the same...lots of basketball, pool, and just hanging around with our local crew. It was so nice and relaxing that we couldn't resist extending our stay repeatedly. By the time we were ready to go we realized we couldn't due to Ramadan coming to a close which means every shop (including tourist shops) were closed so we couldn't book a ferry or even a flight. We finally ended up finding a place that told us about a ferry leaving the next day (ferries only leave for Jakarta twice a week which further complicated the whole process) but we would have to arrive at the pier at 6 AM meaning we would have to leave our hotel at 5 AM. With this information we did what any intelligent traveller would do to prepare for the 28 hour ferry ride...we went out with our friends and didn't go back to the hotel until it was time to catch our taxi. We said goodbye to our Indo companions and were off to catch our ferry.
The boat that we were one was huge...definitely the largest boat I have been on. We bought the cheapest tickets so we were in the hull of the ship with hundreds of people and there were large wooden platforms for people to lay down on. We left port at about 9 AM and Will and I decided not to sleep at all because we wanted to sleep that night so we forced ourselves to stay up by continuing our backgammon world tour out on the deck of the boat. The trip was actually very easy and comfortable (it's nice to be able to get up and walk around) and because it was such a large boat you could hardly feel any rocking from the waves. The low point of the trip came at around 8 PM when one of the ladies sitting across from us (literally 3 ft away) came back stumbling drunk (actually she was being carried by two others because she couldn't stand on her own). After laying down for about 1 minute she starting groaning loudly and then started to cry hysterically. Her friends were helping her but there wasn't much to be done. She began vomiting all over herself and the surrounding area (we are talking projectile vomit) and it smelled very much like the brandy she had been drinking for the past few hours. The weird part was no one tried to bring her to the bathroom (literally 10 steps away) or get her a trash can (literally 7 steps away). They just let her go. That was our cue to head to the upper deck to enjoy the night air. We spent about an hour or 2 out there hoping that things would be all cleaned up by the time we went back which they thankfully were. We slept well that night despite being on straight wood with no blankets or pillow (although Will did have his luxury item pillow that he brought which I was very envious of at that point). We arrived in Jakarta today at about 2 PM. We haven't seen much of the city as of yet but I'm sure there will be more to report in the upcoming days.
-RBC
The boat that we were one was huge...definitely the largest boat I have been on. We bought the cheapest tickets so we were in the hull of the ship with hundreds of people and there were large wooden platforms for people to lay down on. We left port at about 9 AM and Will and I decided not to sleep at all because we wanted to sleep that night so we forced ourselves to stay up by continuing our backgammon world tour out on the deck of the boat. The trip was actually very easy and comfortable (it's nice to be able to get up and walk around) and because it was such a large boat you could hardly feel any rocking from the waves. The low point of the trip came at around 8 PM when one of the ladies sitting across from us (literally 3 ft away) came back stumbling drunk (actually she was being carried by two others because she couldn't stand on her own). After laying down for about 1 minute she starting groaning loudly and then started to cry hysterically. Her friends were helping her but there wasn't much to be done. She began vomiting all over herself and the surrounding area (we are talking projectile vomit) and it smelled very much like the brandy she had been drinking for the past few hours. The weird part was no one tried to bring her to the bathroom (literally 10 steps away) or get her a trash can (literally 7 steps away). They just let her go. That was our cue to head to the upper deck to enjoy the night air. We spent about an hour or 2 out there hoping that things would be all cleaned up by the time we went back which they thankfully were. We slept well that night despite being on straight wood with no blankets or pillow (although Will did have his luxury item pillow that he brought which I was very envious of at that point). We arrived in Jakarta today at about 2 PM. We haven't seen much of the city as of yet but I'm sure there will be more to report in the upcoming days.
-RBC
Monday, September 21, 2009
Arrival in Bintan
We arrived in Bintan by ferry and started to look for a place to stay. This proved to be a little harder then anticipated due to the fact that this local man named Adam insisted on showing us places to stay. His suggestions ended up being less then desirable and we made our way to a hotel called Lesmina. Much to our surprise after we unpacked Adam was still waiting for us at the reception. It was not in till after dinner we were able to separate ourselves and walk around the town by ourselves for the first time. As we were walking around at night we saw some lights in the distance. They looked to be lights for some sort of court. As we approached we found out that it was a concrete basketball court. When we walked into the "stadium" there was already a game going on. Naturally we sat down to watch.
