Joc's Journeys - GoBlue
Business school set an incredibly high quality of life bar, but upcoming travels aren't so bad either. The greatness of 2007 continues!

On our way!
Los Angeles, United States
After a fantastic weekend celebrating the upcoming Levy/Sullivan union, we are now on the way to Sydney! Although slightly tired, we are still basking in the memories of an excellent 48 hours spent reuniting with already-missed business school friends and getting to know other cool people in Brian and Maggie's lives. Field day games were a blast (Go Jews!), my partner Carolyn and I won the beer die tournament, and it was an all-in-all grand time. All the best to the bride and groom!!!!
Next stop: Sydney!
written by  GoBlue on May 13, 2007 from Los Angeles, United States
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys

Sydney!!!
Sydney, Australia
Sydney is awesome - what a start to the trip! We successfully made it here on Tuesday morning (after 32 hours of travel!), catching up with my family at their hotel by 10am. We spent the day catching up with each other while jaunting out to the Blue Mountains, a national park north of the city. Beautiful forest walks and frequent meals worked relatively well staving off the jetlag, and Chris' water polo game was a fine end to the day.
Yesterday we took a walk through the Botanical Gardens - gorgeous, but also with some pretty spectacular flora and fauna, including trees with hundreds of fruit bats in them and giant spiders. We also wandered along the Harborfront to the opera house - officially one of my favorite buildings.
Family left for the airport around noon, and Carl and I indulged in a nice workout at the hotel facilities, then left the paradise of the Intercontinental and settled into backpacker mode, schlepping across the city to our hostel, which is ... not the Intercontinental. Shared bathroom, double bed with a single bed adjacent (literally, one full sleeping space - weird) and then about a foot of walk space on two sides with a little sink in the corner. An adjustment; however, we can stay here for 1 week for the same price as 1 night at the intercontinental - tradeoffs...
Last night we had dinner with my brother and his friends in China Town - good fun, ok food. The Irish pub afterwards did us all in though, and we're a little sluggish today. Agenda for the next few days: surfing, Manly beach national park, another trip to the Blue Mountains, wine country tour and more city wanderings.
written by  GoBlue on May 16, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys

Happy Birthday to Me! ;)
Bali, Indonesia
Holy cow, it’s been a long time since I’ve “blogged”! At last…
First, Happy Birthday to me! ;) Yes, today (the 31st) I turn the big 3-0. While I found that yesterday I was not all that enthusiastic about it being my “last day as a twenty-something”, today I am fine – no more aches and pains than usual, and although I temporarily forgot my login password, I think it’s more the heat than senility.
Updates since my last blog:
Carl and I part II in Sydney after Mom, Dad and Theo left: Maddy, Dave, and Dave’s luggage finally arrived all in one piece, and we enjoyed some more walking around Sydney, visited the zoo, and had a few fun dinners (including homemade fajitas one night). We also hit Manly Beach, a famous one, and rightfully so. There I discovered that despite being a fairly proficient body surfer, I have no surfing talent whatsoever.
We also went on a wine tour (thanks to Chris for organizing). I think this was covered in Carl’s blog – “highlights” included our destroyed fan belt adventures (leading to driving back in the dark), some good wine tasting, and (the winner) koala and kangaroo feeding and petting. (See http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQdC4vWIxDw for a particularly entertaining clip of Matt and the roos). That was a great day. I would have liked to have had more time in Sydney (and with Chris, specifically – fun catching up with the bro). Melbourne was calling though, so we moved on…
Melbourne was fantastic, though as with Sydney, I wish we had another few days – or even a week, in this case. The climbing was fantastic, but unfortunately we only got three days of it. We stayed at the Emu Holiday Park, which was quite something in and of itself (see below), ate extremely well (fajitas, Indian curry, pasta parts I and II), and in general had a great time. Highlights of the Melbourne trip include:
Driving on the left: Quite an experience. In my opinion, definitely made easier by the fact that the steering wheel is on the right (so the whole experience is backwards), but required some verbal self-coaching (“left left left left”) at first.
Climbing: Awesome. The first day was at the Grampians, and despite arriving to find 3 groups of ~50 kids each on our target climbs, we had a great day, getting all 5 of us (Jennie had not yet arrived) up “Waxman”, a great beginner climb. We then found another nice area with another “easy” one and a ~5.8/9. The next day we returned earlier, but still didn’t beat the kids so settled on a third “instructional area” that turned out to be great – I did my first trad lead in about 5 years and quite enjoyed it.
We picked up Jennie that afternoon and the following day went to Arapiles for a multi-pitch climb. “Connifer Crack” ended up being quite a bit harder than we’d anticipated (great job Jennie for getting through that rather stout “warm-up” climb after a year off of climbing!). As expected with any 6-person multi-pitch effort, we had some adventures including a rope-stuck-on-a-tree toss, one particularly difficult crux, and no obvious rappel rings. However, we got through it and in the end I really enjoyed myself. We had one short rappel on our improvised down-climb that was particularly fun – kind of like spelunking.
That was all the climbing we did, and I have to say I have the itch – can’t wait for Thailand and Vietnam!
Kangaroo Tales: Turns out to most Australians, kangaroos are like deer in the US: prevalent pests that make driving at night treacherous. They are, however, amazing animals!
Our first exposure to them happened our first night at Emu Holiday Park. Carl and I went back with Vicki, one of our hosts, to check on some linens. In the course of the walk from our cottage to the house, she told us more about her rescue efforts (they are a refuge for all local animals, except snakes (Vicki doesn’t like snakes)). She generally tries to raise orphaned roos in twos and threes so they have friends and are properly socialized, and right now she has two: Peg and Logan. Peg and Logan were the best ever! Vicki brought them out in their pillow case sacks (where they sleep and in general hang out) and we got to hold them. So cute, alert, energetic, shy…in general, captivating.
Other points of note:
• Logan is a “bag boy” – ever so much more comfortable in his pillow case sack than out of it. We approached them one morning and he and Peg saw us, freaked a bit, and started leaping giant half-circles around the group. Vicki then opened a pillowcase and called Logan, and he tumbled in head-first in a summersault at full tilt. Very funny.
• Peg was orphaned in a car accident (like them all as far as I can tell) in which her mother was killed and her right front paw was broken. She needed surgery to put some wires into it, a surgery that was quoted at up to $1600. Vicki splinted the foot as a temporary fix, then called around to try to get someone to do it for cheaper. She finally found a place on the other side of Melbourne that would do it for free, so she packed Peg into the car for the 6-hour drive there. X-rays showed, however, that Peg’s foot had mended well under Vicki’s split, so no surgery was needed – go Vicki! Peg was still pretty stressed by the trip, however, and got sick. She and Logan are now both on antibiotics, though, and doing quite well. Vicki says that all told it takes ~$400 to raise an orphaned roo until it is ready for release.
• Vicki and Alan have been doing their rescue efforts for 9 years and have never turned away an orphaned roo. (That’s what they mostly have, though they also get wallabies, emus, wombats, etc.). They have thus raised many roos, many of which come back to help with the next batch. For example, Cal and Jack, who were released a few months ago, come back about once a week and take Peg and Logan out for the night, then bring them back in the morning. When one of their roos gets pregnant for the first time, the female comes back to show their "parents", knocking on the front door with her front paws, and then when Vicki or Alan opens the door opening her pouch to show them.
• Male roos watch the little ones too, though the joey of one of their graduates was recently left with a young buck longer than the buck cared for, so he knocked on the front door with the little one in tow, and when Vicki opened it he took off and left the little one with her. Males, incidentally, can stand well over 6 feet when they’re full grown – huge!
• In the roo hierarchy, wallabies are way uncool, with the swamp wallaby being the lowest of the low; many other roos and wallabies won’t even acknowledge a swampie. Why are they so disrespected? “They fart (“faht”) a lot”, per Vicki.
• Roos are incredible animals. According to Vicki (some of these facts are so amazing that I would probably double-check them, but here they are nonetheless): the females mate once, but carry up to three embryos at one time. Male and female embryos must be kept at different temperatures in the body, and through this process the mom knows the sex of her embryos and can choose which one to have when (usually they have one at a time, but that's not a rule). The roo is the size of a jellybean when it’s born, at which point it climbs into the mom’s pouch.
The roo theme in general was a highlight of Melbourne. There were, however, some darker sides to it. The first night we had a near miss – I was driving, the road was through a national forest and very windy, and it was dusk/dark. I slowed down to about 20kph and we were all working to spot them (all told there were more than 15 sitings). One little guy nearly did it though, jumping about 3 feet in front of the passenger side bumper with no warning. Fortunately, I was “covering the brake” like we learned in drivering school and although everyone got quite a fright, no one was hurt. A few days later, however, as Carl was doing 20kph, a tour bus zoomed by us going 4 times that speed, and before its tail lights were out of site I spotted one on the side, looking strange at first, and then obviously hit a few seconds later. We make brief eye contact, and then as a group decided that we didn’t have enough information on diseases and aggressiveness to investigate in person, so we went straight to Alan and gave a report. He came back 45 minutes later with small good news: no joeys involved. However, the young male was dead when he arrived. Spread the word: Australia Adventure Tours is bad!!!!
The Great Ocean Road: Although Carl deemed it in the end a “good ocean road”, it was pretty spectacular (and I think with sun instead of rain would have been “great”). One of the highlights was thunder cave (Pop, I think you would have really liked the "whomp" noise of the water).
We saw some great sites and found a nice hotel where we enjoyed a night of relaxing, wine and cards. Highlights from the sites include:
Travel Stresses: Turns out Jet Star has a weight limit of 20 kgs per person (not per bag). Upon our first check-in, Carl and I were 27kg over, subject to an additional $100 charge each time we flew! Fortunately, perhaps because of the genuine shock on our faces or because the Chapmans had just checked in 15kgs each, we were able to put a lot more weight in our carry-ons and escaped the first charge. On our way to Bali, knowing that this would be an potential issue, we split up the weight more amongst the group. At first weighing, we were 8kgs over, but we asked the woman to redo it zeroing out for the plastic bins that they put all backpacks in. She politely asserted that it wouldn’t make a difference, but it did actually remove 6kgs, and with me carrying one of my clothes bags on, we made it through. Unfortunately, however, 5 minutes later my $50 awesome leatherman and our first aid kit scissors were confiscated in security – oversights from transferring into our carry-ons weight that would otherwise have been checked. I am still mourning the loss of my knife, but am trying to get over it.
Bali: So now we are here in Bali, an obviously southeast Asia country in the sense that our backpacker area is jam packed with hawkers of various cheap wares, tons of good food, tons of sketchy food, and relentless sun. The beachfront in our area is as long as I have ever seen, and later today I look forward to finishing my book (My Sister’s Keeper, which I started about 24 hours ago – amazing read), going in the ocean and getting a massage! Happy birthday indeed…
Tomorrow we fly to Yogyakarta (a town on another island that is rumored to have incredible temples). We return Saturday night for another day and a half of beach lounging, and then it's on to Bankok and then Chaing Mai. I can tell that this trip is going to go very quickly!!!
written by  GoBlue on May 31, 2007 from Bali, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys

