Alaska is all done for me, for now. I didn't do a very good job at posting thsi summer. Recap: caught lots of fish, counted lots of fish, had a great time. I am now in Portland with my friend Johnny. He and i are headed up to Olympia to see our friend Nick open up for the band Bright Eyes. I heard that my cousin, who i have never met was touring with Bright Eyes in Europe. I wonder if she will be playing with him tomorrow. If so it will be like a little mini reunion. Next week i will be in Sequim with Mom and then Oct. 1 on my way to Eastern Washington to help manage the Coho Salmon stocks in the upper Columbia River.

The Jig is up

July 7


It almost looked like it was going to be sunny yesterday, plus the tide book said good day for fishing. It tells you this buy a silhouette of a fish. The bigger the fish the better the fishing? it rained all day and The tide book was correct. Jill and I both caught two Halibut each. We switched from jig fishing to bait, the back end of a salmon head. We kept one, maybe 18lbs, kind of small but we were dying for halibut, plus, although I don’t know who “they” are, I remember that “they” say that the smaller Halibut are better eating. It was very good. Baked and broiled with mayonnaise and cappers topped with a crab buerre blanc sauce.

Today it actually is sunny out, but who knows for how long. We will probably go and pull the crab pot and head to the lodge to drop off a Sockeye Salmon that we had to kill and sample. We are hoping that Charlie has returned from town with the third season of The Sopranos.

6-26

June 26

Sunday was a good day for crabbing and fishing. Set the crab pot in the usual spot. I can’t say where because it is a secret, but it is at the end of Mink Bay. From here we headed out to the special Halibut fishing hole AKA Hurricane Alley. I pulled out a new jig that I was excited to use. I then spent five or so minutes trying to get all the sticky plastic off of the barbs, then like an idiot I forgot that I hadn’t attached it to my line and tossed the thing into the sea. Cool! Call it an offering to the Halibut Gods, because within just a few minutes I had hooked one. I imagine it was about a 40lber, the perfect eating size. I didn’t have it hooked to well, just in its lip. I brought it up to the surface and looked at it a while. I hated to do it but I decided since it was some 35lbs larger than our freezer, I should just let it go. I took pictures to prove my catch. The situation over at the lodge is different than last year and I don’t know yet about me storing seafood there??
Last night I watched a little beaver construct his summer home. He looked a lot cooler from the binoculars than from my cameras zoom.

alaskan Summer

Up in Alaska for the Summer counting Sockeye Salmon for the Alaska Dept. Fish and Game. I’ll be here until the middle of Sept. I’ve got a new co-worked, Jill the fish talker Walker. Jeremia Boone opted to sit this season out. Sad Face. Spent the first couple of days setting up the Weir and fish trap. A weir is a kind of picket lined fence that keeps the sockeye out of the lake until we let them in.
It is Sunday and Jill and I are headed out to set the crab pot and do a little fishing. The tide book says it is a good day for it. Fishing that is, everyday is a good day for setting the crab pot.
HomeSlice, Aka Pocket Bear has made his appereance. I can’t tell if he slept in a small puddle of bleach or if he has been using Sun-In, cause he has a little cinnamon patch on his forehead. All black bears seem to look alike, but I know this is the same bear from last year because of his curiosity and mannerisms. If I am wrong I am naming him HomeSlice anyways.

alaskan Summer

Up in Alaska for the Summer counting Sockeye Salmon for the Alaska Dept. Fish and Game. I’ll be here until the middle of Sept. I’ve got a new co-worked, Jill the fish talker Walker. Jeremia Boone opted to sit this season out. Sad Face. Spent the first couple of days setting up the Weir and fish trap. A weir is a kind of picket lined fence that keeps the sockeye out of the lake until we let them in.
It is Sunday and Jill and I are headed out to set the crab pot and do a little fishing. The tide book says it is a good day for it. Fishing that is, everyday is a good day for setting the crab pot.
HomeSlice, Aka Pocket Bear has made his appereance. I can’t tell if he slept in a small puddle of bleach or if he has been using Sun-In, cause he has a little cinnamon patch on his forehead. All black bears seem to look alike, but I know this is the same bear from last year because of his curiosity and mannerisms. If I am wrong I am naming him HomeSlice anyways.

Bali-still

Five days left, and it is raining. Bali has been much better than what i had expected. I expected a Spring Break type of touristy town. I think Pre- Terrorist attacks that is what it was. Now it is kind of like a ghost town in terms of tourists. The place is set up for them, hotels, shops and restaurants. The locals are pretty friendly and easily ignored when they try and push you to buy stuff.  It is really hot and muggy here, It rains mostly at night and on occasion, like today during the day.  We have not really done much while we have been here. Johnny bought a surfboard and he and Malika hit the waves at least once a day.  I usually just sit on the beach and watch. I have discovered a Bali dish called Bakso that i am a big fan of. $.50 gets you spicy soup with glass noodles some fish balls, greens and if you are lucky a deep fried battered boiled egg. Malika hitched a ride from the airport with a Canadian named James and we have hooked up with him and his group of friends a few nights for drinks. We were going to see them tonight, but may just stay in and watch movies instead? I’ve booked us a dive for tomorrow. Two dives at the USS Liberty a WWII shipwreck just off the coast. In the evening we are doing our first night dive. We will spend the night in the coastal town of Tulumbane and then do two more dives the next day. $162 for the whole package. We can buy additional dives if we are so inclined to do so.  
  A couple days ago we took  a ride to the small town of Ubud, it reminded me a bit of a tropical Angles Camp, quaint with small little shops. We walked down to the end of Monkey Forrest rd. to a monkey sanctuary. I bought some bananas and had fun feeding them to the little monkeys as we walked around. Johnny and Malika went into a temple to take pictures while i sat on a bench next to the grampa monkey. his tail was sitting right next to my hand so i thought it would be ok to touch it,  Nope! i got away with petting it twice but on the third time he aggressively turned, got this crazed look on his face, opened his mouth showing me his rather large front teeth. He bit me in the lower back and started in on my shoulder as i cautiously jumped up with my hands out front telling him “Wooh, it’s cool!” He went back to sitting where he was and i moved far away. He showed me who was boss. I figured since i had just given him my last banana that we were bro’s
  April 18
     Diving was great.  We were picked up from our hotel in the morning and driven to Tulumben about 2.5 hours away. I slept the first hour, I awoke in time to see some good landscape. Lots of lush jungle mixed in with terraced rice fields. A lot of back and fourth roads up and over a little mountain past the volcano and back down to the ocean.  There is not much in Tulumben. The only thing that brings people around is the diving. We stayed in a little hotel right on the water. We arrived about 10am and were geared up, briefed and on our way to the water by 10:30. We had to walk a few hundred yards dwon the beach to where we enter the water. They had local women carrying our tanks. Barefoot across lava rock with a full tank balanced on their head. Our first dive was the USAT Liberty, an old WWII shipwreck torpedoed by the Japanese. There wasn’t much of a ship. It is pretty much completely covered in coral, you could make out a couple of bulkheads and ship parts. The entire crew had been rescued so there were no ghosts. We cruised around for about 45 minutes. We then took a breather, had lunch and dove straight out from our hotel in the “Coral Garden” an amazing amount of sea life. Not as much as in Borneo, which was kind of good because you could stop and look at just one thing instead of being overloaded with fishes. We spotted our second shark. ‘Black Tipped Reef Shark’ this one was much larger than the white tipped ones we saw in Borneo. It was big, but far enough away not to be nervous. After a five hour break and as soon as the sun went down we went back out to the wreck for our night dive. This was a neat experience, but i like day dives better. We each had a spot light. It seemed really quiet down there. Pitch black except where the light shines. If you turned off your light you could stir up the phosphorescence in the water and the whole area around would glow. It was a clear night when we surfaced so we floated on our backs and watched the stars. The next day we did two more dives and left that afternoon. On the last dive i tried to stay under until my tank was completely empty because i knew it was going to be my last dive for some time.
   Today we are headed up the coast to co?? some little beach that Johnny wants to see. Malika and Johnny will surf and i will just kick it on the beach. I am still nervous about falling in the shallows and jacking up my leg.
   We have heard that there is a really nice beach restaurant down south a bit where they sit you at a table on the beach and you can get cheap lobster, shrimp or whatever seafood. They say it is quite nice at sunset. I think we will go with our Canadian friends one of these nights.

