Twas a Day to find some Monkeys

So my last day traveling with sushil and max was to be a walk in the park.  The plan was to go to these Botanical Gardens just outside of Georgetown (which is the city area of Penang).  In a nutshell, this is a park where there are supposed to be tons of monkeys.  Enough said.  I like monkeys.

Once we got the these gardens, we were not disappointed.  Right away we were greeted by several monkeys and asians getting married.  It was a very exciting start to a day.  While looking for what is supposed to be a beautiful waterfall we decided to walk up Penang Hill.  This is where things got a little silly.  We were only dressed for a walk in the park; this means i was wearing flip flops.  Flip flops are fine for walking around, and even mild hiking, but don't forget that my foot is still healing from road rash.  We begin our trek up the hill heading up some stairs.  these end up being the steepest stairs, through thick woods for about a half hour.  holy crap.  when we get to the top of the stairs we see many more monkeys.  Including a big family of monkeys that starts getting a bit aggressive.  I have a video that I'll post one of these days of a couple chasing after me a bit.  It was both funny, and a little scary.  these little guys were aggressive.  Monkeys have learned to use tools, and as I try to learn from monkeys, I picked up a stick and earned me some monkey respect.  Don't worry, no monkeys were harmed.  They just know to respect a gentlemen who is a member of the UPenn Kempo club when he's carrying a stick.

Jean Claud Van Monkey.  Notice the bunch in the background before they started chasing me 

We then headed up a winding paved road for a little bit til we reached a shack.  at this shack were a few groups of 60 year old malaysian people who walk up this hill for fun every day.  They then stop at the shack for free (by donation) coffee and biscuits.  I donated a bit, and had some coffee.  good thing too.  I guess the elderly folk stop at this point but we were half way up, might as well finish our way up the hill.  Little did we know what sort of hike this would turn into.  Next thing i know we're climbing up steep, muddy paths with lots of undergrowth.  Then it starts pouring rain (luckily I have my ziplock bag in my bag to provide waterproof protection to my camera).  so we're hiking along in the pouring rain up what is called a hill, but its a frickin mountain.  For a while, my sandals were so slippery i just had to hike barefoot; sorry foot wounds.  the last leg of the journey we were guided by the local security guards, to essentially climb up this drainage half-pipe up a mountain through fallen trees.  It was insane but quite fun and exhausting.

We got to the top.  I guess after all that climbing we were expecting a great view and who knows what else.  but what we got was an asian tourist destination with an expensive restaurant, expensive stands and lots of well dressed people.  I guess most people don't take the hiking path, but take the little tramcar up the mountain.  Dripping wet and tired, we were happy to take all the way down the mountain.   Hill my ass.  but a good last day traveling with Sush and Max

Me Blog so Lazy

SO i've been slacking on this blog.  oops, my bad friends.

Although I'm in Penang now, I should probably mention our last destination, the Cameron Highlands.  These were a beautiful mountain range that was a nice relief from the heat.  This area is known for its lush greenery and hiking.  unfortunately, my foot is still not quite better so hiking was out of the question for me.  But the last thing that this area is known for is TEA!!!  to anyone who knows me well enough to give a rats behind about reading my blog knows that I love tea.

Enjoying a cup o tea overlooking the plantation (It's good to be king)

This is the first time in my life that I've seen a tea plantation and tea factory.  I even got to lay down on a tea tree.  Well, what was interesting is that tea can grow into tall trees, but the ones that they harvest are pruned to keep small so they look like bushes.  the tea that is harvested for processing and drinking are the new leaves that are sprouting out every three months.  After checking out the plantation, we went to the factory where the leaves are processed (dried, rolled, fermented, graded etc).  It was really really cool finally seeing this process in person.

Kuala Lumpur follow up

Remember I mentioned there were some political Rallies going on in Kuala Lumpur (KL)?  well we were interviewed by some reporters to see our feelings on the city during the rallies.

The gist of what we actually said was along the
lines of, "even though there was a political rally, we could barely tell.
We still did and saw everything we wanted and in fact couldn't
believe how quiet the streets were. We were impressed by the police
presence and felt quite safe. the only surprising thing was when we
could feel the tear gas even though we couldn't see or hear any disturbances."

Although the reporters seemed nice, Sushil and I just didn't want to give our real names (esp for me since we read in lonely planet about a common antisemitic sentiment) to the reporters so he gave his name as "Raja kancharla" and I gave mine as "Justin Slappy."  So if you want to see a great example of free press in malaysia read the following article http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=600283

Monkey Protests

Today was a long day of wandering with Max and Sushil.  I'll spare the details and maybe fill them in with a picture some other time, but just leave with the finer points.

Who knew about the political unrest in malaysia?  Not me!  So today was a huge protest that was supposed to get (although I dont' know the final count) about 100,000 protesters.  You know, just the environment us tourists feel comfortable around.  "Just don't wear yellow or red," we were advised so I left my big bird suit hanging up next to my red Phillies Jersey.  Walking around the town was completely unbelievable.  By that, I mean it was a such a quiet day.  It seemed like most of the streets were quiet; even the ones without police roadblocks.  Maybe people weren't out because they were avoiding the protests, and we just weren't near the protests.  well at one point I think we were close to them.

After talking to this australian gentleman who had been living in Kuala Lumpur for the past 4 years i think, told us all the things we should do, and all of it involved shopping or eating.  there's not a ton of touristy stuff to do here besides that.  So he directed us to these places that were kinda interesting.  He presented them as the govt wanted to clean up the street food, so gave the best ones indoor spaces to operate.  so what we're left with is in the first levels of  of the highest end malls i've ever seen are food courts with legitimately really good and really cheap and authentic food (interspersed with a starbucks or two).  at one point we were on our way to an electronics mall when i stopped walking because i started crying a bit as my eyes kinda stung a little.  After a second of recognition, I yell to the other two guys to come back to me.  they give me a funny look, but do as i asked (its rare i say something like that).  i guess there was a protest going on not far away, and i encountered diffuse tear gas (hence the tearing).  don't worry anyone, we couldn't see or hear anything going on.  maybe a half mile away we saw flashing lights, but nothing was going on within site.  so we went off the opposite direction, grabbed a leisurely lunch and then continued to the electronics mall, where the walk in between was again, quiet.  but this electronics mall was cool.  imagine a five storied mall with only computer and electronics stores.  so yeah, right up my alley.

then we walked around a while, and again it was super quiet out.  we were actually interviewed at one point by some guys working for an independent newspaper about our feelings on the protest today. We basically said we didn't see anything, it seemed quiet out to us.  i'm sure that'll make front page news.  Then we tried to check out a couple parks they have, all were closed, but in the parking lot we had some fun.  There was a group of monkeys!!!!  i love monkeys.  they make me smile.  We had some good conversations, played some chess and then shared some laughs. Well, maybe that's not exatly what happened with the monkeys, but there were a whole bunch of them and i took a ton of pictures because monkeys make me laugh even when their not giving me advice on investments.

No Mr. Tyrone, I do not think that investing in bananas is wise at the moment

but looks like we're taking it easy tonight.  twas a long tiring day.

non adherent dressing

so, i finished up my time on Koh Lanta with a lot of reading.  Since my leg was hurting and hurt worse when i went in pool or ocean (plus i don't want sand in my wounds) It kinda limited the beach tripping I could do.  So i finished the Book Horns, finished I Am Legand (great book, so so so different from movie) and then finished Treatment Kind and Fair Letters to a Young Doctor by Perri Klass, a summer reading for medical school (which i'm so frickin excited for still).  

