It occurred to me that this Halloween will be the last of its kind. For the past several years there has been a constant question mark about what to do for Halloween. Should we dress up and go to a party? Should we stay home and hand out candy to hapless children brave enough to venture towards our house? Maybe instead we should just scamper off into the darkness and be devils. That's this year. Next year though we will have a built-in reason to celebrate holidays in a different way. Granted the tiny little person we bring with us won't be capable of saying 'Trick or Treat', but I'm hoping that her inevitable cuteness dressed as something easily recognizable and yet vaguely ironic will prompt people to dish out candy with abandon.
Halloween is one of the few American holidays that really attempts to twist reality a bit. It's meant to be fun and feel just a little bit dangerous. For a kid it's a bit like a scary movie coming to life. Dress up as something else and go out in the world and ask for sugar door to door. Who knows if you're going to make it back in one piece or more importantly, who knows how many boxes of raisins you're going to get stuck with. I thought my days of dressing up and asking for candy were behind me, but now there is a chance to make a comeback! As an adult if you dress up and go trick or treating it's very likely that you're going to get yourself arrested or at least not given a full share of candy because everyone knows you have the ability to just go out and buy the candy yourself. As an adult if you dress up and go trick or treating in a combined costume with your child then at the very least you'll be entitled to 25% of said candy earnings throughout the evening in question.
I think the part that will be most interesting to me is trying to see the world through the eyes of someone who doesn't have my level of experience. I don't pretend to understand all the various aspects of this world and probably know only enough to be dangerous. I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm also not the dumbest. That said, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on some of the basics about what can exist and what can't. A child doesn't know that the goblin attempting to ensnare that hot girl in a bikini (what on Earth are they watching?) isn't real and is based on someone's imagination. The lines of reality and fiction are still being formed. What was a normal street in the morning is now something sinister in the evening because Halloween blurs the lines of reality ever so slightly. Someone changed the rules for one night. Never mind the fact that as parents we constantly try and warn our children about the dangers of strangers. Then on one night we say it's OK to not only interact with strangers, but to go house to house asking people we don't know for candy. It's the only holiday we celebrate where it's expected that you wander through your neighborhood relying on the good nature of your neighbors. The other major holidays are more focused on turning towards the people you already know and celebrating the season. For a child it's probably a strange paradigm that really speaks to the way we as a society has separated ourselves from each other. Or it's about the candy. Yeah it's probably about the candy.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
On the Unreliable Narration of Our Minds
Where do our memories go when we're not remembering them? Somewhere within our minds are all these experiences and feelings that have occurred throughout our lives. We don't know how they get put there or how we get them out when we want them. Our very perception of reality is being monitored by a system we don't fully understand and have very little control over.
There have been several times in the last few years where someone I grew up with would reminisce with me about our shared past and I have no memory of the event. I have to take their word for it that it happened. And even more important, that it happened the way they remember it. It's a strange thing to have pieces of my own past that others remember and I don't. Granted there are whole chunks of my early childhood that I can't remember because I was way too young to retain those memories. Both of my parents may not remember those events either. Logically, I know that the event must have happened, but if something happens and no one can remember it, how do you know what is real? Maybe it falls into that same category as the soundless tree in the woods. What if I remember something one way and someone else remembers it differently? What is the truth? Is there a singular truth when it comes to memory? If I can't remember something then I have to rely on someone else's memory to tell me what happened and that's a tricky thing when we already know that memory can't be trusted, even when it bothers to show up.
Have you ever been reminded of something you hadn't thought of in a very long time? It could have been years since you heard a song or saw a person or thought of that birthday party where the clown caught on fire. Suddenly the memory comes flooding back to the forefront of your mind. Where did it come from? How do I know what I'm remembering is the 'real' event and not some cobbled together amalgamation of memory and imagination? It's very weird to think that today may not be remembered very well a year from now. Even though this moment now is so clear in your mind, we seem to have very little control over what items make it into our long term memory. How much of our experience just fades away into nothing?
Today's world may be different because we as a society are so much more focused on capturing the moment, even if the moment is us eating a bacon taco with our friends on a random Tuesday evening. I'm not saying selfies and other forms of self-narration are bad. It's just that I've already covered how things like Facebook are a highlight reel of your life events. It's not the real record of truth, even though the outside world may think you lead an amazing life because you spent three months traveling the world and have all these great pictures standing next to things you see in movies. No one else gets to remember all the non-picture-worthy moments except us.
When I lived alone it became easy to assume that my narration was the right one. There wasn't anyone around to tell me differently. You start to believe everything you think, which may not always be what really happened. Now that I live with someone, there is a constant second observer to the events. Granted there are many times where we both experience something and immediately disagree on what actually happened, which really causes one to question if the person they're talking to is in fact crazy. The even scary part is, what if they're not and it's you who just went through something and perceived it completely out of whack with reality? Having a partner with you is both a blessing and a curse because you're often forced to immediately look back at something that happened, but through different eyes. Does this second person change the memory that would have been formed? Are you both now remembering variations on single event? Given enough time how will you know if your version is even close to what happened?
There have been several times in the last few years where someone I grew up with would reminisce with me about our shared past and I have no memory of the event. I have to take their word for it that it happened. And even more important, that it happened the way they remember it. It's a strange thing to have pieces of my own past that others remember and I don't. Granted there are whole chunks of my early childhood that I can't remember because I was way too young to retain those memories. Both of my parents may not remember those events either. Logically, I know that the event must have happened, but if something happens and no one can remember it, how do you know what is real? Maybe it falls into that same category as the soundless tree in the woods. What if I remember something one way and someone else remembers it differently? What is the truth? Is there a singular truth when it comes to memory? If I can't remember something then I have to rely on someone else's memory to tell me what happened and that's a tricky thing when we already know that memory can't be trusted, even when it bothers to show up.
Have you ever been reminded of something you hadn't thought of in a very long time? It could have been years since you heard a song or saw a person or thought of that birthday party where the clown caught on fire. Suddenly the memory comes flooding back to the forefront of your mind. Where did it come from? How do I know what I'm remembering is the 'real' event and not some cobbled together amalgamation of memory and imagination? It's very weird to think that today may not be remembered very well a year from now. Even though this moment now is so clear in your mind, we seem to have very little control over what items make it into our long term memory. How much of our experience just fades away into nothing?
Today's world may be different because we as a society are so much more focused on capturing the moment, even if the moment is us eating a bacon taco with our friends on a random Tuesday evening. I'm not saying selfies and other forms of self-narration are bad. It's just that I've already covered how things like Facebook are a highlight reel of your life events. It's not the real record of truth, even though the outside world may think you lead an amazing life because you spent three months traveling the world and have all these great pictures standing next to things you see in movies. No one else gets to remember all the non-picture-worthy moments except us.
When I lived alone it became easy to assume that my narration was the right one. There wasn't anyone around to tell me differently. You start to believe everything you think, which may not always be what really happened. Now that I live with someone, there is a constant second observer to the events. Granted there are many times where we both experience something and immediately disagree on what actually happened, which really causes one to question if the person they're talking to is in fact crazy. The even scary part is, what if they're not and it's you who just went through something and perceived it completely out of whack with reality? Having a partner with you is both a blessing and a curse because you're often forced to immediately look back at something that happened, but through different eyes. Does this second person change the memory that would have been formed? Are you both now remembering variations on single event? Given enough time how will you know if your version is even close to what happened?
Thursday, September 24, 2015
On Groundhog Day
One of my first real jobs in high school was working at a video store. I was the runner, which meant that I would take the newly returned movies and place them back on the shelves. I ended up having a lot of downtime while still technically being at work. One of the perks of working there was that we were able to watch movies the whole time. Well not so much watch them as exist in the same general area as they were playing. Still given a long enough timeline you were bound to see one of the movies in its entirety. It could just happen over the course of a week. Since this was a family place there were only so many movies you could really play without offending someone. One of these movies was Groundhog Day, which may be close to a perfect movie and one of the last Bill Murray movies where he was still in 'original' Murray mode, like he was in Ghostbusters and Scrooged.
This is a movie that is a bit surreal to watch in bits and pieces because you may not always know where he is at any given point since so many of the repeated scenes have only slight differences. Over the years though I've seen this movie countless times and it's one that if it comes on I'll probably be fine watching it, even if I catch it somewhere in the middle. Being the movie nerd that I am I started to really think about some of the implications of what's going on in this movie. Sure I could take the movie at face value, but that'd make for a really short post and that's now how I think so let's get started.
First off, either Phil Connors is an incredibly slow learner or the universe is mercilessly cruel. It took him several years to make it through that one day. Years to learn all the things that needed to be done right so that he'd be the kind of man that Rita would want. There has been a lot of speculation on exactly how much time passed since he started repeating the day, but a safe assumption is that it's more than ten years and likely less than fifty. Think about all the things that happen in a single day and he was somehow required to do them in a specific way. Plus he's still just a person so he may not remember what happened three and a half years ago when he tried this one thing. He had no way of knowing which combination of deeds and actions would lead him out of the maze that had become February 2nd. It was a lot of trial and error, which we saw as he kept behaving as his old self.
That brings me to the next thing. It's implied at the end that Phil has finally become a better person and saw people as being generally good if you give them a chance. He realizes that maybe Punskatanee isn't such a bad place. We assume that he's escaped the repetition that was Groundhog Day and will live the rest of his non-repeating days with Rita. This is all very wonderful for the sake of a two hour movie. What if though the next morning when he wakes up he's now trapped in February 3rd and has to go through that day over and over until he figures out how to move onto the next day. Wouldn't this be the equivalent of being trapped in Hell?
Speaking of which, if it happened to Phil, could it happen to other people? I mean are they living in a universe where bad people (or at least people who behave like jerks) are punished by having to relive a day over and over again until they become a better person? What's the criteria for this? Is it just mean weathermen or would say the African warlord, who is slaughtering children be on the list as well? Maybe it's just happening in that tiny town, but would that mean Phil is the only one to experience it, or just the first? Plus there doesn't seem to be any real rules as to what's the 'correct' way to proceed through a day. We saw at the end Phil helped a ton of people in a single day and was loved by anyone who came across him. That would mean though before the last day he saved the guy from choking and changed the tire of the old ladies. Alone those things weren't enough for him to escape, but together they added up to enough through some invisible tally system that Phil didn't know about until he woke up.
And while we're on the subject of him waking up, what's is happening to all those other realities that Phil keeps resetting? Those are people with lives and souls and with only one exception, that world seems to cease to exist once Phil kills himself. Are those worlds continuing on with all the mistakes that Phil made? Is the world where Phil stole the groundhog and drove it and himself off a cliff into a fiery explosion still going on, trying to make sense of what just happened? What are those people's lives like in the aftermath of that? It seems either several lives were traumatized for the sake of teaching one jerk a lesson on humanity or they were snuffed out once Phil died. Either one is kind of terrible. If those realities continue on, what happened to the countless ones where Phil didn't kill himself? Are they just floating out there, wondering what happened to him now that he's vanished after going to sleep?
Finally, in this world or worlds, are there any people with free will? Phil had to do everything right to progress to the next day. He was beaten down until he finally submitted to how the Universe told him that a day was supposed to happen. If this is happening to other people then it's likely that you have people who aren't like Phil, in that they learned something, but rather they finally figured out what was necessary to get to the next day or were broke to the point that they just gave in to whatever the whims of the Universe dictated at that moment. Never mind the poor souls who just couldn't get their day right, no matter how many times they tried. They're off living the same day over and over for all of eternity.
In the end Phil may have been forced to become a better person. It was a valuable lesson I'm sure. One that took him possibly decades to learn. He's now like someone who was just released from prison. He only knows the routine of Groundhog Day. How is he going to cope with living in a reality where he doesn't know exactly what's going to happen next? Plus he's mentally aged by at least ten years, maybe more. That will likely have shifted his perspective quite a lot. Granted the new and improved Phil Connors may now see the world entirely differently and be thankful for his extended time trapped in a single day. Betterment through attrition is still betterment right?
This is a movie that is a bit surreal to watch in bits and pieces because you may not always know where he is at any given point since so many of the repeated scenes have only slight differences. Over the years though I've seen this movie countless times and it's one that if it comes on I'll probably be fine watching it, even if I catch it somewhere in the middle. Being the movie nerd that I am I started to really think about some of the implications of what's going on in this movie. Sure I could take the movie at face value, but that'd make for a really short post and that's now how I think so let's get started.
First off, either Phil Connors is an incredibly slow learner or the universe is mercilessly cruel. It took him several years to make it through that one day. Years to learn all the things that needed to be done right so that he'd be the kind of man that Rita would want. There has been a lot of speculation on exactly how much time passed since he started repeating the day, but a safe assumption is that it's more than ten years and likely less than fifty. Think about all the things that happen in a single day and he was somehow required to do them in a specific way. Plus he's still just a person so he may not remember what happened three and a half years ago when he tried this one thing. He had no way of knowing which combination of deeds and actions would lead him out of the maze that had become February 2nd. It was a lot of trial and error, which we saw as he kept behaving as his old self.
That brings me to the next thing. It's implied at the end that Phil has finally become a better person and saw people as being generally good if you give them a chance. He realizes that maybe Punskatanee isn't such a bad place. We assume that he's escaped the repetition that was Groundhog Day and will live the rest of his non-repeating days with Rita. This is all very wonderful for the sake of a two hour movie. What if though the next morning when he wakes up he's now trapped in February 3rd and has to go through that day over and over until he figures out how to move onto the next day. Wouldn't this be the equivalent of being trapped in Hell?