Back from Yogya!
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Quick entry to let you all know that we are back from our 1-day jaunt to Yogyakarta ('Jogja' to the locals) after 2 amazing temples, 1 great art excursion, and enough C0 emissions to make us even more worried about the world's future!
Yogya was a great contrast to Bali: very few other tourists, no beach, great temples and an active volcano overlooking the city. Pictures to come, but the temples were stunning and our guide Eddie did a great job leading us through both the ruins and the spiritual, religious, philosophical and scientific underpinnings of Hinduism and Buddhism. We got up at 4:15 this morning to catch a sunrise-ish (turns out our information was false and we had to wait an extra 40 minutes until it was open) view of one of the temples. Several wanderings later and we are back in Kuta (Bali) with 1.5 more days ahead of us.
Tomorrow is either going to be a cultural tour or a day of beach, surfing, good eating and massages. Hmmm....
written by  GoBlue on June 2, 2007 from Yogyakarta, Indonesia

"I got bit by a monkey" and other adventures
Bangkok, Thailand
The monkey adventure was in Ubud, on Bali. But I am getting ahead of myself...
We arrived last night in Bankok after another great location where upon departure we wished we had a few more days. The retrospective summary on Bali was that it was beautiful, though also in the stage of development where motorcycles are everywhere and the exhaust is a little overwhelming. Although the hawkers accosted us about every three steps, we each developed several different techniques for managing these situations, and all in all the trip was great.
After returning from Yogya, we did end up opting for the cultural excursion. First stop was some Balinese dancing, which was more of a theatrical performance set to incessant cultural music. Then we hit the monkey forest. While we had been expecting to need to search for the monkeys, it turns out they were everywhere! I continue to have camera difficulties, so Viv has most of the pictures, but in short there were 1-foot tall monkeys everywhere, and they were not at all phased by our presence. In fact, several were interested in grabbing whatever you were holding (in my case, my map, which I was loath to part with given that 1) I needed it and 2) I thought the little guy would probably eat it, and I didn't think that would be good for him). So the story unfolded as follows: I tugged back a bit, which was fun, and then when he grabbed my arm with his hand, I paused to marvel at how cool and smooth his skin was - reverie interrupted when he then munched down on my knuckles, holding on as I then lifted my hand (and thus him) off the ground slightly. He didn't break the skin though (I didn't pull away too quickly hoping that he would just release, and he did). So that was that adventure - fun in retrospect, but quite unexpected. The rest of the day involved touring some crafts markets, no biting there, and a Thai massage. Very nice.
Monday morning Carl and I rented surf boards and hit the beach. The first break of waves was 2-3 feet, the second 1.5-2 feet, the latter being on the larger side of a good step for us as beginners. We hacked around ourselves for a while while Viv watched from the beach and struck up a conversation with a fellow who eventually gave us a 30-minute lesson, which turned out to be quite helpful in that he corrected my board stance (too far back) and then pushed us into the waves so we had a few opportunites to ride waves without worrying about the challenge of catching them. We were pretty successful in the end, and it was quite a blast!
Today we did "Bangkok in one day": the Grand Palance, and three notable Wats.
Incredible. We spent the most time at the Grand Palace, learning from our guide about the architecture and meaning behind the various buildings. It's a mass of glass and gold plating that's astounding. The reclining Buddha was our second stop, also amazing, and then we enjoyed some adventures in pollution crossing the river and returning to our hotel. Next stop: another massage.
One PS on the birthday, by the way, for those of you who were tracking my 3-year long back handspring goal. Although the initial aspirations had been to "train" for the 3 years leading up to my birthday, I actually never got to try anything much more than a bridge. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a go, with Carl's experienced spotting at my side. The results were effective, though not pretty and involved my head to a certain extent. Thus while according to Carl, I technically did it, it wasn't videotape-worthy. (For some reason my left arm was coming down in a weird way that caused it to buckle (without pain) whenever I hit, so I kept bopping my head slightly on that side). In terms of the original goal of proving to myself that just because I am 30 doesn't mean I am decrepit, I succeeded quite well this way - with no training, I almost did it well! Nonetheless, I am extending the goal period indefinitely at this point, until I can do them well and easily on my own. Fun times...
written by  GoBlue on June 5, 2007 from Bangkok, Thailand

Elephants, Cliff Jumping and Rock Climbing - oh my!
Chiang Mai, Thailand
We've made it north to Chiang Mai now and are continuing to have a blast! We arrived Monday afternoon in time for some logistics and a settle-in evening. Carl and I got some great information from a local climbing company about a nearby crag called Crazy Horse Buttress. Tuesday, Carl, Viv and I headed out there to scout the climbing and had a fantastic day! We hitched a ride with two local guides and their one Finnish beginner. There were only two other people other than our group the entire day, there were no biting insects, the wall stayed shaded almost the whole day, and the climbing was fantastic. My forearms are pretty fried out from it, but it was a blast. Today the seven of us joined up for a mini trek that began with an elephant ride, involved brief tours of hill tribe villages, a 30-minute stay at the base of a gorgeous waterfall, and a 1-hour bamboo rafting jaunt the passed by a great cliff jumping spot. (Hopefully we are all parasite free after swimming in the river!). It was a great day...
Tomorrow we start our cooking class - exciting!
Hope to do more reflecting soon but need to switch over to Skype to deal with BankOne's inconveniences. Hope everyone is doing well!
written by  GoBlue on June 8, 2007 from Chiang Mai, Thailand

