Kuala Tahan, Malaysia

Welcome to the Jungle January 1 2012

After an exciting stint in the big city of Kuala Lumpur, I decide to do a 180 and go to the Malaysian jungle.  Had I done it all over, I would have given myself another day to recover after the festivities of the prior night, but I seize the day.  I need to get to a small town called Kuala Tahan which is the closest town to the jungle, but I’m not sure exactly how to get there.  I know I need to take the metro to a bus station, then take a bus to Jarentut, and then somehow find another bus to Kuala Tahan.  I don’t know the bus times for all this, but you get good at winging it out here after awhile, so I wing it.  

I take the metro with no problems to the bus station.  The bus station is kind of a hodgepodge of different buses and little booths with destinations on them, sometimes handwritten.  There are small hawker stalls selling drinks and snacks.  I walk up and down the rows with a focused concentration like I‘m trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle or something.   I don’t see a sign on anyone’s booth for Jarentut.  I ask one of the guys in a random booth where the bus to Jarentut is, hoping to get an English answer back.  He points to a stall across the street.  I buy a ticket and reconfirm a universal lesson:  if you don’t know, just ask.

On the bus I glance over and see a couple of European looking folks.  It appears I’m not the only one seizing the day!  We arrive at Jarentut, unload from the bus, and start scanning surroundings for a bus station and an ATM.  I can see the other couple is doing the same so I ask where they are going.  They respond with “Kuala Tahan” and we immediately form a team.  At about the same time an older Indian gentleman walks up and asks if we are going to Jarentut and offers us a cab for 70 Ringet.  It seems expensive at first so we hold off.  Me and Stephan walk to the closest ATM and find that it doesn’t accept our cards.
We walk back to our bags and the taxi driver says he will drop us off at a good ATM, so we do the math:  70 Ringet divided by 3 = 23 Ringet which equals about 8 dollars each to get to the ATM and our final destination.

We accept the offer and step into the ricketiest old cab I’ve ever seen.  I’m talking like 1974 Toyota corolla old.  I look over at the cab drivers seat belt and see that is has broken and has been reattached with a small rope.  It’s loud, there’s no AC, and we drive for an hour through palm plantations as we make idle chatter until we get into the town.  We pass some monkeys on the side of the road.

We then search for accommodation.   After searching for awhile I stay at a pace called the Tahan Guesthouse, my two new friends want to search a bit more.  We decide to meet up for dinner later.

All of the restaurants are floating on the river.  You have to walk over these little bridges (read:  a couple wooden boards tied together) to get to the places.  The boat restaurants are tied to trees along the bank by long ropes.  As the river rises and falls which can happen quite dramatically, the restaurants float up and down.  It’s really cool.  We choose the restaurant where the boards stay above the water so we don’t get our feet wet.  The food is good, the company is better, and the atmosphere is kind of like you would expect on a floating restaurant in a jungle in Malaysia.  There are long-tail boats motoring back and forth, a fisherman throws his net right next to us on the river bank, and we see a couple little kids playing in the water across the way.

During dinner, the Austrians tell me about an old guy working at their hostel who would like to take us out on a jungle trek.   After dinner, we go meet him.  He is an old guy, long hair, quick to smile yet serious.  We learn he has been leading treks into the jungle for over 17 years.  He tells us he doesn't take too many groups out anymore, only the ones he likes.  I’m sure if this is a clever marketing technique or if he's being completely genuine, but we all seem to agree on the latter.   We talk it over and decide that we must do this.  We decide on the following itinerary:

Meet at the dock after breakfast, take a long-tail boat up the river for about an hour to a dropoff point, hike about 8 km into the jungle, sleep in a massive cave, hike back out on another loop for 8 km, and then catch another boat back to the town.  Should be fun.

Floating Restaurants

Residents of the town

Elephants, Tigers, and Leeches Oh My January 2 2012, January 3 2012

Today we are hiking in the oldest rain-forest in the world at over 100 million years old.  It’s older than the Amazon.   There are tigers, elephants, gibbons, monkeys, pythons, leeches (more of these later), and a host of other goodies in this jungle.  It rains nearly every day, it feels like a sauna, and it’s probably the craziest hiking I will ever do.  In New Zealand I had no problem hiking around without a guide, but not here.  Not when there are tigers and elephants I could cross paths with.  No way.

We all meet up early at one of the hawker stands for breakfast.  We have these banana pancake type things called Roti Canai and they are amazing.  Our guide (Maan, Mahn, Man, not sure how to spell it) eats with us, gets on his motorbike with a cigarette in his mouth, and speeds off to get the supplies we need for the trek.

We pack up our food and supplies and head down to the river to meet our boat.  We pile our bags into the front and get in one-by-one.   We ride across the river to get a permit at the office and meet up with a boat that Maan has hired to take us into the jungle.  We ride against a rapid current for about an hour.  The driver maneuvers the boat around rocks and trees sticking out of the water.  A couple boats ride past us in the other direction and I learn that even in a Malaysian jungle it is proper etiquette to wave and smile to the other boats.  I’m not exactly sure why people are so friendly when they get on a boat.  Perhaps it’s an acknowledgement that they are in the same club, the in-group for those psychology students.  Perhaps boats are just fun and everyone is in a good mood on them.

