Bargaining in Bali

Bali air, thick like a warm stout, hangs over the art market
where eager vendors call out, "Hallo darling"
to passersby. Two of them creep out of their shop of tricks,
sunglasses, dresses, knock off purses and wallets.
The first, with a crystal whit smile, tanned skin
and as thin as the sandals he sells, comments
on my "beautiful white skin."
He laughs when I tell him I came here to be
a darker colour.

Stealing a sideways glance at the other vendor,
I run my fingers through the hanging sarongs.
The first puffs at a freshly lit Marlboro.
"Sexy body, like Coca Cola" -
grease on the wheels of an impending deal -
white skin, Coca Cola... money sign.
"A beautiful sarong for you madam
only 50,000."
Breathe out and bargain for a better price
as the heat wrings the water from my skin.

On Leaving

It's no attachment to anyone or anything or any place. You're here. You meet single serving people. Create a family, a memory, who knows if the connection stays; but for three or so days that you are in one place, it becomes home. You are sad to say goodbye when you leave, but once you're gone, you're gone completely. You don't miss them or the place. It becomes a memory and an experience, nothing more. The people become another number added to your Facebook friends. Sometimes, they are more. They become real. People you may know forever. People you shared those three special days with, a pact. You never know if they will be these people until you leave them, just like you never know if you'll go back to the same place until you leave it. You keep moving and learning and seeing everything you can and those are the things that stay with you. The things that make traveling different from holiday, because you settle into a nomadic lifestyle. And you realize how easy it is to choose to leave or stay. The dat trippers don't know this because they go back to a stationary life, choosing to stand still and wishing to move, but refusing to take the step or afraid to strike obligation, the sacrifice. People are not meant to be barnacles waiting for adventure to float their way.

Cameron Highlands

The rain forest adventure trek was quaint, but can be done on your own if you are amped up enough to do everything by hiking. At the start, one of the range rovers had a blowout and we all had to pile three carloads of people into two in order to get to the village for a blow dart demonstration. We all tried it, with poison-less darts made of bamboo. On first try, not only did I hit the board but I also hit the leaf attached as a target.

Because we were still waiting for the range rovers to come back, we decided to walk from the village through puddles of red mud. After 15 minutes, the rovers picked us up for an amazingly bumpy ride through rain-softened terrain. It was like being on a roller coaster without seat belts. Once we reached the top, we trekked through more mud and water, crossed a make-shift bamboo bridge where Alison nearly slipped through one of the bamboo poles that broke under her feet and the right railing fell. It was quite a scare but she managed to get across unscathed.

By the time we reached the Raflessia flower, we were caked with mud and sweat with soggy feet and pant legs. Apparently, this flower is actually a mushroom and smells like dead bodies or, as our tour guide joked, a Malay public toilet. The texture was bumpy and thick like an animal hide.

Afterward, we hiked back, many without shoes, jumped in the waterfall to wash off some of the mud, drank bamboo water and hopped into the range rovers for another bumpy ride down the mountain. Next stop was the BOH Tea factory that has roughly 200+ hectares of rolling landscape covered with bonsai-looking tea trees. The plantation is owned by a Scottish family who lives in Kuala Lumpur. It was quite a breathtaking site like green courdouroy hugging the lands voluptuous curves.

After lunch and a brief tour of the factory, we headed to the butterfly and insect observation. Imagine giant red and poisonous centipedes about 3/4 the length of your forearm, or mine at least. Giant beetles and mantis, millipedes and scorpions of indescribable size, yuck! as well as brightly coloured butterflies posing for snapshots. Next was the strawberry farm and back to the guesthouse for showers.

That night we has a Steamboat dinner, which is a soup where you cook your own ingredients. Unfortunately for Alison, the soup reminded her of the one we had in Laos that gave us food poisoning, we can thank the Lonely Planet for that one. Afterward, we went to Daniel's lodge for a campfire which wasn't much more than a group of Brits babbling about movies, actors and crap TV. Alison and I opted for playing a few rounds of pool and then bed. I really hate the day trippers.

If you want to be a rock and roll star...

We arrived in Penang. It was late and we weren't planning on going out. At the cafe where we ate dinner in Georgetown, we met two guys. one was fairly creepy and took pictures of us while we ate. He bought me a soda, because I said I wasn't drinking. We couldn't understand a word he was saying because of his thick Indian accent and the music from the cafe was loud. After an hour, he left thankfully.

The other guy we met, Jose, is half Portuguese and half Malay and grew up in Australia. Jose is, to use the word he used to describe himself, a vagabond. He's a sailor who works on private boats as a chef. He also helps to run the cafe. He gave us some good recommendations for the Cameron Highlands.

Down the street was another restaurant called the Blue Diamond where a live band was playing. We decided to join him for a bit. There we met two other travelers, whose names escape me, one from Norway and the other from Denmark... musicians. Ironically, they had met doing volunteer work twelve years ago in Lake View Terrace/Tujunga.

We convinced the musician to play a song or two with the band. He did. Then they were talking about playing one of his songs from his band back home, Glory Box.. The next thing I know, the Norwegian points at me and says, "You are playing bass." I politely declined, saying that I don't know how. Apparently, that wasn'y good enough. So we played the sone for the entire restaurant, about 20 people. It was a lot of fun and a didn't screw it up!