I then went to Patong for just the night, which is right near Phuket, where I discovered there was a Muay Thai fight going on that night.  so, instead of enjoying the hopping night life as an avid clubber that I am [not], I went to watch a fight.  It was really cool actually.  the first fight was a couple of kids that were probably 10 years old, then a couple of mid teenager fights.  they were all very talented for such young kids.  they went hard, but no one got hurt so i didn't feel too guilty watching these kids kick the crap out of eachother.  Then came a bunch of the fights of the twenty-somethings.  It was cool to watch those thai's kick.  they kick hard.  but, there were two western guys that fought.  I gotta say, the australian dude destroyed this thai boxer.  it wasn't even fair.  Maybe I was amped up or something, but I couldn't sleep and had to wake up at 530am to catch a morning flight to Kua Lampur in Malaysia.

So right now, I'm writing from Malaysia.  A few weeks ago a fellow fraternity brother from Sigma Alpha Mu (Sammy) emailed me that he was going to be in SE asia and we found out we both were planning to be in malaysia at the same time.  So this is the cool thing about our fraternity.  He was a freshman when i was a senior.  i think the only other time i've ever really hung out with him was one random new years in New York City, Vinny and I bumped into him when we left the party we were at.  So now meeting up in malaysia.  He's travling with another recent Penn grad named Max, who i just met today.  Seems like a really nice guy; gotta say its kinda nice to be out in the big ol world with some fellow nerdy guys from home.  We checked out the area, but are turning in early for the long day of running around we planned for tomorrow.  should be a nice week with these two guys.  Then I'm flying from Penang to Hong Kong on July 16 so i can play with Sam a lil more before heading home the 19th.

oh yeah, today was very exciting because I finally found non adherant dressing.  so now i'm hoping that instead of spending like 10 minutes soaking my wounds in water before painfully pealing off the gauze, i should be able to painlessly remove and then wash my wounds.  Simple pleasure, but should reduce my pain.  

(R & R)^2

So, sitting here working on a blog post while its sunny, 3pm and i'm on an island is a funny thing.  very unlike me.  let me catch up on the past couple of days....

It all began when I left Muay thai training at Phuket.  actually, the story starts before that.  for some reason, when I was in Bangkok I went to a travel agency to help me plan the next leg of my journey.  For some reason, i just had this urge to plan something and get it on the books.  something to look forward to after a week of intense training.  So i went to MNT travel agency, one certified by TAT which is essentially the that governments tourism protector branch or whatever.  so, in a nutshell, this was possibly the worst choice i could have made.  no idea why i started planning now, when not doing so has done me so well for the past several weeks. By US standards I got a great deal...but by thai standards, I'm paying about double what I should be paying for these accommodations (which are fine).  I was told I was going to be going to a quiet island that was a short ferry away and close to other nearby beautiful islands.  I was told that the nightlife would consist of relaxing at a bar, live music and a beer or two.  sounds great right?  well, unfortunately, the ferries to the island are not running during the low season that it is right now, so it took about 8 hours of 3 minibusses and two ferries to get here.  Of course, i find i'm getting charged about double what i should be.  And this island is usually all clouds and rain this time of year.  now, that is the end of my bitching because it hasn't actually been bad.

I talked my way to free airconditioning since they're already ripping me off.  which is good because it's been abnormally hot and sunny here for this time of year.  the hotel charges 2-4 times what they should for beverages, but no one stops me from heading just off the resort and filling my fridge with cheap drinks from 711.  there is virtually no one here, in fact when i arrived i thought i was the only guest.  I was in fact, one of about 10 people staying here.  my first eve here i took pretty easy, but decided to explore yesterday (july 3).

I woke up at around 615am and did a boatload of pushups and ran on the beach; want to keep up my good shape from muay thai.  I then rented a motorbike for $5 from the hotel.  they offered me a newer and faster one for only $1.60 more, but as these things kinda scare me, i would have actually paid more to have a slower one.  so, i stuck with the cheaper, slower one.  the island is only maybe 30km long so it doesn't take long to traverse a good proportion of it.  In the morning i just rode around and explored.  rode through a quaint ocean side town, explored a bunch of abandoned resorts (most places are closed during this low season).  but mid day  I came back to my hotel to just relax in the pool before heading out again.  I left again on the bike and after 15-20 min of driving i saw a path, which i u-turned and drove down.  I ended up on this completely deserted beach and decided to hang out there and read for a while.  it was very relaxing.  At least it was until a guy showed up with his three dogs.  there was a golden retriever and two siblings that looked like small, short haired german shepards.  they were very friendly and gave me no choice but to play with them for a while.  It was a good time.

My beach

in the evening, i watched the sunset over the ocean.  two guys i met here named Brad and brad (i use upper and lower case to differentiate them) and I went to a nearby bar down the street to listen to some live music.  it was packed...with about 25 people.  we stayed for maybe an hour or so before i got tired and went back to my room to go to sleep.

With yesterday being a nice day, i decided to rent the bike again and explore today.  I heard that there were much nice beaches just a few miles past where I had been yesterday, so i wanted to go explore.  I was probably about ten minutes out.  a turn was coming up so i slowed down to about 20mph, at the apex of the turn, there was a bump patch and some gravel which sent the bike onto its side with my leg under it.  "Doody!" I exclaimed quite frustrated. as I pick up the bike, a few cars stop to see if i'm okay.  and don't worry all, I'm fine.  At this point i decide whether or not to continue to the beach.  I use my Meth ED fast track skills to asses the damage, "mild booboos to lower left extremity and foot, right knee, right palm. is what was written on my triage sheet.  As i was bleeding, and the scrapes were pretty dirty i decided to head back to my hotel to get cleaned off.  it was a good decision because all the scrapes started hurting pretty badly as i drove.  that and i found that I am even more afraid aboard one of these things now (go figure).  when i get back I am offered a nice bottle of alcohol to pour over my wounds to clean them.  i politely decline and use one of my favorite lines from the ER, "Just soap and water," is the perfect thing for the job. --so if you haven't figured it out, R & R is for rest and relaxation and Road Rash.

My Foot.  doesn't hurt as bad as it looks

after i finally got some lunch, a woman working there offered to drive me to a pharmacy (for a small fee) to pick up dressings and bandaids and betadine and such.  It was nice of her considering i think it was the first time someone didn't try to rip me off.

So, now back to the beginning.  I just finished the book i'm reading (horns by Joe Hill) (great frickin book) and decided to catch up on me blog.  I have one more day here and not sure what i'm going to do actually.  I hopped in the pool and my cuts burned badly; i'm sure salt water would only be worse and i doubt sand is a great idea too.  maybe i'll just hang out here and read?  ---side note: proof that i wasn't going to fast is that the bike only had $20 of damages to it.  a broked mirror.

after tomorrow i go to phuket thursday morning so i can catch a flight to malaysia early friday morning.  i was hoping to have some time to explore phuket a little more than when i was training, but when the asshole travel guy (who was from the US) said it was only a short ferry, what he neglected to say that i wouldn't be taking that ferry because its not running now.  so who knows if i'll get to explore much more.

its kinda funny, Thailand seems like such a great place, but i feel like i've barely done or seen anything here.  I'm so happy i spent the week training in muay thai.  but i really think i should have allocated more time to explore more as well as not going to a travel agent.  Looks like i just might have to come back here some day.

as today is July 5th and i come home july 19th, I'm officially at the 2 weeks til i'm home mark.

My Phuket Night life

So, I figured I'd share my evening activities for tonight, as virtually every night I've been here in Phuket has been similar.