Here are the highlights:  
Leeches are everywhere. Mud is everywhere.  Water is everywhere.  It’s hot, and sweat pours off you constantly.  Everything stays wet, and you are in a jungle…a serious jungle.

First, you try to avoid the mud, calculating every step and placing your foot carefully.  Then at some you realize it’s a losing battle and just tromp through it.

The guide points out different plants as we go.  Some have medicinal uses, some will kill you.  Some turn colors when exposed to sunlight, some have spikes, some can be used as cups, and some can be used as jungle drums.

We see a giant centipede, the guide pulls it off the tree, lets us play with it for awhile.  It feels weird to have over 100 tiny legs crawling on you.

We find a jungle vine and play tarzan for awhile.

We get to the cave and it’s huge!  It’s massive!  We all laugh at the sheer craziness of it.  It looks like someone hollowed out a mountain.  Parts of it must have been 5 or 6 stories high.  This is our home for the night.

Our guide starts a fire with the wood we gather.  It serves as our stove and campfire.

We go to wash up in a nearby stream before dinner.  It feels amazing to wash the mud and blood off.  I’m still bleeding from a couple of leeches who had taken a liking to me.  When they bite they inject an anti-coagulant and a pain killer.  This basically means you can’t feel them bite and you bleed profusely when you pull them off.  I see little jets of blood flowing from my leg into the clear jungle water.  I trust my immune system to handle whatever microorganisms the jungle has to offer.  

Back at the cave at sunset, we see hundreds of bats flying out of the cave opening.  They are going out to hunt just as we are about to start dinner; vegetable soup and chicken curry with rice.  It was delicious.

After dinner we go back to the stream at dark to wash stuff, and go to the bathroom.  All three of us go together which provides only a false sense of safety.  If a tiger wanted to get one of us, there’s not a damn thing we could do about it.  We wouldn’t hear it or see it until it is too late.  The jungle is too thick.  We joke about the tigers getting one of us the entire trip.

At some point in the night I hear one of our pots clanking around.  I’m not sure if I’m just really tired or if I just don’t want to see the animal on the other end of this racket, but I ignore it for awhile. Finally everyone wakes up and turns of the flashlights to find a giant porcupine eating the leftovers.  It’s not far away.

To say I got very little sleep would be an understatement.  Sleeping on a hard cave floor with only a thin mat makes it impossible to get comfortable.  I toss and turn all night.

We have coffee and toast in the morning over the fire.  Maan tells us about the trees, animals, life in Malaysia, politics, superstitions, and everything in between.  He is a character.  He tells us one story where he was guiding a couple of Dutch women on the same route we were taking.  They get to the cave, it rains hard the entire night, and everyone has to swim across parts of the trail because everything was flooded the next day.   This would have been an adventure.

Hiking out of the jungle, we follow some elephant tracks.  Maan seems to think they have been here a couple days ago.  No actual elephants though.

Hiking out of the jungle, we cross an aboriginal campground.  Maan tells us that they have left quite awhile ago to hunt in different areas of the jungle.  No actual aboriginals though.

We stop at a river for lunch.  Maan tells us about the crazy parasites he has caught in the jungle.  I look over to see Stephan swimming naked in the river as I’m bleeding from both legs after pulling off more leaches.  Jesus.

At one point the jungle starts to beat me.  I’ve been sweating profusely for 2 days, my shoes are unrecognizable from all the mud caked to them, my feet are wet, I’ve been fighting off leeches for the past two days, I’m bleeding, I’m dirty, I’m out of water, I’ve gotten about an hour of sleep total, and I just want to get the hell out of the jungle.

We finally reach our pickup point.  It feels absolutely great to take my shoes and socks off to clean the mud off in the river.  Splashing some cool water in my face is also a winner.  As our spirits are lifting we hear the din of a motor boat getting closer and closer.  It’s our ride out!  I put my shoes on soaking wet but it was such an improvement from before that it was like putting socks on hot from the dryer.  The boat ride was great, the first shower was great, and sleeping in a bed was great.  Everything in this world is relative.

Trust me you’re not a real man until you trekked through the jungle.

Breakfast at the hawker stalls

Let's go!

Jungle

Giant Bug

Tarzan

Tree bridge

Damn Leeches!

Maan cooking

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Welcome to Malaysia December 29, 2011

I start the day (and nearly end it) with an 11 hour plane ride from Christchurch, New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .  It's a long plane ride to say the least and KL is 5 hours ahead of New Zealand time.  I start to get some hours back that I lost flying to New Zealand which is nice.  There's not a whole lot of noteworthy things which happen on the flight:

My computer runs out of batteries with 5 hours left.  Time slows to a crawl. There's literally nothing to do or watch.  I try to sleep but can't.  I start to think that the airlines need to find a way to allow people to sleep on the damn plane.  Build some small compartments to lay down in...something.  It's like drinking a cup of coffee just before you go to sleep.  You're really tired but it's impossible to sleep.  I digress.

