We ended in Ende

I’m not sure where to begin. Indonesia was amazing. So amazing that I can’t help but feel indifferent to the coming leg in Northern Thailand. Yes, the Thai food will be amazing. But can it compete with Indonesia in any other category? We’ll have to see.

Let’s start from the beginning-Gili Air.  With the introduction of a new international airport on Lombok, Gili Air was only a short (and very cheap) flight from Kuala Lumpur, an hour taxi, and 20 min ferry. And just like that, you’re at the perfect Island getaway. Was Gili Air one of the most amazing places we’ve been too? Probably not, but it remains as one of the Ultimate vacation destinations we’ve spotted out for future use. Let me get into the details. The island takes about 1 hour? Maybe 2 to circumnavigate and 90 percent of your destinations are within a 10-20 minute walk. This makes everything so dang easy. Secondly, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. This makes everything so dang peaceful. Thirdly, and maybe this should go first, there is a bar located on a great beach, with great sunsets, with great cocktails (and great prices), and great music. The sunsets in Indonesia are truly out of this world. It still is just entirely beyond my comprehension how the sky can be more beautiful in different places around the world (my newest theory includes the height of the clouds, they seem lower here). I joke with Libby that the sunsets here have an “Indonesian” filter that we’re Beta testing for Instagram.  Fourthly, they have excellent food for extremely reasonable prices. You know a place is a veritable paradise when capable cooks/entrepreneurs/whatever decide to just sort of chuck it in and just go set up shop in paradise. Whether you want fresh fish on the beach or an Italian style pizza cooked up by a Milano on his wood-burning stove, there are options for you. Fifthly, there is excellent snorkeling located right off the beach. The current gently pulls you along like a conveyor belt (also known as a travellator according to the Bali airport) so you just walk up the beach, swim out and enjoy the ride. Considering we saw 3 turtles and many scorpion fish in our two times snorkeling, I’d consider that good snorkeling from my experience. 

And then there was the diving…  

I think at the end of the day, diving was the main reason we came to Indonesia. You know that feeling of supreme self-satisfaction you get when you have an idea or a rough plan you want to accomplish, and it turns out that idea was something close to one of the GREATEST IDEAS IN THE WORLD? That was diving. And honestly it was a big sacrifice choosing to include diving in our Indonesia itinerary. Y’all might not remember but Raja Ampat to me, in the initial pre-trip planning stages, was like the holy grail of the whole 4 month trip. And after a lot of number crunching there was a time when I was ready to sacrifice diving to make Raja Ampat possible. Thankfully, we stuck to our guns and held on to diving as our primary objective. What a great idea, it’s difficult to think of what life would have been like if I just would have stuck to snorkeling. Diving is something I will certainly hold on to for the rest of my life.

Back to Gili Air. I honestly felt Gili Air was the perfect introduction to diving. First off, the diving itself was really, really good. It’s not quite world-class (since I know what this now hehe), but there are some things that would draw even the most seasoned divers. First off, it’s so dang easy. In Komodo, it takes 2 hours to get to the farthest dive sites and here it’s 15 minutes. That means you can go for a morning dive, come back for an espresso and tuna wasabi salad and then head back out for an afternoon dive. On Komodo it’s an all-day affair. Libby was nagging me for weeks about how lame and decidedly unspecial her birthday was going to be, and I definitely encouraged it by being honest that while on the road there’s not a lot of time to go searching around in the boutique shops ect ect. But in the end, she got to go scuba diving for the first time on her birthday. Honestly and truly, I can’t think of a more special experience of that. Diving for the first time is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It was one of those rare moments I’ve had on this trip where you get that tingling sensation and the hairs stand up on your neck. I’ve talked with people quite a bit about what makes diving so great compared to snorkeling and the best answer I’ve heard is that diving is 3-D while snorkeling remains 2-D. literally speaking, we’re comparing spheres to lines. Listening to me gush, you might ask, “Andrew, is it possible you like diving more than skiing these days?” The answer thankfully remains a definitive no. I guess what intrigued about diving in the first place is how my brother could essentially give up skiing for diving. What makes diving so amazing is how spectacular it is from day 1. They teach you a few basics in the morning and then throw you into this stunning reef full of amazing fish and from that instant you’re totally hooked. Skiing on the other hand, requires hundreds or thousands of hours to reach a level of expertise that’s satisfying. Diving on the other hand is almost instantaneous. That’s also what keeps it from being the best sport ever, diving isn’t extremely engaging or interactive. Diving is like 70-90 percent observing nature and the rest of it is finning around and maintaining neutral buoyancy. It’s very dependent on what you’re able to see. Thankfully, we were in the best places in the world to see stuff.  Our instructor on GIli air was amazing, and is further proof (in my opinion) of how amazing the Island is. Logically, the best instructors would choose to be located at the best dive sites in the world, but some might choose a perfect combination of great diving and living. Needless to say, it was really hard leaving Gili Air after 5 breezy days of total ease. At the end of the day though, we didn’t want to continue bouncing around in the minor league and knew it was time to take our diving to the big leagues.

