The weather has been a bit bad, and the storms have made the sea very choppy. There’s no pier, so getting on the boat meant you had to swim out to it. The waves were much too big to get the boat anywhere near shore…I had the bright idea of rolling my shorts up, just incase I could time it and get on the boat between the waves. That was not the case. I started out toward the boat, after the German couple we had been sitting playing Uno with, only to get hit by the biggest wave yet. S*%T! I was completely soaked, and sat on the boat pouting. We took off, and I realized that we were all about to be soaked, as the waves came rolling right over the front of the little 4-seater pump boat. There was a lot of scrambling and bailing out of water in the back of the boat, but our 2 boatmen got us to Port Barton in one piece, slightly wetter than we were when we left Cacnipa.

We had heard reviews of Port Barton being “exactly like Sabang”, which was a horrific thought. It is NOTHING like Sabang – thankfully. It’s a very small village at the seaside, surprisingly with an internet café, which also served lovely Thai food. To get to the café, we had to cross this little bridge, which had seen better days. It was just a metal frame, about 4 feet wide, with a wooden hand rail along one side only. The floor of it was made of wooden planks, that bounced when you walked along them. We were too afraid to have any drinks, for fear of drunkenly falling off the bridge into the shallow water below, so we sat eating our Thai food and drinking frozen iced tea.

Our room was a lovely little concrete box with windows that actually opened, and a floor that I couldn’t see daylight (or scorpions) through. I never thought that staying in a concrete room would be my definition of luxury, but after the last couple weeks have shown me how bad bad can be! The toilet flushed, and there was a shower! The thrill of it! No hot water, though – this is usually not an issue for me, because when it’s hot, the cool water feels divine! Well, these days, it’s stormy and much cooler, so it’s challenging to get up enough energy to force yourself in there. It was like trying to dunk a cat into a bucket of water – all four appendages were locked onto the door frame of the bathroom. ….not going in….can’t….make.…me! I finally got Mike in there, and he calmed down.

Our hotel had “the coldest beer in town”, and that sounded like dinner to me. We had a couple there, played some Phase 10 (card game like rummy) and watched the 3 people who stole our original boat from Cacnipa, sitting there eating some fish and rice. We put a Jihad on them, and took off for some actual food. Funny, sometimes beer just isn’t enough.

Booking a jeepney ride is quite simple – we asked the woman at the front desk/bar of our hotel about getting a ride to El Nido in the north, or Roxas (which is on the way). She sent a text message, and shaazaam, we were in there. It was scheduled to leave at 7:30am the following day, so we arrived at the meeting point at 6:45am, only to see a full jeepney and about 50 people milling around the outside, as if they were trying to get on, too. Glad we booked! Well, come to find out, booking just lets the driver know how many people he has to cram onto this thing, and does not, I repeat, does NOT reserve you an actual seat. We mistakenly put our bags into a seat and ran to the shop nearby for a coffee and some eggs. As the food arrived, the jeepney started up and took off. I was mortified. Both our laptops were in our bags, along with all my clothes (well, my one change of clothes). The girl slinging the eggs told us it’s ok, they’re just going to pick up some people in the town, but they’d come back.

And come back they did, but by that time, the entire jeepney was packed to the rafters with people. They pack people on top of the thing too! There must have been a hundred people loaded on this thing, which consisted of about 6 rows of bench seats, and a little area in back, which I thought was for luggage. There was a stack of buckets back there for some reason. Well when they pulled up to the waiting area, I saw what they were for. Extra seating! I pried my way through the back of the bus, using my elbows to get through the tight spots, stepped over a pig in a rice bag, a chicken in a cardboard box, and finally landed with a puff of dust into my seat. I have no idea how Mike fit through there, but somehow he ended up next to me. Here we are, don’t we look cozy?

I was sitting above the wheel well, so I had no leg room under my seat. My feet were on the same level as my butt – I was basically sitting in the fetal position. If you have back issues, you can just imagine how that feels when you hit very large bumps, with no cushion under your butt or back. OUCH.

After a few minutes on the road, I could see up ahead that the road became a real mess. It was mud, with deep ruts and lots of standing water. Along one side was a steep drop off, along the other, rock cliffs. The jeepney started rocking back and forth as we entered the rutty area, and I lost my stomach. I thought several times that we were going to tip over, right into the thick, deep, reddish brown mud. There were no windows, so that meant I would be buried in the mud if we tipped. If we tipped the other way, we’d go over the edge of the embankment and plunge to our deaths – I couldn’t decide if I’d rather suffocate in mud or plummet over the other side. I can just imagine the thoughts the people on top of the jeepney were having. I’ve only feared for my life a handful of times in an automobile, and this was one of them. (Another being in a Yellow Cab in San Francisco – take DeSoto instead! This concludes this Public Service Announcement.) Not due to the driver’s carelessness, but because of the unfamiliar territory coupled with my lack of understanding of just how safe (or not) jeepneys really are. Well, I’ve never seen a vehicle handle mud the way this one did. It had duel tires on the back, and must have been 4-wheel drive, because it chugged and belched and crawled it’s way through some areas in which I thought surely we’d have gotten stuck.

After a couple harrowing, tense hours, we arrived in Roxas, and were thrilled to get out and straighten our legs. The next order of the day was to procure an air conditioned van to get us the rest of the way to Tay Tay (pronounced TieTie), which was another couple hours, at least. There were several vans just sitting around, and when I asked one of the drivers if we could get to Tay Tay, he said yes, and it’d be about 30 minutes. Being familiar with the local lingo, I got comfortable for my 2 hour wait. That was about right, as a couple hours later, the driver scooted us up and into an empty air con van. It was the most comfortable vehicle I’ve ever sat in…relative to the previous ride. And there were no sticks and branches slapping me in the face as we drove down the road! I couldn’t believe my good fortune – that is, until we pulled up to yet another jeepney stop. I was ready for a fight. There was no way in hell I was: A) getting out of the AC van, and B) getting onto another jeepney that day. We sat, glued to our seats and holding our breath, only to have the driver pull away after a few seconds. He was just checking to see if anyone else needed a ride. Phew! After driving in circles a few times, we were on our way. The driver said he was going to El Nido (our final destination anyway) and we could ride all the way if we wanted to. Deciding we could manage the ride in the luxurious comfort of the van, we agreed to go all the way to El Nido. Our driver and his companion were great, and even changed the brake pads along the way after determining somehow while driving that they needed replacement. It took only 20 minutes!

The drive was long, but much more comfortable than the initial leg on the jeepney. The scenery consisted of dense jungle, hills, mountains, and quite a few farms with rice fields. It’s very green on Palawan. Most of the homes we saw were nipa huts, which are built of bamboo. Up on thick bamboo stilts, the woven bamboo walls provide shelter from wind and rain, along with the thatched roof. They are very simple structures that seem to house entire families, and seem to be the norm when it comes to housing.

I’m amazed at the simple lives the majority of the people on this island enjoy. My impression is that they live without electricity, or with minimal electricity delivered by a personal generator when needed, and they utilize well water, or water from nearby rivers or streams. The water buffalo is popular here; they’re used for plowing fields, pulling carts, and riding! I wish the windows on our van weren’t tinted, because I saw a really cool scene that I was dying to photograph. There was a water buffalo hooked up to a cart, with the whole family riding inside, except the dad, who was walking along side and driving the buffalo. Along the road at random intervals, I saw people walking – they were miles away from anything, just walking. Seems if you don’t have a buffalo or a moped, you have to walk, even if it takes you all day to get somewhere.

We arrived in El Nido, and it was immediately apparent that they need someone to help organize the development of coastal areas here in the Philippines. I thought it was possibly just a Boracay thing, but El Nido is well on its way to being the next Boracay. Singapore is a shining example of what is possible. The overcrowded coastline in El Nido has hotels and shops placed shoulder to shoulder, smack onto the beach, leaving very little sand for walking, and zero sand for walking during high tide. The view is incredible – there are small, green islands jutting out of the water all over the Bacuit Archipelago, as it’s called. El Nido is surrounded by limestone cliffs, which are particularly stunning at sunrise. Mike and I took a kayak out one day to explore the islands, which are farther away than they look! We were beat after paddling only half way to one of the closest islands. There are lots of tours you can take on the local tour boats, which is the easier route. We were excited about the possibility of having some peace and quiet, stopping when and where we wanted, and staying as long as we pleased. We saw the biggest sea turtle I’ve ever seen, just about 50 yards away from our kayak! I thought it was a sting ray – you could just see a blob in the water, but it was about the size of a dining table. It then stuck it’s head out of the water to get a breath of fresh air – his head looked to be about the size of a medium-sized melon. It was so cool. I paddled over closer as Mike got the camera out, but he was long gone. By the time we got to the island and did a little snorkeling, we were cold and tired, and wishing we had a boat!

Hotels:
The first night, we stayed at one of the more expensive hotels, the El Nido Beach Resort. It was $80/night, and really didn’t include much besides the room. They said they had wifi, but it didn’t work in the room. The town only has electricity from noon to 4pm and 6pm to 6am. Of course, when you try to get online, it’s during the hours when the electricity is off, so no internet! The hotel was a big rip off, for the area. It shouldn’t have cost more than $30/night, in my opinion, compared to prices/conditions elsewhere. They flaunt a “Japanese” restaurant – that night we tried eating there, but the had no shrimp or fish. Kinda hard to operate a Japanese restaurant with no fish. So we left and found a fantastic little place with tons of character, good food, and live music! Sea Slug’s was an instant hit – try the curries, you won’t be disappointed. We were, however, disappointed with the fish. It was overcooked, both times we tried. Seems incongruent that folks living in such close contact with the sea can’t cook fish properly.

The next day we found the Four Season hotel, which was located halfway up the beach, over the road. It was pretty basic, but had A/C and hot water during the hours the electricity was on. Well, luke-warm water that barely trickled out of the showerhead. I think this was the smallest bathroom I’ve ever seen. It was just wide enough for the door to scrape past the sink and toilet. You couldn’t really sit normally on the toilet because there wasn’t enough legroom, so you had to sort of do a side-saddle thing. There’s no separation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom, so as you shower, the toilet and sink get all wet – don’t forget to hide the TP! You literally have to climb over the toilet to get to the shower. One day, much to my dismay, we came back to find that the room had been “cleaned” and the dirty towels we had left on the floor had been folded back up and placed on the bed for us to use again! Other than that, the place was fine, and even included breakfast, which was edible…one fried egg, 3 triangles of white toast and a small banana. Oh, and Nescafe (the instant coffee), of course.

