Living The Dream

Mel and I have spent the last 10 or so days having a great time albeit a little rough at times. Tonsai, as it turns out is really hard on the body, particularly the digestive system.

In any event, the first 3-4 days of climbing were great. However, i went a little overboard on the beer drinking our first night and we elected to have a lazy beach day our first full day. Day 2 we trekked over to Railey Beach (20 min walk) for our first climbs in Thailand. We climbed at a beginenrs wall called 1,2,3 wall that was positively packed with groups and guides. We climbed a good 6a and a good 5 and then bugged out as the tide was coming in and then id be stranded at the bottom of a climb with rope getting wet as mel lead something. Not ideal. After walking along the railay beach, both east and west (there are clearly 2 railay beaches), I was immediately glad that we were living on tonsai beach. Railey was really touristy, not beautiful, dirty, covered in resorts, expensive, and most importantly, was not host to hundreds of gorgeous, topless men sporting sexy biceps and 6 packs. We then climbed at a place called Diamond Cave where you could lead a climb, walk 20 meters, get a fresh banana shake in a glass (not a cup) and then lead another climb. What a life! The next couple of days we spent climbing in various areas on tonsai, fire wall, eagle wall, not eagle wall, and others whose names i have already forgotten. However, our good health was to be short lived.

Mel got food poisoning and I a cold (which I later gave to her). The next few days were spent doing some relaxed climbing, if any at all. We spent a day at ao nang doing some shopping. We spent another day at Koh Phi Phi where the movie, "The Beach" ( starring Leonardo Dicaprio) was filmed. We deigned Ko phi Phi also to be inferior to Tonsai for similar reasons to Railay. We did one very uninspiring climb at phi phi, some eating, and some snorkeling and called it a day. The best part for me was the boat ride back, as we laid on the prow of the boat and watched the beautiful islands go by enjoying the cool breeze and the shaded sun. I fell very peacefully asleep and enjoyed the ride immensely. The ride to the boat, the Ao Nang Princess, early that morning was much less tranquil and in fact was very eventful. At one point i was highly concerned that the longboat we had taken to the ship (waiting in deeper water) was going to tip over and capsize! We spent another day snorkeling on kp phra nang beach, also very near to tonsai. We took a long tail boat there for 100 Baht, realized that we had go back to railay beach to get a kayak and decided to swim there. We rented a kayak for about 4 hours, paddled it back to our stuff on Phra Nang (also highly resorty and touristy--picture fat germans in speedos) and then paddled to Happy Island. This was by far my favorite location thus far for climbing. Happy island was devoid of other climbers, had an excellent, picturesque view, and had a great climb that mel lead spectacularly. Did i mention that we had a sweet photo shoot too using the overhanging, heel hooking start as motivation and vehicle for sexy awesome photos? Gotta love photographer friends!!!

After many days of fruit shakes, fried rice, climbing, and people watching we left Tonsai for Krabi town to drop Mel's stuff on our way to the Full moon party. While in Ao nang we had arranged all the transportation to the party. However, we realized that the party was on the 7th and not the 8th and had to move everything--the date of the accommodation and the date of the boat ticket reservation. However, as it turns out our transportation booking was cancelled and not moved--a fact we realized when we were not picked up at our hotel/guesthouse in krabi town. As such we took a 20 min scooter ride to the local bus station, a 3 hour bus to Surat thani, a 45 dollar taxi ride (also 45 minutes long) that felt like a roller coaster at 90 mph swerving in and out of people, running red lights, and catching air on speed bumps to arrive 3 minutes after the ferry was supposed to leave. Luckily it hadnt yet and we ran to buy our tickets and get on. We JUST made it. The ferry ride itself was another 2.5 hours. And all this before the party even started. We arrived at Haad Rin beach, the site of the full moon party and danced and drank and talked to people all night long. My favorite part was definitely the fire jump rope... Just epic. It was tons of fun. I lost Mel at one point but miraculously we found each other again and when i say miraculously i mean it. Picture a party with 30,000 drunken teenagers and 20-somethings. The amount of people we talked to the next morning that said that they had lost everyone that they arrived with would almost be funny if it wasnt so tragic/scary feeling. All in all Mel and I had a blast. It was a long long day, but awesome nonetheless.

Sadly i had to say goodbye to Mel today after 2 months of traveling together. Today she went to go on an ATVing,rafting, and elephant riding tour and since i am not so interested in the ATV rafting thing we are parting ways. I am still here at the hotel after getting a thai massage, doing some serious interneting/fb stalking, and finishing a little shopping. Soon i will get a songthaew back to ao nang and then a longtail boat back to tonsai. It will be weird when i get back to Tonsai and she wont be there, super weird. I like traveling alone but i hate this transition, i mean who likes being lonely. Luckily, a friend i made when i was in Bali is meeting me today at Tonsai and we will share a room for a couple of days. Hopefully, if we are lucky, we can go deep water soloing tomorrow! Personally i plan on drinking some beer tonight, not too much, just toasting the end of Mel's and mine/my adventure together. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we will have future world travels together. However, for now, im focusing on meeting up with Rebecca and later with the folks in Cambodia!!! Sweet as!