                Enter Komodo. Well first, should I tell you about how we were unable to get on our original flight to Labuan Bajo since Lion Air won’t let you pay for your plane ticket via the internet 48 hours in advance and you must use a bank which doesn’t exist on Gili Air. So our boat and our bus were on time and we arrive in Bali just in time to make our flight. Of course our reservation was lost and in that 36 some hours the flight gets fully booked. As we’re banging our heads against the glass in frustration we see the prices for the next day shoot up 50 percent literally in front of our eyes. Really in times like that, to save your sanity, it’s best to be thankful you over-budget, pull out the credit card and close your eyes just to make the pain stop. The next antidote to stop this downward spiral was to splurge on a hotel with wifi, hot water, HBO and a pool and take refuge from the world that seemingly was trying to crush you. Anyways, that ended up being a nice fix and the next day we were in Labuan Bajo.

                I really grew to like Labuan Bajo. Labuan Bajo is a diving town. Besides diving, you can see Komodo dragons but that’s honestly about it. There is one street, and all the accoutrements one could possibly need with diving are located on the one street: nice coffee shops, bars, restaurants, convenience stores. The next day we went diving and I won’t even bother going into detail. The weather was s***, and unfortunately with such weather-dependent sports (like skiing), you just have to be prepared for days like that. The next day we started our advanced diving certification, but more importantly the weather was beautiful. Sure enough, it felt like moving up to the big leagues. The coral was amazing, so were the quantity and quality of fish. We dove for 5 days total in Labuan Bajo and I can’t even begin to go into detail all of the things we saw. I’ll talk about the mantas, because that’s the marquee animal people come to Komodo to see. They are spectacular creatures, enormous and incredibly graceful. It’s really hard to estimate their size as water distorts your perspective, but 10-15-20? Feet across, hard to say.  Libby describes them as being about the size of a small car or queen sized bed, but she tends to underestimate.  You find them at the “cleaning stations” where they go to have fish eat the parasites that grow on their skin. If you’re lucky (which we were), you’ll see them (two separate occasions 4 and 12 of them) and if you’re more lucky (which we were), they’ll fly right overhead. They were within feet of us and it is stunning to get so close to these animals. We even got to see an enormous pregnant one (they keep a 1.5 meter baby manta in their stomach)!!! Let me just say there was a nice Frenchman who had a manta necklace along with a very large manta tattoo on his side. We did 14 dives in Komodo and the best one was our second to last dive. Komodo is known for its strong currents (which is why we got our advanced certificate, and also so we can go to 30 m), but sometimes you can miss them. They were really blowing on the last day since it was nearing full moon, and we arrived at Batu Balong (one of the most famous dive sites in Komodo). It’s a seamount that rises up a foot or two out of water, located in a channel between two islands. The current was so strong that you could see the V split the current was making as it hit the mount and there was whitewater and whirlpools all along that V. Anyways, we jumped in-between the V and from the moment you descend you see a handful of sharks hunting, groups of enormous giant trevally swimming around, hunting yellowfin tuna, titan triggerfish, and all the little fish the big fish eat. Besides the giant wall of coral teeming with life beside all of this. There was too much to see you honestly didn’t know where to look, all those things I mentioned were swimming above below and beside you at all times. I also loved the current, it makes it more exciting and I finally got to see the infamous Komodo site of Fish swimming vertically upwards or vertically downwards due to the up and down currents. One of the highlights was seeing this enormous shape emerge from the blue and find the biggest Napoleon Wrasse we had seen the whole trip.  The last dive of our trip we got to do another one of the trademark dives in Komodo that was also like a badge or a notch in the belt. Within the dive site Cauldron, there is something known as the “shotgun.” You are in sort of a recessed bowl in-between two islands when you ascend slightly above the lip of the bowl and then are suddenly blown through the straight. Being somewhat of a thrill seeker, I wanted to see what these “ripping” currents were all about, and wow! The visibility was not strong, so we had close to no warning when all of a sudden you start getting pulled above the lip and just like that you’re off. Honestly you don’t have enough time to look at much as coral is really just zooming by below you and then all of a sudden you have to fin for your life to try and get out of ripping current all the while attempting to dodge coral mounts that you’re flying into, and keep an eye on the guide. I think all of us for a moment or 2 or 3 didn’t think we were going to make it out of the current and into the protected bay and when we did it felt like we just had run a 200 meter sprint. Kid you not, you’re just sitting there at 10-15 meters sucking on your air regulator for dear life. Afterwards the whole experience was made even better because we were the only group to successfully make the “shotgun” while the other two groups on our boat and a few others on another boat all missed it. It was the perfect ending to an amazing introduction to diving.  Also I should mention we saw 4 pygmy seahorses which are amazing little creatures.  At the cauldron, our dive guide had to look for about 5-10 minutes at a fan no larger than 2 feet by 2 feet before he could spot it, then lost it, then finally found it again to point it out to us. They have impeccable camouflage.

