Overland Truck: 20 Days from Cape Town to Victoria Falls

So I was in Cape Town and not really sure how I wanted to travel around Africa yet, and when I was looking around the internet a lot people mentioned these overland trucks. They take a bunch of travellers from point A to point B, stopping at all the highlights, and camping along the way. I was a bit torn because I knew that I probably wouldn’t like the pace of travel (too fast) and the lack of any type of cultural interaction, because you’re only hanging out with people on the truck and usually staying at campsites, away from the towns and people. On the other hand they sounded like a lot fun! You get to meet tons of new people, and not just for a few days at a time. Plus it sounded like public transportation in Namibia and Botswana wasn’t very good, as they are very sparsely populated countries and the best way to see them is to rent a car. So seeing that I didn’t have people to rent a car with at the time, I decided on booking the truck at the last minute.  

What the inside of the truck looks like, with not so many people

So we all met at the office at 7am, March 3, to fill out paperwork and make payments and get ready to go. There were 24 of us altogether. It’s a bit awkward at first because you’ve got so many people who have never met before and you’re learning so many names all at once, which just go in through one in ear and out the other. But everyone seemed friendly and most people were around my age, mostly late 20’s to late 30’s. And Even one couple who looked well into their 60’s. We were all assigned lockers, which is where we’d put our big backpacks, did the introductions with our driver and cook, and headed off!

First stop: The Mall! Time to stock up on snacks and especially water. The 5 liter jugs would be bought many times over on this trip. I attempted to buy some anti-malaria pills but they wouldn’t let me without a doctors prescription, so that would have to wait. But we wouldn’t be getting into any malarial areas until northern Namibia, so I had some time. I think I was the only person on the whole truck who hadn’t gotten these in advance. But I already knew ahead of time which pills I wanted because I’ve taken them before, so it seemed silly to waste a day in Cape Town going to the doctor. I just had to find a pharmacy that would let me buy them!

After the mall we got one last photo of the city from across the bay, and then it was a full day of driving. Later that afternoon we  learned what the term bushy-bushy was, which would be our side of the road bathroom stops, where you have to hide behind the bushes. Definitely helps being a guy in this regard! We reached our campsite around 5pm and learned how to put up our tents, which was pretty straightforward. They were big, sturdy canvas tents with thick metal poles, probably weighing 30 pounds?! Not exactly like the tents I’m used to camping. It was two to a tent, so I teamed up with Daniel, a Spanish guy, to be tent-mates. And as for the campsite, I was kind of expecting the camp sites to be just a large patch of dirt with just the truck, the tents and maybe a fire. But the campsites in general would be much much nicer than I had expected, this one having an enclosed area with a stocked fridge and toilets, wifi (crappy), a pool, and a little banquet room. So about half of us bought some beers and headed off to the pool. Not surprisingly this group of people would be the ones I’d be spending the better chunk of my time of the trip with!

After the pool it was time for some South African wine tasting and dinner, which gave us another chance to attempt and learn everyone’s names and nationalities. We had a good mix: A sprinkling of Canadians, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, Singaporean, British, and then six Dutch and six Germans. And one American! And out the crew, almost half were solo travellers and no group was larger than 3, which is a good set up for mingling and hanging out together as a group. It looked like it was going to be a good trip! We’d head up to the border of Namibia the next day, to do some canoeing (which was insanely hot), and then cross over the border into the dry nothingingness that is most of Namibia!

Around the Cape

I decided that I wanted to check out some of the places around Cape Town, and I found a scooter rental company online, so I decided that would be the easiest way. The company didn't seem to have an actual office, which was a bit strange, but we met up in front of a big hotel, did some paperwork and I was on my way. The weather was sunny and 70's, very nice driving weather. My plan was to work my way all the way around the coast for about 200 miles total and end up in a town called Hermanus, where they have the great white shark diving. The roads along the cape are in great shape and the views (as you can see from above) are fantastic of course. Passing all the cyclists on the road I became jealous of all the Cape Towners who have scenery like just out their back door. 

Along the coast I passed by beaches for sunbathing, beaches for surfing, and more remote beaches with rolling sand dunes and windsurfers out in the distance. I have never seen such drop dead gorgeous scenery located so close to a major metropolitan area! I stopped for a bit to check out the dunes for a bit and had a bite to eat in a trendly little restaurant before continuing on. Further on along the coastal rode I stopped to check out some sort of commotion with hundreds of birds flocking overhead. There was a truck parked on the beach and people were hauling in tons of fishes with big nets, pouring them into a basket, and dumping them into the back of truck. There seemed to be one surly man in charge barking orders, all the while little black kids would be running up to the nets and trying to steal a few fishes before get chased off by this one very angry man. It was entertaining to say the least!

fishermen along the coast

filling the truck up with fish

Continuing on the beach road the winds were really howling off the cape, and I was beginning to regret being on the scooter as the winds were ripping sand off the dunes and whipping it across the road, which was really stinging my bare skin. I put on a long sleeve shirt, but I didn't pack any pants, so I would just have to endure it. Plus some of the wind gusts were so strong that it felt l was going to get pushed off the road at some points. I just got as low and aerodynamic as I could and pressed onward. Finally I got away from the beach road and back on to the main road. On the interior I passed some of the townships, which appeared to be tin shacks stretching for miles and miles. Eventually the road went back to the coast and I rode through another scenic beach town and back on to another amazing road that wound its way along the rocky outcroppings overlooking the ocean. Such good driving! Well at least until the winds picked up again! After two hours of battling a crazy strong wind I finally arrived in the sleepy beach town of Hermanus and checked into the backpackers as it was getting dark. Long day!

more coastal road towards hermanus

I was hoping to do the shark diving the next day but apparently the waters were too choppy, so it would have to wait until the next day. I was told there was a penguin colony some 30 miles away so I decided to check that out instead. It was a good place to spend a few hours watching the penguins do their thing.

the penguins at Queensbai

The next day the shark diving was on! Now it's not really diving, but that's what they call. Basically you drive out in a pretty big boat and they find the shark and chum the waters to get the sharks around the boat. There is a cage on the side of the boat that you go in wearing a wetsuit and dive mask. When the shark gets close everyone puts their head under the water to see the shark coming up to the cage and going by. The visibility isn't very good so you need the shark to be very close. But It's a pretty big rush seeing the great white swimming only a few feet away from you!

Sometimes the shark will even smash into the cage as it is trying to get the bait that is set out for it. Or sometimes they pull the bait out of the water at just the right time and you can see the shark come out of the water with its jaws ablazing, trying get the bait. Really cool to see! Although you can only stay in the water for so long, because it's freezing in there, even with the thick wetsuits. Then you can warm up on the top deck of the boat and watch the sharks circling the boat from a higher vantage point. So it was a fun way to spend the afternoon! It never really felt dangerous at any point, but maybe a bit startling when the crash hit the cage when you weren't expecting it to! It was something that was worth doing, but now that I've done it, it's not something I would do again I think.

Great white getting close to the cage

breaking the surface!

That afternoon I rode back around the coast to a quaint little coastal village called Simonstown. I was hoping to do some scuba diving with the 7 gilled cowsharks and check out the sea lion colony. Sadly the water was too choppy for the sea lions, but the cowsharks would still be okay. And it turned out to be an awesome dive! It was first cold water dive, so it was a little strange getting used to such a thick wetsuit, and the vest, and the hood, and all the extra weight, but after a minute or two it was fine. The diving itself is in a kelp forest, and its kind of dark, so it gives a kind of eery feeling. And then there's sharks cruising through! The cowsharks are about 10-12 feet long and will swim very close to you! It almost looks like they're eyeing you down. We saw about 20 of these sharks in our dive. It's one of my favorite dives so far! 

The next day I took by time driving back along the coast and checked back into the hostel that afternoon. The next morning I would hop on an overland bus with 22 other people that would take us up through Namibia and Botswana, ending in Victoria Falls!

Last second decision: Cape Town!

In Bali I decided that although I still love Asia, I really wanted to experience a place that I wasn't used to at all.  So I switched up my plans for the following 3 months and bought a ticket to Cape Town. Time to get a taste of Africa! Nine hours to Dubai (and sadly not a long enough layover to get out of the airport and take a look at the city) and another nine hours to Cape Town. As we approached the city on the plane I was craning my neck hard to look through the window because the glimpses of the city nestled in the mountains looked absolutely gorgeous!

At the airport I had no problem at the ATM, which is always a bit of a worry whenever you fly to a new continent. So I was all loaded up on South African Rands. The only public transportation into the city was a bus, which had surprisingly few people waiting for it and took almost 30 minutes to arrive at the stop. But once on the bus everything was straightforward. Just like in the States most of the people riding it were either black or foreigners. I got dropped off a few blocks away from the hostel, dropped off my stuff, and started hiking up the nearby hill to catch a glimpse of the sun setting over the city, and it was a damn good one! The city itself really is beautiful.

After a few days I wrote down some of my first impressions:

The city doesn’t really seem to have much of a downtown, the main bar restaurant strip (Long Street) was a bit sketchy. But seems to have little pockets of nice bar/restaurant areas.

Even though the city seemed pretty safe to me, the locals warn you not to walk places at night, so you just cab it around everywhere at night.

The dollar is strong against the rand! For the quality of food you were getting in restaurants, the price was very good value. A dollar now gets you twice as much as did in 2008. So it’s a good time to travel to South Africa!

Burgers are big! There seemed to be quite a lot of burger places, and all of them packed at night.

No white people seem to work in the service industry, at almost every restaurant I went to the servers are almost always black. It was also weird seeing Chinese/Mexican/Indian restaurants not being staffed by people of that respective ethnic group.

Racial Divide. All the whites seem to live in fairly posh houses near the downtown or overlooking the ocean, where the blacks almost invariably live in shanty towns called townships on the outskirts. The townships feel like a completely different world. America obviously has its fair share of racial inequality, but hey, at least its not as bad as South Africa!

Lovely weather. 70’s and sunny when I was there, and always a nice breeze blowing. Gorgeous beaches closeby. Really reminded me of Perth. 

People seemed pretty outdoorsy. Lots of hikers and bikers around.

Extremely annoying you can’t buy a bus ticket on the bus. They make you go into the city center to buy a special bus card. Its supposedly to be a deterrent to hijacking, but for a tourist it’s a pain in the ass.

Tons of activities for tourists. When you take into account all the things you can do in the city and the surrounding area, it is probably the best city for tourists that I have ever been to! It’s definitely not a city you can do in two or three days!

