Indonesia/Home

So, I've been home for about three weeks now. I never got a chance to update my blog for the last part of the trip so I'll give you the run down on what happened.

I ended up staying in Kuta, Bali for much longer than I expected. I realized I needed to get better at surfing on the easy beach break before I ventured to more dangerous reef breaks around Lombok. Also, I ended up with a really cool group of people. There was about six Swedes, one American, and myself. We all hung out pretty much everyday while in Kuta. We even ended up on a "river rafting" trip.

The river rafting trip would have been more aptly named creek dingying. We were in an extremely low volume rocky river in a beefed up four person dingy essentially. Haha, coming from Nepal and BC, it was pretty funny to see that there was actually a commercial rafting operation on this puny river. Nonetheless, it was good for a laugh and had some hoots and hollers as we pinballed off rocks in the river and dropped off 4m concrete dams. We also stopped at some cool spots along the river where there were beautiful waterfalls and awesome scenery.

While in Kuta I also managed to venture out to some other suburb towns and surf breaks and beaches. One day I rented a motorcycle and took my surfboard with me on an adventure to two different beaches; dreamland and Ulawatu. I started off at dreamland which was really fun. When I got there the surf wasn't that great but there weren't many people there. Soon enough though, the surf picked up and I got to surf some big fun waves that were breaking close into shore. Definitely good times. As more people showed up it got a bit crowded for the small take off zone though. So I decided I would ride my motorcycle to the famous reef break Ulawatu. The only problem was that I lost the key to my bike! oops. After some fussin around trying to figure out what to do I paid some Indonesian guys 5 bucks to hotwire my bike. So I kick started it up and got outta there. I was off to Ulawatu next, on a hot wired motorbike. However, when I reached the parking area, I realized I couldn't turn my bike off because it was hotwired. The kill switch didn't work, I tried the choke to see if I could flood the engine, no luck. After some head scratching and some funny looks from the locals I pulled the spark plug off and became quite pleased with myself for figuring that one out.

After a few more days spent surfing in Kuta, laying on the beach, playing guitar and indulging in some nightlife, a group of about nine of us headed to the Gili Islands.
The gilis are a chain of three tiny islands off the northwest coast of Lombok. The main reason people go there is for the diving. I originally planned on doing my advanced open water diving course when I got there but realized I was running out of money fast as I neared the end of my trip. Instead we spent most of our time snorkeling. I definitely found a new passion for snorkeling, or skin diving as its also called, while I was there. I found it to be exhilarating to practice diving deeper and holding my breath longer. Not to mention that the coral and sea life there was amazing. I saw several giant sea turtles and heaps of other brightly coloured fish. The Gili islands don't have any cars and are relatively undeveloped and clean. Thus I could be found with my gang of homeys, cruising down the sand roads on our retro bicycles, complete with handy dandy baskets in the front to stick our snorkel gear.
The time spent on the Gili's was very relaxing and super fun. I almost forgot to mention that there was a sweet reef break on the island as well, so I had some good surfing as well.

Indonesia is an amazing string of Islands which has definitely left me wanting more. I know I will go back to explore the more remote islands and surf breaks. Next time, I think a sail-boat is the way to see it. I can see it now, sailing around to different islands, fishing, spear fishing, surfing and meeting new and interesting people.

But all things must come to an end, and so my trip ended a week early (I ran out of money, and realized I needed more than two days at home before I started work in Whistler) on Nov.6th as I flew back to Vancouver. I was actually quite ready and happy to be coming home. Arriving at YVR still wearing board shorts, flip flops, and a tank top, carrying my guitar and surfboard, I was rudely awakened to the fact that it is cold and rainy in Vancouver in November. But alas I was not perturbed, in fact I reveled in the fact that it was so beautifully autumn in Vancouver. The family, friends, crisp air, freshly fallen leaves, pervasive moisture and most importantly the snow in the mountains, served to welcome me home to the landscape in which I have developed an affinity for throughout the past 23 years.