Cooking School Graduation
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Back in Chiang Mai now after a few days at the cooking school - fantastic! I really like Thai food, and the school we chose was a great find (Vivian's friend had been there two years ago). The fellow who started the place (Sampon) is a renown cook around here, and he recently opened a resort nearby where we stayed. The school started around 11am (picked us up in the city the first day) and we cooked 5 dishes throughout the day. Each one was first demonstrated for us in an air conditioned classroom, and then we went to our own wok station and prepared and cooked the ingredients. Then we ate! (5 dishes, 4 different eating sessions - by the end I thought I was going to explode! The food was fantastic though, and I think I can replicate the recipes competently).
Joc and Carl prior to starting Thai cooking lessons
The resort was a great find too - it opened 3 weeks ago and wasn't quite fully complete. We were the biggest group to stay there yet, so Sompon was there the whole time to make sure it went well. He's a funny guy - doesn't smile much until he teases slightly, and then he breaks into a huge grin. I think he liked us, and we certainly were treated like royalty. He has a pool that we spent a lot of time in, the rooms were great, and when we finally were hungry (the second day I disciplined myself better and didn't nearly die of gluttony), he cooked us an amazing meal that included several local flavors we hadn't had yet. It was truly fantastic.
Carl, Jennie and I did 2 days of it and then came back into the city for today and hired a driver to go back to the climbing area, where we enjoyed five hours of great climbing. I led a 5.10b/c cleanly (my hardest lead ever, which is pretty cool given we haven't been climbing. The power of visualization).
The Chapmans left today to fly back to the states. We'll miss them - they were a great addition to the trip! We did pick up Ben Johnson again (friend we'd last seen in Indonesia) and Aaron Verstraete (who will be doing the Bain habitat trip with me). Jennie and Christie go to Laos tomorrow, and Ben, Aaron, Viv, Carl and I are planning to rent a car and do another climbing day as well as a Wat (temple) around here. I'm looking forward to it.
Then Wednesday morning we head for Hanoi for the next country! We decided to skip Laos to be moving a little less frequently, though now we're thinking of trekking in Sapa (Northwest Vietnam, and I stop that had not previously been on the itinerary). Since we didn't end up trekking here (the minitrek didn't count) I think it would be fun to add. Then to Halong Bay, which I have been looking forward to revisiting ever since I left there 6 years ago. Very exciting.
Now, off to feast!
Hope everyone's doing well ...
written by  GoBlue on June 11, 2007 from Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Cost of Ignorance
Hanoi, Vietnam
So far, the running tally on the cost of ignorance (defined as the amount of additional money we've spent because we didn't know better) is somewhere around $75. The first major incident was a few weeks ago in Bali, when a taxi driver accepted 3 thousand-rupiah notes from Carl, who thought they were hundred dollar notes. Too bad. The second occurred today, and was far more conniving.
We departed Chiang Mai today and flew to Bangkok, spending part of our 3-hour layover researching places to stay in Hanoi. We arrived in Vietnam armed with a phone number for our selected hotel. After a bit of wandering we found a public telephone that didn't require a special credit card and placed the call, aided by a kind gentlemen (hint 1: "kind gentleman") who helped us dial. Carl made the reservation, during which time the kind gent showed us a card for a guest house of a friend of his in the same area of town we were targeting. We took the card, thanked him, and told him we were heading to the first hotel but that if the rooms weren't good, we would check out his friend's place. Hint 2: the woman behind him made eye contact with Viv and mumbled "no good" and made a face. At that time, we didn't know whether that meant the place, the man, or the deal.
We exited the airport, heading for the Airport Taxis that the Kind Gent instructed us to take (advice that seemed verified by the other Farange's (foreigners) filing into other taxis in front of us). 30 ridiculous minutes later (driving in Vietnam appears to be one constant horn-honking fest; immediate headache), we arrived at what appeared to be the backpacker strip. At an intersection, to my recollection, suddenly the taxi driver gestured to the side, as a fellow stepped up to Carl's front seat window to tell him that while we were there, the hotel was full. All three of us were confused: the hotel he was pointing at didn't say Golden Lotus, but the driver seemed to corroborate that we were there. The man was telling us not to worry, there was another hotel owned by the same company that was just around the corner and they had room. Carl asked again where the Golden Lotus was, the man pointed again at something that didn't look like the Golden Lotus, then opened my door and asked if he could get in with us. I said no, there's no room! (There wasn't, really, and the request seemed too weird). So he then said, "ok, I meet you there" and closed the door.
We exchanged another "what's going on" as the taxi took off again, and minutes later pulled up at another hotel. As we got out of the car, our bags were being whisked inside, leaving us to catch up. They offered to show us the room; Viv and Carl went up while I watched the bags and tried to figure out where we were on the map. They returned from upstairs with a shrug, confirming that at least it was clean and seemed relatively secure. So, we booked.
At some point we mentioned we had other friends coming into the city, and the folks at the Star hotel were excited to get them lined up to. We hedged, and they then said "here's our card - you show them?". (Sinister music). It was the same card the guy at the airport had showed us of his friend's place. Duped.
Our best guess is that the "kind gentleman" from the airport called a friend of his and told him that there were three of us headed to the Golden Lotus. Said friend then intercepted our cab (somehow before we reached the Golden Lotus - either the cab driver was in on it (seemed unlikely as he was making disapproving noises when he drove us from the first to the second hotel) or we were close, and they spotted us (we do stand out)). So then we got rerouted, and hustled along enough that we never got to catch up because we were too preoccupied watching ourselves and our stuff.
Knowing that somehow we'd gotten nailed, we then went to the Golden Lotus on foot, confirmed that they were not booked and in fact had our reservation and were waiting for us. Taking a lesson my dad taught Carl a few years back, we decided to consider the $20 we had paid to the Star hotel "F@%^ You Money", checked out 30 minutes after we had checked in, and went straight to the Golden Lotus hotel, where we were greeting with sympathy and even some anger towards fellow countrymen and feel we are being treated well. Chalk it up once more as the costs of ignorance; annoying/upsetting, but in this case pretty painless in exchange for toughening us up a bit. Welcome to Vietnam!
We just booked our next two adventures, and I am very excited. We're getting the heck out of this noisy, busy city and head tomorrow night by overnight train to Sapa, in northwest Vietnam. We'll do a 25km trek over two days, staying with hill tribes both nights, and then returning to Hanoi also by overnight train. We'll turn right around that morning and head out to Halong Bay for a 3-day excursion there. I have been to both places, found them breathtakingly gorgeous and a lot of fun - looking forward to continued adventures!
written by  GoBlue on June 13, 2007 from Hanoi, Vietnam