It's my first AirAsia experience which comes with some surprises.  They don't give you anything (drinks, peanuts, water, nothing) for free.  Also, your carry-on bag cannot be more than 7 kgs which means I have to pay to check my bag.  I don't really like the idea of handing all of my worldly possessions (while on travel anyway) to someone else, but I have no choice.  There's no movies, no games, no screens of any sort on the plane.  

I fly over Australia which looks like a vast desert.  I have unfinished business with Australia.

The sunset is nice from 20,000ft or whatever the plane altitude is.


I finally get into the KL airport and BAM! Asia comes flying into my eyeballs.  I immediately realize that I’ve never been to a place like this before.  There's a mix of Indians, Asians, and every variation in-between walking through the terminal.  All of the women wear headdresses (I later realize that Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country).  Everything looks a little run down, like maybe it was built in the 1970's.  I go into one of the stores to grab a drink and don't recognize any of the stuff on the shelves with the exception of water and coke.  I grab a chrysanthemum tea and switch my focus to getting my bag and getting a bus to my hostel which is over an hour away. The tea is pretty good.

Arriving to strange places at night is always a little uncomfortable.  In this particular place, I have to ride a bus about an hour into the city center, then catch the metro to a stop near the hostel, then walk to the hostel.  Catching the bus downtown goes fine, however I roll into the metro station to find that it is closed.  At least I think it's closed.  There are a couple shops open, but there's not really anyone there aside from some people sleeping on the ground.  I decide to flag down a taxi to get to the hostel.  25 Ringet the guy tells me, I do the math in my head and it comes to about 8 USD.   Not bad, so I take it.  I later learn that this price is ridiculously high.  I've made a 5 dollar mistake.

I get to the Reggae Mansion (the hostel) about midnight and a security guard who looks like one I saw in the airport leads me to my room.  I find this is strange but I'm too tired to think about it.

Finally sleep.

Sunset over Australia from plane

Hostel

 The Twin Towers December 30, 2011
 
I get up and wander down for the free breakfast.  I meet 2 guys from England and another from Sweden, we eat, and decide to walk through Little India.  The city is noisy, dirty, hot, fast, and oddly unfamiliar.  Motorbikes weave around cars, and everybody is honking their horns.  It's not the same variety of honking that occurs in the US though.  It's more of a 'I'm here, watch out for me' honk and less of a 'Get outta my way <insert expletive>!!!' honk.  I begin to wonder why all the people on motorbikes are wearing their jackets backwards.

We find a place to eat and I'm immediately glad I'm not exploring this city by myself.  Imagine walking past a bunch of dingy restaurants full of people that don't look like you, do not speak your language, and stare a little longer than necessary.  How do you order? Is there a menu? How much does everything cost?  etc.  After about 3 days, it becomes easy but that first time is a little intimidating.  Everyone I'm with has been to KL before so I follow their lead.  The food is very good.  

We walk to the Petronas Towers and wander around the area for awhile.  These towers used to be the tallest in the world sometime in the 1990's.  They are impressive.

At night we go out to a place in the city called the Golden Triangle.  It's basically an outdoor market and food court.  It loud, bright, and has a exciting feel to it.  I decide that I really like this style of eating.  You are not closed off in a booth in the quiet corner of a restaurant, instead you become part of the city.  You add a small piece to the movement, chatter, and color of the place.  You hear the conversations of the people next to you, you see what everyone is eating and drinking, and it's more of a community feel.  The kitchens are right on the street too, not tucked away in the back of a restaurant.  Smoke billows into the street and you see the chefs busily tossing ingredients around.  Different smells cross you nose frequently.

Not everyone gets their food at the same time.  Whenever one is done, the waiter brings it out.  There are no heat lamps to keep everything warm, so you get your food right out of the oven (or Wok, or pan, whatever).  It's all fresh.  In this particular place we pay for beers separate from the food.  We pay for everything when it arrives at the table.  The exchange happens immediately.  The food is delicious.

After dinner we go back to the Petronas Towers.  They are lit up quite impressively at night.  We decide to go up to a 'skybar' on the 33 floor of a nearby hotel to get a better look at the towers.  We hang out here for a large portion of the night.  The drinks are expensive but it's a great spot to hang out.  There's a swimming pool in the bar, it's dimly lit, and the people (read: girls) are dressed up nicely.
 

Petronas Towers

Outdoor Market

Skybar

Towers at night

Happy New Years December 31, 2011

The celebration for us begins and ends in the Reggae Mansion hostel.  They have a rooftop bar with good views of the Petronas Towers.  This is where the fireworks will be shot off at midnight.  Before the festivities start we go down to Chinatown for dinner.  I have noodles and then grab a bag of dragon-fruit to eat on the walk home.  We rest for awhile and then head up to the bar for the party.

We meet a couple girls from Iceland.  This is a new country.  I comment that I haven't met anyone from Iceland yet and one of them tells me that Iceland has a population of roughly 300,000 people....in the entire country.  It's no wonder I haven't met anyone from Iceland.     

As the night goes on and at some point I hear the DJ announce a 'Fear Factor Malaysia' as a big plastic box of worms is brought out to the party.  This is about the time when I pseudo-regret staying at the Reggae Mansion for New Years Eve.  Sure I have a good time with everyone there, but I think I would have been much better off going out to the festival in town with the other Malays.  I didn't come here to drink expensive beer and be cheaply entertained.  I felt like such a tourist.  