Love to all--Cheers Mel,
Jordan

T

Sorry i havent posted in FOREVER! I wrote this one about 3 weeks ago but then never finished it. It was kinda hard at the time. So i finished it now. I will be better i swear. My only excuse is that internet was hard to come by on 3/4 of the road trip. On Tonsai beach in Thailand its super expensive. End of excuses, hers the old post originally written on 1-19-2012

So you know how i said that nothing was really going to happen in the coming days as we were driving 3 thousand kilometers where the most exciting occurrence would be whatever was happening to the characters in the book on tape that we were listening to.... Well, I was wrong. i was really really wrong.

So this is what happened:
I was involved in a police chase
I spun the car and then rolled the car multiple times in the police chase
I Survived the crash (a miracle) but was then arrested and taken to the police station in handcuffs.

Every word of the above is true... Here's the story:

I was driving along on the Eyre Hwy in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE Australia or in Australian terms, in the outback, happily listening to the exciting events unfold on our book on tape/USB drive when i heard a loud bang and corresponding "thump, thump." A tire had blown and all i had to do was slow down and pull of so we could change the damn thing. All was good at first and then.....

The car abruptly turned right, effectively completing a 180 degree turn towards the other side of the highway. I attempted to correct this but failed. The machine had a mind of its own and nothing I did managed to thwart its goal of self destruction, a fact that i will regret for the rest of my life. So i managed (and literally this was all i managed) to slow the car down to aprox 60kmh from about 110 (over 75mph) at which time we hit the gravel on the other side of the road and the car began to roll, rather violently. The left side of the car, the passenger side, went over first. In fact, just the moment before we were going over i thought that maybe, just maybe, for an eighth of a second that everything was going to be ok--and then we hit the gravel on the side of the road and it all went to hell, as if I wasnt there already. I just couldnt believe how i could fuck up a simple flat sooo awesomely. I keep going back to the fact that i was slowing down, it was okay and then suddenly it really, really wasnt.

The car rolled 2 or 3 times. I remember feeling my head hit the ground ( i had a shrubery in my hair) and then oddly nothing else. I dont remember the sounds of the car as it rolled over or the sound of all the glass breaking but rather the feeling of being compressed in the car. In the end, i "woke up" with my head practically sticking outside of the car as the roof had collapsed and i had very little head room. I cant remember what came first, Mel's question "are you ok?" or the sound of the static on the radio. I took a moment to reply, for some reason i needed to turn off the radio which was hard to get at as the windshield had collapsed inward and was covering the dial. I reached under the glass, turned off the radio and told her i was fine and then burst into tears. I dont think ill ever forget that moment, the guilt, the fear, the
shock of personal failure at the expense and jeopardy of a friends life. ARG! I was sure that it was something that i had done, that it wouldnt have happened if i had been older, more experienced, that i did something wrong. I am still not sure if that isnt true. All i know is that i still dont know WHAT i should have or could have done differently but merely that i should have done something differently. I always scorned the people who "lost control of the car" thinking they werent paying close enough attention or were mediocre drivers, but none of these apply to me.

I sat in the drivers seat and attempted to pull it together. It took me several minutes and it wasnt until a LOVELY couple pulled up and asked if we were okay that I got out of the car. I turned off the engine and hopped out . I was shocked to see literally everything that had been in the car strewn everywhere, as far as 50meters from the car. The couple that had stopped helped us pick everything up and put it in the now canopy-less boot of the ute (truck). Soon after we had just completed putting everything back in the car, the police officer showed up preceded shortly by an ambulance. We were cleared as okay by the ambulance people and then passed off to the sweet mercies of the policeman who told me that i had been involved in a police chase for the past 1.5 hours. Apparently they had attempted to pull me over for speeding hours before but i had never pulled over. I wasnt trying to ignore the cop by any means. I flat out did not see his undercover cop car lights or hear his undercover cop car siren, at all, whatsoever. I wasnt even listening to music loudly at all but rather a book on tape! Needless to say, it was too much and i totally burst into tears, blubbering in front of this complete stranger, a police officer nonetheless. Not my finest hour.

Now here is when it gets at least a little funny again...

So feeling terribly guilty and plain flat out fucking terrible the nice cop cop drove me to the station while mel waited for the tow truck all the while chatting me up. I had absolutely zero desire to talk but managed a few incoherent sentences i think Once i was at the station I was promptly placed in handcuffs. After being chewed out--i wasnt going to cry anymore at this point-- i was thrown a 500 ticket and sent on my way to go be extremely sore and stiff in a hotel.

In the end Mel and I have now told the story countless times and merely glad to have come out alive and in one piece, not a drop of blood spilt. Epic. We spent the next week or so traveling with Mel's folks back to Perth stopping along the way at some beautiful places. My favorite was Esperance where we stayed in a B&B right next to one of the most gorgeous beaches i have ever seen. After arriving in Perth mel and i had about 4 days before we left for Thailand. They were 4 very busy days complete with box moving, doctors apointments, lunches, breakfasts, dinners, parties, and sleeping. We stayed at Mel's parents place who were just positively fantastic and lovely, I dont know what i would've done without them. It was just Epic. After the frantic preparations for Thailand I/we looked greatly forward to the relaxing beach, bar and climbing of Thailand (and next post).