Usually around 730 or so my hunger overcomes me and I decide to head over to Tony's to grab some diner.  Tony is the guy who owns my hotel, he also owns a couple other hotels and a restaurant and travel agency around here.  He's got a pretty good business going on.  He's a really nice guy actually.  He remembers everyone; even today he was driving by and saw me walking back to my room, so he pulled over and drove me the rest of the way.  So tonight as I was heading out of my place, another guy I didn't know was heading over to the same place so he offered to give me a ride on his motorbike.  when we got there, We sat at a table of several guys I had met before, and several I haven't.  Its interesting, because there's lots of people I hang out with, but we rarely exchange names.  Its really bizarre actually.   But I'm okay with it.  We sat around and ate and drank and laughed.  It was a really good time.  And by drink, i mean we drank protein shakes and water.  I haven't even had so much as a sip of beer in about week.  I guess when everyone is working out so hard, for most people the desire to drink alcohol goes down the tubes.  from what I hear, when guys are here training, drinking is rare.  but If they do get in the mood they go to nearby towns or islands.  Honestly, I don't really care.

We were joking around a lot.  It was pretty funny, all the guys this evening were English (although past nights i've hung out with canadians, guys from cyprus, australia and all over).  It was a really funny group; especially when they were making fun of americans they had met over the years.  Especially americans who didn't get their sense of humor.

After a while we were all pretty tired and dispersed to go home.  that was at about 9:15.  I really can't remember going to be this early this often.  But we're all training really hard.  we're all tired.  tomorrow, if all goes according to plan I'll be doing various trainings for a total of 5 hours.  for me, that's a fricking long time.  but tomorrow night I hear there's a great night market somewhere around here, so maybe I'll check it out.

A Rhombus is a good shape

So yesterday I tried another Thai style called Muay Boran.  In a nutshell, Muay Boran is the precursor to Muay Thai.  what I mean is that Muay Thai is a sport where combatants wear gloves and there are rules to the fights.  Muay Boran has no rules; its a combat based fighting style.  no gloves, no pads.  I wanted to check it out considering this type of martial art is what i'm more interested in.  It was very interesting and I definitely learned some movements that may come in handy someday in later trainings.  I guess i shouldn't be surprised, that the same guy that teaches this style is also the one who teaches Krabi Krabong, the Thai stick/sword fighting.  As with the Arnis (stick) and kempo martial arts I do, learning how to fight with a weapon is virtually the same as fighting without a weapon.  It was an interesting class...i'll save the details for my kempo club who will actually give a crap about the minutia there.

I then felt so frickin exhausted, i ate some food and napped and watched movies in my room for a couple hours until Muay thai class.  I didn't feel bad staying inside because it was really cloudy out and i was frickin exhausted.  I gotta say, I came here to get an authentic training experience, which is what i'm definitely doing.  but I'm not seeing too much of Phuket.  meh, it's okay I guess.  I'll check out the beach on sunday i hope.

but Muay thai class was another uber-rigorous workout.  I think my stamina has increased by +10.  unfortunately, The reason i came here was to learn muay thai techniques, not necessarily get in ridiculous cardio shape.  I can exercize anywhere I want, should i ever have wanted to work out this hard.  but I don't feel that i'm getting the close instruction that i really need to take home and work with.  For this reason, i decided to purchase personal training sessions for my remaining two days of training (was only $30).  Unfortunately, by the end of the Muay thai class, my hips and other joints were hurting pretty badly.  I can deal with muscle pain, but as I've had joint issues over the years, it started to worry me a bit.  

Today, my joints were feeling a bit better, but i decided not to push it with the crazy strenuousness of the muay thai group class.  So in the morning I went to a Krabi Krabong class.  The instructor knows that i've been doing Arnis for a while and that i'm looking to expand my repetoir with the Krabi Krabong.  Its just kind of funny that he says that i'm "a natural."  what he doesn't realize is that it took me like 3  years to become what I would consider moderately almost competent wielding weapons.  That being said, It was an interesting class and i look forward to bringing some stuff i learned back to the kempo club.

After just a two hour break, i had my first personal training session.  It went reasonably well.  My punches, elbows and knee techniques seem to be up to snuff.  My kicks, by the end of the session, were of muay thai quality too.  Now i don't know if i did better because it was one on one training, or maybe if it was just because I wasn't being completely exhausted for over an hour before working on techniques.  We then worked on some clinching moves which was also fun.  something i don't have too much experience with.  

It seems like more than anything, all these things i'm training in are giving me a decent base with which i can work on and the integrate it into my own personal repetoir of moves (Justin Kwan do?).  I always thought i was in okay shape, but compared to the people here, I"m definitely not a rhombus (you know, look at the title.  a rhombus is a good shape).  Although, most of the people here are at least semi pro, so its definitely another level of fitness that i'm not used to.  meh, either way, i'm getting in really frickin good shape.  and if i can keep up some of the cardio during the rest of my trip and resume weight lifting when i get home, i think i'll be good enough for me.

okay, one more day of training left.

Tiger Muay Thai, day's 1 and 2

So, for the first time in my life, all my time is revolving around martial arts training.  it's been pretty interesting I must say.  I'm here training with people from all over the world.  All different skill levels, novice, those with traditional martial arts training like me (although we are by far the minority), and then there's a ton of fighters that are either professional or aspiring professionals.  hell, i heard there's some pro UFC fighters training here now, although they only do private lessons so don't see em around.

so yesterday morning, I lost track of time in the morning and didn't have time to eat a proper breakfast, so just had water, red bull and a multi vitamin, before getting to the 2.5 hr, 8am Muay thai class.  Now these classes are ridiculously intense.  usually start out with running and a ton of calisthenics for the first half hour. then rigorous techniques, then bag work and sparring and stuff.  but basically, going at 100% for 2.5 hours is crazy.  well yesterday, about an hour and a half in, i kept getting so dizzy i couldn't even stand.  Sweat pouring out of me.  i could breath fine, I just was wobbly.  no amount of water seemed to help.  So... from this i learned two lessons.  One, I now have breakfast ready the night before, so i can wake up and eat nice and early before whatever training i decide to do.  two, i was advised to get an electrolyte powder to add to my water for during workouts.  with the excessive sweating, it made sense.  (and it worked very well for my training today)

yesterday evening There was a special seminar from this professional fighter who used to be professional in the Tae kwan do circuit, but switched to muay thai.  since i have a pretty extensive tae kwan do background, i figured i could learn something from him.  As a style, Tae Kwan do gets very little respect from MMA, professional fighters. Basically, his focus was on teaching the majority of MMA fighters that there are some tae kwan do moves that are effective in real fights and how to use them.  So i didn't really learn too much, but he definitely helped me refine a few things.  if you care, here's a quick youtube clip of this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6cmS2DR0bk .  (they were filming during the seminar so if they post anything i'll post it on my blog).

today i woke up early and ate my breakfast.  went to a Krabi Krabong class.  this is a thai, combat based stick fighting art.  I thought it would be interesting to check out and I was right.  The teacher was quite a bit crazy and hippie dippie, but what he taught was very interesting and i'm hoping to take some stuff back home with me for my kempo club.  

I then rented a motorbike/scooter thing for the day.  i hoped to go to the beach, but it was pretty cloudy all afternoon.  that, and riding around on the street is scary.  so many cars and bikes running every which way and swerving all around.  for my first time on a motorbike, it was a little overwhelming to have to deal with all that traffic.  its probably better i didn't anyway so that i could get back to my hotel here and have a lil food before my 4-630 muay thai class.  again, another insanely difficult class. completely exhausting.  but this time, since i ate a couple hrs before, and i had my electrolyte water, i was able to survive.  no dizziness, just exhaustion.  my technique is also getting better.  i wish i was in better shape when i got here so this wouldn't be so exhausting.  but then again, i've never worked out close to this hard in my whole life.  hell, its only 930 and i'm sitting in bed and prob going to sleep soon so i can train more tomorrow.  

good night

So sweaty

Bangkok

So, who's seen the Hangover 2?  takes place in Bangkok.  well its a good thing i haven't seen it yet or I'd be very disappointed.  So, picture this: the hangover 2 sans both a hangover and everything relating to alcohol.  I know what you're thinking, not much of a movie, right?  well, Thailand's national elections are July 3.  BUT, turns out the elections in Bangkok were actually yesterday.  something we didn't know was that In order for people to make better decisions, selling alcohol was ILLEGAL this whole past weekend.  So, everyone knows i don't need to be drunk to have a good time, but it was a surprising twist.  