I let the feeling pass and simply enjoy the rest of the evening.  They have a contest to see who can eat the most spoonfuls of worms and who can dig the most dollar bills off the bottom of the box.  I'm not sure who finally won but it was entertaining.   

The clock strikes midnight and the fireworks start popping.  Happy New Year!!!!!!  

Christchurch, New Zealand

Day 25

I catch the early bus to Christchurch.  It takes all day to get there, but luckily the bus stops at some great stops on the way.  A couple glacier fed lakes are the highlight.  The water is almost neon blue.  I learn that the glaciers break up the rock into a fine powder and carry it suspended in the water.  When the water reaches the lakes, the rock particles stay suspended and in combination with the sunlight create the bright blue color.  Interesting.  The areas around these lakes also have an abundance of a purple flower called Lupin.  I've seen it before elsewhere but didn’t know what it was.  It’s in full bloom right now in New Zealand and there are rivers of it across the countryside near the lakes.  Driving down the road in the bus, I see people constantly pulled over taking pictures of it.   It looks like something out of Pandora in the Avatar movie.  It’s absolutely stunning…and I don’t use that phrase often.

The funny thing about Lupin is that the bus driver calls it a weed.  Apparently, it takes over all the native plants by creating acids in the soil.  The damn English brought it in hundreds of years ago and the Department of Conservation is currently trying to eradicate it.  This, of course, is ridiculous.  Look at the pictures.

I get to Christchurch and the bus drops us off near the city center but my hostel is on the outside of the city near the beach in New Brighton.  I have a decision to make: Walk about 8km to the hostel through the city or find a bus.   Keep in mind that this city has been experiencing strong earthquakes for the past year.  Two of the earthquakes happened earlier in the year and basically destroyed the downtown part of the city.  A couple days before I get here, the city experiences two more earthquakes in 6 RS range.  It was all over the news and was no joke.  Certainly not the best Christmas present for the city.

I decide to walk so I can check out what an earthquake does to a city.  Trust me it’s not pretty.  Anything made of concrete, asphalt, brick, metal, or glass (which is what a city is made of) is compromised.  The roads and sidewalks have cracks all over the place and where there aren’t cracks there are potholes and sinkholes.  Windows are busted out in a random fashion; some are boarded up and some are not.  Grasses begin to overgrow in peoples’ yards that have obviously left.  Underground pipes burst and are temporarily replaced with flexible pipes which run over ground.

The whole place feels like one of those movies (take your pick) where most of the human race has died.  I see more cats than people and everything is a little too quiet for the time of day.  Many of the stores have all of their stuff still inside, but dust, weeds, and graffiti have begun to creep in.  This city is definitely losing the battle with Mother Nature.   It’s creepy.

I get to my hostel and am greeted by an enthusiastic woman, who doesn’t seem to fit in this place.  She explains they have been having aftershocks for days now.  Luckily the hostel is in an old bank, so it was built fairly sturdy (I hope).  I go to the store, buy some pizzas for dinner.  I’ll be in Asia for the next couple months and so pizza seemed like the only logical choice.  I won’t eat it again for awhile.

I meet a big group of Americans in the hostel which is odd because there are very few of them over here.  I learn that they are on some college program which gives them credit for doing some kind of reporting over their winter break.  Lucky them.  They ask me to go out but I’m exhausted from Queenstown so I decline.  I go to bed early, but get woken up at least three times during the night because the earth is shaking.  More aftershocks, how exciting!    

Lupin flowers

Lake Tekapo

Lake Pukaki with Mt. Cook in background

Lake Pukaki

"Life is but a walking shadow"

       
Day 26
I take it easy today and get ready for Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.  How am I going to get to the airport?  How am I going to get to my hostel in KL?  What language do they speak? Etc.  I find a nice place by the beach with wifi and hang out there all day.  I feel the ground shake a couple times; nothing strong but the earth is shaking none the less.  I walk by a library which is closed.  I look inside and there are books everywhere on the ground.  Damn.  The wifi I am using is free because the phone company wanted to ensure people could still communicate with all the earthquakes going on.

I decide to go to the center of the city to see the BIG buildings which are condemned.  I take a bus and arrive at a makeshift bus station near the center of the city.  It looks like a bomb went off in the city center.  I can’t even get close because they have the center fenced off and there are ‘DANGER. DO NOT ENTER.” signs everywhere.  All the buildings have orange spray-paint with a date and ‘clear’, which I guess indicates that the building was searched for people and then locked.   I decide to leave because it’s depressing.  I go to a huge botanical garden near the city center.  It is alive and well.  The rose garden is crazy, and there are probably over 600 different kinds of flowers blooming.  It’s the only jewel in a destroyed city.  It’s sad but I guess this is what happens when you build a city on a fault zone.

Back at the hostel I make my last pizza, and I have one more cooking experiment to do.  I bought some Nutella which apparently is quite common in Europe but I’ve never had it.  Its hazelnut spread...kind of like peanut butter but with hazelnuts and chocolate.  I use my last pizza crust, spread some Nutella over it, and top it off with strawberries, and throw it in the oven.  It is damn delicious, and I share it with everyone in the kitchen who have taken an interest!