Love to all,
Jordan

There hasnt been tooooooooo much driving since Adelaide, that is only about 22 hours of it hahahahha. Seriously, it could be worse. I am writing today from a hostel in Alice Springs called Annies Place in the Northern Territory of Australia. We arrived here the day/night before yesterday and decided to spend not just 1 night but 2 nights here!!! We were lured in by the free internet and the bar that advertised 5 dollar pub dinners which is ridiculously cheap here. Sadly meals here cost on average 15 bucks!!!! What a luxury, fish and chips for 5 bucks!! We will leave SOME time today, that is if we can pry ourselves away from the internet. I do love Australia but i am getting VERY tired of driving, that's for sure. I am definitely ready to be in one place for 2 weeks!!!

So back to the sights.....The previous two days we spent national park hopping. We went to Uluru and saw Ayers Rock and we also went to Kings Canyon. Uluru is this caterpillar shaped rock that pops up amidst absolutely, fantastically boring desert. It is really rather random but that just adds to its beauty. that Uluru or Ayers Rock, pronounced ezrock is a sacred aboriginal site and therefore sadly cannot be climbed. The rock is comprised of sandstone and therefore rather unclimbable in itself. Apparently, 36 people have died trying to climb this thing!!!! I graciously declined/decided not to attempt the climb as i did not want be person number 37 on its "people who have died climbing this random rock" list.

After Uluru we found a good rest stop, pulled out the bed out of the back of mel's car, watched the break up, and made dinner amongst a million of ants. The ants seemed to LOVE biting mel, forcing her to resort to climbing over the car to get to things as opposed to walking on the ground. The ants were EVERYWHERE. The next morning after a little bit of a lie-in and a continuance of our epic battle with the little black ants we drove to Kings Canyon and got our hike on. After a bit of a "struggle" over where we wanted to hike to we ended up at a beautiful overlook of the canyon and a glimpse of the famed "Garden of Eden." Enticed by the mere look of this hidden pool and waterfall (the book The Beach comes to mind) we walked onward for another 20 minutes to a stairway that descended to this lovely pool. Thus far we had only walked 1 hour, not strenuous at all, but nice all the same. I do rather enjoy strenuous walks for they are almost always more rewarding in the end. We swam in this secluded pool seemingly from the age of dinosaurs (I half expected a Brontosaurus to come lumbering around the corner) surrounded by walls of sandstone, palm fronds, and the soothing sounds of chirping birds. It was positively lovely and the water wasnt too cold to boot! On our way from Kings Canyon to Alice springs we had a flat tire on an unsealed/dirt road. There was very little drama though as Mel and I had it changed and ready to go in about 15 minutes flat. EPIC!

We are currently putting off the commencement of a 3000km drive basically to Esperance which is nearish to Perth. These next 3000km we will drive continually until we get there just alternating drivers. We will stop once or so to see some random site. I will probably go for a run each morning only about 4km or 2ish miles during which mel will drive to my destination and pick me up--this has the potential to produce many a funny photo of jordan running without water in the desert surrounded by NOTHING!!!

For those of you with fb there are many photos there as mel is an excellent photographer so i have relinquished the necessity of photo taking to her. Here are the links:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151143539940612.790692.690540611&type=1&l=a3d32fba25

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151143892800612.790740.690540611&type=1&l=e47ff8e885

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151144099795612.790776.690540611&type=3&l=74ed149809

Love to all,
Jordan

It seems that I am jumping from one mountain range to the next. None of them are as big or epic as the Rockies, my basis of comparison for everything, but they are very beautiful in their own way.

After our foray into the Jungley ( i know this is not a word) wilderness of the Blue Mountains we returned to civilization as we entered the "hip" city of Melbourne. Mel's boyfriend, Chri,s has a beautiful apartment in the heart of the city which he generously let us stay at while we were there. We stayed only 1 night, but it was wonderful to see the city, do some laundry, and have a hot shower! We even went and did soe indoor climbing at a gym in the city, though it wasnt nearly as good as even the Texas Rock Gym in Houston. That evening we spent a nice night out on the town at a pub drinking some beer and having some pizza. Surprisingly Melbourne reminded me of Greenwich Village in NYC a little. Go figure! After an all too short day and night in Melbourne we headed out to the Grampians to do some climbing that didnt really materialize. The Grampians are a classic Australian destination for trad climbers. Sadly, all I have with me is cheap, boring, sport climbing gear (none of the aforementioned is in fact true--sport climbing is neither cheap nor boring). Additionally, there is not a central climber campsite or meet up spot that makes it challenging to meet people to climb with. Lastly, we had a hell of a time finding the climbing itself. After much consternation and lacking a climbing guidebook of the area or even for that matter cell service we decided to camp for the night and just hike the next day. It proved to be a wise decision.

