Money woes in Cambodia

Not mine.  Theirs.  So much poverty.  And even their currency is hassled.  Their highest denomination is worth about 10 bucks.  And they'd rather be paid in US dollars.  So all the prices here are quoted in US$ and money from an ATM is greenbacks.  Today I got a couple hundred out of the bank.  It gave it to me in 50s.  Now go try to pay for a one dollar tuk tuk ride when maybe the most the guy is carrying is five or ten dollars american and maybe two or three times that in Cambodian currency.

Anyway, today I got a camcorder.  Looks like I could have gotten it a lot cheaper on Amazon.  But the way I looked at it when I was buying it was that it's nothing but a high priced toy anyway.  I tried to upload a short video but it takes too long.  The cam takes photos and can capture photos from videos. 

Yesterday was nice without a camera, though of course I was and still am about the loss of all those pictures!  Oh well. 

Bought two silk scarves from this little saleslady

I went to Angkor Thom, which is actually quite a bit bigger than Angkor Wat.  Saw a bunch of other temples but without a map of the complex in front of me I can't remember the names nor most of the spellings.  Their are hawkers at each one selling most of the same stuff.  I've bought a few trinkets, mostly just to be nice to the little girls and boys that are selling the stuff.  Bought a couple of scarves today.  Then a little girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old started crying because I didn't buy one from her, too.  So I bought one from her.  What am I bid for scarves from Cambodia! 

The video of these guys is short but musical

When I get back I can upload everything to Facebook or some such site, hopefully while I sleep, and you can look at whatever photos and videos I have left there if you like.  Or maybe I'll just hook the camcorder up to my TV and have everyone over. I'll try making some curry to go with.

Who's up for that?

Kuala Lumpur- and I lost my camera

What a culture shock.  Rural Bali one day to megalopolyptic Kuala Lumpur.

First night here all I did was find my hotel in Chinatown, get dinner at a hawker stall and walk around a bit.  My rooms a nice change though a bit pricey.  A real hot water shower opposed to the trickles of hot water I've had so far.  A flat screen tv with a lot of Malaysian language channels, some British news and old American movies I've never even heard of.  Not really old but maybe 5 or 10 years. 

After a good night's sleep, some internet and a buffet breakfast at the hotel I hit the town on a hop on hop off bus.  Some of the older architecture is gorgeous.  Most of what I saw is modern.  The viewing platform near the top of the Menara Tower was pretty good, affording a 360 degree view.  The pictures I took don't really do it justice.

Made it into the Royal Selangor Club, birthplace of the Hash.  The place had a sign out front saying only members allowed.  No guards though. I walked right in took a look around, a few pictures and smiled and waved at the guard as I left. He smiled and waved back.

Couldn't make it to the hash that night because it was far out of town and no one in the hash could offer me a lift.  But tonight I'm going.  One of the locals is nice enough to pick me up and was so concerned that he wouldn't know who I was when he gets here today, even though I said I'd be the only person in running gear with my hash tags and a yellow cap that's got my hash name on it, that he showed up at my hotel around midnight, waking me out of a sound sleep and some dream I couldn't remember, to say hello.

I'd had two calls from hashers that day around noon.  I asked at the front desk around 3 if I had any messages since I was expecting at least one.  They said no.  Then when I got back from dinner I had two messages one at 11 am and the other at noon.

****
So I'd typed the above yesterday afternoon intending to upload picturesto it after a read through and edit.  However, today in Cambodia while tuk tukking my way from one temple to the next my camera fell out of my pocket.  We looked for it for quite a while, made a report to the tourist police, asked people that work along the side of the rode and so on but no luck.  So the pictures I have of my trip are just the ones on this blog.

I'm kind of upset, as you can imagine.  Strangely enough, I'm also kind of glad because now I can just look at things and people and experience them without having to think about dragging out my camera to take a picture.  Oh well.