Speaking of which, if it happened to Phil, could it happen to other people? I mean are they living in a universe where bad people (or at least people who behave like jerks) are punished by having to relive a day over and over again until they become a better person? What's the criteria for this? Is it just mean weathermen or would say the African warlord, who is slaughtering children be on the list as well? Maybe it's just happening in that tiny town, but would that mean Phil is the only one to experience it, or just the first? Plus there doesn't seem to be any real rules as to what's the 'correct' way to proceed through a day. We saw at the end Phil helped a ton of people in a single day and was loved by anyone who came across him. That would mean though before the last day he saved the guy from choking and changed the tire of the old ladies. Alone those things weren't enough for him to escape, but together they added up to enough through some invisible tally system that Phil didn't know about until he woke up.
And while we're on the subject of him waking up, what's is happening to all those other realities that Phil keeps resetting? Those are people with lives and souls and with only one exception, that world seems to cease to exist once Phil kills himself. Are those worlds continuing on with all the mistakes that Phil made? Is the world where Phil stole the groundhog and drove it and himself off a cliff into a fiery explosion still going on, trying to make sense of what just happened? What are those people's lives like in the aftermath of that? It seems either several lives were traumatized for the sake of teaching one jerk a lesson on humanity or they were snuffed out once Phil died. Either one is kind of terrible. If those realities continue on, what happened to the countless ones where Phil didn't kill himself? Are they just floating out there, wondering what happened to him now that he's vanished after going to sleep?
Finally, in this world or worlds, are there any people with free will? Phil had to do everything right to progress to the next day. He was beaten down until he finally submitted to how the Universe told him that a day was supposed to happen. If this is happening to other people then it's likely that you have people who aren't like Phil, in that they learned something, but rather they finally figured out what was necessary to get to the next day or were broke to the point that they just gave in to whatever the whims of the Universe dictated at that moment. Never mind the poor souls who just couldn't get their day right, no matter how many times they tried. They're off living the same day over and over for all of eternity.
In the end Phil may have been forced to become a better person. It was a valuable lesson I'm sure. One that took him possibly decades to learn. He's now like someone who was just released from prison. He only knows the routine of Groundhog Day. How is he going to cope with living in a reality where he doesn't know exactly what's going to happen next? Plus he's mentally aged by at least ten years, maybe more. That will likely have shifted his perspective quite a lot. Granted the new and improved Phil Connors may now see the world entirely differently and be thankful for his extended time trapped in a single day. Betterment through attrition is still betterment right?
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
On the Center of the Universe
After over a year of planning we were able to come together and make our relationship 'official'. Mostly it was a chance to have all of our friends and family around us to share in a ceremony that shows our commitment to each other and our future together. The entire time we were planning I kept thinking to myself that I didn't want to put anyone out. I didn't want to mess with their Labor Day plans. It is the last holiday of the summer and that can be important. Much more important than me. We sent out the invites and I kept asking myself if I was being too presumptuous to ask people to spend nearly three days hanging out with me. There were moments when I thought, if no one shows up I wouldn't really blame them. I mean I'm just me.
Not all that long ago I used to strive to keep my various worlds separated from each other. I'm not sure why I did that. Mostly I think it was because I wanted to separate myself. I could be this way with one person because that's how they knew me. With someone else I could be somewhat different. There was also that fear that this aspect would conflict with that aspect and it would call into question if one of them should go. This weekend all of my worlds collided with each other in a fantastic explosion. Friends and family from past and present and all over the country came to a single place at the same time. I was amazed at the people who took the time to come and spend a weekend with me. Had I somehow tricked them into making Labor Day weekend all about me?
The brothers who I grew up with as my second family. My lunatic best friend from college. The quiet man with a huge heart, who made his home my home. The one who started as a voice over the internet has become a trusted friend. Someone who is years younger than me, but astounds me with his integrity every time we speak. The most recent friend, who's joy for life constantly drives me to look at things in new and different ways. A baby brother, who has grown up to be such an amazing man that I find myself looking up to him. Having any one of these people in my life would make me a lucky man. To have all of them with me for one of the biggest events of my life makes me incredibly blessed in a way that I didn't think I deserved.
Saying 'thank you' or 'I love you' didn't seem like enough. It's not like how it is in movies when the music swells or the moment goes into slow motion so you know that it's important. Instead all the things I wanted to say in the moment kept getting drowned out by those silly emotions that kept smashing through. I only hope that my bumbling muttering somehow got the message across.
When I was little I thought the world revolved around me. Most little kids think this because they have no concept of their place in such a large place. As I got older I started to realize that I was not, in fact, the center of the universe. I was only the center of mine. Over the weekend that changed for me. The center is now someone else, with a tiny additional center coming soon to a universe near you! I never thought I'd find something more important than myself to focus on, but now that she's here, I wonder what was I thinking all this time up until now. I'm just glad everyone got to see my universe realign itself to how it was always meant to be.
Not all that long ago I used to strive to keep my various worlds separated from each other. I'm not sure why I did that. Mostly I think it was because I wanted to separate myself. I could be this way with one person because that's how they knew me. With someone else I could be somewhat different. There was also that fear that this aspect would conflict with that aspect and it would call into question if one of them should go. This weekend all of my worlds collided with each other in a fantastic explosion. Friends and family from past and present and all over the country came to a single place at the same time. I was amazed at the people who took the time to come and spend a weekend with me. Had I somehow tricked them into making Labor Day weekend all about me?
The brothers who I grew up with as my second family. My lunatic best friend from college. The quiet man with a huge heart, who made his home my home. The one who started as a voice over the internet has become a trusted friend. Someone who is years younger than me, but astounds me with his integrity every time we speak. The most recent friend, who's joy for life constantly drives me to look at things in new and different ways. A baby brother, who has grown up to be such an amazing man that I find myself looking up to him. Having any one of these people in my life would make me a lucky man. To have all of them with me for one of the biggest events of my life makes me incredibly blessed in a way that I didn't think I deserved.
Saying 'thank you' or 'I love you' didn't seem like enough. It's not like how it is in movies when the music swells or the moment goes into slow motion so you know that it's important. Instead all the things I wanted to say in the moment kept getting drowned out by those silly emotions that kept smashing through. I only hope that my bumbling muttering somehow got the message across.
When I was little I thought the world revolved around me. Most little kids think this because they have no concept of their place in such a large place. As I got older I started to realize that I was not, in fact, the center of the universe. I was only the center of mine. Over the weekend that changed for me. The center is now someone else, with a tiny additional center coming soon to a universe near you! I never thought I'd find something more important than myself to focus on, but now that she's here, I wonder what was I thinking all this time up until now. I'm just glad everyone got to see my universe realign itself to how it was always meant to be.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
On Fallen Heroes
When I was very little I loved Picture Pages. They were lots of fun with my crayons and my pencils. I also loved watching Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. I was known to eat a pudding pop or two in my time. Now that we know what we know about the man, it makes me wonder if a large portion of my childhood has been tainted. Sure his personal life never encroached on any of the things I saw while growing up, but now I know that for all of my life I was laughing and learning with a serial rapist. That kind of revelation makes one wonder if we're looking up to the wrong people. And even worse for me is that it makes me more cynical. Now when I see someone doing something wonderful or heroic there is a small scratch of a voice in the back of my mind that asks 'What horrible secret are they hiding?' It doesn't help that we can't go very long without some famous person or hero to many making it onto the news and letting us down. A man who overcame cancer and won the Tour de France several times becoming an inspiration for millions, showing that with hard work and determination you could kick cancer in the balls. Except that we find out it was hard work, determination, and literally swapping his blood out while aggressively attacking anyone who dared question if he ever cheated.
There were plenty of people who felt some strange bit of satisfaction when that story came to light. Finally that man who seemed super human in his physical ability was brought back down to our level. It seems as though there are people who secretly want heroes to fail so that they don't feel as small compared to them, but wouldn't wanting that make them both petty and small? I see the flip side though and wonder how it affects the people who look up to these heroes. Imagine having someone you look to for inspiration turn out to be something of a monster. Does that mean you weren't smart enough to see it? Were you a fool for ever having hope in someone else? Maybe it means we're looking up to the wrong people. Or maybe we're putting too much onto a single person because in the end, they are just people. It could be that the person started out wanting to do and be good, but eventually the pressure to constantly serve as a hero to the masses meant pushing to win at any cost, including ruining other people's lives. There was a specific story that had to be maintained. You know, for the greater good. And of course money.
It could be that the person in question wasn't always a terrifying monster. They began as anyone else, with a sense of right and wrong that was mostly in tact. Then as time went on they started to believe their own hype and listened to all those people saying how great they were and how there weren't limits for a person like them. The money and the fame warping all semblance of a moral compass. I mean was the Subway guy always into exploiting children or did that come because he had the money and means to do what he wanted because no one expected him to be anything other than a hero? Being given endless amount of praise for simply being you probably messes with anyone's morals because there isn't any context for what's not acceptable. Look at that small Asian nation, lead by a fat little man who is so delusional with power that he has decided to great his own time zone. That's the epitome of corrupted by power.
We have this constant need for things to be fair. It's a concept we learn at a very young age. Share your toys. Make sure everyone gets a turn. Don't take more than your fair share. When someone does something wrong there is supposed to be justice that keeps things fair. Strangely enough though we also want that same sense of fairness for people who seem to be 'better' than us or have more than us. Never mind the circumstances that got the rich or famous person to their place in the world. I want that too. How come they get to have it and I don't? Thoughts like that lead back to that secret want. That hope that one day we'll get to watch them fall. That they deserve to be knocked down because they had so much and we didn't. Is it part of our nature to feel this way? To want to make sure that everyone is humbled enough that no one feels like they're lesser than someone else?
Then again maybe we should stop treating athletes and celebrities as though they're heroes. Sure that guy is an incredible golfer, but being good at one thing shouldn't necessarily mean that we look to them as an inspiration for life. It could by why fictional heroes are so popular right now. We need someone to look up to. Someone who won't let us down because the story won't allow it. There is very little chance we're going to find out that Han Solo was actually a child molester or that Captain America was a white supremacist. How come it's not doctors or scientists or people pushing for social improvements in quality that are being hoisted up as heroes? Maybe the real heroes are the ones who are left alone to do the actual good work and not be corrupted by the very people who look up to them.
There were plenty of people who felt some strange bit of satisfaction when that story came to light. Finally that man who seemed super human in his physical ability was brought back down to our level. It seems as though there are people who secretly want heroes to fail so that they don't feel as small compared to them, but wouldn't wanting that make them both petty and small? I see the flip side though and wonder how it affects the people who look up to these heroes. Imagine having someone you look to for inspiration turn out to be something of a monster. Does that mean you weren't smart enough to see it? Were you a fool for ever having hope in someone else? Maybe it means we're looking up to the wrong people. Or maybe we're putting too much onto a single person because in the end, they are just people. It could be that the person started out wanting to do and be good, but eventually the pressure to constantly serve as a hero to the masses meant pushing to win at any cost, including ruining other people's lives. There was a specific story that had to be maintained. You know, for the greater good. And of course money.
It could be that the person in question wasn't always a terrifying monster. They began as anyone else, with a sense of right and wrong that was mostly in tact. Then as time went on they started to believe their own hype and listened to all those people saying how great they were and how there weren't limits for a person like them. The money and the fame warping all semblance of a moral compass. I mean was the Subway guy always into exploiting children or did that come because he had the money and means to do what he wanted because no one expected him to be anything other than a hero? Being given endless amount of praise for simply being you probably messes with anyone's morals because there isn't any context for what's not acceptable. Look at that small Asian nation, lead by a fat little man who is so delusional with power that he has decided to great his own time zone. That's the epitome of corrupted by power.
We have this constant need for things to be fair. It's a concept we learn at a very young age. Share your toys. Make sure everyone gets a turn. Don't take more than your fair share. When someone does something wrong there is supposed to be justice that keeps things fair. Strangely enough though we also want that same sense of fairness for people who seem to be 'better' than us or have more than us. Never mind the circumstances that got the rich or famous person to their place in the world. I want that too. How come they get to have it and I don't? Thoughts like that lead back to that secret want. That hope that one day we'll get to watch them fall. That they deserve to be knocked down because they had so much and we didn't. Is it part of our nature to feel this way? To want to make sure that everyone is humbled enough that no one feels like they're lesser than someone else?
Then again maybe we should stop treating athletes and celebrities as though they're heroes. Sure that guy is an incredible golfer, but being good at one thing shouldn't necessarily mean that we look to them as an inspiration for life. It could by why fictional heroes are so popular right now. We need someone to look up to. Someone who won't let us down because the story won't allow it. There is very little chance we're going to find out that Han Solo was actually a child molester or that Captain America was a white supremacist. How come it's not doctors or scientists or people pushing for social improvements in quality that are being hoisted up as heroes? Maybe the real heroes are the ones who are left alone to do the actual good work and not be corrupted by the very people who look up to them.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
On the Binary State
"There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't. My ex-wife loves him"
- Bob Wiley
It's interesting to me how we quickly divide up a population of people into one of two things. And not just people, but things in general. Awhile back I was having problems finding anything to watch on Netflix. While I think Netflix is an overall great service, there have been a lot of times where I wonder what they must think of me. I've given Citizen Kane five stars as well as The 40 Year-Old Virgin. For other movies I would give more moderate rating. While I enjoyed that romantic comedy with the reformed action star who smolders on screen, it wasn't something that I would feel the need to watch again. Three stars. The problem with this was that after awhile Netflix found that maybe I would enjoy more three star movies. I don't seek out movies that are visual smooth jazz. I want something that I can enjoy and not reach for my phone as something more entertaining. So in order to stop Netflix from wasting my time I started rating everything on a scale two or four stars. Three didn't exist anymore because it was worthless as far as making a recommendation. Don't tell me about movies that I may walk away from saying "well I didn't hate it". My time is becoming more and more precious. Since I still want to enjoy movies with a finite amount of time to do so, I can only watch those things which a computer tells me that I'll love. That has become my movie watching world; love it or hate it. If you're not one thing then you must be the other thing. The sad thing is though that seems to be the world in general.