This time, I almost got bit by a bat...I think
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Yes, the animal adventures continue. This time, I think I was almost bitten, and I think it was a bat. Here's how it goes...
Carl and I returned to the Crazy Horse Buttress crag for the third time in our Chiang Mai stays, this time again with Viv and with newcomers Aaron and Ben. We rented a car, successfully navigated our way out there, and had a great morning of climbing. Viv did her first lead ever (and did it quite well, I may add. Yay Viv!), and Aaron and Ben both learned quickly on both the belay and climbing side.
We went to lunch at the local spot (delicious, once again), and when we returned to the crag decided we were too full to climb right away, so we did some exploring. While searching for a local troupe of monkeys, we happened upon our first cool discovery: a monk hill camp, complete with monk hard at work (we left him undisturbed) (we never found the monkeys unfortunately).
Next we explored Aircon cave: a giant cavern that according to the book rises 80m above the floor! (It was very dark, difficult to verify the height). Then we returned to the wall, did one quick warm-up climb prior to the next chosen adventure: a new route up the inside of a big archway. As I descended from the warm-up, however, we noticed incredibly black storm clouds rolling in. At first glance, it seemed like we would likely get rain within the hour; 2 minutes later, it was clear it was going to be much faster than that; 5 minutes later we were huddled inside the archway marveling at the galeforce winds that were suddenly whipping through the area; 5 minutes later we were in a torrential downpour. Crazy!
We dashed back to one of the bamboo huts to see if it was going to blow through. Other than watching in awe the force of the sudden storm, the excitement there was when a giant (5-6 inches long) toad hopped up beside me. We named him Solomon (arbitrarily), and after a dramatic initial entrance, he just watched us.
The rain was relentless for about 20 minutes and then started to let up. Carl and I went to check out the archway and found it dry! So, we proceeded with the plan. Carl led the climb quite competently considering we had no route map and the light was weak with lingering storm effects. Aaron went next and for a first-ish day climbing did an awesome job. Viv then followed, and also did a great job, making it through the first 2 cruxes of the climb. In doing so, however, she had the first "bat" encounter: about 12 feet off the ground, suddenly snatched her hand back with a yelp (not falling, she would like me to note), saying that "something's in there!" We chuckled and encouraged her to forge on without using that pocket.
My turn next. I got to the same pocket, and, knowing there was someone at home, but knowing I needed the hold, I inserted just the first two "pads" (to the first knuckle) of two fingers into the pocket. Despite my care, I was immediately barked at (BAKKAW!!!!), loudly enough that everyone below heard loud and clear. Our best guess is a bat, though we never saw it. It was certainly a noise I have never heard before, with a meaning all too clear. (Footnote: I recognize that it wasn't as close to a bite as the monkey bite was, but the repeated close encounters beg for a tad of hyperbole). In the fading light, I finished the climb, which was "way cool". Aaron took pictures - hope to upload those soon.
Such great adventures! Chiang Mai has been a definite highlight so far....
written by  GoBlue on June 12, 2007 from Chiang Mai, Thailand

Into the Jungle!
Sa Pa, Vietnam
T minus two hours to departure for our Sapa trek. After a sweltering overnight train ride during which we all got very little sleep, we arrived safely in Lao Cai (on the Chinese border) and then took a one-hour bus to Sapa. The countryside here is absolutely gorgeous, and I am looking forward to hitting the trails! Will check back in in a few days....
written by  GoBlue on June 14, 2007 from Sa Pa, Vietnam

Sa Pa Trekking Adventures
Sa Pa, Vietnam
We are back from our 2-day trek into the hill tribe areas around Sa Pa, and it was great! We had very good weather until this morning (when it rained), and the scenery was gorgeous.
I think it was the same route I did years ago when I was here, but it was remarkable how much things have changed. Sa Pa itself is much busier, most notably in the motor bike and car traffic, all of which comes with almost perpetual honking and a good bit of exhaust. Given that tourism seems to be the main economic force here, I think it's extremely unfortunate that this has happened to the city because it really negatively affects the experience. I would expect it to permeate the guidebooks soon. The hill tribe sales forces are also quite aggressive, to the point of harrassment. I might actually be interested in shopping their wares, but I am afraid of what might happen if I show the slightest interest.
Our guide this time was "Pit", and she was a funny girl (19?). She was very light on the educational aspect of the trip, and didn't keep pace with us one of the days, but was relatively pleasant. We were speculating that her general apathy, however, was indicative of the increased tourism in the area. I asked her at one point if she had been the guide for our friends a week earlier (Matt, Neda, Tanuka and Jeff coincidentally used the same company), and she shrugged and said she doesn't remember names - too many people come through. Mai, my guide from 2000, was much better! Nevertheless, she didn't get us lost.
To the highlights, though: the scenery is still fantastic. I am so impressed that they have turned such rugged countryside into productive farmland! The first day was supposedly ~15km long but only took us 3ish hours; the same with the second. There were many other people on the trail the first day, but fewer the second (much more desirable).
I also had the opportunity to work in a paddy - great fun, exclusively because when my back got too tired I could stop. What hard work! I went with Pit and the mother of the household in which we were staying - about a 5 minute walk from the house to a 10-tiered steppe. I learned that the paddies are cut out of the mountain by hand. Each ends up being about 5-6 feet wide and 30-100 feet long. Somehow they flood them, and then water buffalo are used to dredge the inside of the paddy so it's relatively level and well tilled.
The first stage of the process involves spreading rice seeds by hand across the top. The rice then grows in like thick grass. Once it's relatively tall and green, but before it produces rice, it's then pulled by hand and relocated to new paddies with a good bit of space in between each stalk, apparently so it grows better and can be more easily harvested. The replant is the part of the process that I participated in.
On the way to the paddy, we passed some men working on the edge of one of the paddies, and they pulled out of the ground what looked like a 1-foot snake. I asked Pit if it was a snake, and she said no. "Are you sure?" "Yes, it's not a snake." "What is it?" "I don't know the word for it in English." "I do: snake!" We then bantered a little more about maybe it was a leech or a lizard; I maintain snake, she maintained it wasn't a problem, so I put it out of my mind.
We walked around to the far side and then descended along some pretty steep grass, left our sandals on the side, and then stepped into the paddy. The mud was extremely soft, slightly warm, and up to my upper calves/knees. She gave me a bunch of the rice and we got to work. Turns out I'm not a bad rice planter! I required some guidance (my natural instinct was to plant the rice too far apart). She also taught me how to lead with my fingers so that the rice roots are better planted and so the stalks stand up straight. I got the hang of it, though I was very slow - I was planting about 2 feet to her 4.
We did 1 paddy, and then stepped up to the next. The transitions were tricky though, because the boundaries between the paddies are about 8 inches wide and still fairly soft mud. I hopped up relatively readily, but keeping my balance wasn't easy, particularly when part of the wall collapsed. There goes the white girl, into the other paddy, already planted! Fortunately, they were laughing at me as I scrambled out and tried to fix the rice for them. Then I had an incident in which I started to tip again, but instead of stepping into the paddy, reached across the other side with both hands, successfully not falling, but then catching myself in the bridge position with no obvious next move. (I somehow tipped myself up and got out of that one). I think part of my challenge was that I outweigh most of them, plus am obviously not used to flying around on these tiny muddy tracks.
We planted two more half-paddies. Other animal highlights included a large bulbous spider (I kept my cool), and a tangerine size ball of frogs eggs (if I understand the translation correctly). It was quite an experience.
I did the first paddy without too much trouble, then when we turned to the second, decided I could hang if they could. Also managed the third, despite a cramping back. But then I finally had to admit that these tiny women were far stronger than I (I could barely stand up straight), and declined my next batch of rice.
They seemed relatively pleased with my stamina though, and I felt good about contributing a bit. (Though I also felt a good bit of pressure knowing that this was their food we were growing! (All subsitence farming)). Unfortunately there are no pictures of the event - my broken camera was too much for Pit to manage, so I just have the memories. I was given a tradiational hat to wear, though, for those of you trying to picture it!
The rest of the evening was equally eventful, mostly because of the 13 (small) shots of rice wine they "offered" us. Led to some good times, including Aaron renting a duck to chase, then buying it for $10USD, then deciding not to chase it after we learned that it would be eaten the next morning if we did (I had declared myself on the duck's side and was prepared to run active interference). The family (who was leading the drinking) also had a fun toy: a badminton-sized racquet with electric strings that would zap mosquitos when you swung it at them. All in all it was a good time, though the next morning I was feeling a bit sub-par.
(Side note: there have been far fewer mosquitos on the trip than I anticipated. Since we've started, I've gotten about 8 bites, 5 of which were on one of the climbing days in Chiang Mai. So far in Vietnam, 0!)
The next day we walked for another few hours and ended up at a waterfall. The fall itself was relatively short - 12 feet maybe? But the current was quite strong, and initially very cold. We got in, swam closer to the waterfall to get a look at how crazy the kayaking landing would have been (giant rock that you would have nosed right into), and then scouted an area for some cliff jumping. Carl displayed his usual routine of back flips, and I did my usual routine of pencil jumps. Good times. Last night was far more mellow as we all categorically refused the offers of more rice wine.
Today we woke up to clouds and the prospect of a steep climb back up the same trail we had come in on. We opted for the motorbike option instead, which then turned into quite an adventure when the clouds broke into rain. In general, we were going slowly enough that a fall would only have meant mud and a few bruises (we were all riding behind local drivers). Nevertheless, it was quite exciting. One "highlight": we stopped for no apparent reason, then asked Pit what the matter was. "They are building the road" (accompanied by a poof gesture with her hands). "They're dynamiting?!" we clarified incredulously. A minute later: BOOM! from up ahead, as limestone flew into the air in some not so small chunks. We waited for a few more blasts and then continued on our merry way. Note that the communication system between the guy stopping us and the dynamiters was a series of whistles. As I said, quite the adventure. We had originally planned to rent bikes when we returned to Sa Pa and then explore Pit's village, but given the weather we opted out of that in favor of a long internet session!
Next stop: Halong Bay. Fingers crossed for some more good weather - this is a place I have been looking forward to revisiting...
written by  GoBlue on June 17, 2007 from Sa Pa, Vietnam