After Ganung Batur

a store on the way to the museum

I walked along the main drag, Jalan Raya. Jalan means road, I think, and is abbreviated Jl in all the countries I've been to so far. I was going to the Neka Art Museum.  The "concierge" at my hotel said it was only a 15 minute walk but it seemed a lot longer.  An art museum here seems superfluous because there's art everywhere you go.  Besides just about every store having something artistic, even if it's say, a Circle K (local 7eleven- bamboo wind chimes, masks, beaded baskets, wicker baskets, sarongs, ornamental knives, paintings, tile encrusted dishes and so on and on - there's artwork embedded in things like the bridges, doorways, the street and rooftops.  So the museum was okay and I'm glad I went.  A guy was playing a bamboo, uh, xylophone or marimba type thing and I jammed with him on another one just like it right next to him - until the other guy came back to play it.  

Next day I took a batik class.  I'd always wondered how that's done.

Then yesterday I took a cooking class and did a last little bit of souvenir shopping, getting a few musical instruments though they're Maori, like the thing that Crocodile Dundee makes a "phone call" with in the second of those films.

And today, my full last day here I feel like I did a lot.  Mailed 4 kilos of souvenirs home. Checked internet. Went to the Blanco Museum.  He's known as the Bali Dali.  Lots of birds there. 

Went by scooter to the ARMA - another art museum but with much more exquisite grounds and a lot more sculpture than the Neka. 

Grabbed another scooter to Horizon Glassworks since I've been trying my hand at glassblowing.  I'd emailed them first and they were expecting me.  Wow, what a bunch of neat stuff.  The scooter guy had given me his phone number.  And the glassworks are a bit removed.  So we called him when I was ready to go and he took me back to the Palace. 

Saw some guys playing soccer in the town pitch.  So after dropping my stuff in my room I walked down to them and got into the game.  Played with them until someone kicked the ball out of the park and broke a parked car's side view mirror.  They didn't seem at all concerned.  I hope the car was well insured.

Went home, cleaned up, booked a shuttle to the airport for tomorrow morning, had dinner and wrote this.  Next I go back to pack.  And tomorrow I'm in the air to Kuala Lumpur, arriving around 6 pm.  There's a hash both days I'm there.  Already contacted them and they seem willing to help me get to them.  So that should be extra fun.

Chinatown in KL

So let's see.

Where did I leave off...after the monkey forest, I think.  I walked up the street, Monkey Forest Road, and booked a trip to Ganung Batur for that night.

Then I went for a walk, which was really more of a hike, on Campuhan Ridge, pronounced Champuhan.  A bit tricky to find though it's mentioned in a lot of guidebooks and everyone here knows about it.

This is a view from the bridge as you enter - though so much here is so beautiful.
















And here's a view during the ascent on the ridge.  There was an old guy along the way, looked like maybe he was missing an eye, selling coconuts for about a quarter.  I bought one.  He asked me the usual, "Where are you from?" and looked the usual dumbfounded for a sec.  The juice lasted me for a long while.  There's a lot of juice in coconuts!

 This idyllic is from the warung where I stopped for a bite.  Nusi Campur and cold water for only about a couple bucks.  Nusi Campur is sort of a chef's special, usually rice with some combination of tofu, tampeh, sate and vegetable.  Delicious!







I'm taking several baths a day to keep cool and to try to stay clean.  It's so humid.  And it's going to get more humid and hotter as I proceed north to KL, Angkor and Vietnam.

Anyway, I got picked up for Batur on time, around 2:30 a.m.  The "house boy" at the palace woke me at 2.  Then we picked up a French couple with not much English.  After an hour's drive we stopped at the base of our climb.  The mountain is only about 1800 meters and we were already probably somewhere near an elevation of  I don't really know, maybe 1000?  Anyway, my travel company neglected to tell me to bring a jacket so I rented one.  The guides were very interested in my Ipod.

The idea is that after hiking in the dark for about an hour and a half you reach the summit in time for the sunrise.  Of course, it was obscured by clouds much of the time.  Still a nice hike and a neat view.

Finished reading "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian".  Quite interesting for me since three of my four grandparents were from the Ukraine.  The critics call it hysterically funny.  I laughed once.  To me it was more on the poignant side.  Anyway, I liked it.  In a few days I'll be sending it and a bunch of souvenirs to the states, care of my brother since I've now accumulated much more than I need or want to carry.

Anyway, I've signed up for a Batik class this morning.  Gotta go.

Ubud,the cultural center of Bali

Still don't quite know how to pronounce this town, if it's oobud or oobood but no one really seems to care that much.  So I guess I'm in the clear.