We found the Art Café, which had lovely coffee, tea, snacks and internet, and proceeded to check our email and surf the web for the next several days as it poured rain. After our kayaking day, the weather never did turn around, so we sat indoors most of the time as the rain came down.

We had plans to head to the island of Busuanga to see the African animal sanctuary, but upon further investigation, found the only attractions to be a zebra and a giraffe. We decided instead to go to Africa sometime, and promptly got the hell out of El Nido, back to Puerto Princesa. I can’t quite put my finger on the reasons why, but the Philippines is my least favorite of all the places we’ve been.

Port Barton by boat, Roxas by jeepney remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Trip to Sabang

Mike and I booked an air-conditioned van to take us from Puerto Princesa across to the west coast of Palawan to a “town” called Sabang. It has been thrown together to accommodate the tourists coming to visit the Subterranean River, and I do mean thrown together.

The van left our hotel at 7am, picked up a few other tourists – mostly Pilipino - and off we raced. This is the fastest I’ve ever traveled in a vehicle, I think. Or maybe it just felt that way after 5 days of putting around in a tricycle powered by a little 150cc motorcycle? Anyway, as we were hauling ass down the road, I kept wondering, is my life insurance current? …where’s the fire? …glad I have a spare pair of shorts, cuz I think I just shat myself. You know, things like that. The road was pretty good for the first half of the trip, after that, it turned to gravel/dirt/mud/flooded areas. I was really glad we hadn’t had time for breakfast before leaving - I was starting to feel green. The driver was trying to race the other tourist vans along the road, passing going around corners while going uphill…I had to clutch my oh-shit-handle and stare steadfastly out my window. Think happy thoughts, think HAPPY thoughts!

After enduring the gravel road for about a mile, we saw parts of a new concrete road being laid. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to where they were or how long they were, or if it covered both sides of the road or just one. Sometimes we’d be on the right, then the left, then slamming on the breaks as an oncoming jeepny (like a bus, but smaller, and open-air, with people sitting on top and hanging off all sides) flew by. At one point we were so far up the ass of the van in front of us, I couldn’t tell where our vehicle ended and theirs started.

Alas, arrival in Sabang, and thank f&*k for that. Looking around, I thought maybe we were just making a pit-stop. It was kind-of…well, a hell hole. We hopped off the van just to be loaded back on again, with the driver and some new Pilipino guy in the passenger seat – they were taking us to where the hotels were. After about 100 feet, the driver stopped and let us out. His friend, Elmer, or Elmo, not sure, was “in the know” about where the hotels were located. I can’t believe we fell for it! I stood there with my thumb in my ear for a second – shouldn’t have taken a hand off my luggage, cuz there goes Elmo with my backpack! Shit! We soon realize that all the hotels are within about 300 yards of the initial dropping off point. Elmo proceeded to help us ask the front desks of every hotel – all 5 of them – if they had a room for the night. Ok, that’s a lie. We didn’t even ask at the expensive hotel, Daluyon, although Elmo thought it was a highlight to point out that “they have electricity – for 24 whole hours!” Oh shit…what have we done? He kept asking us how long we were staying, and at seeing the state of most of the places here, the duration got shorter and shorter. Our time frame started out at near a week, and ended up at 1 or 2 nights. The next-to-last place on the beach, Mary’s, was the only one that had a room – 500 pesos a night (about $10 USD). Upon inspecting the room, I had mixed emotions, but felt compelled to take the room, as it seemed we had no other option than to sleep on the beach. In hindsight, that would have been preferable.

We went back to the front desk to say we’d take the room – Mary grimaced at us and then turned away. No key, no instructions, nothing. Ok, guess I’ll just bust a hole through the sheet of bamboo (aka wall) like the Kool-Aid man to enter my hovel. It didn’t come to this, as the door was wide open when we got back to the room. It’s really a dismal place. Dark, with gaps in the bamboo where some light punctures the melancholy, sad little flamingo pink mosquito net, under which a slab holds a bit of hard foam up to make a bed. The floor is made of bamboo slats, lashed onto the beams underneath – you can feel them giving a little, groaning as you walk across the floor. Oh, and on top of that is some sort of contact paper – plastic sheeting stuck to the slats. I imagine that this is in place to keep bugs or mosquitoes out, or as we just found out in our new hotel, to keep the scorpions out.

You may not know this about me, but the extent of my toilet phobia is far reaching. I have nightmares about bathrooms, toilets in particular, and faucets & hot n cold taps are in there as well. Ever since I can remember, I’ve had these awful, terrifying, and very real dreams in which I’m in a dirty, broken down bathroom – and I GOTTA GO! So then you’re forced to touch things, and inevitably, something goes haywire and the taps break off the sink while I’m trying to wash my hands after…well….I think you get the picture.

I’ve seen squats before, and that seems to be no problem for me – the ones I’ve seen, anyway. The offending toilet happens to be located here, at Mary’s in our hotel room. The floor slants down away from the door frame toward the right corner, where there’s a hole to let the water drain. This floor is slippery and wet all the time as the tap near the floor leaks. There’s a shower head barely poking through the contact-paper-covered wall, with its tap just below it – it doesn’t work at all. The tap at the floor, like I mentioned, leaks and is just high enough to do it into the reservoir bucket, creating a sound not unlike what I imagine Chinese Water Torture to sound like. Hmmm…reservoir bucket? I’m gonna need a judges ruling on that one. What’s that for? Oh, and there’s a smaller scoop bucket inside it with a handle. Then I notice that the toilet is nothing more than a bowl perched over a hole in the floor…no reservoir tank for flushing. So now it all comes together, well, after Mike explains it to me. You have to dump the scoop of water into the bowl after you’ve used it – with enough force to drive whatever you’ve left in the bowl down through the u-tube. I immediately ran out the door. I was physically and emotionally distraught. Call me crazy, call me a big baby, whatever. I’ve no idea why I’m so sensitive to this. The only explanation I have is that I have a phobia of icky bathrooms. Oh, and the fact that I may have to use this one in the dark, because there’s no electricity here outside the hours of 6pm – 10pm makes it that much scarier to me. What if I slip, and slide right down the angled floor and out the side of the room, right onto the poo pile? At some point, Mike was trying to help me in there, and inadvertently pulled the tap off the wall and water started shooting out all over the floor. I was mortified, and almost vomited – I got really sick to my stomach and had to go outside to regroup. Yeah, it’s bad for me. =(

Mangrove River Tour

To cheer me up and help me forget about it for a while, Mike took me to the mangrove tour office and promptly bought us 2 tickets to ride in the canoe down the river to see the mangrove trees – I think it’s called Pouy Pouy River. We had two guides, the one who did most of the talking (and singing!) was a tiny older guy, Chris, who had more fingers than teeth. He was adorable, and told us all about the mangrove trees, what the male trees look like versus the females, kinds of pests that feed on their roots, and other environmental hazards to them.

Paddling down the silent river, we saw several black and yellow snakes sleeping all coiled up in the branches overhanging the water. They pointed them out and said we could stop to take a picture on the way back. So we did. As we sat snapping photos, I asked Chris if the snakes bite. He replied, “No, not aggressive. Now, he’s hiding and sleeping.”

I asked, if it happened to wake up and bite me, would I die. “Oh yes, deadly.” Mike expeditiously put the camera away and said “Ok, lets GO!” …not a real snake lover.

As we paddled away, I think Chris sensed Mike’s distress, and turned around to ask us if it was ok if he sang us the mangrove song. No freaking way, there’s a SONG, too? This I gotta hear! Chris cleared his throat and started singing in Tagalog and English. After the first few bars, he started a little beat on the side of the boat. I couldn’t really get a lot of the lyrics, but part of it was something about being here with all his friends - the mangroves, and thank you, thank you, thank you to all our friends. It was awesome. We joined in at the end with a little clapping finale. I think the kid paddling at the back of the boat was probably a little embarrassed. You know, the cooky older guy (or gal) who embarrasses other people at work, just by being himself? That’s probably Chris. He was priceless. We pulled up onto the sand and got out of the boat, and Chris told us that there was an activity as well to finish up the tour – to plant a baby mangrove! So we did. The staff poked 2 holes deep into the sand, and Mike and I each placed a baby mangrove in – they are actually seedpods that look like really big green beans. Just stick in the end that has roots starting, and voila! Mangrove!

The trees are truly beautiful, and according to Chris, provide habitats for breeding fish and places for birds to nest, as well as providing the Pilipino delicacy, wood worms. No, we did not eat the wood worms, but hear they’re delicious, and taste like oysters. You dip them into vinegar and eat – Mike looked them up online, and they didn’t look very appetizing. I’ve had my fish eye for the year, so it’s someone else’s turn to take the plunge! Candy??? How ‘bout YOU!!??

We go out to the place with the electricity for dinner, and proceed to drink 2 bottles of nice, cold white wine. Mike had fried chicken with garlic noodles, and I had the putanesca pasta. We were (mostly, I was) delighted to find toilet paper and flush toilets at this place, so we forged a plan to come back to use the potty the next morning. I thought I just might be able to hold it all night and get there for breakfast and a download in the morning. I was wrong.

I woke up at about 2am, sweltering and hungover, and completely full of pee. Damn! I lay still, hoping it was just my imagination and it would go away. No dice. I made a deal earlier with Mike that I’d wake him up before I went out into the sea to pee – I’d rather do it out there than in our room. After opening our front door, I realized that getting to the sea would be a challenge. It pitch black outside because it’s cloudy – no light from the stars or moon, so I may run into a critter or something in the dark. As Mike graciously holds the maglight for me, I make my way to hover over the pot. He’s a trooper, and cheers me on to give me courage. I was so nervous and tense that it took about 5 minutes of dribble…stop…dribble, dribble…stop, spray like hell….dribble to empty my bladder!

