I quite possibly had the best day ever. Yes I know this is the first blog in ages, and sorry about that, but I had to record this.

I am currently in Ban Na Hin, a tiny tiny village in central Laos, whose only real purpose is to be a staging area for the Kong Lor caves. A 7.5km cave through a mountain that at some stretches is over 100m high. While this is my first time traveling alone, I have met a ton of people along the way, and my adventure in Na Hin was no different. 

My day began at the motorbike rental station (sorrry Mom I had to do it) where I negotiated to rent a scooter for the day. Mind you, I have never ridden a scooter so it take some trial and error to get used to. I was on my way to grab some breakfast when I ran into 3 other westerners. It was a relief considering I thought that I was the only white person in the town. There was an Israeli, a New Zealander, and a Belgian, and they were all doing “the loop” a 4 day motorbike trip through central Laos. They had stopped in Na Hin to check out the caves (which were 40km away) so I decided to tag along. 

The 40km were beautiful with giant limestone karsts jutting out into the air. It was something I had never seen before, they looked like they belonged on another world. The cave itself was even crazier, it was something straight out of “Planet Earth”. The cave was pitch black and eerie with huge stalactites and stalagmites all over. The river traveled underneath the mountain, so we had to traverse the cave by boat, though we had to get out and walk in a few really shallow places. The caverns mimicked huge man made cathedrals, though save for the guides headlamp, you couldn’t see anything.

When we got to the they offered us the opportunity to sign up for a homesteader on the other side of the mountain, and I decided to accompany the Belgian, I thought it’d be a cool experience. On the 2km walk to the village it started pouring, and I mean torrential rains. Everything got soaked, including my camera…sorry Gabe. I had to ditch my shoes and wade through the knee deep mud just to make any headway. Half way there we see a local tractor that flips over in the mud, and we had to work for 30 min to get it unstuck. I almost turned around at that point, not wanting to spend the night in a local home and instead get back to a nice guesthouse with a warm shower. Thankfully I was convinced otherwise.

We made it to the village and were promptly offered some “lao lao” or Lao rice whiskey that tastes absolutely disgusting. I had feared being offered this because you must take it as a shot, and failure to do so angers the house spirits and brings bad luck on everyone. Thankfully I didn’t puke and was then escorted to my homestay. The people were unbelievable. It was a family of five and they were so kind, making us beds, giving me dry clothes, feeding us a great dinner (which was an awesome frog stew!). I even felt as if I were home, especially when I had to help the 11 year old girl with her math homework, my teachers would be proud I still remember the metric system.

In the morning the shaman came and gave us a blessing, and it was another shot of lao lao, though at 7 am this one was a bit more rough. I kept it down again, though barely, and set off again down the mud road and through the ominous cave. It was another 40km motorbike ride, having to stop multiple times due to rain as well as being burned on my leg by the exhaust. I returned to Na Hin, said my farewells to the 3 others as they continued their trek, and am now recounting one of the best days ever. Traveling is amazing.

No you don’t because it was actually really bad…

I headed over to the Camel Restaurant near campus for dinner one night, and I have to say, I was sorely disappointed. The meat was really lean but just tasted very odd. I think I’ll stick to my fried rice lady for the rest of the semester.

A great mustache on a great wall, what more can Beijing offer?

I didn’t realize my dad’s side of the family came from Borneo…

Wielding machettes and taking names. Borneo posts to come…

So it has been a very hectic few weeks, with spring break, Taylor visiting, and Rugby Sevens all blending into one. But with my little break before Borneo, I thought I could catch up on my SB blogging…

Following our foray into epic partydom we escaped the beaches of Kuta for a calmer atmosphere. Welcome to Ubad, the cultural center of the Hindu enclave that is Bali. Upon getting out of the 1.5 hour ride inland from Kuta, I was immediately taken aback by the presence of temples (or at least what I thought were temples) everywhere. In reality they were hostels and hotels that looked like Hindu Temples. While we made a reservation at a nice hotel - we decided to splurge on accommodation in Ubad - we wandered around the city looking for other appealing options. What we came upon, was a small hotel, with and infinity pool that over looked endless rice paddies. Needless to say we were in heaven, and for 10 USD per person per night, it was definitely worth it.

As I mentioned in previous posts, it rained a lot during out stay in Bali, and after we caught the little sunshine there was by the pool, we headed out to explore Ubad. We were tired, lazy, and honestly sick of monkeys…so when we came upon the monkey forest (the sight Ubad is known for) I was unimpressed. That was until a horde of at least 75 monkeys stormed past me at once. We spoke with the guides in the park, and apparently if you antagonize or provoke a single monkey, the entire group will attack you. A very valuable piece of information next time I encounter an army of Macau monkeys… Our first day in Ubad was rather uneventful and concluded with a walk through some rice paddies and a nap before dinner. Ubad does not have much of a night life, and as a result, we were more than content with hanging on some couches in a hookah bar, listening to live music, and doing absolutely nothing.