On my way to Malaysia tomorrow.  Heyo!

Destruction.

More destruction.

Rose Garden

And out of the cracks, a new Lupin flower rises...deep

Queenstown, New Zealand

Day 20

I start the day off trying to hitchhike to Queenstown about 1.5 hours south of Wanaka; the keyword being 'trying'.  I've heard enough people talk about doing this that I decide I must do it over here.  It's a good way to spend time with the locals, create a good story, do something crazy.  In the US  hitchhikers are generally thought of as homeless, drug-addicted, hippies; pick your stereotype.  In New Zealand, its so common that it's hard to find someone that hasn't done it.  Apparently the hierarchy is s follows, from easiest pickup to hardest pickup:  single girl, two girls, girl with a guy, single guy, two guys, and any more than 2 of anyone is nearly impossible.  Also, you need to look respectable and find a place a bit outside of town with room for the car to pull over.

So I'm walking out of town which is fairly easy since Wanaka isn't too big and I find a good place.  I throw my bag down and put my thumb up.  Eye contact is important so I look at everyone going by.  Some cars have kids (It's a NZ holiday now, so the families are out and about), some smile and wave back, some cars are full.  I see a car pulling over just ahead and am a little confused because the car was full of people.  Three guys get out, and all of the sudden I realize that MY hitchhiking spot just turned into a group hitchhiking spot.  Rule number one of hitchhiking; don't have more than 1 dude. Dammit!

They are all cool, surfer looking, Queenstown-sign toting dudes.  "Hey mate, you going to Queenstown too" one of them says.  "Trying to, yeah."  I respond.   All of us spread apart down the road, and I quickly realize that no one is going to pick this many people up.  After about 20 minutes, I pull out my phone, look up the bus schedule, find out a bus leaves in 30 minutes for Queenstown.  I contemplate staying, but want to get to Queenstown sometime today so I head to the bus stop.  I have the lurking feeling that the second I leave will be the second that someone drives by and wants to pick us up.  Then again, I could be there for hours.  You never know.

I leave the now shirtless hitchhikers, who at this point are basically standing in the middle of the road trying to flag down cars, to themselves.

On the bus, I meet a guy from Switzerland (Dom), and we go to same hostel. It's a cool place called 'The Flaming Kiwi'.  We settle in and meet some others in the kitchen while eating dinner.  We decide to go out to the bars for our first drinks in Queenstown; the adrenaline and alcohol fueled adventure sports capital of New Zealand.  At the first bar, we order some drinks and within basically 30 seconds of grabbing mine I'm ambushed by 3 guys who seem to know me.  It takes me a minute, but I realize that they are the 3 hitchhikers from earlier with shirts on and sunglasses off.  "Hey mate, glad you made it! Sorry for jumping in on your spot earlier, but that's as far as our ride would take us" one of them says.  "No worries, How long did it take ya?" I shoot back.  "About an hour, a DHL truck picked us up, and haha, we all piled into the back. No seat belts of course."  another guy says.  We talk for a couple minutes and they wander off to another bar.  It still amazes me how easy it is to run into people out here and Queenstown is not exactly a small place.

Our group heads to a bar called Winnies.  It's a bar/club where they open the entire roof every hour.  It's really cool in the summer because the cool air rushes in and freshens the place up.  I have a conversation with an English guy about tipping (you don't tip in NZ); he thinks it's better not to tip, I play devils advocate and argue that tipping is better.  Truth be told, each system has it's benefits, but I kind of prefer the non-tipping system.

Hitchhiker friends

Welcome to Queenstown

Day 21

I wake up with a mild hangover, which is expected.  I make some lunch and drink about 3 cups of free tea to get back to normal.  I'm going hiking today!

Right next the the hostel there's a mountain where all of the para-gliders drop off to go gliding over the lake onto a landing spot in a city park.  This basically means that you see the para-gliders slowly drifting down in the sky all day long.  They look like colorful dandelion seeds (with the puffy ends) constantly blowing in the wind over the city.  It's a cool site to see.  Anyway, I'm going to hike up the mountain to the point where they jump off.

I start out the hike near an old cemetery. Some of the gravestones are from the late 1800's which is kind of neat.  I wander around for a bit before starting into the woods.  The first 20 minutes are basically straight up-hill.  I pass by a girl who is coming down and ask how difficult it is to the top.  I ask mostly to make conversation.  She tells me it's hard, but worth it.  I pass by a bunch of downhill bike trails, and the occasional biker shoots past down into the woods in a seemingly reckless fashion.  After an hour or so I get to the top.  The entire forest has the faint smell of cotton candy and I don't know why.  Flowers perhaps.

At the top, I discover a playground.  There are the para-gliders dropping off, a road luge coarse, a bungy platform, a restaurant, a bike shop, and a perfect view of the blue lake, mountains, and city.  I sit and look at the view for awhile.  There are so many things going on up here!  I see boats motoring around the lake below as well.  After resting for awhile I wander over to the bungy platform and wait for someone to take the plunge.  A couple guys jump off and it looks absolutely insane.  My time will come.