Sunshine Cottages & Blue Bamboo Restaurant

The next night, we stayed at the Sunshine Cottages and Blue Bamboo Restaurant – the restaurant part must have been a metaphor, or maybe just a really mean joke – we didn’t see a lick of food. Barbara, the manager, is German, and very sweet. The room this time was 300 pesos (about $6 USD), a price we would have expected to pay the night before. The bed was equally uncomfortable, with foam pillows, and you could see daylight through the bamboo walls and floors, but at least there was air moving through the place, and the bathroom wasn’t nearly as scary, although it did have the same do-it-yourself flush toilet.

Since I wasn’t nearly as scared this time, I decided to “shower”. The floor was a reddish brown painted slab of concrete, and the shower consisted of a bucket of water and a little scoop so you can dump smaller quantities of water over your head. Have you been to Burning Man? If so, it’s like a playa shower, though not quite as fun, cuz there aren’t 10 of your closest friends there to help you! Anyway, I’m happy to be getting clean, finally. I had just flipped my head upside down and dumped the first 3 scoops of water on my hair, when suddenly something came creeping out from behind the water bucket! It’s the same color as the floor, so I thought I was just hallucinating. I screamed anyway, just incase. “There’s something crawling…a bug…..BUG…there’s a bug, some sort of crawling THING in here!! …it looks like a lobster?!” Mike came in and grabbed the scoop out of my hand and started swinging. I screamed, “Holy shit, it’s a scorpion!! Kill it, kill it!” Usually, we’d just shuttle the offender off outside, but since we definitely didn’t want to see this guy again, in our sheets, or in our shoes, we whacked him. This was my first scorpion experience. All business, I asked Mike how we go about avoiding these guys, to which he replied, “don’t stand on them.” Gee thanks, Mr. Obvious. What a turkey!

We each had 2 beers for dinner that night, since the restaurant was actually just a teeny fridge with beer inside. 4 beers for 140 pesos (about $2.80 USD)!

Subterranean River Tour

Earlier that day, Mike and I went on the Subterranean River tour. The boat from the pier in Sabang to the mouth of the river takes about 20 minutes. We hopped on with another couple and their tour guide – a couple of their participants hadn’t shown up, so we got their seats! This was a very good thing, because the boat dispatcher said they were on #31, and we were #61…we would have had to wait another hour, just to get the ferry over to the river.

We arrived on a lovely little beach in a small cove, and hiked down the footpath for about 10 minutes to reach the paddle boat staging area. There were about 50 people waiting to get on the boats there, and the place seemed extremely chaotic.

The tour guide we rode over with got us bumped up in the line somehow, and we only had to wait for 30 minutes to get on the 10-passenger boat to enter the caves. It was quite calm and quiet inside the cave as we paddled silently through the still water. Our guide had a bright spotlight that he used to point out landmarks – one of which was the cathedral, which had beautiful stalagmites in shapes of “the holy family” and “melting candle”. The structures are formed from the water dripping calcium salts onto the rocky surface below. There were others that looked like huge mushrooms, and ears of corn. It was stunning. I’ve never done any cave exploration before, and it was awesome. There were lots and lots of bats and swiftlets flying around, some dive-bombing our boat.

1km into the cave, the guide pointed out the tallest opening in the cave: 65 meters high to the ceiling! He told us that the caves were carved into the mountain above when the water flowed through several cracks and dissolved the limestone inside. Incredible.

As we were leaving, we saw a bunch of monkeys playing in the trees.

Boat to Port Barton

We woke up the next morning bright an early at 6am and hiked up the coast to the pier. The place looked better than ever - a great place to leave, in my experience! The sunrise was truly beautiful, though.

We even saw some people loading a moped on TOP of the jeepney...they hauled it up to the top with a rope and about 10 guys pushing/pulling!

Our 7am boat to Port Barton left at 8:15am…we had to wait on three enormous Swedish guys to have their breakfast. They finally got on the boat, carting a case of beer, which they proceeded to down on the boat! They were funny, and I eventually forgave them for making us late.

Cacnipa Island

The little boat stopped after 2.5 hours at Cacnipa Island, just off Port Barton. We stretched our legs on the beach, and started chatting with some of the guests at the only hotel on the island. They mentioned that Port Barton is just like Sabang (eeek!!!), and that they got there, stayed one hour, and came right back here, to the Coconut Garden Beach Hotel. At 650 pesos/night (about $13 USD), it can’t be beat. There’s still no electricity, but they have toilets that flush! =) It’s funny how your standards change, isn’t it?

We’re very happy here, the food is excellent, staff is friendly, and there’s truly nothing around but this hotel. It has a small beach with a few lounge chairs, a ping pong table, and a bar!!

What more could you ask for? …well, a FAN would be terrific, but I really can’t complain. If you’re looking for a romantic, secluded get-away, this is a great place to be. There are sand flies here though, so buy the coconut oil, and use it BEFORE you get bitten! We learned this the hard way.

The snorkeling is ok here – there are lots of critters under the water to see, but it’s a little murky, so photos are tough. Yesterday I was almost eaten by an eel…I had unwittingly swum over his hiding spot in a rock near shore, and didn’t register him until he was about 6 inches from my hand. I started back pedaling as fast as I could, snarfed water up my snorkel, and came spluttering to the beach, winded, lungs full of salt water and bladder devoid of pee. Mike said he wanted to get a picture and headed out into the water a couple steps, then thought better of it. Neither of us really felt like getting bitten, so no pics of this guy.

While typing this, I had to jump out of bed and chase a chicken out of my room…I just can’t seem to get away from poultry. And here, there are 2 adult ducks as well, and their progeny: 8 fuzzy ducklings! They’re really cute, but elusive. I’ll try to get a photo of them, or some video for the upcoming movie. Stay tuned.

Here are some more shots from Cacnipa Island.

How do you flush this thing? remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Palawan (the dot at the end of the dotted line) is a beautiful part of the Philippines. We flew with Seair from Caticlan after the boat trip from Boracay. It’s lovely to check in and not have to prepare for an argument. Seair sticks to its policies, and simply weighed our bags, and charged us for the excess weight. Simple! The airport in Caticlan is about the size of a postage stamp, and was pretty full as we waited in the “free” terminal waiting area, which cost us 20 pesos each to get into. Of course, you have to go through the “free” area to get on the plane, so whether or not you use a seat in the waiting area, you have to pay. Seair doesn’t have the newest planes…my armrest was taped on with some clear packing tape.

The hour-long flight was lovely – flying over all the Pilipino islands and clear water. Some of the islands are no more than a thin, snake-like strip of sand poking out of the water. The airport in Puerto Princesa is equally tiny – a good thing for baggage retrieval. The staff of the Hibiscus Garden Inn met us at the gate, and carted us off to the hotel.

At $30/night, the room is fantastic, spacious, clean, and most importantly, it has air conditioning! It’s about 10 – 15 degrees (F) hotter here than on Boracay, so it’s NECESSARY! There’s no bar or restaurant at the hotel, though they do serve breakfast – I recommend getting the eggs scrambled over fried, as the fried eggs were a bit undercooked for my liking.

We snorkeled all over Honda Bay, a 45-minute tricycle ride away. Our driver, Wang, is cheerful and knowledgeable of the areas in and around Puerto.

We hopped onto the boat with 2 crew members and hit the choppy sea. Snake Island, Starfish Island, and Lu Li were the spots we stopped.

For xmas lunch, we went to Shakey’s Pizza and consumed more spaghetti and meatballs than anyone should, and downed a pitcher of beer.

We proceeded back to our room for a nap and movie, then headed out for dinner, more pasta! We ate at the Blue Marlin, a cute little garden restaurant, which also has an indoor seating area. I think that’s the first time I’ve eaten inside in the last 3 weeks! You may be thinking, sheesh, sounds great, eating outside all the time. Give it a try sometime, you may change your mind! Fighting off flies, ants, mosquitoes, spiders, and cold food, you try in vain to tuck your napkin (aka toilet paper) into your shorts leg so it doesn’t blow away, only to find that the bit of skin you’ve exposed is not covered with mosquito repellant, and you end up itching throughout the entire meal! ...I love eating indoors….

Folks here are fantastically friendly, almost everyone says hello, and lots of people wave as you’re driving by. It has a much more down-to-earth vibe than Boracay seemed to me. The night we arrived, we were looking forward to having some peace and quiet – all day every day, you can hear the cacophony of roosters cock-a-doodle-doo-ing where we were staying on Boracay. Of course, that night was the big night to have xmas parties – including the staff of our hotel!!! They had REALLY loud karaoke, and of course the home on the other side of us has a live band, that seemed to not understand what those little thingys on the neck of the guitar are for…and the drummer couldn’t count to 1, let alone to 4! They were truly horrible. The upside is that we were invited to join in the festivities at our hotel – they even had a whole pig on a stick!!! Now that’s my idea of a party.

The town of Puerto Princesa is a tidy little place with concrete streets – some of which are not in the best shape. It really has a small-town feel to it, even though there are 120,000 people living here. It seems the preferred method of transport is the tricycle – a teeny motorcycle with a big sidecar soldered onto its side.

These are definitely made to fit a more petite Pilipino butt, as mine and Mike’s barely fit into a seat built for 2! Today we took one out to the Butterfly Garden (50 pesos/person) and the Crocodile Sanctuary (40 pesos/person). I even got to hold one of the babies! His name is Chopper.

There were lots of other animals at the sanctuary as well.

We head to Sabang tomorrow morning - Sabang is the location of the Subterranean River and lots of jungle hikes and beach front beauty.

Sending hugs!!! Life is good!!

Palawan, Philippines remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We drove through the interior of the island, through lots of bombed-out looking building sites, shanty-type lean to buildings/homes, and garbage everywhere you look. Simple is one thing, dirty is another. There is building going on everywhere – you can see jagged bits of concrete and rebar jutting into the blue and cloud-spotted sky. On these building sites are piles of ‘stuff’…bricks in a big heap, logs in another, rebar in another, and trash strewn about throughout. On first sight, I was a little disgusted with this island, which was obviously once beautiful.