Bali Hai
Been in Bali four days now. We had a one day stop over in Singapore I checked in the airport in hopes of my bag being turned in, but not a chance. Didn’t do much in Singapore. I had lost the charger to my new camera and had to replace that. Then come to find out Malika had it in her bag, so now i have two chargers and a camera i wish i hadn’t bought.
We flew into Bali late, i met a local on the plane who taught me some Indo-talk. The line through imigration was ridiculous, so by the time we got into the city it was quite late. We took the first overpriced place available and went searching for new accomodations the next morning. We found a cheap place at the end of an alley. A small doorway opened up into a beautiful, lush courtyard area with a pool and elephant fountain. We have been staying here the last three nights, the place is great but there is not a lot of air flow through the rooms. the fan is like 100’ feet up, so even on high you can not feel it. I don’t see any marks but my whole back itches so i think we are going to move again today.
Bali is kind of sad. You can tell it was a hugely popular place before the bombings. Now it is practically a ghost town. There are still quite a few tourists. Far more people working the tourists than needed. All sorts of bars and stores sitting empty or shutdown. I talked to one local for a while and he told me that before, in the hight season every room in every hotel was full. In an area the size of downtown Modesto there must be 100 hotels. There are no high rises like i thought there would be, most of them are traditionally down in the style of little temples or tropical bungalow style. The three of us are paying $5 a piece and i think we could find a place with pool for less.
Malika came in two days later with James, who she shared a cab from the airport with. James is cool we all get along with him. He has a few more friends coming in this weekend. We have been talking about maybe heading north where it is quieter and seeing about renting a villa or house and just kick it there the rest of the time.
Johnny took a surf lesson the other day, he liked it but wants to move along at a faster pace. The waves up north are said to be better, but still good for beginners. We will probably rent a car and all drive up together, hopefully find a place and the surfers may even split the cost of a surfboard between them. My funds are pretty low so i will be happy just sitting on the beach the rest of the time. I still have enough to go for a couple of dives too.
Malika is up now so we are off to go new place hunting.

Bali Hai
Been in Bali four days now. We had a one day stop over in Singapore I checked in the airport in hopes of my bag being turned in, but not a chance. Didn’t do much in Singapore. I had lost the charger to my new camera and had to replace that. Then come to find out Malika had it in her bag, so now i have two chargers and a camera i wish i hadn’t bought.
We flew into Bali late, i met a local on the plane who taught me some Indo-talk. The line through imigration was ridiculous, so by the time we got into the city it was quite late. We took the first overpriced place available and went searching for new accomodations the next morning. We found a cheap place at the end of an alley. A small doorway opened up into a beautiful, lush courtyard area with a pool and elephant fountain. We have been staying here the last three nights, the place is great but there is not a lot of air flow through the rooms. the fan is like 100’ feet up, so even on high you can not feel it. I don’t see any marks but my whole back itches so i think we are going to move again today.
Bali is kind of sad. You can tell it was a hugely popular place before the bombings. Now it is practically a ghost town. There are still quite a few tourists. Far more people working the tourists than needed. All sorts of bars and stores sitting empty or shutdown. I talked to one local for a while and he told me that before, in the hight season every room in every hotel was full. In an area the size of downtown Modesto there must be 100 hotels. There are no high rises like i thought there would be, most of them are traditionally down in the style of little temples or tropical bungalow style. The three of us are paying $5 a piece and i think we could find a place with pool for less.
Malika came in two days later with James, who she shared a cab from the airport with. James is cool we all get along with him. He has a few more friends coming in this weekend. We have been talking about maybe heading north where it is quieter and seeing about renting a villa or house and just kick it there the rest of the time.
Johnny took a surf lesson the other day, he liked it but wants to move along at a faster pace. The waves up north are said to be better, but still good for beginners. We will probably rent a car and all drive up together, hopefully find a place and the surfers may even split the cost of a surfboard between them. My funds are pretty low so i will be happy just sitting on the beach the rest of the time. I still have enough to go for a couple of dives too.
Malika is up now so we are off to go new place hunting.

Diving

Sipadan diving, was 100 times better than what i imagined. We spent one night in the fancy hotel on the water. Johnny went to bed around 4pm so i did some emails then went to the fancy resturaunt and stuffed my face with crab by myself. When i got back to the room around 9pm the neighbors were being so loud that i felt like they were in the room with us. This lasted until the wee hours in the morning. I miss my ear plugs. Because i couldn’t understand what was being said, it was in Malay. I was able to tune it out and slept ok. We took off the next morning to Mabul island about 1 hour away. We have a room here which isn’t much. Two matrases in a room over the water. We had coffee readied our gear and took another boat along with five other divers and two diver masters to Sipadan Island. It is a small island sorounded by a huge reef. We were hoping to see a sea turtle and as soon as we hit the water and looked down we spotted three. The smallest one was the size of a large pizza and the biggest, like a patio table. By the end of the day we had seen around 30. At one point my fin was coming off so i headed to the bottom to anchor myself with my finger while i adjusted my fin. As i neared the ocean floor i looked up and saw the shell of an enormous turtle, i quickly took a deep breath and floated up and over him. If it wasn’t morally wrong or possible illeagel i would have loved to grab hold of one and taken it for a ride. We also spotted a few white tipped reef sharks, Maybe three or four feet long. A little school of barracuda swam by at one point. The visability was wonderfull and there was such a huge amount of marine life that i can barely remember everything we saw, wished i had an underwater camera. We did three dives and then headed back to our island. Today we bought a couple of dives around here. The weather on top is nicer than yesterday but down below it is a bit murky. We still saw some great stuff. On our second dive we saw maybe a 300lb grouper and i spotted the biggest cuttle fish i had ever seen. It must have been the size of my torso. We are done diving for the day and waiting for our ride back to the mainland. We will spend the night in the fancy hotel and take the early bus tomorrow to Sandakan and catch our flight to Mainland Malaysia, cross the border to Singapore and be on our way to Bali the next day. Hoping to move on to Advanced Open Water and possible Rescue Diver in Bali.

headed to Sipidan

Sipadan

We had one more day of diving after getting certified. Everyone in our class of 5 did so well that our fourth day was a free dive. We did two boat dives, where we enter the water Jacque Coustoue style. It poured down rain the night before and was still raining when we got there so the water was a little murky. We had camped on the island the first night in a rented tent. If i hadn’t been so tired because of being in the water all day i would have rated it as one of my worst nights sleep. I was terribly uncomfortable and it was easily 150 degrees in the tent. Johnny and Malika were going to stay a second night while i was going back into town, Just as we were about to head on the last boat off the island the sky unleashed its wrath and flooded the tent so we all went back to town. That last day we also did a beach dive without a guide. We made Johnny our guide since he was the only one with a watch.
That night we our graduating class went out to dinner and to a local bar which gives a large discount on Pitchers of Tiger beer to those who get certified. The next morning the two Britts that were in our class took off early in the morning. Johnny and i flew up to Sandakan and Malika took the bus. Sandakan did not have a whole lot to offer, but our guesthouse had AC, a t.v. with a DVD player and loads of movies to choose from. After arriving and getting something to eat Johnny and i sat in the room watching movies. Malika came in that night and we pretty much did the same. We had planned on coming to Sandakan to check out Turtle Island. This is where turtles come at night to lay their eggs. You can stay overnight on the island, but after a little research we learned that it is like $400 for a two day one night stay, well over our budget. We did take a cab over to the Orang-Atang Sanctuary. The try and rehabilitate orphaned Orang-Tangs and get them acclimated to go back into the wild. We were running a few minutes late. They do a 10am feeding and again at 3pm. We bought our tickets and headed down the trail. We had no map and there were no well marked signs as to where this feeding took place. We were walking down the trail rather quiet, because we didn’t want to scare anything away. At a major fork in the trail we were being tailed by a family of very load Malays. The two kids were practically screaming. We opted to take the muddier route towards the watering hole. A prime spot for seeing Orang-tangs, monkeys got to drink right. I can’t believe there was a DO NOT ENTER this trail sign. It did not take us too long to realize we shouldn’t be on this trail. It was at about the time we started crossing the collapsed bridge. As we turned to head back i felt a bug bite me and when i reached back to my calf to itch it i felt something slimy. LEACH!! .......GET IT OFF!! Malika had a lighter and i burned the little guy off my leg. This really freaked Malika out and she kind of got the Heebee jeebee’s and headed back up the trail very fast. Johnny was wearing CROCs and when he pulled his foot out he too had picked up a hitch hiker. I helped burn his little guy off, but instead burned his toe. We finally made it over to where the feeding takes place just in time to watch everyone leaving as there were only Macaque monkeys left. We sat there for a bit, when i felt another bug bite and spotted my second leach up on my thigh. There was a guide there who informed me that it was a Tiger Leach and that they were harmless and if i wanted to wait ten minutes it would triple in size and finally just drop off. What the heck we had five more hours to kill until the next feeding time. I soon became a big hit with all the tourists as we watched the little guy fill up. It felt like a bug bite at first, but other than that i could hardly tell he was even on there. Johnny spotted another little guy on his ankle, so he let him stay there too. We went back to the main area and watched a monkey movie, I was afraid my guy was going to drop off in the theater and be stuck there living on the Airconditioned carpet the rest of his life. The movie was an hour long, he was still there when it was over. 10minutes? All in all he and i hung out for almost two hours, finally another guide came up and flicked him off with a small twig. Then my leg bled for another 30 minutes. There was a nice nurse there from England who helped me out with a couple of sterile wipes that she had in her purse. He left a really strange bite mark with what looks like a little triangle in the middle. I named him Ted.
Johnny and i are now in Semporna, we took off from Sandakan two days ago on the morning bus, a few miles down the road we noticed that Johnny did not have his passport. this was my fault, i had used it to make dive reservations online. I had left it on top of Malikas guide book in the room. I quickly ran to the front of the bus and got the driver to pull over and let us out. I think at one point the driver asked if i wanted him to pull over and wait while my friend ran back to get his passport. Oh no no, we will just try again tomorrow. Then the co-driver or at least the guy sitting next to the driver got off the bus with us. The bus took off and he walked us to the local bus stop and sent us on our way. They are so nice here. We did nothing much yesterday and made the bus to Semporna today.
We are staying in a really cool hotel that sits right over the bay. It is hard to understand the lady but i think we booked a trip out to Sipadan Island tomorrow morning for three dives, a night in the guest house, all our meals and gear, and a ride back the next day. Sipidan is said to be one of the top ten places in the world to dive?? And, i’m probably jinxing it, but they say we have a 75% chance of seeing Sea Turtles, should be cool. I love it under water and i am sure that my future travels plans will be questioned with “Well what is the diving like there”