Almost as an afterthought, because that’s where the Flores road trip stands in my mind compared to diving, was the 6 day road trip we took through the Island of Flores as an interlude to our diving.  Let me start by saying the island of Flores was the most stunning natural beauty I’ve yet to see. As I see it, there were more beautiful snapshots of scenery in Northern Vietnam (terraced foothills) and Palawan (white sandy beaches lined with palm trees and encapsulated by limestone cliffs), but taken holistically, Flores was unmatched, specifically the 50 km from Ende to Moni. In 6 days, we drove 1,120 km or approximately 700 miles and let me just say that I didn’t regret for one minute having to drive 350 of those miles on the exact same road we came in on. It was that beautiful. Constant winding up and down volcanic mountain ranges made for slow driving, but who cares! We found a German to accompany us on our moto trip which was a good idea to have a second bike in case one brakes down and also because it’s just good to have a German with to keep you on your toes in terms of persevering, punctuality and maximizing value (which to young Germans, seem to just be the cheapest possible level). Being a good German, he never complained and was always 100 percent reasonable. He was a perfect travel partner and probably the best friend we have and will meet on the road. On day 1 we had a flat tire in a tiny, tiny village and it was hilarious to have 30 or so of the villagers come down to the mechanic and crowd around and stare at us as well as snap dozens of pictures of Libby. From day 2 on the road just starts getting surreal. What I loved about this drive and what made it so unbelievable was just the sheer diversity in beautiful scenery. You have bamboo forests, which I love (I’d only ever seen large patches of bamboo). You have hardwood forests. You have banana plantations. You have palm plantations. You have proper jungle. You have raging rivers. You have volcanoes in the background. You have rice terraces stretched along open fields. You have rice terraces cut out of the jungle. You have blue stone beaches. You have volcanic black sand beaches. You have moss covered ridges. I hope I’m adequately conveying Flores’ natural beauty. Let me explain the 50 km from Ende to Moni in more detail. You start heading up a valley from Ende with moss covered volcanic ridges on either side. Down below you have a beautiful river cutting through the valley. Along this river are these beautiful meadows in which palm trees and rice terraces reside. At the end, there are the tri-color volcanic lakes of Kelimutu and some nice hot springs to relax in. Hot springs abound in Flores which is reason enough to visit this island (at least for me). It was the most amazing motorbike ride we’ve ever taken.

So, you might be wondering, “Andrew, if there was the most beautiful natural scenery on an island with world class diving (and hot springs), which you come to find out you love, on just one of the numerous islands in Indonesia, why are you leaving?” To which I’d answer, I’m not quite sure. But there are a few things that keep Indonesia from being an Eden and lessen the sadness of leaving. First, there’s the food. Indonesian food is just plain boring. At its core, there’s Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng, which at their core are simply fried rice and fried noodles. Yeah there’s a bunch of fried vegetables, potatoes or eggs you can put on rice, but trust me, it all gets old fast. The one exception to this terrible cuisine is the fresh fish in Labuan Bajo. The best fish I’ve ever had. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much. First, you need red snapper caught less than 6 hours ago, secondly you need to cook it over the smoking embers of coconut shells, thirdly you need to constantly be seasoning it with some mixture of soy sauce, chilis, lime, maybe salt? Lastly, they chop the fish in half and cook it whole so you’re cooking very thin slices of it and retaining the moistness and flavor. That’s it, so simple, yet so astonishingly delicious. But let’s get back to the negatives of Indonesia.

The biggest problem with Indonesia is the cost of diving in concert with the cost of accommodation. I liked to tell my parents that diving sucked every penny out of our pockets and left us staying in the biggest sh**hole at the end of the day. When we weren’t diving we were still staying in the biggest sh**holes in a vain attempt to try and make up some of the money. There are the cheapest rooms we’ve seen in Southeast Asia here in Indonesia and you get exactly what you pay for. 7 dollars was the cheapest room we stayed in. What do you get for 7 dollars? Not a hell of a lot. The bathrooms are worst, definitely the worst part of the 7 dollar experience. I used to dread the squatter. Indonesia has taught me to admire the squatter. There is a far worse evil out there. It’s called the conventional toilet that has been presumably broken and then turned into a manual toilet. It’s a flawed design. Boy is it flawed. I’ll keep it PG. No matter how many scoops of water you throw into the toilet that toilet is still going to have yellow water in it. This inevitably leads to an aroma that permeates into the walls of these bathrooms. Next there is the reservoir that you use to scoop the water into the toilet or just a spigot. Invariably, these become leaky. This water creates some sort of terrible dampness and humidity that just sucks up any and all odor and as a byproduct becomes a breeding ground for mosquitos. My parents were like, “oh, I’m sure there’s worse bathrooms out there.” I was like “feasibly, there could be worse, but there would have to be excrement smeared over the walls, that’s the only thing that could make this situation worse.”  Even Libby who is the one forcing us into these rooms avoided the bathroom at all costs and would hold out for a nearby coffee shop. 

In many bathrooms, showers were out of the question, but there still came that time in the middle of the night where you woke up and just had to go to the bathroom. I would wake up, and be like, “oh no, please still be dreaming, please don’t let that be your actual bladder telling you it’s time to go in there…” And then you’d just have to dive in. Of course, sinks were a thing of the past. I didn’t even know not having a sink in a bathroom was a real thing, but it is. All of these wretched bathrooms situations of course are exacerbated by the “traditional” Indonesian restaurant in which dishes are prepared in the morning and then sit out all day until you point at it and they put it on hot rice for you.