When I was little I knew there were good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were easy to spot because they looked bad. Or they had names that made it obvious. If you grew up with the name Skeletor or Dr. Mindbender then I'm guessing your career choices are really limited. Plus people's expectations of you would already be colored. What were the motivations of these "bad" guys? It didn't matter because they were bad. The good guys stood for everything right and true. Even in history class we were taught about how the Nazis were bad (which they were, no doubt there) and the Allies were good. If you go and read more than your eighth grade history book you find out that not everyone saw things so clearly. Germany as a whole wasn't full of people bent on world domination and destruction of an entire people. Sure there were people within that country and within that particular power group that felt it was their duty and right to exterminate whomever they saw beneath them. We don't want that story though. We want to know that we're the good guys and we defeated the bad guys. It helped that they wore uniforms. Oh you're one of the bad guys. Here's your black uniform with skulls and lightning. Most German soldiers were just people from Germany who felt compelled to fight for their country, much like our own people who have served. To the enemy though our troops are the bad guys. Most likely though there aren't any good guys or bad guys. It's all just a bunch of guys (and gals) who are doing things that vary from good to bad. Even that is probably up for debate. A soldier or a police officer has to make decisions about that sort of thing in an instant and then live with the consequences, or maybe not if they made the wrong choice. It's made much more difficult when they are forced to make these decisions so quickly that everything is boiled down to a black and white scenario.
Is everything really black and white? We encourage people to play games where there is a definitive winner and an obvious loser. We watch teams, who work together and overcome their differences in order to accomplish a common goal. That goal is defeating another team, who was doing the same thing. Only one can be considered a winner though. The other teams, even if they are working well together, are now considered inferior because we can't allow for there to be something other than a winner or a loser. Granted I'm not saying we go so far as to give everyone a trophy for simply showing up because that doesn't help either. Still we're showing our children at a very early age that even if you give your best and work hard that you can still be considered a loser. For some children that will create drive in which they decide to work even harder so that they can become the winner. For other children they give up or accept their place in the world as someone who's best simply isn't good enough. Is it possible to play a game for the enjoyment of it without having there be people divided up into two different camps? Maybe it's just built into our brains that things are one thing or another. Our very survival meant being better than the next guy. While we're not really allowed to savagely murder each other for the sake of our own genes making it to the next round, we can certainly feed that primal urge in our brain by watching a couple teams play for relatively low stakes that feel very important at the time. Have we not really evolved beyond needing that feeling?
Life itself may not even be as simple as we once though. Sure when something is dead then it's dead, but now we've learned there is brain dead as well. Your body could be alive, but there isn't anyone in there. Are you still alive at that point? We can barely begin to agree on when life starts or what on our planet is alive in the sense that makes us comfortable. A virus may not really be alive if all it is is a set of genes that are using another life form to replicate itself. Somewhere in the vastness of the universe something could look at us and think we're not really alive because we don't meet some lofty criteria that they've set out for themselves. We don't even have to go into what happens when our physical body dies to have the issue being incredibly nuanced to the point of being vaguely unknowable. The world is full of nuance. Most things aren't clearly black or white. There are shades of...I'm not even going to say it because I don't want some search engine to mistakenly identify my writing with that book/movie.
I think about art or food or food that looks like art. Sometimes you just know what you like, even if you can't explain why. This thing is pleasing to my palette (visual or tasty kind) so if asked I'll probably say I liked it, but to varying degrees. If forced to choose between love or hate then a lot of things are going to get pitched over the side because I don't exactly want to say that I love it. I never thought I'd say this, but sometimes I wish the world would appreciate ambivalence about most things rather than forcing us to choose between being with them or against them. If asked about a complex issue one normally can't just say "I disagree" without at least explaining why. And in doing so we tend to find out that while we may fundamentally disagree with someone or something, there may be a lot of area that we do agree with. It could be that our brains haven't really caught up to the fact that there is more than two classifications for anything in the world. Then again maybe it all comes down to if you like Neil Diamond or not.
- Bob Wiley
It's interesting to me how we quickly divide up a population of people into one of two things. And not just people, but things in general. Awhile back I was having problems finding anything to watch on Netflix. While I think Netflix is an overall great service, there have been a lot of times where I wonder what they must think of me. I've given Citizen Kane five stars as well as The 40 Year-Old Virgin. For other movies I would give more moderate rating. While I enjoyed that romantic comedy with the reformed action star who smolders on screen, it wasn't something that I would feel the need to watch again. Three stars. The problem with this was that after awhile Netflix found that maybe I would enjoy more three star movies. I don't seek out movies that are visual smooth jazz. I want something that I can enjoy and not reach for my phone as something more entertaining. So in order to stop Netflix from wasting my time I started rating everything on a scale two or four stars. Three didn't exist anymore because it was worthless as far as making a recommendation. Don't tell me about movies that I may walk away from saying "well I didn't hate it". My time is becoming more and more precious. Since I still want to enjoy movies with a finite amount of time to do so, I can only watch those things which a computer tells me that I'll love. That has become my movie watching world; love it or hate it. If you're not one thing then you must be the other thing. The sad thing is though that seems to be the world in general.
When I was little I knew there were good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were easy to spot because they looked bad. Or they had names that made it obvious. If you grew up with the name Skeletor or Dr. Mindbender then I'm guessing your career choices are really limited. Plus people's expectations of you would already be colored. What were the motivations of these "bad" guys? It didn't matter because they were bad. The good guys stood for everything right and true. Even in history class we were taught about how the Nazis were bad (which they were, no doubt there) and the Allies were good. If you go and read more than your eighth grade history book you find out that not everyone saw things so clearly. Germany as a whole wasn't full of people bent on world domination and destruction of an entire people. Sure there were people within that country and within that particular power group that felt it was their duty and right to exterminate whomever they saw beneath them. We don't want that story though. We want to know that we're the good guys and we defeated the bad guys. It helped that they wore uniforms. Oh you're one of the bad guys. Here's your black uniform with skulls and lightning. Most German soldiers were just people from Germany who felt compelled to fight for their country, much like our own people who have served. To the enemy though our troops are the bad guys. Most likely though there aren't any good guys or bad guys. It's all just a bunch of guys (and gals) who are doing things that vary from good to bad. Even that is probably up for debate. A soldier or a police officer has to make decisions about that sort of thing in an instant and then live with the consequences, or maybe not if they made the wrong choice. It's made much more difficult when they are forced to make these decisions so quickly that everything is boiled down to a black and white scenario.
Is everything really black and white? We encourage people to play games where there is a definitive winner and an obvious loser. We watch teams, who work together and overcome their differences in order to accomplish a common goal. That goal is defeating another team, who was doing the same thing. Only one can be considered a winner though. The other teams, even if they are working well together, are now considered inferior because we can't allow for there to be something other than a winner or a loser. Granted I'm not saying we go so far as to give everyone a trophy for simply showing up because that doesn't help either. Still we're showing our children at a very early age that even if you give your best and work hard that you can still be considered a loser. For some children that will create drive in which they decide to work even harder so that they can become the winner. For other children they give up or accept their place in the world as someone who's best simply isn't good enough. Is it possible to play a game for the enjoyment of it without having there be people divided up into two different camps? Maybe it's just built into our brains that things are one thing or another. Our very survival meant being better than the next guy. While we're not really allowed to savagely murder each other for the sake of our own genes making it to the next round, we can certainly feed that primal urge in our brain by watching a couple teams play for relatively low stakes that feel very important at the time. Have we not really evolved beyond needing that feeling?
Life itself may not even be as simple as we once though. Sure when something is dead then it's dead, but now we've learned there is brain dead as well. Your body could be alive, but there isn't anyone in there. Are you still alive at that point? We can barely begin to agree on when life starts or what on our planet is alive in the sense that makes us comfortable. A virus may not really be alive if all it is is a set of genes that are using another life form to replicate itself. Somewhere in the vastness of the universe something could look at us and think we're not really alive because we don't meet some lofty criteria that they've set out for themselves. We don't even have to go into what happens when our physical body dies to have the issue being incredibly nuanced to the point of being vaguely unknowable. The world is full of nuance. Most things aren't clearly black or white. There are shades of...I'm not even going to say it because I don't want some search engine to mistakenly identify my writing with that book/movie.
I think about art or food or food that looks like art. Sometimes you just know what you like, even if you can't explain why. This thing is pleasing to my palette (visual or tasty kind) so if asked I'll probably say I liked it, but to varying degrees. If forced to choose between love or hate then a lot of things are going to get pitched over the side because I don't exactly want to say that I love it. I never thought I'd say this, but sometimes I wish the world would appreciate ambivalence about most things rather than forcing us to choose between being with them or against them. If asked about a complex issue one normally can't just say "I disagree" without at least explaining why. And in doing so we tend to find out that while we may fundamentally disagree with someone or something, there may be a lot of area that we do agree with. It could be that our brains haven't really caught up to the fact that there is more than two classifications for anything in the world. Then again maybe it all comes down to if you like Neil Diamond or not.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
On the Game Change
For most of my life my primary concern has been myself. Sure I would care about other people, as much as my programming would allow. In the end though my universe was centered around me. That may sound selfish, but if I'm not around then everything else for me doesn't really matter. It may not have been the best way to run a ship, still it was my way and it was working for me. Mostly. There have been times where I'm watching a show or movie and I see people behaving how I wish I could be. It's an idealized version of friendship. Almost as though a Norman Rockwell painting has come to life. I know this and I still sometimes want it for myself and the people I call friends. That's not to say what I have is bad in any way. It's just more real. People can be thoughtless. I can be thoughtless. More often than not the thing I meant to say comes out as something else and people look at me like I'm trying to swallow a whole octopus. Even with all these blunders, I still knew what to expect.
Watching a lot of movies and television I felt like I had seen the story where a character is going to have a baby plenty of times. Sometimes they're sad, a lot of times they are happy, but almost always they are freaked the hell out. Just when you think you've got the game figured out, a new player comes onto the board. These characters would run around doing all sorts of wacky things or go through montages where they buy baby books, find a good doctor after sifting through all the crazy ones, and then going to various appointments. All this normally happens in the span of like twenty minutes because in the end the movie is still about the characters and not the tiny alien that's gestating inside one of them. The movie comes to an end with the birth of said alien and if you're lucky they may show a little bit of how wonderful it all is. Aw that's nice. I feel like I'm prepared.
We've been having babies since before we could call ourselves human. While I'm not sure I'd say we are exactly experts at the whole thing. I do feel like we've learned enough to be dangerous, but not quite deadly. Honestly it's a miracle that we're alive. Think about all the things that had to happen for you to be here right now? If the exact scenario of your conception didn't happen it's likely you wouldn't be around to read this. Millions of things have to go right for each person to be born. Change the timing and a boy may be a girl. Change the environment and maybe the whole thing falls apart halfway through. Our bodies are these complex mechanisms that we really have very little control over. Sure we can shovel fuel in the form of our favorite flavors into it in order to keep things running, but we can't exactly tell our kidneys to step up their game. Most of the time I can't get my stomach on board with the same food I've eaten a hundred times before Sometimes I wish there was some kind of external monitoring system that told me what the hell was going on inside of me. I suppose it wouldn't matter because without control that information is useless. I could tell you my heart rate right now, but that doesn't really give me the whole picture of all the other things connected to that piece of information. Now think about how inside someone they're building a completely new person from scratch. Sure I helped in my small way, but it was really a fire and forget. Somehow it's putting together its own brain. If it's doing that then it means we did that ourselves at some point. We really created ourselves.
Knowing this it kind of makes me sad to think how easily we forget about the miracle that is our own lives. Sure reality means there's more to it than simply marveling at how amazing our bodies are. As adults we're kind of over the whole magic of life and the world around us. Now go watch a little kid in the same environment and notice how ensorcelled they are by the smallest things. I can't quite remember when the world stopped being so overwhelmingly magical to me. I think with the internet and the world being full of people who are genuinely trying to hold onto or at least recapture that sense of wonder, it's not a lost cause. Children are the constant reminder that the world can be a wondrous place. While they're running around being amazed at everything in the world, the adults are running right behind them being terrified of that same world consuming the tiny versions of ourselves. This means my primary concern is no longer myself. Instead it's going to be this external portion of myself that is scampering off to go eat dirt and actively put itself into dangerous situations because it has no idea that a mountain lion wielding a chainsaw isn't something you run towards.