From Ha Noi to Hoi An
Hoi An, Vietnam
Halong Bay was as spectacular as ever, though with far more people than there were 7 years ago - almost to the point of compromising our experience, but not quite. Our tour did a good job getting farther off the beaten path on our second day, when we did some kayaking in and amongst lagoons. We were also lucky in getting a cool group of 7 people to hang out with.
Hanoi, however, didn't really welcome us back - no incidents, but we were ready to move on so we changed our flights to go down to Danang/Hoi An one day ahead of time. So far this town is much better suited towards me - a good bit less busy, fewer people, less honking, etc. We booked a functional hotel for our first night and then Carl and Viv scouted a great hotel that will host us for our remaining three days here.
The main point of Hoi An (its "brand", if you will), is tailoring. This morning we went to a shop that had been recommended by some friends and spent about an hour looking through catalogues and selecting a few tester items. Measurements were made, fabric selected, and tomorrow morning at 11am we will see whether this is going to work! It's pretty fun...
And now, off to the pool!
written by  GoBlue on June 22, 2007 from Hoi An, Vietnam

And then there were three
Nha Trang, Vietnam
Fond farewells to Ms Jennie McConaghy, who left today to begin the journey home - we'll miss you!
We're wrapping up two quick days in Nha Trang, a beach down just south of the demilitarized zone. Despite its potential historical intrigue, Nha Trang has been a place of semi-relaxation for us (or at least attempted relaxation as we have continued to Battle hawkers. The honking is significantly less here though, and there are some alternative cuisines that have temporarily staved off my despair at eating bland dishes and hoping to avoid MSG).
Our beautiful sunny beach day...
...turned to rain (but those thatched umbrellas are really effective!)
Highlights so far first include the company: we overlapped with Brendan and Allison for a day here, and it was great to catch up and bit and swap some stories. We also hit some mud baths today that were quite an experience - my skin is silky soft now (in theory at least).
Tomorrow we grab a bus to head into the mountains of Dalat for a few days. There, gasp, we may even need fleeces at night! Dalat boasts many outdoor attractions including good trekking, mountain biking, some climbing, and semi-natural water slides. Should be a fun change of pace. And from there, it's on to Cambodia to revel in the magnificence of Angkor Wat!
written by  GoBlue on June 27, 2007 from Nha Trang, Vietnam

Da What?
Da Lat, Vietnam
We are in the mountains, and boy is the temperature change a welcome break - I am wearing pants!!! There was an article in the WSJ a few years ago about this town - it was developed in the late 1800s by a protege of Louis Pasteur. Apparently it's the top honeymoon destination in Vietnam, though it's not immediately clear why - perhaps in the non-rainy season it would be more of where I would choose to honeymoon.
Yesterday, however, we did check out the golf course. For a mere $90 you can play what looks like a fairly well tended and potentially interesting course. I think we are going to try it either tomorrow or Sunday for their twighlight special (on $40). We did hit on the range though, which was a lot of fun (just knowing we were playing golf in Vietnam!).
Despite
a rough start (a shouting match in the hallway outside our door at 6am) the day has turned out to be quite a kick. We started by hiring a car to go to the top of a tall local mountain. We got to the base of it and then transferredto a jeep (Russian-made, former war jeep). The view was almost completely blocked by clouds, but it was still pretty cool. It was pretty crazy to think that nearly 40 years ago an American soldier might have been driving up that same road - what would he have thought of the idea that in another few decades a tourist from his country would be driving up the same (US Army-made) road to admire the views.
We also visited "crazy house", which was designed in Alice in Wonderland style by the 2nd daughter of the 2nd president after Ho Chi Min. Crazy indeed.
All the beds had mirrors above them...weird. But cool for goup photos!
Next we went to a local waterfall that you reached via tobogan. That was pretty wild (though not as wild as it could have been - had to screech to a halt to avoid hitting the lollygagging couple in front of me - get off the brakes!!!) The water was pretty though.
Vivian and i are going through the local market soon. (carl is elevating his ankle - mysterious pretty serious strain). Tomorrow we are still hoping to go mountain biking.
written by  GoBlue on June 29, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam

APB: Send sympathy vibes to Carl! Poor kid's had a rough stint...
Da Lat, Vietnam
Yes, strike three and he's down for the count:
1) Mysterious ankle injury set in in Ha Long Bay - could it have been from the back flips off the top of the boat?! Not helped by the fact that we never get a walking-free day, but he was managing well enough.
2) Cold. Who gets a cold when it's 100 degrees out? Acutally it's now around 70, so perhaps it was the climate change of going from the ridiculous heat of everywhere else in this country to the moderately pleasant constant drizzle of Da Lat. That was yesterday.
3) Mountain biking mishap (he's ok though - I'll state that up front). We postponed the excursion one day to give his cold a full day of rest and recuperation, but this morning on a particularly nasty steep downhill (and did I mention muddy? Very muddy) he lept acrobatically off of his bike and in an attempt to save stressing the ankle somehow tweaked the heck out of his back. We were just about at the farthest point on the trail, so he had a limpy 2-hour walk back to the sealed road, poor fella. Yes, strike three, and Carl is in traction. (I don't actually know what that term means - in reality, he's drugged up on advil watching mindless television upstairs).
The good news is he'll make it (he's a strong one). It's also nice that yesterday we decided to give ourselves a break and upgraded to the Novitel (the 2nd nicest hotel in town), so we are relaxing in relative luxury (we even ordered room service for lunch!). The bad news is he's down for the count (we're thinking of renting a DVD player). Unfortunately we have a flight to Cambodia tomorrow, so hopefully he will have a rapid recovery - go Carl!!!
Other than this minor tragedy, the ride was actually very fun - extremely wet and slippery, but (except for that one spot) not too steep in either direction. The bikes were decent, and the temperature perfect (got a little chilly when it started to rain; again, poor Carl walking home in the rain a day after spending the day in bed with a cold). We also had the fun coincidence of our two Irish friends booking the same ride as we did even though our attempts failed at passing them a note through their hotel telling them where we'd booked. So we had a fun group and a good adventure. Viv has a few "body illustrations" of a few of her escapades, but I will leave that to her telling - my contribution is this: it wasn't easy biking!
Now off to play paparazzi with some Vietnamese propaganda posters...fascinating...
written by  GoBlue on July 1, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam

And then there were two...
Siemreab, Cambodia
Safe travels Viv! The group travel has just about come to a close. I knew it would go quickly, but holy cow! I can't believe part I of the trip is over. (In my mind, it's a 3-part journey: part I was group travel, part II: Habitat for Humanity building trip, and then part III will be the Carl/Joc closure). I am having a blast; however, I was reflecting today that if I want that "momentus life" feeling, I have to proactively remind myself of the context - the day-to-day is more of a relaxed fun, which in and of itself is also pretty cool. I compare this in part to my trip 7 years ago, which was amazing, but also a perpetual struggle in some ways - against logistics, the cultures, group travel, etc. Perhaps it's just the difference of being 30 vs 23?
At any rate...
When we planned to go to Angkorwat, I'd say Carl and Viv were driving the process and I was following along to stay with them; at the time it seemed like a lot of travel and money for some cool temples. In retrospect, it was very much worth it, except we wish we'd had another day or two.
Cambodia was not at all what I'd expected. I had heard that Angkorwat was completely tourist-ridden and nearby Siem Reap overrun with junk souvenier shops. Instead, we found it a small town with nice, courteous people (plenty of shopping "opportunities", but they didn't force themselves on you like they have in other places. And the temples were ... amazing.
I didn't know this at first, but Angkorwat is actually a collection of more than 100 temples. Many of them are small, but it was pretty incredible to imagine the area hundreds of years ago without tourists and speckled with temples everywhere. Granted, most of the thousands of people who lived there didn't worship at the temples, just built them for the king. Nonetheless is was pretty cool to think about.
We started the day at the "Tomb Raider" temple. Although the day was full of fantastic sights, this ended up my favorite place, I think because of the interaction between nature and the temples. I haven't seen Tomb Raider, but I heard Viv comment that she thought the movie had been digitally engineered to show trees in and amongst the ruins - turns out, it's real! Extraordinary. We also had the luck of getting there before the multitudes of packed tour buses arrived. (We didn't try for a sunrise visit because it's rainy season and we were likely to be clouded in; instead, we got started just after 8 and still beat many of the crowds at our first stop).
We later saw the temple of happy faces - also very cool. Each spire has four faces on it, representing the Buddhist tenets of compassion, sympathy, calmess and charity. Another stop was at the king's temple, which overlooked a 125m swimming pool in which his 4,000 concubines would bathe. Every night he would climb the (ridiculously steep) stairs - on belay! - to have sex with one of them. The burdens of ruling....
How long did that chiseling take??
We finished the day at Angkorwat itself. Although very cool, don't get me wrong, it actually was less dramatic to me than some of the others. I should note that I was on the point of exhaustion though (due to poor laundry management I was down to just one very hot thick cotton t-shirt, and despite drinking 2 liters of water throughout the day, had to rest every few steps in order to make it through).
With the addition of two pleasant dinners, it was a great stop!
written by  GoBlue on July 5, 2007 from Siemreab, Cambodia

New Habitats
Kuching, Malaysia
I am now in Malaysia, working hard to build "Eddie and Katie" a new house! So far the trip is great. I really like our group (I don't know how that always happens, but it really is a great group of people!) Snapshots include 2 Toronto women who work for Microsoft, 5 Bain people (2 of whom I hadn't met before, going to other offices), 3 BCG people (yikes - consultants!), 3 Irish lads, a father/son duo from Marin county, a kid who played high school water polo with my brother Theo (and that kid's girlfriend), and a girl who won a photo contest through Habitat and got a free trip out of it. One of our leaders is also from Beloit, Illinois, just south of Carl's stomping grounds.
The house itself is coming along nicely, considering 1+ days of work. The roof was already built, so we are working on preparing the foundation. I have become somewhat of an expert in rebar bending and tying, and my posture is perfect right now in order to protect a very sore back (shoveling gravel and sand). A group of local kids is perpetually hanging around, and we all get a great kick out of shouting hello back and forth to each other and giggling in between.
The couple for whom we are building the house is currently living in the house next door with 8 adult relatives. That clan cooks lunch for us, and it's fun to sit around smiling at each other. Today I tried what turned out to be homemade chewing gum (sort-of; I wouldn't have recognized it as such without being told).
Tomorrow we pour concrete and while it's drying have the afternoon off to do some shopping. I am going to try to pick up some extra t-shirts as I am tearing through my wardrobe. Although it isn't as hot as I expected it to be (discomfort-wise), I still sweat out pounds every hour (drank 4 liters of water today during our 9-5 workday!).
It's great fun though, and very rewarding - Eddie works with us and he and Katie seem like very nice people. Katie's 8 months pregnant, so I think they will get good use out of their new house!
written by  GoBlue on July 10, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia

Bain is looking pretty good...
Kuching, Malaysia
This work is hard!!!
The trip is going well. I really like the group - a great group of individuals with mix of laid back-ness and interesting-ness. We are making decent progress on the house too. The daily rhythm is something like this: leave the hotel at 8am, drive 45 minutes to the village, working by 9am. Break at 10:30 for 10-15 minutes, work until 12:30. Break for 30-60-minute lunch, work until 3ish, maybe another quick break, then finish at 4:30.
After a day or so of framing and dirt shoveling, we were ready to pour concrete. The first day of that was all manual mixing, which is very, very hard! On the way to the internet cafe tonight I passed a pile of sand beside a pile of gravel and it gave me the shivers. My back was nearly broken for the first day or so despite decent efforts to use my legs, but it seems to be recovering. We also found a great massage place nearby that's $15US per hour! Very therapeutic.
Today, thanks to a wonderful new invention (the cement mixer), our work didn't involve manual mixing - such a treat! We carted wheelbarrow-fulls of this to the site this morning and finished pouring the floor of the house. Then we formed human chains to move many bricks and started on the walls.
Aaron, one of the Irish lads and I also played soccer against the local kids at lunch today - that was a ton of fun, though in 90+ degree heat, it wiped me out for the afternoon. Hopefully we will repeat that, without the dehydration factor. Eddie, the husband in the couple we're building the house for, played on our team as did one of the young girls; the other 12 were against us, and when they come up to your hip height, it's quite a challenge not to send bodies flying!
Every night we congregate around 7 for a group dinner, then have free time (though by then most of us are eager to crawl into bed - long days!). It's a good rhythm - lots of fun! And now, off to dinner...
written by  GoBlue on July 13, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia

We built a house!
Kuching, Malaysia
So I think in retrospect I am going to reflect on this part of the trip as a blast (too). It's been really fun hanging with some new cool people.
Updates since the last blog:
On Saturday we went to the market. While in some ways a typical Asian market, this one was particularly fun because we had a local guide, Min (a man), who's great. It was mostly a food market, though it also had some other stuff (junk), and Min led us in a lot of sampling. My favorites included some fried falafal-like things that were Indian, peanut pancakes (crepe with butter and peanuts), and fresh pineapple. I also found another new fruit (langan?) that I am allergic to. Other than that we saw a ton of fresh vegetables, many of them new to me, as well as some jellyfish and interesting forms of meat. All told we spent over an hour there and I greatly enjoyed it.
While waiting to move on to dinner, I also got to hear from Min more about Habitat in general; highlights included learning that they are not exclusively Christian in the sense if the recipients are Muslim, as Eddie and Katie are, they receive a Koran (instead of a bible) with the keys to the house. Interesting, and in my opinion appropriate. Later that night we also went out as a group for the first time - tons of fun. It's interesting hanging out with people of such different ages - makes for a neat dynamic.
Sunday morning began with a 7:30am pilates session (Andrea, one of the BCG Stanford grads, is an instructor back home and several of us were interested in trying her class, so we rented out the hotel conference room for an hour). It was ridiculously hard - so much so that I really couldn't do much of it and didn't even really get a workout because I spent most of the time in a failure state. Nonetheless, it was fun, and it was a great prequel to the next event: the spa. I got a 1-hour massage and then some stim on the left side of my neck to try to adjust the chronic sleep-induced ache that has returned.
That afternoon we went to the rainforest wold music festival, which was awesome. I had low expectations going into it, and it turned out to be very cool. The afternoon started out with 2 workshops; I chose feuding fiddles and an introduction to Afghani music, which I thought I was going to hate and ended up really liking. They had a drummer that was unbelievable (and drums that were unbelieveable). One was sort of a tom tom with a little iron plate in the middle that allowed the player to make about 15 different sounds, and he had incredibly fast hands.
We took a 2-hour break to eat some good ethnic food, and then that night there was a big concert with 11 bands from all over the world - local to kick it off, then Afghanistan, Poland, UK, Vietnam, Tuva (which I deduced and have since confirmed is near Mongolia), Kuala Lumpur, Italy, South America and Madegascar. Each group played for between 15 and 60 minutes each, and it was really interesting. The Vietnamese group had some crazy instruments including clapping their hands in front of pipes (like you can do on your mouth). (The woman actually started out by playing a song on her mouth (something we all knew so we could see it was working)). They also had some ... weird ones - hard to describe, but cool. The polish band ("Shannon") is also worth looking up - almost Dave Matthews like, but different (same same but different!). The fiddler was great though - had seen him in the afternoon workshop too. We left the concert at about 12:30 and then bussed back for an hour.
Monday we got started late because we were up late the night before, but still made good progress, and today we finished up our work on the house! Eric, our foreman, said we did well - were ahead of schedule (and hopefully made a house that won't fall down). We finished all the brickwork except for a tricky spot in what will be the ceiling of the bathroom, and plastered several of the walls (turns out plastering is my favorite task). We're in the process of assembling pictures, so I will have some soon, but suffice it to say that we build a house! Pretty cool.
Tonight we have our local farewell dinner with the affiliate and then tomorrow we leave for the country to visit a long house hill tribe for 2 days. Then Friday we depart! It's gone quite quickly (I seem to say that about every location) but has been a great time (also say that about every location). Again as usual though, I am really looking forward to the next stage too!
written by  GoBlue on July 17, 2007 from Kuching, Malaysia