Hiking Trails. You've got both Lion's Head and the even taller Table Mountain. I did the Lion's head hike around dusk to watch the sunset and it was really nice. 

Very friendly taxi drivers. They're all from Zimbabwe for the most part and happy to chat. 

White! Cape Towners love the color white. Beautiful white houses and white luxury cars, driven by white people of course. I think a white cream colored Mercedes was the unofficial car of Cape Town.

Overall a very enjoyable city! And really one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities I’ve ever been to. Between the beaches, hiking, wineries, and the coastline, Cape Town really has a lot going for it! 

The island of Kri

Kri: The most popular island on Raja Empat! The main part of the island has like five bungalows in a row, plus an eco resort and an upscale dive resort. It’s a pretty small overall, but it gets more people than most because it’s the best spot to base your diving. I went without reservations but I was still able to find an open bungalow quite easily at a place called Koranu Fyak. The homestay also ran a small-scale dive shop as well, with western, English speaking guides, which is really convenient, as most of the Papuans really don’t speak much English. My plan was to do the vast majority of my diving here. Kri also has a really nice house reef, so if you’re ever bored, you can always get the snorkel out and try to find some cool marine life. 

I snorkelled that first evening and as I was walking down the beach I ran into Harjeet, who was staying a few bungalows down. We went down to the jetty, which is where everyone goes to watch the sunset and have beer if you'd like. And the sunsets in Raja are spectacular! So many nights the sky would be lit up with amazing oranges, pinks, and purples in the clouds. It really is a great place. So Harjeet and Suk filled me in with all the cool places to go around the island, which boat trips to do, and the basic information I would need. 

My bungalow on Kri

I headed back to my bungalow to eat dinner and meet the other people staying there. There was an American, two Germans guys, and a French/Filipina couple couple, all of whom I'd be hanging out with a lot over the next few days. And to my surprise they served fried chicken! I was liking this place already. 

Where we at our dinner every night at Koranu Fyak homestay

The next day was Sunday, so they weren't doing any diving, so we had a chance to get some quality snorkelling time in. We walked to the neighboring island nearby, which we could because of the low tide, and then snorkelled all the way back. And what tremendous snorkeling it was. Lots of huge pufferfish and porcupine fish, batfish, some a few black tip reef sharks darting around, blue spotted rays, and turtles. So many turtles! We saw at least 10 or 11 in that one trip. A pretty good first day! 

Now it was time to really start diving! The dive shop's equipment wasn't exactly the best, but it would do. It was about $40 a dive, which was also a little less than I was expecting to pay. I did two dives every morning and then took it easy during the afternoon. Normally in beachy locations I get bored after a while, but not in Raja Empat! The dives were really nice, tons of fish, lots of small stuff too, but not so great visibility. Kind of a shame, but what can you do. We saw all the usual big stuff, sharks, eels, rays, turtles, etc. The combination of the untouched beaches, the scenery, the diving, the snorkeling, the atmosphere really makes Raja an awesome place. 

This night was probably one of the top 5 sunsets I have ever seen, amazing

Our Papuan hosts also enjoying it

all bundled up in the 90 degree weather!

I stayed on Kri for a week, and I wasn't ready to leave after my time was, but my visa was running out and I wanted at least a night or two on Bali to party it up a little bit. And it was in Bali that I decided on a new course of action, a whole nother continent, Africa!

To the next homestay

We arrived at the Yangyakenes homestay in the early afternoon, and Dylan and Stephanie’s friends (Curtis and Lyndsey) were waiting for them. It had been a very difficult process finding each other, so everyone was glad that was over. We were showed our rooms, met some of the family (very little English at this one!) and they served us a nice lunch of rice, fish and veggies, the usual! We were told there was a dive resort nearby and they had beer (!!) so that was our plan for the afternoon. And they had nice lounge chairs and western music! This was about as luxurious as it gets in Raja Empat. After 3 large bintangs each we headed back and enjoyed the sunset from Dillon and Stephanie’s and Curtis and Lindsey’s shared bungalow, which sat over the water. They also had a bottle of vodka conveniently waiting. So it was a pretty rowdy night and everyone was a bit toasted by the time dinner came around. The original plan for the next day was to wake up at 3:30am to hiking in the jungle to look for the Wilson’s bird of paradise, which to my surprise, people still wanted to do. I was having no part of this expedition!

The view from bungalows

And as you might have guessed it failed pretty miserably. Dylan was still passed out, Lindsey threw up and had to turn back. The two that made it all the way waited around and didn’t see one. I was happily in bed, sleeping in. Later that after we were fully recovered and went to check out a bat cave. It had two bats in it, and they tried to catch one, but were unsuccessful. I also checked out the local village, which is quite nice with all the fishermen coming and going and lots of kids playing about. 

kids on the pier

At this point I was getting pretty anxious to start doing some diving, so I hopped on the boat with the dive shop next door. It worked out pretty well, as I could enjoy all their amenities while only paying for the diving. They let me eat both breakfast and lunch there, which both had a much better selection than what I was used to at the homestays. Unfortunately for the diving, I had arrived during a time of unusually bad visibility. Of course there are tons of fish everywhere, as Raja Empat is known for having the highest amount of marine biodiversity in the world, but you can’t really see out into the deep and the corals kind of look dull and muted when the water isn’t so clear. But in the first few dives we still saw some wobbegong sharks, moray eels, a giant monster stingray, some mantas off in the distance, along with big schools of barracudas. But conditions were far from being ideal.

I also had my first underwater freakout! Because the current was strong we were doing a negative entry (meaning you don’t stop and group up at the top, you just go straight down), but I still had some air in my BCD so it took me a bit longer to get down. This meant that the current pushed us further from the reef than we wanted, so we had to battle it to get back to the reef. And this current wasstrong! The divemaster was ahead of me and after a few minutes of kicking I felt like I couldn’t outkick the current anymore and I was going to get blown away. Then I felt like I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs and before I knew it I was hyperventilating underwater. It was a really frightening, my heart was beating a million times a minute; it was the first time anything like this had happened to me before. I didn’t know what to do at first, my initial thought was to go up to the real air at the surface, but I knew that wasn’t a good idea. As I was huffing and puffing huge amounts of air the divemaster came over, attached a reef hook, and we stayed in place while I eventually calmed down. I guess in the end it wasn’t that serious, just wasted a lot of air, but it was certainly my scariest diving moment to date. But then the next dive was fine, and it was back to diving as usual. Sorry no underwater photos though :(

The next day I got some sort of stomach bug where I threw up twice and basically slept for like 20 hours, so that day was a wash. But after that I was feeling much better and then I headed off to Kri to catch up with the Canadians while the rest of the group went back to Gam, where they already had reservations booked.

Next stop: Raja Empat

Two years ago when I went diving at Komodo in Indonesia (which has fantastic diving), I was told that I really should try and make it up to Raja Empat, because the diving is supposed to spectacular. Raja Empat is a cluster of islands located off the coast of West Papua, which is a large area that shares the same island as Papua New Guineau. To get there from Bali you first fly to the island of Sulawesi, and then to port city of Sorong in Papua. From there you take a ferry to main island of Waigeo, and then from there you take a small boat to the island you want to go to! Easy!

The more I read about Raja Empat, the more interested I became. The area is still extremely undeveloped and the vast majority of accommodations are family run homestays. The homestays consist of thatched bungalows with a mattress and mosquito net. Toilets are communal. A generator normally runs for a few hours at night to provide electricity. No wifi anywhere. Three meals a day are provided, included in the cost of the bungalow, which is normally like $25 a night. It seems a bit pricey by Indonesian standards for the extremely spartan living set up, but apparently the prices have been going down in the last few years as the competition has increased. 

Homestay built out over the water

Pretty basic, mattress and mosquito net

All the bungalows are right on the beach, and some are even built out over the water. There are also a handful of dive resorts, but comparatively, they're much more expensive. You also have the option of a diving live-aboard, which is certainly the best way to get to all of the dive sites, as they can be spread far apart. I enjoy diving, but I prefer to do something like 2 dives in the morning and have the rest of the afternoon to lay around or explore the island or snorkel, so I decided to go with the homestays. Plus live-aboards are $2,000 a week minimum :p

After 2 rain filled days in Bali I was off. Despite the fact that I bought a ticket involving 1 layover, it inexplicably turned into two. So after stops in Surabaya and Manado I arrived in Sorong in the late afternoon. The ferry wouldn’t leave until the next morning, so I would be spending the night. There’s not really much to see in the city. It does have a nice string of seafood restaurants on the waterfront, which made for a nice meal. I paid about $5 for a massive fish and rice. I hadn’t really done as much research as I should have, but I had read you should really book your first homestay so that they can pick you up from the ferry terminal, but the hotel wifi was down, so I would be flying blind. Oh and I didn’t get to email my parents that I would be out of touch for the next 2 weeks or more, oops!

the port in Sorong

the sea food restaurants

I loaded up on cash with about 15 consecutive atm withdrawals because Indonesia has stupidly low max withdrawal amounts (good thing my bank account has no atm fees!) and caught the 2pm ferry. It got in at 4, I bought my marine park permit for about 70 USD, and then figured out where I wanted to go. Solo boat travel is very expensive in Raja, so I found some fellow North Americans to tag along with to a place called the Nudibranch homestay. All of them had made reservations ahead of time and were expecting the owner to come pick them up. Before long everyone else on the ferry had gone off to their various homestays and we were the only ones left. We tried calling, but no answer. Two hours later he finally showed up (which was the level of service we would come to expect from this guy) and we piled into the boat, towards the island of Gam.

We were able to watch a beautiful sunset on the boat, and by the time we arrived at the homestay it was dark. We were shown to our various bungalows, equipped with a mattress and mosquito net. Soon a simple meal of rice, veggies, and potatoes was prepared for us. Our group was two Indian Canadian girls, one of which was Suk, who was taking a break from her job, and the other, Harjeet, was working as a teacher in Hong Kong. And there was never a dull moment with Harjeet around! There was also a couple that was an American/Canadian couple, Dylan and Stephanie, who were bat biologists on the East Coast. Their jobs sounded quite fascinating and they only worked 4 months out of the year! They were supposed to be meeting friends, but had a miscommunication and now they had to locate them in Raja Empat, a formidable task! After dinner everyone was pretty exhausted from the travel day, so it was an early night. 

not a bad boat ride

Our bungalows straddling the mangrove forest

The next day was a Sunday, which is the day of rest for the Papuans, so you’re not really supposed to plan any activities. So we had the day to explore our little section of the island. It consisted of some mangrove forests, sections of beach, maybe four or five homestays, and little village. We ended up spending most of the afternoon at the pier, jumping off and swimming with all the local kids. They have their own little wooden boats that they paddle around in. They were all very cute and we had a really nice time!