Watching a lot of movies and television I felt like I had seen the story where a character is going to have a baby plenty of times. Sometimes they're sad, a lot of times they are happy, but almost always they are freaked the hell out. Just when you think you've got the game figured out, a new player comes onto the board. These characters would run around doing all sorts of wacky things or go through montages where they buy baby books, find a good doctor after sifting through all the crazy ones, and then going to various appointments. All this normally happens in the span of like twenty minutes because in the end the movie is still about the characters and not the tiny alien that's gestating inside one of them. The movie comes to an end with the birth of said alien and if you're lucky they may show a little bit of how wonderful it all is. Aw that's nice. I feel like I'm prepared.
We've been having babies since before we could call ourselves human. While I'm not sure I'd say we are exactly experts at the whole thing. I do feel like we've learned enough to be dangerous, but not quite deadly. Honestly it's a miracle that we're alive. Think about all the things that had to happen for you to be here right now? If the exact scenario of your conception didn't happen it's likely you wouldn't be around to read this. Millions of things have to go right for each person to be born. Change the timing and a boy may be a girl. Change the environment and maybe the whole thing falls apart halfway through. Our bodies are these complex mechanisms that we really have very little control over. Sure we can shovel fuel in the form of our favorite flavors into it in order to keep things running, but we can't exactly tell our kidneys to step up their game. Most of the time I can't get my stomach on board with the same food I've eaten a hundred times before Sometimes I wish there was some kind of external monitoring system that told me what the hell was going on inside of me. I suppose it wouldn't matter because without control that information is useless. I could tell you my heart rate right now, but that doesn't really give me the whole picture of all the other things connected to that piece of information. Now think about how inside someone they're building a completely new person from scratch. Sure I helped in my small way, but it was really a fire and forget. Somehow it's putting together its own brain. If it's doing that then it means we did that ourselves at some point. We really created ourselves.
Knowing this it kind of makes me sad to think how easily we forget about the miracle that is our own lives. Sure reality means there's more to it than simply marveling at how amazing our bodies are. As adults we're kind of over the whole magic of life and the world around us. Now go watch a little kid in the same environment and notice how ensorcelled they are by the smallest things. I can't quite remember when the world stopped being so overwhelmingly magical to me. I think with the internet and the world being full of people who are genuinely trying to hold onto or at least recapture that sense of wonder, it's not a lost cause. Children are the constant reminder that the world can be a wondrous place. While they're running around being amazed at everything in the world, the adults are running right behind them being terrified of that same world consuming the tiny versions of ourselves. This means my primary concern is no longer myself. Instead it's going to be this external portion of myself that is scampering off to go eat dirt and actively put itself into dangerous situations because it has no idea that a mountain lion wielding a chainsaw isn't something you run towards.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
On The End of the Preamble
With so many things in our lives there is a build up. The weeks leading up to Christmas. Months planning a wedding. Getting ready for a trip across the world. We prepare ourselves and look forward to these moments as they approach. Then they happen and life continues. I remember as a kid loving the Christmas season. Watching as everyone got more and more excited by putting up lights and decorations. The number of presents under the tree subtly getting bigger as we got closer to that big day. By Christmas morning excitement was at its highest and that's when the bass drops, usually leading to wrapping paper everywhere. The rest of the day you kind of bask in the afterglow of that level of joy. The next day you wake up and it's behind you. Hopefully it hasn't been disappointing, but not matter what experience you have, the moments we look forward to the most will eventually be in the past and on their way to being memories. A part of me wonders if that's why the idea of heaven is so appealing to people. It's a place where you get to be with all your loved ones and live your best moments for ever. I think most people would classify that as wonderful, even if they don't believe such a thing makes any kind of logical sense. I suppose the natural inclination is to start looking forward to something else, which in itself isn't a bad thing. It's good to have upcoming things in your life that you are excited to become reality. Maybe that's what life really is about. Moving onto the next thing while enjoy what came before.
The world is a strange place when you return to it. At least that's how it can feel if you've been away for any longer than normal amount of time. I look around at the things that are familiar and yet somehow foreign. It's been said that you can't go home again because it's not the place that has changed, but rather you that is different now. When some people leave the familiar all they can see are the differences in what they see now compared to what they've always seen before. This isn't exactly a bad thing, but focusing on that can make it harder to appreciate something new. I'm not saying one should just accept something because it's different. It's like learning a language though, where you will have an easier time if you stop translating and just start accepting the new word for the old object.
Still it's not until you've been away from something that you really see it for what it is or maybe what it once was. I remember coming home from college my first year and seeing the house I grew up in. It was the same place it was six months ago when I had left it, but I felt like I had seen and done so much in that small amount of time that it felt smaller on a fundamental level. It was still very comfortable. In the years since then I've returned home several times and each time that house is something different to me. It still has all the old memories. The context for me being there changes though, which in turns means I see the entire place differently each time. It's hard to imagine that one day the home I grew up in won't be available anymore and I'll never be able to return to it.
We often don't realize when something is coming to close. Sure we can see the last day of school coming or know when it's time to say goodbye to our visiting family members. There are times when we know we won't see someone again or won't do something again, but more often than not the last of something sails by us without much notice until later, when we realize that we'll never get another chance at it. People often say live life like each day was your last. It's when we know that there will never be more that we embrace how special something is, even if it's normally not special at all. It's next to impossible to lead a normal life living that way. That kind of sentiment is usually saved for characters in movies and those unfortunate enough to know that their days are limited so it's best to actually live like there aren't a lot of tomorrows, because there might not be. Most of us though will get up tomorrow and probably not think about how yesterday was the last time that ever was going to happen. Sometimes that's a good thing though. That could mean yesterday was the end of what came before and while it's sad that you won't get to go back and experience it again, tomorrow is the beginning of something new. Maybe it's the first day rather than the last one.
The world is a strange place when you return to it. At least that's how it can feel if you've been away for any longer than normal amount of time. I look around at the things that are familiar and yet somehow foreign. It's been said that you can't go home again because it's not the place that has changed, but rather you that is different now. When some people leave the familiar all they can see are the differences in what they see now compared to what they've always seen before. This isn't exactly a bad thing, but focusing on that can make it harder to appreciate something new. I'm not saying one should just accept something because it's different. It's like learning a language though, where you will have an easier time if you stop translating and just start accepting the new word for the old object.
Still it's not until you've been away from something that you really see it for what it is or maybe what it once was. I remember coming home from college my first year and seeing the house I grew up in. It was the same place it was six months ago when I had left it, but I felt like I had seen and done so much in that small amount of time that it felt smaller on a fundamental level. It was still very comfortable. In the years since then I've returned home several times and each time that house is something different to me. It still has all the old memories. The context for me being there changes though, which in turns means I see the entire place differently each time. It's hard to imagine that one day the home I grew up in won't be available anymore and I'll never be able to return to it.
We often don't realize when something is coming to close. Sure we can see the last day of school coming or know when it's time to say goodbye to our visiting family members. There are times when we know we won't see someone again or won't do something again, but more often than not the last of something sails by us without much notice until later, when we realize that we'll never get another chance at it. People often say live life like each day was your last. It's when we know that there will never be more that we embrace how special something is, even if it's normally not special at all. It's next to impossible to lead a normal life living that way. That kind of sentiment is usually saved for characters in movies and those unfortunate enough to know that their days are limited so it's best to actually live like there aren't a lot of tomorrows, because there might not be. Most of us though will get up tomorrow and probably not think about how yesterday was the last time that ever was going to happen. Sometimes that's a good thing though. That could mean yesterday was the end of what came before and while it's sad that you won't get to go back and experience it again, tomorrow is the beginning of something new. Maybe it's the first day rather than the last one.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Travel Log: The Last Frontier
We are the stories we tell. The past is just this long narrative that's been shaped by our own feelings. History becomes how we remember it, even if it didn't quite happen that way. Everyone has a story and everyone is a story to someone else. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if we could experience even a part of someone else's story from their perspective. We may not always be the hero of the tale, but we tend to try and justify why we do something. If we're human then there are plenty of times when we look back and realize just how far off we've gotten. Even the public story we share with others is either a highlight reel or tweaked for mass consumption. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's easy to forget there is more than what's on the surface.
I never thought that I would bring someone to see my childhood home. I had reached a point where it seemed like any person in my life who hadn't been there once already would be too far removed to make the trek up to see it. It's not like you meet people as an adult and then ask them to travel a thousand miles to see where you came from. Instead it just becomes part of the story we tell other people when we meet. Sure there are pictures and that sort of thing but an image of a thing doesn't compare to the feeling of standing in a place. To understand the placement of things and how they fit together. Now when you tell a story about that time in the backyard they can see it more clearly. The story is a bit more complete.
Alaska has always been a been a bit of a pause for me. I know you can't go home again, but this place was always where I came to try and reset back to zero. I'm generally a nostalgic person already because I like my past, even though it's not all rainbows and triumphant musical cues. It's still where I came from and it made me who I am today. So when I come back to this place a part of me is remembering what once was and what it has become since I left. It's strange to think about, but I've lived in other places longer than I ever lived here. I have a new home, but even that home was chosen because of its similarities to my original home. I live where I live now because it's a place that has all the best parts of where I came from and a lot fewer of the negatives. Still we're at the end of this long trip and as per usual the end brings about a bit of an existential crisis. I start to ponder what it all means and if I want to return to reality. Reality where I have my friends around me. Where you go to work on a regular basis and generally behave like a responsible adult doing adult things like paying bills, building things not out of Legos, and telling yourself that you shouldn't get quite so excited about a movie coming out where the main character has the ability to shrink down to the size of an ant in order to fight industrial corruption and the weaponization of science. Reality also means that time is moving again. It always has been, even while sitting in my childhood home, but when I go back that means I'm going to keep getting older and we'll be further and further away from what was. Then again it means we're getting closer and closer to what will be.
This last part of the trip though has a reunion of the past. Facebook is one giant spoiler alert when it comes to our lives today. Thankfully though it means that rather than waiting twenty years to see how someone is doing, I can check their wall and see how their kids are doing or how that barbecue went on Saturday. On the other side there are people I haven't physically been in the same room with since high school who have seen the inside of my house and watched the work we've been doing for the past couple of years. It's a bit comforting to know that my friends and the people from my past are still there in some ways. Still it will be nice to see a bit of the stories of others as not told through funny links and carefully chosen totally candid pictures of life. I know that reunions today aren't anything like they have in movies. It will likely just be a bunch of people with a shared past getting dinner and drinking beer together. I am excited to see who shows up because even with Facebook, there are plenty of people who have lived their lives without it, meaning a person like me, who loves technology, has very little idea what's been happening for them. It's funny how twenty years is a long time and yet the world has felt relatively the same. If I could go back and tell my high school me that the world would be an amazing place, but not for the reason you'd think (sorry the flying cars thing is still not happening), I think my younger self would feel a little let down by the prospect of life being just life. The older me thinks about how reassuring it would be to know that despite all the mistakes and lunacy that things will work out. Sometimes it's going to feel like a giant vat of chaos has been spilled at our feet. In the end though I prefer this life to whatever silly dreams my former self had thought up. Except the one where I learned how to fly. That one is still the best and I'll keep hoping that somehow I remember the trick to flight. Until then we'll have to see what comes next...
I never thought that I would bring someone to see my childhood home. I had reached a point where it seemed like any person in my life who hadn't been there once already would be too far removed to make the trek up to see it. It's not like you meet people as an adult and then ask them to travel a thousand miles to see where you came from. Instead it just becomes part of the story we tell other people when we meet. Sure there are pictures and that sort of thing but an image of a thing doesn't compare to the feeling of standing in a place. To understand the placement of things and how they fit together. Now when you tell a story about that time in the backyard they can see it more clearly. The story is a bit more complete.
Alaska has always been a been a bit of a pause for me. I know you can't go home again, but this place was always where I came to try and reset back to zero. I'm generally a nostalgic person already because I like my past, even though it's not all rainbows and triumphant musical cues. It's still where I came from and it made me who I am today. So when I come back to this place a part of me is remembering what once was and what it has become since I left. It's strange to think about, but I've lived in other places longer than I ever lived here. I have a new home, but even that home was chosen because of its similarities to my original home. I live where I live now because it's a place that has all the best parts of where I came from and a lot fewer of the negatives. Still we're at the end of this long trip and as per usual the end brings about a bit of an existential crisis. I start to ponder what it all means and if I want to return to reality. Reality where I have my friends around me. Where you go to work on a regular basis and generally behave like a responsible adult doing adult things like paying bills, building things not out of Legos, and telling yourself that you shouldn't get quite so excited about a movie coming out where the main character has the ability to shrink down to the size of an ant in order to fight industrial corruption and the weaponization of science. Reality also means that time is moving again. It always has been, even while sitting in my childhood home, but when I go back that means I'm going to keep getting older and we'll be further and further away from what was. Then again it means we're getting closer and closer to what will be.