We chose a 2-3 hour hike, or rather Mel did as i was up for the 6-7 hour hike, called the Pinnacles trail. The Pinnacles Trail wound up and around all these beautiful rock formations that just begged to be climbed. In fact, we ran across a commercial guiding party that were climbing one of the walls i was drooling over. We started the hike around 9am and by 10am we had reached the top, or rather i had. Mel had chosen to stop every 2 minutes to take photos so I had chosen to trudge onward without her after the first kilometer or so as i desired to get to the top and THEN stop, Cheley style. All in all, the trek was short and wonderful. By the time we had reached the bottom it was approaching 38 degrees and was getting extremely hot. We had perfect timing. Surprisingly we left the Grampians in good spirits despite our initial frustrating beginning. Moreover, we were on our way to the climbing Mecca of Australia, Mt. Arapiles!!!!!

Trad climbing at Araps. (Mt. Arapiles):

At 2pm on Dec 31 we arrived at Mt. Arapiles in the searing heat. I have never been so hot in my entire life and that is saying something having lived many many summers in Houston. Luckily, we met a fantastic german guy named Gerald who was cycling around Australia alone and needed a climbing partner, me!!! Gerald had cycled from Perth to Arapiles, a fantastically long 4000Km and was 46 years olld!!!!! Gerald had a half a rack, meaning half of what most people would consider the right amount of gear to climb a trad route with in Mt. Arapiles, but this guy had some serious skillz and rarely needed anymore than he brought. On the day we arrived there, he invited me to climb a 100 meter route called Eurydice rated 18 (5.10a) that ate me alive. In the U.S. I would say it would be more along the lines of a 5.10d and that is after 6 months of no climbing. Essentially, I was trashed but thrilled, it was a fantastic climb! Arapiles had something to offer! Oddly enough due to daylight savings time, it stayed light at Araps until 10pm which resulted in many end of the day bouldering sessions. Usually I was too tired to do anything but watch, spot, and encourage. Days at Mt. Arapiles started early. I would get up at 6am and be climbing by This, combined with the searing heat, resulted in early morning climbs starting at 7am ending around 1-2pm followed by a siesta and then recommencing of climbing at around 6pm. This long afternoon siesta was due to the fact that it was 42 degrees all day long (thats about 107 F) and the next day was 45 degrees or 112ish F. During these VERY hot afternoons with little to no shade we went to the local Horasham pool which was lovely... I got a 4 dollar shower in the pool and a lovely time cooling off. It was a great deal.

In the end, Mel and I climbed together very little as it is much harder to trad climb with 3 people rather than 2, but that was okay. It was actually really nice to just get some space and spend time with other people. In fact we met a fabulous group of people with a lot of gear that we ended up hanging out and climbing with a lot. There was the Taiwanese guys, Elliot and Leo, of which we gave Elliot a ride to Adelaide. There was Yen with her awesome rack of trad climbing gear, in particular a HUGE size 6 cam (about 350 USD). And then there was the extremely attractive personal trainer Nick, and the hilarious German chemist, Frank. These two guys were my favorites. I loved hanging out with them. Nick also brought some fantastically terrible wine with him which, of course, we drank. I believe he said it was 2.50 a bottle as it had upside down labels and such. I think i would term it reject wine, literally. We also had a fabulous new years eve party at Arapiles. Some kind soul had even arranged a DJ with lights and an 80s costume theme complete with costume contest. I only had an 80s sweat band which i sported but other people had the most amazing costumes. In fact, i met the writer of the guidebook for Mt. Arapiles at the party, Simon Mentz, a rather salty dude but a kind soul nonetheless. We chewed the fat about some of the climbing places in the states and he was more knowledgeable than I. I felt ashamed!

My favorite thing about Arapiles was the fact that everyday I was on a multipitch climb, so climbs that were more than one rope length long. On average i would say i climbed 150-200m of climbing a day. An average of 4-5 pitches which is quite a lot of climbing!!! The approaches were the most exciting as it is very rocky there and all the trails are under the VERY hot sunlight--nobody climbs in the sun here unless they want to burn like a lobster in 20 minutes, sweat like a pig in 5, and have skin cancer 3 seconds flat (Australia has the hole in the ozone above it). It is 40 degrees in the shade and unbearable in the sun. All in all though i had a FANTASTIC time learning to lead trad and getting on some VERY TALL climbs. I cannot wait to climb in Thailand. In the mean time I will just have to look forward to a winery in Adelaide and the beautiful canyons of Alice Springs and Karijini national park!!

Love to all!
Jordan

Sorry its been so long everyone! Im still alive, i swear! I have just been busy doing things, mainly driving! Photos to come (hopefully soon).