Later that night we went back to the pier when it got dark and the setting was truly spectacular! Once they turned off the generators it was pitch black and the stars were amazingly bright, with the milky way being easily visible. There were also fish that had a blue bioluminescent light swimming through the dark waters. The tide was low so when we shined our lights into the coral filled water below up we were able to see all sorts of marine life. We spotted eels, snake-eels, squid, cuttlefish, two types of sharks (wobbegongs and walking sharks) and lots of other fish. It was really an awesome spot. 

Besides laying around the beach we did a lagoon tour, did a hike to see the red birds of paradise, as well as snorkelling the house reef and the mangrove forest. We learned later on that a 5 meter crocodile had been caught somewhere near there a month ago, which was a bit disconcerting, but we were blissfully ignorant at the time! But I really enjoyed it there, it was a nice combination of relaxation, great scenery and light activity. Oh and we got daily visits from our weird marsupial friend, the cuscus, which is quite scary looking! But we fed him so he was nice. But I could have stayed another day or two, but Dylan and Steph finally found their other biologist friends (after many frustrating days of trying) and we decided to all go together to meet up with, as it made sense to save on the boat costs. So it was off to the Yangyakenes homestay on Waigeo!

glimpse of the red bird of paradise

jump rope at sunset

The cuscus!

He's a greedy one!

The next volcanic crater: Ijen

The Ijen crater is famous for its sulphur mines as well as its blue flame, which is lava that actually burns blue! It's further east on Java towards Bali, separated from Bromo by a few towns and many winding mountain roads. You can buy a package deal from Bromo to Bali via Ijen, which is more expensive, but saves time, or you could take the local buses. You probably already know which option we were going with.

First we had to get down from Bromo, and it was the damn minibus again! We were told it would leave at 9 am. So we showed up and there was only 1 person in the bus. The price is supposed to be 35,000 rupiah ($2.50) assuming the bus is full, but its low season and that would never happen. After an hour of waiting, we now had 6 people, but it was looking like that would be it. Hanny and this Russian girl had been arguing with the driver over the last hour trying to get the 35,000 price, but he wouldn’t agree with so few people. I was fine with paying more, but these girls were not budging. Finally the older couple had enough and volunteered to pay the extra money to get the hell outta there. In the end the girls gave up and we all paid 50,000 ($3.50!) One more whole dollar than they were hoping to pay! So ridiculous.

From there we hopped on a local bus to another town and Hanny got into full on shouting match when they tried to charge us double the actual price of ticket ($3 instead of 1.50) and I just sat there and kept out of it. To be fair, this was basically a scam and that should kind of piss you off, but I think I would have gave in and paid the $3. She would have rather gotten off the bus and waited hours for the next one rather than knowingly get ripped off! In the end she won and we paid the normal price. This bus took longer than expected and by the time we got into the next town we had missed our bus connection to get up to Ijen. A man recommended us a hotel, a kilometre away, so we decided to go there.

At this point our options were to take the bicycle cart transportation straight to the hotel for 10,000 rp (70 cents) or walk around with all of our stuff, to a hotel we didn’t have directions to, in a drizzle. She wanted to walk!! Honestly mind blowing. A decision like this seems like the biggest no brainer in the world to me. But not to Hanny. It’s like she’s physically incapable of paying a cent more than she knows she absolutely has to. I told her that I’m taking the bicycle, she can walk if she wants. She caved and spent the 10,000. The hotel wasn’t easy to find. But I’m certain if I wasn’t there she would have wandered around town for god knows how long to find this hotel instead of paying the bicycle guy. To be fair to her though, this is only one part of her personality, that I've been focusing on because it's kind of fascinating to me. But otherwise she was nice, funny, easy going and we got along well!

kids riding bikes through the rain in the small town of Sempol

Man smoking a cigarette at the bus station

Hanny and I riding becaks in Sempol

Our hotel was about as basic as you can get. Two beds with thin mattresses, no fan or furniture, a squat toilet and water bucket for flushing, and that was about it. But considering we were paying $2 each, we couldn’t complain. And it had working wifi! The next morning we found the bus to the little village near Ijen that we wanted to go to. It took four or five hours to get there and we settled in at the tourist-oriented guesthouse. We had time to kill, so we checked out the waterfall (which was pretty damn good!) and the hot springs before arranging a tour to the crater. We originally were hoping to get there independently, but it was looking to be very difficult, so after much deliberation (well at least for her) we agreed to pay for tour. Even though we had negotiated a rate that was cheaper than anyone else we talked to, for her it was like forcing medicine down a child’s mouth. I paid up and let her attempt to haggle even further with the driver.

the waterfall in the distance

It took a considerable amount of work to get to this spot!

Hanny hiking up the trail from the waterfall

We left for the crater at 1:30am with 2 Germans and 2 Japanese guys. The hiking was unexpectedly moderate, 45 minutes uphill and then maybe another 45 minutes descending into the crater. We had rented gas masks, as we heard the fumes can be really strong at times. The reason we had to get there while it was still dark was to see the blue flame, lava that actually burns blue. I thought it was pretty cool, but most of the people in our group had more grandiose expectations for this blue flame, and seemed underwhelmed. After doing enough group tour activities in Asia, I pretty much going in expecting for whatever we’re supposed to be seeing to be really lame, and if it isn’t than it’s a nice surprise.

hikers in the darkness with blue flame in the background

it was hard to get a good shot of the blue flame, but this is what I got

Ijen is also home to sulphur pits, which miners hike down to once or twice a day, loading their packs with 60-80 kg(130-175 lbs) of the big yellow rocks. It looks absolutely miserable. Plus they have to content with all the gases and fumes, and hardly any of them wear any type of protective mask. You can take photos of them, but they appreciate a cigarette or some sort of small food item in return. I made sure to come prepared.

The mines are also right next to a very scenic crater lake, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise (as usual). This is what happens when you travel in rainy season! But overall I really enjoyed the place, it has such a unique, almost surreal feel to it with all the miners and the flumes of yellow smoke billowing out of the Earth. It was a bit more interesting than Bromo in my opinion, and I’d recommend anyone in the area to check it out!

Sulphur miner stacking his baskets

This guys is probably carrying at least 160 pounds

moving the sulphur to wheeled carts to get down the mountain

After Ijen we hopped in the bus and prepared for the day long journey that would get us to Bali, where we definitely needed some rest!

BROMO

On to Bromo!  But first I had to get to the bus station. I opted with a taxi this time around and got there without a hitch. I just had to stop at the atm beforehand. 1st card doesn’t work. 2nd card doesn’t work. I went to the other atm… shit. Both cards are getting declined. I’m hoping its because these atms are from smaller banks, so I hopped on an ojek to take me to the atms of a bigger bank. Still nothing! I already used one of the cards at the airport in Surabaya and it worked fine, so now I’m really confused. Now I have no choice but to go back to the guesthouse and figure out what is going on. Fortunately this ojek knew exactly where my place was. I called my banks emergency number and sure enough, they put a hold on it. Thailand is fine, Malaysia is fine, but apparently they don't like Indonesia so much! I walked over to the nearest ATM and after putting in the amount I heard that sweet sweet mechanical whirring noise of money being counted. Whew. Minor crisis averted. 

street scene in surabaya

Round 2! I took another taxi back to the bus station and boarded the bus to Probolingo. From Probolingo it would be another hour or more up the mountain to a little village at the foot of Bromo. There is no regular bus up to this village, its normally just tourists and they wait for a minibus to fill up before going. Unfortunately its low (rainy) season and its later in the afternoon. I was told there was another person also waiting to get up to Bromo. It turned out to be a girl from Austria who was also traveling by herself. Her name was Hanny. She was athletic looking, very white, looked to be about my age, and spoke in a fairly thick German accent. As I would soon find out, she was an intense bargainer, which was necessary as she was also intensely frugal!

Normally when you travel in Asia you have to accept the fact that as person with white skin they are going to charge you more than they would a local, even with the haggling. In Indonesia its called the bule (foreigner) tax. The vast majority of people are willing to accept this, as it only amounts to a few cents or a few dollars here and there. Of course you should still bargain as much as you can, but usually you’re still going to pay a bit more than what a local would pay. There is a small subset of travellers who get very annoyed by this and are constantly fighting the battle to get the absolute lowest possible price, even if it is for nonsensically small amounts of USD or Euros. I normally do not travel with these people because they are normally a colossal pain in the ass. Hanny was one of those travelers.

passerbys at the bus station

They told us the bus costs 500,000 rupiah ($35) in total, split by however many passengers, which in our case was 2. We waited about an hour and nobody else showed up. We tried to talk them down from 500,000, which is pretty steep for only two people. After a while we got them down to 400. Still too much. It was a standoff for a while, but eventually they agreed to 300,000, a little over $10 a person. This was fine with me, but Hanny was not having it. She threatened to hitchhike. I wasn’t sure if she was using it as a bluff, but sure enough there she goes down the street asking random people if they’re heading to cemoro lawang. They went down to 250. She still wanted to hitchhike!

Now I’ve hitchhiked before in certain scenarios when there is no public transportation available, but she wanted to hitchhike as it was getting dark, to a small ass village up in the mountains that few people would be driving to, rather than pay less than $10 to share this minibus. I told her that I’m pretty sure they’re as low as they’re gonna go, as they only finally caved on the 300 after we walked down the street trying to hitchhike! She still wasn’t sure. She explained that is so much money for the Javanese locals here, as she would repeat many many times. “120,000 OK?!” She tried pitifully to shave off another 5,000 rupiah (35 cents) off the price. They laughed and said 120,000 for you but 130,000 for the man. I was like OK fine, lets go! She reluctantly agreed, looking absolutely crushed. You might have thought someone shot her dog. In the end we both paid 125,000. We put in our bags and headed up.

We checked into the Lava Guesthouse, expecting to find dorms, but they only had normal bedrooms, so we decided to share one, naturally, as that would be the cheaper option! We said we wanted two beds, but when we opened up the door, lo and behold, just one bed. “I’m ok with it if you’re okay with it” she said. It was fine by me. Now you might think sharing a bed with a girl you just met was a giant green light, but she then proceeded to tell me about her boyfriend back home, who she plans on marrying. So yeah. We were saving money though! $6 a night!