This last part of the trip though has a reunion of the past. Facebook is one giant spoiler alert when it comes to our lives today. Thankfully though it means that rather than waiting twenty years to see how someone is doing, I can check their wall and see how their kids are doing or how that barbecue went on Saturday. On the other side there are people I haven't physically been in the same room with since high school who have seen the inside of my house and watched the work we've been doing for the past couple of years. It's a bit comforting to know that my friends and the people from my past are still there in some ways. Still it will be nice to see a bit of the stories of others as not told through funny links and carefully chosen totally candid pictures of life. I know that reunions today aren't anything like they have in movies. It will likely just be a bunch of people with a shared past getting dinner and drinking beer together. I am excited to see who shows up because even with Facebook, there are plenty of people who have lived their lives without it, meaning a person like me, who loves technology, has very little idea what's been happening for them. It's funny how twenty years is a long time and yet the world has felt relatively the same. If I could go back and tell my high school me that the world would be an amazing place, but not for the reason you'd think (sorry the flying cars thing is still not happening), I think my younger self would feel a little let down by the prospect of life being just life. The older me thinks about how reassuring it would be to know that despite all the mistakes and lunacy that things will work out. Sometimes it's going to feel like a giant vat of chaos has been spilled at our feet. In the end though I prefer this life to whatever silly dreams my former self had thought up. Except the one where I learned how to fly. That one is still the best and I'll keep hoping that somehow I remember the trick to flight. Until then we'll have to see what comes next...
Friday, June 12, 2015
Travel Log: Intermission
We are back home for about a week before we head off to the last frontier. It's very surreal being home. It's good to be home, but very strange how quickly you fall back into old routines. It doesn't feel like two months have passed and yet everything around us shows that the world kept on without us, which we knew it would. While traveling the real world became this abstract thing that you're aware continues to exist. It's hard to divide your mind into two places at once though. It reminded me of when I left home for college. For a long time I kept thinking about things in terms of how they would have been if I were back home. Summer was supposed to be like this and I would normally be doing that. Eventually though you let go of where you were and accept where you are. Now we're back and this massive trip is behind us without any real fanfare. That's how it goes though. These large moments in our lives quickly go from something you're experiencing to a thing you did before you can really grasp the concept that it's become the past.
Strangely enough being home and knowing next week we're going to be off again makes this feel a bit like a really long layover in our own town. We've unpacked and started doing every day things like stressing out about the house or what type of sandwich to make that compliments the beer we bought. The jet lag is still playing tricks on us though even though we managed to go to bed at what would be considered a normal time locally. Our first day back we were up at 4AM because even though we had been going for 30 hours without sleep, our bodies were like 'three hours of sleep is plenty, time to get moving'. We found out that the grocery store is very nice at 6:02 AM on a Wednesday to do grocery shopping. We also found out that you can't buy beer before 7AM. It's something I never really thought about, but now that I know it makes total sense. You have to stop enabling people at some point. Still it's not our fault that our brains and bellies were operating 17 hours in the future.
While we're home we hope to see who we can before we scamper off again. We really need to get better at being able to answer the question of 'what was your favorite?' It's hard to answer because of how long the trip was. It's a perfectly fair question though because when someone goes on vacation you ask them what they liked about it. For us though we essentially lived in South East Asia so it's a bit like asking someone what was their favorite moment from a two month period. Thankfully in addition to this travel log I've decided to log all the highlights from each area. It's interesting how quickly things you do start to fade. Hopefully with a memory appendix I'll be able to map my way back to the various points in the trip and come up with a more meaningful answer to the question.
Up next: The Midnight Sun!
Strangely enough being home and knowing next week we're going to be off again makes this feel a bit like a really long layover in our own town. We've unpacked and started doing every day things like stressing out about the house or what type of sandwich to make that compliments the beer we bought. The jet lag is still playing tricks on us though even though we managed to go to bed at what would be considered a normal time locally. Our first day back we were up at 4AM because even though we had been going for 30 hours without sleep, our bodies were like 'three hours of sleep is plenty, time to get moving'. We found out that the grocery store is very nice at 6:02 AM on a Wednesday to do grocery shopping. We also found out that you can't buy beer before 7AM. It's something I never really thought about, but now that I know it makes total sense. You have to stop enabling people at some point. Still it's not our fault that our brains and bellies were operating 17 hours in the future.
While we're home we hope to see who we can before we scamper off again. We really need to get better at being able to answer the question of 'what was your favorite?' It's hard to answer because of how long the trip was. It's a perfectly fair question though because when someone goes on vacation you ask them what they liked about it. For us though we essentially lived in South East Asia so it's a bit like asking someone what was their favorite moment from a two month period. Thankfully in addition to this travel log I've decided to log all the highlights from each area. It's interesting how quickly things you do start to fade. Hopefully with a memory appendix I'll be able to map my way back to the various points in the trip and come up with a more meaningful answer to the question.
Up next: The Midnight Sun!
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Travel Log: Vivid Days
Sydney wasn't originally part of the plan. It was supposed to be a layover. However, about halfway through it became something more and we're so glad we made the change. Asia was fun for what it was. It was certain type of adventure that helped you appreciate what you have and what's important. Like a cool room without ravenous insects crawling over your lifeless body as you sleep. We were happy to leave Indonesia when we did. Months of traveling in foreign countries can be wonderful, but also taxing after extended periods of time. I've learned that there is a limit to how long I can be away from the familiar.
First thing to note if you're flying to or from Australia and using Virgin Australia as the carrier, download the entertainment app before you get on the plane. That's something I wish they had told me while I had been spending hours in the Bali airport. Almost got it right. It was very strange going from summer to winter in a matter of hours. Even stranger is people talking about winter in June. The oppositeness of this country is something I've known about but didn't really pay attention to. As I changed from my flip flops and frantically pulled on a hoodie in the airport I tried to remember everything I could about this country that I hadn't seen in a movie.
Sydney is full of beautiful people. Beautiful, well dressed people, who are in a hurry to be somewhere. I was suddenly aware of how much of a country bumpkin I looked like. The clothes I had for Asia had seen plenty of wear and weren't really suited for the men in suits. The first order of business was getting a few essential pieces of clothing to get us through the next week. It's when we were downtown that I noticed things felt vaguely familiar. The city feels like a combination of San Francisco and Vancouver BC, but that wasn't it. We were in The Matrix. That building over there, that's where Neo fought Mr Smith. Over there is where he saved Morpheus. I half expected things to go into bullet time when crossing the street.
This part of the trip was different also because we had someone here we know. A local! A town is so much different when you know someone there. An added plus for us is that she is an aggressive tour guide so we're packing in all the highlights Sydney has to offer in a short amount of time. With our new coats we walked into the botanical garden and kept marveling at the fact that we we're in Sydney. There are some places where movies make it seem more magical than it really is. Sydney isn't one of those. Everything feels like it's out of a postcard. The Opera House is exactly like I imagined and now I understand the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Those guys are crazy lunatics, who are willing to crawl over someone's head in order to get a piece of discarded French fry.
The accents here are confusing and that's from a guy who loves accents. I can't tell where anyone is from because it's all so muddled. Thankfully though everyone we've run into is nice and helpful. It could be because this is a town of great food and plenty of drinking. It's easy to be nice when you have a belly full of deliciousness and half the bottle of wine has disappeared. It's amazing how this has become a place full of people from other places. I think about one in five people we've met are actually from Sydney, much less Australia.
Today is our last day here and we're both excited and sad to be leaving. The town is amazing and full of great things to see and do. On the other hand Facebook cuts both ways. While we've been here our friends and families have been posting things that we didn't get to be a part of. We're missing the people in our real lives and it will be good to get back to them, even if the upcoming week is really an intermission on the trip before we head off to Alaska. Our own bed. Our own kitchen. Not having to ask for the wifi password. Being able to drive yourself to the thing you want to do whenever you want to do it. These are a few things we really appreciate now that we've been away from them. At least now there is no question the things that are important in our lives.
First thing to note if you're flying to or from Australia and using Virgin Australia as the carrier, download the entertainment app before you get on the plane. That's something I wish they had told me while I had been spending hours in the Bali airport. Almost got it right. It was very strange going from summer to winter in a matter of hours. Even stranger is people talking about winter in June. The oppositeness of this country is something I've known about but didn't really pay attention to. As I changed from my flip flops and frantically pulled on a hoodie in the airport I tried to remember everything I could about this country that I hadn't seen in a movie.
Sydney is full of beautiful people. Beautiful, well dressed people, who are in a hurry to be somewhere. I was suddenly aware of how much of a country bumpkin I looked like. The clothes I had for Asia had seen plenty of wear and weren't really suited for the men in suits. The first order of business was getting a few essential pieces of clothing to get us through the next week. It's when we were downtown that I noticed things felt vaguely familiar. The city feels like a combination of San Francisco and Vancouver BC, but that wasn't it. We were in The Matrix. That building over there, that's where Neo fought Mr Smith. Over there is where he saved Morpheus. I half expected things to go into bullet time when crossing the street.
This part of the trip was different also because we had someone here we know. A local! A town is so much different when you know someone there. An added plus for us is that she is an aggressive tour guide so we're packing in all the highlights Sydney has to offer in a short amount of time. With our new coats we walked into the botanical garden and kept marveling at the fact that we we're in Sydney. There are some places where movies make it seem more magical than it really is. Sydney isn't one of those. Everything feels like it's out of a postcard. The Opera House is exactly like I imagined and now I understand the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Those guys are crazy lunatics, who are willing to crawl over someone's head in order to get a piece of discarded French fry.
The accents here are confusing and that's from a guy who loves accents. I can't tell where anyone is from because it's all so muddled. Thankfully though everyone we've run into is nice and helpful. It could be because this is a town of great food and plenty of drinking. It's easy to be nice when you have a belly full of deliciousness and half the bottle of wine has disappeared. It's amazing how this has become a place full of people from other places. I think about one in five people we've met are actually from Sydney, much less Australia.
Today is our last day here and we're both excited and sad to be leaving. The town is amazing and full of great things to see and do. On the other hand Facebook cuts both ways. While we've been here our friends and families have been posting things that we didn't get to be a part of. We're missing the people in our real lives and it will be good to get back to them, even if the upcoming week is really an intermission on the trip before we head off to Alaska. Our own bed. Our own kitchen. Not having to ask for the wifi password. Being able to drive yourself to the thing you want to do whenever you want to do it. These are a few things we really appreciate now that we've been away from them. At least now there is no question the things that are important in our lives.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Travel Log: Dragon Quest
There have been several points on this trip where we've had to scratch things off the list. They've either been too expensive, too time consuming, or too much of a pain in the ass for what we'd be accomplishing. For the most part these have been few and not always noticeable because there have been so many other things happening while on this trip. Sometimes it's hard though when you know that there is a good chance that this may be the only opportunity, so passing it up may mean it's gone forever. That is what we had started to think about going to Komodo National Park. The travel book we had indicated that trips to the island weren't exactly easy or cheap. So we had resigned ourselves to getting incredibly close to the place, but likely not going. Then we arrived at the Gili Islands, where right outside our hotel was a little kiosk with a sign that said Komodo Adventures.
The package included a four day, four night boat trip to the island, with other adventure stops along the way. The price wasn't inexpensive, but considering they would be covering our meals, accomodations, and transport, it seemed like it would be worth the cost. We booked for the day after next, so that we could actually enjoy the island that we just arrived at. An island so small that it only took an hour and a half to walk around. That was with us going slow and taking pictures. Still it was a nice relaxing place to be with less than a week left for this portion of our trip. This trip has had one constant, which seems to be once we've gotten used to a place, we leave it. It's not because we don't like it. It's more to do with the fact that there was so much to see and do that it didn't feel right being in a place long enough to get bored with it. We were looking for something that would more or less take away the decisions and planning that would be required for some of the final days. I can see why people book all inclusive cruises or hotels. There is something nice about knowing that the heavy lifting has been taken care of and your only responsibility is to enjoy it.
We had to wake up early and catch a boat off the island to the neighboring island. It's always a little bit of of a bummer when you have to leave a good place early, especially when you know you've been enjoying it up until that point. As usual with travel days there was a lot of hurry up and wait. We scrambled onto what must have been the locals morning commute boat as there were enough people on board that we were close to sitting on each other's laps. Thankfully the ride was quick and I even managed to strike up a conversation with a fellow traveler, talking about where we've been and where we're going. At this point in the trip talking about the trip is as easy as talking about your hometown. When we arrived our booking agent met us at the pier and had us walk to a little cafe. Apparently our ride misunderstood the concept of picking people up at the pier as him and the booking agent exchanged some words about, which I didn't understand, but got the general meaning. We got to the cafe, which was the meeting point for all other travelers on our trip. The only problem was that it was 8:30 in the morning and as we sat down they told us we wouldn't be leaving until 11:30. I know I'm a stickler for time and that's just not how things are done here. Something that's supposed to pick you up at 7:30 means anywhere within thirty minutes of then is good enough. Still this was pushing it. It didn't make sense that we had to catch the early boat over to the cafe if we were going to just sit around for three hours. We could have done that at our hotel, which we had paid for through noon. It gave us time to talk to other travelers and form alliances for our deadly game of boat living. Three hours didn't so much fly by as they limped along. When it was finally time everyone was told to walk back to the pier. Efficiency isn't the strongest trait for the travel industry here. At least we were on our way towards the dragons.
The boat we were going to be living on was...smaller than the photo in the brochure. It was also a little bit shabbier. While I don't want to offend the fine people of Indonesia, there are times when you realize what a developing nation really means. Both Thailand and Malaysia had their quirks and you become accustomed to a certain level of care and maintenance. Indonesia is no different. Some places are nice and some, well they at least seem to be trying. If I had to sum it up into a single word, it would be 'Almost'. They almost reach the level of quality they're trying for. Honestly it's part of the charm of this country because the people are usually so friendly and easy to smile. You appreciate what they're going for. This boat was not one of those times. This was one of those times when you've found something online that looks amazing and then when you go see it in person you find out that the custom paint job is faded to the point of being irrelevant. It was ok though. We had stayed in worse places and it's all part of the adventure. Right?
