http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/travlinfool/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from travlinfool en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:33:50 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:33:50 +0000 When my brother and I were younger much younger still in the care of our parents we used to play card and board games quite a bit. My brother though always quite good at said games had a nasty problem while we played. He cheated. He was always looking at my cards. He had what he liked to refer to as.....creeping eyeball disease. It's a term I thought hilarious then and still find it rather am http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Maluku/Banda-Islands/blog-456407.html In the first week of June 2009 I arrived after a 37 hour journey to Makassar in southern Sulawesi by a massive overloaded Pelni ship. Thousands of people piled off pushing and shoving their way each one needing to be the first one down the narrow stairway onto the concrete pier below. I couchsurfed with a wonderful and kind guy in town and the night I chose to do so I was invited to a fancy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Tana-Toraja/blog-456401.html In a land where ripping off the tourist often seems to be a national pastime for many touts transport personnel restaurant and accommodations catering to westerners it sure was nice to find a refreshing change of pace. I stumbled upon Edwin and his L'Avalon barcafeaccomodations one day while simply meandering the streets of Kupang West Timor having already been in town three nights. His hi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/East-Timor/Dili/blog-444230.html The Pelni ship is an amazing mode of transport. Germanmade and the biggest ship I have ever been on in my life I've never been on a cruise but if some of you have you can then imagine the size of this monstrosity these beasts haul thousands of passengers every day of the year from island to island from Sumatra and Java Kalimantan and all the way east to Maluku and Papua and many smaller i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/blog-438749.html Ok let's see I left off while I was exploring Flores a truly spectacular volcanic island in Indonesia. So much has happened since then I don't even know where to begin. Oh for those of you who are new to my email blast first off welcome second of all to catch up and keep abreast of my travels often quite delayed however and I do apologize for that please read and sign up to receive http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/blog-438747.html After the 4 day4 night boat trip from Lombok to Flores I took a couple days to relax in Labuanbajo the town on the western end of Flores and do a couple of dives a few hours from shore. The diving officially in Komodo National Park is world class stunning colorful with lots of macro that's the tiny stuff and big palegics. Dived with sharks turtles massive Napolene Wrasse maybe 2 mete http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Flores/Moni/blog-405722.html I took my first live aboard a few weeks ago though not a dive live aboard and was that ever worth the money In reality it was pennies but when traveling on a tight budget it was more than I would have normally spent in that amount of time 4 days 4 nights but worth every moment. I had taken half a week to relax and visit with some local friends in Mataram Lombok when a friend of a guy ru http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Komodo/blog-398249.html Say what you must be thinking about now That subject line may make no sense whatsoever right now but in actuality it does you will just have to read further in order to unravel the meaning.Today the topic is about ladybugs Spiderman and the turning of a knob 69 times. More specifically the rooms in which I have stayed the past few weeks.I started off the Indonesian portion of my latest http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Lombok/Mataram/blog-393495.html Even though I have been traveling on my roundtheworld trip now for nearly 29 12 months with no real end in sight it feels as if I have just started up once again. The Hands On deployments tend to do this to me. I settle in one place for 45 months working in the community six days a week and getting to know the locals as well as my fellow international volunteers. It's a nice change from cons http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Yogyakarta/blog-388940.html Wow. I had forgotten what a time warp I live in when volunteering for Hands On Disaster Response. I left Bangladesh when the project completed last April and continued traveling throughout India and South East Asia before the call to duty came again in mid Sept to help out the people in Gonaives Haiti. 4 hurricanes and tropical storms within a few weeks in late August to early September ravage http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Haiti/blog-360004.html ..Just so we're all on the same page I left Thailand on the 5th of October and popped in to California for a week on my way to Haiti in the Western Caribbean. I visited with family and friends many whom I have not seen since I started off on my venture two years ago almost to the day. The week flew by with hardly a moment to breathe. All in all it was a fantastic stopover and now I am here in http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-360001.html Rested relaxed armed and ready to tackle a new country with only a 6.6 KG laptop bag minus the laptop I left it at a friend's house in Thailand I left the lights of north Bangkok behind jumped on a local bus and for less than a dollar I headed for the Suvarnabhumi pronounced like Suewanahboom believe it or not International Airport traveling partner in tow. With 7 12 hours until http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/blog-359998.html LIFE OF PAIOh. Where to begin. The Life of Pai. Ah yes. Well after flying from India into Thailand and forfeiting my onward ticket to Macau for two days later the HODR China deployment at this time was not looking promising so my friend Tim and I made the decision to nix heading there and running the risk of not being able to get Chinese visas we headed into Bangkok to the infamous backpack http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-314211.html In case you may have missed an email blast from my traveling or joined in after I left my home state I wanted y'all to know I now have a blog site. I started it in India and have finally completed it. Well okay it's nowhere near complete but it does have all the text emails I have sent out in the past year and 10 months almost since I started out on this verylongtriparoundtheworld.httpww http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Rai/blog-314207.html Hi all blast number two from the Philippines Ok I just read the 30 day report from our Operations Director Marc Young and everything I was going to write about is up on the website at www.hodr.org so I encourage all of you to please go to the website and read what we have been doing for the well last three or four weeks Tomorrow marks my third week here and boy have we been keeping busy. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Legaspi/blog-306953.html Good dayI keep forgetting how involved and timeconsuming it is to do disaster relief work. It's physically and mentally tiring but highly addicting at the same time I just got to the Philippines four days ago after a glorious week in Chiang Mai. In northern Thailand the weather was ideally cool and quite refreshing coming from the more hot and humid days on the southern Thai islands as well http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Legaspi/blog-306951.html HAPPY NEW YEARS FROM NORTHERN THAILAND LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN WEHAVE ONLY 5 12 HOURS LEFT UNTIL MIDNIGHT AND MY FRIENDS NATALIE ANDDALE AND I ARE GOING TO TRY AND STAY UP TO WATCH THE FESTIVEFIREWORKS. I KNOW WE'RE SUCH PARTY ANIMALS EH There are quite a number of people here for New Years in the growingcity of Chiang Mai. Nat and I have been here since the 27th ofDecember and still ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-306949.html HI and Happy Holidays from the MalaysiaThailand borderFirst off so you all know the Philippines Relief Project with HandsOn Disaster Response has been put on hold for awhile until detailswith the Philippines officials and housing issues can be settled. Thissaid I don't know when I will get there but plan on being availableas soon as I hear something a bit more concrete. Thank you to all o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Kedah-and-Perlis/Pulau-Langkawi/blog-306947.html Ok THIS is the shortest email blast yet I haven't even thought of what I want to say but first off wanted to say I am truely sorry for not writing sooner except of course to reply individually to you all wonderful caring individuals.... I will be away from internet access for about 4 days and with the amazing amount of response and inquiries I have received I figured I should let everyone http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-306944.html Just to let everyone know I am alive and doing well despite theTyphoon Durian being one country away. It hit hard in the Philippinesjust last week with subsequent mudslides burying entire villageshit in southern Vietnam a few days ago and from what I hear on thenews is heading towards the Gulf of Thailand.I am in the middle of monsoon season here on Borneo East Malaysia.There are rains eve http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-306940.html