PADI Certified

Flew to Kota Kinabala, N.E. Bali. We landed in the rain at midnight and cabbed it to a guest house i had made a reservation at. I had also called a couple days before to book a four day dive course. that next morning we walked up the street and signed up for our Open Water Dive Course. We started imediatly. We filled out a personal report, when it got to the medical record one of the questions had to do with broken leg or arm. I didn’t want to lie, so i marked a YES were there needed to be a NO. During the lunch break i was asked to go to a nearby clinic to get signed off as being healthy enough to dive. I waited in line at the clinic for about 2 minutes, talked to the doctor about America and California.I bent down at the knees, stood back up, $15, he signed my paper and i went back to the class. We finished at 5pm. We were going to be picked up the next day from our guest house and taken to a nearby island to finish up our training. We found out that we could camp on the island so that night we walked to the mall and searched high and low for some sleeping pads. We found some for $20 each. The sleeping bags here look like they are made for kids so we decided to walk to the open market and buy a set of sheets, since it was bound to be hot anyways. I found a little store that had matresses out front. I went in and asked for a sheet or blanket. They couldn’t understand my English or my sign language. I finally laid down on the floor of the store, and pretended to pull a sheet up over me and sleep. They laughed and i soon had a cheap blanket. We got picked up in the morning along with two young Brit Boys. the island is set up for divers. There are a few dive operations there and quite a few people scattered around. We rented a tent, set it up and met the rest of our group over in our area. Our class is the two Brits, Johnny, Malika, and myself. Our instructor Ray and his two assistants. We got all of our equiptment ready and headed for the beach. In about 3 feet of water we did some skill practicing and went over hand signals to comunicate with. the first time breathing under water was sure strange. We all had trouble with the bouyancy part. We did some work on what would happen if you either ran out of air or lost your regulator. Ray says it does not happen very often, but you need to know what to do. We did two 20 minute dives, including instruction dives. We did get to do a little sight seeing, but during this time we all just tried to stay floating upright or breath in a relaxed way. We spent the night in the tent, and it was one of the worst night sleeps i have had. I choose to head back with the Brits yesterday and sleep at their guesthouse in a proper bed. It was terribly hot and my $20 pad was worthless. Yesterday we learned a bit more and did our first boat dive. I liked this cause we hit water in the Jacques Coustoue still flipping backwards off the boat. We did a couple more underwater lessons and then followed Ray around some reefs. It was an overflow of sea life, fish of all colors, Baracuda, different corals, i wish i had an underwater camera, just to get a sample what was down there. We finished up the last of our class room lessons, took another boat dive and came back and had our final exam. 80% I missed a lot of the math parts. There is a chart to use to figure out how long you need to stay out of the water after you dive a certain depth for a certain amount of time. You need to know how long to stay out in order to release the extra nitrogen in your system. They also sell computer watches that figure this stuff out for you. As Ray corrected my test, he suggested i invest in one. 80% is passing so i am now a Certified Open Water Diver. Woo Hoo! As we were taking our exam it started to rain, then it straight up poored. So bad that the tent flooded and we all headed back to the mainland. We are being picked up this morning and taken to the island for our fourth day of diving. Two boat dives hopefully. We are done with our training so this will be all for fun, or if we feel we want to work on anything.
Tomorrow afternoon Johnny and i fly to Sandakan to check out Turtle Island. Malika is staying in Kota to climb a mountain and visit some monkey sanctuary.

KK

Went out to the Bako national park. It has been a protected area since 1957. The brochure said. Likely to see wild animals. We took a .30 bus ride to the jetty and then took a boat down the estuary, it was high tide. We cruised out to Bako along dense jungle and high cliffs. It reminded me a bit of boating the fjords around Ketchikan but it looked more like the home of King Kong. We arrived at the dock and had reservations for a dorm room. As we stepped up onto the doc a kind German let us know that a few 300 meters down a plank walkway were a few monkeys. We headed down as quiet as possible. I found a few people standing around and they let us know that over in the trees were a few Proboscis monkeys, AKA big nose, AKA Jimmy Durante monkey. I soon spotted a small one, and thought "oh how cute" then i saw an adult. About the size of a small child. Bigger than Abbie, smaller than Henry. Johnny had his video camera on one and got a great shot of him leaping to another tree. They were soon done doing their thing and headed back into the thicket. We headed towards the lodges, on the way we came across some 30 Macaque monkeys, these are the little ones that you think of when you think of monkeys. It was about now that the mosquitoes came out in full force too. So we headed on down the trail, another few hundred meters ( we don't use feet anymore) i spotted a big bore like animal. I didn't know if we should be nervous or not. Soon another person came up and told us to pay no mind, aside from checking it out, not to be scared. It had big ole' teeth in the front and used its nose to rip up large chunks of grass and dirt in search of worms. It was like a piggy rototiller. We had been there for less than an hour and seen all this wildlife. We settled in and joined a night hike, there were like 13 of us so we didn't see much. The next morning we planned on getting up early. I actually woke up at 3am to the sound of thunder. I got dressed and walked down to the beach and sat and watched some amazing lightning for about an hour. At 7am i got us all up and we walked back to where we saw the Proboscis' There were none so we headed up the 45 minute trail. just a few minutes into the hike we heard some thrashing in the trees and spotted about 20 or so. We sat and watched them for well over an hour. What i also think is neat is they are only here in Borneo, No where else in the world not even in the Zoo, or so they say. A couple was headed up the trail so we left so that they could check them out too. Too many people would have scared them away. The rest of the hike wasn't nearly as cool, monkey wise that is. The landscape was great. Crazy big insects and plants i'd never even imagined were around. It isn't so much hot as it is humid, I was totally wet, but not uncomfortably hot. I was well doused with bug spray, so didn't end up with many bites either. At the end of the hike we saw three more of the wild pigs and the family of little monkeys again. We had only planned the one night so headed back on a boat, bussed back into the city and took a night flight to Kota Kinabalu or K.K. for short. The whole trip to Bako food, transportation, and lodging $20 each.
Now in K.K. I just finished day one of four on PADI Open Water Dive Certification. There was a little questionnaire that asked about any complications from leg or arm injuries. Since i marked yes i had to first see a physician. $15 and 15 minutes later i was cleared and oked to dive. Today was all in the classroom and tomorrow we head out to some island, very exciting. I have yet to buy a camera or hear back from Travel insurance people.