I don't want to use this to complain about the trip because we've been very fortunate to be on this trip at all. It can't all be unicorns farting rainbows filled with candy sprinkles. Our cabin was a sauna resting on a waterbed attached to a rollercoaster. The first night we sweated ourselves to sleep. The second night we dreamed about how would we manage to get off a sinking ship and get back to safety. The third night was filled with music, beer, and water so still you'd think you were on dry land. The fourth day we wandered through the jungle looking for dragons, only to find them lounging around the village like a bunch of lazy cats. Having seen an animal in the zoo and then seeing it in the wild are two very different things. These dragons did their best to bridge the gap by making sure to lay still long enough for everyone to get photos. Some even were brave enough to get close to have their picture taken with the dragon, from a safe distance of course. Our rangers had sticks in case one of the dragons got unruly, but they had no interest in us as we were a group of thirty white European travelers that were constantly making noise. In the end I can say I've been to the island of Komodo and walked among the dragons.
We've only a couple days away from leaving SE Asia. We're headed back to Bali to find some good food and relaxation in the highest order. As usual, I'm interested to see what happens next.
The package included a four day, four night boat trip to the island, with other adventure stops along the way. The price wasn't inexpensive, but considering they would be covering our meals, accomodations, and transport, it seemed like it would be worth the cost. We booked for the day after next, so that we could actually enjoy the island that we just arrived at. An island so small that it only took an hour and a half to walk around. That was with us going slow and taking pictures. Still it was a nice relaxing place to be with less than a week left for this portion of our trip. This trip has had one constant, which seems to be once we've gotten used to a place, we leave it. It's not because we don't like it. It's more to do with the fact that there was so much to see and do that it didn't feel right being in a place long enough to get bored with it. We were looking for something that would more or less take away the decisions and planning that would be required for some of the final days. I can see why people book all inclusive cruises or hotels. There is something nice about knowing that the heavy lifting has been taken care of and your only responsibility is to enjoy it.
We had to wake up early and catch a boat off the island to the neighboring island. It's always a little bit of of a bummer when you have to leave a good place early, especially when you know you've been enjoying it up until that point. As usual with travel days there was a lot of hurry up and wait. We scrambled onto what must have been the locals morning commute boat as there were enough people on board that we were close to sitting on each other's laps. Thankfully the ride was quick and I even managed to strike up a conversation with a fellow traveler, talking about where we've been and where we're going. At this point in the trip talking about the trip is as easy as talking about your hometown. When we arrived our booking agent met us at the pier and had us walk to a little cafe. Apparently our ride misunderstood the concept of picking people up at the pier as him and the booking agent exchanged some words about, which I didn't understand, but got the general meaning. We got to the cafe, which was the meeting point for all other travelers on our trip. The only problem was that it was 8:30 in the morning and as we sat down they told us we wouldn't be leaving until 11:30. I know I'm a stickler for time and that's just not how things are done here. Something that's supposed to pick you up at 7:30 means anywhere within thirty minutes of then is good enough. Still this was pushing it. It didn't make sense that we had to catch the early boat over to the cafe if we were going to just sit around for three hours. We could have done that at our hotel, which we had paid for through noon. It gave us time to talk to other travelers and form alliances for our deadly game of boat living. Three hours didn't so much fly by as they limped along. When it was finally time everyone was told to walk back to the pier. Efficiency isn't the strongest trait for the travel industry here. At least we were on our way towards the dragons.
The boat we were going to be living on was...smaller than the photo in the brochure. It was also a little bit shabbier. While I don't want to offend the fine people of Indonesia, there are times when you realize what a developing nation really means. Both Thailand and Malaysia had their quirks and you become accustomed to a certain level of care and maintenance. Indonesia is no different. Some places are nice and some, well they at least seem to be trying. If I had to sum it up into a single word, it would be 'Almost'. They almost reach the level of quality they're trying for. Honestly it's part of the charm of this country because the people are usually so friendly and easy to smile. You appreciate what they're going for. This boat was not one of those times. This was one of those times when you've found something online that looks amazing and then when you go see it in person you find out that the custom paint job is faded to the point of being irrelevant. It was ok though. We had stayed in worse places and it's all part of the adventure. Right?
I don't want to use this to complain about the trip because we've been very fortunate to be on this trip at all. It can't all be unicorns farting rainbows filled with candy sprinkles. Our cabin was a sauna resting on a waterbed attached to a rollercoaster. The first night we sweated ourselves to sleep. The second night we dreamed about how would we manage to get off a sinking ship and get back to safety. The third night was filled with music, beer, and water so still you'd think you were on dry land. The fourth day we wandered through the jungle looking for dragons, only to find them lounging around the village like a bunch of lazy cats. Having seen an animal in the zoo and then seeing it in the wild are two very different things. These dragons did their best to bridge the gap by making sure to lay still long enough for everyone to get photos. Some even were brave enough to get close to have their picture taken with the dragon, from a safe distance of course. Our rangers had sticks in case one of the dragons got unruly, but they had no interest in us as we were a group of thirty white European travelers that were constantly making noise. In the end I can say I've been to the island of Komodo and walked among the dragons.
We've only a couple days away from leaving SE Asia. We're headed back to Bali to find some good food and relaxation in the highest order. As usual, I'm interested to see what happens next.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Travel Log: Tipping Point
In America we tip for so many things. Someone brings you a cup of coffee. You tip them. Someone takes your bag to your room. You tip them. However, there are slight variations on these services where you're not supposed to tip. I've never quite figured out when and where these are. When you hire movers you're apparently supposed to tip them and/or the driver, even though you've paid for their services. At a fast food place they may bring you your food on a tray, but you don't tip them. If there is a set of rules for tipping, I've never seen it. Add to that trying to figure out how much you're supposed to tip for things. When I was younger the standard tip was 10%, which was for a good job. Now it seems that is considered being rude. Tipping 15-20% is pretty standard it seems, even though in a lot of these situations the person is simply doing the job that you've already paid for. Very confusing.
It's even more difficult here in Indonesia because the currency is so much different. An American dollar is worth over ten thousand of the local currency. So it's hard to know if 10% is reasonable or not. With taxi drivers we've tended to be a lot more generous because after seeing how they are forced to navigate the tiny streets here, a tip is really a thank you for getting us there alive and with all of our pieces still attached. We did learn though that sometimes, maybe most times, the taxi drivers have incentive to stop at certain places that tourists like. For instance a view point overlooking much of the hills and rice fields will have someone there with exotic animals or trinkets. The driver stops, you get your picture, maybe the guy at the stand gets a few dollars, and the taxi driver might get a split. I'm not sure, but I've seen money changing hands so something is going on. Most of the time this has been all very casual, with the option to politely refuse if you don't want something. The closer we got to one of the main holy temples in Bali, the more requests for money we got. Some of which didn't feel like requests either. As we stood on the side of a road taking a picture of the mountains, a man in a camouflage jacket rode up on a scooter and told us that we have to pay. When we asked what for, he simply said that lots of tourists come through here and we have to pay. He said this as cars and motorcycles kept whizzing by, more full of locals than of tourists. The taxi driver handed us some money and we paid the guy, who then hopped on his scooter and drove off. Apparently we were on some kind of toll road and didn't even know it. Our second toll came when we were stopped on the way to the temple. A woman asked our names and gave us a blessing. She then immediately held out your hands and said 'Now gimme money'. I'm not even kidding about that part. We both saw it coming, but were disappointed just the same. I don't think blessings can be contingent on payment. Either way, we gave her some money and were on our way.
Finally we arrived at the largest temple on Bali and were greeted by guides, who insisted we had to 'donate' in order to be accompanied by a local guide. We had read in our travel book that it simply wasn't true, but we had been riding in a car for nearly four hours and were exhausted. We 'donated' some money and walked with a guide into the holy temple so we could get some very expensive photographs. And at the end of the little field trip our seemingly nice guide held out his hand to ask for more money, to which we responded that we already donated and that he should take up his collection from the guy who had our holy offering. With that we left and decided that the other temple we had planned on seeing was off the list.
I get that people need to make money and I get that some people will run a scam if they think it will work. The part that bothered me was that they used what is supposed to be a holy place as a way to guilt people into paying. Maybe in the past tourists had come and treated the place like garbage by filling it with garbage. The locals, seeing a chance to earn some money from the loud tourists decided it's best to overcharge just in case because they will get money from both the good and the bad. Either way, it was the first part of the trip where it felt like we were being taken advantage of and it kept us on guard for a long while after that.
After all that, we managed to arrive at a small town that is built a reputation around scuba diving to a somewhat famous US Naval ship, the USS Liberty, which is sunk just off the shore. Never having done scuba before, it was kind of amazing having my first trip be to a sunken ship filled with tropical fish, barracudas, sea slugs, and manta rays. Granted I spent the first half of my dive focused on my breathing and simply not dying, but once I had gotten the hang of things, it was really amazing being in a place that the human body wasn't really supposed to be.
We've entered the last couple of weeks before we leave SE Asia and start making our way back home. I'm not sure what to expect. I am excited for what comes next though.
Finally we arrived at the largest temple on Bali and were greeted by guides, who insisted we had to 'donate' in order to be accompanied by a local guide. We had read in our travel book that it simply wasn't true, but we had been riding in a car for nearly four hours and were exhausted. We 'donated' some money and walked with a guide into the holy temple so we could get some very expensive photographs. And at the end of the little field trip our seemingly nice guide held out his hand to ask for more money, to which we responded that we already donated and that he should take up his collection from the guy who had our holy offering. With that we left and decided that the other temple we had planned on seeing was off the list.
I get that people need to make money and I get that some people will run a scam if they think it will work. The part that bothered me was that they used what is supposed to be a holy place as a way to guilt people into paying. Maybe in the past tourists had come and treated the place like garbage by filling it with garbage. The locals, seeing a chance to earn some money from the loud tourists decided it's best to overcharge just in case because they will get money from both the good and the bad. Either way, it was the first part of the trip where it felt like we were being taken advantage of and it kept us on guard for a long while after that.
After all that, we managed to arrive at a small town that is built a reputation around scuba diving to a somewhat famous US Naval ship, the USS Liberty, which is sunk just off the shore. Never having done scuba before, it was kind of amazing having my first trip be to a sunken ship filled with tropical fish, barracudas, sea slugs, and manta rays. Granted I spent the first half of my dive focused on my breathing and simply not dying, but once I had gotten the hang of things, it was really amazing being in a place that the human body wasn't really supposed to be.
We've entered the last couple of weeks before we leave SE Asia and start making our way back home. I'm not sure what to expect. I am excited for what comes next though.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Travel Log: Australian Hawaii
It turns out going to Jakarta and not liking it wasn't all that bad of a thing to happen. Because of it we've come to Bali earlier than originally planned. The first stop was Kuta Beach, which in the travel book was described as where you'd experience the hedonistic beach world. It sounded almost post-apocalyptic. Then we saw what it was. It was a street lined with resorts on one side and shopping and bars on the other. In either direction from our hotel was a mall. Apparently this area is very popular with Australian tourists, who come here on an annual basis. There were several visitors who behaved like they had been friends with the staff for awhile, which either happens over several trips or this is a movie and they're the main character of the story and have somehow gotten close to everyone they come into contact with in a matter of a few scenes. It must be nice to have something tropical so close...like Hawaii. The downside to this though is that every white person is assumed to be from Australia so the 'Hey, Mate. Shopping?' continues. It was actually getting a little tedious not being able to walk more than ten feet without having to say 'no thank you'. When everyone looks at you like a giant, white ATM with horrible taste it's hard to really relax and enjoy yourself. It wasn't all bad though. It was just something that took some getting use to.
After that we headed towards the town Ubud, which is known as an artistic area and a lot more relaxed. On the main road, which is called Monkey Forest Road (spoiler alert monkeys) there are endless galleries of paintings, sculptures, souvenirs, good clothing, and wooden penis bottle openers. And right at the center of this is the Monkey Forest, where gangster monkeys roam around waiting for a tourist to give them a park-approved banana. If they get tired of waiting, they'll just climb onto you and see what's in your bag. They have no fear and one little one even came up and bit us, just to show us that it could. There is something very disarming about watching how they watch us. 'When she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out. They remember.'
The town also has what is said to be the best tacos in Indonesia, which may be a bold claim or just a simple trick since they may be the only ones who make tacos. Either way, we managed to come around the world and find damn good tacos. Good enough that we ate there all three days we were in town. Even on our last day when we only had an hour left before our taxi (taksi) came to pick us up for the next stop, we made sure to stop in for one last bite. Before we left the town, we made sure to take advantage of some of the activities nearby, which included river rafting. Rafting may be too strong of a term. It was more like a water park ride with the safeties disabled. Our guide was gracious enough to give us paddles and tell us to paddle a few times so we felt like we were white water rafting. The best part was when we dropped off a twelve foot waterfall before we could continue on for a lunch break.
We've since arrived in Munduk, which is a nice little mountain village with a few resorts that seem to cater to the French. The views are fantastic and we're basically staying in a movie. Right now I'm on the side patio, overlooking the grounds while the cicadas go bananas letting everyone know that the sun is going down soon. Once it gets dark here though most people don't go out as there is a local belief that the jungle may be inhabited by spirits or demons. Based on the size of the spiders I've seen, I can see how someone would think it's a demon. Either way once the sun goes down I'm staying in the light. No need to find out if the locals are right or not.