But, nothing too crazy of note in Bangkok.  matt and i hired a tuktuk one day to take us to the tourist stops:  some temples and buddahs.  We went to the royal palace, but it turned out to be closed.  well, most of it was closed.  there was some temple of the emerald buddah that was quite beautiful that was open.  Although we kept getting pushed out of the way by monks who I guess were having to do some buddah stuff for whatever holiday it was on Friday.  so yeah, things were closing early on friday because of some holiday.  

Sunday, Matt was bedridden frickin again from being sick.  "My belly hurt." Went so I went out to breakfast with a girl named Justyna we met in Hoi An, Vietnam as well as a guy we had met the night before from London, named Doug.  While we were planning our day, including going to some crazy market some girl nearby over heard us and asked if she could join us.  So, of course she could come.  Her name was Julia from Germany.  This whole Backpacker traveler lifestyle is interesting.  I mean, can you imagine just sitting at a coffee shop asking people to join them on their touring around the city?  that being said, I do have some other thoughts on backpackers that i'll prob talk about in another post when i have nothing better to talk about.  

That night matt and I just went to a nearby hotel/hostel where they were showing Inglorious Basterds.  what a great movie, although I kinda fell asleep for most of it.  we were going to go out, but i was too groggy.  

Okay, so not the most exciting post.  i got it.  it was a nice weekend, but nothing too special.

BUT

I am now in Phuket where I have begun my Muay Thai training.  there are a whole bunch of things taught here, but i guess I'll only talk about what i'm doing.  I'm starting out in the beginner class.  The class consists of basic techniques while intensely working out.  holy crap, i've never sweat so much.  With every punch or kick, I splattered sweat at whatever or whoever was in front of me.  Luckily, everyone was sweating.  And finally I get to work out in an environment where no shirt and shoes is encouraged!  by the way, it's pretty much taught outside.  There's a roof, but no walls.  I'll take some pics some other time.  I'm hoping to get up to the intermediate class before i leave in a week, but we'll see.  It's pretty clear that i have more experience than most of the people in this class.  Unfortunately, there are some very fundamentally different things with the techniques that i'm not used to.  maybe tomorrow i'll go work on my own to get better at certain stuff. (maybe i'll give specifics later for my martial arts oriented friends).  

So the one thing i felt bad about is that when it came to sparring they put me with this girl who had only trained a total of 1 week in her whole life (slightly less than my >20years).  this really wouldn't have been a problem.  I'm usually actually a good person to have good control.  It was her first time sparring ever actually and she wasn't even sure what to do.  I, and one of the little thai dudes were telling her to do certain things (jab, cross, kick etc).  i was throwing out some light punches/kicks for her.  I told her not to worry about hurting me.  Unfortunately she took this as "go really hard on me."  Honestly, i didn't care.  but she kicked my elbow really hard; when she kicked, i didn't even move just so she could get used to aiming for a target.  but for those of you who don't know what that feels like it hurts.  I think there's a slight chance she may have actually broken her foot.  I'll keep an eye on it.  I feel a little bad, but the truth is i didn't even move and she hit a hard target.  When a group of the advanced students asked what happened, she said I hurt her foot.  Immediately they said, "you kicked his elbow didn't you."  so, as long as everyone knows it wasn't my fault i don't look like that much of a butthole.

wow, okay, i'm realizing this is a boring post. but i'm exausted from lack of sleep and intense working out today.  time for bed.

okay, sorry about the long martial arts paragraph.  but well, that's going to be a big part of my next week.  wahoo!  imagine this, living right outside of a martial arts gym with access to a bunch of classes.  there's a lil food place there that is always showing MMA fights.  and there are a ton of beaches and stuff nearby.  This should be a great week if my body can hold up.

pictures from Ankor Wat

mmmmm, banana

What? Ankor wat?

So, although I'm in bankok right now, I'm going to post about my whirlwind  in Siem reap, Cambodia. Sorry for slacking off. Even though I'm traveling, I'm still a big jerk. The worst part is that I can't post pics for some reason, so the awesome stuff I saw will have to be posted another day.

So we began with a night bus to siem reap from phnom penh. I seem to function off very little sleep, so while everyone else was napping I went for a run for the first time in weeks (I'm a slacker jerk). A short half hr run turned into an hour run when I couldn't find my way back to the Garden Village hostel we were staying at. I had to pay a dollar to hop a motorbike ride back, but no biggie. After this, I showered. Matt and I decided to just wander the city while marla went to a cooking class. Wandering was fun. We ended up at one point in this local bar type place where there were rows of lawn chairs set up watching four tvs. Everyone drinking coffee or tea or beer. So as it was the most crowded place we had seen, only locals, we sat down for a bit and enjoyed some coffee while attempting to talk to people. We then wandered around some more and somehow ended up wandering these dirt paths and eventually stumbled upon a horse ranch where we talked to the owner for a while. Good times.

The next day we woke up at 423am to go to Ankor Wat to watch the sunrise. A Wat is a temple. And ankor wat is the largest, considerd the 8th wonder of the world. Remember when I said that the hour long run was no big deal? Well I lied. However many miles I ran, was quite tiring for my legs. So walking around a series of temples from 5am til about 5pm was pretty painful and tiring but quite worth it. Ankor wat was crazy awesome, and the other temples in the area were quite impressive too (pics to be posted at later date). But probably the best part of my day was running into a monkey!!! Actually it was a momma monkey and a baby. I've never seen one up close in the wild. So I did what I'm sure everyone would expect me to do. I bought a bunch of bananas and shared! Haha monkeys are funny.

After such a long day of touring, we relaxed a bit and then grabbed some dinner. After dinner matt and I went and got an hour long massage for a wopping $4 each. No worries though mom, no happy ending for the J man. Just a good ol fashion thank you and good night. Matt and I then awaited our 130am night bus to bangkok. It was mostly uneventful. Well, not completely true. While waiting for the bus there were a group of british guys with one short american dude. They were so drunk and high on valium. One even started flagging down tuktuks to get some marijuana. Now, over here, this stuff is offered constantly by everyone on the street. But this stupid guy was yelling in the street that he was trying to buy some. It made matt and I pretty uncomfortable, but luckily the bus came soon so we didn't have to deal with these Bro's for long.

okay, off to enjoy a bit of uber tourist bangkok. Ill try to get pics uploaded tomorrow. But I'm excited to be heading to Phuket on Monday to begin my muay thaui training(and mom, I know what you're thinking, its pronounced "poo-ket", not "fuck-it". You're so immature)

The Phnom Penh of Penn Phenom? (thanks Mr. Reznik)

Greetings from Phenom Penh (promounced P'nom Pen).  pretty quick visit so it's been somewhat of a whirlwind but figure I'll update on my first city in Cambodia - who the hell goes to Cambodia anyways?