In my experience so far, the island’s only redeeming quality is White Beach, and even that bears the heavy scars of over development. The beach is wide, white, sugar-soft sand with a few sparse palm trees between the beach and the hotels and shops. The water is the clearest I’ve ever seen. So many trees have been thinned to make room for all the buildings that the tree line looks a bit manufactured and unnatural. It’s sad to see that this place has been destroyed by improperly supervised development.

Bulabog Beach, on the opposite side of the island from White Beach, is completely different, aesthetically speaking. The thin strip of brown sand is strewn with coconut shells, debris from the ocean, and lots of bottles, broken glass, fishing gear, and food wrappers and packaging. The beach is about ¼ the size of Mui Ne beach in Vietnam where we just came from, and there are just as many kiters. This makes for an intimidating kiting experience for me, and I have yet to brave the fetid waters to try it out. Ok, I don’t know if the water is ‘fetid’ or not, but Mike got a cut on his toe, and within 24 hours, it was infected. The water is brown looking, especially when compared to the pristine water on the other side of the island, though the water seems quite clear further out from the beach.

The food is good here – we’ve found that the food in the “D’Mall” area is much better and cheaper than the food along the beach. Samba, on the beach, does a nice margarita, especially if you’re a light weight and only like your glass half full. Order the pitcher of frozen margaritas – more bang for your buck. Watch out for the brain freeze! Our lovely little room is located near Bulabog Beach – Blue Bayou is it’s name. Our weekly rate is about $36. We’re totally stoked to have a kitchen and have been cooking breakfast in, and usually one other meal as well. Smoke is a fantastic place to get a little bowl that packs a big punch. One bowl of chicken curry and rice costs about $1.50, and I can hardly finish it. Very filling for such a small pile of food – excellent value, excellent flavors!

Last night while cooking pasta for our cold tuna & pasta salad, Mike accidentally spilled boiling water on his foot – the one with the previously infected cut, and a more recent scrape that’s still healing. OUCH! We alternated running cold water over it and soaking it in the frying pan (it was full of cool water from the fridge). It still blistered, and looks pretty red and burned today. The foot is having a hell-of-a two weeks!

On the 23rd, we’re heading out to Palawan, an island southwest of Boracay. I hear it’s what Boracay used to be before the over development. We shall see! There is a subterranean river there that is thought to be the longest in the world (8km), though one in southern Laos was recently discovered, and may trump this one.

Boracay remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Jet lag is better than any drug out there…and trust me, I’ve done them all. (Keep up here..kidding!) Have you ever been at a day party on a Sunday, and unwittingly engaged in conversation a person who hasn’t seen the inside of their own eyelids since Thursday night? …well, maybe for that few minutes when they passed out on the toilet at the club…. I’ve got about half that amount of attention span right now. I was just sitting in a really crowded area next to the sandwich shop here at Manila’s international airport, when another traveler started talking to me. Turns out I had accidentally sat on his girlfriend. (No, not really…come on, keep up.) Scott, from Australia, here on business – you know, that work stuff. Anyway, we were making idle chatter, and he mentions that he was training people here to do some sort of computer/electronics repair (see, can’t remember, no attention span), to which I replied, “Oh, do you speak Vietnamese?” Mind you, we’re in the Philippines. He took the question in stride, obviously he had noticed the luggage under my bloodshot excuses for eyes – or maybe he thought I’m just dumb? No matter, I laughed it off and said something real smrt like, “So….. …..uhhhh…..how ‘bout them ‘9ers?”

I raced off to my hibernation spot at the other end of the airport, between the smoker’s quarantine and the Manila cigar stand. I can actually see the opposite end of the airport from here…it’s only about 150 yards away. There’s only one place to get actual food, the rest of the places serve pastries and fruit n yoghurt smoothies. When I say ‘actual food’, I mean some greasy noodles w/ “tomato sauce” topped off with some weird combination of processed cheese & gravy. Luckily, that was my lunch. =( It was hot as hell when I took it to my little table, and in my stomach, as lava tends to do when it cools, it became some sort of stone. Why do I eat when flying? Seriously…next time I’m just gonna fast…it’s for the best!

I’m $150 poorer too. Had to pay for “excess baggage” on Philippine Airlines, even though I only have a backpack and one bag to check. I guess my kite bag was a couple centimeters too long, and they decided I should pay. That and the fact that I have a fakey golf bag (says such and such golf on the outside) checking in right next to 3 guys with ACUTAL golf bags. Danm! I guess I should feel lucky, this is the first time I’ve had to pay for the big bag, and it’s almost always over the weight allowance.

My brain is sprawling across the floor in Vietnam remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Seriously, that was more food than I've seen at one time in the last 6 months. While the food was quite delicious, the sheer quantity was a bit....well...disgusting. Honestly, it put me off my appetite the second it came to the table - it looked like a platter for 4. If you're planning on going there, I recommend SHARING a plate! One cosmo was all it took, and I was tipsy. Thankfully, the food caused a sort of mini heart attack in which my heart started pumping like mad, and seemed to take care of the alcohol in short order.

I proceeded to drive home and pop a bottle of champagne and watch Napoleon Dynamite for the hundredth time. It was a relaxing day, though I did miss the antics of my family - never a dull moment, with shots of whiskey over the turkey deep fryer, food fights, and pie stealing, my family takes the cake (or pie) when it comes to entertainment value during Thanksgiving.

My friends, who graciously allowed me to stay in their house while they were away for the holiday, came home a day early, so I got to hang out with them. It was an unexpected and fantastic surprise, especially since I haven't seen them in about a million years! Their friend Steve, who they introduced me to, was hilarious, but made me yawn a little bit. ;-)

I'm now sitting in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Seattle...right next to a really irritating fountain that's making me have to pee. I had the first of 2 interviews yesterday, and the next one tomorrow in Portland. Half way there!

Gobble wobble... remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The last couple weeks have been somewhat disappointing when it comes to wind. All told, the week of October 27th was a wash, but we kited 4 days the week of November 3rd, 1 day the week of the 10th, and 3 days the week of the 17th. I hear that it's blowing less this year than in previous years...who knows. I have definitely enjoyed the time I've had out on the water...even those times I crashed so hard that I ripped the screws right out of my board/board leash. My legs are battered and bruised from the board, but I'm really no worse for the wear. The other kiters here have all been really friendly, helping you out with launching/landing your kite, or rescuing your board when you lose it. There are quite a few schools here, though our only experience with any of them is with Mr. Lee's kite school (Vietnamese instructors) and Windchamps/WAX (British and Russian instructors). Both have really friendly staff, though one of the instructors at Mr. Lee's had a really bad habit of jumping really near the beach and other kiters. At one point he almost landed right on top of Mike - you could hear Mike swearing at him, even from where I stood on the beach.

My favorite 2 places for breakfast were Full Moon (at the back of the hotel, on the beach) and Mellow. Full Moon does a nice fried egg or omelet with toast, w/ free Wifi, and Mellow has nice fruit, muesli and yoghurt, as well as scrambled eggs and omelets. Full Moon also let me print my flight details for my next flight, free of charge. Offer to pay for the paper, though if you're printing a lot of stuff. This may have been a one-time thing, as we've been here for breakfast quite a lot - maybe they were just being nice?

For lunch:
Nam Khai, our hotel, had nice chicken curry, chicken w/ chili and garlic, french fries, sauteed noodles w/ beef or chicken (ask for it spicy!), and you can take the plates to your room, if you're staying there. A fantastic option for when you're terribly hung over from the full moon party.

Before & Now, the Italian & Vietnamese place down the street. The tagliatelle and penne were fantastic, and the bruschetta was tasty as well.

Mango has my favorite pho - nice and spicy.

Full Moon - fish baguette, burgers, club sandwich.

For dinner:
Mango - fresh fish BBQ. Get the prawns or red snapper grilled. They'll also chop up a whole tomato for you - I like it on my rice w/ a little lime and soy sauce.

Before & Now - we ate there about 4-5 times a week. It never gets old and is always on point.

SNOW - good mini pizzas, sushi was OK, but get the sashimi, not the rolls. The rolls tended to be really chewy - too much rice and seaweed wrapper and not enough fish/veggies. The sashimi came to the table, and we couldn't even tell there was rice underneath - the pieces were a bit bigger than I like on top of rice, but it's better than having barely any fish. The tuna was lovely. Free wifi w/ purchase.

I would definitely come back to Mui Ne, but I'd leave it until December/January when the wind is more reliable. Also, I'd bring more friends for the entire time. It was great having my friend Candy here, and became quite boring after she left, when there was no wind! I don't think I'd stay longer than 3 weeks next time. I've run out of things to do/see. Mui Ne is quite isolated, and once you've done all the local tours (which will take 2-3 days total), there is really not much to do.

I'll be flying to San Francisco on the 25th of November, arriving at 6:30pm...let me know if you wanna get Chinese food on Thanksgiving with me! Then flying to Seattle on the 1st, Portland on the 3rd, San Francisco on the 5th, Manila on the 6th, and Caticlan (Philippines) on the 8th, where I'll hop onto a boat w/ my kiting gear and head to Boracay, my final stop for December. I'm worn out just writing that! It's going to be a helluva 2 weeks coming up - I'm interviewing a 2 med schools while in Seattle and Portland...wish me luck!
;-)

Last day in Mui Ne remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Down the street from Nam Khai, Mike and I sat one evening for a before dinner cocktail, which turned into 4 before dinner cocktails. After our 2nd drink, we heard a commotion coming from in front of the coconut tree near our table. We looked up, expecting to see someone sprawled on the pavement, domed by a falling coconut, but no. Our tiny Vietnamese waitress was in the middle of a fistfight with another of the women on staff. They were yelling and throwing haymakers…it was awesome! The bartender came and broke it up, making the two women go to their respective corners, much to our dismay. Our waitress brushed her hair back from her face, smoothed her blouse, and promptly brought us 2 more drinks. As she approached the table and I put my fists up and said, “Ready for round two?” She laughed – I don’t think she understood what I said, but realized I was teasing her about the fight. Two people who almost had their asses in the chairs next to us jumped up upon seeing the fight and moved on. Guess they aren’t into chick brawls.

