Gong Xi Fa Chai

Location: Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia
Local Time: Monday, Jan 30, 2006 - 1:58pm

A local told me that sometimes people arrive here expecting some little jungle spot. Kuala Lumpur is an amazing city, as beautiful or more so than Vancouver. The Petronas Towers are tall. I have not yet been up to the Skybridge. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do that.

I visited Swensen's the afternoon of the day I got here. Apparently it is an American chain, though I have only seen it in Thailand and now Malaysia. I had the regular sized Earthquake. What is that? A whole lot of amazing icecream!

Icecream in Nepal was lacking. Since there were frequent power outages, the icecream would often melt and refreeze. And they would keep selling it of course.

This icecream was fabulous. With wonderful toppings of strawberries, pineapple, chocolate, whip cream and marishino cherries.

I had to leave 2 teaspoons in the bowl. It was just too much.

Yesterday I was at an amuzement park with some friends. I tried a couple rides, had some really good mandarin orange cheesecake with Moroccoan Mint Tea. In the evening, I watched a movie in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center) which is at the bottom of the Petronas Towers.

Fearless, starring Jet Li was the movie. It was alright, good martial arts.

Couple of quick translations to Malay:

taxi -> teksi
restaurant -> restoran

Long Bus Ride

Location: Kuala Lumpur
Local Time: Saturday, Jan 28, 2006 - 9:55am

My journey started the night before last, so about 36 hours ago. I had dinner with Seth in Thong Sala, Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand. I caught the overnight ferry from Thong Sala to Surat Thani. Basically, a double decker boat with half height roofs and padding on the floor where you could lay down.

Still, all in all, that was alright. I had a lovely sleep as we made our way back to the mainland.

We got there about 5am, and I piled into the back of a pickup to go to the travel agency where I waited for 2 hours before my minibus left for Haad Yai, which is a central bus terminal several hours drive away. While waiting I got to see American Pie, Band Camp. You might as well skip that movie.

In Haad Yai, I transfered to a VIP bus. The difference between a VIP bus and a mini? The mini makes more stops. Both are basically long vans converted to have 3 rows of 3 seats behind the driver. The distance between the back rest of one seat and the seat ahead is about the length from my thigh bone, from the hip joint to the knee joint. Unfortunately I have padding on the outside of each of those joints.

The VIP bus took us to the Thai/Malaysian border. There I passed through Thai customs and got back on the bus to be taken about 1 km to the Malaysian customs. Anyway, I filled in a form, which warned me drug smuggling into Malaysia carries the death penalty, gave it to the nice lady and she stamped my passport.

Bang! I can legally stay in Malaysia for 3 months. Welcome to Malaysia she says.

Next, onto a NEW VIP bus which carried me to Butterworth. There I was told my connecting bus would arrive in 5 hours to take me to Kuala Lumpur. Okay. I walked around a bit, grabbed some food, had a nap on the bench.

Things started hopping around the travel agencies around 10pm with lots of people showing up and more buses. When I got there at 6, there had been no buses at all.

At 11, I found out my bus wasn't coming. Some indeterminate thing had happened to prevent it's arrival, and now I had to wait some indeterminate amount of time for another, as yet undecided, bus.

Well, it was 2am before I got out of there. It worked out well though. I hit KL at 6:30am. The bus terminal area was already hopping, so I just skipped a hotel for the night and started walking. I've been walking around KL (Kuala Lumpur) now for almost 4 hours. I've been to see the Petronas Towers. They are tall. Some of you (more cultured folk) may remember that the Petronas Towers appeared in the movie Entrapment, staring Sean Connery and Katherine Zeta-Jones. That is where the bank was they had to rob, and the area where they were high up in the sky going from one tower to another is called the Sky Bridge, I think.

So far, Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful city, cleaner than Vancouver, though not as clean as Singapore.

Advanced Diver

Location: Haad Yao, Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Local Time: Jan 25, 2006 - 6:36pm

Well, I finished off two more dives today. A deep dive to 30m, and a multi-level dive, planned with the wheel, a plastic PADI device worth over $20CND that allows you to plan safe dives at multiple depths during the dive. That finishes the necessary dives for my course, so now, I'm an Advanced Diver.