We got here monday afternoon and justin was very hungry.  As many of you know, hungry-Justin may or may not be any fun to hang out with.  so we went out and found a place to grab a Khmer meal.  Khmer is what cambodians call themselves.  while waiting, this little kid tried to sell us some illegally copied books (as they are quite abundant and cheap here).  while he's trying to sell us, he starts casually punching my shoulder lightly.  I look at him after a few hits and tell him, "its my turn now!"  So I get up and start playing with this little kid.  He's really throwing some punches and elbows, i'm parrying or blocking most, but sometimes let him get a bunch of hits to my stomach (my stomach was a little red when we were done).  I tried to teach the little guy to keep his guard up- a very important lesson by administering some educational open-hand whacks to his head. It was all in good fun on both sides of this battle; and all the local tuk tuk drivers in the area seemed quite entertained.  (tuk tuks are motorbikes with a carriage on back used for transporting tourists cheaply).  He was a funny and feisty kid, but once my food came I had to eat.  sooo hungry.  twas a funny encounter.

Educating the children of Cambodia

While getting ready to explore in the evening I met a guy in the lobby of our hostel I met a swedish guy who lives in bangkok named Henrik.  We got a talking to him for a while and he ended up joining matt, marla and I for the eve to dinner and for a bit of hanging out.  We wandered around a bit along the Mekong river where there are a bunch of bars, restaurants, a market, and all sorts of other things.  as the night went on more peculiar snacks came around.  We walked by a cart with fried bugs; cockroaches, grasshopper?, maggots and there was a pile of black things i couldn't discern in the low light.  That is until the guy working the stand picked one up... as my stomach reflexively churned I see that he's holding a deep fried tarantula the size of my hand.  Henrik wanted to split one with me just to say we had done it.  Hell no!  I don't even think I could watch someone eat one.  I'm all for trying new things and maybe even eating something weird from time to time. No spiders! especially one that big.

Today we hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us around to the sites that were too far to walk to and also to allow us to see more with our limited time in this city (don't worry, with tip i think we paid a combined $20).  We first went to the Killing Field.  I didn't realize that there was such a horrible genocide here back in the 70s under the regime of Pol Pot.  well this field is one of many sites of mass graves where tens of thousands of Cambodians were brought to be brutally murded and thrown into mass graves.  many of the mass graves have been excavated to be given a more respectable resting place---or just put on display to be remembered and respected.  Basically, people were brought here, blindfolded, and while loud music was blaring to drown out the screams, they were beaten over the head with various objects and thrown in these mass graves.  although babies were just smashed against trees usually.  they then sprayed various poisons over the bodies, including DDT, just in case someone was left alive and then burried in graves with up to 450 people in them.  Even to this day, as rain and wind wash away layers of dirt, bones and clothes are popping up all over.  It's pretty gross.

I took this picture of Actual Skulls of those murdered at the killing field

We then checked out the genocide museum.  So pretty much before bringing people to the killing floor, they were often held and interrogated at what is called S-21 (now known as the genocide museum).  The khmer Rouge, under the rule of Pol Pot would capture civilians at random, or scholars or soldiers of the former govt and interrogate them and get them to admit ties to the CIA or KGB; ties which most people here didn't have.  Before being a torture prison, it was actually a school.  I've always thought that some of my old elementary schools looked like a prison.  Now i realize that THIS school looked like a frickin prison.  I won't get into the details, but they had pictures of every person who was ever brought to the place to be tortured....rooms and rooms ful.  they had drawings and explainations of the torture methods.  holy crap, it was pretty sick.

We then checked out the underwhelming russian market, presidential palace and a pagoda that turned out to be under construction.  not a bad day.

Tonight we are heading on a bus at 2330 to Siem Reap.  this is right outside Ankor Wat.  sleeper buses are definitely a good way to save time as a tourist.  so tomorow morning, after what will amount to only a few hours of sleep, i will pump up on coffee for a whirlwind couple days there.  I should be going to Bangkok on friday then if all goes according to plan, i'll find a Muay Thai kickboxing gym on monday and start my week of training on tuesday.  it sucks that i'm going to be so out of shape for this, but I'll still make the best of it.

Up Up, and Away!!!!

Miss Saigon and the Cu Chi

So Spending some time in Saigon aka Ho Chi Min City (HCMC).  well, everyone calls it saigon even though the official name is HCMC.  So here's some stuff I done...

went to the vietnam war museum.  This was quite a trip.  Although this museum was filled with pro north vietnam communist propaganda, its hard to deny that it was an atrocious war.  Maybe America had good intentions with fighting communism, but shit, we did not go about it the right way.  The museum takes the stance that the US wasn't even attempting to help south vietnam resist the communists and that we were just killing everyone in sight pretty much.  Whether that is true or not doesn't matter too much at this point.  what does matter is that some terrible shit went down.  There were photographs of US soldiers smiling and laughing over their recently decapitated foe; something that doesn't happen with great ease.  There were also many photographs of the effects of Agent Orange.  Holy orange doody batman, for something that seems like it was supposed to be "just" destroying trees, it completely mutilated several generations of Vietnamese to such an extent that even now, walking around the streets I've seen people who are deformed from it.  There were also extensive descriptions of the ways the vietnamese used to torture their prisoners...i'll leave it at, "gross."  supposedly 3 million Vietnamese died in those years of war.  I know they weren't all killed by the US, but its still a crapload of people.  never realized the extent of death that happened there.  SO...not very uplifting, but still pretty interesting.

We also checked out the reunification palace.  It was this palace that the north Vietnamese crashed through the gates with their tanks, stormed the palace to end the war (well, in a nutshell i think that's what happened).  It was pretty beautiful.  spent some time walking around here.

Trying to fit into the Cu Chi hole

Today, we checked out Cu Chi (that's right, pronounced just like coochie).  It was here that the vietnamese mounted their defense by digging a series of tiny tight Cu Chi tunnels.  Being the huge American I am, I couldn't even fit into the entrance of the Cu Chi tunnel.  For a photo op, they let us try to climb in...well they let maybe five or six people climb in.  I was the only one in the group that didn't quite fit; my shoulders/upper back were just too wide.  I probably could have squeezed into the tight entrance, but would have left some skin behind.  It really is amazing that supposedly 20,000 vietnamese LIVED in these tunnels that I couldn't even get through the doorway.  We then saw some of the traps they set for the US soldiers, which were pretty gruesome if you consider how simple they were using mainly bamboo spikes.  A very weird part for me was they had a tank on display for photo opps.  Matt and I hopped on and we took some pictures along with the rest of the tourists (i'll load them to facebook when i get back).  after getting down the other side I noticed writing on the side that said, "American M41 tank destroyed by a Delay mine in 1970."  Made me a bit sad to think that this is literally where several US soldiers were killed and is now a tourist attraction.  I know the US did terrible things in Vietnam, but it still isn't nice to think that on a personal level, these soldiers were probably drafted against their will and now their deathbed is a tourist attraction.  pretty messed up.

We were going to go to a vietnamese medical museum this afternoon, but were running a little short on time (most museums here close between 4-5).  So we did what i enjoy so much, grab an iced coffee and people watched.  well, almost got hit by several motorbikes riding on the sidewalk.  not sure what's on the books for tonight, but tomorrow morning at 630am we are boarding a bus to Cambodia where our first stop is Phnom Pehn.  I would think that's early but for some reason I haven't woken up later than 6am in the past week or so.  Even without work i'm still a stupid early riser.

and just bought my second pair of "100% real and authentic" Ray Ban sunglasses for a grand total of a combined $5.  woohoo.

Dalat, vietnam

So, been in Dalat for a couple days. This city is definitely more quaint yet is still quite urban. There's not as much going on here, but the nice break is the weather. It feels cold sometimes withe the weather being a relatively not humid 85 or so.

Beyond the cable car ride, I've just spent a lot of time running around the city checking stuff out. Nothing too exciting, but one interesting site was the "crazy house." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_Nga_guesthouse. It made Gaudi's stuff in barcelona look like he was designing quaint libraries. It was so trippy that I doubt any of the pictures I took could do it justice. It sounds like its actually used as a guest house, or will be, but I didn't see anyone staying there. The rooms are weird and themed and some have animals with crazy glowing eyes, disjointed stairwells and walkways between buildings that made me feel like I was going to fall.