Borneo yo

I flew out of Hanoi into BKK I planned a night there to spend with my friend Peter who lives there. I got in late and headed straight to the Hotel. I had some left over Nam bucks and thought i would buy Peter a bottle of wine from duty free in Nam. Wine is quite expensive in Thailand. I got to the airport in BKK and as i was walking out to catch a cab i guy  grabbed me to see if i wanted to pay him three times as much for a ride into town. As i turned to say NO! the bag with the wine slipped out of my bag and crashed all over the floor, It was only $5 and Peter appreciated the gesture.
   Johnny had flown in a few hours before and pre booked us a room. I checked in and walked down the street to Soi Cowboy and met Johnny, Peter and Peters Girlfriend Nuct at the Cactus Bar. It was about midnight now. We had some drinks and good conversation and we were soon joined by our English teaching friends from Japan, Chris and Ean. That night was very fun and lasted well into the morning. I lost my watch a long time ago so when i got up in the middle of the night to pee i pulled johnny's watch of him to see what time it was, 10:30am Our flight was at 1pm, we were totally late. We flew up out of bed and just made it onto our flight to Singapore. the flight was great, it was two hours. The service was fantastic i asked if i could get an isle seat to stretch my leg and we ended up in the exit row with like 15 feet in front of us. We chatted with the flight attendants and a few people around us who told us about Singapore, Just weeks earlier i thought Singapore was the capital of Malaysia, who knew it was its own country? We landed and took a cab to a Youth Hostel, There and the whole way there, everyone we encountered was overly nice and overly helpful. Singapore is clean, and quiet. Muslims, Indians, Chinese, and Christians all living in harmony. I think the USA could learn alot from how the Malaysians live together. I thought maybe it was the fear of being caned for the slightest infraction that kept every one on their best behavior, but it is like that over here in Borneo too. This is a very nice change from the loud, dirty, You buy, You buy or Thai-Cambo-Nam
   We spent a couple of days in Singapore, just sort of walking around. It is a bit pricey, a bit like Canada, Which is not that pricey, but way over our budget. the drinks are crazy expensive. We went to one bar, we all wanted a Singapore Sling (when in Rome) We met some guy in the elevator. The bar was called the Loof, because they can't pronounce the letter 'R' for That bar up on the Roof. The guy was totally nice and bought us a round of Slings. $15 a pop, We had one more drink and left. The next day, today we took the bus to the other bus station, That took us to the border. We spent about 3 minutes at the Singapore immigration and well over an hour at the Malaysian immigration. We happened to be in the slowest moving line. I think it was the immigration officers first day. We then took a cab to the airport. Our driver, Indian was very friendly. I sat in the front and we talked about, Malaysian life, Religion, Gov. Subsidised fuel prices and medical and living expenses. About a minute after getting out of the cab i was Stoked to realise that i had forgotten my small bag on the floor of the cab. Camera, iPod, Journal....Gone!! Bummer. I was grateful that i had just put my passport into my pocket after immigration. I went to the info counter at the airport and the police station in hopes that it may be returned, I actually think it might? Even after that incident i am in a great mood, I love it here and we are all excited about what is too come in the next few weeks. We shared a cab with a few other whiteys to a B&B, the three of us did not like the price or the rooms so we walked on. We ended up finding a new Guest House with free Wi-Fi, a nice room with AC and the owners used to be in the travel business for 15 years and will help us to see Borneo with out going through expensive tour agencies. The have all ready given us the local bus route and told us how to walk most everywhere else. I think we are going to spend a few days here then head both into the interior for some jungle trekking and up the coast for fun in the sun. Tomorrow we shop for a camera for me, I'll be filling a claim through travel insurance too, and a rain coat, cause when it rains here in dumps.

March 8th the Hoi An part

March 8
Which is either Women in the world Day or Women in the war day? Or Mothers Day and i forgot?

Hoi-An Sweatshop Capitol of the world. I’ve been hearing a lot of “c’mon into my shop and buy” and “Hello motorbike” They are a little pushy on the You buy You buy over here, but you just smile raise your hand like you are about to wave and quickly flip your hand. Palm forward, palm backward and say “ thank you, No” I was unable to say No a few times and ended up with a suit, that i will probably never wear. I figure i am 37 and i have worn a suit once at Nathens wedding, but you never know? Two short sleeve shirts, three long sleeve shirts, two pairs of britches, and a jacket. I think i paid about two bills for all. Johnny tripled what i got.
We left Saigon via bus and headed north to Mui ne, which is a little beach town. No more busses for me. We sat in the middle in the very back, this is a city bus sized bus I had plenty of leg room and it looked like we were going to be alright for this 3 hour bus ride. As soon as we got underway the co-driver came back and yelled at Johnny and i and some old man with his son. He made us move forward one seat. He then started doubling people up even though the bus wasn’t nearly full. He did leave Johnny and i each in our own seat. I tried to tell him that my leg was broken and i need the space, but he was having none of that. A couple minutes later he laid down in the back and slept the whole way. I on the other hand found that the distance between my knee and my butt in sitting position is about 4” shorter than the distance between the back of my seat and the back of the seat in front of me. So i spent 5 hours quietly bitching and squirming around in search of a comfortable position. Johnny, who was sitting in front of my wasn’t too into it either. For fun every time he would switch positions he would look over his seat and i would shut my eyes and pretend that i was totally asleep, just so that he would think “ how can Bob sleep through this” We took the night bus so about 2am i tapped Johnny when we passed a hotel that i recognized from the book (the lonely planet guide to Nam) We stopped soon after to drop off a few people. I had over heard them earlier in the night talking like the lived in Saigon and came to Mui ne ever so often. They stayed in the same place every time. I expected to drive a bit further then be dropped in the center of town. Now that we stopped the bus wouldn’t stop, it is not a real bus ride unless your bus breaks down. I was about to get out and see if we could just walk from where we were, but as i headed down the passage way the bus started and we were on our way. We passed quite a few hotels and soon it looked like we were far away from anything. At about this time the co-driver came back to where we were sitting and asked if we were going to Mui ne. Yeah, that is what our tickets said, the ones you took 5 hours ago. He gave us a look like we should have said something as we had already driven through Mui ne. He yelled to the driver and the driver stopped and we ended up paying $20 to stay our first night a few Klicks outside of where we wanted to be. The next morning came very early when the Vietnam music started up at full volume. We went to internet and found out where Malika was staying, she had come the day before. Johnny and were both ready to hop a train and get out of there, but once we settled into where Malika was staying we found the place quite nice. Malika had ridden there pain free, but she is maybe 5’ tall. She met Hanita from florida so now the four of us are hanging out. We spent most of our couple of days on the beach. One day we went to some kind of cool sand dunes, they were not really that cool, but after a quick climb through scalding hot sand the view out over the China Sea was pretty amazing. We also climbed up to some kind of cool red mud cliffs.
We decided to book a train ticket to Hoi an. This proved harder than expected mostly because i kept getting quoted different prices. We argued about 30 minutes with these two girls about prices. It ended up being all in jest. We had to sit there while they waited for the train station to call back anyways. The argument revolved around Rich Americans and poor Vietnamese. They didn’t understand that the costs in the USA are much higher than Nam, therefore even though we make more $$ it is hard to live in the USA. Whatever, it is an old argument that we will never win. We ended up in a not very comfy sleeper. We did meet a couple guys Chris from Berkeley and Eaan from Australia who are English teachers in Japan. We hung out with them in the bar car. They are both very funny and we had a good time, went to sleep and woke up in Da Nang. We shared a mini-bus to Hoi An and split up there. We met them two nights later for drinks and dinner. Johnny and i earlier that day stumbled across a cafe that offered .18 beers on tap. We took them and Malika, Hanita, a Japanese girl whos name i forget and Jenene from Florida there. We emptied the keg and then went for great tasting Indian food. We ended up at some bar. Neither Chris or i can handle our liquor so we both headed out first. The rest stumbled home much later, but i felt fine the next morning which was nice.
We have one more night here in Hoi-an. We are going to meet Chris and Eaan again along with Wayne and Dimi who we met in Saigon. Then it is on the train to Hanoi..Oh Boy!