When the game ended we decided to join in on the action. We went down to the far end of the court and joined a shoot around. After a couple of minutes Tom, Rooney, Jesus, and I were challenged to a game of four on four. We accepted and made our way down to the opposite end. We felt very confident due to our considerable height advantage (Team America all being over 6 feet and team Indonesia all being around five six or so).
Team Indonesia started with the ball and after a short possession through up an air ball. We got the rebound and gave the ball to Tom at the top of the key. Right as Tom was going to pass the ball in the lights on the court turned off. It was not meant to be (At least not that night). We were told that we could resume the game the next day. The local kids gave us two different starting times for the game, 6 am or 8 pm. We took a team vote and somehow decided that the 8 pm start would better suit our teams needs. We left the court a little disappointed due to the lights turning off but excited for tomorrows game. It was now time to search for some cold water (though we did not actually get to play we still broke a sweat due to the heat). It turned out that cold water was a hard thing to find. The only place that we could find cold water happened to be in a local pool hall.
We decided that it would be rude if we just bought some water and didn't play. It shortly became apparent that Merrill was by far the best female in the pool hall ( she may have been the only one). After a couple of games we decided to go back to the hotel.
As the group was preparing for bed we gave the 6 am basketball another thought. Jesus decided it might be worth it. Surprisingly he convinced us that it was a good idea. The plan was to wake up around 5 thirty and meet our new friends at 6 to play.
However when the alarm went off in our room it was quickly turned off. It is unclear who turned it off at five thirty but the next thing we knew it was 10:30. To make matters worse it had started to rain. Undeterred we put on our raincoats and ventured outside. We figured it would be a good idea to look into getting a basketball for the afternoon. The first shop was selling them four around 14 us dollars which we deemed a little expensive. That was in till the next shop over told us that they were 80 dollars. Needless to say we decided that it was a better option to see if we could just borrow one. The rain had started to let up so we made our way over to the court to get used to it and warm up.
When we arrived there were already kids shooting around. We joined in. Soon after we were once again challenged by a group of local kids. This time the lights going out would not be an issue. Our confidence was still high even though rain is the great equalizer and Rooney and I did not have shoes on. As we had hoped and predicted the height advantage more then made up for the rain and bare feet. Our foursome was victorious. We played 2 or three games and then split up our team to get some five on five games going. These were much competitive. However playing with no shoes took its toll and Rooney and I sat out a couple of games towards the end of the afternoon.
Instead of playing more that night we decided to go shower then meet up with the kids we played basketball with for dinner. It was unbelievable helpful to have people who speak Indonesian at our table when it came to ordering food. We placed our fate in their hands and just told them to order us things that they liked. Our faith payed off big time as we got a variety of noodles, rice and soups. Which included squid, oysters, shrimp, chicken, and pork.
After dinner our friends took us to their local pool hall. They did not tell us however how good they were. While we had the upper hand on the basketball court we defiantly did not have the upper hand on the pool table. A couple of them in particular were unbelievable. We played for a couple of hours and I lost a game in which i had bet 20 push ups. While I was the first to loose a game with push ups on the line the next couple days would show I defiantly would not be the last.
- WBM
When the game ended we decided to join in on the action. We went down to the far end of the court and joined a shoot around. After a couple of minutes Tom, Rooney, Jesus, and I were challenged to a game of four on four. We accepted and made our way down to the opposite end. We felt very confident due to our considerable height advantage (Team America all being over 6 feet and team Indonesia all being around five six or so).
Team Indonesia started with the ball and after a short possession through up an air ball. We got the rebound and gave the ball to Tom at the top of the key. Right as Tom was going to pass the ball in the lights on the court turned off. It was not meant to be (At least not that night). We were told that we could resume the game the next day. The local kids gave us two different starting times for the game, 6 am or 8 pm. We took a team vote and somehow decided that the 8 pm start would better suit our teams needs. We left the court a little disappointed due to the lights turning off but excited for tomorrows game. It was now time to search for some cold water (though we did not actually get to play we still broke a sweat due to the heat). It turned out that cold water was a hard thing to find. The only place that we could find cold water happened to be in a local pool hall.