Since flying to Australia I have been having a blast. Mel, my Australian friend from Perth picked me up at the Brisbane airport on the 20th of December. That night, at 10pm i learned to drive a manual car, on the wrong side of the road, with the wheel on the wrong side of the car. I learned in a circular drive at a rest stop off the highway. It was really an adventure. I drove a very nervous and apparently highly sweaty 3 hours that night after which i collapsed in the back seat, snoring the rest of the way to Airlie Beach. Once at Airlie Beach we booked a day trip on a sailboat to the Great Barrier Reef so that i could Scuba dive this awesome wonder of the world and Mel could snorkel it. The coral on the reef was not as spectacular as it was in Bali but I had to literally push fish away from my face to see the fish that i wanted to see. I even got to pet, and yes i mean pet, (including scratching under the chin), a 150cm fish called a Maori Wres (spelling questionable). Though in fact a male, the fish nicknamed "Priscilla" was not the most attractively shaped but was a vibrant blue with purple polka dots and stripes.

After a few days at Airlie Beach began our drive back to Brisbane to take the ferry to Mel's Aunts house where we spent xmas. On the way there we stopped at the famous Steve Erwin Australia Zoo. We got to witness a crocodile feeding and a nest raid. Essentially, one of the zoo keepers kept the two crocs' occupied while another went and stole the eggs out of the nest as they dont want 12 new crocodiles born in the zoo. Apparently the mother is very protective of the nest and snaps at people through the fence as they walk by and at the zoo keepers who try and mow the grass near the nest! At the zoo i also got to feed some pygmy elephants a handful of veggies. Its trunk was coarser than i had anticipated especially when it took a little sniff of my face as i walked away! The best part of it all was the fact that only a handful of people had ventured out to go to the zoo largely due to the fact that it was Christmas eve and raining. We watched the Tiger zoo keepers pet and handle the tigers without having to crane our necks around other tourists and never had to wait for the train to take us to far off sections of the zoo! After about 20 minutes in the Kangaroo enclosure where you can literally walk around and pet the kangas and walibees we decided it was time to leave. AKA the zoo was closing.

After our grand zoo adventure and a minor tire repair, spelled tyre here (go figure), we headed toward the ferry to take us to Mel's Aunts house and we arrived at about 11:45pm on xmas eve after a very long drive. Mel's sister Kristen and her boyfriend were there as well as Aunt Rose's 2 boys aged 14 and 16 and her young 3 year old girl. We had a great time cooking, eating, and watching movies. I found it a very relaxing experience. I even received some flip flops that say "Australia" on them as well as a sweet Camp Cheley T-shirt from the folks and another tank top from Aunt Rose. It was really very nice, though i missed have turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and apple pie among other things. After spending Christmas at Aunt Rose's we continued our travels down the East coast towards the Blue Mountains stopping to spend a day with some of Mel's cousins on boxing day.

In the U.S. the day after Christmas does not have a special title. However, in Australia it is called Boxing day, though noone seems to know why. Personally, I think it is an invented holiday so that everyone in Australia has an excuse to watch Cricket all day long. Just like how we have the 7 games of the world series in Baseball, Australia has 5 DAYS of Cricket after Christmas. On this momentous day I was inducted into the world of cricket and all its nonexistent complexities. I spent the day either watching cricket on the TV or playing cricket i the backyard. I actually proved to be rather good at it as it is required that the ball bounce before it gets to the batter (I forget what the cricket term is). This necessary bounce allowed me to "golf" the ball resulted in a "6 and out" or 6 points an "go over the fence to get the ball." It was great fun.

After a day with the cousins Mel drove 3 hours or so out of the city where we stopped at a rest stop and crashed till the sun rose. I drove us the rest of the way to the Blue Mountains where we attempted to climb at a place called Echo Point but realized after climbing up and down the aptly named Giant Staircase (900 stairs one way) that all climbing had been banned in the area. In fact, there were 2 signs along the trail that detailed this iformation in big black letters but somehow we both missed them. It was only on our way back up, gasping for air and massaging our cramping quads that we noticed the signs. Luckily, we ran into a local who suggested we travel to shipley point to do some climbing. However, i really enjoyed our very adventurous excursion as we ventured/bushwhacked into the dense woods in search of far gone, nonexistent trails to unclimbable cliffs. Knackered, we found a rest stop and crashed. The Blue Mountains were GORGEOUS!!!

The next day we did FINALLY accomplish some climbing at Upper Shipley where the approach was short and flat out boring in comparison to our adventures the previous day at Echo Point. We got on 3 or 4 climbs. Having not climbed for 6 months I was rather nervous but it all turned out alright in the end. Mainly Mel and I are not exactly suited to be the best climbing partners as she weighs only 40 kilos and i weigh around 65. As such, I have to literally tether her to a tree when i climb and I despair at falling as it makes her shoot up into the sky. However, she found the climbing rather wonderful, especially since it was her first time climbing outside. She even lead her fist climb, a 13 (5.5) and did very well! It wasnt fantastic rock or fantastic climbing but I did not really care. After all, who can say they went to Australia and rock climbed anyways? Resume update here I come!

Love always,

Jordan

A weeks worth of diving has me jaded. I want to do nothing but dive right now, that and play my viola. I really really miss music which is saying something because I am in a tropical paradise here in Padangbai, Indonesia.