Nice countryside near Bromo

We got to bed early that night, with our alarms set for 3:30 to start hiking up to catch the sunrise over Bromo. As far as I could tell, we were the only people walking. Jeeps full of people were passing us occasionally. After a while the road turned to rocky steps and upward into the darkness we went. Eventually we got to first viewpoint, which was where we waited (and waited and waited) for the sun to rise. The sky got lighter, but it was becoming more and more apparent that there would not be any sunrise. Or even any view of Bromo! Too everyone’s dismay, it was a total whiteout. We even waited for an extra hour or two, and at some points the clouds would clear for just a few seconds and you could catch a glimpse of the volcano, but that was it, just those flew fleeting seconds. Kind of a bummer.

Sunrise at Mt. Bromo!!

Got some ok photos of the horse guys though

We headed down and the views got a bit better, as the clouds only seemed to cling to the mountaintops. We decided we  would try to do the sunrise again tomorrow. We went and took naps and then had some time to explore the village. It had a nice countryside, with healthy looking crops growing everywhere. We decided to head down to the sea of sands, which has cool Game of Thrones-esque name, but it’s basically just the flatlands around the volcanic crater. We had heard that tourists aren’t allowed down there, but there were no guards at the gate, so we proceeded down.

Our goal was to get to the Hindu temple at the base of Bromo. The scenery down there was quite unique. Sand flats gave way to the smoldering crater in the distance. The colors were all quite gray and lifeless, giving it an eerie post-apocalyptic feel. About 20 minutes into our journey we heard a siren coming from the direction of town. The park police! Crap! They caught us. “Get in the truck!” they ordered. “Too dangerous” Hanny tried to protest, but by the tones of their voices they meant business. So we reluctantly got in and they drove us back up into town and made us promise not to go down again. We did get a free lift out of deal…

The sea of sands, with bromo erupting in the background

Later on at the hotel we had our usual Indonesian dinner and got ready for another 3:30 am start. When we woke we could see the stars up in the sky, which was a good sign. Unfortunately the higher we got the foggier the air became. We were able to see the sun come up through the mist, but a line of clouds seemed to constantly obscure the view of Bromo. The visibility everywhere else was good though! We waited another hour to see if it would clear up, and it did for maybe 2 seconds! We waited a bit longer than decided it was time to get back down. 0/2 on the sunrises, pretty weak! But what can you do? Maybe the next volcanic crater would be better...

the road up to Bromo, day 2

the fleeting view of Mt. Batok (Bromo is the smoking crater in the back left)

A woman gets ready for some wedding photos

Next up the volcanic crater at Mt. Ijen

Back to Indonesia! Surabaya and onwards to Mt. Bromo

I had decided that I would like to spend a little bit of time on East Java and check out one of Indonesia's most famous volcanoes, Mt. Bromo. It's a constantly smoldering crater that draws in hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, foreign and local alike. It’s relatively easy to reach by Indonesian standards, being only a few hours away from the sprawling city of Surabaya and connected by good roads. 

I flew into Surabaya from Kuala Lumpur, then took a bus to the bus station and from there I took an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to my guesthouse. Normally I love ojeks because they're cheap, and its more fun being on the back of bike! But I didn't like one so much. Of course he told me he knew where my guesthouse was and then 15 minutes later we’re stopping random people in the street to ask for directions. I even had the address and a map with its location saved on my phone and he still couldn’t figure out where it was! It was humorous at first, but after almost an hour of driving around I was about ready to strangle this guy. Eventually after combing through half the streets in the town we stumble upon it, and surprise surprise, he wants extra money for all the extra driving time. Pretty standard for Asia. Somehow its not his fault for telling me he knows where the place is when he actually has no clue. Being the softie that I am I ended up tossing him a some more rupiah (so it cost $4 instead of 2.50), ate some fried rice + duck (cost well under a dollar) and crashed hard. 

typical food stall

I didn’t really want to wake up early that morning and catch the bus to Bromo, so I decided to sleep in and see what there was to do in Surabaya. As it turns out, not a lot! I told the lady running the place that I wanted to go to the submarine museum. She called a cab for me, but she must have misheard me as I got dropped off halfway across town at the cigarette museum, possibly the most boring museum I’ve ever been to! They only had photos to look at, with no captions, half of which were of people in the family that own the place. The only interesting thing is the viewing room where you can watch the people making the cigarettes from up above, but they don’t let you take photos, and there is still nowhere explaining how the cigarette made! So I left after 15 minutes having learned absolutely nothing. But before I could leave I was asked to do a survey wondering how I felt about the cigarette museum and Surabaya as a city in general. Ha! I felt too bad to put straight 1’s down the board (out of 5), so I settled for mostly 3’s and got the hell out of there.

3 wheeled bicycle taxi, called a becak, drives by a mural in Surabaya

I didn’t really know where I was, but I also had nowhere to be, so I decided I’d just wander around this part of town. This area certainly does not see white people very often. Lots of young people waving and shouting "Hey Mister!" which sounds kind of funny and outdated, but that's the greeting they learn around here! Then there's also the whispering and pointing in the background, bule, bule (boo lay), which means white foreigner. It reminded me of China without the full on staring. But I had fun meandering through the narrow alleyways and surprising people here and there with my presence. Plus I was quite popular with little kids, with my big camera and all.

some kids showing me where the good food is at

After a while I got too hot and took a taxi to the big mall to grab a drink and relish in the air conditioning. After that I tried heading to the arab market, but it was already shutting down when I arrived. Back to wandering. I attempting to walk the 3 or 4 km home with no map, only with the knowledge that I needed to go south and east. This ended up as one might have expected, with me considerably lost somewhere in Surabaya. At this point it was dark, but I was not giving up just yet. Plus along the way I did get invited to join groups of people having coffee no less than three times, which was kind of nice. Indonesians love their instant coffee! All you need is some hot water, coffee packets, and a table and chairs and boom! You have a coffee shop! None of them knew if I was anywhere near my guesthouse though.

They're well prepared for the rain

I kept walking and soon enough it started raining, and now I was the only person in the streets, cruising around in my shiny new heavy duty poncho. It was a full length black poncho and I like to think it makes me look like some sort of ninja. People were probably suspecting I had some sort of mental deficiency. A girl who could speak English came up to me and asked me if I was lost. I told her that I was completely lost, but I was enjoying being lost. She gave me a weird look, then ran back inside and quickly dead-bolted her door. Hmm. Eventually the rain got harder and I was ready to give up but there were no taxis anymore! Finally a man took pity on me and told me to hop on the back of his motorbike where he dropped me off at the nearest taxi stand. As suspected I was nowhere even close to where I lived!

But I made it back safe and sound, went to town on some nasi goreng, and got ready to get to Bromo the next day.

Penang and the Thaipusam Festival

My main motivation for leaving Langkawi after only three days was to get to festival which I heard was supposed to be pretty amazing. 

Renato and I checked into the Tipsy Tiger Party Hostel in the evening, a hostel which  gave you two free beers a night (booze is expensive in Malaysia!), I suppose to offset the fact that the hostel rooms had a whopping 20 bunks. These are the types of places I stay when I travel with young-ins! We wandered around, got some Indian food and drank at the hostel bar for a bit, but I headed to bed early, as I’d be waking up at 5am to catch the beginning of the Thaipusam festival.

Once a year in Malaysia the Thaipusam festival takes place. I should have learned the backstory more, but its in honor of Murugan, the Tamil God of War and the celebration involves sacrifices to him by fasting for 48 days beforehand and ridding the body of all impurities, physical and mental. The sacrifice concludes on Thaipusam where devotees will carry a physical burden, called a kavadi, which is sometimes as small as pot, but is usually much more elaborate. On Thaipusam the simple kavadis are metal rods piercing through the skin of the cheeks! Some wear portable altars on their shoulders, some have ornaments pierced all over their upper body, some have hooks through their backs, and the most elaborate is an altar attached to the body by nothing but skin piercings! 

At 5:15 I managed to find a taxi to take me to where the festival started. It was still pitch black but you could see groups of Indians gathered around a few small fires, offering sacrifices. There were also men being fitted with large altars on their shoulders. Soon the piercings would begin. One man was fitting small bells all around his upper body, attached to the skin by little metal hooks. Another was getting large metal hooks attached through his back. Another was inserting a metal rod between his cheeks. And the most interesting part was that there was no blood and the men looked like almost trancelike, not showing any signs of pain.

After their body had been fully decorated they would head into the adjacent temple for a while, and then begin the five kilometer pilgrimage to the huge temple up in the hills, with an entourage of chanting people in tow. Certainly one of the crazier festivals I’ve seen. This would go on all day and all night. And I would not want to be making this trip in the middle of the day, it was almost 100 degrees in Penang!

Eventually I found the man who was supporting the vel kavadi, an altar supported by nothing but hooks and and pins. He had them everywhere, his face, chest, stomach, back, legs. It took well over an hour to rig up his body for this. Pretty wild! If there’s one thing about Hindus, there’s no shortage of religious fervor!

This guy is a badass

some of the women looking on

lots of work!

I went back home and slept for a bit, met up with Renato to check out the infamous street art around the city, which I thought was pretty lame. Then we headed to the Hill Temple, where all the Indians were heading to see what was happening. Basically it was big, crowded party along the pilgrimage route, with music blasting and Indian men energetically dancing with each, as they’re known to do, while women looked on from the sidelines. Yes, there is nothing that looks gayer than an Indian party. We hiked up to the top of the temple, where we watched the men get their piercings removed, both of us hoping they can at least get some action from the ladies after this feat of devotion and endurance, and then dined on a free meal of dhal, vegetables, and rice.

The next day I woke up early to try and find a place to watch the Cardinals/Seahawks game, but to my dismay there was not a single sports bar that I could find anywhere! There’s just not enough Americans around here to generate any interest in NFL playoff games I suppose. Oh well, the game sucked anyway. Then it was off to the capital, Kuala Lumpur for me and Renato was off the Cameron Highlands (which I’ve already been to), so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. So sad! As for Kuala Lumpur I didn’t really do anything interesting, just checked out the downtown and the Petronas Towers, so next up will be Indonesia, a country I’m quite fond of!

Into Malaysia: Langkawi

After leaving Koh Lipe in Thailand it was an hour and a half ferry to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. They give you a tourist map of the island on arrival, which is nice. It’s a cute map with little drawing and diagrams, and then in the corner it says “Smuggling drugs is punishable by death” Duly noted! So I took a taxi to the main beach area and found a 4 bed hostel with a Canadian, another American, and a Malaysian. Three North Americans in one room is quite the rare occurrence. We all had jobs pretty conducive to traveling, the Canadian was some sort of big machine operator in the Yukon (and always had 3 months off during the coldest part of winter) and the American owned a hostel in Austin, and had his manager running things in the slowest part of the year. Owning a hostel is definitely something I would be interested in!