Hanoi (pronunced with a silent 'H')

Annoyed in Hanoi

There is actually a whole other section that i wrote on Johnny's computer, but we have not found a place to plug it in. So we will just have to skip Hoi-An for now.
JG and i took the night train out of Hoi-An to Hanoi. I am wishing now that we would have stayed one more day. That last night we all met at an outside cafe. A few of us that have been running into each other on our travels. John, Malika, Myself, Hanita (who Malika met on the way to Muie-ne and is still with us) Chris and Ean. ( Chris is from Berkeley and Ean is Australian, they teach English in japan) Janene ( who Chris and Ean met from Florida) Dimi and Wayne (Johnny and i met in Saigon they are traveling overland from Singapore to Belfast no planes) We had a realy good time hanging out and drinking .18 beers. I was talking with Wayne and Janene about diving and Wayne told me had we stayed one more day he, since he is an instructor would take us out and all we would have to do is pay the rental fees on our equipment, but instead we took a train to Hanoi. We left the sun and fun and arrived at 5am in the rain. Everything was closed so we sat in the rain in front of our guesthouse for about an hour when the lady woke up let us store our bags and told us she would have a room in a couple of ours. So we walked around, all we really wanted to do was lie down. We couldn't find anything open even for coffee or food. We found a couple other hotel and almost decided to fork our $25 just for a bed. Finally she let us come in and wait. Malika soon showed up, she had taken the bus. The bus is much cheaper, but i can't fit my big ole legs in them little seats, especially not for 12 hours. The place was full but they had a second joint down the street. We followed the gal with our bags on our backs. On the way i slipped on some tiles. It was my bad leg so in fear of falling i kicked out my left foot for balance and kicked a couple of broken bricks. The toenail on my big toe bent backwards and the toe next to it split open. Inside i was crying and on the outside i was biting my lower lip. We got to the place and i asked for a towel, i had bloody black gutter muck all over my foot. I took a nap while Johnny and Malika went out. Later on i felt better and went for a walk. I had a map but quickly got lost. The People here in the North are not nearly as friendly as those in the south. I bought a bagget off of this lady. She tried to charge me 10,000. 16,000 is $1. this is 8,000 too much, but i was hungry so what ever. She handed me two and said 10k 10k. I said not just one. She pushed them into my hand and said ok 10k for two. I didn't even want two. I handed her a 50k bill and for change she gave me two 10k's and what i thought was 10- 2000dong notes but were actually 200 dong notes. So many 0's so confusing. That B.I.T.C.H. had short changed me like $1.80 You know you are tired when $2 pisses you off. Fine!! walking around Hanoi sucks because the traffic is every which way, you can't walk on the sidewalk because this is where every one parks so you end up in the street or the gutter. I was walking along the gutter when my foot slipped, I hate the rain, i could feel my sock filling with icky water as my foot was slipping down into the AbbyssAt the same time i am falling into the street when i hear honking, not motorbike honking but car honking. It was like slow motion. I put
my hand out at the exact time the car was passing me allowing me to use its momentum to push my self back onto both feet. I don't know what would have been worse, being run over or slipping into that drain. I finally made it back to the guest house. I was ready to leave and when we went out for dinner i stopped and checked to see if i could fly out early. The next day i decided would be better. We got up early and took a cab to the Ho Chi Mihn Mausoleum. The final resting place of Uncle Ho. The line was crazy long like 10 blocks easily. It moved right along though, like the pace of a slow walk. At one point we had to give up our bags and then a little ways down our cameras. there were a couple of security checkpoints. The closer we got to his place of rest the more in line we had to get. Two by two. There were more and more guards around. By the time we reached the entrance there was no talking, you could not have your hands in your pockets. look straight ahead and there was a fancy dressed guard in white duds and a riffle about every 20 feet. You walk up a marble staircase and soon you find your self shuffling past this little grey man lying peacefully in his glass tomb. It was neat in a very creepy sort of way. It was like a wax museum with only one statue. And we were done. I guess he goes on tour to Russia three months out of every year for cosmetic work. while we were milling around outside i overheard Malika and Johnny poking fun at Ho and how the Russian probably set him up in funny positions and take candid shots of him. I cautiously turned and said " I think Ho Chi Mihn is a pretty highly respected individual amongst the people of Vietnam and maybe We should keep it down a bit on the poking fun" i quickly realised what they had been saying and felt a bit ashamed. I was getting many looks form the people around us, so we thought it best to just leave. We booked an overnight trip to Halong Bay so we went looking for a jacket for me since, it was surely going to be wet and cold. Everything was too pricey and now one wanted to haggle down. Johnny had bought one the day before, but found one he liked better so he bought the new one and gave me the old. That day we hooked back up with Hanita so now it was going to be the four of us.
The mini bus came and picked us up in the morning and took us the three hours to the boat. The boat was and old Chinese Junk boats, the ones with the big red sails. I doubt it was old and they never even lifted the sails. I was happy that there were only us four two couples of older Italians and 5 Irish gals. We all stayed the night on the boat. First we had lunch on the boat. Very good eggrolls and cabbage, rice, french fries, noodle stuff. Then we cruised around stopping at some big caves that we walked around in. After the caves we stopped to do a bit of kayaking. Johnny and Malika in one and Hanita and i in the other. We took off for about 30 minutes. We explored a few caves and it was quite spectacular. it was damp out but warm. I changed into shorts but still had on my jacket. I decided not to take my camera since Hanita had hers and Johnny and Malika both had theres. Plus with my luck i'd either drop it of fall in. On the way back to the boat the boat people had us scoot our kayak around the back of the boat to the other side. The engine was running as we rounded the back end, but i know enough about boats to know that it was idling and even if it wasn't it would be pretty hard to find your way down to get chopped up into the prop. Hanita on the other hand did not know this and freaked out a bit, i don't know if she tried to stand up or lean way to far the other way, but we quickly found ourselves in the drink. The water was totally warm and i found it very funny as did Hanita. No one saw us go over because the were on the other side at the ladder waiting for us. Malika and Johnny were already on the boat. I knew Johnny would love it so i started yelling "Man overboard" Finally the crew came to see what was taking so long. They seemed a bit worried until they saw us laughing. Soon everyone was watching, i am sure some one has some good photos, except Hanita who's camera got drenched, she is shopping for a new one today. I was happy to have dry clothes to change into. That was actually the funnest part of my trip to Annoy. That night we had another great meal of fish. They split us up so i ended up sitting with the Italians, who i really liked. They are in their 70's and have been traveling together every year for the past 30 years. They have been every where. So we are thinking of going to Borneo for a couple of weeks. When i mentioned this to the Italians their faces lit up "Bella Bella!!" as this was one of their most favorite places. This makes me feel good.
Leaving Nam tonight, One night in BKK and then it is off to the second half of our adventures. I am happy about this because now i am headed to places i have never been. A couple of days in Singapore and we will soon be off to Island Malaysia and Borneo until April 1, Bali for two three weeks after, Hongkong and home.