We decided that it would be rude if we just bought some water and didn't play. It shortly became apparent that Merrill was by far the best female in the pool hall ( she may have been the only one). After a couple of games we decided to go back to the hotel.
As the group was preparing for bed we gave the 6 am basketball another thought. Jesus decided it might be worth it. Surprisingly he convinced us that it was a good idea. The plan was to wake up around 5 thirty and meet our new friends at 6 to play.
However when the alarm went off in our room it was quickly turned off. It is unclear who turned it off at five thirty but the next thing we knew it was 10:30. To make matters worse it had started to rain. Undeterred we put on our raincoats and ventured outside. We figured it would be a good idea to look into getting a basketball for the afternoon. The first shop was selling them four around 14 us dollars which we deemed a little expensive. That was in till the next shop over told us that they were 80 dollars. Needless to say we decided that it was a better option to see if we could just borrow one. The rain had started to let up so we made our way over to the court to get used to it and warm up.
When we arrived there were already kids shooting around. We joined in. Soon after we were once again challenged by a group of local kids. This time the lights going out would not be an issue. Our confidence was still high even though rain is the great equalizer and Rooney and I did not have shoes on. As we had hoped and predicted the height advantage more then made up for the rain and bare feet. Our foursome was victorious. We played 2 or three games and then split up our team to get some five on five games going. These were much competitive. However playing with no shoes took its toll and Rooney and I sat out a couple of games towards the end of the afternoon.
Instead of playing more that night we decided to go shower then meet up with the kids we played basketball with for dinner. It was unbelievable helpful to have people who speak Indonesian at our table when it came to ordering food. We placed our fate in their hands and just told them to order us things that they liked. Our faith payed off big time as we got a variety of noodles, rice and soups. Which included squid, oysters, shrimp, chicken, and pork.
After dinner our friends took us to their local pool hall. They did not tell us however how good they were. While we had the upper hand on the basketball court we defiantly did not have the upper hand on the pool table. A couple of them in particular were unbelievable. We played for a couple of hours and I lost a game in which i had bet 20 push ups. While I was the first to loose a game with push ups on the line the next couple days would show I defiantly would not be the last.
- WBM
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Playing catch up
This entry is going to be a major summary of the past week or so because we are tired of trying to catch up. I am simply going to hit some of the highlights so that we can start blogging about current events rather than trying to think back to what we did 2 weeks ago. So here it goes.
We spent about 3 or 4 days in KL and we all really enjoyed the city. The first few days we did some touring around and just checked out the major attractions of the city...which wasnt much but it was cool to just walk around and explore. The highlight of our time there came on one of the last days. We decided to try and walk to the national mosque but had no idea where it was. After only a few minutes of walking we found ourselves a bit turned around. As we were standing there looking through our lonely planet book trying to get back on track a foreign dude approached us and said that we looked a bit confused and offered some assistance. He was a Canadian who had been living in KL for the past 14 years. We told him where we wanted to go and he started to explain where we should head before giving up and offering us a ride in his car. We were a bit surprised but very quick to jump on that opportunity. We all piled into his car and were off. We still are a bit confused about David Mill (the dude) and what exactly he does but he told us that he "saves confused tourists all the time" and that he worked for himself so he could afford to take an extra long lunch break. He gave us his business card and all it had on it was his name and then the saying "do or don't do...there is no try." Weird but a free ride around the city so we were happy. Not only did he bring us right to where we wanted to go but he also took us to a few other sites before dropping us off at the national mosque. He knew a frightening amount about KL which was great because we basically got a free tour of the city in an AC car. When we finally parted ways with David Mills we couldnt enter the mosque because it was during prayer time so we went and checked out some orchid garden that had no orchids in it. It was so hot and we were all wearing jeans and shoes because you need pants to enter the mosques. We found some museum that was blasting AC and we waited there until the prayer time was over so we could enter the mosque. As we were walking to go into the mosque we were stopped by a Muslim woman who invited us to come break the fast with them at another mosque that night. She said it was one of the few times that they let