Trekking Gunung Rinjani

From Bali, I took the slow 4 hour ferry to Lombok, an island east of Bali. I stayed in a pretty little beachside town called Senggigi. The next morning, I started a 3 day, 2 night trek on Gunung Rinjani, a 3700 meter high volcano. Inside of the volcano, there is a crater lake with another volcano inside. It really is gorgeous. As for the climb, there's a reason both trek and camp are four letter words. It is an intense climb, and people die every year attempting it. On the second night, the guide decided to tell us a story about a girl on one of his tours that lost her footing and fell to her death while her boyfriend looked on unable to catch her. I suspect this was a ploy to convince me to hold his hand the whole way down the volcano the next day.

I met some great people on the climb- an Aussie girl, a Dutch guy and an English guy. Our guide, a Hindu man, started to talk about reincarnation, and in an attempt to compliment the Aussie girl, he told her that she would be reincarnated as a man, since she was such a good climber. Compliment fail.

All in all, the trek was similar to law school- something I'm glad I did, but have no desire to repeat. There were some great parts and some brutal parts. There were annoyances- like a still burning brush fire on the way down- but nothing was nearly as annoying as HLS during the 2008 presidential campaign season.

I'm now on the Gilli Islands, which are between Lombok and Bali. I'm on the biggest island, Gilli T. It is very charming with white beaches and horse drawn carts instead of cars or motorcycles. I'm going diving tomorrow.

I've posted a ton of pictures!

Bali: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.880347888635.2353770.2407552&l=c2d2d188ff&type=1

Diving in Tulamben, Bali: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.880395992235.2353798.2407552&l=ab85738210&type=1

Diving in Padang Bay, Bali: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.882188495045.2354547.2407552&l=9883f87a19&type=1

The trek: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.882116075175.2354519.2407552&l=4f5042ad2f&type=1

Bali

So I haven't posted in quite a while, but it was just because I was having such a good time in  Bali! Elisa and I bid Cambodia and our hotel room lizard (which we naturally named Gordon Gekko) a fond farewell and headed to Bali. We stayed in Sanur, which is a quiet town on the east side of the island.

We went diving and it was Elisa's first time ever diving. There is a US cargo ship called the USS Liberty that the Japanese sunk in 1940 right off the coast of Bali. You can shore dive to it. There were a lot of amazing fish and coral.

We also tried surfing. The surf lessons started with a group jog down the beach and stretching. This made sure I was nice and limber every time I fell off the board and had it hit me in the head when I surfaced. I prefer to watch surfers rather than actually to attempt surfing.

Bali really is paradise- beautiful beaches, lovely people, stunning rice paddies, and great food. I can't say enough good things about it. More to come later :)

Off to Indonesia!

Elisa and I spent the morning going out to the Killing Fields. It was an eerie experience. There's a memorial stupa with the skulls of 8000 victims piled up. Some terrific parent brought his four year old who kept tryig to touch the skulls. We then visited the Toul Sleng torture prison used by the Khmer Rouge. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept detailed records of their barbaric treatment of prisoners. This translated into some displays that are painful to look at- including pictures of everyone who passed through the prison. There were only 7 survivors out of 20000. An international tribunal recently sentenced the guy who ran the prison (Duch) to 35 years in prison. He's old,so it is essentially a life sentence, but for someone who was responsible for torturing children to death, it seems like the Toul Sleng water torture machines should be taken out of retirement.

In the afternoon, we visited the royal palace, which had a gorgeous golden throne room. We then went to the Silver Pagoda, which houses a life size gold Buddha decorated with nearly 10000 diamonds! I want one but my bag will already be in trouble tomorrow with Air Asia's 15 kg weight limit.

We're off to Bali in the morning!

Siem Reap and Phnom Penh

Elisa and I had a great three days of temple visiting around Siem Reap. We hired a jolly tuk tuk driver who took us around to all the temples. There was one temple with amazingly intricate carvings in pink stones that were over 1000 years old. Another temple was built with the same floor plan as Angkor Wat, but has been so destroyed that the only way to explore it is to crawl around the ruins. This was a bit of a challenge as Cambodia has been taking the whole monsoon season thing pretty seriously.