The sheets are scary, have they ever been washed? Does it matter? I had laundry done in one of these places and all my clothes came back smelling damp and musty with all of the dirt still on them. You sleep in your sleeping sack until the tiny fan in the room isn’t enough and you start sleeping on top of the sleeping sack. Then you wake up half on the sleep sack and half on the…sheet.  In the place in Labuan Bajo the puppies were always fighting, the cats meowing, the chickens crowing, and there was always a cacophony of noises emanating from the common area that I told Libby I felt like I was living in the projects.  

Finally, there’s the crème de la crème of bathroom horror stories. This one is less scary and more hilarious. Remember the bad day of diving I mentioned earlier. Let me first give some pretext. There’s this strange phenomenon in diving, I think it’s the increased atmospheric pressure down there, that makes you really have to go every time you finish a dive. Well as I mentioned, the weather was really bad and when we came to the surface there is like 4-8 foot swells that are rocking the boat up and down. It was really hard to get back on the boat so we had to wait like 30 minutes holding onto a rope in the water while we got onboard one at a time. More pretext, during our initial boat briefing the staff inform us that the toilet onboard is a marine toilet meaning it just goes straight into the sea, it is also located in the back of the boat. By the time I got onboard my bladder is exploding and I rush right into the bathrooms. First off, it’s a balancing act in and off itself just to stand up, and we’re off to the races. Then we come crashing down and I feel like a something. “Uh oh.” We start rocking up again and I try to quickly shuffle to the side of the toilet. Not enough room, we come crashing down and that direct “marine” path down to the sea comes blowing back up like Old Faithful. I couldn’t just stop so after a few more series of crashes I end up taking a little shower with the good ole bum gun in the bathroom.

Now we’re off to Northern Thailand and maybe a bit of Laos before heading to India.  Until then…

Interlude

Malaysia has turned into something of an interlude or intermission for the trip. We’ll have stayed a total of 6 days in Kuala Lumpur, and there certainly isn’t six days of sights in Kuala Lumpur. That being said, Kuala Lumpur is an excellent little city. It’s sort of like a little Bangkok, though in all reality it’s probably most similar to Singapore (except we wouldn’t know, we haven’t been). Kuala Lumpur is exceptionally nice, so nice you wonder where this little country and comparatively small city gets the money for all these beautiful skyscrapers and incredible public transit infrastructure. There are something like 4 separate trains and free buses to take around town. The highlight of Kuala Lumpur (besides the Grand Prix obviously) was the Islamic Arts Museum. Beautiful and highly unique works of art housed in a beautifully serene building. Only later as I was talking to another friend about the museum did I realize the irony in the museum having an overflowing amount of jeweled weapons.  We weren’t exactly bursting with excitement when we went to go take our obligatory pictures of the Petronas towers but, wow. These things are an architectural wonder and are certainly the most beautiful skyscrapers I’ve ever seen and could quite possibly be the most beautiful skyscrapers in existence. Also, going at night with them lit up is a good call. We’ve been staying in China town which is a fun experience. The covered street market is practically home. They have a couple of steps-above average fakes which are fun to look at on our way back to the guesthouse. Speaking of guesthouses, after staying in hotels for two weeks with my parents Libby put us in our worst guesthouse to date on night 1 in Kuala Lumpur. A literal box, with a mattress that was more springs than it was mattress. I’m talking the floor could’ve been a more comfortable option, save for the fact you couldn’t be sure what might be crawling on the floor. Now we’re in a more deluxe (for 20 as opposed to 10 USD) box for which I’m thankful. We went to a movie one night in one of if not the central mall in Kuala Lumpur. I thought I had seen nice malls in Manila, but this mall was somehow on the next level. I’m talking Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Burberry, Versace and literally dozens more all in a row a couple hundred meters long. There are an astounding amount of tourists here in Kuala Lumpur and at first I wasn’t sure why they all had come exactly. This is still a working hypothesis that others have mentioned but I think Kuala Lumpur is something of a shopping center for all of Southeast Asia (maybe greater Asia too). Because we went to another mall in the Petronas towers, and they had almost the exact same designer lineup! As I mentioned before, Kuala Lumpur is a wonderful city, but I think as far as sights to see and food to eat, there are better cities/places to go for all of these tourists.

