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Published: April 16th 2009
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About a month has passed since I wrote last, and I have very little to report. Therefore, this will be more of a brief update than a blog on any topic...
After meditation, I spent 2 days in Jakarta with some folks I'd met at Dhamma Java. All lived there except for the only other westerner to finish the course, and she was based in Ubud on Bali. She had made a pretty good case for the place, so I got a plane ticket to Bali and ended up spending 10+ days in Ubud. It was a very relaxing place, with nice cheap accommodation. There were a number of westerners there, mostly involved in some kind of business selling arts/crafts abroad. I mostly went biking around the beautiful surroundings, started looking for a job (let me know if you hear anything!), ate good food, and occasionally walked some dogs from the animal shelter. I also got to witness no less than 3 holidays (the Balinese Hindu have some beautiful ceremonies, but it is staggering the percentage of their income that goes towards these). Galungan was marked by the hoisting of ornately decorated bamboo poles, Nyepi Day was a day of
silence where you are nobody leaves their home (I quietly snuck out through a rice field to a hotel with a pool for the day), and Kuningan had a special ritual. Throughout the holiday period, Balinese offer all kinds of things to the many spirits and gods they worship including expensive apples from Washington State (longtime favorite of the spirits).
I then went to Kuta, which is the main tourist center and also the city where the 2 Bali bombings had occurred. Long days spent surfing and late nights...enjoyed it much more than expected. I was almost like someone on a real holiday, if not for a short while.
Since my Indonesian visa was going to expire, I got a flight to Singapore, and caught a train heading into Malaysia that evening. I'd gotten a sleeper car, and was to arrive at Gemas at 2am (not the most ideal schedule, but I didn't want to go to Kuala Lumpur). Though I'd asked the guy to wake me when we got to Gemas, I was pretty certain when I woke at 4:15am that I'd missed my stop. Luckily, we happened to be stopped at the time, so half asleep,
I hauled my bag out to the deserted platform and sat dazed for an hour or so waiting for the ticket window to open. Eventually I got a ticket onward to the Thailand border, which left about 6am. After 13 hours on a less than luxurious train (having been on the move, more or less non-stop, since the morning the day before as well), I was happy to get a room for the evening. I ended up spending 2 days in Kota Bharu, before crossing into Thailand and taking a train to Hat Yai. This whole region is where there is often civil unrest related to the Muslim population wanting independence from Thailand. I noticed nothing unusual, apart from the AK toting army guys strolling up and down the aisles, but this kind of sight isn't that uncommon in Thailand on the whole.
From Hat Yai I headed to the Andaman Coast to catch a ferry to Ko Tarutao (the largest island in Tarutao Nat'l Park, and the location of Survivor Thailand...I didn't know there was a Survivor Thailand). I camped 2 nights here and rode a bike around on the scant paved and dirt roads crossing through the
jungle. I saw lots of macaques, dusky langurs, oriental pied hornbills, water monitors (and myriad other smaller lizards), and a reticulated python (world's largest snake?).
I took a boat to Ko Adang, also in the park for 2 more nights in a tent. Plenty of snorkeling to do and vacationing Thais to watch (I think this place is usually empty, but Thailand's New Year had begun and many people get away for the holiday). I'd met a girl from the town most like Lake Wobegon, and she had turned me on to another park near the border, which was perfect for me because I needed to get another 15 day stamp at a border so I'd be legal until I leave.
So I headed to Satun and went in to Thaleban Nat'l Park. Some stunning scenery and more of the same kind of wildlife I'd seen in Tarutao. Again got on a bike and explored before spending the night in a shabby bungalow on a lake. The next morning I hitched a ride to the border (only a few km) and was back in Malaysia. Since bus and taxi service are rare in this outpost, I'd hoped to
hitch a ride on the other side to a town with a train, but this was not as easy (I can understand that it looks a bit sketchy to pick up a foreigner just your side of the border, so I wasn't to miffed about it). I eventually got a ride to Padang Besar and booked an overnight train ticket to Bangkok. I arrived a day after the protests had been diffused and in time for the last day of Songkran (Thai New Years)...perfect timing. Songkran is celebrated by crowds in the streets armed with super-soakers and water flinging devices soaking everyone. You also get a bucket with some talc mud mixture that you get to wipe on passerbyers. There is actually a lot more meaning to this Thai Buddhist festival, but having only arrived for the tail end, I just enjoyed the fun and the wet. Note: the photo is not mine because my camera would have been ruined.
I'll be in Bangkok until the 28th of April, and then back to Peoria...see some of you then!
Cheers,
Kevin
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