miss you all
bob

Nam

We are planning to leave Saigon today. We were in the little and overly boring town of Can Tho for two nights. The book said it was Capitol of the Mekong Delta and a very cosmopolitan kind of city. It was cute, sort of looked like Capitola, but there was just nothing to do, no cool markets or sights or really anything. It was more of a town that you would come to drop off and pick up goods, but nothing good. The street market was mostly boat parts, props, engines parts. I guess there was a Uncle Ho museum , but we never found it. there was a large Uncle Ho statue near the river that looked a lot like a big silver Col. Sanders. We decided to buy a bus ticket to My Tho a city three hours away. We went down to the local bus depot bought our ticket, that didn’t leave for three hours. We had already eaten, so like true Americans to pass some time we ate again. We ended up just sitting at the office waiting. I fell asleep and then was awoken by what i thought was a guy telling me that we could get on an earlier bus. He sat down next to me. His English was hard to understand, but he could write it OK. After a bit i understood that he was an English Teacher and wanted me to go to his school around the corner to visit his class. No, he had a car and was driving to Ho Chi Min and wanted to know if we wanted to ride with him and his family. No he was in the army up north and shot down a French plane?? At one point he lifted his shirt to show me a battle scar, he had a couple of buddies sitting around him by this time. So i did the same lifted my shirt and showed him my scar. The buddies all laughed since my scars out did his. After a few more minutes of writing, drawing, and a little charades he had been a pilot, was shot down over the north and jailed for 10 years. What he wanted was money. This had gone on for easily 30 minutes. So i gave him $5000 (.30) just for the entertainment. The whole time Johnny sat next to me looking off the other way. How strange that the guy didn’t come up to Johnny but instead woke me up. A watched this little girl and her sister for a while, spoiled little girl at that. If she was in the states she would surely have been on Ritialin. A lady would walk up selling candy, the girl would want gum or candy. She picked out mint flavored Mentos. Took a bite and spit it out, then wined till she got something else. Eventually she ended with chunks of sugar cane, that she would chew all the sugar out of the through them at people. She gravitated towards me and talked for a while all in Vietnamese. I just smiled and talked back to her. I think she was just asking me the same question over and over. Then she went over to the lady holding a baby put her hands all over the kid while the mother tried to push her away. She found another gal that had a box wrapped in wrapping paper the girl went up said something then started trying to unwrap it. The whole time the parents are sitting right across from us pretending like the don’t notice anything. Not a lot of discipline in the household.
We got in our little mini bus, we had the last two seats, somehow i had awesome leg room. I felt bad for the lady in front of my who was quite a few months pregnant and obviously sick. The road was a bit bumpy, and she used my knee to catch her balance. A couple of times. She would lay her head on it. I finally told her to bunch up her sweater and use my knee as a pillow.
We were going to be dropped off in My Tho on there way to Ho Chi Min City. The ride was most comfortable so Johnny and i were going to see if we could just ride all the way to HCMC. We saw the sign welcoming us to My Tho, but the bus never stopped so cool here we are in HCMC/Saigon. We did not do much the first day. The next day we booked a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. These are the immense network of tunnels used my the Vietcong. We thought we were going to be in a group of about 5 or 6 but instead a huge bus of about 45 people pulled up and took us away. the place was two hours away, but first we had to stop at the local crafts place and get pushed into buying local crap. Next stop was the restaurant that was in the middle of nowhere. We finally made it to the tunnels where they hearded us around like cattle amongst the other 500 tourists. the stuff was interesting but too fast. “Here is where the people did there cooking, Ok now we must move on” With 45 people in a group it was hard to hear and hard to see at the pace we were going. Johnny and i both decided that was probably our last group tour.
We hooked up with a couple of Cyclo drivers. Cyclos are peddled rickshaws. We had them take us to China town, cause Johnny wanted a bike seat like they used. Along the way we stopped and looked at some very cool vintage scooters. I asked about Chinese accupunture, so they took us to a place that did that too. Made an apt. for yesterday.
Yesterday i met up with my Cyclo driver who took me back to China town. We talked along the way. This is when i decided my favorite part of traveling is riding around talking with a local. I can ask him all about the country and be shown stuff you don’t see on group tours. He suggested i buy my own needles for the accupunture because of AIDs. I asked if he would translate that to the Chinese lady. He did and she gave us both a crazy look and shook her head showing us little packages of needles. She said we only use these once, everyone gets new needles. then looked at us like we were idiots to think she would re-use them. She asked where i hurt then took my pulse. She said that i had weak bones, not enough calcium. Either she said this because my leg is broken or she really can tell because that is what the American doctors say too. Also my kidneys are weak. When i had accupunture done in the States the gal told my she trained in China and the really good accupunturists can tell all your health through your pulse so?? I laid done she inserted a few needles very quickly then wrapped them with small wires and turned on a little pulsing shock treatment. She set a heating lamp above where the needles were and came back 30 minutes later. I think it felt good? This cost me $2. I also got suckered into buying an odd mixture of rice wine and jinsing that had all sorts of stuff soaking in it. plants, herbs, bugs, snakes, ?,?. I got the top of the line stuff that had Tiger bone in it. I take a shot glass full after every meal to strengthen my tendens and my bones. I had my first shot last night and it is gag worthy.
I have been seeing these older men with strange circles burned into their skin. I don’t now if it is like a tattoo or some religious ceremony. I asked my driver and he said it is a massage for Vietnamese. I figured i was on a roll of weirdness. so i asked him to take me there. They are not actually burns. they still rub your back but then take little mason jars with a small amount of rubbing alchohol, light it and attach it to your skin. It doesn’t really hurt, but then it doesn’t really feel good either. They did it on my chest too and i was able to kind of see what it looked like and my skin was like two inches high up in the jar. I am now covered in what looks like huge hickys Not too impressed with the massages over here, i think i am going to hold off until i get back to Thailand We are headed to the beach town of Muine tonight.

Down the Mekong

We are in Vietnam now. In a town called Can Tho very close to the mouth of the Mekong. We took a bus and boat from Phnom Penn. A little bus came and picked us up from our guest house and took us to the boat dock. Of course there was an iratating Canadian kid on the bus that talked loud about dumb things. I must be getting old for this kind of stuff to bother me. He was telling his French speaking girl friend something about how chickens and cows are skinnier over here? Because they have to find their own food? I wanted to tell him it had a lot to do with the amount of hormones pumped into the beef back home. But instead i put on my headphones and tried to drown him out with music. We boarded a little boat along with some other tourists and off we went on our three hour tour. Johnny and i snagged the best seats in the back of the boat with the best comfort and view. We stopped at the border and dealt with our passports. I looked over and a few people were boarding a boat so i grabbed Johnny and we were off. Our original boat wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes. We made it away from the Canadian and into Chao Doc a few hours later. Right as we got off the boat we were approched by "Hope" who told us for a mere $1 he would take us to a great Guest House. we hopped on his rickshaw and barely the distance of a walk we were there. I was shown three rooms and kept asking if they had cheaper. We stayed in the $5 room that looked exactly like the $8 room only it was on the top floor. The next day we walked down to the bus station, because Hope had told me that the only place to buy a bus ticket was from our guesthouse. I also had read that if you could find an interpretur it was possible to maybe get on a cargo boat down the Mekong. When i asked Hope about this he told me "Not Possible" and since it was the start of Tet, the lunar new year. We would have to purchase our bus tickets today, because they would all be full. I told him we were not going to Siagon, but to the small town of Can Tho. "I know, very full" We found the bus station which has a bus leaving every hour for 1/6 of the price from the guest house. We asked a few people about boats, but it was useless.
Back in the middle of town we spotted travel agent next to a used English book store, I asked the travel agent about a boat down the Mekong and he quoted me at about $200 since there were only two of us. I asked about hopping a cargo boat and he said "Not Possible" we went to check out the book store cause Johnny wanted a Nam Map. When the guy, who spoke a little English unfolded the map for us we traced the Mekong down to the mouth and said to each other we wanted to go that way. This guy told us he had organised this for some other tourists last year. We asked if he could do the same for us. He made a couple of calls and told us to come back at 5am the next morning.
When staying at a guesthouse here in Nam, you have to turn over your passport in case the cops come by and ask for it. It took us a while to talk the owner into giving us back our passports. I told him we would be leaving at 4:30am. The next morning we came down from our rooms to locked doors and barking dogs. I tried every door in the place until finally the guy woke up since the dogs barked continuously from the time we walked down. 15 minutes or so. We walked around the corner to the book store and at exactly 5am our guy showed up with his wife on the back of his scooter. We paid him some money and followed him in our rickety rickshaw down to some sketchy nieghborhood. He had us wait in the dark at a corner for a few minutes then we followed him to a little cafe, this all in the dark. We had coffee and some noodle soup while we waited for another guy who would take us on his little boat out to the bigger boat, that would take us down the Mekong to Can Tho. We boarded the big boat, i paid the little boat guy then gave the Capt. half of what we would pay, i was to pay the rest when we arrived. Johnny and i sat down on the bow of this 40' wooden empty cargo boat as we headed down river. We were told we could come into the cabin, but we wanted to watch the Sunrise. I finally fell asleep and was awakened by the Capt. and told to come inside to the bridge where i took over the hammock for the remainder of the trip. This day was by far the best time Johnny and i have had. It was the Capt. his wife, two sons and maybe a sons girlfriend. They did not speak a lick of English so we just smiled. they fed us lunch of rice, cabbage and eggs, all of which was very good. The trip took about 10 hours. They were very good at hugging the which ever edge of the river had the most excitement going on. We went through a great floating market, watched some local fisherman, skirted along some very rudimentary brick producing plants. Saw some good stuff. Around 4:30pm we rounded a corner and there was Can Tho. About this time the phone rang and it was our boy calling to see that everything went alright. I thanked once again, paid off our Capt. He waved over a water taxi that took us to shore. We waved goodbye and smiled our thanks. We had a hotel picked out, but as soon as we stepped foot on shore we were approached and told of a better hotel. She was old and we could walk faster than her and we quickly ditched her. I think we are going to stay at least one more night before probably taking a bus to Saigon. Malika is still in Cambodia, but we may meet back up with here in a few days here in Vietnam

I am having trouble adding photos, but you can check some out at
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=41039380 just click on photos