After that we headed towards the town Ubud, which is known as an artistic area and a lot more relaxed. On the main road, which is called Monkey Forest Road (spoiler alert monkeys) there are endless galleries of paintings, sculptures, souvenirs, good clothing, and wooden penis bottle openers. And right at the center of this is the Monkey Forest, where gangster monkeys roam around waiting for a tourist to give them a park-approved banana. If they get tired of waiting, they'll just climb onto you and see what's in your bag. They have no fear and one little one even came up and bit us, just to show us that it could. There is something very disarming about watching how they watch us. 'When she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out. They remember.'
The town also has what is said to be the best tacos in Indonesia, which may be a bold claim or just a simple trick since they may be the only ones who make tacos. Either way, we managed to come around the world and find damn good tacos. Good enough that we ate there all three days we were in town. Even on our last day when we only had an hour left before our taxi (taksi) came to pick us up for the next stop, we made sure to stop in for one last bite. Before we left the town, we made sure to take advantage of some of the activities nearby, which included river rafting. Rafting may be too strong of a term. It was more like a water park ride with the safeties disabled. Our guide was gracious enough to give us paddles and tell us to paddle a few times so we felt like we were white water rafting. The best part was when we dropped off a twelve foot waterfall before we could continue on for a lunch break.
We've since arrived in Munduk, which is a nice little mountain village with a few resorts that seem to cater to the French. The views are fantastic and we're basically staying in a movie. Right now I'm on the side patio, overlooking the grounds while the cicadas go bananas letting everyone know that the sun is going down soon. Once it gets dark here though most people don't go out as there is a local belief that the jungle may be inhabited by spirits or demons. Based on the size of the spiders I've seen, I can see how someone would think it's a demon. Either way once the sun goes down I'm staying in the light. No need to find out if the locals are right or not.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Travel Log: Jakarta
Well it had to happen eventually. We found a place that we don't like. At first I thought it was just from being spoiled by Singapore, but it feels like it goes beyond that. Not a lot of tourists come through this city and it's not setup for visitors, so I can't really fault the city for not being travel-friendly. It's a bit like if someone from Eastern Europe went to visit Billings, MT and wondered why no one understood them. That said, we tried to do a few things here to make the best of our couple of days stay. It was strange though because people everywhere would stare at you. At first I thought maybe I had an alien face hugger attached to my face, but no, it's just because I'm a tall white person. After awhile it makes a person feel self-conscious to the point that I don't want to play anymore.
Originally this was supposed to be a jumping off point to the last part of our South East Asia leg of the trip, but after finding out how difficult it is to get out of the city to the areas we want to visit on Java we've decided to scrap the whole island and head straight to Bali, where it's more suited to our frame of mind at this point in our trip. From there we should be able to do some island hopping and maybe even see some dragons!
Originally this was supposed to be a jumping off point to the last part of our South East Asia leg of the trip, but after finding out how difficult it is to get out of the city to the areas we want to visit on Java we've decided to scrap the whole island and head straight to Bali, where it's more suited to our frame of mind at this point in our trip. From there we should be able to do some island hopping and maybe even see some dragons!
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Travel Log: Singapore
Maybe it's because I've never been to New York City or Beverly Hills before, but Singapore felt like a city that chose all the 'best' stuff and threw it into a single location. Back home you'd walk down the street and see shops or maybe a mall. In Singapore you have malls next to each other like we have stores next to each other, each one with insanely high-end products that I can barely afford to look at much less buy. I don't even know how people make enough money to keep all these places in business. Still it was fun at least looking around and pretending that the almighty dollar would see us through. This was the first part of the trip where it felt very close to home and yet very far away. It was also the first place where we decided to just embrace the tourist path since there were so many great things to do and see.
The thing about Singapore is that you are well aware of how strict they are on things. When flying in they tell you drug trafficking has a mandatory death sentence. While you're free to have a good time and spend money on most anything you want, it felt like if you step out of line the punishment would be severe and possibly done as an example to everyone else on the consequences. It's hard to know which parts of their system is doing the most good, but whatever it is everyone who lived there kept talking about how fast the city is changing. It felt like it was slightly in the future, so it's interesting to think about how it will look in ten years.
We've entered our final portion of South East Asia, with our last country being Indonesia, which will be very different from Malaysia. I'm not sure what to expect because every time we get used to something or some place, we leave it. It's strange knowing that after all this time we've only hit the halfway point of our total holiday. In some ways it's felt endless and in others it seems to be going by so quickly. Strangely enough with the help of Facebook I still get to see what my friends are doing and wish I hadn't missed out on something. It's hard to not think about where you aren't. Time moves so fast though it won't be long before I'm looking back at this trip and wondering how it got behind me so fast.
The thing about Singapore is that you are well aware of how strict they are on things. When flying in they tell you drug trafficking has a mandatory death sentence. While you're free to have a good time and spend money on most anything you want, it felt like if you step out of line the punishment would be severe and possibly done as an example to everyone else on the consequences. It's hard to know which parts of their system is doing the most good, but whatever it is everyone who lived there kept talking about how fast the city is changing. It felt like it was slightly in the future, so it's interesting to think about how it will look in ten years.
We've entered our final portion of South East Asia, with our last country being Indonesia, which will be very different from Malaysia. I'm not sure what to expect because every time we get used to something or some place, we leave it. It's strange knowing that after all this time we've only hit the halfway point of our total holiday. In some ways it's felt endless and in others it seems to be going by so quickly. Strangely enough with the help of Facebook I still get to see what my friends are doing and wish I hadn't missed out on something. It's hard to not think about where you aren't. Time moves so fast though it won't be long before I'm looking back at this trip and wondering how it got behind me so fast.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Travel Log: Reversal of Fortune
We had our first real misadventure yesterday. After a day of seeing the sites in Kuala Lumpur we decided to take a bus to the Cameron Highlands for trekking, tea tasting, and honey collecting. We should have known things were going to be interesting when everyone kept talking about the long Labor Day holiday that started on Friday, when we were set to leave. We were told to be on the bus platform at 4 PM for our 4:30 bus. By 4:15 we could tell there was no real system in place. A bus would show up and people would scramble to get on, only to realize that it wasn't going where they wanted to go. Clutching our bags to us after a close call with them almost heading off to Singapore without us, we kept watching for our bus. Thankfully there were several English speaking travelers who were all going to the same place so there was a bit of comfort there. Almost by chance an unofficial looking bus station worker said Cameron Highlands just loud enough for us to hear as he waved us off the platform and then across the bus station, outside onto the side of the street, and into our waiting bus. At least that part was taken care of. I pulled out the iPad and started a movie, with the intent to just watch stuff until the four hour trip was over.
About halfway through the second movie we realized that the stop and go traffic had been happening for most of Tom Cruise's spy adventure through exotic lands. Looking our the front window all you could see were tail lights for miles...or kilometers if you want to keep with the local system. No problem, we'll be a little bit late, but should still have plenty of time. We kept hearing people talking about how they hadn't booked a room yet, however, they heard there were plenty of places so they would sort it out when they arrived. After over six hours on the road the bus finally pulled over...to the rest station that was meant to be the halfway point. The place looked like something out of the apocalypse. Cars were parked everywhere. Some with the hoods open. Some wth their four way flashers still going. The lines for food and bathrooms were at least thirty minutes long. You get really creative and a lot less shy when you have to pee and only have minutes to do it before the bus is set to leave.
When we finally arrived in town it was 2:30 AM, the whole journey taking just over ten hours to complete. We asked the bus driver where there was a taxi stand and he just waved his hand in some direction away from his bus. A few minutes later he was gone and everyone who was on the bus was now aimlessly wandering the streets trying to figure out where to go next. Thankfully a local took some pity on us and saw an opportunity to make some quick cash and became an impromptu taxi service for us and another couple of travelers from Oregon (small world). It was only a five minute drive to our hotel just outside of town and the sign on the front said 'Full House'. That's when the real fun began.
Several days ago we booked both our bus travel and hotel in this area so we were covered. That is until the front desk person asked for our confirmation number and we realized that our reservation wasn't for tonight, but for twenty days in the future. We suddenly didn't have a place to stay in a town with no taxis and fully booked hotels. We got to a point where we begged for a service room or even a couch to sleep on until we figured it out. Finally the front desk told us that their sister hotel down the road may have the penthouse suite still available for tonight only. With that information we set off into the dark for our 'probably 100 meters' search for hotel. Upon arriving at the darkened sister hotel we were greated by silence and another sign that said 'Full House'. Sitting in the lobby we tried to figure out what we could do next when the overnight attendant came walking down the stairs. I nearly hugged him, I was so happy when he said the penthouse was still available.
What started off as a pretty good day turned sour and then ended with us taking a bubble bath in a real tub. The room is so large you could use it as an indoor jogging course if you don't mind navigating around the antique writing desk, the fake fireplace, the two sitting areas, or two double beds. It took me five minutes to turn off all the lights. I felt like I was going through a castle blowing out the candelabras. Thankfully we found rooms at our first hotel for the next two nights so we're mostly back on track from where we started, but it was quite the adventure getting to this point. Of course not all adventures are fun when you're having them.
About halfway through the second movie we realized that the stop and go traffic had been happening for most of Tom Cruise's spy adventure through exotic lands. Looking our the front window all you could see were tail lights for miles...or kilometers if you want to keep with the local system. No problem, we'll be a little bit late, but should still have plenty of time. We kept hearing people talking about how they hadn't booked a room yet, however, they heard there were plenty of places so they would sort it out when they arrived. After over six hours on the road the bus finally pulled over...to the rest station that was meant to be the halfway point. The place looked like something out of the apocalypse. Cars were parked everywhere. Some with the hoods open. Some wth their four way flashers still going. The lines for food and bathrooms were at least thirty minutes long. You get really creative and a lot less shy when you have to pee and only have minutes to do it before the bus is set to leave.
When we finally arrived in town it was 2:30 AM, the whole journey taking just over ten hours to complete. We asked the bus driver where there was a taxi stand and he just waved his hand in some direction away from his bus. A few minutes later he was gone and everyone who was on the bus was now aimlessly wandering the streets trying to figure out where to go next. Thankfully a local took some pity on us and saw an opportunity to make some quick cash and became an impromptu taxi service for us and another couple of travelers from Oregon (small world). It was only a five minute drive to our hotel just outside of town and the sign on the front said 'Full House'. That's when the real fun began.
Several days ago we booked both our bus travel and hotel in this area so we were covered. That is until the front desk person asked for our confirmation number and we realized that our reservation wasn't for tonight, but for twenty days in the future. We suddenly didn't have a place to stay in a town with no taxis and fully booked hotels. We got to a point where we begged for a service room or even a couch to sleep on until we figured it out. Finally the front desk told us that their sister hotel down the road may have the penthouse suite still available for tonight only. With that information we set off into the dark for our 'probably 100 meters' search for hotel. Upon arriving at the darkened sister hotel we were greated by silence and another sign that said 'Full House'. Sitting in the lobby we tried to figure out what we could do next when the overnight attendant came walking down the stairs. I nearly hugged him, I was so happy when he said the penthouse was still available.
What started off as a pretty good day turned sour and then ended with us taking a bubble bath in a real tub. The room is so large you could use it as an indoor jogging course if you don't mind navigating around the antique writing desk, the fake fireplace, the two sitting areas, or two double beds. It took me five minutes to turn off all the lights. I felt like I was going through a castle blowing out the candelabras. Thankfully we found rooms at our first hotel for the next two nights so we're mostly back on track from where we started, but it was quite the adventure getting to this point. Of course not all adventures are fun when you're having them.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Travel Log: Ghosts
A lot of the things over here are the same as they are back home. Things that are almost comforting when you see them. The people are mostly the same too. Maybe a bit shorter than usual, but you can spot a group of giggling teenage girls or the nerdy guy pretty quickly. It's the little things though that are disarming. In America everything has a sound or at least some presence. Everyone needs to let everyone else know that they exist, even if they want to be left alone. Here there have been so many times that someone silently moves closer to you without you realizing. It's not anything sinister either. It's more that personal bubbles are considerably smaller and at least with people selling something they know that they need to be near you in case you show interest. Back home there are really two settings for salespeople. Either they are right in your face or they are nowhere to be found. Here they quietly hover near you. In some cases they are close enough to me to be in my party.
Having spent four days on a relaxing island, where the people are friendly and fairly laid back, it's strange coming to a big city again. I can't tell if it's good or bad. Everything feels like it's western influenced, but not quite western. It's like someone's idea of what America must be like. Apparently that world is full of KFC joints because they are everywhere here. It's ok because this is really meant as a jumping off point for other areas. Still it's both nice to see familiar and somewhat different versions of things back home and a good reminder of the things we're fine with trying to avoid not only on this trip, but in our lives in general.
We have been traveling for a month now. It doesn't feel that long and yet it seems like forever ago that we were home. Thankfully with technology today it's so easy to stay in contact, even though talking to someone isn't the same as seeing them. Life goes on without you while you're off having adventures and it's hard to not feel a little bit like a ghost to the people back home. Gone, but not really gone. There is still plenty of time left in this portion of the trip and I'm making sure that I don't spend my time looking forward to things rather than being here now. That said I am looking forward to getting back out of the city and onto strange and different things like tea and honey from the highlands.