T minus one stop!!!
Darwin, Australia
Holy Cow! We're down to just one more stop before we head back to the US - crazy! Carl and I leave Darwin, Australia early tomorrow morning for Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, our last stop before departing this part of the world. I haven't checked in since I left Malaysia, and that's just a testament to how great the trip's been! It was fantastic to be reunited with Carl in Thailand. We had a great week climbing and relaxing there (actually extended the trip by a few days). Next was Singapore, which was terrific even though we only were there for 20 hours - what a cool city!!! And then into Darwin, where we rented a "wicked van" (spray painted with numerous irreverent sayings and pictures, $77AUS a day and outfitted to camp out of and sleep in). It served us well, as we cruised through Kakadu and another local park (Litchfield). All beautiful, all great, all fun. Back in the US on the 10th and back with my laptop - will do more pictures and blogging then if not sooner! Hope everyone's well - getting excited to catch up soon!
written by  GoBlue on August 4, 2007 from Darwin, Australia

Scuba diving IS fun!
Cairns, Australia
Carl and I spent the day on the Great Barrier Reef doing some introductory scuba dives - GREAT fun! Much better than I expected, actually. We took a shuttle early this morning about an hour north to Port Douglas, and then caught a sizable boat out to the "outer reef", which is supposed to be one of the better (untouched) regions. Neither he nor I had ever done this before, so we went for the heavily shepherded "introductory dives", in which we went down with 1-2 other newbies and 1 instructor, never more than 12m deep. The instructor helped us with our boyancy and monitored our air levels, so we just had to deal with mobility, steady breathing, ear clearing and if necessary mask clearing. Quite manageable, and very cool. I had some very close encounters with a Malabar (?) cod - about 3-4 feet long and fairly big. He came within a foot of my face and stared at me, I think looking for food, because when I held up empty hands, he swooshed off. We also saw some very colorful coral, a pineapple sea cucumber (huge! and aptly named), the Nemo clownfish, and many other amazingly bright creatures that I didn't catch the name of. It was a pretty fantastic day though - a bit windy and therefore cold above deck, but otherwise ok, and the diving was really fantastic! We took an underwater camera down - hopefully some pictures will turn out.
We're still plotting what to do with our last two days Down Under - hopefully some climbing. And then it's off to home soil!
written by  GoBlue on August 6, 2007 from Cairns, Australia

Post-HFH...Carl, here I come!
Bangkok, Thailand
I confess this is the first of what will be several retrospective blogs. I am in Hawaii right now, with some time to do catch-up work for the final few weeks of the trip, which flew by at a crazy rate!
The long house experience was also pretty cool, though the transportation required to get us there was not so cool. "It's all about expectations!" We heard that many times in school in our MO classes, and I firmly believe it anyway. We thought the transportation was going to be a 4-5-hour bus ride; instead it was a 3 hour bus ride that was made into a 6 hour bus ride because we had a guide who decided/was instructed to stop a number of times on the way to see (what in my and most of the group's opinion were) trivial/annoying tourist sites. Then despite voicing an interest in getting to the Hilton resort more quickly, we continued with the stops and then missed the 3pm boat and had to wait for the 4pm boat to get across the lake to the resort. Mutiny. I had a brief go at some mediation between cranky co-workers and the leaders, with mild success; everyone was also better after a swim and an excellent buffet dinner.
The long house itself was pretty interesting. To some extent it replicated some of the other hill tribe tours we've done (akin to a human zoo). However, this group had a chief who seemed like the real deal. When long house tribe chiefs first become chief, they tour around to the various villages under their purview and at each point hear a different part of lore from the village elders and with that exchange receive a tattoo. By the end of the tour their entire upper body is covered, as was the current 73-year-old chief's. He seemed like a pretty extraordinary guy, though my attempts at communicating with him through our guide (who was still annoyed with us from our "pushiness" the previous day) were rebuffed. (Every time I would ask the guide to ask the chief something, the guide would answer for him, regardless of how much I clarified that I understood the precedent but was interested in hearing this chief's exact words (and watching his reactions, etc.)). I was mostly interested in hearing how he has seen his leadership responsibilities change over the course of the decades as his tribe went from head hunting (yup, like some of the Indonesian tribes, these practiced raids of their neighbors and staked the skulls of their enemies at the village entrance) to tour hosting (every day welcoming another group of farangs (foreigners, usually white people). He seemed genuinely pleased to have us there and excited to show us their ways. Most of the women seemed very angry all the time, though the guide insisted that they were happy, despite their dark faces.
The Hilton was also a nice break. We swam, lounged, played pool, played mafia and generally relaxed. I also discovered a minor travel crisis in which my flights from Kuching to KL and then to Bangkok were booked with 5 minutes of layover time. Oops. So I asked Kris and Seth whether I could jump on with the Canadians for the early shuttle to the airport. Instead, the whole group rallied to leave the resort early - I think it fit others' schedules, but no doubt it was also to make my life easier, and I greatly appreciated that. In the end, I was able to go on an earlier flight (purchased an entirely new ticket; nice, Air Asia), made my connection to Bangkok, and one hour after landing was checked into the ridiculously nice Novotel, where I spent only 10 hours (don't figure out the hourly rate), but got very clean and had an excellent night sleep.
Then, on to Krabi and my long lost boyfriend!
written by  GoBlue on July 21, 2007 from Bangkok, Thailand

Fingers Shredded, Satiated with Sunsets, We Hit the Road
Krabi, Thailand
Another retrospective blog…
Carl and I had a great time in Thailand – so much so that we increased our stay there by three days. He had been there for several weeks already so had the climbing scene all spec’d out for us. He met me at that airport (in a heroic journey that actually took more time than it took for me to get from my hotel in Bangkok to Krabi), and then we took the taxi/boat combination that he had arranged to get us back to Rai Lay beach. (No slippery treks through the downpour for me!). We spent the first afternoon climbing on a wall right behind the hotel we were staying at and then over the course of the next week and a half hit 4-5 other areas around the island, and it was great. The rock was solid, the climbs led to extraordinary beach overlooks, and if you were smart about the shade (and Carl had scouted this as well) it was possible to do all this without overheating. The areas usually didn’t have a lot of what I would call “easy” climbs, so my warm-up usually felt someone abbreviated, but it all worked out – no further injuries, and some great climbing.
The daily rhythm outside of climbing was quite chill. I picked up a copy of Harry Potter 7 in Bangkok, and Carl had first dibs on that because I was still finishing my review of the previous books. So we spent a lot of time reading, ate all our meal’s at Mom’s Kitchen (which was cheap, tasty and reliably safe), and wandered around the island a bit.
The one other adventure we had was renting a kayak and paddling to one of the neighboring islands. The goal was to find a hawker-free, quiet beach, and we thoroughly succeeded, finding a deserted stretch of good sand with a great view of other islands (and the storms that were circling but never really got us). I read, Carl napped, and then we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the water on our paddle back – good fun!
Having been wanting to climb with Carl in Thailand ever since I went there in 2000, these were a great 2 weeks. The world was calling, however, so we moved on to other adventures.
Thanks to the fare incentives of Singapore-based Tiger Airways, we had a 20-hour layover in Singapore on our way from Krabi to Darwin, in Australia. We thought we’d check the city out, and were quite glad we did, because it was very cool! Singapore is clean and modern, with a fantastic mix of ethnicities (felt like an Asia melting pot). We spent our one day there doing a walking tour of the city, hitting the Arab, Indian and Chinese quarters, with miscellaneous city architecture in between. (The only downside to the visit was that we came through on a Sunday and much of the city was shut down).
My favorite area by far was the Arab quarter, which was bustling without being overcrowded and had a neat mix of textile stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all frequented by locals. Even though we were only 2 hours away from breakfast, we tried some Muslim food (advertised as the best in the city), and indeed found it quite tasty. Little India was not quite as quaint, and I was traumatized by a lunch experience in which I think we were “taken” by our waiter and were served about 4 times as much food as we needed for about 4 times the price; couldn’t even make a dent and then had to go to the ATM to cover the bill. Nonetheless, the rest of the walk was enjoyable and interesting and by the end of the day I was back to raving about Singapore.
written by  GoBlue on July 26, 2007 from Krabi, Thailand