Cambo-land

I forget how friendly the folks are here, in this country. Just a simple smile and a wave gets the people going. We took a bus into Phnom Penn the other day. A real little junker of a bus picked us up from our guesthouse, Johnny and i both thought it was the bus we were taking to Phnom Penn. Soon the little bus was filled all the way to max capacity with a few people even standing. One of my favorite accents is the Australian one. There was this young kid that got on which ruined it for me. Had i had to listen to him much longer and it would have made me hate even my favoritest of Aussies, Christian. He was loud and had a peircing laugh. I finally turned and told him that maybe he needed to use his inside voice. This worked for a couple of minutes. Soon we were at the main bus station, and i was happy to learn that the bus was over booked and Johnny and i were asked to move to the next bus along with two Germans. We sat alone on this bus a few minutes while we watched the guys in charge run around? With in a few minutes another guy came on and asked us to move to the next bus? Whatever we don’t care. We sat around for about 30 minutes and finally left. The bus had great AC and really loud Cambodian movie blaring for six hours. Johnny and i were stoked that we got seats in the front. I’m not sure why they decided to design the bus with the horn on the inside of the bus, but it was right under our seat. I shoved my ear plugs in and it brought the volume down to just ‘High’.
No one needs worry about me getting onto the back of a motorbike. While in Siem Reap we witnessed two motorbike wrecks, one of which the lady did not walk away from. On the 5 hour road to Phnom Penn i counted 4 accidents. Only one involving a car. The road into town was the craziest traffic i have ever encountered. The road can barely fit two cars, one headed in each direction. Yet here we are in a big old bus passing four or five rows of motorbikes while at the same time being passed by two rows of motorbikes and the same happening in the oncoming lane of traffic, this mixed in with bicycles, dogs, food carts, pedestrians, and cows. It makes for a crazy time. Sitting in the front seat i’d think to myself there is no way we are going to avoid slamming into that cow or that family of five on their little scooter. But somehow we avoided them all. I thanked my bus driver for not killing us when we pulled into the bus station at Phnom Penn. We had the address of a guest house and took a Tuk tuk there. Yesterday we turned in our passports to start the Vietnam visa process walked to go and get breakfast. I happy that the French Colonized this area because they can brew a mean cup of Joe, unlike those Thais and their Nescafe. We met a nice Tuk Tuk driver named Sam and hired him for the day. He took us to the S-21 museum this is the school that the Khmer Rouge converted into their torture prison. I’d seen this five years ago and it is quite disturbing so Johnny went in by himself and i walked around the corner and got a really bad halfass massage. After that we went to the grand pallace but we were denied cause we wore shorts. it is 180 degrees here. We headed back to the guest house and put on pants. Next we went out to the killing fields and the gun range. If only i had more money. Johnny fired the Tommy Gun giving me the last five bullets. Then we both split 30 bullets each and Anti-aircraft gun. Wow was that thing fun. Blew the hell out of the little paper target they had set up. Next time i am budgeting more money because for $200 and the price of a barrel of gasoline you can go into the field and shoot a rocket launcher into the can of gas. They also had available hand grenades, RPG’s AK-47 and pile of handguns and even an M-60 machine gun like Rambo. I know that donating blood in a country like Cambodia wasn’t the most responsible thing i could do but tossing a thirty year old grenade would have topped that. Our driver Sam was eying the shotgun and had never even picked up a gun so Johnny and i paid for him to do that. It was pretty funny to see him fire that. Oh yeah to add to the fun you can drink beer while shooting these guns too. We enjoyed Sam’s company. Next on the list was the grand palace, once inside lots of people were in shorts. I guess it depended on the mood of they guys at the gate. I saw a couple of women get denied cause their bare arms were showing. I was none too impressed with the palace, most of the cool stuff had been stolen, maybe we will see it when we get to Vietnam. At the national museum i remember seeing an awesome display of bats. The roof of the place is said to hold more bats than any man made structure in the world. After we had dinner at a little street place with Sam, I had chicken soup which was mostly just bones and cartilage, yummy. But then three cokes, soup, some mushroom in gravy and rice for $1.80 can you really complain. We paid off Sam and had him drop us in front of the museum. We set up Johnny’s video camera ran and got a couple of beers and waited, and waited , and counted maybe 10 bats, and waited and got of waiting, then it was too dark to see much and we left. Maybe the bats snuck out the back, i don’t know.
Today we don’t know what we are doing. Waiting for our visas and we will leave tomorrow. We are going to take a boat from Phnom Penn to Vietnam down what i thought was the Mekong but is actually called something else?