It's far quicker to get down the mountain, and back at the hostel I meet an american guy.  We talk in the room for a couple hours about business ideas for travel (mobile applications)  I learn that he has written a couple and is making about $400 a month passively.  Not much of course, but better than nothing.  We are inturrupted by the English guy from last night.  It's time t hit the bars again!

I go out with a couple girls, Dom, and the English guy.  We meet up with a Swiss guy I had met earlier in Franz Joseph and I end up hanging out with him and his friends the rest of the night.  We see the funniest drunk guy I've ever seen.  He reminds me of the guy in 'Weekend at Burnies' (youtube it), stumbling around by himself in this constant state of falling but amazingly not completely falling over.  We all laugh heartily at this spectacle.  Eventually 2am rolls around and everyone heads home.  I get some pizza and do the same.

Paragliders!

Day 22

I have to move to another hostel because the one I am currently staying in is fully booked for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  It's no problem because I find some room at another one right down the road.  I meet a really cool Austrian guy in my new room.

We meet up with some friends in the other hostel and go play frisbee golf in a park.

We meet a Swiss guy with a slack line and proceed to play around on this thing for over an hour.  It's basically a seat-belt type material you tie up between two trees and try to balance on it and walk.  The better ones can do tricks.  I decide I must get one.

We see a portable stripper pole in the park with a group of girls sitting around, one is performing (not in a dirty stripper kind of way but an artistic, graceful, ballerina-esqe kind of way)  No joking, it's very artistic.  A group of guys look on in amazement and smoke cigarettes.  I could keep my eyes off it to be quite honest.

We go to a cowboy bar and have a couple drinks because they are cheap...when in Queenstown.

One of the Swiss guys in our frisbee golf gang is participating in some kind of travel challenge.  One of his 'challenges' is to put as many people in a phone booth as possible.  We help out and fit about 6 people in there.  Me and the organizer climb on top for the photo.

We go to the 'Fergburger' restaurant.  It's a famous burger joint in Queenstown.  It's a good burger but not the best I've ever had.  That honor goes to the Unami Burger in LA.

We go to another bar and order a bucket of coronas.

We go back to Cowboy bar and play shuffleboard for a couple hours.

I stay up till 3 am talking to Chris in the room about Europe and I felt like I got a good history lesson.  I learn he is biking across New Zealand. This is something I would like to try.

http://swisstravelfreak.com/

Day 23 Christmas Day

Christmas is very anti-climactic when you are out exploring the world.  Far away from friends and family, it kind of just feels like just another day.  It doesn't help that it's summer time in New Zealand and it doesn't feel like Christmas weather.  I begin to realize that it's not the day of the year that makes it feel like Christmas, it's the family, the food, the cool weather, Christmas lights.  In the absence of these things, December 25th is truly just another day.

In Queenstown, people seem to treat Christmas as a day to party and drink beer.  Not a bad way to spend Christmas I guess.  After partying for quite a few days this week, I use it as day to relax. Eventually Chris and I make dinner, have a few beers, and basically sit around and talk for a couple hours.

We end up going over to the other hostel to meet with some friends.  We plan to spend the evening at the beach to watch the sunset and hang out.  I run into a couple more people I've met in Queenstown and we form a circle on the beach.  I bring a bottle of wine that I originally needed for cooking, but it will not go to waste at the beach.  We all sit around and watch the sunset, pass the bottle of wine around, and talk.    

Merry Christmas!

Day 24 Boxing Day


“Today is the first day of the rest of your life” so I decide to start the first day of the rest of my life with some bungy jumping.  The particular destination I choose to do this is an old bridge right outside of Queenstown.  The platform is about 43 meters above one of New Zealand’s clear blue rivers.  There’s no better place to spend $150 to scare the absolute crap out of yourself I assure you.

Now, I’ve known that I was going to do this for awhile now.  The skydiving was completely unplanned in New Zealand but the bungy jumping was a planned enemy, a self-created one if you will.  You see, I’m not afraid of many things in this world but jumping off a bridge head first into a river might be at the top of the list.  I don’t like heights, so I wasn’t really looking forward to doing it as much as I was looking forward to getting it over with.  

I get to the bridge around noon.  It’s a busy day for the bungy because everyone is on holiday in New Zealand.  This means you get to watch a lot of people jumping before you get your chance to go.  I probably watched 20 people do it.  They create a cool atmosphere up there.  They have a combination of hip hop and techno music radiating from the bridge.  The river has cut a path through the rock and like the rest of New Zealand is pretty beautiful.

The people have a mix of styles and reactions after they summon the courage to jump.  Some people scream, some are too scared to scream.  Some people jump, some are too scared to jump so they kind of bend at the knees and slowly fall off.  Some people are obviously nervous, some try to hide it.  Some get dunked into the water, some don’t.  The only common thread is that everyone falls fast.

As I stand in line to go on the bridge, I see how they hook people into the harness.  I wouldn’t say I was scared at this point but I definitely had a heightened sense of awareness.  There was some adrenaline pumping for sure.  I described this before with the skydiving, but I think you almost get immune to some of these crazy things because you have been doing and seeing them nonstop.