I'm feeling very advanced.

Seth and I were talking to the dive instructor, Michel LeBlanc. He has been living in Thailand for 6 years now. Originally from Holland, he had a middle management troubleshooting job, but decided he liked living in Thailand better. Now he's a dive instructor. He lived on Ko Tao for 2 years, and on Ko Pha Ngan for 4 years now.

Apparently PADI (the dive organization that arranges the criteria, materials and testing) has changed the rules starting this year. The dive schools use to have a bunch of books and so forth that they used for giving lessons. If you really wanted, you could buy the books for yourself, but it wasn't necessary.

Now, starting this year, you must purchase the PADI materials, books, computers, accessories, etc, for each course. This will make each PADI course more expensive as the dive schools will pass this cost on to students, and, if you are like me and travelling for an extended period of time, you will end up with a bunch of materials that have to be discarded or shipped home at more cost.

Bit of a pain in the butt. Reminds me of working at Creo. During my last year there, it was always about how we could charge the customer for something. The idea of service had been abandoned in favor of more money.

Apparently some people feel PADI stands for Put Another Dollar In. I always thought it was Pay And Dive Immediately.

Colorful Fish

Location: Haad Yao, Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Local Time: Jan 24, 2006 - 8:27pm

Well, I'm back from another fine day of diving. That is, the diving was good, the weather was bad.

It's raining here. What's the deal? Don't they know I came for the sunshine?

Actually, the rain is fine, I rather like it. However, with the clouds, there is a bit of a drop in temperature. I like to dive when it is warm over the water, that way when I climb out of the water, slightly cold from prolonged exposure to water at least a couple degrees cooler than my skin, the sun is beating down on me like a hammer, and the sea water evaporates right off my skin in moments. Perfect.

As it was, I actually had to put a sweater on between dives.

However, when I was last diving in Canada, I remember a guy on the dive trip told me he decided to buy a dry suit the day he was shaking the ice out of his wetsuit before pulling it on.

It's definately not that bad here. In fact, it is quite luxurious by comparison.

Two more dives tomorrow.

Found Them

Location: Haad Yao (west), Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Local Time: Monday, Jan 23, 2006 - 5:26pm

I found them. On Haad Yao (a town), the one on the western side of the island of Ko Pha Ngan.

I got here yesterday afternoon, in time to say hello, lounge in the sun, swim, play frisbe, eat barberqued fish on the beach and say goodbye to Ikuko who has left to go to northern Thailand.

I went on a refresher diving course today. Two dives at a place called Sailor's Rock, about 1 hour, 20 minute boat ride from Ko Pha Ngan. I was diving with only a shortie, that would be wetsuit body without arms and legs. Canada is so cold you need a full body wetsuit and it must be thick. The water down here is fairly warm, even 15m down.

Which is another change. Here, air pressure in your tank is in bars, not PSI, depths are in meters, not feet. Canada is really only half metric, if that.

Ko Pha Ngan

Location: Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Local Time: Sunday, Jan 21, 2006 - 8:14pm

Well, I sat in the sunshine on the beach for a while this morning. Read a book. Another of the Tom Clancy NetForce books. They are getting boring. Heath, the Australian guy I'm travelling with, has promised to trade me for his Jack Keroac book, Desolation Angels, when he's done. I hope he hurries up. There is a bookstore here, but if I buy books as fast as I read them, I spend more on books in a day than on accomodation.

In the afternoon I went hiking in the hills, trying to make my way over to some of the more isolated areas. I started to late in the afternoon, so I didn't make it all the way, but turned back when faced with advancing darkness.

I still haven't found Seth and Ikuko. They are at Hat Yao, on the island. However, there seems to be 2 Hat Yao's on the island.

I'm here, there, ummm

Location: Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand
Local Time: Friday, Jan 20, 2006 - 7:18pm

Well, I did the calculations and decided to buy a ticket from Kathmandu direct to Bangkok, Thailand. I entirely skipped Delhi and Singapore and now I'm north of Malaysia instead of south as I thought I would be.