So we went out for some Indian foods (one of the biggest differences in Malaysia is the diversity of the food options: Chinese, middle eastern, Indian, etc), some beers and hookah on the beach. Before we went back to bed someone asked if any of use were snorers. We all said no, so we should be all good…

As soon as we get near the door we hear some very loud guttural noises coming from inside the room. We walk in and this big shirtless Malaysian dude is lying on his back snoring like a congested walrus. He looks like he’s been shot with a horse tranquilizer. I mean he didn’t even bat an eye when we walked in and turned on the lights. We’re all looking at each other like ‘are you serious?’ I’ve heard bad snoring before (Ed) but this guy takes the cake. He truly did sound like a buzz saw. After maybe half an hour of lying wide awake in our beds the guy closest to him trying to wake him up by clapping next to his face. Nothing. After shaking his leg he kind mumbled something and stopped snoring… for like 3 minutes and then it was on again. Aghghgh.

I might have slept for 2 hours, dreaming I was in some sort of hellish sawmill. All of us rolled out of bed around 9:00 and he was still in the exact same position, snoring as loudly and consistently as ever. Pretty impressive! We headed to breakfast to bitch about our predicament. Dorm rooms can really suck. Which I'll complain about later.

But anyway, that morning the American guy bought an $18 (!!) flight to Kuala Lumpur, so me and Dustin decided to rent bikes and cruise around the island, which always the best way! We stopped at a waterfall, a really nice beach, a mangrove forest filled with weird looking mudfish, and then watched the planes fly right over our head as we passed the airport. A good day!

nice place for a golf course

weird looking mud fish/tadpole thing

neon box fishes

the not so pleasant backdrop!

lush countryside

When we got back, my friend from Koh Lipe, Renato, had joined our room, while the two girls stayed at the hostel next door. To our dismay the Malaysian guy's stuff was still there, so when we were figuring out what to do, we decided alcohol would certainly be in the plan. Renato hopped on my bike and we headed to the duty free store down the road. Being a muslim country, hard alcohol is not exactly readily available. On our way home a team of police officers shined their flash lights at us and motioned for us for to pull over. Uh oh. No helmets :0. I had worn it all day, but didn't think to put it on for our quick trip down the street. Unlike Thailand and pretty much everywhere else in SE Asia, Malaysia has strict helmut rules. And it was true, we looked at all the bikes going by and every single rider wore a helmet! So we got binged for $35 or something, which is certainly more than a Malay would pay, but oh well, lesson learned. 

We ended up going out to the island's only club that night, which was an interesting mix of local tourists, Asian tourists, and Western tourists. Expensive, but fun. And we didn't have worry about the snoring keeping us awake because we all crashed hard! So the next day was pretty chill, just lying on the beach an doing nothing. We had one more night at the beach hookah place and then Renato and I were off to the next island, Pengang. 

Last stop in Thailand: Koh Lipe

I had decided that I would travel all the way down to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia before flying to Indonesia, so Koh Lipe was an obvious choice on my map, as it is the southernmost Thai Island, and it's extremely easy to take a boat to the Malaysian island of Langkawi. I bought tickets for the 11:00 'speedboat', expecting to arrive in Koh Lipe at 2:30pm. HA! The boat arrived one hour late, then about an hour and half in, one of the engines blew out or something. Not too surprising for SE Asia, but I expected better from Thailand! So what was going to be 2 hours, turned into something like 7?! We huffed and puffed out our way there and got in at 8:30pm. Really fun travel day!

Of course I couldn't find a guesthouse that wasn't booked up and finally ran into an Italian girl who asked me if I needed a room. Yep! She showed me to the Shanti guesthouse, which consisted of a 10 person dorm room and one bathroom. No AC, no common area, no towels, no blankets. No frills! The only person in there at the time looked like he was dead, possibly decomposing on the bed. Perfect! 

Rock hopping

Now Koh Lipe is also a very small island. It has 3 main beaches, all walkable within 20 minutes. Of course almost all the walkways are completely lined with shops, hotels, and restaurants. There's a lot going on Koh Lipe! It seems to be a favorite of the Asian tourists, who along with the Russians, are slowly taking over Thailand from the Europeans! And the prices are accordingly high, I think its the most expensive island on Thailand I've experienced. But one of the really nice things about Lipe is it has very good snorkeling right off its beaches. As long as you can dodge the longtail boats plying back and forth you can find vibrant reefs with good visibility at any of the 3 beaches. So that's what I did the first afternoon.

Later on I would meet some of the people in the dorm room. There were 2 Finnish girls, a dutch girl, and Chilean guy, all of whom I'd end up spending the rest of my time on the island with (minus one Finnish girl who had to get home). So originally I was going to find a new place to stay, but I liked our crew, so I figured i'd stick around. We didn't do much besides go the beach and snorkeling, although I did get around to one day of diving, despite the fact it was 50% more than Koh Tao, and I'm trying to save up for diving in Indonesia! Sadly it wasn't very good. According to our scuba diving boat captain, the dive site we did our first 2 dives at had some of the worst visibility in the last 12 years he'd been gong there. So I guess that was unlucky. The third dive site was really nice though, so we ended on a good note.  But other than that it was just eating lots of Thai food and going to chilled out beach bars or movie nights. We watched Armaggedon. America saves the world again!! I was little drunk and may or may not have shed a tear during the scene when Bruce Willis talks with his daughter after locking Ben Affleck out of the tunnel to detonate the bomb. But anyway! On to Langkawi (Malaysia) for me. The rest of the group would be coming the next day, but I was getting restless on Koh Lipe.

Mojitos on Sunset Beach

So overall it was a pretty good time in Thailand! Although I will say that I didn't have nearly have as much fun as I did when I was 25, when I still fit in with the younger party crowd. It's seriously difficult to meet any independent travelers over 25. Or maybe I was looking in the wrong places. I dunno, but I kinda felt like I was too old for Thailand.

Sadly, I didn't feel like I took too many good travel shots in Thailand. Part of it had to do with me having a bum ankle and part of it was just being uninspired. Of course there is nice scenery, and I got some nice shots of the sunsets and the longtail boats and stuff, but good travel photography involves people! And every Thai on these islands are just there to serve the tourists, so you never see any locals doing anything other than running shops and guesthouses or whatever. On the beach its just all tourists. So while in certain countries I'm compelled to wake every other morning at 5am because the local culture is just so damn interesting (Myanmar!), In Thailand I was just wasn't really motivated to go out shooting that much. Boo Hoo. Indonesia will be better!

Another Sunset!

Malaysia is next!

Island Hopping in the Andaman

So where I left off I was on Koh Tao, I was pretty immobile with a sprained ankle. After a few more days of riding my motorbike 600 feet to the beach road and hobbling to the sand, it was about time to go. At this point I felt I could carry all my crap and walk well enough to get on an off the longtail boats and ferries without falling in the water. I had decided the next island would be Koh Mook. Four years ago in Thailand I did all the really touristy stuff on Phuket, Railay, and Koh Phi Phi, so I figured I would give those a pass this time. The scenery around there is absolutely spectacular, but I felt like I had already met enough of the 18 year old-european-gap year-party crowd on Koh Tao. Koh Mook is a small, sleepy island further south on the Andaman coast  known mostly known for its very cool natural formation called the Emerald Cave. 

So from Koh Tao it was a 6 hour night ferry, a 3 hour bus ride, and another 30 minute boat trip  and I was there. This island is small enough that it only has one road that connects the two main beaches. The one I ended up on was called farang (foreigner) beach, which was a bad sign, but I was too lazy to try and make it to the other side of the island. There was one resort that dominates the beach and then you basically have to walk through it to get to the bungalows that line the road boing back inland. I met a French Canadian couple and ended up at the same bungalows they were staying at, which were just simple bed+fan type places. And then it was time to hit the beach! 

View from Farang Beach. Of course this girl wasn't single

The beachfront is very nice, with some karst formations off in the distance. But besides the beach, there isn't really anything to do at all on the island. So after beaching it the first afternoon I took the motorcycle taxi over to the other side the next day. The beach didn't have the nice white sand like on falang beach, but it had a nice mix of local houses and fishermen mixed with bungalows, which is more my style. I ended up meeting two very entertaining Dutch guys who had opened a bar on this beach with intent of skipping out on Holland for 5 months of the year and doing nothing but drinking every day. When they found out I was a poker player they decided to organize a tournament consisting of Thai chicken crackers and peanuts as the poker chips. We started with something silly like 15 big blinds, which is basically nothing, and of course I lost the first three times and had to buy the next rounds of beers before winning the fourth, so I didn't look like a total chump! I thought it was pretty cool that they were able to open their own bar in Thailand, but man there's no way I could just lay around and drink all day for months on end, but to each their own. You meet lots of interesting characters traveling!

Taking the kayak out at sunset. Look at those sexy legs

The next morning it was time to hit the Emerald Cave. On my end of the island its was basically all couples and families with kids, so I would be going this one alone. Apparently all the tour boats get there in the afternoon, so the best time to go is the morning low tide. Most people take the longboats there, but you can also kayak, so that was the obvious choice. I woke up at 6:30 and was on my way. It was only half an hour in when I saw the wooden sign perched on the rocks that said Emerald Cave. Time to put on the headlamp! To get to the cave you kayak through a pitch black tunnel, which is only possible at low tide. It was pretty freaking awesome. And creepy. Kayaking all by yourself through the dark passageway. After a while you see a light in the distance. You paddle towards it, and once you get to the end you pull your kayak out on a totally untouched beach. And its not any beach! It's completely surrounded on all sides by cheer limestone cliffs. Ok so its not a real cave, but an open air cave if you will, only accessible during low tide. I was actually the second kayak to arrive, so I didn't have it all to myself, but whatever. It was great. The couple left soon after I got there, then I had it all to myself. For a few minutes!

Shot from iphone. I wussed out bringing my big camera. You can see the entrance on the left

Soon some German girls arrived, and I ended up following them and their guide to a nice snorkel location outside the cave before heading back. Definitely the best morning I've had on the trip so far. And with that it was time to pack and head to the next island, the latest beautiful Thai island experiencing blatant overdevelopment, Koh Lipe!