In some ways, I'm amazed I made it home. When your out in the middle of nowhere 4000m up in the middle of the Himalayas where it's taken you ten days to walk to, or on some tiny island way out in the south pacific that you have traveled to via several little boats you wonder if you'll be able to overcome the obstacles in front of you to reach home again. But somehow I did it.

And thankfully so! I had a wicked ten days in Chilliwack with my family and friends. I forgot to mention that when I got off the plane at 9pm on the night of November 6th, I went directly to my good friends bands CD release party. It was pretty much perfect. Within 2 hours of getting off the plane I was in a pub in downtown Vancouver with heaps of the best friends you could ask for. As if that wasn't good enough, they had another show the next night in Chilliwack. It certainly felt amazing to be home.

Traveling in the mountains of Nepal has left me amazed and wanting to explore more of the giant mountains close to home. Whether its the Selkirks, Monashees, Purcells, Valhalla range, Rockies, Coast mtns, Cascades or the Yukon and Alaska, I feel compelled to get out there and discover what adventures await me in my own backyard.

One thing I've learned is that Canada, and BC in particular, is the best place to live in the world. I think I'll travel to the far reaches of the world and be amazed and love every minute of it and do it again and again. But when it comes down to it I'll always come back home. I'm a BC boy who loves the mountains, the ocean, the people and everything west coast.

From Thailand to Indonesia

So, I've just spent the last week and bit in Thailand and have since flown to Indonesia.

The last week in Thailand I spent about 5 days on the island of Ko Tao doing some Scuba diving. Now, I figured "oh yeah, sure I'll go try scuba diving, that will be all right I guess." Well it was more than all right, it was unreal! I did the four day open water certification, which was super fun. Spent the first afternoon doing some lectures, followed by more lectures the next morning. Then in the afternoon we went into the pool to practice some skills. Being in the pool was enough for me to get a kick out of. Taking your first breath underwater is a bit of a surreal experience. At first everything in your body is telling you not to breath. But you trust your regulator and take that first deep breath, followed by an exhale which is almost weirder as the bubbles seem at first a bit violent when they rush past your face mask streaking for the bleary surface. Once you get over the initial weirdness of it it becomes more natural and relaxing. The next morning was more lectures (who knew there was so much theory in SCUBA diving?) followed by our first open water dives in the afternoon. We hopped onto the boat half not knowing what to expect and headed for Mango Bay. We checked and rechecked our equipment and made sure we were all good to go and then took our first Giant Leap off the boat into the water. The diving was amazing, we had about 15m of visibility, which isn't as good as it gets there, but was still really clear. We did two more dives the next morning going down to a depth of 18m. On all the dives I saw the most amazing things. From brightly coloured anemones to sea snakes, to clown fish, barracudas, eels, manta rays, and a million other neon fish. Not to mention the Coral. Scuba diving really introduces you to an entirely new world. So much of the planet is covered by ocean and it's amazing to think about the seemingly unknowable diversity in life which inhabits the big deep blue.

After Ko Tao I headed for Bangkok for a day. Didn't get around too much as I had only really heard bad things about the place. Mainly just stuck to the touristy district I was staying in and took a "tuk tuk" around to a few different temples. I also managed to see a Muay Thai kickboxing fight that night which was really cool too see.

But, my unplanned 12 day excursion to Thailand came to an end on 20th as I flew out to Hong Kong and then onto Bali, Indonesia, where I currently am. I essentially came here for the surfing as it is world renowned. I'm in a really big tourist city called Kuta. The surf here is pretty sweet. A nice mellow beach break, perfect to hone my skills on my newly acquired board. The city of Kuta itself is a poorly planned, overly crowded and confusingly layed out trap set up for people to suck money out of you via osmosis. But I found myself a bungalow somewhat near the beach for 8 dollars a night (including banana pancakes for breakfast)and met some cool people. So that's sweet. I plan on being here for a couple of days, and then I'm going to head out to a quiter island called Lombok. We'll see what happens as far as that goes.