I encountered the most peculiar man over a game of chess in our hotel. I was in the lobby of the guesthouse, and all of a sudden, a man comes up to me and asks if I play chess. I say yes, and he immediately asks if I want to play. I haven’t played since coming to Asia. We play, I lose in a close game, and we get to talking. The man has been in Kuala Lumpur for 2.5 months. He’s on a 5.5 month tour of Asia and had spent two weeks in Thailand before settling in KL. His main reason for staying being his love for Durian. He said he ate three whole durian the previous day, which, by the way, IS A LOT OF DURIAN.  For those who don’t know, durian is a large spikey fruit with a custardy texture and TERRIBLE smell; so bad that hotels and public transportation have signs outlawing it.  Libby once taught a class with a student who had durian.  She had to step outside for fresh air because the smell was making her light headed and nauseous.  The way this guy was gushing about Durian felt like he was talking about the woman of his dreams; it was all a bit surreal. Secondly, he really likes playing chess, and has found good chess players in a nearby park. To top it off his name is Klaus and he’s from a small town in Austria. He’s been a postal clerk for 22 straight years and said he needed a break. Very strange man. I figure since he’s from such a small town it’s easier and much more comfortable to settle in a single place. But I wish I could have convinced him to uproot and spend those last two months seeing everything there is to see in this wonderful part of the world.

Back to KL. The only thing that’s a little strange in the religious aspect of KL. I mean, you can’t help but feel a little strange when you see these women walking around in Niqabs next to other scantily clad Asian girls. It’s even stranger when you think how the women IN the Niqabs must feel about the scantily clad women while they’re presumably baking a little inside their curtains. You can easily imagine the tension that must exist. Also as a westerner with somewhat progressive values, you can’t help but feel a little moral revulsion at the blatant sexism of it all. I mean, yeah I guess it’d be fine if the husbands were also wearing that thing but they don’t; usually they’re chilling in shorts and t-shirts. And also I’d guess it’d be fine if the men weren’t allowed to walk around alone like the women, but they are. Who knows though, maybe the husbands are like, “hey honey, what do you want to wear today, a long dress? a skirt and blouse? or your Niqab?”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-02/what-are-the-differences-between-the-burka-niqab-and-hijab/5785816 (worth the read says Libby)

Had an extraordinary last day in Kuala Lumpur. We started the day off with a fantastic Sunday brunch in downtown KL at Acme Bar and Coffee (ABC).  More spectacular skyscrapers, one of the best breakfasts we’ve had in Asia in combination with a super chic setting had me loving KL even more. After lunch, we headed to track for the Grand Prix race. What a great experience! I really feel that I’m sold on Formula One and will be something I’ll stay interested in for the rest of my life.  I feel like we as human beings (or at least men) have this natural affinity towards the sounds of those engines. Needless when the engines start it raises the hair on the back of my neck. Even though I knew next to nothing when it came to the drivers, the strategies, the tactics, everything really, but I could sense there was a lot going on that you could get into. Something that I still feel is missing entirely with NASCAR. Vettel from Ferrari won which was sort of a big deal because Mercedes has been simply dominating the field of late. Also it was exciting being around people cheering their driver on every lap of the way even though there is no possible chance of someone hearing anything over the deafening roar of the engines; people who clearly loved this sport. There was a certain amount of class in the audience, at the very least it was extremely worldly. Yes there were your rednecks (bring loud engines and they will come), but they were in the minority.  A main reason for this thought process being the excessive price of Formula 1 gear.  The t-shirts were $80! The polos $100! And so many people had them!  I was jealous.  Not to mention the super nice cars in the parking lots.  We ended the day in a very awesome restaurant in China town called the Old China Café. It used to be in the old grocer’s (or something similar) guild hall and had that perfect authentic or maybe raw vintage feel to it with beautiful wooden doors and white marble tables.  Also I love KL because even the central market food court has these vintage white marble top tables (I don’t know where they get all this marble from, but I love it.) Anyways, that ended our KL trip; we were up at 5 am the next morning for our flight to Lombok.

Old China Cafe 

fancy food court tables 

Having such a fantastic day, one of those extraordinary days that stick out above the rest of all the other special days this trip has entailed, can’t help but leave a good taste in your mouth when you think of KL. Yeah, I feel this city is most suited to someone with 5 or 10 thousand dollars to blow in an afternoon of shopping (and maybe a night of fancy clubbing), but I don’t regret the 6 days of recuperation and preparation for Indonesia. WAIT A SECOND. MY one complaint of KL was the shocking price of beer. I felt like I was stealing a cookie from the cookie jar every time I broke down and spent an obscene 2 dollars for a beer (in comparison to the standard 50 cent beers in Vietnam).