no muslims in to witness them praying and invite them in to eat together during the Ramadan period. This sounded like opportunity to good to pass up so we agreed to join and she told us to meet her there around 6:30 because they started the process of breaking the fast at 7. When we got there we were amazed by the size and beauty of the mosque - it was much more impressive than the national mosque. We were the only foreigners there so it was a bit awkward at first because we felt very out of place. Luckily we ran into the lady who invited us and she took us right in. Merrill had to fully cover herself but the boys were ok to enter in our jeans. It is hard to even describe the scene there...thousands of Muslims gathered together for prayer and there we were with no clue of what was going on. They gave us a quick tour of the mosque and explained the basics of the religion to us. When it was time for them to start praying we had to go upstairs to observe because we were not allowed to be in the main hall during payer time. It was a very cool experience seeing that many people all perfectly lined together praying...definitely like nothing we had seen before. After a brief prayer session they all gathered in the dining area and we joined them on the floor for the breaking of the fast meal. We felt a bit guilty eating their food considering we had been eating all day long and were almost too full to eat while they had not eaten all day long. After eating they went back for more prayer (they prayed for about 5 hours total with breaks every so often in between). We ended up being there for about 5 hours and didnt leave until almost 11:30 at night. By that time our heads were about ready to explode because we had been told so much about Islam that we couldn't hear another word. They kept talking and talking to us and we were exhausted and wanted to leave but felt guilty because they had been so kind to us all night long. Overall it was an amazing experience and one we all felt very fortunate to have had but we were happy to head home and sleep.
Our next stop was Singapore which I'm not going to talk a lot about because we didn't do a ton there. It is a very modern city which meant it was expensive to do most anything so our days consisted of a lot of walking around. We walked into a lot of really nice hotels and buildings and got kicked out of most of them because we weren't "dressed properly." We knew it was going to be an expensive city so before leaving Malaysia Will and I stalked up no PB&J material so that we wouldn't have to buy expensive meals. Huge move and in the 3 days were were in Singapore I only spent about 5 USD on food there. We were a bit sick of PB&Js by the time we left though.
Ok almost caught up to speed. Next we headed off to Indonesia which is where we are now. It was only about a 50 min ferry ride to the island that we wanted to visit first which is called Bintan. We are in Bintan now and we are having a total blast because this place is not a tourist destination so we are literally the only foreigners here. We literally get stared at where ever we go but it is nice to be in a place that has not been taken over by tourism. There is a lot to tell about our stay here so far but that if for another entry. Sorry to breeze over so may days but now we are a bit more caught up so we should be able to stay on top of this blog a bit better.
ps. Will and I have posted a poll on the family website so check it out and cast your vote.
-RBC
We spent about 3 or 4 days in KL and we all really enjoyed the city. The first few days we did some touring around and just checked out the major attractions of the city...which wasnt much but it was cool to just walk around and explore. The highlight of our time there came on one of the last days. We decided to try and walk to the national mosque but had no idea where it was. After only a few minutes of walking we found ourselves a bit turned around. As we were standing there looking through our lonely planet book trying to get back on track a foreign dude approached us and said that we looked a bit confused and offered some assistance. He was a Canadian who had been living in KL for the past 14 years. We told him where we wanted to go and he started to explain where we should head before giving up and offering us a ride in his car. We were a bit surprised but very quick to jump on that opportunity. We all piled into his car and were off. We still are a bit confused about David Mill (the dude) and what exactly he does but he told us that he "saves confused tourists all the time" and that he worked for himself so he could afford to take an extra long lunch break. He gave us his business card and all it had on it was his name and then the saying "do or don't do...there is no try." Weird but a free ride around the city so we were happy. Not only did he bring us right to where we wanted to go but he also took us to a few other sites before dropping us off at the national mosque. He knew a frightening amount about KL which was great because we basically got a free tour of the city in an AC car. When we finally parted ways with David Mills we couldnt enter the mosque because it was during prayer time so we went and checked out some orchid garden that had no orchids in it. It was so hot and we were all wearing jeans and shoes because you need pants to enter the mosques. We found