Oh, well. Bangkok looks interesting, but I was only there for about 1 day. The food is amazing. Best food I've had since leaving Canada, maybe even before that.

I caught an overnight train out of Bangkok last night and slept in the sleeper car. I'm travelling with an Australian, Heath, that I met in Kathmandu at the Buddhist meditation center. By coincidence, we ended up on the same flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok, and he decided that a week and a half on the beach on a Thai island would be alright with him.

On the overnight train we met a couple girls from Denmark, Tania and Laura, travelling to Ko Tao, an island north of where we are now. They left the train at about 6am and we got off at about 9am. I think sleeper trains are a great way to travel. Sleep a few hours and you are somewhere.

From the trainstation we caught a bus into Surat Thani, then waited 2 hours in town until the bus left for the ferry. Rode 2.5 hours on the ferry and then 15 minutes on a converted pickup truck with benches in the back, then another 15 minutes in the back of someone's pickup out to Leela's beach, complete with bamboo bungaloos. And I swam in the ocean. It's not as warm as I expected.

Seth and Ikuko, two people I met in Nepal, should be around on the island somewhere. I'm going looking for them tomorrow.

Otta here, umm...

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Jan 16, 2006 - 10:28am

Well, I made it to the airline office yesterday. I was able to move up my ticket from Feb 19 to Jan 29. That is still 2 weeks from now, darn it. I was sort of hoping I could get a ticket for tomorrow.

Oh, well. I'm going to grab a Thailand guide today. Obviously I have big, big plans.

Saturday Afternoon in Kathmandu

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Sunday, Jan 15, 2006 - 11:39am

Well, I didn't do much yesterday. Gilignche's was closed, so I didn't have a nice plate of momo's. Today hopefully.

Went to meditation at the center. Mark, the guy who was there before, has gone to India for a few months. His temporary replacement is Simone, recently emerged from a 1 month retreat at Kopan Monastery. As coincidence would have it, she knows Seth, Tammy, Sara and Gilean, all the people I know who went to Kopan. Strange, strange.

Kathmandu, Man ...

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - 5:??pm

Hi all. Apologies to my regular readers for the lack of posting. I went from lots of free Internet to 100Rs ($2 CND) / hour in Pokhara. It was a little hard to take, so I didn't pay, knowing I could get it for 15Rs ($0.50 CND) / hour in Kathmandu.

My time in Pokhara was as Pokhara is, relaxing, nothing to do but eat, drink orange juice and read. I was spending more each day on books than on accomodation. Though not more than I spent on orange juice.

I also had lemon juice, unsweetened. Really good stuff, highly recommended.

I should have been here yesterday, but I was sick yesterday night. Probably too much orange juice.

Anyway, I made it to Kathmandu. The trip only took 9 hours to get the 250km. I tell you, it was quite exhilerhating to hit one of the downhill straight stretches and feel the bus struggle up to a mightly 70km / hour.

Of course, I am in the middle of the Himalayas, and straight stretches are not normal. There was at least 2, I think.

Back in Kathmandu I was quickly accosted by 3 or 4 taxi drivers, trying to get me to pay them to take me the 10 minute walk to Thamel. They are very tricky too. They often start off with, where are you from, to draw you into to idle conversation. From there is is all down hill.

This is a very quiet time for tourism, especially in Pokhara. The shopkeepers are a little more desperate for your business, they sit out on the streets calling to you as you go by. The lights of the stores are off, only turned on if someone goes in to browse.

I went back to the Buddhist center in Pokhara to visit Ven. Yeshi, the American Buddhist monk who teachs there. He is taking a break in January but will be resuming classes in Feburary, for any of you who might be wandering through the area.

He was telling me that 2000 was a really big year for tourism, and many of the people along Lakeside, the touristy area, borrowed money from the bank for expansions. When the tourism fell off after that, the bank didn't want to foreclose, so they continue to carry the loans, even if people can't quite make the payments.

I'm Back ...

Location: Pokhara, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Jan 9, 2005

I made it. I'm out of Nangi, and drinking lots and lots of orange juice. Fresh squeezed of course.

I had a fabulous (well, at least quite good) baked spagetti with cheese yesterday.