After an exhausting day of travel, we woke up in KL and fell asleep in Gili Air (which is an impressive amount of distance to cover=Train, Plane, Automobile, Boat, and Foot). We could have added horse cart to our list but Libby felt too bad for the horse and I felt too cheap. Gili is nice, we’re on the east coast of Gili Air which is entirely splendid. I think Palawan still might beat it up, but just slightly. We were having coconuts on the beach with chilled out French house music which were two comparable experiences we’ve had in Gili and Palawan. But I think 7 commando beach bar still wins, in case anyone was wondering. We’re still kind of pouting about the fact that we came to Gili specifically for the amazing deals on open water diving certifications and the amazing deals have disappeared. Upon further inspection our Lonely Planet copy (digital), which Amazon hopefully keeps updated, is from 2013 so our $280 certifications is up to $360, just like everywhere else. O well, our itinerary is still rock solid and we’ve just got to take the kick in the balls, suck it up, and move on. Speaking of itinerary, I can give you our rough Indonesia itinerary, which I’m proud of and maybe, just maybe, one of y’all might just use one day. So we flew into Lombok in the morning, and after a taxi and a boat, we arrived on Gili Air. After our introduction to diving, we are moving to Labuan Bajo. From Labuan Bajo you access Komodo and Rinca islands, the only two islands in the world home to the Komodo Dragon. Also, there is world class diving around these areas which we hope to take part in. Afterwards, we take an overland journey of the island of Flores from East to West. Taking in volcanos, hot springs, local tribes, chameleon esque volcanic lakes, and of course beaches.  Libby is excited for one beach known for having dark pink sand and another which has blue stones.  From East Flores (around Ende), we hope to take a 20 hour ferry to the Alor Archipelago. What’s in Alor you ask? For me, general desolation. But also, world class diving and dozens of ethnic minorities that should be the most untouched we’ll be able to get our hands on (and honestly some of the most untouched in the world). From Alor, it’s another 17 hour ferry to the Island of East Timor and its capital-Kupang. Time will dictate whether we have time to explore East Timor or not, but from its Capital and the Capital of Tusa Nengarra (the province of islands we are exploring) we will hopefully find a reasonable flight from Kupang to Jakarta and continue on from Jakarta to Chiang Mai for the next leg of our journey (otherwise we may be stuck in East Timor forever). Bon Voyage!!!!!!!!

10 guides x 1 question = 10 different answers

Hanoi came like a breath of fresh air. By the time we had arrived in Hanoi, we had taken an overnight bus two nights prior, walked around in 100 degree heat (in Yangon) for a full day, then slept overnight in the Bangkok airport. For the roughly 9-10 days we were in Northern Vietnam, it never rained, but it also never ceased to mist. Such weather doesn’t exist in Saigon. Anyways, when we first arrived, we were loving it. It’s amazing how after a certain amount of time with similar weather, you’ll always want the complete opposite. We had just come from 5 straight weeks of sun with temperatures ranging from hot to blazing and thought this cool misting weather was just the greatest thing on earth. It took us around 4 days to finally concede that cool misting weather isn’t the greatest thing on earth. Anyways, while we were waiting for my parents to arrive we went and had our only true Bia Hoi experience of Vietnam (beer brewed fresh daily @ 25 cents a glass). I had had a Bia Hoi here and there in Danang and Hoi An, but I really wanted to leave a lasting impression on my palette. I think we must’ve met the four nicest Vietnamese people in Hanoi that night because they all seemed to disappear after that. I think the only lasting impression the Bia Hoi left was on my slightly degraded previous blog post due to the slightly degraded state of my mind following the Bia Hoi “incident.” You know that 70/30 sightseeing/interacting ratio I posited last blog post, well with enough booze I think you can temporarily flip that ratio. Because, looking back, did we really talk about anything? I think the short answer, is no. But during my double digit bout with Bia Hoi I kept telling Libby that this was what it was all about. What was what all about? Not really sure. Only real takeaway was that I kept smoking these opium style water pipes filled with tobacco and needless to say I ended my night with a late-night date with the toilet since I don’t smoke tobacco.

The next day, besides being filled with struggles, was spent writing the blog at Café Nola. I’d recommend Café Nola to anyone visiting Hanoi. Nice location in the Old Quarter and excellent atmosphere (also there’s the name).  Libby spent her day hopping public buses to and from the Museum of Ethnology.  That night, the parents finally arrived. We started the day early the next morning with a walking (+ taxi) tour of the city. Having a guide was great for the sole reason that it’s quite nice to be taken around everywhere and not worry about directions/transportation. Other than that, it’s tough trying to be buddy buddy with people you’re A) hardly know B) paying C) will never see again. Everyone wants something different out of their guide, so of course it’s going to be impossible for them to perfectly meet your needs unless they have uncanny perception. So they generally seem to resort to the basest levels of humor. They generally know little to nothing but seem to be experts at pointing out natural features that are shaped like various animals. Speaking of expertise, their real specialty is the misdirection. This is of course greatly aided by the language barrier as most of us will simply think they misunderstood us, but no. They are just amazing at going off on a tangent and then trying to hook us with some other interesting fact (they will never in fact tell you they don’t know, which is a reasonable answer). I’m still mad he couldn’t tell me who sculpted the nice bronze statue of Uncle Ho smoking a cigarette and what type of wood his house was made out of (Uncle Ho=Ho Chi Minh). Anyways, super proud of Libby when we were at some Pagoda or other with a statue of the first King of Vietnam (circa 13^th century) and she asks our guide with the straightest face, “so is he still alive?” She really knocked it out of the park when we then proceeded to look at a purportedly thousand year old turtle and she asks him something like, “so do they put him back in the lake at night?” Mark Twain would’ve been proud. Hanoi as a whole was a great city for visiting. The old quarter has a tight neighbor hoody feel to it that is lacking in Saigon. The lake and its surroundings has an aesthetic beauty to it that Saigon also lacks. My first reaction was that Hanoi is a better city to visit and Saigon a better city to live, but after being back in Saigon for a few days I can’t be totally certain. You do only need two days to properly see the city, and you most certainly can skip the ethnology museum.