some museum that was blasting AC and we waited there until the prayer time was over so we could enter the mosque. As we were walking to go into the mosque we were stopped by a Muslim woman who invited us to come break the fast with them at another mosque that night. She said it was one of the few times that they let no muslims in to witness them praying and invite them in to eat together during the Ramadan period. This sounded like opportunity to good to pass up so we agreed to join and she told us to meet her there around 6:30 because they started the process of breaking the fast at 7. When we got there we were amazed by the size and beauty of the mosque - it was much more impressive than the national mosque. We were the only foreigners there so it was a bit awkward at first because we felt very out of place. Luckily we ran into the lady who invited us and she took us right in. Merrill had to fully cover herself but the boys were ok to enter in our jeans. It is hard to even describe the scene there...thousands of Muslims gathered together for prayer and there we were with no clue of what was going on. They gave us a quick tour of the mosque and explained the basics of the religion to us. When it was time for them to start praying we had to go upstairs to observe because we were not allowed to be in the main hall during payer time. It was a very cool experience seeing that many people all perfectly lined together praying...definitely like nothing we had seen before. After a brief prayer session they all gathered in the dining area and we joined them on the floor for the breaking of the fast meal. We felt a bit guilty eating their food considering we had been eating all day long and were almost too full to eat while they had not eaten all day long. After eating they went back for more prayer (they prayed for about 5 hours total with breaks every so often in between). We ended up being there for about 5 hours and didnt leave until almost 11:30 at night. By that time our heads were about ready to explode because we had been told so much about Islam that we couldn't hear another word. They kept talking and talking to us and we were exhausted and wanted to leave but felt guilty because they had been so kind to us all night long. Overall it was an amazing experience and one we all felt very fortunate to have had but we were happy to head home and sleep.
Our next stop was Singapore which I'm not going to talk a lot about because we didn't do a ton there. It is a very modern city which meant it was expensive to do most anything so our days consisted of a lot of walking around. We walked into a lot of really nice hotels and buildings and got kicked out of most of them because we weren't "dressed properly." We knew it was going to be an expensive city so before leaving Malaysia Will and I stalked up no PB&J material so that we wouldn't have to buy expensive meals. Huge move and in the 3 days were were in Singapore I only spent about 5 USD on food there. We were a bit sick of PB&Js by the time we left though.
Ok almost caught up to speed. Next we headed off to Indonesia which is where we are now. It was only about a 50 min ferry ride to the island that we wanted to visit first which is called Bintan. We are in Bintan now and we are having a total blast because this place is not a tourist destination so we are literally the only foreigners here. We literally get stared at where ever we go but it is nice to be in a place that has not been taken over by tourism. There is a lot to tell about our stay here so far but that if for another entry. Sorry to breeze over so may days but now we are a bit more caught up so we should be able to stay on top of this blog a bit better.
ps. Will and I have posted a poll on the family website so check it out and cast your vote.
-RBC
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Food
I don't even know where to being when it comes to the food. We have been trying an array of different dishes from a variety of restaurants. Our favorite places to eat however are street vendors because they are by far the cheapest and often end up being the most delicious. We typically have no clue what we are ordering...we simply point and say "ill have that and that." Most of the time this works out well but there have been some instances when the mystery meat is anything but delicious. Thailand is all rice or noodles but there are so many different varieties that it is impossible to get tired of the food there. Malaysia and Singapore have been amazing for the Indian food and I believe Indonesia will be more of the same. I am happy to report that we have been lucky when it comes to stomach issues or travelers diarrhea...knock on wood.
-RBC
-RBC
Malaysia Bound
Our initial plan was to head out the day after the party because island living can get a bit pricey even in Thailand. However, we were in no condition to get our act together so we ended up spending another day there. In fact, we ended up spending 2 more nights because of some situations that came up with scheduling ferries. There is no need to go into much detail about those days because they were very laid back and not a lot was done. The major event was saying goodbye to our Brazilian and French friends who had become honorary members of our pack. They will certainly be missed but I'm sure we will meet plenty of more people along the way.