That being said, I've started to learn how to more easily deal with the salesmen here in vietnam. When someone asks if u want something and you say and shake your head and say "no thank you" in a kind voice and keep walking the conversation should be over right? Wrong sir! They often follow you for a block arguing with u as to why I should buy their noodle/tour/kebab/dog picture/massage?/cat/dog/child/flower/etc/etc/lizard/etc.  Hell, showing them an empty wallet wouldn't get them away.  It just gets anoying. Esp when the same person harrasses me four times in a day. When watching vietnamese deal with eachother it seems like they're always yelling, arguing and angry. So, just as in israel where bluntness isn't rude, its just a way of life. I've decided to be like the locals. When they offer me something I don't want, there's no need for pleasantries, just a flat "no" a wave of my hand, and presto, no annoying salesjerk. In fact, they don't look insulted. And the truth is that I'm not being rude by their standards. So...by american standards I'm being a jerk, but it seems that by their standards I'm just not wasting their time.

Up up and away!

Tomorrow morning we're back off to the heat of Saigon where my goal is to see a performance of Miss Saigon!

Me so high - in dalat, vietnam

We took a cable car up this mountain. The wind was blowing, the ride was slow. But made It to the top of this mountain where there was a nice lake, garden and meditation pagoda. So here's a pic proving I'm still in one piece.

Me so Moist

Wow, realize its been a few days since I've blogged.  oops.


So I spent the past couple days in Hoi Ann.  It was definitely a lower key city than either Hanoi or Hue.  I hear its really hot at home now, so i'm not sure if its hotter here or there, all i know is that it's pretty standard for me to go through about 3 liters of water in addition to whatever juice i have.  I'm pretty much saturated with sweat at all times.

the food here is great.  I'm eating so much, with most meals being less than $2.  our splurge meal was $5.  pretty awesome.  The coolest thing about this city is most definitely the tailors.  Our first night here, we met this Australian couple that comes back here once a year for the past few years to get this certain shop to make some clothes for them.  The guy said he's only been wearing her suits to work every day for the past few years and they've held up amazingly.  So, I couldn't resist and bought myself a custom made 3 piece suit and a dress shirt as well as bought meghan a dress made just for her.  Its amazong how cheap they were too.  when i tried on the shirt and suit, they fit perfect and was of really good quality.  I'm looking forward to rocking it at home (lets just hope I need to wear it for something med schoolish soon).

One of the two days we were in Hoi Ann we rented bikes to ride to the beach which was about 4 or 5km away.  The beach was very nice, with palm trees and warm water although not the whitest sand nor crystal blue water as I'm expecting when i get to thailand.  The interesting things are the Vietnamese culture around the beach.  they don't like getting tan.  so the few women on the beach, are fully dressed both in and out of the water.  I'm talking Jeans and  long sleeve shirts, hats and some even wearing gloves in what is probably around 100 degree heat.  Like i said, this is also what they wear into the water!  Another way they beat the midday sun is by not going to the beach til 5pm.  I didn't get to the beach til a bit after 2 in order to avoid the worst of the sun, but around 5pm, the beach went from pretty empty, to flooded with asians.  We actually ended up leaving aroudn 515 and the onslaut looked nowhere close to stopping.  Now that shows true love of going to the beach....they hate sun, but still have to be there. 

Marla and i were talking to this woman who was half vietnamese, who lives in the US now about how the vietnamese people had been treating them.  Well, they both look asian so the locals are really critical of them.  marla is from the Philippines  and is very tan the asian women here are always asking her "why so dark" and then they're really rude to her.  the other woman has issues with people repeatedly coming up to her, "why you so fat!" to which she answers, "why you so ugly and stupid?" in fluent vietnamese.  I guess they're not the friendliest people, although i have yet to have any issues... at least nothing beyond some undeserved dirty looks. 

The ride back from the beach was pretty exciting.  There was a long stretch of road construction that I had to use my $1 beach cruiser bike to navigate.  Around deep holes, dodging motorbikes on the sidewalk, along with pedestrians, over other crazy obstacles too.  Made it through no problem.  Once I hit the main road, about 100m later, POP! I thought some kids through a firecracker at me.  turns out my fat butt just busted a tire.  Too stubborn to walk the bike, i rode the bike, busted tire and all, to the place where we rented it (which was probably only 500m away). 

Then yesterday, my last day in Hoi Ann, I picked up and then shipped my custom clothes back to the states.  then we just wandered the city for a few hours, relaxed at a sidewalk cafe for some drinks and just tried to take in the city for a while.  It was a pretty relaxing day.  Matt, Marla and I then had to catch a sleeper bus at 7pm.  with only a 1hr break and then a half hr break, we arrived in Dalat around 1pm today.  long frickin night of traveling, luckily I spent most of it sleeping and reading.  well, mostly sleeping.  This town is 1.5km up in the mountains.  so far it seems ncie, but have only wandered a bit.  Matt is sick and has been spending most of his time either sleeping in the room or on the toilet.  luckily we found a nice large room for only $4 a person for him to do that in.  Luckily, i think he looks like he's doing a bit better this evening than he was yester-eve.

I can't believe i have another 5 weeks of traveling to go.  I've never had this much time to just relax and enjoy life, and its amazing how much i miss my girl and my friends and my family.  I wouldn't say i'm homesick yet, I guess it would just be nice to be sharing this experience with someone.

we'll be here for a couple of days and then on to Saigon and then off to cambodia.okay, over and out.

Comentary on big trouble in little china

By trouble, I mean me, and by china, I mean hong kong and vietnam so far. Some interesting things that have happened that don't fit into "events"

In hong kong napkins are rare. Everyone carrys around little boxes of tissues that are kinda like extra soft napkins. So if mr napkin and mrs tissue decided that they were at the point in their commited relationship and ready to reproduce, they would make these little packs of tissues they have in hong kong. After a meal it is polite to offer them to those u are dining with. So just an interesting observation.

Vietnamese can be a bit agressive, I now understand the references to vietnamese in the movie in bruges. Great movie. Don't worry, no confrontations on my part.

A woman on our halong bay cruise decided to have an allergic reaction. I let the ICU nurse from australia who was on board check her out since my qualifications only include ER tech...and Mike's roomate. But she didn't know about little michael. After checking the woman out, she came out to me to look at her for a second opinion. I don't understand why people trust me with medical shit. I don't feel like I know anything, and I don't know what I do to make people trust me. Its just weird. That being said, my roomate is a walking ball of allergic reaction so I could tell this woman was going to be fine after some benedril, and after checking in on her for the next 8 hrs I was right. But still, an icu nurse shouldn't need my confirmation.

Today we checked out hue and tomorrow morning we will do more of the same. We leave on a three hr bus ride to some other city, I forget the name but hear its nice. Okay, I'm tired and am going to sleep. Good night.

Quick catch up of the last few days

Still with the same group of people but added on benny the german. Days are starting to run together. I've had a few rough days, but that's a personal story that I'm praying will resolve soon. I have faith it will.

But one night benny, matt n I went out for a beer and ended up sharing some noodles and beer with this 80yo vietnamese dude who spoke broken english because he lived in the US for many years after getting out of a vietnamese prison reeducation center. Pretty interesting and cookie fellow.

Next morning we took a 3ish hour van ride to halong bay where we took a boat around and went kayaking and saw some caves. Was pretty cool although our captian was kindof a jerk.

After a ride back to hanoi, we had a two hour break before we hopped a bus to Hue (pronounce hweh) this was a sleeper bus where the seats are my shoulder width and recline to layign and they're angled so your legs are under the seat infront. And there are two levels, luckily I was stacked on top. It was about a 14 hr ride, with a half hour break after the 12 hr. Luckily I somehow slept a lot of the way and was absorbed in my thoughts the rest of the way.