I arrived at the international airport in Denpasar Bali on the 9th and proceeded to the VERY touristy town of Kuta for 1 night before I traveled on to Padangbai the next day. I absolutely hated Kuta-- full of prepubescent Australian boys getting pissed every day and street hawkers asking you to buy something literally every 2 meters.

Enough Whining.

I have spent almost every waking moment since arriving in Bali not merely liking it here but LOVING it. I now am SSI Open Water and Advanced Adventure certified and can dive to 30m witha gradn total of 12 dives to my name. I had 3 days of open water certification which included pool dives, theory (snore), and then 4 open water dives. One of the dives we did was on the USAT Liberty (United States WWII vessel) in Tulamben. It was absolutely fabulous, my first wreck ever and it was covered in coral, sea anemones and thousands of things that i cant even begin to name. I even saw my first barracuda, a small one, and i still almost ran into it. Its hard to think in 3D underwater when you have to think about up and down not just forwards and backwards. Such complicated thoughts usually resulted in me nearly crashing into things (im much better now after a near run in with a very spiky and potentially HIGHLY unpleasant sea urchin).

Later that day when i got back to Padangbai there was a ceremony/ festival going on that night. This ceremony was the 2nd in the month, happening every 15 days in December. In essence, the ceremony demonstrated the fight of good (barong) versus evil at a very formal (sarong required) ceremony. They do put this act/story on for tourists, but not like this. I arrived at the right street where a french guy tied my sarong for me and directed me to the right side fo the street where all the foreigners were and the indonesian woman and children were sitting. All the men were wearing traditional Hindu ceremonial garb and were sitting on the side of the street. At the end of the street there was a full gamelan orchestra. Next after considerable waiting and presentation of many "offerings" (food, rice, holy water etc) the barong came out followed by the god of evil and then many other lesser gods whose names i forget. Thus far the ceremony had merely been fascinating and interesting although my back and ass were really tired by this point (all the locals were sitting on their shoes for extra added cushioning for their bum). It had become rather dark by this point and suddenly as good was resisting the taunts of the god of evil, men everywhere were falling into trances. The indonesian lady behind me grasped my shoulders in complete fear, pointing to man about 8 ft away from me who was head was rolling in circles in his lap. Seconds later he broke out screaming as in a mad rage. It took 8 men to hold him down. This happened about 8 times throughout the entire crowd. The fear of the women and children was very palpable as they believed that they were in the presence of evil--i was even apprehensive to the point of fear. 2 or 3 men around me broke out into this mad rage. So many in fact that a local guy, Mario, who had befriended me, came over and literally became my protector. All in all i would say that there were a total of 20-30 foreigners and about 300 locals. Apparently, evil had entered these unbalanced people and was fighting good within them. The men then formed a huge circle protecting the women and children, placing these very drunk looking (rather very entranced) men in the middle. First they had to eat a baby black chicken (alive) which was held up in the air. The person holding the chicken were friends of the entranced men were goading them to come eat it. At first they merely held drunkenly onto their friends but then suddenly they would rush at it and eat it. Next they ate an egg, followed by Arak (local home brew alcohol). They shoved these things into their mouths with savage ferocity. Lastly they beat themselves on the chest, shoulders, and over the head with a bunch of branches that were on fire. They would run at this offering too and would continue to beat themselves with this fire if their nearby friends didnt stop them. They were then half carried, half dragged to the front of the gamelan orchestra where they prayed for 30min. After all this I did not see any of these guys for another couple of days--the apparent recovery time. This is something i will never never never forget. It made me reevaluate my thoughts on many things. Truly a phenomenal experience.

Now back to diving..... Most of my favorite dives were the 5 dives of my advanced course, one of which was to Manta point.

Manta point is the name of a Dive site where you descend to about 18m to wait for some Manta Rays to show up and 4 did after about 32minutes of waiting. One thing i am good at is conserving air and we stayed there and watched them for thirty minutes. They were about 1m across, apparently small mantas, but boy were they cool! Later that day we did another dive that absolutely wrecked me, we had to swim against the current and god it was way hard, almost freaked out--sucking air faster than i could exhale it practically. The last dive of that day was awesome, a beautifully easy drift dive off the GORGEOUS island of Nusa Penida---I felt like i should have been in a picture in National Geographic magazine. I have never been so comfortable, so easy, so happy as I was in that dive, drifiting along inches next to all manner of sea creatures looking for an octopus. No octo, but i did see 3 HUGE sea turtles. It was an amazing day.

I did another set of dives, the last two dives i did in Bali, to the islands of Mimpang and Tepekong. There i saw the ubiquitous clown fish (definitely looks like an Alien), many lionfish, scorpion fish, stone fish, 6 white tip reef sharks, an OCTOPUS, and a huge Moray eel! I think i have definitely been spoiled when it comes diving. What a great first 12 dives and what a serious dent in my checkbook. Totally worth it because you only live once!