We finally got our act together and got off the island and began the long journey to Malaysia. At this point it was only Will, Jesus and me because Tom and Merrill had to go to the mainland the previous day to get X-rays done on Tom's twisted ankle (ended up fine). The trip to Malaysia was about a 48 hour adventure combining many different forms of transportation. We finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur at about 4:30 AM and we realized we had no clue where we should go or what area we wanted to stay in. Wondering around KL at that hour with all of our bags trying to find a cheap place to stay in China town was a very interesting experience to say the least. We finally found a place that was cheap and not crawling with cockroaches and rats (which many of the places we looked at were). However, I'm pretty sure it doubled as a brothel considering you could rent rooms by the hour and we saw many "couples" doing just that. Exhausted from our two days of travel we decided to get some sleep before getting up and trying to reconnect with
Tom and Merrill who would be arriving the same day.
-RBC
We finally got our act together and got off the island and began the long journey to Malaysia. At this point it was only Will, Jesus and me because Tom and Merrill had to go to the mainland the previous day to get X-rays done on Tom's twisted ankle (ended up fine). The trip to Malaysia was about a 48 hour adventure combining many different forms of transportation. We finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur at about 4:30 AM and we realized we had no clue where we should go or what area we wanted to stay in. Wondering around KL at that hour with all of our bags trying to find a cheap place to stay in China town was a very interesting experience to say the least. We finally found a place that was cheap and not crawling with cockroaches and rats (which many of the places we looked at were). However, I'm pretty sure it doubled as a brothel considering you could rent rooms by the hour and we saw many "couples" doing just that. Exhausted from our two days of travel we decided to get some sleep before getting up and trying to reconnect with
Tom and Merrill who would be arriving the same day.
-RBC
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Full Moon Party
The title of this blog would suggest that it would cover our actions and adventures at the Full Moon Party. However we have decided that our words would not do the party and the experience justice. It was beyond words.......you should go experience it yourself on Oct 4th. In addition, what happens at a Full Moon Party stays at a Full Moon Party...
- WBM and RBC
- WBM and RBC
Friday, September 11, 2009
Further South
Before we got on the overnight ferry to make our way to Koh Pengan we were approached a man selling his hostel. After a little bit of contemplating we decided the free taxi ride and not having to worry about a place to stay would be a good thing. (we would find out later it was on the very top of the island and the full moon party was at the bottom, HUGE problem)
A little tired and a little soar we arrived at Koh Pengan. Rooney had a pole in the middle of his sleeping area and consequently was a little more tired then the rest of the Wolf Pack. (At this point was Rooney, Jesus, Tom, Merrill, Jerome, Hafa and I). Due to Rooney's lack of sleep and the fact his bed was next to them we also meet two more Brazilians. (Paola and Dennis)
The free taxi was pretty easy to find and we piled in the pack of the truck. The route up to our new abode would have been very enjoyable but we were still half asleep. We quickly checked in and found our room. The nap was cut short due to the fact it was unbelievably hot. So we quickly moved to the pool. Rooney, Jerome, Hafa, Paola, and I played some cards. We are taught a Finnish card game by a Frenchman. It was fun but we did not finish because of swimming breaks.
After some careful thought we decided that we should only stay at this place for one night because it was two far from the Full moon party beach. So we did the most logical thing, rent a fleet of motorbikes. With are newly acquired fleet we took to the streets. The only issue became that with two of us on one it they were unable to make it up the large hills. Since Rooney was driving I had to walk up two hills on the way to the beach. When we arrived to the beach to check it out they were moving towers of speakers in. It was at this point the we became really pumped. Now that it was dark and inconvenient we decided to look for a new hostel. We went up and down but found a surprisingly close place to stay. It was on another beach and had a room with AC. After booking it was back to top of the island in the dark. This made the fact that we were two heavy to make it up the hills less of an ego hit.
After a couple of drinks by the pool we headed off to bed and hoped that the room would not be as hot as the morning.
-WBM
A little tired and a little soar we arrived at Koh Pengan. Rooney had a pole in the middle of his sleeping area and consequently was a little more tired then the rest of the Wolf Pack. (At this point was Rooney, Jesus, Tom, Merrill, Jerome, Hafa and I). Due to Rooney's lack of sleep and the fact his bed was next to them we also meet two more Brazilians. (Paola and Dennis)
The free taxi was pretty easy to find and we piled in the pack of the truck. The route up to our new abode would have been very enjoyable but we were still half asleep. We quickly checked in and found our room. The nap was cut short due to the fact it was unbelievably hot. So we quickly moved to the pool. Rooney, Jerome, Hafa, Paola, and I played some cards. We are taught a Finnish card game by a Frenchman. It was fun but we did not finish because of swimming breaks.