In other news, did you know that more people worldwide are killed per year by falling coconuts than by shark attacks? 150 per year killed, according to UniSci (http://www.unisci.com/stories/20022/0523024.htm). Every time I walk under a coconut tree here, which happens to be about every 10 steps, I wonder if I’m about to be brained by falling fruit. My headstone would read: “Here lies Kim. She loved coconuts. They did not love her.”

Last week at Mango, as we sat waiting for our lovely dinner to arrive at the table (grilled prawns the size of lobsters and a large red snapper), a cat-sized rat approached the couple sitting at the table near the edge of the restaurant. They looked over at me, like I was supposed to do something. Galvanized by my familial instincts to bash it to pieces with a Mag light (big flashlight, or torch), I started to rise from my seat. Thinking twice, I sat back down and laughed at what I almost did. Back in my seat, I realized I was clutching my chopsticks in a death grip…I was about to spear a rat with chopsticks. The rat, seeing his error, bounded back the way he came. I feel I must explain myself here. Growing up on a farm with livestock and smaller animals around, it was sometimes necessary to protect them from predators and/or the possibility of getting rabies from some wild animal. I’ve witnessed both my parents regulating on said vermin with various instruments – mag light, shovel, you get the idea. I, myself, have been known to chase raccoons with a 2x4 if provoked while taking my trash to the dumpster. So I suppose, skewering a large rodent w/ a small stick is in my genes.

After that, Mike swallowed a fish bone, and it was lodged in his throat for a couple days. Not pleasant. Out of concern for him, I went to the front desk to ask Kan if he had a remedy. He didn’t understand “fish bone”, and thought I was asking for paracetamol (pain killer). I grabbed a bit of paper and a pen and proceeded to embarrass myself by attempting to draw a fish skeleton, with an arrow pointing to one of the small bones, like the one that was in Mike’s throat. I pointed to the paper, and then to my throat, and then to our room. I don’t know how he puts up with us…he’s quite patient. I also don’t know how he wasn’t laughing his ass off at my terrible drawing. He finally got what I was saying, and grabbed his mom, who got a big dinner roll for me, and told me to have Mike swallow it whole, without chewing. Then she tore off a small piece – thankfully, she just meant to swallow pieces of it whole, not the whole thing, cuz it was HUGE! That seemed to help a little, and I repeated the drawing for Mike to lighten the mood…he was quite uncomfortable, poor dear! He laughed a bit, which seemed to help as well.

Word to the wise: travelling can be tough business. We’ll manage, somehow.

Sending hugs, peace, and restful sleep….

Bananas gone wild! remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The days off kiting are tough…I’m now struggling to find things to do out here, with the exception of Monday – we took our final available tour (reclining Buddha, Cham Towers, Phan Thiet Market, Dragon fruit farm). It’s really a small town/village type area, and we’ve now done all the charter tours you can do, visited the hospital, rented bikes, etc etc…I’m kind of feeling like I’m ready for more action elsewhere. I think the language barrier has a lot to do with that. For instance, we have been going to Before & Now (fantastic home made pasta, Italian style) 3-5 times per week, and are quite friendly with the girl who runs the place, though I still don’t know her name. It was her birthday the other night when we were in there, and I really wanted to talk to her on the level you talk to your friends on their special day…but it was impossible. I’m not sure why really, but I almost cried as we sat there, struggling to understand each other. It’s frustrating. I find Vietnamese exceedingly difficult to learn. Some of the sounds they make, I can’t even begin to make…even saying hello is a challenge. In one area of town it’s pronounced ‘dow’ and in the other it’s pronounced ‘jow’. It would be fantastic to have a translator to take with me for a day to talk to people, ask questions, and share conversation.

I’ve been doing yoga on most of the days we’ve had off from kiting…another activity that requires hand/arm strength. I’ve downloaded several Power Yoga and Baptiste style yoga podcasts from iTunes, and they’re pretty good. Thanks to Mike’s Mom, who made me a travel bag for my yoga mat, I’ve been able to carry my mat with me wherever I want to do yoga. I sometimes carry it down to the lounge area outside WAX Bar and do yoga while gazing out over the rolling sea. It’s quite lovely, though practicing yoga in front of people who are not also practicing yoga at the same time is something new and unusual. It’s another level of meditation I suppose, to really focus internally, with no one else to model or watch for pointers on your own posture, meanwhile, I can’t help but take note of the fact that there are other people walking around, and sitting nearby (drinking BEER, those bastards!). Which reminds me…after yoga, I always crave sushi (maybe from my days of Bikram yoga with Carl & Collin? Hugs, guys), and broccoli. Since the sushi we’ve had here is mediocre and the broccoli has pulled a Houdini act and has escaped all dishes here in Vietnam, I’m now craving beer. Weird, I know, but it’s really refreshing after a tough hour and a half on the mat, and it feeds into that yummy yoga high that I always get…I love EVERYTHING and EVERYONE! People, I’m not joking…I buzz after yoga.

In other news, I’m officially a Battlestar Galactica junkie. I’ve watched into the middle of the 3rd season, and I NEED to know: WHO ARE THE FINAL 5 CYLONS???!!! For those of you who know, I’ll give a million dong to the first person who tells me! …..ok ok…..don’t tell me. It’s a really well-written show, if you’re interested!

Kiting so much my hands don’t work anymore! remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I had a great day out there – the wind direction is opposite to what it was in Bali, so now I get to practice starting out going the other direction. My first attempt today, it was like I’d done it a hundred times – I was rockin it! Mike was rockin it too, as usual. He’s the coolest. You should see him out there – ziggin and zaggin. We were out for about 4 hours – missed lunch, and got back right before the fresh catch was hauled out for display at Mango, a fantastic restaurant across the street from our home, Nam Khai. I went for a quick, 30-minute back and neck massage at the spa next door to our hotel, and then Mike and I headed over for a lovely dinner: we shared a snapper, rice, and 4 of the biggest prawns I’ve ever seen! Like mini lobsters they were! They make a tasty dipping sauce over here that I’ve never had, but it’s so simple. One part ground black pepper, one part lime juice, stir and dip your prawns! It turns out more like a paste than a sauce, but you can add lime to your liking of course…give it a try! It’s nice on the fish as well.

I can’t say it enough – I’m soooooo relieved that there are better vittles here this time around. Breakfast and lunch are about the same as last time – nothing to write home about, but for dinner, there are many more choices, most of which consist of fresh fish. If given the chance, I’d eat fresh fish for dinner most evenings. I’m so happy to have a happy tummy!

Note: speaking of food, there’s a great Italian & Vietnamese restaurant south of our hotel, on the same side of the street called Before and Now. They have a hand made tagliatelle that is quite nice, very light, and you can order it Arribiata if you like a little spice.

After returning to our room, we promptly got out the ice bags and iced down our backs…these things must be done, you see. Injury prevention people! Ok ok, so maybe we’re getting old….nah, just being pro-active with it.

In other news, we have a resident cat here at Nam Khai, whom I lovingly call Mowser (‘Maow-zer). He is really loving and snuggly and cute and adorable. However, he is also really annoying when you’re drenched in sweat and lying on your yoga mat outside your room while in the middle of a session. He rubbed against my leg and covered me with hair! Ick! He then laid right down in the middle of the mat as I was in Downward Facing Dog, and I almost flattened him when I went into Upward Facing Dog – he just wouldn’t MOVE. I got ready to head back inside after I finished my meditation, only to find the part of my mat that wasn’t covered by my towel had been shredded…little bits of rubber all over the place! F&@#ing cat! I immediately realized that I couldn’t be mad at the little furry beast – he was just doing what cats do. …I don’t think that cat realizes that he was one yoga class away from a boot in his ass. Funny that, yoga definitely helps me make more rational, appropriate decisions!

Speaking of animals, Yang, the girl we met while on the Fairy Spring and Red & White sand dune tour, had an awful animal story. She brought her small dog here with her from Saigon – she, too, has quit her job to be a beach bum like us. The dog is an indoor dog and somehow escaped her room, deciding to cross the road – maybe he was following the chicken? Anyway, someone ran over the dog, and a few seconds later someone else pulled up and picked the dog up, “you know, the people who eat dogs.” Eeek. What do you say to that?

Well, here we are 2 days later (just heard election results this morning! Happy news, Obama won, thank f$#k!), and more wind! Though, it was incredibly gusty. I took out the 7m Shockwave, only to be seriously under-powered, so back to the beach to grab the 9. The kite tumbled out of the sky, and that was all for me. One second there were huge gusts, and the next there was nothing at all! There were some folks out there on the water working it pretty hard – didn’t look like much fun to me. There were also some learners in the water, and I felt really sorry for them. It’s tough to learn in wind conditions like that. As Mike was ending his day after getting racked by his board, he ripped off one of his toenails on a rock on the seabed. The forecast looks good continually with the exception of 1 day this week, so we're stoked! Now to repair the toe (and ice our backs!)...life is good!!

It's windy in Mui Ne! remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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SNOW - located 3 doors down from the hotel. Wifi with purchase - fantastic Long Cosmopolitan and beer, but the food was disappointing for the money. Sushi was OK, but not what I would expect for spending that kind of dime. They have black lights in the inner lounge, which will be fantastic this weekend with our practice poi.

WAX Bar and Restaurant. If you're hungry, the club sandwich fills a hole. The fries are out of a bag, but ok as well. Shrimp tempora is a great drunk food! (or hangover food) Good atmosphere and sometimes good music...check out the fire dancers on Saturday night...I may be joining them this Saturday! =)

Mellow Guest House and Restaurant. Breakfast breakfast breakfast! Scrambled eggs are great, as is the muesli with yogurt and fruit. Omelets are good, too. Today we had lunch there (it was our breakfast, as it was 11:30am and we had JUST woken up!). I had a club sandwich and Mike had a burger. Burger was average and club was good - chips were hand made and quite good. Ask for mayonnaise if you like it like that.