Hakuna Matata (means no worries)

Love,
Jordan

Working on a farm is very very relaxed, though definitely a strange existence and experience. Multiple times nightly I would be woken up by the sounds of roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing and the female chickens just flat out making noise. Consistently they would raise a ruckus and wake me up a scant and open 2 wooden floors above them at such incredible hours like 2am, 5:00am, 6:20am, and 7:35am (every night, without fail). At the last random rooster call (around 7:30) i would deem it too sunny to attempt to sleep anymore and would finally rise out of bed. In the beginning of the week I would frequently get up to roosters squawking about attempting to see what all the hubbub was about to learn that they were merely having some chicken sex. Lovely. I frequently had to resist the urge to wring their scrawny little necks, eat them, and wring them again. It took great self restraint to limit the string of profanities at 2am in the morning. Luckily when I was so rudely awakened by the chickens at 6:30 i would turn over, look out the wood slats/ windows and see the sunrise, though definitely this wasnt the case when they went off at 2am... Oddly, I miss them.

After spending an hour or 2 reading I would go eat a freshly made breakfast of rice, egg, and something else. I ate a lot of rice. Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice, egg, rice, and more rice. Situated only a 1 hour bus drive (though a 3 1/2 train ride) south of Bangkok, it was about 98 degrees all the time. HOT HOT HOT! However, the bed was free, the chickens were free (sadly they were alive), the food was free and so was the work! Rice was the main staple for every meal so frequently me and the 2 Canadian dudes would walk the 1km to town and get Beer Chang for 44B (1.50 for 650ml, really cheap,) and some chocolate. I actually fell in love with some spicy squid flavored lays chips---dont judge me, they're good.

We had 2 days of work, 2 beach days, and 2 free days (aka movie watching and beer drinking days). The first beach we went to, Bang Saen, was SUPER touristy, asian people everywhere. The way it works is that they have tables, beach chairs, and umbrellas set up already on the beach, which you have to pay for and sit down at when you get there. We ordered some delicious squid (I forget what the fancy name is for that) and some beers and then split to find what Neil, the owner of the farm, called an excellent pizza place. The pizza was excellent especially since we had to walk 2km to it. We then got some Coconut rice in a bamboo pole from the local market. The market is famous for it, and for good reason. The bamboo wrapping was almost as cool as the dish itself. We then took a Songthaew (a converted truck to bus combo) back to Bang Phra and walked yet another 2km back to the farm. It was a good day. The second beach we went to, Ko Sichang, we had to take a boat to. It was much less touristy and very very fun--cheap beer, clear water, cheap food, and Kai broke the roof of a Tuk Tuk.

All and all i had a swell time (pardon the 1950s expression, it seemed to fit) at the farm. Simple life, simple pleasures and Beer Chang (pronounced Chung). Today i flew from Bangkok to Bali and I am now staying in the very touristy section called Kuta. However, tomorrow I am taking a bus (1 hr) to Padang Bai to commence my open water diving course on the 12th. I might just might stay at the hotel associated with my dive center, though it'll cost me 40 US a night.... Sigh. I really feel like being luxurious right now, i guess im just tired of being sweaty. Oh asia.

Off to go get lost seeking my hotel, Ronta Bungalows, in the narrow and windy streets of Kuta (no tv, no a/c, 11USD--sounds like my Southeast Asian motto/rhyme).

In Twilight news, I have started the final and fourth book. I walked into the book shop 10m down the street from my hotel and there she was, waiting for me. (I am almost finished with another book called The Beach).

Love to everyone,
Jordan

P.S. The folks might visit in February!!!! Yay!

So I have decided that my least favorite thing about traveling is all the transportation. Ironic isn't it?

In any event 1 bus, 2 flights, and 2 trains later I arrived at my hostel in Bangkok. I have endeavored to try and not let the little mishaps bother me but I got VERY angry when flying to Bangkok. I flew from KL Malaysia to Krabi Thailand and then from Krabi to Bangkok. I had to recheck my bags in Krabi and as per usual i took my rope off my backpacking bag and proceeded to go through security with my backpack and rope. I have done this successfully about 4-5 times thus far but Not this time. "You cannot take! Not allowed! Must check!" Some malaysian TSA equivalent practically yelled at me, referring to my rope. Why I asked as politely as possible, rather incensed, but my his response was the same "Not allowed!" I have had no problem carrying this rope at all the entire trip--my guess is that it was too heavy (5 kilos). Well, i had already checked my big backpack and adding the rope to it would make it over 10 lbs to heavy so i had to check it separately and it cost 1400 Baht ($50)! I was soooo mad. When I fly out of bangkok i plan on just shoving the rope in my backpack and praying. When i fly out of krabi again I will either mail all my climbing stuff back home or give it to the folks who might come. (???)

I did however make it to my prebooked hostel, no problem, the Hua Lamphong hostel near the train/railway station. It is the nicest hostel i have been in thus far. My dorm bed came with a top sheet (very rare), towel, 2 bars of soap, shampoo, and TP (they don't use TP here). Also, every day i was there they came in and brought me a new clean towel and made the bed! All this for 300 THB (thai baht) or about 10 USD. Additionally, the hostel (hotel???) had internet in the lobby and a restaurant that was super cheap and made the best fruit smoothies i have ever had. I tried the Kiwi "shake" as they called it, no ice cream, just ice, and it was fabulous. It was 1.50 USD and the food itself was pretty good. The best thai food i have had so far has been some really unhealthy street food. I do not know what it is called but it is a dessert made of Roti Canai with banana baked in side covered in chocolate syrup and icing of some sort out of a can. MMMMMMMM! All cooked on the spot and complete with 2 skewer sticks to eat it with. Just 30 THB. I can't wait to get another one.