Bangkok to Koh Tao

So as it turns out the 'tribute to my backpack' post was entirely unnecessary, as the day after I posted that, I got an email from Hong Kong Airlines informing me that my bag was found and that it would be delivered to my hotel the next day. So that was good news! I just had to wait around in Bangkok for an extra day or two. Of course I had already spent like $300 replacing all the clothes and other essential electronic items in my backpack, but whatever. My friend Mila already went back up North to resume her English teaching, so I did absolutely nothing but wander around, get massages and smoke hookah for two days. Bangkok has a big Arab quarter, and the hookah places there are absolutely fantastic! 

As soon as my bag arrived I booked the overnight bus and ferry combo to koh tao to do some diving. 8 hours by bus and 2 hours by ferry and we were there! Koh Tao is a pretty small island, known to be a bit more laid back than its neighbor koh phangan. It's also a Scuba diving certificate factory! I don't know exactly how many dive shops there are here, but its probably 50+. Every other shop on the beach road is a dive shop. This kind of competition also means very affordable diving. Now from what I researched, koh tao doesn't exactly have amazing diving. Places in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have much better diving, but none of those places are nearly as heavily touristed as Thailand, hence its reputation as the most popular diving spot in SE Asia. 

To be honest, I didn't really care that the diving wouldn't be spectacular, as I was mainly stopping here to do my rescue diver certification on the cheap. Rescue Diver is basically a course that teaches you how to respond to any type of emergency that can happen while diving, and I'd been diving long enough (and with enough beginner divers) that I figured it would be something beneficial to learn. Originally I'd hoped that I could join a group taking this same class, but it seems that 98% of divers on koh tao are either taking their open water or advanced course. So it would just be a one on one. In order to take the class I also had to get certified as an emergency first responder (basically first aid), which is mostly bookwork and demonstrating CPR on a dummy. So the first day I spent watching super lame videos, taking notes, doing quizzes, and going over the answers with the instructor. The second day was in the pool, going over all the types of diver emergency situations and how to properly respond to them. And the third day would be the same thing, but in the open water. But as it turned out I wasn't able to finish the class...

If you're on Koh Tao and see anyone with any type of injury, there is only one assumption as to what caused it: Motorbike! Koh Tao has some terrible roads and slew of 18-22 year old drivers who have never driven a motorbike before. And some 30 year olds who think they can ride... But to my defense I haven't dropped a bike in a long time, since my wipeout in Koh Phangan four years ago, which left me with a nice 'koh phangan tattoo' on my right foot. I'd like to think I'm a much better rider than I was then, but lo and behold, another accident. After my rescue diving class I took my sweet 110 hp, semi automatic scooter out to the southern end of the island with the intention of hiking up to the viewpoint around sunset, which I did. I met a brazilian guy up there who had taken a taxi to get out there (which are ripoffs). Seeing as we were going back to the same place I offered him a ride on the back of my bike. It wasn't a difficult ride, just one steep uphill section followed by a steep downhill section. 

The uphill part was a breeze. But as we started on the downhill part there was a truck coming up the road (a rare occurrence) which forced us off to the side of the road, which unbeknownst to me, had a lot of sand/gravel. So as I was applying the brakes, nothing was happening. This was the scary part! With the extra weight we were skidding and picking up speed and still had a long way to go to get to the bottom. I didn't think I would be able to stop the bike from skidding so I decided to bail off to the side of the road, which fortunately was clear, just a grass/dirt mix. The brazilian guy was able to hop off the back of the bike, I went down with it. We weren't going fast, I just ended up with few small scrapes on my knee and elbow, but my foot got caught under the bike when it went down, so I sprained my ankle pretty good. At first I felt nothing, but as the night went on my ankle got even more stiff, and when I woke up the next morning I could hardly put weight on it. Not Good!

 I went to the clinic the next day, there wasn't too much bruising or swelling, and they labelled it as a level II sprain, which unsurprisingly is more than a mild sprain, but not a severe one. Probably a few weeks to get back to 100%. The last few days I've been doing the whole RICE thing: rest, ice, compression, elevate. It's also been boring as hell. My scooter, which got me into this whole mess, is also the thing that makes my life so much easier, as I just have to walk the 10 feet from my door to my bike and I can get wherever I want. As I mention earlier I couldn't finish up my rescue diver class, but fortunately I got a referral  so I can finish up the open water stuff at the next PADI dive shop I make it to.  My ankle has gotten much much better in the last few days, so I can walk with only a slight limp now, and I actually went diving today and did just fine, so all is good! I'm leaving Koh Tao tomorrow, taking a ferry/bus/boat combo to an island called Koh Mook, where I plan on taking it pretty easy! I've been on this island too long now and the crowd is way too young for me, so I'm pretty excited to get outta here!

Sorry Mom and Dad I'll be safer the rest of the trip!

Tribute to my backpack

Well now that is more than likely I’ll never see my big backpack again I’d like to dedicate this post to it: my Granite Gear Viga ultralight, a true beast of a backpack. This thing has been through everything you can think of for the last 7 years. It’s been through 20 something countries, numerous backcountry excursions, it’s been up to 5,500 meters and sub zero temperatures in the Himalayas, it’s been thoroughly sweated through hiking in the jungle, It’s been completely caked in dust, shat on by birds, soaked by saltwater on little dinghies, tossed around to no end and used as pillow or chair countless times. Hell, it was even used as a landing pad when we flipped a motorbike going up a crazy incline in Indonesia. 

Of course it wasn’t in as good shape as it used to be, it was gnawed by rats in Malaysia, had a buckle snapped off by a hurried taxi driver in India, and the drawstring to cinch it shut was lost somewhere in the Philippines. But none of that stopped it from being a champion. The suspension in the shoulders was still good despite me packing much more than the recommended weight when I was traveling. You’d think after all this wear and tear the seams would start ripping somewhere, but it never happened, which is a testament to its extremely simple and efficient design.  

Who knows how long I could have kept going with this pack if god damn Hainan airways wouldn’t have misdirected it to Kazikistan or god knows where. Well anyway, it was a good ride. Also props to my tarptent, coleman synthetic down sleepingback, and my pocket rocket stove, which I bought all at the same time, and are now also in Turkbekistan presumably. Anyway, looks like I’ll be traveling light this trip! So long my sweet prince.

Back to Asia!

Well I've returned my favorite continent in the world to travel, Asia. Welcome back, readers. This time around I'm only planning on going to two completely new countries, but there's so many places I have yet visit that there will be very little overlap with places I've been before, barring the major cities/tourist hubs like Bangkok, Bali, Singapore, Manila etc. But I'm still figuring out what I want to do, so nothing is exactly set in stone.  

At the moment I'm in Bangkok, where I got to meet up with not one, but two old travel buddies! The first one (and planned meet up) was Mila, who I met three years ago while hiking in Yunnan (China), where we backpacked, hiked, and hitchhiked around SW along with a few other Chinese university students on a very university student sized budget! Then I found out Frank was in town, who I had originally met hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal 5 years ago, so we got to meet up, take down some Sangsum buckets, and celebrate New Years together. So it's been a good couple of days! 

Kho San Road was ridiculous for New Years

On the negative side of things, my big backpack got lost somewhere on the connection between Beijing and Hong Kong, and the airline still doesn't know where it is. At this point (after 72 hours) the airline has labeled it 'irretrievable' and now I'm filling out paperwork and trying to find receipts for all the things that I had in it. Good thing I do a lot of online shopping!  It had mostly clothes, photography accessories, small electronics, and all my camping gear. Nothing irreplaceable, but still super annoying. So I went to electronics mall to pick up the stuff I've deemed absolutely essential, and to the cheapo clothing mall to buy myself the finest in this years Thai fashions.  Underwear for $3, t shirts for $6, shorts for $10. And the button on the shorts already fell off! But anyway, I'm almost good to go!

So back to this years trip... I was originally thinking I might fly directly to Indonesia to get diving right away, but I forgot how much I like Thailand, despite all the tourists, and will stay here for two weeks. I figure I'll get my rescue diver certification for cheap on the island of Koh Tao and then keep heading south towards the Trang province to check out some more islands (Koh Lipe and Koh muuk) before crossing the border into Malaysia. As of now this is what I think my probably overly optimistic itinerary for my 5 month trip kinda sorta is:

MAROON = DESTINATIONS              RED = OVERLAND       BLUE = AIR        GREEN = FERRY

So the overview is this: 

A few weeks in Thailand/Malaysia, mostly just chilling on islands

Fly to Indonesia, check out Ijen sulfur mines/volcanoes, quick trip to Bali, then get out to the middle of nowhere for a couple weeks and hit some of the worlds best diving locations at Raja Ampat (3 dots). 

Get back to the big island of Sulawesi and then take a ferry over to Borneo (the big island that contains indonesia, malaysia, and brunei) and do some more diving.

Take a ferry to southern Philippines (where the Muslims live, oh no!) and spend a couple weeks checking out things on the island of Mindanao. 

Then get back to Manila, apply for a visa to Vietnam, and play some poker while I wait. After that take a flight to Ho Chi Minh City and start working my way up all the way to Hanoi, possibly by motorbike. 

After getting to Hanoi, apply for a Chineses Visa and check out Halong bay while I wait, and eventually book a flight up to China's westernmost province: Xinjiang

And that should take up most of my time! Although I also really want to check out Mongolia too, so I have to figure out a way to squeeze that in as well!

And of course all of this subject to change, and most likely will! Stay tuned!

Thoughts on Central America

I just thought I'd post some random thoughts on traveling the region as a whole...

my route, starting in San Jose and ending in Cancun

Local food: Usually pretty boring! Rice and beans are the dietary staple in Central America. A lot people will eat that every single meal! So while I did enjoy my rice, beans, and chicken, it’s easy to get tired of it after a while. There were also a couple local specialties like baleadas in Honduras and tostadas slathered with guacamole and other stuff in Guatemala that were tasty. Fresh fruit costs very little and is delicious. Lots of avocados too! You can also find some nice grilled meats and fresh seafood for cheap. Western fast food is also readily available, stuff like hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and pizza are definitely significant parts of the Central American diet. Oh and some excellent tacos stands! But that’s just the local cuisine. There’s tons of restaurants catering towards tourists in the major locales where you can find anything from sushi, to falafels, indian curries, and texas style BBQ. Definitely a lot of good stuff out there!