Either way, I can't really complain too much. After all, the water's warm, the surfs up and bikinis are still in style.

Railay, Thailand

Look closely, near the top.


Ok, So I just spent the last 3 nights at Railay, a collection of beaches on a cool peninsula on the Adaman coast of Thailand. It was super nice and extremely beautiful. The water here is unbelieveably warm. I spent most of the time enjoying hanging out on the beach and exploring the peninsula. I also managed to do a day of rock climbing. I wish I would have brought my own climbing gear, because I would have stayed there forever climbing everyday if I did. Unfortunealty it costs too much money to rent gear to justify staying there for longer to climb more. It's really interesting climbing there though, all the rock is limestone which is much different than the granite I'm used to. Lots of cool stalactites to climb!

So now that my arms are sufficiently sore and my hands torn up enough, I've moved on from Railay. Currently I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Ao Nang, waiting for my bus to take me to Surat Thani, from there I am going to catch a night ferry to the tiny island of Ko Tao. I'll arrive in Ko Tao tomorrow morning at 5 am. Ko Tao is located off the eastern coast of southern Thailand in the Gulf of the South China Sea. Ko Tao is famous for amazing scuba diving, which is why I am going there. I plan on doing the four day Open Water diving certifciation course. Here is the explanation of what we do given to me from the Scuba Planet Website.

"PADI programs are performance based. You proceed as you demonstrate mastery of the course skills. This allows you to work at a pace that is comfortable for you. We generally conduct our courses over a relaxed 4 days schedule, with the first day spent learning the basic knowledge required for safe diving, the second morning you complete your quizes and knowledge development and then in the afternoon it is time for your first dives practicing in a shallow bay , with the last day and a half conducting your Open Water Training Dives."

http://www.planet-scuba.net/kohtao/


So, hopefully that all goes well. Im super excited about trying something totally new. After I am done diving on Ko Tao I plan on heading to Bangkok for a day or two before I fly out to Indo. Thats all for now. Hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving! Eat lots of Turkey and Pumpkin Pie for me. Take Care.

Brett

Flying out

So here is the update. Since the last time I posted I have done a couple different things.

I spent a day renting a motorcycle and riding all around the Pohkara Valley. That was heaps of fun as it really allowed me to get out on my own and experience Pohkara away from the touristy areas. I drove out to Bengas Tal, a lake a ways away from the city of Pohkara where they engage in fish farming. So it was interesting to see that. The same day was the biggest Festival in Nepal called Dashain. It's like their Christmas apparently. At least relative to the importance of the event and not the materialism. So for lunch I came back to the hostel where I was staying and received a traditional blessing from the hostel owner. Rice died bright red was pressed between my eyes above the bridge of my nose and grass placed in my ear. This is supposed to give you good luck from once of the Hindu gods.
After that I rode my motorcycle to the International Mountain Museum and browsed around at the collection of information regarding the worlds highest mountains, a lot of very interesting information. Lasty, I spent the latter part of the day riding around on some really nice roads that bordered the beautiful lake and zig zaged its way up a mountain side over looking the lake.

Unfortunately you will have to use your imagination about what this looked like as I have managed to delete every photo I have taken up to this point off of my camera, gone forever. A little while ago I was trying to upload some of these pictures when the computer I was using malfunctioned and had to be restarted, when I disconnected my camera from the computer, all the photos were subsequently deleted. And no I didn't have them backed up...Every photo I've taken since I left home is gone.

The day after I rented the motorcycle I went on a three day kayaking trip on the seti river. It was super fun, lots of big rapids, great friends and great guides. We slept on the sandy river bank for two nights. It was a relaxing time, when we weren't on the river at least. The three days certainly allowed me to work on my paddling skills and I definitely felt tested by the class 3+ rapids.