New restaurant across from Nam Khai with really outgoing front-girl. Seriously, if you walk by in the evening, she'll be there to lasso you and to outline the entire menu. If you can get past feeling overwhelmed, stay for the fresh catch BBQ fish, squid and shrimp. Just go to the front counter that says "Fresh BBQ" and point out what you want. It comes with garlic rice, and one small fish with 6 shrimp was plenty for Mike and I for dinner. They bring fruit as a desert included with the meal. Very good food, incredibly friendly service.

Liquor store 2 doors down from Nam Khai, same side of the street. A lovely woman works there, and she usually gives you a free water or something to go along with your purchase - we've been enjoying the RUM! She may base this free item on your total purchase, so don't take my word as gospel. But if you're in there, might as well get a couple bottles, as they're the cheapest we've seen along the beach strip. 2 doors north of Nam Khai on the same side of the street.

We have about 3 more weeks here, so watch this space for additions!

Sending love and peace,
Kim

These are a few of my favorite things... remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Looking for a hotel the first day was a fun little chore. The three of us slid into a taxi and headed toward the south end of the beach in order to saunter our way back to the north, stopping in each hotel to ask price and availability of the rooms. The range seems to be about $10 - $80/night, of the hotels we saw. We opted for the nice, simple room with A/C, hot water and mini fridge for $10/night at Nam Khai Guest House, just across the street from Wax, the bar where we spent most of our time last time – drinking Tiger beer and waiting for the rain to stop.

After finding and securing our rooms for the next night, we crossed the street and headed out to the beach for a wander back to our old hotel, the Hoang Kim Golden Resort, which is located pretty far to the north of the kiting beach – too long to trudge every day in the heat with the kites! Plus, they’re doing construction on all the rooms on the first floor, so we were woken up at 8am both days we were there. It took us about an hour to get to the hotel on foot…in the sand…and the heat…phew!

It was a lovely intro back into Mui Ne life, and speaking of lovely intros, I was lucky enough to get to share an introductory yoga lesson with my friend Candy later that night in the soft glow of the pool. I bought an audio yoga CD by Janet Stone (she teaches at Yoga Tree in San Francisco), which I synced to my iPod. Plug the iPod into portable speakers, place by the pool, and ta-da… instant yoga class! Candy did swimmingly as a first-timer, and I greatly enjoyed sharing the experience with her. Yoga has been central to healing in my life. Whether sharing the class with one or tens of people, or just on my own, yoga centers me, is my moving meditation, keeps me in touch with what really matters to me. It also happens to be a great workout. My and Candy’s session was intensified by the presence of one very large bat. Yes, I said BAT! While holding a pose as we faced the pool, he skimmed the water 3 or 4 times in search of bugs….that or he was scoping out who would be liberated of their blood, Candy or me!!! A few minutes later, I heard a commotion above my head and off to the right a little, looked over, and in the light of the pool just his head was visible – the rest of him was attached by his feet to the overhang of one of the first floor bungalows. He screeched. And screeched again. My heart rate shot up and I wondered if we should haul ass or brave the beast lurking in half-light, lusting after our blood. Then I wondered if the mosquito repellant I had nearly drowned myself in prior to our meditation worked on bats, too. Then I realized that this is real yoga, maintaining calm in the midst of calamity. Meanwhile, back at the ranch…. Don’t take my word for it, but citronella must be an effective repellant of bloodthirsty winged spawn of Satan…he just dangled there like a cling-on while we finished. Walking through the arboretum on our way back to our rooms, the bat dive-bombed us, and then fluttered through the front restaurant and off into the night. We returned to our rooms, unscathed.

The restaurant across from our hotel (as you’re standing at Hoang Kim, slightly to the left and across the street) was the location of a fantastic dinner that night. Fresh foil-steamed fish, rice and veggies, and Candy and I each had a fresh coconut, which contained lots more juice than I expected. Our hostess, Chin, was very attentive and kept picking more and more fish off the carcass in front of us and piling it onto our plates. Unfortunately Mike seemed to get mostly bones! Chin spoke English very well, so we chatted with her through most of the meal. I asked her how long she had worked at the restaurant, and she said that she didn’t work there, that she owned the travel agency next door. She noticed that her neighbors were very busy and volunteered to help them…how sweet! She then grabbed the eye out of the fish on the plate in front of me with her chopsticks and said, “Eating fish eyes makes your vision better!” and proceeded to plunk it down on my plate. Being an adventurous creature, I said, “Well…..uuhhhhh…..ok!” I picked up the eyeball with my chopsticks, gave it the once-over, and placed it in my mouth. Biting down was not the thing to do…I should have just swallowed…what was I thinking!!!??? It was pretty hard, I think I was gnawing on its lens, with very little aqueous/vitreous humor – it was very dry, so I chewed a few times and tried to swallow the bits. It really didn’t taste of anything, just had an odd texture, and I couldn’t stop the feeling of a fish eye swimming around and looking at the inside of my stomach.

The next day we rented bikes to ride to the fishing village about 10 miles north of the beach.

As far as I can tell, the whole stretch is called Mui Ne. I don’t think any of us have been on a bike in a very long time. That being said, none of us crashed or was hit by a speeding passenger bus the entire time! All along this road, there are houses, food stalls, moped repair, clothing, snack shops and stunning views of red sand dunes on one side, and the South China Sea on the other.

The fishing boats were fun to see…they all seem to be similar. There are small bowl-shaped rowboats that they use to paddle out to the big boats, and then they moor the smaller boat while they go out fishing, which seems to be mostly at night or in the wee hours of the morning.

We ran into a few local girls selling trinkets, and they followed us all the way down the steep steps to the water, holding our hands and touting their wares.

They were so sweet, and spoke English quite well. I asked one of the girls, Jae, where she learned English, if it was in school. She said she didn’t go to school, and that she was taught by a tourism agency. I’ve heard that school isn’t free, so those who can’t afford to pay go to the streets to sell trinkets etc to tourists…seems so sad to me, but they seemed very happy and chatty, and they seemed to all be good friends. As we were getting back on our bikes, it looked to me like they were pooling the money they made from us and dividing it.

That night to reward ourselves for all our efforts during the bike ride, we proceeded to get tipsy at the bar called WAX.

The next day, dangling by the thread of a hangover, we three booked a jeep tour of the nearby white and red sand dunes. We learned that if you’ve seen one sand dune, you’ve seen them all. The sky was particularly wild with pre-storm plumes of white fluffy cumulonimbi, which made for some majestic photos of the landscape. See the photo gallery for more pics.

The nearby Lake of Tears was full of reeds and lotus flowers, and the ponies used for tours on the dunes were cooling themselves in the water, some almost invisible under the water with just their heads poking up out of the water.

The Fairy Stream was the highlight of the tour, a stream that runs through a chasm of red and white sand and lush greenery and tropical flowers.

We waded through the ankle-calf deep water for about 30 minutes, and then headed back to the jeep to continue the tour. This was actually the first stop, followed by the white dunes, the red canyon, and the red dunes. Here’s a photo of the red canyon.

We ended our day with a drink at SNOW, an uber-cool sushi restaurant next door to our hotel – soft blue lights and plush, white décor. They happen to have wifi, so we brought the computers and had a tech moment. Later, back at the hotel, we hung out in Candy’s room before heading off to dreamland…saying goodbye to Candy was sad. It was great fun having her around, but hopefully she’ll be back this way before Saigon. If not, I plan on meeting her in Saigon for a couple days before she goes back to the US.

Yesterday was a very low-key day, as we topped up our tans on the beach, practiced poi, and had a light and early dinner before retiring to our room for rum & coke and 3 more episodes of Battlestar Galactica (not the 1970s version)…if you haven’t seen it, it’s a great series!

Today after breakfast, as the rain eased off, I jumped into a cab and headed out to the local hospital to see if I could arrange a tour and possibly some volunteer work. To my dismay, it seems to be a tourist hospital, triaging toe injuries and drunken head traumas. It was actually very quiet with only one patient getting a toe bandaged. I met the Traditional Physician, Vo, who had many local acupuncture patients coming in about ½ hour, so I waited and was able to observe his practice. It was fascinating to see. He had 2 patients on tables in separate rooms, and about 6 more in the waiting room. He sees about 15 – 20 patients per day, a decrease from 50 per day since moving here from nearby Phan Tiet. Despite our language barriers, we were able to communicate somehow, and it was a very enjoyable experience. He was surprised at the length of study I am about to embark on in the field of Natural Medicine – 6 years. I still am not sure if he was able to gather that I am about to start my studies, not just finishing them. He showed me his acupuncture book, which looked like it was hundreds of years old – it was beautiful. I was touched by his eagerness to share his practice with me, as well as his patients' willingness to allow me in the treatment rooms with them.

Mui Ne Beach, round 2 remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We were hosted most graciously by Mike’s family – the first week with Jim and Sandra, his parents, the second week with Melanie and Paul, his sister and brother-in-law, and a few days at Grandma Jean’s followed by a few days in London. I think benevolence and hospitality are in the water in the UK – I felt so at home everywhere we went! Mike’s mom hand-made a bag for my yoga mat during the week we were yachting and touring ancient sites (and ancient PUBS!) with Mel and Paul.

Everyone cooked for us, which was really fantastic, and they even put up with my egg-eating. =) …for those who don’t know, I eat eggs probably 5 breakfasts per week. Especially since traveling over the last 5 months – seems you can always find eggs for breakie, though you may not want to eat them (see Koh Samet entry!). I thought a Christmas Cracker was something you eat, or maybe slang for Santa Claus, but Mike’s mom put me wise to the English custom over Christmas dinner, which we ate on October 18th. A cracker looks like a huge piece of taffy, twisted paper at both ends, except it’s wrapped in foil papers of all different Christmas-y colors. Everyone at the table has a cracker in front of their dinner plate. You hold one end in your right hand like you’re passing a baton to the person at your left, and they grab the other end with their left hand. You grab the other end of the person’s to your right, and so on around the table. Then everyone pulls them apart at the same time and they explode. Not like with dynamite or C4, just a little pop and you open it up. Inside, you get a paper crown, which everyone instantly dons, a joke on a little piece of paper, and a small trinket or toy – mine was a fingernail brush! That’ll come in handy for sand removal (the war on sand continues!). It was so much fun! I hear the previous year was a bit more fun – the fire department came and everything…someone lit the dining room carpet and hallway on fire with an out-of-control candle. Our families are going to get along great, I have a feeling!