Aloha
Hilo, United States
And lastly, Hawaii. What a brilliant last stop! It’s been incredible to do some of our re-immersing in real life from the comfort and luxury of this house. On the up side, we’ve been able to get mostly caught up over the course of a week; on the downside, we’ve only been to the beach and driving range once in 7 days (no full golf rounds), and for our last day (tomorrow) a level 2 hurricane (Flossie) is supposed to hit. Oh well. It was still nice to stave off some of the panic that inevitably awaits after 3 months away from “the real world.”
What a trip it’s been though! Carl’s working on some superlatives, and so far I entirely agree with them. I’ve enjoyed seeing so many beautiful places, and specifically have enjoyed thinking about how different nature’s beauty is in different parts of the world. I’ve also come to appreciate more the value of short-term relationships; many of the people we’ve met I probably won’t see again, but I have really enjoyed our time together all the same.
So what’s next? To Boston for Angie Peluse’s wedding, then to Minneapolis for some time with Carl’s family, and then he drives west to start work! And I head south to begin establishing myself into Chicago. In some ways I can’t believe it’s time for that already; in others, school seems like it was an eon ago and so much has happened in between. I’ve enjoyed this time in part because I know there are good things to come after it, and I am starting to get excited for those next steps, as different as they will be. Onward!
written by  GoBlue on August 14, 2007 from Hilo, United States

Kakadu & Litchfield Parks - Awesome!
Darwin, Australia
Another retrospective...
We arrived in Darwin, Australia intent on visiting world-famous Kakadu National Park and perhaps other surrounding parks. We hit an immediate hiccup in that it was a school holiday at the time and many Australians were on the road making a similar circuit as we were. As a result, our “play it by ear” plan ran into some availability issues that put us in Darwin itself for an extra day while we waited for a camper van to become available through Wicked Campers. Two days after arriving, however, we were packed into a –crazily-painted converted van packed with groceries and were on our way to the park.
We made good time (4 hours) and arrived just in time to check out some of the Aboriginal (“Traditional Owners”) rock paintings for sunset. True to in-town warnings, there were many people there, but the park was big enough for our experience not to be hampered by the presence of so many others. The artwork was very cool (ranging from 20-years old to thousands of years old), and the vistas were spectacular.
The next day began with a 9am cruise of the yellow river. Although it was pretty pricey ($55/person), it was very cool. Over the course of 2 hours we saw numerous crocs (from a safe distance and the security of a boat), and a lot of neat birds. It was also cool to cruise the floodplains, which are an interesting geological feature in and of themselves.
We spent the rest of the day touring a few of the other sites of the park, including another Aboriginal painting site, a lookout or two, and a long washboarded dirt road out to our camp area. We arrived there just as the sun was setting and booked it up a short hike to some croc-safe pools at the top of a mountain – gorgeous view, and for the small price of hiking back down nearly in the dark, we got a pretty secluded experience.
On the whole I would say Kakadu was very good, though I am infinitely glad we did it on our own power and not with a tour; otherwise, I think it would really have felt like a ton of driving for some good (but not really spectacular) photo points amongst many other tour groups.
Our next stop was Litchfield Park, another park in the area that’s less known world-wide but was supposed to be beautiful. We planned a climbing stop along the way and successfully made an afternoon at Robin Falls, a small turnoff with some beautiful falls and decent slab climbing (and only 1 or 2 other groups there, none of whom were on the wall). It was fun to do a different kind of climbing and a nice way to break up the drive from Kakadu to Litchfield.
The next day we entered Litchfield, which is most known for its many swimming holes. (Litchfield is more or less croc-safe because its water access is not from the ocean). We drove to several beautiful areas, but more or less made a bee line for our target camping area so we could have some down time in the afternoon.
We had planned to camp for the night at a less crowded pool accessible only by four wheel drive (which our little van supposedly had), but hesitated because it turned out the road involved a river crossing that looked fairly formidable, and our van had no snorkel. After carefully measuring our clearance against the .6 meters that the depth stick was registering, we decided to wait to see if others came by, and within minutes a new Nissan arrived and barreled right through it, then hollered from the other side that he would wait to make sure we made it. Note that there was another croc warning sign, which again seemed “unlikely”, but it was interesting to think about what exactly a contingency plan would entail if we got stuck. Carl put the car in gear and powered right through it though! It was very exciting.
The successful crossing led us then to a camping area with only one spot left (we grabbed it, and then shared with another car that came in a little later – we’re such nice people). We packed up our reading materials and hiked out to the local swimming hole, but found it plagued with flies and much colder than others we’d passed, so after a quick dip and courageous (because it was cold; this one was asserted croc free) swim to the falls, we headed back to camp for some bug repellent and dinner.
The drive out the next morning was also exciting because we couldn’t really get the car into 4WD (or we couldn’t be sure that it had worked) and we no longer had an escort for the crossing. We made it, though once on the other side the car wouldn’t go into 2-wheel drive for a while, making horrible grinding noises whenever we changed gears. Thankfully, it worked itself out though, and we proceeded on to our last Litchfield stop: “Lost City.” This place is basically a big boulder field, and we found a nice traverse that kept us busy for a few hours and left us worked and ready to just drive again at the end. We refreshed ourselves at yet another swimming hole on the way out (this one was sort of a terraced stream), and then headed for Darwin again.
Our last night there was rough in we had to return the van in the morning, but our flight was at 6am. So we slept in the parking lot, which I found nerve-wracking because it wasn’t in a great area of town. It worked though: no incidents, and our taxi showed up on schedule at 4:15 to pick us up. Next stop: the Great Barrier Reef!
written by  GoBlue on August 4, 2007 from Darwin, Australia

20-Hour Layover: Singapore!
Singapore, Singapore
Thanks to the fare incentives of Singapore-based Tiger Airways, we had a 20-hour layover in Singapore on our way from Krabi to Darwin, in Australia. We thought we’d check the city out, and were quite glad we did, because it was very cool! Singapore is clean and modern, with a fantastic mix of ethnicities (felt like an Asia melting pot). We spent our one day there doing a walking tour of the city, hitting the Arab, Indian and Chinese quarters, with miscellaneous city architecture in between. (The only downside to the visit was that we came through on a Sunday and much of the city was shut down).
My favorite area by far was the Arab quarter, which was bustling without being overcrowded and had a neat mix of textile stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all frequented by locals. Even though we were only 2 hours away from breakfast, we tried some Muslim food (advertised as the best in the city), and indeed found it quite tasty. Little India was not quite as quaint, and I was traumatized by a lunch experience in which I think we were “taken” by our waiter and were served about 4 times as much food as we needed for about 4 times the price; couldn’t even make a dent and then had to go to the ATM to cover the bill. Nonetheless, the rest of the walk was enjoyable and interesting and by the end of the day I was back to raving about Singapore.
written by  GoBlue on July 27, 2007 from Singapore, Singapore