One complaint. I have been gone for 2 months, (well, almost) and now I'm back, and you know what, they are still playing Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I do not understand. It is not that good. There are 3 restaurants that play movies in the evening here, and for the 2 nights I have been here, Mr. and Mrs. Smith has played 3 times. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, twice. Brother's Grimm once. Do these people have no originality?

I renewed my visa yesterday so I don't have to panick about getting out of the country. I have another month to arrange it instead of less than a week. I'm a little concerned about the fog at the airport in Delhi. It comes and it goes and it is preventing planes from landing. I would like to make my connection in Delhi the same day I arrive, but if they don't let my plane land, I would miss my connection.

Said goodbye to Milan yesterday. He's going to buy some art supplies then go back to Nangi to train some of the people there in producing some artistic works he thinks can be sold.

I've been catching up on my reading. I read a couple of trashy novels. Net Force, created by Tom Clancy and someone else.

Also, The Celestine Prophecy, which Shelby recommended to me a couple months ago. Very interesting.

A Tournament

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Friday, Jan 6, 2006 - 7:13am

No, no jousting.

The girls and boys volleyball teams arrived from Histan last night to participate in the tournament today. It is about 9 hours steady walking to get to Histan from here.

As is typical in Nangi, the visitors were dispersed among the various houses and hostels. The hostels are the 1 room shacks where the kids who board stay.

There was 1 extra room in the roundhouse where I am, so a couple girls slept there for the night.

The Roundhouse where I stay

This morning, as I exited the roundhouse, I noticed some work happening on the basketball court. As I got closer I noticed they had dug new lines in the basket ball court, and two holes where they were going to put posts to hold the volleyball net.

Basketball Court before it's changes

When I say they had dug new lines, I mean, the basketball court is dirt. The lines that mark the boundaries are 1 inch trenches. So, they had dug new trenches on the court where the lines for the volleyball court would be.

There should be a teams from a couple more villages coming I am told. However, the other villages are nearby, probably only 2 - 3 hours walk away. They will walk here this morning.

Another Day ...

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Thursday, Jan 5, 2005 - 5:57pm

Peter left today in the morning. He'll walk to Beni, then take a taxi from there to Pokhara. Soon after to Kathmandu. He's trying to fly to Delhi, just like I will in a couple of weeks.

Delhi, unfortunately, is fogged in right now, and they are re-routing planes to alternative landing points, and there are many delays. I hope this all clears up before I try to get out of here. I'll be trying to make a connection in Delhi, so being delayed would suck.

I spent the day talking about IP routing and routing tables and router configuration. As the time for me to leave grows close, my knowledge is suddenly much in demand.

I tried to make cinimon rolls today, but I used chapati dough, and that doesn't bake very well at all. They were all eaten, so I guess they weren't too bad, but nothing like my grandma's cinimon rolls.

Quick Snack

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Wednesday, Jan 4, 2005 - 4:28pm

So, a guy wandered by the school yesterday. He had a big basket on his back, the kind they use around here instead of backpacks. It was mostly empty when he got here, but he still had a couple bags left. Bread. Buns. Tasty, edible objects made of white flour.

He lives in a village a couple hours walk away, and every so often brings a basket of bread over this way to sell.

40Rs ($0.80 CND) for a bag of buns. The school even bought them for us. Living here has been really cheap. When I was first looking for places to volunteer, I found lots of places that charge a mere $2000 for a month of volunteer service.

Here, my big expenses have been the 100Rs ($2 CND) every 2 weeks I spend to get a bottle of pop and a pile of biscuits (cookies to those of us not speaking the Queens English.)

Well, anyway, this morning, as part of breakfast, I broke one of the buns into bite sized snacks, whipped an egg in a bowl, dipped the pieces in the egg and fried them in oil.

It was pretty tasty.

Over The Shoulder

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Wednesday, Jan 4, 2006 - 3:30pm

One of the most annoying Nepali traits has got to be the way they will stand behind you and read your e-mail over your shoulder. I'm pretty sure this is a cultural trait, as they see nothing wrong with this. They are never embarrassed when you turn to stare at them in annoyance. In fact, they will occassionally ask you questions about your e-mail.