This place was delicious

the tortilla ladies

Danger Issues: Most people think most countries in Central America are pretty dangerous. The stats don’t lie, crime and murder rates are very high, especially in El Salvador, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The two biggest cities in Honduras, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula have the highest per capita murder rates in the world! But that’s the thing, most of the violence is contained in certain parts of the big cities (similar to USA), and not so much in touristy or rural areas. So as long as you’re not spending much time in the capital cities and not wandering around sketchy places at night, you should be fine. I had no problems during my trip here (and met very few people who did), although concerned locals told me on a few occasions that I shouldn’t walk here or there with my camera, which is something that almost never happened in Asia. There’s also a non-zero chance the bus you’re riding on could get robbed, especially in Honduras. So there’s certainly some extra safety considerations in Central America, but like usual, if you’re smart about your traveling and not carrying much cash or valuables on your person, most risks can be mitigated.

machetes, oh my

Spanish: You can get by down here if you don’t speak any Spanish, especially if you’re only staying in touristy areas, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Your average person in Central America knows little to no English, and you can definitely put yourself in some tricky spots if you can’t speak any Spanish. Plus I’ve noticed that sometimes if you go up to a person and ask them a question in English right away (not even bother to ask hablas ingles?) you might get a disapproving look or some attitude, even though they do speak English. On the other hand if you try to speak Spanish even though you suck at it, people will be much more likely to be accommodating and friendly. I really enjoyed working on my Spanish when I was here! Well until I got to the tenses…

Nightlife: There’s plenty of good places to party in Central America. San Juan Del Sur, Grenada, and Leon are all fun places in Nicaragua to hang out and see some good live music. Utila in Roatan off the course of Honduras both have cool bars that are built out on the piers extending into the ocean. Antigua, San Pedro, and Panajachel all have good bar scenes in Guatemala. Although Central America is nowhere near is crazy as some of the party scenes in Thailand and SE Asia, which is for many is probably a good thing…

partying at coco bongo, playa del carmen

Public Transit: You’ve normally got 2 options for longer distances: chicken bus and shuttle bus. And sometimes coach buses.

chicken bus

The cheap way: The good ole chicken bus: They use American school buses that have gotten too old, repaint them, and keep em going for who knows how many more years. These things are basically always packed, hot, and take a long time because they stop for anyone they see on the road. They’re obviously the least expensive option and they’re readily available so I used them quite a bit. It’s worth it to go directly to the bus station so you can grab a decent seat, which usually won’t happen when you’re flagging one down from the roadside.

Shuttle bus: Used mostly by tourists to get around. In places like Guatemala, the chicken buses go so slow and you have to change buses so frequently it makes the shuttle buses the preferable option. Only problem is some companies jam pack the shuttles, so you feel like you might as well be taking a chicken bus.

Coach buses: Not enough of these in Central America! They have them a lot in Costa Rica and Honduras. Usually the best option if they’re available! In Honduras the main reason is safety, as there is a problem with buses getting stopped and robbed by bandits. The more reputable companies put an armed guard in the bus :0

Side Note: Speedbumps. There’s so many! I think Central America must have more speed bumps per mile than any place on Earth. I mean I understand the ones when you’re in a populated area and you want to make sure vehicles are going slow. But then there’s all the ones where you’re out in the countryside and it’s like ‘hey lets put a bunch of random speed bumps here for no particular reason!’ It’s really fun when you’re in the back of a packed bus. Or you’re on a crappy bumpy winding road that you can’t even go 20 mph on, and what do you know? More speed bumps! I need someone to explain this to me.

Prices: Pretty damn cheap! Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala all have fairly similar prices, Belize is a bit more expensive, and Costa Rica is the most expensive. I enjoyed Costa Rica, but almost everything you can find in Costa Rica you can find in other Central American countries for half the price. Most places (excluding Costa Rica) a plate of rice, beans, and chicken would cost $3-5, a beer $1-2, dorm rooms in a hostel about $7-10, and basic room $10-15. Only thing that really bummed me out was that renting a motorbike/scooter cost about $25 a day, compared to like $7 a day in Asia. If you’re staying in dorms, using mostly public transit, and eating local food, you could definitely spend less than $1,000 per month if you really wanted to. I didn’t.

Guatemalan beers

Wifi: Better and more readily available than I expected

Weather: Had terrible weather the first week of the trip, and then it was mostly fantastic the rest of the time. Sunny and mid 80’s was about the norm. Guatemala was the only country where I needed a jacket at night, as a lot of it is higher up elevation. Even though the countries are small there is usually a pretty big difference in weather depending if you’re on the Caribbean side or the Pacific side. Carribbean side is a lot more jungly and rainy!

A rainy day in Honduras, Caribbean side

Volcanos: Lots of good Volcanos to hike in Central America. The volcano called Acatenango in Guatemala is probably the coolest volcano hike I’ve done and gets my highest recommendation! Lots of good ones in Nicaragua too. They have two different ones that you can look into the crater and see lava (if you’re lucky), or hot ash and smoke, like me :/

Fuego!

Scuba Diving: Certainly not as good as Asia, but still some really good stuff to see. Utila (in Honduras), is the place to be for good, cheap diving. ($30 a dive). Actually some of my favorite days were because of the stuff we saw in between dives. One day we had a bottlenose dolphin leading our boat and jumping through the water for a good 10 minutes. Another day the captain spotted a whaleshark and we all threw on our snorkel gear and slid off the back of the boat to check it out. We saw for maybe only 15 seconds before it dove down, but still that was the first time I’d seen a whale shark in its totally natural environment. And another day we found a pod of spinner dolphins and got to go snorkelling with them! So even though I wasn’t amazed by the diving, it was still a great time. Oh, and diving at the cenotes (underwater caves) in Mexico were fantastic as well!

whaleshark!

Quick note on the Blue Hole: You always see this place listed in ‘top places in the world to dive’ lists, but the more and more I talked to people who did it, the more underwhelming it seemed. From what I’d heard, it’s got some cool stalactite formations, but not many fish, and it’s so big you can’t even really tell you’re in a big blue hole. Plus it’s 2 hours to get out there and 3 dives will run you at $250+, so I decided to skip it and save my money for the cave diving in Mexico.

Nat'l Geo photo of the Pit, one of the cenotes I dived in Mexico

Caves: Some fun caving tours in Guatemala and Belize!

Ruins: Lots of Mayan ruins in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. I kind of get tired of seeing piles of rock quickly, but Tikal in Guatemala was pretty damn cool.

Tika

Sweet Photoshops: I'm not totally sure why but it seems like every home you walk into in Central America has photos of family members photoshopped (badly) in different exotic locations. One of the homestays we were at in Nicaragua had some great ones. Check out this guy's awesome wedding photo:

Overall I had a very good time in Central America. I enjoyed the Spanish culture, the laid back lifestyle, the beaches, volcanos (and volcanic lakes), the diving, and the general compactness of the region! I just wish renting motorbikes was cheaper and easier! The one thing I will say though is that it just doesn’t have as much of the ‘wow’ factor (visually or culturally) like many of the places I’ve been to in Asia. Lot’s of very nice places, but not many that really blew me away I guess. So I still think Central America is a cool place to visit, especially Nicaragua and Guatemala, but I’m not planning to go back anytime soon.  Too many other places on the list!

Hiking Acatenango

I'm gonna skip some stuff and post a bit about my volcano hike in Guatemala, because it was a really cool experience. When I was in Honduras I had heard a few good things from other backpackers about this hike. It’s a 2 day, 1 night type thing where you camp up near the top and then wake up early to hit the summit the following morning. It sounded right up my alley. So from Honduras I had to get to Antigua, which is another cool colonial city, and basically the tourism heart of Guatemala. I took a shuttle bus from the Mayan ruins at Copan in Honduras and ended up a hostel someone had recommended. So I spent one day wandering around Antigua's cobblestone streets, markets, coffee shops and so on. I also stopped in on of the tour offices that offer the Acantengo trip, and they had a group going the next morning. Sign me up!

Antigua

We met that evening at 5:00 to go over the details. It was a pretty standard group trip, we had a guide, but no porters (unless you wanted to pay more), tents and meals would be provided, we just had to split up the camping and cooking supplies among us to carry. They had extra cold weather gear to use, as most of us weren’t expecting to encounter many near freezing conditions in Central America! There were 9 people in the group, all early 20’s to early thirties, in pretty good shape, and surprisingly all native English speakers. It looked like a good group!

We met up at 6am the next morning, stopped for breakfast, jumped in the van for a bit, and then hopped out at the trailhead. The sun was gone, the wind was blowing, and everyone was throwing on layers! Of course 20 minutes of hard uphill hiking and some sun, and those layers were all back off again. It was fairly tough hiking, all uphill, but the weather was pleasant and the pace was moderate, so I was enjoying it. We took our lunch break about three hours in, our premade sandwiches that we had crammed into our bags. Surprisingly tasty though! About an hour an a half later we started getting up above the tree line, where views over several hundred kilometers of the Guatemala landscape could be seen, as well as Volcan Agua, which is the one that dominates Antigua’s skyline. Although apparently you would have to be an idiot to hike it, as you’ll most likely get everything on you stolen. But they say this one is safe!

After a bit more hiking we could see Volcan Fuego come into view, which is the one that erupts several times a day. Apparently last week it really went off, causing an ashy haze to hang over Antigua and Guatemala city, cancelling many flights. Supposedly the people on our same trip, on that night, had some incredible views! So after another hour and a half of hiking we hit our campsite, a nice gravelly shelf, which looks perfectly over Fuego. It really is one of the coolest places to camp I’ve ever been. Within 15 minutes or so everyone was on their feet to watch as a Fuego erupted, a nice black, billowing cloud of ash.

the first eruption we saw

 We settled in and watched as the sun slowly crept around the other side of the volcano. In between that time and sunset, Fuego would go off another three or four times. It was pretty damn cool. As it got dark we got the fire started, our guide got the veg curry going, and we got the boxed wine flowing. Lot’s insults to each other’s respective countries were dished around! (UK, Canada, and Australia). The food curry was really good and we had roasted marshmallows for dessert.

volcan agua

Now when it gets dark it’s really impressive to see the volcano eruptions because you can actually see the lava spewing out of the top. A little bit after dinner we saw one such eruption! It was just a small one, but nonetheless it was the first time I had seen actual lava in person. After a while we didn’t see any more action and a couple of people started heading back to the tents. Those of us remaining were rewarded with one more eruption, this one much bigger, which was amazing. Then it was time for bed as wakeup was at 4:30am!

someone else's cool photo of Fuego erupting at night

It was an especially long night for me as I had forgone the complimentary foam sleeping pad for my inflatable air mat, which had somehow been punctured. So I was getting a really good feel for those little rocks underneath me. After a night of rotating body positions like a rotisserie chicken, I was relieved when our guide finally stopped by our tent and told us it was time to get up. Eventually everyone stumbled out of their tents and we were on the move through the darkness. This path was very steep and was filled with lots of volcanic rocks, so every step forward you took, you would slide back down a bit. I was feeling good though, and about an hour later some others and myself were at the summit with a panoramic view that reached all the way to the Pacific. We just needed the sun to get up soon because it was freezing!