After some careful thought we decided that we should only stay at this place for one night because it was two far from the Full moon party beach. So we did the most logical thing, rent a fleet of motorbikes. With are newly acquired fleet we took to the streets. The only issue became that with two of us on one it they were unable to make it up the large hills. Since Rooney was driving I had to walk up two hills on the way to the beach. When we arrived to the beach to check it out they were moving towers of speakers in. It was at this point the we became really pumped. Now that it was dark and inconvenient we decided to look for a new hostel. We went up and down but found a surprisingly close place to stay. It was on another beach and had a room with AC. After booking it was back to top of the island in the dark. This made the fact that we were two heavy to make it up the hills less of an ego hit.
After a couple of drinks by the pool we headed off to bed and hoped that the room would not be as hot as the morning.
-WBM
Heading South
So to continue from where Will left off...our next move was to head south to meet up with the two other members of our wolf pack (if you have seen the hangover you will get this reference), Tom and Merrill who had been in the south for about a week already. After getting Jesus we spent the day in BKK (we were planning on leaving right away but there were no buses leaving until that night because they only do overnight buses to where we were headed). We dropped our bags off at the travel agents office and did a bit of exploring before giving up due to the heat and pure laziness. Because we had a 12 hour bus ahead of us we decided it would be good to have a few cocktails in us to make the sleeping a bit easier. This turned out to work like a charm and I speak for all of us when saying we were awake for about 12 mins of the 12 hrs. It also helped that we snuck our way into the first class section below where we could fully layout.
We arrived in Krabi and meet up with Tom and Merrill at their guest house. Krabi is a total hole and we only spent one night there so I'm not even going to go into that. The one thing i will mention is that Will bought a watch/bottle opener/compass which can clip onto a belt loop and he was/still is convinced it is the best thing ever. I on the other hand think it is a joke so now we have an ongoing battle over this stupid thing and i refuse to use it for anything but telling time (i have come up with some very creative ways to open my bottles out of stubbornness so not to give him the pleasure of using his beloved device. The next morning we boarded a series of buses and boats in the direction of Koh Phi Phi which is a beautiful island where Neddy and i spent some time during our travels last year. We found a place to stay and then hit the beach for some fun in the sun. This place really is heaven on earth and we were happy to be there after a long few days of travel. We ended up starting a soccer game on the beach and by the end it had turned into a full 11 v 11 game which involved people from over 9 countries. From this not only did we get intense sun burns and chaffing but also a new friend and travel companion from France, Jarome. He will be frequently mentioned from now on I'm sure because he provided us with a great deal of entertainment during his week or so with us (he was very stereotypical French).
The next few days are a bit of a blur because the island days just seem to all run together. We did a lot of beaching, eating, drinking and some exploring. We did manage to motivate ourselves to get out to Maya Bay which has its claim to fame for being the beach from the movie "The Beach." We also added another member to our wolf pack, Hafa who is from Brazil. Great guy and he also spent the next week or so traveling with us. Beyond that there is not a whole lot to report from the 3-4 days we spent on Phi Phi...we basically did a good amount of nothing which should not come as a surprise to any of you reading this. Our only true motivation to get off the island was the fact that there was a full moon party that we needed to get to on another island.
-RBC
We arrived in Krabi and meet up with Tom and Merrill at their guest house. Krabi is a total hole and we only spent one night there so I'm not even going to go into that. The one thing i will mention is that Will bought a watch/bottle opener/compass which can clip onto a belt loop and he was/still is convinced it is the best thing ever. I on the other hand think it is a joke so now we have an ongoing battle over this stupid thing and i refuse to use it for anything but telling time (i have come up with some very creative ways to open my bottles out of stubbornness so not to give him the pleasure of using his beloved device. The next morning we boarded a series of buses and boats in the direction of Koh Phi Phi which is a beautiful island where Neddy and i spent some time during our travels last year. We found a place to stay and then hit the beach for some fun in the sun. This place really is heaven on earth and we were happy to be there after a long few days of travel. We ended up starting a soccer game on the beach and by the end it had turned into a full 11 v 11 game which involved people from over 9 countries. From this not only did we get intense sun burns and chaffing but also a new friend and travel companion from France, Jarome. He will be frequently mentioned from now on I'm sure because he provided us with a great deal of entertainment during his week or so with us (he was very stereotypical French).