We took a six hour bus ride to Phnom Penh today. After that we opted for traditional Cambodian food by the hotel pool. The food in Cambodia has been terrific. Last night we got Khmer BBQ, where you grill the meet at your table. It is similar to Korean BBQ but at the side of the grill there is a place for broth and vegetables. We had a great time trying to cook the meat- chicken, pork, alligator, squid, and beef- without dropping the meat into the broth constantly. The waiter kept offering us help.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a depressing day of sightseeing. In the morning, we're going to Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge torture prison. In the afternoon we're heading out to the Killing Fields where there is a memorial stupa displaying more than 8000 skulls of Khmer Rouge victims. We'll end the day on a happier note- a visit to the royal palace.

Then, the next day we are heading out to Bali!

Temples, Temples, Temples!

If you ever get a cold in a tropical country, avoid checking the health section of your guidebook for all the tropical diseases with the same symptoms as the common cold. I'll save you the time: Dengue fever, Leptospirosis, Malaria, Schistosomiasis, Typhoid, and Typhus. Luckily, most of the time, a cold is just a cold.

Elisa and I met up at Siem Reap airport. Siem Reap is the charming little Cambodian town that serves as a base for exploring the temples of Angkor. Aside from Angkor Wat, there are a ton of other surrounding temples that are also really impressive. It takes a few days to explore the area. The guidebook suggested seeing some of the less impressive temples first to get an idea of the progession of the building styles over the centuries. We ignored this advice and took the "eat dessert first" approach and headed straight to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is incredibly impressive. It is the largest religious structure in the world. Although it was built nearly 1000 years ago, it is in considerably better shape than some of the hotels that I've stayed in this trip.

After Angkor Wat, we explored some of the other nearby temples. Every single temple looks like it should be a location for Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones. One temple, Ta Prohm, had giant, centuries old trees growing on top of and around the temples.The roots were snaking around the buildings and the trees looking like some kind of alien monsters trying to choke the buildings. Really wild.

I'll post pictures soon. I just uploaded some from Vientiane:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.877555304995.2352692.2407552&l=d6a2faee5f&type=1

Vientiane

I had a good day exploring Vientiane, the capital of laos. it is filled with lots of intricate temples. one entertaining highlight was patuxai, the city's knockoff of the arc de triomphe that is built entirely out of concrete that was donated by the usa for construction of a new airport. as a result, expats refer to it as the vertical runway. there's a sign in front of the entrance saying that they regret that it is even uglier up close than it is far away. at least theyre honest.

i'm at the airport waiting for my flight to siem reap, cambodia, so i can explore angkor wat with my friend elisa!

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, Laos is one of the most magical cities I've ever seen. I stayed on the Unesco-protected peninsula which is filled with so many beautiful wat. I was there two days and still didn't see them all! I met some Californians on the plane over, so we explored together the next day. We went out to the Pak Ou caves, which are filled with over 4000 Buddha images that have been left by pilgrims over centuries. The Buddhas are packed on top of each other. It looks like an episode of Hoarders.

We then took a tuk tuk, which in Laos means a motorized bike looking thing towing a trailer with two benches facing each other, to a waterfall. In Vietnam, the tuk tuks were actually pedaled. I heard from a disgruntled traveler that the Vietnam tuk tuk drivers will charge overweight people more and will say "You fat so I have to pedal harder." Ouch.  

In the evening, we went to the Night Markets, which are filled with beautiful paper lanterns, jewelry, and embriodered blankets and aprons. I wanted to buy everything but didn't end up getting anything since my suitcase is already a fatty. The tuk tuk driver would definitely charge it more.

The next day, I woke up at 530 am to give alms to the monks. Hundreds of them walk by and you put some cooked rice in each of their baskets. That is their food for the day then. I swear they started speeding up at some point, and I felt like I was in that episode of I Love Lucy with the candy conveyor belt.

Then, I went out to an elephant sanctuary, where I got to go on an hour long elephant trail ride. I just love elephants. Apparently, they cry when they're upset or scared. How sad is that? Sorry left-leaning buddies, but the elephant is about 1000 times cooler than the donkey. I was able to ride on the elephant's neck, which is more comfortable for the elephant than the basket on its back. It was a glorious experience. I'm adding elephants to my adopt from Asia list.

I uploaded lots of pictures!

Luang Prabang:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.876792189285.2352418.2407552&l=e00d72e723&type=1

Hanoi:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.876791585495.2352417.2407552&l=2466109b80&type=1

And my favorite: Sapa

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.876789599475.2352415.2407552&l=bfcacf61ed&type=1