strollin

finishing up the rim run

running down

Soon enough the sun was coming up over the horizon and we had a pretty good view of course. I didn’t know this going in, but our guide was telling us that if we ran around the crater rim without stopping, which has plenty of ups and downs and is sitting at an elevation of 3,300m (10,000ft), then we would get a free t-shirt. At first I didn’t do it, but after seeing the first 3 people attempt it fail, I felt compelled to give it a shot. It’s much harder than it looks! But after 5 minutes of pretty slow jogging up and down the hills, and the straight uphill bit at the end, I made it successfully without stopping and collected my super awesome free t-shirt later. Now it was time to head back down, which was a lot of fun! Because it’s all loose gravel, you can basically just run down, so the hike from camp that took us over an hour was reduced to less than 15 minutes! We ate some bagels and had some coffee, packed up our gear, and then headed back down to the trailhead. The trail was mostly dirt and sand, so it was a breeze. Three of us and the guide had a race down to finish, as you could basically run the whole last part also, which was a fun way to finish up the hike! We bought some beers for the bus ride down, went to lunch in town, and after that I went back to hostel to pass out for a couple hours because I was absolutely wrecked! And that was my Acatenango hike. If you’re ever in Antigua, I highly recommend it!

the last (and largest) eruption we saw before heading back down

Granada and Leon

Nicaragua’s homely colonial cities, characterized by colorful buildings, Spanish architecture, cathedrals, and charming centrals parks. They’re both places with a seemingly slower pace of life that almost beckon you to find a coffee shop and watch life go by, sipping a cappuccino. When I arrived at Granada it was a Sunday afternoon, although at this particular moment I had no time to waste. It was 2:10 and the Packers conference championship game started at 2:00, so I put down my stuff and rushed out the door to find the main bar strip. I stopped in the first bar I found that had the game on, an Irish pub, although I was the only one there. I learned that everyone was watching the game at a sports bar down the street called Margarita’s, so I headed there at half time, very contentedly...

Prowling the streets

Well we all know how that game turned out, so let’s just say my time in Granada did not start out very well. Nice coaching Fat Mike. After getting a hug from a drunk, sweaty, shirtless Seahawks fan I ambled the cobblestone streets for an hour trying to piece together what had just happened. Well, at the least the nice thing about traveling is you can always disconnect yourself from the things happenings back at home! So no sportscenter replays, radio discussions, facebook updates, etc for me. Back to traveling. I hung out in Granada for another full day, just riding a bike around and nothing really. The only thing that made me nervous was that on three separate occasions as I was wandering around people told me to be careful or not to go this way on account of the camera around my neck. Apparently once you’re just outside the main tourist area it’s not as safe as it might appear…

The main cathedral

After Granada it was off to Leon, which is pretty similar to Granada, although less polished and bright. I liked it’s more rustic feel however, and I enjoyed that when you go to a bar it feels like a good mix of locals and tourists, not just either/or. I gave myself one day of mostly nothingness and another day for volcano boarding which is the big ‘adventure’ activity around Leon. There’s a volcano called Cerro Negro, which is basically a hill of steep volcanic gravel. You hike to the top and then slide all the way down either on a snowboard-like apparatus or a sled-like one. It’s kind of a silly, novelty type thing, but it seems like almost everyone in Leon does it! They put you in these crazy looking full body suits that resemble hazmat suits to minimize cuts and scrapes, if you were to take a bad wipe out. I opted for the standing up board (not really sure why, I suck at snowboarding) and it turns out that everyone else went with the sled.

Streets of Leon

After about an hour in the bus we started hiking up the volcano, carrying all our gear. To be fair it’s almost worth it just for the lookout point at the top. You get a nice panoramic view over the volcano-dotted Nicaraguan landscape. Although looking over the edge from the volcano-boarding launching point was pretty intimidating. It looks really steep! You feel like you wont be able to stop and you’ll end up hurtling yourself at breakneck speed down the mountainside. But our guide assured us it was totally fine…right. So we all threw on our suits and goggles, and I got strapped into my volcano snowboard. At this point I wasn’t feeling particularly reassured being that I was the only one not using the sled.

Photos courtesy of the internet, I was afraid to bring my camera

not me

As it turned out, our guide deemed that I would be going first, so there wasn’t really much time to think about it, off I went! Nice and slow at first. Because it is gravel, there is a lot friction, but at the same time, if you keep your board straight and make no effort to cut back, you will pick up speed, and fast! So I zigzagged my way down the volcano face, wiping out once or twice when I thought I was building up too much speed. It was hard work! You don’t realize how much stress you’re putting on your calves and your ankles. But I made it down in one piece, thoroughly coated in dirt and ash. I watched as the rest of the group made their way down on the sleds and then it was back to Leon. I don’t think I would do it again, but it certainly was an interesting way to spend the morning! Next stop, the Nicaraguan highlands…

Here's some photos from around Leon

market

skate park

Hanging out in doorways and on porches is a popular activity

the chicken ladies

The main cathedral in Leon

Yaa!

no shortage of bananas around these parts

Ometepe

About an hour bus ride and an hour ferry ride from San Juan Del Sur lies Ometepe, an island that sits in the middle of lake Nicaragua. It’s most prominent features are two large volcanos rising up from it’s landmass.

When our ferry arrived I tried to find some other people headed in the direction I was going, so we could split a minibus. Well I found some Germans who were headed in the same direction, except they wanted to do a little mini tour en route, and they invited me to come along. Well that works for me. Although it is always a little awkward being in a group of non-native English speakers because they all have to switch from their language to English to accommodate my monolingual ass. They all spoke good English of course (you can almost always count on Northern Europeans to speak good English) so it wasn’t a problem. Turns out they were all studying Spanish in Colombia before this, so their Spanish was putting mine to shame, which was slightly embarrassing as it’s their third language.

We stopped at a beach, hiked around a lagoon, and hit up a swimming hole before heading to the town most tourists stay at. What we didn’t count on was every guesthouse being full by this time of day, so after long enough we headed to the next town over and found a place to sleep. The next morning I headed out to find a new place. The Germans were super friendly, but I felt like I had burdened them enough with all the English speaking. The first place I came upon was Casa de Maria, which was run by a seemingly eccentric woman in her 60’s, named Maria obviously. She spoke no English, which I kind of liked, as it forced me to use my crappy Spanish. She showed me to my very basic room, which cost like 10 bucks a night. At some point later that night, after some egging on by the people who had been there for a while, Maria did some twerking moves for everyone. I had found a good place.

Now one of my goals for Ometepe was to hike one of the volcanos. The last couple months living in Chicago I had acquired quite a sizable gut (probably the biggest one I’ve ever had) so I was pretty keen to get in some strenuous physical activity, very likely as punishment for allowing myself to get so fat. Most people say that the smaller of the two volcanoes, Masaya, is more scenic because it has a crater lake at the top. Although I had heard that at the moment it was very muddy, and a pretty miserable hike. Concepcion on the other hand was supposed to be the more difficult of the two, and not as scenic, being that it almost always has clouds hanging over the top. Didn’t matter, I was doing it anyway! I had met a Canadian guy in the guesthouse who also wanted to do the hike, so we woke up at 6am and headed off.

On Ometepe public buses only roll around every hour or two, so it can be pretty difficult to find public transportation. Apparently we had just missed the bus, so hitchhiking it would be. Fortunately we were able to hop on the back of truck delivering bread, which would bring us pretty close to park entrance.  40 minutes later we were greeted by a man with a notebook who had us sign our names and nationalities and pay the park fee of a couple dollars. He also yammered at us for a couple minutes about something pertaining to the danger of not having a guide. I know the vast majority of people take a guide, but I read online it was a well-marked trail, so I figured we’d be fine. I picked up maybe 20% of what he was saying, but whatever. Just like in China, you say a couple words in Spanish, and then bam! You give them an inch and they take a mile!

We headed upwards through the forest, passing a group of howler monkeys, which was pretty cool. We also had some nice views of the rest of the island before reaching the cloud line. As expected we were soon scampering up the rocks in a sea of fog. To be honest I wouldn’t recommend this hike to anyone, unless they were in it solely for the exercise. And there’s a lot better ways to get exercise that won’t threaten to kill your knees or sprain your ankles. It’s steep, rocky, and slippery, and you know the whole time you’re not going to be able see anything at the top. Near the very top it gets really windy and cold, not to mention muddy. I took us about 3.5 hours total to reach the summit. At at the summit the wind is whipping like crazy, so much so that you feel like if you start to lean over, it just pushes you back up. We peered over the crater rim, which gives you some eerie views of the white fog abyss. Originally I had planned on having a nice snack at the top, but that clearly was not gonna happen. It was freezing. Two minutes later it was “okay, back down!” So much effort so little reward!

the view of volcano Maderas from Concepcion

Then of course there’s the going down part. It was extremely slippery so you had to pay very close attention every step you took, which gets exhausting. Plus I only had running shoes this time around, as opposed to sturdy hiking boots, so I was constantly worrying about turning an ankle on the wet rocks. For a while it was pretty fricken miserable. The trip down involved lots of obscenities and grumbling! Although slowly but surely, we made it down, which took us just about as long to get down as to get up. A solid 7 hours of hiking. But we had done it! Lots of pain and very few enjoyable moments, but we had climbed the highest volcano on Ometepe! Time to catch the bus home!

Of course there was no bus. We sat there for half an hour and then started asking around if a bus was coming soon, which apparently it was not, so more walking, yay! I realized now that the main benefit of taking a guide is the transportation to and from the volcano. It was about 9 km back to the guesthouse, and we didn’t really have any other options, so we set off. After about 7 km of walking we were finally passed by pickup truck with people in the back and got a lift back into town. Thank god.

We pigged out on pizza and chicken that night and hit the party bar later that night. The following day we rented motorbikes and cruised around the island, surviving some of the horrendous roads and a few bike troubles. Fortunately the locals are basically wizards with these bikes. And then the next day I did nothing but lay on the volcanic sand beach. And that was it for Ometepe! It was a pretty laid back place, which was nice after being in SJDS. I would definitely recommend it, but if you’re looking to do some volcano hiking, I would suggest basically any other one in Nicaragua, unless you’re a real glutton for punishment! Next up: Granada! Sorry for the lack of photos!