The next few days are a bit of a blur because the island days just seem to all run together. We did a lot of beaching, eating, drinking and some exploring. We did manage to motivate ourselves to get out to Maya Bay which has its claim to fame for being the beach from the movie "The Beach." We also added another member to our wolf pack, Hafa who is from Brazil. Great guy and he also spent the next week or so traveling with us. Beyond that there is not a whole lot to report from the 3-4 days we spent on Phi Phi...we basically did a good amount of nothing which should not come as a surprise to any of you reading this. Our only true motivation to get off the island was the fact that there was a full moon party that we needed to get to on another island.
-RBC
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Long Time Over Due
After enjoying the air condition and a couple games of backgammon (Will is winning the world tour) we decided to take on the heat again. This time our destination was Wat Po. On the way to Wat Po we crossed a football field sized market. While crossing we saw a man attempt to steal two hats. He was faster then two of the employees at the stand (one of which was wielding a large bambo rod.) The robber was tripped up for a second by another vendor but escaped that as well. Right before he was in the clear the street caused him to slow down. Unfortunatly for him this allowed the two men originally chasing him to catch up. They decided it was necessary to litterlyl kick him while he was down. After a the robber was beaten up they dragged him to the side of the street.
The rest of the trip to see Wat Po was consumed with the events we had just seen. Wat Po is where the largest reclining Buddha in the world rests. It is 15 meters high and around 47 meters long. The Buddha was impressive to say the least. The grounds around him were also impressive. They were filled with more buddhas and temples.
On the walk back from the temple Rooney and I were hit up by our first scam. The worst part was we new it was happening and could do nothing. As we were walking back a old women through a handful of corn infront of us. This caused around a hundred pigoens to colapse on our position. We were trapped. The old women then proceeded to hand us open bags of corn. Our initital refusals were meet with another women giving us more corn. The fight was over before it even began. Both women dumped corn into our hands forcing us to spread it around. They claimed it was free do to a "buddha day". However seconds later we apperantly owed them 120 baht a peice. We gave them a 100 and left.
The next morning it was time to see if we could meet up with Rooney's freind, Jesus. With minimal ways of contacting him and no respose to the email we seend we headed to the bus station. To our suprise we were just waiting in one of the hallways and in he came.
From Bangkok we took an overnight bus to Krabi to meet up with Tom and Merrill. From Krabi we planned on going south to a couple of Islands. Not quite caught up yet but hopefully the next instalement will not take so long to post.
The rest of the trip to see Wat Po was consumed with the events we had just seen. Wat Po is where the largest reclining Buddha in the world rests. It is 15 meters high and around 47 meters long. The Buddha was impressive to say the least. The grounds around him were also impressive. They were filled with more buddhas and temples.
On the walk back from the temple Rooney and I were hit up by our first scam. The worst part was we new it was happening and could do nothing. As we were walking back a old women through a handful of corn infront of us. This caused around a hundred pigoens to colapse on our position. We were trapped. The old women then proceeded to hand us open bags of corn. Our initital refusals were meet with another women giving us more corn. The fight was over before it even began. Both women dumped corn into our hands forcing us to spread it around. They claimed it was free do to a "buddha day". However seconds later we apperantly owed them 120 baht a peice. We gave them a 100 and left.
The next morning it was time to see if we could meet up with Rooney's freind, Jesus. With minimal ways of contacting him and no respose to the email we seend we headed to the bus station. To our suprise we were just waiting in one of the hallways and in he came.
From Bangkok we took an overnight bus to Krabi to meet up with Tom and Merrill. From Krabi we planned on going south to a couple of Islands. Not quite caught up yet but hopefully the next instalement will not take so long to post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)