So it’s my turn to go and the guys hook me up.  He asks me if I want to get dunked in the water, and I willingly oblige.  It’s a hot day anyway.  Here’s where it gets crazy.  I stand up, and sort of hobble over to the edge of the platform.  There a couple of cameras you have to acknowledge (wave, thumbs up, whatever to want), then you’re on your own.  My first mistake was looking down into the rushing river below and the fear just rushes in.  For a split second it feels like I’m in a plane that’s crashing down to earth, you know what is going to happen and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.  It feels like you are committing suicide…everything in you tells you that what you are doing is a bad idea…a really bad idea.  I look straight ahead, take a deep breath, and jump.   It happens so quickly that I didn’t have time to rationalize the decision or convince myself that it would be fine.  You just do it, you flip the switch.

When you’re falling, it’s pretty intense.  Your stomach feels like it is in your throat.  The water races into view and the cord starts to have some tension as the water nears.  My head and arms touched the cold water and then I bounced back up.  Then you fall again, repeat.  After the initial drop everything slows down and you can enjoy it.  It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and would do it again with no second thoughts. This heights thing isn’t so bad after all.

A boat picks you up on the river and takes you to the shore.  I pass an older couple who have been watching from below.  They ask me how it was, and I respond with “incredible, amazing, unbelievable”…some word in this family.  They also ask me if I jumped with confidence or kind stumbled off the edge in fear.  I tell them I jumped, but inside my head I’m not 100% sure.  I need to look at the video evidence.
The video evidence comes back favorable, I jumped like a champion.

Goodbye cruel world.

Wanaka, New Zealand

Day 17

I obviously don't know it at the time, but the best times I've had so far will be in Wanaka.

My day starts out with a bus ride further south to a town called Wanaka.  It's an early bus and I'm tired, but I wait to sleep until the bus leaves.  I scan the incoming passengers for familiar faces.  Oddly enough, I see Hannah get on the bus right before it leaves, so our paths will cross yet again.  I close my eyes and sleep until our first stop for breakfast, a which point I wander over to the table where Hannah is sitting.  She is with with another girl; Sylvie from Canada.  Her primary language is French but speaks very good English.  The three of us are best friends on the bus to Wanaka.  We (mostly Sylvie) talk about traveling in Asia, and how it is a bit more difficult than traveling in New Zealand.  She tells me to imagine myself as a giant wallet filled with money.  "This is how the people in Thailand will see you. Get used to it.  Accept it." she says.

When we arrive, I immediately like the place.  It's right on a blue lake in the mountains.  Sylvie tells me she is going to stay at 'Wanaka Backpacka'. I immediately recognize the name because someone I've previously talked to said it was a great place, so we go together.  Hannah wants to camp somewhere, so we leave her behind.  The hostel is right on the lake, with great views.  In fact, it's the best hostel I've stayed in so far.  We settle in and work on a plan for the rest of the day; Puzzling World it is. It's a tourist trap, but it looks fun so we decide to go for the rest of the day.  They have holograms, a big outdoor maze, and other games/riddles/problem solving games to play around with.  

Sylvie and I set out to walk the 2k's to the infamous Puzzling World.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there, but it seems like far less because there is no break in the conversation.  I wasn't sure I liked Sylvie at first, but after the walk I decide that she's really cool.  We buy some cherries from a local grower on the street on the way.  It's cherry season in New Zealand and those were the best cherries I've ever had.  

Puzzling World is interesting and ultimately fun.  The best thing they have is a maze with bridges, towers, and over a km of paths.  The sign informs us that the maze has 2 versions; one is easy an takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete, the other is hard and takes 1 to 1.5 hours to complete.  We look at one another with an unspoken agreement that we should tackle to hard one.  

Fast forward an hour:  We've solved most of the maze, walked probably 4km, and begin to get frustrated.  We've done the maze very methodically, checking off all the "options" as we go; some are dead ends, some are future paths we need to take.  We must have missed something and now everything looks the same and we can't find the path we need.  Gahh!  We decide to grab a drink to replenish our energy, which works, and we complete the maze with a victory high-five (and a hidden sigh of relief).  There is no one else left in the place; everyone else has gone home.

This experience reaffirms my understanding that you have to make the best of situations, and the people you surround yourself with matter.  I had more fun doing a stupid maze with Sylvie than hiking up a glacier with people who I didn't really connect with.  We seemed to get in this groove where we both understood that we were only here for a short time, so we created a fun atmosphere for ourselves even under challenging circumstances.  We built it and maintained it. Teamwork at it's finest.

We take a goofy picture and head back to the hostel, make dinner, and plan what to do the next day.  There  is an understanding that after beating the maze, we will be a team from then on. We have many different "options" for tomorrow,which is lingo we carry over from the maze experience; an inside joke.   We make some tea and eat some chocolate as the sunsets over the lake.  I share my wifi, she shares her Lonely Planet, and we decide to sleep in and meet up between 10 and 11.  

Tomorrow we will walk around the lake to a winery for wine tasting, come back for lunch, then head out to a more aggressive hike up Mt Iron.  The stars are ridiculous tonight, and you can see the milky way perfectly.  