We only have about 24 hrs here to see stuff but most things are closed early afternoon for asian siesta.

Ho Chi Min vs Ho Gi Min?

Ho Chi Min was a longtime leader of Vietnam.  Hoagieman (Ho Gi Min in vietnamese) is my dad; originator of the Steinberg Hoagie at Primo's.  At the moment I can't decide who impresses me more.  Communist vietnam has been pretty interesting and delicious so far, but Primo's are super delicious.

okay, so today has been pretty interesting.  I went around hanoi and checked out some sights with some people i've met in my hostel.  Matt and Marla are visiting from the Philippians (matt is originally from Montana, and Marla is originally from the Philippians.  And also Gabo (not 100% that's how its spelled but i think that's how he is pronouncing his name)  although he sounds spanish, he's from Chicago.  But we first went to check out Ho Chi Min aka Uncle Ho (seriously).  And when i say check him out, I mean they literally have him embalmed and on display in a glass case (sorry, no cameras aka pictures allowed).  While waiting in line everyone pushes and cuts and runs around you...so in typical american style, we start dropping elbows and destroy some little people (well, not really).  Its so hot out that people are passing out while waiting in line.  I'm quite moist at this point.

after this we went and grabbed some lunch of...well i don't know what it was, some sort of rice noodle and grilled chicken in a cool soup as well as some sort of deep fried rolls.  We then went to some Temple place where things and stuff happened.   It basically was a nice lil garden.  basically, most museums and places are closed from 2-4 so we had time to kill.  we then went to the Ho Chi Min Museum where the bottom floor has lots of photographs and letters people wrote and the upstairs is bizarre art (i'll post pictures eventually).  it was a weird combination of history  and art museum.  We unforutunately missed our chance to go to the Hanoi Hilton and History Museum as they close by 430.  The hilton is actually what they call the POW camp here which was a former residence for non President John McCain.  Maybe i'll have a chance to go on saturday.

Just booked a two day cruise to halong bay.  its suposed to be one of those "cant miss" thingies.  so I guess we'll see how that goes.  It's kinda expensive by vietnam standars but i figured it would be worth it.  But tonight I"m finally going to get some Pho for dinner.  can't wait.

Oh boy Hanoi

So i'm about to head out with a bunch of people i met in my hostel so this will have to be brief.  the hostel hear is really nice with air conditioned, clean rooms, wifi and 3 computers and everyone is sooo nice.  i'm in a 6 bed dorm room with 5 people in it right now, so far everyone seems really nice. (costing me $6 a night, mwhahahah)

got to my hostel yesterday and was a little nervous at first because the first bunch of people i tried making conversation with weren't having any of it.  it is possible that at least one of the dudes didn't speak engrish but i duno about that.  I then ended up meating a guy from chicago who i wandered around with and grabbed some really cool stuff for dinner (no idea what any of it was).  then while i was winding down in the lobby of the hostel a few people were heading out to grab some beers and invited me along.  we wandered around looking for a bar they saw earlier, but couldn't find it.  ended up at this place drinking some kind of lime and tea drink- it was really good. A girl started talking to us and suggested i get this mango soup that was delicious.  she said she was actually from saigon and was working on the groupon from vietnam and she covered all our food/drinks.  In an area where scamming westerners is more common it was really unexpected.  we then went to this really chill bar and had some beer that cost 15,000dong (yes, vietnam money is called dongs).  that comes out to about 75 cents.  after one beer we all were just tired and came back to sleep for what will be a long day of touring today.

we're actually going pretty soon to check out Ho Chi Min's mausoleum and then run around Hanoi for the day.  should be interesting.  Even american's don't view the war in vietnam as a good thing, but i'm curious to go to a vietnam museum and see their side of things. okay, cab will be here in a sec.

sorry family (although mom, i'm sure you'll enjoy it)  for the quote...but a friend of mine just made this comment "your vaca makes my brain vagina wet as shit."---and so far it is pretty damn interesting

Tai Long Won beach where we spent the night camping.

Twice baked potato: burned in HK

Saturday night we went camping at a beach.  In order to get to this particular beach we had to do a little quasi hiking. We took the easy path which involved taking a water taxi to drop us off at a path.  This path lead over the least elevated part of these mountains, which took an hour to scale over in the dark.  I say quasi hiking because the path was through beautiful woods, but it was paved.  although paved, i've never scaled a path of such a steep angle.  We arrived at a place where there were two little outdoor shops.  we set up at a table and bbqd the meat we had brought with us and just hung out for a few hours.  Since we arrived in the dark it was hard to see all the surroundings, but it definitely had the feel of sitting out picnicking on an island beach.

Without much difficulty we were able to climb over another steep as crap, this time unpaved path, over to another more secluded beach that was both bigger and had less people on it.  We set up our tents and went to bed for a few hours.  lets just say that a tent in this heat is a shitty place if you like to breath well.  At 5:30 Sam and I were awoken by both the sun as well as some weird noises.  coming out of the tent I got my first real view of this beautiful beach.  As for the noises - turns out those things that looked like rocks in the dark, maybe 20m from our tent, turned out to be a heard of wild cows.  the calf/veal was maybe 8 feet from the front of another group's tent.  whenever they would try to get out of their tent, this several hundered pound cow would start to charge at them, clearly trying to protect his baby.  It's amazing how scary cows can be (yet still delicious looking).

we stayed at this beach until noonish when we had to begin our hour hike and hour transport back to sam's place in order to make our dinner reservations. We were all a little reluctant to leave this beautiful secluded beach but, such is life.  plus, after our night in Maccau and then minimal sleep in a stuffy tent, i wasn't exactly feeling well rested.

For dinner we went to a Hot Pot restaurant.  it seems pretty popular here.  They put a big bowl of flavored broth on a hot plate on the table and bring out lots of uncooked food (for us included chicken, beef, lamb, Ostrich , and ox).  It was a good meal except for the mishap in the middle that is apparently pretty typical of hong kong service.  When given raw food, we had to cook it before eating in the pot full of hot.  unfortunately, for a good half hour or so, our hot pot wasn't hot and thus could not cook.  we went through 5 hotplates.  after the second one sam's friend asked for us to be reseated (she is from hong kong and thus better at chinese than us as english is her second language).  So we're sitting there, very hungry, just staring at a table of raw meat.  it was so annoying that i couldn't stop laughing.  It was the type of thing in the US that would get you the meal comped but they seemed to think it was our fault.  once they moved us to a new table everything went smoothly.

so....heading off to Vietnam in a few hours.  wish me luck!

Out Passed 2 - Nights out in HK and Macau

So, sightseeing the past couple days really solidifies that my opinion of what HK looks like.  Think about what would happen if NYC's chinatown got blown up without the stores being destroyed and merely scattered around the city.   some places got a lot of trinket shops and food stands.  some areas are really high end stores, and some places have high end stores interspersed with stands.  picture Cartier and gucci and ferragamo sharing sidewalk space with an old lady selling bras, flashlights and dried fish.  Sam said he's thought this, but people think he's being a little racist by saying it.  Honestly, I mean no offense by this evaluation and in fact I think it's pretty interesting.  Just makes me wish I had a lot more money because there are so many nice watch and sunglasses stores with awesome fruit in between.

friday night we went out to some bars after touring the night market at temple street; an event that seems more like western entertainment than an authentic asian experience so I will only briefly recount some of the more interesting moments.