When I arrived here I had no touts trying to get me to go with their taxi so I hoofed it through town.  I decided to go "upscale" and spend more than 30$ night.  First place I tried was booked.  Next place was good.  Puri Saren.  Nice little room in the center of town, with a/c and trickling hot water.  A big breakfast, toast, an omelette, a big plate of fruit and banana pancakes.  And always tea.  Too much for me.

First day I didn't do much of anything, went browsing around the local market and saw an evening dance performance at my hotel. 

I'd planned to see the monkey forest my second day but the cremation ceremony also took place here.  Bizarre ritual.  After digging up the honored dead, they clean  and dress the bones, place them in a tower.  In front of the tower is what looks like a bull, constructed out of styrofoam.  Both are on platforms of bamboo.  Eventually, after food and music, the platforms are lifted by a horde of guys (I helped) and carried about a kilometer to another temple.  Then the bull is cut open, the bones are transferred to it and it's set ablaze.  These are its charred remains.

.After dinner and a massage I explored the grounds of my hotel.  A bunch of people were sitting around in back but their dogs barked at me.  The next morning I asked the guy at the front desk about it and he told me that's the royal family.  Turns out my hotel, a homestay, is the palace.  That's why when people ask where I'm staying and I tell them they're so impressed!

I saved my fruit from breakfast and went to the monkey forest. The monkeys encircled me waiting for handouts. They liked it except for one big guy who doesn't like pineapple. What a lot of monkeys. Some of the ones I'd fed followed me around for awhile. A little one jumped on my shoulder. When I tried scratching him on the head he started nibbling on my shoulder. I jumped and he jumped off. There seems to be a lot of purification ceremonies here. A bunch of the localswere building something. I stopped and talked with one, who must be pretty well-to-do by Indonesian standards. His command of English was spectacular, he does a great deal of travelling (doesn't like NY - says no w/o money there, there's no joy) and owns a local restaurant or two. He told me about the purification ceremony they were preparing for, which takes place once every ten years. I spent a few hours in the park, had a bunch more monkeys climb on me. Unfortunately, no one was around to use my camera to take pictures of me then.

Afterwards, I book a trip to Ganung Batur to see the sunrise.  I'll write a bit more later.  Now I'm going to the Neka Art Museum, which I've heard a lot of people praising.

Nusa Lembongan

Nice little island, off the south coast of Bali.  First day I got here I just kind of walked around.  Got a luggage handle on my backpack fixed.  Checked the internet.  How amazing is it that on an island most people may never have even heard of I can stay in touch! Stayed in a bamboo hut overlook the ocean.  Watched part of the last football match.  Got up at 3 a.m. to see it.  When they went into overtime I went back to bed to be be fresh for diving the next day.

No pictures of my diving.  But here's one of a seaweed harvest.  It's used for cosmetics.The locals are always harvesting it, carrying bundles of it on their heads. 

Yesterday after diving I changed lodging and rented a scooter from someone there.  Went across part of the island.  The roads are narrow.  No cars here.  A few trucks they use for heavy transport.  But mostly scooters, bikes and foot traffic.

They're having a funeral ceremony for the next week or so.  I haven't taken any pictures of it - not sure if it's polite.  The way it was explained to me is that when someone dies they bury them immediately.  Then when the time is right many families get together, unbury the bones, clean then cremate them.  The new place I'm staying is next to a temple.  Last night they started chanting.  By the time I got myself organized to go over there they'd stopped.

Anyway, on one side of the island is a narrow suspension bridge, the road part of it is made of wood.  Missing a few timbers.  Clickety clack.  Only one scooter in a direction at a time.  When I got onto it to go to Cerrigan there were some little kids walking in the same direction.  As soon as they heard me my bike started running.  Halfway across some of the timbers are spaced kind of far apart.