After those two days, we were off to Sapa on the overnight train. My first overnight train! Great ride, another boost in my appreciation for trains. Sapa ended up being my favorite spot in Vietnam, hands down. It had a mountain town vibe to it that you can’t get anywhere else in Vietnam (maybe Southeast Asia?). Yes, the food can’t compete with places like Danang or Hue, but everything else is spectacular. I’m saying this even with mostly horrific weather. I had no expectations whatsoever with regards to the ethnic minorities after our disappointing encounters in Burma, and Vietnam already being such an established tourist destination. But wow! Wearing their traditional clothes makes all the difference. That and they have a slightly different facial structure. Is that superficial (o well). There is the one (and sometimes major) downside of having Black Hmong and Red Zhao ladies following for, I kid you not, multiple kilometers in very (very) savvy attempts to sell you their woven wares. Part of the reason is my parents practically have a bull’s eye on their heads when it comes to these ladies. They know that Libby and I are too young and thus poor to really buy anything and the older people are too crotchety and experienced to give in to their mix of persistence and guilt-tripping so they really hone in on the middle zone like sharks on a bleeding seal. And it works, and at the end of the day my parents can write off that expense in their heads in less than a minute while it makes a world of difference to these ladies and could quite potentially keep fueling their way of life which is important. Because once these people stop wearing their traditional clothes than they stop being different and then unfortunately stop being interesting as sad as that sounds (Burma “jaded” me slightly with Ethnic Minority tribes/villages).  Anyways, we did the obligatory overnight trek/homestay. And phuc me! I’d actually recommend it! Shame on me. That being said, did we actually have any genuine or interesting interactions/conversations with the family, hardly. And really this homestay had the mother of all attractions for me. Herbal medicine baths in slightly oversized whiskey barrel things. I mean, they could have probably stuck me in the dirt and fed me dog, and I probably would still come back for those damn baths. Heaven on earth. They boil water with a combination of mountain herbs and then put the water in the bath and you jump in to like 110-115 degree water. I’m bringing it back to the states, mark my words. For some reason it made me feel like I was in 1850’s China. Speaking of which, I realize some of my imaginative connections make little to no sense. Why does that bath remind me of 1850’s China, I have no effing clue? It really hit home when I met some Vietnam vets on a Mekong tour and asked them if there were any vets that just stayed behind and lived in Vietnam forever, and I realized, why is that such a popular myth/allure in my mind? Can’t say for sure, must be my system 1 working too much.

Anyways, the baths in combination with an excellent home cooked meal over a wood burning hearth/stove type contraption is somehow enough to recommend the homestay. Both days of our trekking, visibility was limited to anywhere from around 2-20 meters which was obviously a huge bummer. And on the third and last day in Sapa the sun came out! It would have been tragic if we would have never actually seen Sapa which was a very very real possibility. On the third day after the nice trekking, we hired motorbikes for a motorbike tour. It was awesome, maybe my favorite day in Vietnam. We got to see all the extraordinary vistas and panoramas over the terraced rice paddies.  We were finally able to see all the pictures you would see on postcards and google. We took the road from Sapa to Ban Ho which was just amazing. There used to be hot springs in Ban Ho which was going to really just send this day into the stratosphere only to find out the GOVERNMENT BUILT A HYDROELECTRIC BUILDING OVER THE SPRINGS DESTROYING THE HOT SPRINGS. Really I think that someone should go to jail over that, maybe shot. An environmental catastrophe of the first order. What’s more important than a hot spring? Clean Energy? NO, nothing is more important than hot springs, NOTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGG. Anyways, take a look at the pictures below.

After that brilliant day in Sapa we were off to Halong Bay. I’ve now been to the two premier karst formation locations in northern Palawan and Halong Bay. Halong Bay is prettier. There are more karst Islands/Islets than in Palawan, and they are much smaller and thus add more depth, more lines to the landscape. Also you go through more straits and areas where you get the feeling that you are surrounded by the formations. The white sandy, palm lined beaches are missing in Halong bay and the water color also can’t compete with Palawan. That being said, Halong Bay is a must-see destination. Yeah the trash, and the multitude of other tourist boats certainly put a damper on the whole experience, but it’s something you have to do but are happy to have it checked off the list by the end. The boat is tolerable, quaint maybe? Staying on Cat Ba Island was the highlight of Halong Bay. The main reason being you have to go off the beaten path (defined tour boat routes) to get there. We didn’t have enough time to explore the island but it’s probably extremely nice as well.