We didnt want to stay up late anyway, since at 2am the next morning, we woke up in order to hike Mount Batur and catch the Balinese sunrise. The package we booked with was great, they brought us to a coffee plantation at the base of the mountain and served us an unbelievable breakfast. Even though I don’t like coffee, it was Kope Luwak coffee, and I was obligated to try it. For those of you who can’t be coffee connoisseurs like some of us, Kope Luwak coffee is made by roasting the beans that are eaten and subsequently pooped out by a small weasel like mammal called the Kope Luwak. Hey, in the words of Andrew Zimmern, if it looks good, eat it…In reality it looked neither good nor tasted good, but its a delicacy so it was worth a shot. After our breakfast, we headed up to the top of the mountain. Mount Batur is unique in that it is an active volcano, that last erupted in the 1990’s. Although the view was obscured by the clouds and throngs of tourists, it was an awesome to hike up to the top. Once the sun was up, we wandered around the crater, met a monkey who loved to chug coke, and even cooked our breakfast (hard boiled eggs and bananas) by burying it in the warm dirt next to a heat vent. While I was exhausted by lack of sleep and the initial hike, overall it was an unbelievable experience. 

On the way home we persuaded our driver to take us to Gunung Kawi, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has carved cliffs that fall directly into the Pakrisan River Valley. It was a very surreal place, as some of the sacred rooms within the temple were off limits to foreigners. Following the temple, we came across a woman who sold local Indonesian deserts that tasted very similar to fried dough.

Although we were exhausted, we forced ourselves to attend a Chaka dance, which told the story of a Hindu epic story through interpretive dance. Surrounding the dancers was  a group of almost 100 men sitting in a circle, narrating the story through song. The chorus was a continual reverberation of the sound chaka…you can see where the show got its name. We got a great dinner after the show, and headed back for an early night. Ubad was awesome, calm, peaceful, and relaxing. The rice paddies were serene and beautiful, exactly what I expected, and something I never will forget. 

Hong Kong Rugby Sevens 2012! Go Stars and Stripes (even though we didn’t win a single game)!

Actually I only won 1400 HKD, looks like I’m gonna need to go back to make up that extra 100. 

Dayumm, so fine.

Bali and Borneo were the two places I told myself I had to visit during my time in Hong Kong, and now I am 50% towards completing my goal. Scotty, Steven, and I traveled to Bali for our “reading period” at HKU. Needless to say, I did not have much to study, and even with Taylor visiting the following week I was able to complete my essays and study for my tests with relative ease.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, but Bali is a Hindu enclave among Indonesia’s 17,000 islands. We first traveled to Kuta, the self proclaimed party center of the city. We stayed in Kuta for two days, continued onto Ubad for two days (the cultural center), and then hopped a boat to the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok island for the next 5 days. 

I don’t really know how to describe Kuta. It was hot, humid, very dirty, and very touristy. Swimming in the water, though being 85 degrees, felt gross considering the amount of trash that was in it. In addition, the sheer amount of people trying to sell you pointless chachkis almost became unbearable. The water wasn’t clear, I didn’t see picturesque views, and to put it simply, I was discouraged by what Bali had to offer. But, I came to appreciate Kuta for what it was, a party. Despite the expensive towns located north and south of Kuta Beach, where we stayed was a backpacker haven full of cheap hostels and people doing exactly what we were doing. The nights were fun and the massive population of Norwegian’s studying abroad there gave me to chance to brush up on my Norwegian…du are dalee. You can see what Scotty preferred to do…

Because of Kuta’s unappealing nature by day, we spent our second full day traveling to picturesque Ulu Watu, home to sheer cliffs that fall right into the ocean. We hired a cab on the street to take us there, wait, take us to a temple afterward, wait, take us to dinner, and drive us home, all together a 10 hour trip, for 200,000 rupiah, or the equivalent of $24 USD. While it was raining and rather windy, we shacked up in a surfer hostel right on the water. We hung out for a few hours and enjoyed Indonesian staple cuisine, Nasi or Mie Goreng and Bintang. With bases of rice and instant noodles respectively, the goreng dishes were full of fresh vegetables, prawn, sliced chicken, and a medley of spices. Even though it had a similar make-up to chinese food, it was still a load different and a nice respite from my day to day cuisine. Bintag, the local beer of Indonesia, tastes just like a Corona for 1/5 of the price, it was great, and according to scientist Scotty, if you add a lime it undergoes a chemical reaction to make it even better.

While the food was great and the locals were amazing company, I have to admit that the best part about the afternoon was my time spent with Momo the monkey. The hostel literally had a monkey tied up in the back room, and since it had been with them from birth, it seemed totally domesticated and loved playing around. I will miss you dearly Momo. We met two British girls as we were leaving the beach and invited them to continue on with us to the Pura Luhur Uluwatu, a Hindu temple perched atop a cliff overlooking the water. The view of the cliffs, temple, and fattest monkey alive were utterly spectacular. Even though it rained the entire time (it rained on and off during our stay, even though it is the rainy season the locals said we just caught a bad week), the temperature was in the 80’s and the rain almost seemed refreshing. 

After the temple we headed to Jimbaran, a village known for its seafood. We had our best meal of the trip there, with prawns, squid, and fish cooked right in front of us on the beach. It was the perfect thing after a day on the water. When we recovered from our food coma, we headed back to Kuta for a last night out before heading off to Ubad.  Little did I know that I was headed toward 2 am hikes up mountains and traversing through miles of remote rice paddies…