Once I got to the other side of the bridge, I turned right, the scenic route according the lady at my new place, and stopped at a little roadside place for a bite to eat.  Chicken wrapped in banana leaves (very moist and tasty) rice and bamboo shoots with peas (actually, peanuts - but they call them peas...) cooked to order and a coke, for about 3$.  A little kid came up to look at me.  I showed him my ipod and the next thing his grampa was there, his mom, his dad, a sister or an aunt, another old man.  Everyone came to say hello and ask me where I'm from and such.  I took a few pictures and will email them once I have a decent upload speed.  The ones from this computer take a long time.  They told me about the cook's brother's weeding.  I said, making like I was hold a book, reading?  No!  You mean like pulling weeds, I made motions.  No.  The brother and a woman from Kuta.  Oh....wedding!  They're Hindus.  They don't seem to like the local Muslims much, too strict, I guess.  Bali is one, if not the only, Indonesian island that's predominantly Hindu.  Most are Muslim. Hindu is a complicated religion with a lot of gods. 

Today diving we saw a Mola Mola, aka a sunfish.  Distinct to this part of the world.  Kind of strange looking.  We were lucky to see it.  Now I'm just going to kick back.  Do a little window shopping on the main drag.  Maybe get a massage, about 10$ from someone that the lady at the lodge recommended.  Tomorrow I head to Ubud.  The cultural center.  I was planning to do a bit more diving after I'm done with Ubud.  Now I'm thinking I may just spend a few extra days there.

Today is Saturday

Saturday is a hashing day.  I took a shuttle from Kuta to Sanur today.  I was going to go on to Nusa Lembongan to dive.  But there's a hash here tonight. So I decided to stay.  A minor milestone for me since this is the first time in all my traveling that I've gone somewhere without having a place set up to stay once I got here.  It worked out pretty well.  For 300,000 rupee (pronounced rew pee uh) I have a room with ac, a fridge, a big bed, a balcony that has a view of the beach, windows all around and pretty nice trappings.

After cleaning up I gave them my laundry and found this internet cafe.
Yesterday was great.  Went to the Ubud area and rafting.  My camera's not waterproof so no pics of that.  But wow what a great time.  Cool, wet, fast, bumpy, beer.  One side of the river has huge carvings that were put in about 5 years ago although they look ancient.  They go on for maybe a thousand feet and are up to about 20' high.  Spectacular.  I'll get some pictures of it later from someone else on the trip I think.  All hashers.  And instead of paying the usual 80 bucks it was only about 50.  Afterwards I went with a few people to an elephant place.  It was a little pricier than I was led to believe so I just chilled.  Showed some of the people there pics of the red dress run and they took a shine to me.  Took me up to see their bears.  Honey bears from Borneo.  The female is about 4 years old, weighs about 40 kilo and was quite friendly.  They gave me some small ritz crackers to feed her.  Then they decided I was okay to see her husband, who's more aggressive.  We gave him a bottle of milk.  Went back to the girl, who's pregnant, and before long she was sitting in my lap.  Have a lot of pictures of that.  

Then we went to went to one of the hasher's house, Unul.  She's gotta be loaded.  I think someone said her husband is married to some bigwig at Exxon.  Her house is gigantic.  Didn't see all of it.  But had fun playing her piano and singing karaoke before heading back to Kuta. 

The driver wasn't too crazy about going back there because traffic had started slowing.  So what might normally be a an hour and a half trip could have taken us closer to 3.  When we finally hit traffic he said we were about 3 km away.  But we were moving really slowly.  So I paid him, got out and hoofed it.  Not only was the route back not particularly straightforward, it was also a bit more than 3 k, more like 7.  I was trying to get back to the Poppies Hotel I by 6 for a hash, a TDH3 reunion.  I jogged part of the way but finally gave up, not really knowing how much further I had to go, a grabbed a ride on the back of a scooter after a bit of bargaining.  They'd already been gone about a half hour so I ran trail following the marks.  Not too bad, a nice trail really, till I got to a gate they'd gone through which by then was locked, and about 10 feet high, with pointy spokes at the top, and glass shards set into the top of the concrete wall next to it.  I still managed to get over it and didn't hurt myself.  But by the time I got to B they were almost ready to leave.  Still, circle back at the hotel was fun.  I got waterboarded, with beer, for inviting someone to the reunion who'd never been to a TDH3.  Beer burns when it gets up your nose.

Well, that's all for now, I guess.

Thursday, a free day in Kuta, Bali

My hotel's nice, a/c, tv, balcony overlooking the pool, double bed and so on, esp. when you consider it's only about 25$ per night!