My one full day in Bangkok consisted of reading a fabulous email from scott who should definitely tell me more about life and everything, and shopping. My bunk mate in my 6 bed dorm room was an austrian named Corina. We spent the day together and went to the Grand Palace, Wat Po (the largest reclining Buddha), and Kao San (shopping street), and to the MBK shopping mall. Kao San is a backpackers paradise, lost of really cheap clothes, sunglasses, shirts, beer, and food--all the necessities of life (well, not really but quite a few of them). I also took a couple of tuk tuk rides (open aired 3 wheel things powered by a small motor that makes a lot of noise--hence the name). They are a little dangerous, supposedly, but fun as hell. Did i mention that it was HOT as HELL. It had to be at least 33 C (95 F) and this is the COOL season!!!!

I am now at the Daruma Eco Farm after taking an excruciatingly slow and early train here. It cost me less than 1 USD and i sat next a welsh couple who were really nice though hard to understand. They were renting an apt in a nearby city for a couple of months. They were very nice and it was a little comforting to sit next to some westerners as this was a third class train. Neil, the californian who owns the farm is a super cool guy and thus far has given me the tour of the farm and shown me the city of Bang Phra in addition to giving me the tour of his spa. I hope today is relaxed though i think that we will end up doing quite a bit of planting. Sigh, it really is very hot here.

In Twilight news, i am onto the 3rd book and I'm sure will have to purchase the fourth when i get back to Bangkok.

Love to all,
Jordan

I write this now that I am back in civilization in KL in the sweet digs of my couchsurfing host, Faisal, and dont have to pawn internet from my fellow farming friends with computers. I really do wish I had a computer, I hadnt thought it would be so vital, so useful, and I was WRONG!

The last few days at the farm were much more exciting and work filled, relatively that is at least. Ladia returned from KL with his renewed work permit and got us more into doing work. The first day he got back he took it upon himself to teach us a a little bit about the plants on the farm. So it is 10:30ish, we have just finished eating a fantastic breakfast of homemade bread, kaya (a caramel consistency sugar, molasses, and egg mix--its delicious i swear), and eggs, and Ladia squats down to show us a plant...... i look down to see the plant that he is pointing to on the ground and lo and behold! What do I see? His ball (singular) hanging out of a hole in the crotch in his pants. Clearly he doesnt wear underwear and he must have known....i mean wouldnt you feel the wind? We all looked at eachother, trying not to stare, it was hilarious.

The next few days consisted of feeding the goats and chickens and shoveling goat shit. I witnessed, multiple times, the male goat, Billy, drink his pee and subsequently lick his "manhood" to quote Ladia, all the while staring at me with his creepy goat eyes (Pan's Labryinth comes to mind). Ladia had some very funny jokes about this. We called him dirty Billy as he had knocked up 3 of the other 4 goats, the fourth being too young to get pregnant. What a randy goat. The Turkeys whose gobble gobble sound is surprisinly VERY ANNOYING survived thanksgiving day. I was all into eating the male turkey as he had tried to peck me many many times and was indisputably mean but nobody could be "bothered" to kill the thing, sadly. Therefore, my thanksgiving dinner consisted of what we had around, jackfruit and curry stuff. The jackfruit curry was very good but I lusted after turkey most of the time, or at least a little stuffing--something! Ladia's girlfriend came for the last 2 days i was there and let me tell you, she could cook! Mmmm, i am going to miss Malaysian food, especially Roti Canai.

Tomorrow I leave for Bangkok. I will get in around 5:00 pm and will leave the next day for the Daruma Eco Farm a couple hours south. Luckily, they were unaffected by the flooding in Bangkok! However, I have realized from the Perak farm that I do not particularly enjoy farming, though it is a great way to save money. It is a little too laid back, or at least this farm was, and I am interested in doing things and traveling all the time. I think if I had been traveling for 3 months already and not just 1 month I would enjoy working and staying on the farm for a week. I do like the stability of it, not moving every other day, but on the other hand i realize that I like that too, especially when i am couchsurfing. I arrived at Faisal's the night of the 27th. I was supposed to leave the farm the 28th but it was a muslim holiday and there were no buses. I was ready to leave so i took an 11pm bus to KL and then a taxi to Faisal's. I was nervous about doing this all at night and arriving at 3am but surprisingly everything went very smoothly. Right now I am mainly concerned about clearing immigration leaving Malaysia because when i crossed from Brunei to Malaysia in that 10 hour bus ride they took my departure card. I hope this wont cause a problem, in fact I pray it wont. I will do my best to look, sweet, non-terrorist like, and unassuming!

Love to all!

Pictures soon!

Jordan