• Anna, a crazy middle aged asian lady followed sam and i through the market bitching about her husband of 20 years who left her two years ago.  she wouldn't stop talking to us for well over an hour.  Through careful analysis we concluded she was not intoxicated, and she wasn't trying to scam us or steal from us but I got a huge amount of crazy vibes from her (thank you Meth ED for teaching me about the crazy)
• Sam taught me how to tell the difference between normal bar goers and  prostitutes from the Philippines.   Surprisingly, its ridiculously hard to tell.  thankfully I'm not on the market for a lady companion (on a paid or volunteer basis) so it was fun to watch the ladies of the night market their wares to their unsuspecting prey.
• I learned that Guinness here doesn't taste very good.  usually those draft keg cans are delicious, but for some reason it just tasted off.  I don't get how a beer brewed and canned in the same place as the ones i've drank at home can taste so different.  
• It's hilarious to watch European guys get brutally rejected by a girl over and over.  Then through sheer will power he gets an obviously reluctant makeout at the end of the night to get him off her.  And supposedly this guy is going to be on my flight to vietnam on monday so I might actually get closure on how things went the next day when she was supposed to meet up again...
• unsurprisingly the bouncer at a club called "volar" had never heard of the splint by the same name.  He seemed oddly happy to find out what a Volar was.  he was not impressed enough to let me in wearing my shorts instead of pants.  

Last night we went to Macau.  it's basically vegas transplanted to asia  that is an hour ferry ride from HK.  The cool thing is that it's technically another country so i just got another country added to my passport.  I'm not a huge gambler so I played a few games and mainly cheered on sam -and other people who pretended not to understand my encouraging words- and enjoyed the sights.  it was a good time.  Unfortunately, although we left the casino at about 145, we didnt' get back to sam's apartment til around 430 am.  so it was a late night but it's all good.

And for a GI tract update; so far so good. as a future Dr (i'm still so frickin excited) I will make this mature.  My diet has involved a good amount of duck, noodles and curry.  as a result my doody has remained solid and voluminous as usual but i notice the smell is significantly worse and surprisingly unfamiliar.  as a side note I am taking pictures of virtually everything I eat so I look forward to looking back at all these when I return stateside (i am not taking pictures of my doody).

today sam and I are going to some beach where we are going to camp for the night.  I'm super excited for a low key day and evening.  

Lock Cha Tea Shop

Smoggy Hong Kong

Runnin' Roun' China Town

So yesterday was my first whole day spent on the other side o' the world. I woke up around 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. made for a tough day but still had to check this place out.

Decided to head out on my own, sam had his last day teaching, over to the island...aka the main island of Hong Kong. turns out I'm staying with Sam on Kowloon, which is the part of Hong Kong that is attached to china. I took the MTR to the main island where I decided I was going to Victoria's Peak, aka the Peak. It's basically a mountain overlooking Hong Kong (nice view). to get up to the Peak I took this trolly that rode up at what seemed like a 45 degree incline (pi/4 radian's if that's your deal). I then took some pictures form the top and went on a little walk around the peak. it was nice and relaxing.

when I decided to ascend to the highest point of the Peak I was followed closely by a really nice couple of Canadians who live in NYC (Mark and Amanda). we got talking for a while and descended from the peak of The Peak. I was going to hit up a botanical garden and hong kong park, but ended up joining my two new friends on their journey to some noodles that they heard have to be tried before leaving HK and then an escalator ride through midlevels - or middle earth as i called it. I have no idea what the escalator thing meant, nor where "middle earth" was or what there was to do there, but figured "why the heck not?"

In a nut shell, the noodle place, mac's noodles, was down an alley and behind a clothing stand and had no discernible name in english (there's actually a lot of english in HK). The noodles were pretty good, but the company was better. I guess we didn't know how hungry we were; but the mood went from cordial to quite fun. turns out mark was involved with sketch comedy so was a pretty funny dude. we then spent the next hour or so riding up a series of escalators through middle earth. it was pretty cool seeing like 3 noticeably different areas just while riding up escalators. we then walked down, as the escalators only went up at that time of day and stopped at a bunch of little stands and just had a good ol' time. HK is very interesting place with these rinky-dink stands interspersed with high end shopping that reminded me of New York's fifth ave.

After A long day of running around, sam and i went to Jimmy's place. this awesome lil barbecue shop where i got some duck curry and pork neck. yum.

Today was cool as well. I went to this awesome tea shop where the girl who worked there made us a ton of different teas. She seemed impressed with how much i knew of tea despite my round eyes and american accent. after this i decided to see as much of HK island as i could so hopped on the trolly. its a $2hkd trolly that goes all the way across the island. Beginning near the NYC type retail area all the way towards a more residential and low key part of the city/country. It still really amazes me how much of HK reminds me of every chinatown i've ever seen.

After running around for the day I came back to sam's place and rested for a little bit and then went for a lil run in a nearby park. there were lots of old people running, one dude practicing with this gigantic sword, old dudes doing Tai Chi and me running around in my little orange shorts. overall, not a bad day either. Today also marks sam's last day at work for the next few days so I'll prob actually get to hang out with him soon, yay!

Round-eye from So Fa

So, I have an hour to kill (nope, now 10 minutes) before going for Dim sum with Martin and Meredith, sam's roomates. not really enough time to explore much, so I figured I'll get this blog up and running. I'm not going to say racist things on this blog especially since I love asian culture so much (esp with my love of tea and martial arts).

That being said, I have already been raced against (this is my term for when people are racist against me)

First happened before i even came here. Went to vietnamese travel agency to try to get a travelers visa. They wanted to charge me $90 usd which sounded stupid expensive. I told them I heard from a friend of mine that it would be a whole lot cheaper. "Is your friend...like us?" she asks. I must have skewed my face in disbelief, to which she responded, "you know, vietnamese or at least asian?" I said, "yes" to which she informed me that their policy is to charge non asians more for visas. I promptly went online and ordered a visa for significantly less money. Roundeye wins against racism.

This morning I went to breakfast. I think that they may have forgotten to give me part of the breakfast. I'm not 100% sure i ordered correctly, but since my waitress spoke english (although not that great) I think they forgot some stuff. That's not the part that bothered me. The first waitress brought me a spoon, fork and chopsticks to eat my noodles with. I appreciated that she gave me the option of using chopsticks OR a fork considering some americans can't use chopsticks. right when my noodles came, another waitress came by and grabbed the chopsticks away from me before I could even choose my weapon. Seriously!? when i'm in china, i want to frickin use chopsticks whether i'm trying to catch flies or eat noodles. She walked away so fast, and i am so tired that i missed my opportunity to get them back. I quietly ate my noodles with a fork and spoon as I'm sure all the asian's laughed at me while they showed off with their chopsticking.

okay, time for dimsum and to prove my chopstick prowess

Hong Kong skyline at night

It's Like Chinatown, but bigger

So...15 hour flight and I made it to Hong Kong.

The flight wasn't bad:

Pros: -lots of movies and TV shows right in the seat-back.
-very good service; gave me a meal voucher when flight was delayed an hour and a half. Delta delays me 4 hours in 30 minute increments so i can't even frickin wander.
- refilled my bottle of water a bunch of times to keep me happy and hydrated.

cons: -15 hour flight
- smelly guy next to me. but i guess after the first hour i identified the smell as some sort of curry and stopped paying attention to it
- realization that as A) a whitey and B) a Jew, I am going to be a crazy minority from here on out.

arriving in hong kong was uneventful thankfully. Because my flight was delayed, sam had time to wait for me at the bus stop. so right when I got off the bus from the airport ($33 HKD) he was there to direct me. I met his roomates, and they seem very nice and fun. we grabbed a beer with a few of his friends before heading off to dinner and see the Hong Kong Skyline at night.

didn't sleep all that great last night but i guess that's to be expected given a 12 hr time difference. i'll prob be discombobulated for a few days. meh, whatever.