A Moment

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Wednesday, Jan 4, 2005 - 7:25am

I found this entry in my journal from two months ago and I was reminded.

Shodo paintings [cursive calligraphy] are like pictures of the subconcious mind. They are not final statements, but rather instant snapshots of the personality at the time of writing. That personality can be developed and strengthened through Ki practice. On the other hand, careless calligraphy is also a form of practice, reinforcing bad habits and stunting the growth of the personality.

- William Reed

The things we do, make, practice, whether that is martial arts, book binding, music or programming, are the same. There is no perfect program, it is a record, a snapshot, a writing of how you think at the moment you make it.

Show a leather bound, gold tooled book to someone and they are amazed. If I made it, I can easily show you all the things that are wrong with it.

That does not make it wrong or poorly made. It is a representation of a moment, an expression of an instant, frozen in time for observation.

Kelly MacLean once told me that a student told her that her Tai Chi form wasn't the same as it was 5 years before. She responded, "I hope not." A martial art is a living tradition, represented in the people who practice it. A martial artist's skill changes as he or she learns, as the martial artist evolves, so does the form, the external representation. Each performance is a snapshot, a moment.

The things we do, the efforts we make, the changes we effect are instantaneous expressions of ourselves. Do not dispair if that which is done seems done wrong, the effort seems insufficient, the change is incomplete. Devote your energy to the moment in which you are. Whatever was done before is a representation of a previous moment. You are no longer that person.

Goodies

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2006 - 6:16pm

Well, last night a volunteer arrived from Nangi. With him he brought the Christmas presents Tammy bought for Milan and I in Pokhara. Mail is slow here. Tammy left the country over two weeks ago. The presents were sitting at the Pun Hill Guest House, waiting until someone showed up to bring them here.

Anyway, I was blessed with 1L of orange juice, and a white chocolate Toblerone. Life is good.

Thank you Tammy.

Oops ...

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2006 - 6:16pm

Comment moderation was accidentally turned on, so some of you entered comments but did not see them appear on the blog. All comments have been approved, and moderation has been turned off.

Warm Weather

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Jan 2, 2006 - 9:31am

Well, the weather has warmed up nicely. The very morning I had borrowed a camera to take pictures of the frosty grass, there was no frosty grass. In fact, there is hardly any frost at all.

I even took off a couple sweaters yesterday, basking in the glowing warmth of the sun. It was pretty amazing.

We had apple pie for dinner last night. There is a kind of stove top oven here, and Milan wanted to try the recipe in the book.

I didn't have the heart to tell him apple pie is desert. Not dinner.

Photo Op.

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Sunday, Jan 1, 2006 - 9:45am

I just got this photo, so I'm posting it now. It was taken over 2 weeks ago when the other 3 volunteers were leaving.



From left to right that is:

• me


• Matt (from Australia, plays guitar, currently in China)


• Tim (Tammy's nephew, worked on the compost toilet, plans on wind surfing in India)


• Tammy (moving to Calgary when she gets back to Canada at the end of January)


• Milan (Slovakian, also plays guitar, teaches drawing classes here at the school.)

Happy New Year

Location: Nangi, Nepal
Local Time: Sunday, Jan 1, 2005 - 7:51am

Well, another year begins. This year I resolve to finish what I start.

It was another thouroughly uneventful evening in Nangi. Yesterday was the day off for the week, so it was laundry day. Unfortunately the bucket was busy, so I didn't get to wash my laundry. I'll probably take a moment to do that today.

I closed down the computer lab at about 7:30, an hour after Internet access was gone. Then, I cooked a rather unpleasant soup to have for dinner. In an effort to make a thick soup base without any soup stock, I sauted some onions and garlic, then added a little flour to the oil and then water to that. Unfortunately too much flour, and, as some of you undoubtedly know, flour and oil are gravy. Except good gravy is made from oils produced from cooking meat, not from cooking oil out of a bottle.

It was edible, but not savoury.

Fortunately Milan had cooked some bread and a nice pudding earlier, so that helped smooth out my disappointment.