It was, of course raining a bit during our stay. Seems like every time we tried to leave whatever house we were in, it would rain. Insert standard response here: Cuppa tea then? Seriously, I love all the tea drinking that goes on. ….and all the ale drinking for that matter (thanks Mel and Paul!). If taking the browns to the superbowl is a challenge for you, HAVE ANOTHER PINT OF ALE! It really, really, reallyreallyreallyreally works! I never knew it was possible to ‘let one fly’ with a man on deck…the human is a multitalented beast. Poop spelled backwards is poop! Anyway, we ate like kings, drank like sailors, and slept like it was going out of style.

While in London, we saw all the sights, and for Mike’s birthday, his parents treated us to a show. We saw Wicked last Wednesday night, and it was superb. If you like the story of the Wizard of Oz, you’ll probably like this. The production was incredible as was the singing, dancing and costumes.

There’s so much to tell, I’m sure I’ve left out many details…..and the jet lag is squashing my little brain into a ball and hurling it repeatedly at the inside of my skull. …..thud…….thud…thud……. Why does jet lag erase my memory? I packed my bag this morning to go from Saigon to Mui Ne Beach (we’re now in Vietnam), and I don’t remember doing it. I open my mouth to talk, and the words don’t go together…can’t complete…..sentence! I’m tired but I can’t sleep, I’m poor but I’m kind, I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah….shit, channeling Alanis Morissette again.

Last night as we sat talking with my friend Candy in our room on the 921st floor of Madam Cuc’s Guesthouse and Guiness Book of World Records’ title holder for the world’s longest and most treacherous spiral staircase, I remembered walking into the oldest cathedral in England, which is in Chester. Chester is also birthplace to a most handsome, kind, bright, graceful and tall guy we all know and love – Mike! The cathedral has quite a few stained glass windows, my favorite being the section of mostly blue glass just inside the entryway. It was exquisite with daylight – ok, cloud cover – illuminating the panes. The stone work in that building is incredible – quite cold (temperature) inside as are most Catholic and/or old churches I’ve been into, but with a feeling that you can only get from a place that’s been standing for 1000 years, and has been filled with those carrying in their hearts a similar feeling of reverence and a corresponding want for peace and harmony. After my liberation from the organized religion of my distant past, my spiritual views are now inclusive rather than exclusive, which has made for an abundant experience of all spiritually-rich places, be they cathedral, temple, shrine or pagoda.

Cuppa tea then? remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I'm absolutely terrified at the changes in the landscape in the nearly 10 years since my departure from the "Bible Belt", where religious zealotry is rivaled only in, well, any other extremist, narrow minded religious community. But I digress. There are no more hedgerows or fences between fields for that matter, and virtually no trees whatsoever in/near the fields, as they've all been ripped out in order to enslave more of the tortured topsoil to the almighty Corn. It's a big problem. A monoculture is a bad idea, no matter what variety - it encourages disease among the species, depletes the soil (and/or other resources) of certain necessary nutrients, and then requires tons of chemicals to feed it and keep it pest free. ...for the interested reader: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (more info here: http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php). Where have all the animals gone? To the factory farms, that's where - another large monoculture, requiring antibiotics in order to live, and passing on disease to us.

I got to catch up with my friends Monita and Jamie Jo while I was in Illinois - here's a photo from our night out...good times!

We wrangled up some cold beers at a bar called Crappy's North (!) and sat around a big table with my dad, Mike, and some other people I went to high school with, whom I haven't seen in over 10 years, including Larua Jean Cheline (now Johnson) and Money (his real name is Mike). The band actually finished it's set with Free Bird...I thought they were joking until several folks pulled out their Bics. There's a lot of that going on in Illinois, nicknames, I mean. Scruffy & Bits, Meathead, Moose, Horndog, and HarleyJon to name a few. What a bunch of characters! It was great to catch up with the folks from school, and also friends of the family who came to Dad's on Saturday night - quite a few motorcycles arrived! Also, my sister, her husband and their 2 girls visited, as did my grandma, and my mom came out for a while as well - a good time was had by all.

Illinois... remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I did get to see and catch up with many friends in SF, but the relaxing didn't really come to fruition until the last weekend, when we went to the Zen House (big sigh) in Russian River...more on that in a minute. Recovering from food poisoning in conjunction with jet lag was a new and unimagined hell that I would never wish on anyone. Late in the day for about the first 5 days, my head would start to get very heavy, my thoughts raced, my heart raced, and my eye lids felt like they were made of lead. It felt like I was starting to fall asleep, even though I was walking around, riding in a car, or sitting down to dinner. It was nearly impossible to carry on a conversation (as you know if you saw me during those first few days!)...I was conversationally impaired, to say the least.

Here's a photo from a night out in the city.

On top of trying to get well, I was trying to work out the logistics of getting my house sitter out of my apartment. The place was in such a state...you wouldn't believe it. If you were house sitting, would you not tidy up a bit when the owners came home? ...me too...I guess not everyone would, as I found out. There was stuff everywhere, boxes yet to be unpacked (after 3 months??), cat hair EVERYWHERE, a broken knob on the shower, smoke detector dangling off the wall with battery removed, wine stains on the carpet, a huge pile of baking soda in the bottom of the oven, a pile of dirty dishes, and all the furniture/pictures had been rearranged into a very un-feng shui configuration. Again, I try to put myself into another's shoes: if you were house sitting would you: rearrange the furniture? Move the wall hangings? Break stuff and not tell anyone? Not pay rent? Avoid talking with the owners? Avoid picking the owners up at the airport WITH THEIR OWN VEHICLE? Let your cat scratch and ruin the sofas? Myself, I answered no to all these questions, as I'm sure you did too. So you can understand my incredulity at this behavior. We offered the apartment/house sit at a huge discount because we were requiring a bit of work on the house sitter's part: communication over email to let us know that everything is ok, and water the plants. The response was HUGE on Craigslist, so I was able to re-rent/arrange a house sitter very quickly. ...instead of relaxing and catching up with the friends I didn't get to see. I'm still pissed (can you tell?) about the whole ordeal, but I am happy for the time I did get to spend with my friends.

During this sub-optimal home coming, Mike and I stayed with our dear friends, Peter and Brent (and their dog, Leo), in their lovely home in San Francisco. They were our saving grace - fed us, encouraged us to imbibe some lovely wine, and invited us to their Zen House in Guerneville (Russian River) to relax at the end of our stay in SF. These two have a knack for creating peaceful space...I never get such good rest as the rest I get at Zen House. They also both happen to be fantastic cooks, so we ate like kings. I contributed by making red velvet cupcakes - 5 each over the course of 3 days. Yes, there were tears on the last day when I had eaten my 5 already and tried to take one of Peter's. I think I raised some feathers with that one! ;-) The weekend was certainly the high point of our return. Sitting in the hot tub late at night telling stories and looking up at the stars between the redwood trees...can you think of a more peaceful evening? ...thanks a million guys, I love you!

2 Weeks in San Francisco remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As you can tell, we haven’t had much wind here on Samui. Also, the beach where we’re staying is pretty narrow, so it’s tough to launch/land the kites safely. I’m the proud owner of a new waist harness, and I’m chomping the bit to get a good run on it…it just doesn’t feel really safe here, and that’s intimidating. Maybe Koh Samet will have some broader beaches and steady, howling wind!

We’ve visited a couple different Wats since arriving here. The Wat Big Buddha is located at the northeastern tip of Koh Samui, and you can see it from our hotel poking up above the trees. It’s 12 meters high and gold!

I got to pray just before the monks started their chants, which was very moving. I came down from looking at the Big Buddha, and at the bottom there are several smaller shrines.

I was trying to get a closer look at one of them, which had several small, square cushions on the raised floor in front of a beautiful gold reclining Buddha. One of the monks up on the platform motioned me to one of the cushions, so I took off my shoes and climbed up. As I got closer to the Buddha, I felt a very warm, vibrating sensation fill my body. As I sat down on my heels I closed my eyes and let the scent of sandalwood incense fill my nose. I folded my hands, palms up, in my lap, and said a few words in my head, and then my mind went completely blank. I was totally overwhelmed by the heat in my body and the feeling of fullness, gratitude and love. Placing my hands palms together at my heart, I bowed forward all the way to the floor. I wish I were a poet so I could explain the fullness and beauty of these moments…it was incredible, the energy of this place of prayer and reverence. I felt a similar feeling when I was in St. Peter’s Basilica in 2000. I think religions are like fingers on a hand…they all lead to the same source. We all want the same things right? Love, peace, happiness? In this place, in the dim light of late afternoon, I felt like part of the whole, completely connected.

Thai Fruit/Vegetable Carving & Zen in Koh Samui remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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There seems to be very little, if any, wireless here, and we're too far to walk to the internet cafe, so this will probably be my only entry until we get back to Bangkok next Friday. We rented an ATV today to get around..I'm driving, and it's sooooo fun! It's a little weird getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road, but I'm adjusting quickly. Good thing, or we'd be roadkill by now.

We're staying at the Samet Ville Resort near the southern end of the island, on the east coast. It's a cute room with AC and hot water, but the restaurant is pretty bad. Breakfast was not good - it's included in the price of the room, but we've decided to go out in search of better vittles in the future. Today, what we found was not any better...and I'm HUNGRY! =( Oh well...maybe we'll stick to crap-jam and marj on toast with a bitter cup of nescafe, and get a hearty lunch. I'm almost certain it's impossible to starve over the course of a week. I complain, but the dinner we had last night was actually quite tasty. I'm in search of a beach BBQ for dinner tonight...fish on the beach + Singha = happy KimPossible...wish me luck!

If you're looking for seclusion, Koh Samet seems the place to get it. We walked all the way to the next beach north of us yesterday on a very rocky & beautiful coastline and didn't see a single person or boat. There are loads of lovely outlook points all around the western coastline, which is mostly cliffs, it seems, though we haven't explored the entire length yet due to the heat/lack of sunscreen yesterday!