We spent until 2:30 am talking about music festivals and traveling. What a night!

Langkawi, Malaysia

This place is beautiful. The island is huge and there's lots to do here. It's a really strange change of pace, coming here. Since in Buddhist theology, people don't value life in the way westerners do. Because life is reincarnated, they don't tend to fear death. It's the soul you take with you, not the body. So coming here, to Malaysia, where there's more western thought, is really a change. Also the roads are paved and there are signs about "safety first" and "Keep Langkawi Clean" signs I never thought I'd see in SE Asia. There are a lot of muslims, but it doesn't have too much of a muslim feel (at least in comparison to Morocco). Alcohol is sold, but Malay people are not allowed to apply for liquor license (there's always a loophole though). The economy is stable, the locals are educated and speak English very well. It's really strange to be here after two months in Thailand and Laos.

We're staying at a guesthouse called Zackrys. It's the best place we've stayed at yet. The people are great and they have a lot of amenities for guests like free wireless, scooters on property for rent, cheap tours and a bar. The owner actually offered me a job here, maybe I'll come back and stay if things don't work out in the US.

We rented a car and toured the waterfalls and did some duty free shopping. Driving on the British side, was interesting, not as difficult as I had thought it would be.

The Last Two Weeks

So I know it's been a while since I've last written. To recap the last two weeks: New Years was fun, check typical beach party and fire dancing. The first four days afterward were detox days as we got diving certified. Diving is amazing, I feel that everyone should try it. I fell in love and am itching to get back into the water. Two days after certification, we said goodbye to our friends and hopped on a ferry to the mainland at Surat Thani heading to Krabi. Here's a snippet I wrote in my notebook about the day:

A long journey, but an amazing one. Leaving at 9:30 am to catch a 10:30 ferry to Koh Pangan, then another ferry to Surat Thani. We sat on top of the boat in pounding heat that went unnoticed because of the breeze and the beautiful open water view. Along with our Canadian friend, we baked in the sun. By the time we got to Surat Thani, we were crispy like bacon.

The boat ride itself couldn't have been more fun. We also met a guy from San Francisco on the boat, who guessed on the nose where I'm from. I guess I can't escape the valley girl persona, even 15000 miles away. He had spent 1.5 months of his two month holiday on one beach on Koh Pangan. The four of us talked about travels and our next destination while we listened to music from Dave's ipod speakers and drank some beers.

At one point, a bag had fallen off the boat and we had to turn around to fish it out of the water. We thought it was a person, because only minutes before Dave had recounted a story that two travelers had told him. They had been sitting on the boat and saw a dead body float by and didn't say anything to anyone. We had been talking about how screwed up that was and then the boat slowed. In the distance an object was floating. We were relieved when we saw it was a backpack. Regardless, it was a cause for excitement.

We docked at Surat Thani where a bus was waiting to take us to Krabi. There, I met a girl from Argentina, Sylvana, who was incredibly relieved that I speak spanish. We chatted until we reached the next stop where we all had to wait an hour for a different bus. The hour went by quickly for me because Wes had called. On the second bus, Dave and I shared music the entire ride. He's a promoter (the type of people I avoiod like the plague), but also a musician and contractor - an all around great guy.

At Krabi, Alison, Dave, Sylvana and I caught a cab to Ao Nang and then a long boat to Rai Lay beach, thus was born La Familia Rai Lay. We arrived at around 9 or 10 at night and went on a hunt for cheap rooms, which was vastly unsuccessful. I swear we must have circled the beach twice with all our luggage. The only room we could find was a severely overpriced double that Sylvana and Alison haggled down to a slightly more reasonable one, while Dave and I talked to some of the local Thais. They came back and told us that we would all have to share for the night and wake up to find cheaper accomodations.

The next day we found cheaper rooms, but they were still overpriced and twice as disgusting... the beauty of high season. So we ended up spending the next few days all together... four people in a room meant for two. It was great fun, we became a sort of family, cracking jokes and climbing mountains and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I could live on East Rai Lay. Although it is not an island, it felt like one. It was our little home (overpriced and full of smelly mangroves). Phranang was gorgeous with white sands and small islands in the distance that were truly a site. There were caves and climbing spots as well as warm green-blue water. Vendors were selling corn, mangosteen and other exotic fruits, spring rolls, beer, soda, and chicken.

I spent a lot of time climbing the mountains to the lookout point and then down to the lagoon (probably the scariest thing I've ever done). Granted, the climb was full of vertical drops with ropes (no harness) to belay yourself down. At the top of each drop, more and more tourists chickened out until I found myself alone, shitting a brick terrified. Not to mention, I was in sandals as well. I had to do it. We climbed up and over a mountain late the night before to get to Ton Sai (also in sandals and a short skirt). If I could do that, I could do this. I made down to the lagoon, which was not worth the climb at all (maybe it's better at high tide when the lagoon is actually a lagoon and not just muddy nastiness). I didn't care, I was glad to find Dave, Steve and Sylvana and proud of myself for making the journey.

Before it could get any better, or worse for that matter, Alison and I booked our way out to Langkawi, Malaysia.