Goofy picture

Lake Wanaka

Bathroom in Puzzling World

Day 18

I sleep in for once which feels excellent, but I'm also ready to get up and enjoy the day.  I meet Sylvie in the kitchen around 10, we make breakfast, and take it outside to a picnic bench overlooking the lake.  It's going to be a nice sunny day for sure.  We review our plans and talk for awhile.  A German girl (Nora) wanders over to the table and says hi.  We all make small talk and invite her to come along to the vineyard with us.  More the merrier.  She tells us that she would like to come but has to do laundry first.  She will meet us later in the day for the Mt Iron hike.

We are almost ready to go (backpacks on, water bottles filled, sunscreen applied) when I run into my roommate from last night.  I haven't really met him yet, but ask him if he wants to join us.  He thinks about it for a couple seconds and says "yes, i would like to go" in a German accent.  It is a good decision because the three of us end up having a good time.  I find out his name is Philip and he has been traveling in New Zealand for 9 months now.  Sylvie adds in that she has been in New Zealand for only 3 days but has been traveling in southeast Asia for the past 2 months.  She is on a 10 month trip around the world.  At some point soon I'll also have some traveler street cred.  It's a funny thing that happens when people meet one another out here.  People kind of size one another up with 2 questions: where have you been and how long have you been gone.  The more (and weirder) countries the better and the longer away from home the better.  You gain a subtle amount of respect by answering these questions properly.

The three of us start out on the trail to the vineyard.  It goes along the lake and the willow trees on the side of trail create a shady, breezy walk which is nice.  We share stories, laugh, and generally have a good time on the way there.  The vineyard is on a hill overlooking the lake and when we get close, we see a couple hawks circling over the vineyard looking for rabbits.  The grapes are in long strait rows that seem to go on for miles.  A dog greets us as we make our way to the tasting place: an open air house on the top of the hill.    I begin to think that I could be perfectly content working on the vineyard picking grapes all day.  Better views than working in a cube, for example.     

           

We get to try 8 different wines and decide to buy a bottle to share for dinner later in the evening.  We make our way back to the hostel for lunch, relax, and wait around for Nora.  Philip decides that he is going to go fishing in the lake while we go hiking Mt. Iron.  Nora shows up a couple minutes later and we get ready to head out again.  Just as we are about to go, Philip walks in with a huge trout he just caught. He immediately gains the attention of everyone in the place and tells Sylvie and I that we are having fish for dinner.  We nod in agreement, give him a high-five, and head out.        

On the hike Nora tells us that she just graduated with her masters degree in social work.  At this point we realize that all of us have masters degrees, and thus have found a common bond.  It's important to find these with the people you meet.  The more common views/experiences/backgrounds you find, the better friends you will become.  And it doesn't matter if people are from different countries or backgrounds either...you can always find something.  We get to the top of Mt Iron and are rewarded with a 360 degree view of the area.

Back at the hostel Philip shows us a second fish that he caught which is almost as big as the first; a salmon this time. I make a pasta dish that I have perfected out here, Philip fillets and cooks the fish, and Sylvie pours the wine.  This teamwork creates the best dinner I have had out here so far.  We don't leave the table for another 3 hours.  Eventually Philip goes to get his guitar and plays softly as we continue the conversation until about midnight.  We are the last ones up.

At the end of the night we slowly realize that our time together is over.  We are all going separate directions tomorrow and it's a sad time.  In fact, saying goodbye to those you meet is the single hardest part about living out here.Tonight it's particularly hard.  You share your time together in a far off land, often doing crazy things together, and you develop friendships quickly.  There's a certain balance which always exists though.  The stronger the friendships you make, the worse the goodbyes are.  And if you are doing it right, this happens over and over again.  I think the correct way to deal with this reality is to simply realize that the next friend will come along, and you shouldn't hold back just because you know it will be hard to say goodbye.  There's a life lesson here somewhere I'm sure.

Rippon Vineyard

Mt Iron

Day 19

I decide in the morning to stay in Wanaka another day.  It's a nice day and I need a break from doing things and meeting people.  You almost never get any alone time out here.  You are around other people constantly; cooking, eating, drinking, even sleeping   I spend most of the day writing and sitting by the lake.  

As I’m walking back to the hostel, a guy waves over to me.  I say “hey, what’s up!” before I recognize who it is exactly.  Upon closer examination I find it is a German guy (yes, there are a lot of Germans out here) I was with in Franz Joseph.  I sit down for awhile and talk to him and his 2 new friends; an English guy and New Zealand guy.  They have been hiking for the past 2 days, just hitchhiked into Wanaka, bought some beer, and sat on the lake under a tree to relax.  I relax with them.  They offer me a beer, and we hang out for the next hour or so.  I really wasn’t expecting to see anyone today, but it was a pleasant surprise.      

The stars are the best I’ve ever seen out here.  I wandered out to the picnic bench and lay on top and look up for awhile.  My eyes slowly adjust to the dark and I see millions of stars; the Milky Way is bright.   I notice that some stars are moving at a constant pace across the sky.  Of course these are not stars at all, but man-made satellites tracking across the sky.  I guess the sun reflects light off them, kind of like the moon, which is why you can see them.  It’s kind of crazy that people are smart enough to build those things, shoot them up in rockets, and you can see them as tiny specs of light from earth.  

I look forward to going Queenstown tomorrow.

Hanging out on the beach

View from the hostel