Anecdotes I I have tried to collect a few stories and observations along my way that may be a little funnier than my normal posts on this blog. There are many more than the ones below, but I will publish them as I find time. Since these are just stories there will not be photos this time. Gordon the Gecko Some of my best friends in Southeast Asia are the geckos. These small lizard-like creatures work tirelessly through the nights eating mostly moths but also flies and mosquitoes. They are in other words extremely helpful and I have become quite fascinated with them. It has in fact turned into a kind of science project for me. I will find myself in bed trying to read but in stead studying the geckos running around on the ceiling ... read more

Trans Flores We stayed in Lubuan Bajo for a few days after the cruise. I am not really sure why. Eric began to hate the place. I didn't understand why. It is a small port town and that means that it must be a little gritty, dirty and smelly but I enjoyed it there. Our last night was a saturday and that means live music at the Paradise Bar, the only place in town that is open late at night. It is a bit outside of town up on a ridge overlooking the ocean and when walking there you do start wondering if the road leads anywhere until you hear the music. We went there on foot the night before the cruise but this night we sat on the back of a couple of guys motorcycles. ... read more

A small cup of Java I spent a few days in KL in a futile attempt to get a proper 60 day visa to Indonesia. August 31st was however the Malaysian independence day so the embassy closed and apparently didn't accept new visa applications the day before. The day after they threw so much red tape after me that I gave up and flew to Jakarta and got another visa on arrival in a matter of minutes. I had a day in Jakarta before Eric would join me again after his short trip to Vietnam and I tried to get some practical stuff sorted out and get a quick impression of this weird city. When travelling in Indonesia you hear a lot about how awful the bigger cities like Medan, Surabaya and Jakarta are so I ... read more

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference From "The road not taken" by Robert Frost" In better Indonesian hotels you can find decent beds, but the protective plastic on the cushioned headboards is never removed which of course will keep them protected forever but they are nasty to touch and their colors will always remain dimmed. Well, this entry is all about peeling off the plastic and getting a few scratches along the way. It is going to be a very long post though, so be warned. Into the Gayo Highlands Sylvia, Eric and I left Pulau Weh with some overly ambitious plans of either buying a minibus or renting one with a driver, but Banda Aceh proved quite confusing with ... read more

Finally here Hi. It has taken a bit longer to find time to post than I had thought. The life of a student diver is actually quite busy. A couple of dives a day and then study, study, study the rest of the time. But I'm not complaining as you will see. Getting here The trip down here was uneventful apart from massive delays on the flights. In Amsterdam they found a problem in one of the engines and we sat in the plane and waited for more than four hours. All in all I sat in that bloody seat for more than almost 18 hours. New record. I had a full day in Kuala Lumpur and tried to get a visa, but Indonesian bureaucracy is annoyingly inconsistent and everything I had read beforehand proved not ... read more