Pics to come...I'll email out a block of Koh Samui pictures when we arrive in Bangkok. Also, if you have any requests for goods from Thailand, this is your last chance! I'll be doing a bit of shopping in Bangkok, since we have a pretty heafty weight limit on our bags for the flight to San Francisco.

I'm sending you hugs right now!!! Muaaaa!

Koh Samet... remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Yesterday we drove around the island in our rental car I like to call "Hairy Boy"...it's actually called Carryboy or Ladyboy or something like that...it's a cross between a jeep and a teeny pickup truck. Just enough room for our kites, boards and a pony keg. We ended up stopping in Chaweng Beach to buy a much-needed t-shirt for Mike and tank top for me - our other ones are starting to show the wear and tear of being worn every other day for 2 months. One of mine had a permanent funk from sunscreen and from lying on my wet kite (stinky!). So Chaweng according to the Lonely Planet travel books is the most popular beach on Koh Samui. It is definitely busy, though it wasn't very popular with us...when we stopped and got out of the Hairy Boy, the sewer smell almost knocked us over. Everywhere we walked, it smelled of poop. Not nice. I don't know if it was just a particularly hot day, or there was a problem with the sewer, no matter. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. We found our shirts and a couple inflatable rafts for the sea and hauled ass outta there.

Aside from that little hiccup, the island is stunningly beautiful. I'll upload some pics at some point, though we're without internet at our hotel, so who knows when that'll be. We tried to visit a snake farm and a butterfly farm, but couldn't find them yesterday. I had an image in my mind of what a snake ranch and snake rancher would look like...itty bitty lassos and cowboy hats? Yep, that's what I thought too! ...we may never know.

We're learning a bit of Thai which is cool...so far I haven't learned a stitch of any other languages. I now know how to say hello and thank you. I know, always the overachiever! =)

Koh Samui in gorgeous Thailand remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Gili Meno

Jimboran, dinner on the beach watching the sunset

Indonesia, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tonguester, Larry, Gordon, Franz and Annoying Bastard…new friends. Tonguester is a dog we’ve “adopted” in Bali. She lives at the end of our street, and has her tongue hanging out of her mouth all the time. It may be an injury or a birth defect, whatever the cause, it’s really cute. She doesn’t seem to mind it, and when the time comes, she can pull it back into her mouth if she wants to. A couple days ago, I found out that her real name is “Fifi”…I still prefer Tonguester. Larry is the lizard we keep seeing as we walk from our hotel to the street that leads down to the beach. He’s really quick, and a man of few words. I’ve actually never heard him talk. Then there’s Gordon, the gecko on our wall outside our room – he’s been trying to sell us insurance for 2 months now – tenacious little guy. He joined me for yoga on the patio the other day, and he’s got a great upward facing dog posture! Franz is the fly who always tickles me at the beach by crawling on my legs, and last but not least is Annoying Bastard, the rooster. He’s been following us since we left the US. I hear that I shouldn’t be upset about it because roosters are good luck. Whoever told me that must not live next door to a rooster.

Cat oven: literally, paint oven. We have seen these signs all over Bali and were like “What the hell? Who bakes cats?” Everyone knows they’re best sautéed. These signs are seen at auto body shops.

We were on TV! In Bali, anyway…during the Sanur Village Festival (Aug 6 – 10) we were interviewed by a camera crew doing a piece on tourism in Bali. We were on the beach, just setting our kites up. They filmed a short interview with Mike and I, then filmed me pumping up my kite – always a flattering thing to be doing on film.

On Gili Meno:
Sitting on the porch of our hut I heard the tinkling sounds of an ice cream truck. I immediately looked around for the squid truck, but saw none. I did, however, see a guy on a bicycle with a cooler bungee-strapped to the back. It really WAS the ice cream man!

Skype is fantastic! Use you computer’s internet connection to make phone calls – especially internationally. It’s cheap and very easy to set up/use. Go here for more information:
www.skype.com

Some books I’ve read while on the trip:
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Quantum, A Guide for the Perplexed by Jim Al-Khalili
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (THIS IS A MUST READ)
And now on to:
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani.
I would recommend all of them.

I’ve been meaning to write about all of this, and now that I’m sitting in front of the computer screen, I can’t think of the other 20 things. Figures.

Anyway, we’re getting ready to get on a plane to Thailand tomorrow evening (Aug 13th). I feel lucky to have been here during the Sanur Village Festival last week. There were so many people around and things going on. The people here are lovely. Even with the language barrier, we’ve made a lot of friends. Some people are easier to understand than others, but mostly it’s been a little difficult to have full conversations. Folks have really wanted to talk to us, and vice versa, but it’s hard to know if we were having the same conversation. Every day when we walk past our favorite watering hole, Picadilly’s, one of the bartenders will ask “Where are you going?!” In fact, I’d have to say that’s the most common question/statement I’ve heard here. In Balinese it’s a form of greeting to ask someone where they’re going, so a lot of times when we’re leaving the hotel, the front desk person will say “Where are you going?” instead of saying hello. (It was the same in Saigon, too.) Sometimes it catches me off daydreaming, and I realize I don’t have any idea where I’m going, and I have to stand there for a minute staring at the sky trying to think of a place I may be going that day.

Another thing that’s been eye-opening is people’s knowledge of politics here. When I say I’m American, several people have said “Oh, Obama!” I on the other hand have no idea who the politicians in Bali are…. Yes, Bali is smaller than the US, but people here - in general - seem to be more attentive to what’s happening in the world at large rather than just what’s happening at home.

I'm sad to say goodbye to Bali, but looking forward to meeting more new friends in Thailand.

A Case of the Randoms remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Indy was angry that day, and after 10 minutes of rising and falling with a bang back onto the water (we caught air several times), all the passengers had fallen silent. A French family was seated in the row at the back of the boat, where most of the action was, and being right in front of them, I could see that the 3 children who were playing video games and giggling when we pulled out of the bay were now white as ghosts. Surprisingly, no one was handing out barf bags. That was one of few thoughts circling my head throughout the duration of the trip. It went something like this: 'I feel a little sick. Wish I hadn't eaten that croissant. I don't have a barf bag, what if I have to get sick? Uuugh, I feel a little sick. What if we have to jump? I don't have a barf bag.'

So we arrive with everyone still in possession of their breakfasts, myself included. We didn't have to jump, which was good, too. Gili Trawangan is the drop off point for the Gilis - there are three, and Trawangan is the one to the left of the dot that is Meno, and Air is to the right between Meno and Lombok. To get from the GiliCat to the beach, we all had to pile out and into another lower, slimmer boat with one puny outboard motor and loose planks across the floor. All the luggage was piled in after us, and the small boat did a U-turn, and backed into the beach. I think the small boat was actually longer than the distance between the GiliCat and the beach – it was one of the more ridiculous things I’ve seen on this trip. It did however serve as much needed comic relief after our near-barfing experience.

We decided to vacate Trawangan as quickly as possible because it's touted as the "party island", and that means it's crawling with folks learning how to handle their first beer, or as Trawangan would have it, smoky smoky or mushrooms or some combination of those 3 things. So we chartered a boat to Meno and were there in less than 30 minutes, including price-negotiation time! Gili Meno is quite small, as I mentioned in the previous entry. There are no motor vehicles on the islands, although we did see 3 little boys riding the smallest ATV I’ve ever seen…it was really cute. The only form of overland transport is the cidomo or pony-drawn carriage. I estimate that 80% of these ponies are in good condition, the other 20% were really pathetic, under nourished, dirty sad little creatures. It was actually quite upsetting to see, and I boycotted the cidomo during our stay.

We stayed at the Royal Reef Resort. I’m not exactly sure what the official definition of “resort” is, but I have a feeling the term is used metaphorically in this instance. There were 8 bungalows on the beach, all with cold saltwater showers. The bungalows were on stilts, while the bathroom was on ground level, which meant there were about 5 really steep, slippery tile steps descending into the bathroom. Good thing I’m off the Cazadores, or I’d probably have slipped and fallen headlong into the toilet after a night of drinking! I was pleasantly surprised to find electricity and a working fan in the room. The price of the room included breakfast, which was very simple, but pretty good. Much to our dismay, our rooster followed us to Meno. There are about 10 chickens to every person on the island it seems – they’re EVERYWHERE! It seems there’s no escaping the rooster on this trip. Wasn’t that an Alice in Chains song? Anyway, here are some pics of Meno:





Anyway, we took our new snorkeling masks and fins with us, and were all geared up for some snorkeling and lying around on the beach. Near our hotel on the east side of the island, jelly fish is what we found a lot of the first time out, and we both got stung quite a few times – Mike claims to have been stung by a Portuguese man-of-war. ;-) We found that the further north we went the less jelly fish there were, and on the west side, there were loads more fish to see, and we even got to swim with a sea turtle – it was huge! We saw lots of batfish and angelfish, and tons of blue fish and stripy colorful fish (not sure what they’re called). Unfortunately, on day 2, our waterproof camera/video camera went on the blink. (That’s the one we’ve been taking videos with from the kitecam.) We got one day’s worth of marine life photos & video, including an amazing chocolate chip cookie starfish. He looked like he was made of dough. How do I know it was a ‘he’ you ask? I checked!

Heading home, we did the boat thing again, but in reverse. We spent one night in Trawangan so we wouldn’t have to get up so early to boat over from Meno and then catch the GiliCat. Trawangan is a bit of a nightmare. Everywhere you go people are lurking in dark corners asking you if you want “smoky smoky” or magic mushrooms. In fact, quite a few of the cafés there had boards in front advertising “magic mushrooms, guaranteed to blow your mind”. There was a really skeevy vibe to the place, and we were ecstatic to leave the next morning. While waiting for the boat to arrive, we saw the saddest pony I’ve ever seen. He was skin and bones, and the cart he was pulling had rubbed his withers raw, and they were bloody. The owner didn’t seem to notice or mind, though I noticed several other tourists pointing and balking. It made me quite sick to my stomach, and brought tears to my eyes. I had to move nearer the water to avoid seeing any more. On the light side though, the night before, we saw a momma cat giving birth! It was so cool! Some silly chick was taking pictures…one for a wall hanging? Eeeek.

And we're BACK! remains copyright of the author kmpossible, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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