As soon as we topped up with fuel, we departed and our 7 day voyage to West Papua was underway. Our journey was generally moving in the direction of ENE of Bali, with many islands to zig zag around along the way. Bali is just one of nearly 13,500 islands in Indonesia, and between all of those islands are around 240 million residents. Most of the islands are quite populated, even if you've never heard of them. Most are quite poor as well. We went by countless islands where there were hardly even any sort of lights lit at night, but there were definitely a lot people there, kickin' it old school. Our trip brought us through a whole side of the world that is completely new to me. The way that I saw it as ... read more

In a perfect world, as an alternative to having to take an Intro to Negotiating course in college, professors should be able to send their students to Indonesia, where everything is negotiable. It's a lot of fun negotiating with the guys here for anything--I haggle for everything now, just because I get a kick out of it. It's not rude or unusual--it's just the way it is here. It's normal. The conditions for negotiating here are quite favorable, as there is usually someone else selling the same thing somewhere nearby for around the same price. One of the first things they teach you in negotiating is never accept the first offer. The people I've negotiated with here have learned this lesson as well, but they use it in the wrong way--for example, if they tell you ... read more

Our last week in Singapore coincided with the Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 race, which is raced through the city streets on a circuit that runs through downtown, at night. The city really came 'alive' that whole week, and it was a lot of fun being out and about. One of the nights me and one of the guys went to this club located in an old power station, to check out the scene for the F1 weekend. The place was packed, but the one thing we noticed was that we were the only white people there. It's not like I haven't been in that situation before, but this scene was different because it was not hostile in the slightest bit. It was hilarious. It was what I imagine an MIT freshman frat house party would ... read more

1st thought? SIngapore is awesome. The architecture is mind-blowing, the streets are clean, the landscape incredibly manicured, everything is organized, everything is monitored.........who knew that a dictatorship could be so nice? Singapore is a funny place. From where I stand right now, I can look one way and be facing a billion dollar mixed-use residential/hotel/marina project, and I can look the other way and see a sea full of gigantic ships, with a massive oil refinery with gigantic smoke stacks with flames coming out of them as their backdrop. Everything in SIngapore seems to be over the top--every high rise building has an extravagant lobby. Every corner seems to have some sort of sculpture or water feature that would be a big deal in another city. Everything seems to be trying to out-do everything else. I've ... read more

Our first stop was in Kota Kinabalu, locally known as 'KK'. This is a popular city in the region, although it did not really have the feeling of a traditional city. We were docked in a nice marina at a big resort that was less than 10 mins from town by cab. The local currency is the 'ringgit', and it has the feeling of Monopoly money. Many things were cheap in KK. A cab ride into town was $4. An hour massage was $15. You could get your hair cut by a trainee for $2.....I had an experienced one do it for $6. We were in KK for couple of weeks, but did not have a lot of time off, except in the evenings. I made the most of it by check out the local shopping ... read more