After Halong Bay, we split off from the parents. They headed to Siem Reap (Angkor Watt) and we headed down to Central Vietnam to check off our last major sight in Vietnam-Hue. In retrospect, we should have just gone and seen Angkor Watt for a second time, but we never would have known that until we went and saw Hue. We flew into Danang so we could do the motorbike ride from Danang to Hue which had gotten numerous recommendations. You hug the coast and go over a huge mountain pass. Admittedly, that part of the trip was epic, unfortunately no one ever told us that the beautiful mountain pass that skips the highway was only 35 km long and there’s still 65 km to Hue along the two-lane highway with many 18-wheelers and no shoulders due to construction. That part of the trip was stressful. I love motorbikes and motorbike trips, but I hate motorbike trips that involve trucks. For obvious reasons there’s nothing fun about being a yard or two away from something that can literally crush you. So, I would recommend that 35 km ride and then stopping at some resort with bungalows over the water that was advertised right after the mountain pass finished. But, we were heading on to Hue. Hue, apart from the imperial city is like any other midsized or any sized Vietnamese city (ie nothing special). The food was some of the best if not the best we had in Vietnam. But making a trip to the city solely for the food is iffy. Anyways, one of our fb friends summed it up quite nicely when he said the imperial city was like going to an amusement park without any rides. The vast majority of the city was obliterated by American bombs so it’s mostly a skeleton of its former self with lots of replicas being built (zzzzz). The tombs were a bit better, located at various points outside of the city. It gives you a chance to cruise around the rolling countryside of central Vietnam which is very very beautiful. The tombs themselves mostly hover around the average range minus one which was spectacular (Khai Dinh). Beautiful and also unique murals adorn the entire ceiling and is definitely worth visiting. But again, is delicious food and a single tomb worth a three hour motorbike from Danang? Probably, but travelling with my parents was actually a shocking amount of fun so it was nice to get back to them in Saigon. One last note on the motorbike, during the first 65 km gauntlet I kept it at a “below” catastrophic speed which increased my time in the actual gauntlet. The second time I opted for the minimal time in the gauntlet. The latter option was much preferable and an interesting life lesson.

We met my parents again in Saigon for the last 2.5 day leg in Saigon. 2.5 days in Saigon is the perfect amount of time if you want to see everything stacked on top of each other. We were able to do pretty much all of our very favorite things in those two days which made for a spectacular ending to the trip. We started out splitting our favorite kebobs and then splitting our favorite Pho. Then we went and had a coffee at Khanh Casa and watched the rush hour traffic (a favorite pastime of my father). Then we went to Chill Sky Bar for evening cocktails. After that, we stopped and had an appetizer of our favorite Sushi roll, the Mexicali, at Ichiban before heading to our favorite street food restaurant. After dinner, we headed to the Jazz Club to listen to Jazz/Vietnamese fusion at Sax n Art. That rounded off day 1. Day two took us to our favorite park in District 3, then a quick look at the Notre Dame Cathedral and the post office. Than we had lunch at our favorite lunch street food location with the director of Language Corps where we did our TEFL training. After that we took the obligatory trip to War Remnants Museum . Afterwards my mother and I got smoothies and coffees at La Rotunde (Passion Fruit Peach smoothie) and Libby took her obligatory nap. We headed across the river to district two and had cocktails on the river at the Deck (yes the deck is a deck on the Saigon River). Then we walked down the street for the pinnacle of eating in Saigon. 7 courses at Trois Gourmands. The sheer contrast of eating streetfood on little tikes plastic stools and then having a 5-star meal is one of my favorite things about Saigon. Trois Gourmands lasted a very impressive 3.5 hours and remains at the very top of my restaurant experiences. The only problem with a meal of that magnitude is that by the end of the meal you really just want to tip over out of your chair and crawl into the fetal position. There certainly are worse problems in life. We rounded out Saigon with shopping in the morning and a 3 hour spa experience at Cat Moc in the afternoon. Body scrub, massage, facial, foot treatment. Yup, that’s what it’s all about. Finished with coffee at La Fenetre Soleil, Hue style streetfood and one last smoothie to watch the traffic go by. Really, we really had Saigon dialed into max. Not sure if it’s really possible to go harder in the paint than that. Obviously, Libby was gushing about how much this made her miss Saigon, and I had to remind her that we could maybe do 1 of those 10 favorite things we just did per week. And I had to remind myself, I wasn’t teaching!!! It was sad to see the parentals go. Apart from the many steps up from our Backpacker travelling we were used to, it was just really nice to double the group size. It really helps increase the energy. Also, it was nice to make less decisions and just go with the flow for a while. Although the guides helped a lot with that, just having 4 people’s input instead of 2 means you’re going to have a lot less say in the decisions, which is simply a nice change in your travelling routine.

After the parentals left we knocked off the last item on Libby’s Vietnam list-The Mekong Delta. More like the dirty delta. I’d say NOT worth seeing. If like myself, the “delta” brings to mind narrow canals, passageways, thick jungle and rice paddy’s, keep it that way. Do yourself a favor and don’t let the actual Delta ruin that romanticized vision in your head. The picturesque scenes in the tour we went on were so small and compact that they could have been recreated in a Disneyland exhibit. Whether or not it gets better depends on how deep you want to get into the jungle, which risks greater reward or greater disappointment. Your choice. Libby appended pictures to the last two posts and I actually did the pictures this post, so you can go ahead and compare us. Also, will be better with pictures in future posts. As I write this, I’m back in my favorite coffee shop and the ease of simply living abroad versus travelling abroad sort of sucks you back in, so it’s good we’re off to Malaysia this evening and the next leg of our trip. Malaysia, the Grand Prix and the much vaunted Indonesia is next.