After the Kayaking trip, I arrived back in Pohkara on the second. I still had some time till I fly out tonight so went to Sadhana Yoga retreat. I only ended up spending one full day there as I found it to be a bit hokey and I had serious cabin fever and needed to get back on the move. So at around 9 pm on the 3rd I booked a two night three day trip to Chitwan National Park which left the next morning at 7 am.

Chitwan National Park is essentially a jungle located in the southern "Terai" region of Nepal, bordering India. It was a Jungle Safari tour package I bought so all my activities were laid out for me. When I arrive that afternoon, I was taken on a Jungle walk where I saw many different birds. We then went to the elephant stables and saw some massive elephants. That was definitely really cool to see them for the first time. After that we headed to the museum where I read about the policy and initiatives of the National Park which I found to be quite interesting. That night ended with hanging out along the rivers edge watching an amazing sunset over the Terai and attending a Tharu(Native People of the Terai region) cultural dance show. The next day I went to the elephant breeding centre where I got to see and touch baby elephants! That was really cool. I want one for keeps. I also got to go check out a traditional Tharu village where the people live very simply in mud and grass huts. Later on I went to see the elephants being washed by their masters in the river. This was really cool. People were riding the elephants into the water and getting soaked. Quite entertaining to watch. Then it was time for an elephant safari where I rode an elephant into the Jungle looking for the elusive Rhinoceros. We tromped around atop a 30 year old adult elephant named Junga for an hour and a half. We saw a fair few deer but were unable to find any Rhinos. Since I was unable to see any Rhino's the Hotel owner let me go on a Jeep Safari with another group later that night. We spent about 3 hours driving around in the Jungle, which was really cool. We saw peacocks, deer, crocodiles and many birds but no Rhinos! Oh well. The next morning I headed out for Kathmandu.

Seven hour bus ride later and I'm back in Kathmandu. I arrived last night in advance for my flight to Hong Kong tonight and subsequently to Bangkok tomorrow night. I fly out of Kathmandu to HK tonight at 2315 and arrive in HK 0750 local time. Then I have till 2135 till I fly to Bangkok. So I think I am going to try to go into Hong Kong for the day to see the city at least. Ill be in Thailand until the 20th of Oct, when I fly back to Hong Kong to catch my connecting flight to Indonesia on the 21st. Haven't had much time to research what to do in Thailand, but I bought a guide book last night and I think Im going to take a cheap domestic flight to the Krabi province where there is excellent rock climbing and amazing beaches. So I will spend a few days there and then head over to South East Thailand where there is supposed to be excellent dive sites. After that I will probably head back to Bangkok and hope to catch a Muay Thai Kickboxing fight that are such a part of thai culture and maybe participate in a Muay Thai Camp for a day or two (where you take classes and learn about Muay Thai). Thats all for now! Hope everyone is doing well at home, please feel free to comment below and let me know what your up to.

Brett

Update and More Pics

Pics

On the Trail from Jomsom to Mutkinath. This part of the country is obviously very dry. You can see three tiny specs on the trail who are the three Americans we have been travelling with. We got stuck in an intense dust storm walking through this river plain which felt like it took forever.

Our stuck bus

Crazy people who ride on top of the bus

Pokhara

In Pokhara, Finished Trek

So were in Pokhara now. Spent the last two days taking jeeps and buses. Roads here were intense. At one point we decided to get off the bus and walk after it got stuck in the mud. And just before that we went over the sketchiest part of the road where were way too close to tipping off the edge of the road off a cliff into a raging river. Luckily we made it here after spending a night in Tatopani and enjoying the hotsprings. We decided not to hike up to Ghorepani yesterday as it was raining all night and all morning. Instead we opted for the harrowing bus and jeep ride. Either way I made it to here. The city is much nicer than Kathmandu and I feel the need to go explore this city. For some reason my photos wont upload right now. Will try again later.

Brett