Happy New Year China

February 16th

We went back to the TAT offices in the morning to see about getting our passports back so we could get the hell out of Bangkok and just maybe get a little back from our canceled Nam visa. We asked for our passports and the one dude said not till Wed. The guy next to him said something and made the phone sign and then he said “OK come back at 8pm” and a refund?? “ i have to talk to the manager” Malika and i dinked around until 8pm. When we got there our passports were there with Cambodian Visa’s and we got back everything less 400bht We were both very happy about this, but did not show it until we left the office. Now we were in good moods and NO MORE were we going to get jipped (until a few days later) After TAT we went to meet Peter Kent, former Grandaddy tour manager who now resides in BKK with his girl Nuct. We took a local bus and the sky train, meeting two very nice and very helpful locals. This was good because it rebuilt our faith and trust in our Thai brothers. Peter just bought a cute little Condo in a very nice area. We hung out a bit then cabbed it down to a local eatery. Nuct did the ordering. We had Tom Yum Koon (shrimp), whole baked fish and some string beany dish in a tasty gravy. We drank Thai whiskey, which i think is actually rum. with soda pop and seltzer water. Best meal i’ve had. Peter picked up the bill, about $30 for all four of us. Afterwards we went for drinks at Soy Cowboy (Cowboy Street) named after a former GI who opened the first bar on that street (Soy) It was a fun place the whole street was bars, food carts scantedly clad Thai girls and drunken Embassy workers. Because of its location it did not seem so scummy-like.Most of the patrons were regulars who worked at the Embassies. We sat out front of one bar and watched the people. We had a fun time and it was great to hang out with Peter. Nuct is going to school learning English so she and Malika visited all night. Nuct bought us a bag of crickets, you know just to snack on, like beer nuts. Nuct loves them. I had a couple. The crunch of the legs wasn’t so bad, but the overall flavor could use some work. Peter informed me that they had more protein than a steak. I think Malika had one, and looked like another might make her throw up.
The next day Malika took off to the floating market and Johnny and i Went back to china town and then to a mall in Siam Square. Johnny was looking at getting some paintings done. We decided to take a break and have a refreshment at Dunken Donuts, as we walked there i overheard a Thai lady telling two foriegners to go to TAT, i couldn’t help myself i went back and said “Did that lady just tell you to go to TAT?”yes” i wouldn’t do that they are a rip off” The lady was pissed which confirmed my suspicion that these so called nice helpful Thai’s were getting some sort of kickback. I told the whiteys about my experience, they thanked me and i left. As i sat in the donut store i was overy dirty looked by the lady. I don’t mind giving my money to the locals but to heck with that TAT scam. I then walked over to the pissed off lady with 50bht in hand and told her that i know she gets paid, but TAT is not good for tourists. She was having none of it, so to hell with her and i went back to enjoying my crappy donut and icky coffee.
That night we decided to treat ourselves to facials. It was my first professional facial. It was quite nice until they got to the blackhead removal. Too painful for me. But soon our pores were clean, though they would be filled back up ten fold by the time we got to Cambodia.
The next morning we took a cab to the local bus terminal, enough of this buying a ticket through a travel agent. Instead we paid $7 to get to the border, not a bad ride. Getting our passports stamped was a breeze. It took Malika a bit longer since she tried to use her old visa, they were not having that, so she was sent back to get a new one. They tried to up the price on her, but she stood her ground. While we waited on the other side we were rounded up with the rest of Whitey and told that we could ride this free bus to the main bus station in the border town of Poi Pet. Poi Pet looks a lot like Tiajuana. Free Bus?? the guy told me that no one believes him, but the government wants to promote tourism so they have set this up since it is so dangerous to walk there. He was very believable. He got everyone to go. I knew that he was going to try and get us to go on his special bus, but if figure we will just walk over and negotiate our own ride. NOPE!! After Malika got through we were taken down the road to the bus terminal, a road that seemed very un-dangerous. Once at the station we were told that the last bus was leaving and tickets were $10 each. I know that even though it had been five years since my last visit, it was far less than $10. I remember riding in the back of a pick-up for hardly anything. I was told that there had been too many thefts and that the gov would no longer allow this pick-up riding method. When i said i was going to go look around away from the bus station I was told it is far too dangerous and that the only other option was a $60 cab ride that you can conveintly book right here from this very station They were overly pushing us to get on the bus, but we wasted too much time arguing and the ‘last bus’ left. They would not lower the taxi price and every time i tried to walk away i was followed and warned not to leave. I new this was a scam, but couldn’t seem to get away from them. Malika slipped away and they were all very concerned “where did your friend go” It is too dangerous, many people with knives and how you say....machettee they chop her arms off. There English was very good and would not leave us any conversation space so when Malika returned (with both arms) she told me under her breath that she found a guy that would take us for $40 but it was very hush hush, she had to follow him into an alley. The guy told her that if the bus people saw her leave and get into his car the police would stop and harass him. this was not only a scam, but a local police run scam. After about two hours of arguing and us threatening to get a room at a guest house, we would walk down the street and they would follow us in a car we settled on $40 and 100bht ($3) “You Pay Now!” I said no, but i’ll give half now and half when we get there. I gave the bus guy $10+100bht which was the pay off money and we paid the drive $30 when we arrived. After paying the bus guy he leaned in the window and said “tip for me” yeah right!. sorry too dangerous? (I know the whole time you are reading this you are thinking, Bob just pay the $10 and go. I don’t mind paying the money, i just don’t like the monopoly they got going and the whole don’t go there or you will be killed by the locals.
The road to Seim Reap was hell, just like five years ago, I was happy to have taxi seat padding. They drive on the correct side of the road like in the States, but the car is Right hand drive. Because there is no road, just a bumpy dust bowl it was like driving in the fog. We were doing about 40mph and passing big trucks doing 10-20mph. I was a bit nervous, because it was dark out and i could see the oncoming headlights well before he could. I would warn him and tell him when it was clear. I was riding shotgun. Luckily he was better at telling whether the oncoming headlighs were two motor bikes or a 20ton truck. This made the ride very exciting. We hooked in johnny’s Ipod and listened to Dengue Fever, a friends band who’s lead singer is Cambodian and sings in Khmer (Cambodian) the driver enjoyed this. He was ok. After we left he told us that it was a police scam. I mentioned that he should write up a note in English, slip it to travelers at the border telling them that if they can sneak away he’ll take them for $20 to Seim Reap. He said no the cops know him and will take his car and take him away if he doesn’t go along with the scam. I guess leaving the bus station is very dangerous for some. Too bad for him and us. He only takes one trip a day from the border. I was also happy knowing that the last bus left two hours before us but we passed it up within one hour. The taxi driver laughed and pointed at the bus saying “midnight” this was a little after 6pm. We stopped along the way for the driver to eat at a sort of kind of restaurant. We sat and ate with him. Nothing i have ever tasted. A bowl of boiled ?? one thing looked like squid and felt like catalige. the next bite i am pretty sure was an intestine. I pointed to my stomache a said “Cow?” Yes Yes. Mmm...yick!. We arived around 9:30pm got a nice room for $8. Best room so far in S.E. Asia.
Yesterday we went to Angkor . i got a one day ticket for $20 and the others a three dayer $40. I was well templed out at the end of the day. We saw Angkor Wat a couple other temples whos names elude me. We climbed up to one up on a hill to watch the sunset. Johnny and i found it more fun to talk about the people up there. He had brought up a bottle of wine so we enjoyed that up there too. afterwards we climbed down and headed back to our house. Had some cheap food and went to bed. Today We went to a fancy hotel, where Johnny had breakfast and Malika and i had coffee. $2.50. The place was really neat inside. johnny went back to the guest house and Malika and i went to go eat paying for both meals + drinks for less than one cup of coffee at the fancy hotel. We then all went to donate blood for the unfortunate children infected with the real Dengue Fever. The place was set up by a Dutch Doctor, very clean very professional. Took just a few minutes. It left us with a good feeling, a box of cookies, a soda pop and a t-shirt. Malika went for day two of temples while Johnny and i walked around a grimy little market which sold meat with flies all over it. Not too far away i heard a big crack and then made the mistake of checking out the noise which came from the street. There was an old women lying in the street next to her downed motorbike. There was no rush for a couple of locals to come to her aid. bikes just cruised on by. I did not like seeing this. I wish i had the medical experience to know what to do. johnny said they moved her like three times before getting her into a tuk tuk, I saw that she was totally out. Hopefully just knocked out. I am pretty sure you are not supposed to move those who are unconsious, but then again , it was not looking like there was an ambulance coming anytime soon. Made me think i am going to be a hell of a lot more aware when crossing the street. I also showed Johnny where all of my travel insurance info is.
I went looking for a way to Phnom Penn, it looks like $10 VIP bus or $5 Crap bus. I hear the roads are now paved so i am hoping that three hours on Crap bus is tolerable.

Ripped In Thailand

I feel like i am in the eddie of a river, stuck here in Bangkok. We were looking around for Visa’s but can’t seem to get away with out paying over $100 for Cambo and Nam. Malika and i went looking for the Cambodian Embassy just to see if the price was a bit lower. When we had walked all over town and back. We asked a local and he pointed us to the TAT office. Tourist Authority of Thailand, so we went there. We were told that we might be able to get a visa at the Cambo border, but Nam had to be done in advance. A rush visa was something like $300. We were also told that USA held passports paid more than any other country. We ended up getting the two for Johnny and i at $111 per person.To  be picked up 5 days later. Malika put here order in for Nam but had to take a bus the following day to Cambodia any way so that she could leave and come right back in since she had overstayed her 1 month in Thailand. TAT sold her a $45 bus ticket since trains did not run to the border and buses only once a day. On our way home from TAT we stopped at the internet and Malika looked on the Lonely Planet website. I sure wish we had done this first.  There are three trains a day and plenty of buses. Malika paid $10 RT, extended her Thai visa for free and got a Cambodian visa for US $20. B.S.!! she was able to cancel and get her $45 back on the bus, she said she had an emergency and had to get down to Singapore. I went down on Saturday morning with the same excuse, but the guy had already turned in my visa into the Cambodian Embassy, so?? Today we are going down to, fingers crossed get some money back on our Nam visa. Since we have learned that they are one day rushed $30 from Phnom Pen or $20 in three days. This is the Government Agency that has duped us not some private joint. That is the part that irks me the most. $111 sucks, but i can tell myself how easily i could spend that at home, but just knowing that we were straight up lied to really gets me. Our receipts say NO REFUNDS, so we are hoping that our lie of Johnny’s Mom having to go early into the Singapore Hospital early is going to work. Otherwise, i don’t know if complaining to a manager or the Tourist Police will do anything. Either way we plan on sending a complaint to the Lonely Planet. I am a little bit down on Thailand after getting ripped twice  and food poisoning
  I took the bus to china town yesterday. I am getting some horrible blisters on my delicate feet. I was headed there to get some new kicks, I think i need better air flow between my toes. I took the bus cause it is cheaper .34 instead of the normal $1.50 in a taxi. I ended up being stuck in traffic for like 2 hours. It wasn’t so bad because the bus had awesome AC. I sat and wrote in my journal and took pictures of the driver who fell asleep at the wheel. After two hours and not moving very far i decided to wake up the driver and ask if i could just get off and walk. I walked about ten minutes and realized i was like five minutes from home. I had just gone in a very small two hour circle.  Today before speaking with the TAT i’ll try China Town again.

   I’m meeting Peter Kent, Grandaddy former tour manager for dinner tonight, He lives here with his Girlfriend.

Feb 9

I did another cleanse yesterday, Just a one dayer. Not nearly as nice. I don't know if it was the shell fish or the shrimp soup but i went home feeling awful. I laid down for a bit and then proceeded to throw up out both ends all night long. I must have stumbled downstairs to the bathroom 30 times. I have not felt like that in a long time. I was feeling really dizzy so in the morning i talked Johnny into getting me an orange juice and some rice before he took off for his day. A few hours later Malika showed up with some Pepto. I took that and had some water. I then forced myself up so that i could get some Papya into my stomach. Today Malika and i went to the Thai immigration office. Malika has over stayed her welcome. It is quite expensive to extend her visa so tomorrow morning she will be hopping a bus to the Cambodia border for a quick exit and re-entry. Then we will all head up to Chang Mia while we wait for our Cambodian and Vietnam Visa's to process. We will come back down next weekend then head to Cambodia. Mallika and i stopped for a foot massage, and 7-11 for some Salmon and Teriyaki flavored potato chips. Yummy