Yesterday I went with a bunch of hashers in three vans to do a bit of sightseeing.  First we went to a locals market. 










Then we had lunch overlooking one of the big mountains here, which they call Ganungs. 

Then saw the "mother temple" at Ganung Agung, the tallest mountain here.  The guide laughed when I asked him where the father temple is.  Guess he thought I was joking.  











Then we had dinner near Candi Dasa.  Even though the distances aren't great this little bit took us all day.  I was exhausted from it when I got home so opted not to go with them to Ubud today and the run afterward in one of the monkey forests.  I'll be headed to Ubud in a few days anyway.


Tomorrow I get picked up for rafting and elephants, though not necessarily in that order.  Then Saturday I'm off by shuttle and boat to Nusa Lembongan for a couple days of diving.  The island isn't far off the coast of southern Bali, maybe an hour and a half by boat.  And it's connected to another island by a small footbridge.  I think there aren't any ATMs nor do they accept plastic there.  So today I'm going to get 4 million rupees to take with me, only about 400 American.  The only thing is that the largest denomination is about 100,000.  So it's quite a wad.

Just taking a walk to see where the shuttle is in relation to my hotel.  Then I'm thinking lunch and a massage, then maybe a look at the beach.  Maybe if I get back to the hotel early I'll grab a cab to the monkey forest for the run, but it seems little pricey.

Out of Borneo - on to Bali

At the free internet kiosk at the Singapore airport now.  Another 4 hours before boarding.  I'll have a quick look around.  This terminal is huge, with a botanical garden!  A few bites on my ankle and still sniffling.  Looking forward to laying on the beach in the sun.

The Interhash is over

Kenya didn't win.  :-(  So I've got a hundred dollar tee shirt.  That is, I preregistered for Kenya at a discount.  Because they lost and I get no refund, all I have to show for it is the shirt.  That's okay. 

Today is July 5th.  I've got a bit of free time.  I've mailed back extra tee shirts and such.  They'll probably get back to me about a month or two after I get back.  Now I'm  catching up on blogging and email.  Had a brief hello to Charlotte and Barbara on Facebook.

This Interhash was pretty well run I guess, despite its several changes in management.  I liked seeing old friends and making a few new ones.  And of course the trails are neat.

Yesterday I managed to get on the cave run, which was so popular the first day that they added a few busses.  Here we are going through a creek with a beautiful outcropping rock formation.

More water and dense foliage.

Rock formations near the trail...

I tried taking a picture inside the cave but all I got was black.  This is us exiting.  The cave was pretty big. - Bats above if you had a bright enough light to see them.

And a watercrossing to finish things off.  The water came up to my chest and there was a pretty good current where it did. The hares had stretched ropes taught across the river so that no one would get swept away.  The water felt great!

And finally, the circle.  The wood on the ground has three glasses attached to it.  So whenever anyone got called up at least two more did as well.  All three glasses are filled and down downs were done on our knees, with cardboard to soften the impact. 

No comments and no followers :-( - updated

Maybe writing things down here is superfluous.

Okay, mea culpa.  I had a comment a few days ago.  But they (the comments) don't seem to appear when I log in.  I'll have to hunt for them.

This picture is of the Red Dress Run.  We were written up in the local paper.  About 2000 of us ran around the city.  Almost before we started the skies opened up on us.  Everyone was drenched but cool.  The money left over after the run goes to a few local charities.

This is out in the jungle somewhere on my first TDH3 (Thinking Drinking Hash).  Very hard to run as the uphills are, well, uphill as well as a little slippery.  And the downhills are sometimes obstructed with tree roots and vines.  This dandy suspension bridge swayed when you got to the middle and had a huge gap in the fence towards the end.

At the end of the run, we had circle in a river.  The new boots had to take off their old shirt before they got another one.

The first actual day of Hashing.  Still more or less impossible to run, the trail slippery and covered with vines.  This was a lovely bamboo forest, rubber trees being drained of their sap in many places and durian trees - none bearing fruit that I saw.

As we were leaving after circle, on our way back - as we were loading onto the buses a local family waved at us.  You can see one of the women is either taking our picture on her cel or maybe texting someone.  Out in the middle of nowhere yet not.