Having spent four days on a relaxing island, where the people are friendly and fairly laid back, it's strange coming to a big city again. I can't tell if it's good or bad. Everything feels like it's western influenced, but not quite western. It's like someone's idea of what America must be like. Apparently that world is full of KFC joints because they are everywhere here. It's ok because this is really meant as a jumping off point for other areas. Still it's both nice to see familiar and somewhat different versions of things back home and a good reminder of the things we're fine with trying to avoid not only on this trip, but in our lives in general.
We have been traveling for a month now. It doesn't feel that long and yet it seems like forever ago that we were home. Thankfully with technology today it's so easy to stay in contact, even though talking to someone isn't the same as seeing them. Life goes on without you while you're off having adventures and it's hard to not feel a little bit like a ghost to the people back home. Gone, but not really gone. There is still plenty of time left in this portion of the trip and I'm making sure that I don't spend my time looking forward to things rather than being here now. That said I am looking forward to getting back out of the city and onto strange and different things like tea and honey from the highlands.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Travel Log: Last Stop in Thailand
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if future travel could also include a time component to it. For instance being able to experience the Ketucky Derby from fifty years ago or seeing an jungle before tourists made it popular. Imagine being able to tell someone about how you went to a place in time rather than just the place as it exists now. Of course every time we visit a place that's how it will exist for us until we return. If we return. Sometimes it's better to keep the memory than to see how things have changed. Thailand has been an interesting experience. One full of weird interactions with people who have become accustomed to tourists as their main source of income. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's certainly altered the way I will see this place.
Our final stop in the country is a small island that was supposedly a well kept secret up until about ten years ago. Since then it's become mostly a beach resort community, with a focus on diving and tours to nearby islands. The first night on the island we found a bungalow just off the beach for relatively cheap. Bungalow being a little cabin made of bamboo with a mattress in the middle of the room, protected by a mosquito net. That was a hard night, as both of us had a difficult time sleeping with the sounds of the jungle right outside. Much like with camping, a lot of the noises you hear turn out to be benign things. In this case, it was a goat that was tied to a stump clomping and chomping away at the surrounding jungle. It was a relief to know that, however, it would have been nice to know at 3:27 AM when we thought it was either a monkey, the most aggressive scorpion monster, or the Thai version of the Blair Witch coming to steal our souls while we desperately tried to sleep.
After the first night we decided that it was time to upgrade a bit. As we were packing that's when I realized my left ear was hurting more than usual. Considering all the bumps and scrapes we've both encountered in our short holiday, I took it as normal road wear. Walking next door and paying five times more than we did the first night, we booked a couple nights at what may be considered the nicest accommodations this whole trip. Two pillows?! For each of us?! It's funny the things you consider to be a luxury as you spend more time traveling in remote areas. Spending our time in a room, even a nice room wasn't how we wanted to spend our last bit of time in Thailand, but considering the night we had, which has been preceeded by twelve hours of travel, we decided we needed to reset back to zero. After a nice nap, or you know, just falling asleep in the middle of the day for six hours, we managed to pull ourselves out of the room, which is when I realized my ear wasn't any better, in fact it now felt like someone had stuffed wet cotton as far as they could and was pressing on it with a sharp stick.
They say don't get sick or injured while you're in a developing nation. This is true, but if you're going to get sick or injured, then do it on the resort island. The medical clinic was nice and fast and cool. Although I had explained to the nurse and again to the doctor that yes my left ear hurts quite a lot, the doctor needed to confirm this by sticking something in there and jamming it around while I did my best to not cry or punch. Confirmed with a true ear infection, it was a bit conforting to know that we did the right thing coming to the clinic rather than trying to just push through it. The size and number of the pills prescribed show me that it's nothing something you could just get over, unless you're cool with quite a bit of unmanaged pain.
With my ear being a limiting factor we decided to treat our last few days on the island like you would if you went to a resort and spent a lot of money. We stayed in the resort and took advantage of the room and its extra soft pillows, which meant ordering pizza and watching a movie. I know it may have seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity considering where we are, but with several more weeks still to go on this trip, it's safer to heal up in luxury rather than push to the point of breaking.
Our last night in Thailand was a quiet one. Walking down the street mall, seeing all the vendors and wondering if that Asian tourist is aiming for you as you step into a ditch to avoid them. Lightning on the beach and dogs coming up with wagging tails, hoping you're one of the nice people who maybe drops more food than you eat. When the sun came up the next day we stepped onto the boat, which was playing a pirated copy of the latest Fast and Furious movie, that I had to actively avoid watching (spoilers!) and headed to our next destination: Malaysia.
Our final stop in the country is a small island that was supposedly a well kept secret up until about ten years ago. Since then it's become mostly a beach resort community, with a focus on diving and tours to nearby islands. The first night on the island we found a bungalow just off the beach for relatively cheap. Bungalow being a little cabin made of bamboo with a mattress in the middle of the room, protected by a mosquito net. That was a hard night, as both of us had a difficult time sleeping with the sounds of the jungle right outside. Much like with camping, a lot of the noises you hear turn out to be benign things. In this case, it was a goat that was tied to a stump clomping and chomping away at the surrounding jungle. It was a relief to know that, however, it would have been nice to know at 3:27 AM when we thought it was either a monkey, the most aggressive scorpion monster, or the Thai version of the Blair Witch coming to steal our souls while we desperately tried to sleep.
After the first night we decided that it was time to upgrade a bit. As we were packing that's when I realized my left ear was hurting more than usual. Considering all the bumps and scrapes we've both encountered in our short holiday, I took it as normal road wear. Walking next door and paying five times more than we did the first night, we booked a couple nights at what may be considered the nicest accommodations this whole trip. Two pillows?! For each of us?! It's funny the things you consider to be a luxury as you spend more time traveling in remote areas. Spending our time in a room, even a nice room wasn't how we wanted to spend our last bit of time in Thailand, but considering the night we had, which has been preceeded by twelve hours of travel, we decided we needed to reset back to zero. After a nice nap, or you know, just falling asleep in the middle of the day for six hours, we managed to pull ourselves out of the room, which is when I realized my ear wasn't any better, in fact it now felt like someone had stuffed wet cotton as far as they could and was pressing on it with a sharp stick.
They say don't get sick or injured while you're in a developing nation. This is true, but if you're going to get sick or injured, then do it on the resort island. The medical clinic was nice and fast and cool. Although I had explained to the nurse and again to the doctor that yes my left ear hurts quite a lot, the doctor needed to confirm this by sticking something in there and jamming it around while I did my best to not cry or punch. Confirmed with a true ear infection, it was a bit conforting to know that we did the right thing coming to the clinic rather than trying to just push through it. The size and number of the pills prescribed show me that it's nothing something you could just get over, unless you're cool with quite a bit of unmanaged pain.
With my ear being a limiting factor we decided to treat our last few days on the island like you would if you went to a resort and spent a lot of money. We stayed in the resort and took advantage of the room and its extra soft pillows, which meant ordering pizza and watching a movie. I know it may have seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity considering where we are, but with several more weeks still to go on this trip, it's safer to heal up in luxury rather than push to the point of breaking.
Our last night in Thailand was a quiet one. Walking down the street mall, seeing all the vendors and wondering if that Asian tourist is aiming for you as you step into a ditch to avoid them. Lightning on the beach and dogs coming up with wagging tails, hoping you're one of the nice people who maybe drops more food than you eat. When the sun came up the next day we stepped onto the boat, which was playing a pirated copy of the latest Fast and Furious movie, that I had to actively avoid watching (spoilers!) and headed to our next destination: Malaysia.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Travel Log: The Jungle Lake
After several days in a large city we decided to 'get away from it all' for a little bit. We hoped on a bus headed to a remote town out near the national park. It's a little disarming when you get to a bus station and the bus is getting ready to leave as you hop on board. We kept asking if we were on the right one and people would just nod. Apparently we found the locals bus, meaning we were the only white faces on board. Even still they nearly took off without us at one of the rest stops when the twenty minute break was closer to thirteen. When we arrived at our town a taxi driver took us down to the end of a long dirt road where our lodge was. We were told about our rooms and the price, which was kind of funny because at that point we didn't have a whole lot of options. Thankfully the room was nice even if we did end up sharing our bed with a variety of different critters. Eventually you get too tired to care if that feeling on your leg is in your mind or really a bug looking for a warm place to bed down. You can tell you're in for an adventure when the person at the front desk makes a point to tell you to lock your windows and doors because the monkeys steal anything and when swimming in the river always keep moving so the puffer fish won't bite you.
It's not until you lose something that you realize what it was worth. The next day we took another taxi into the park, rode a long boat for an hour, until we came to our cabins on the shore. They were situated on floating logs like something out of Waterworld. Knowing they were only for storing our bag and sleeping it wasn't something we really thought about too much. We came out here to experience the jungle...with a guide, fresh water, and provided meals. Before we left for the park we were told only take swimming gear, the cameras, sunscreen, a headlamp, and towels. Before we left on our first trek to the cave we were told just bring the camera and have your swimsuits on. Before we entered the cave we were told to drop everything else that we might still have. It was both thrilling and terrifying to strip down even further before walking into the darkness.
In any group activity the dynamic of the group is made up of its people. A single person can change that when you're all strangers. While everyone seemed nice enough there was this overall feeling throughout the group that this experience was some thing you had to get through rather than enjoy. The hike to the cave was done in a way that felt like passing through checkpoints. I would have preferred to enjoy the trek to the cave as much as the cave itself. Once we entered the cave that feeling didn't go away. It was almost like being on a Disney ride where you're on rails and being pulled along in a way to see everything, but not enough time could be spent experiencing it. That's not to say the cave was bad. It was my favorite part of the day, however, there were people in our group who moved through things like they were checking them off a list. Once they got a picture they moved on and you had better keep up. It was at that point when I felt like a tourist.
One of the things we hoped for on this whole trip was to make travel friends. People who share our ideas for travel and also want to make friends as they go through their adventures. We were lucky early on to meet a group that had been traveling for over a year and were incredibly nice. We even sort of traveled with them for a little bit of time. Meeting up at a few different places over the course of a week. It was nice having friends, even if for a little bit. Then thing is though in order to make friends both sides have to be open to the idea of it. Admittedly there are a lot of times where I'm content to just go along without having to be 'on' for new people, but there are times when things work out just right and you meet someone unexpected. This part of the trip was equal parts of both. Many of the people were quick to talk to us and yet there was at least one couple that seemed to keep everyone on guard. Normally I'm not concerned about the language thing. Being an American we just sort of barely get by knowing English. This time though it was hard because even in our small group of European tourists there were several times were it felt like we were being intentionally excluded from the conversation as people would suddenly start speaking in their native language while you were sitting next to them. Now I know that I shouldn't expect everyone to speak my language and some people may not feel comfortable with English as a second language. That comes with traveling abroad. This was something else. This was the equivalent of holding your hand to someone's ear and whispering while looking directly at the person you're talking about. I don't need to get to know that kind of person. We have plenty of those kinds of people back home.
Don't get me wrong. The jungle adventure was fun, even with some unfriendly people, sunburn, and a few scrapes and buises. Going on it makes one appreciate little things a lot more, which I think is another thing we wanted from this trip as a whole. A little bit of perspective. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.
It's not until you lose something that you realize what it was worth. The next day we took another taxi into the park, rode a long boat for an hour, until we came to our cabins on the shore. They were situated on floating logs like something out of Waterworld. Knowing they were only for storing our bag and sleeping it wasn't something we really thought about too much. We came out here to experience the jungle...with a guide, fresh water, and provided meals. Before we left for the park we were told only take swimming gear, the cameras, sunscreen, a headlamp, and towels. Before we left on our first trek to the cave we were told just bring the camera and have your swimsuits on. Before we entered the cave we were told to drop everything else that we might still have. It was both thrilling and terrifying to strip down even further before walking into the darkness.
In any group activity the dynamic of the group is made up of its people. A single person can change that when you're all strangers. While everyone seemed nice enough there was this overall feeling throughout the group that this experience was some thing you had to get through rather than enjoy. The hike to the cave was done in a way that felt like passing through checkpoints. I would have preferred to enjoy the trek to the cave as much as the cave itself. Once we entered the cave that feeling didn't go away. It was almost like being on a Disney ride where you're on rails and being pulled along in a way to see everything, but not enough time could be spent experiencing it. That's not to say the cave was bad. It was my favorite part of the day, however, there were people in our group who moved through things like they were checking them off a list. Once they got a picture they moved on and you had better keep up. It was at that point when I felt like a tourist.
One of the things we hoped for on this whole trip was to make travel friends. People who share our ideas for travel and also want to make friends as they go through their adventures. We were lucky early on to meet a group that had been traveling for over a year and were incredibly nice. We even sort of traveled with them for a little bit of time. Meeting up at a few different places over the course of a week. It was nice having friends, even if for a little bit. Then thing is though in order to make friends both sides have to be open to the idea of it. Admittedly there are a lot of times where I'm content to just go along without having to be 'on' for new people, but there are times when things work out just right and you meet someone unexpected. This part of the trip was equal parts of both. Many of the people were quick to talk to us and yet there was at least one couple that seemed to keep everyone on guard. Normally I'm not concerned about the language thing. Being an American we just sort of barely get by knowing English. This time though it was hard because even in our small group of European tourists there were several times were it felt like we were being intentionally excluded from the conversation as people would suddenly start speaking in their native language while you were sitting next to them. Now I know that I shouldn't expect everyone to speak my language and some people may not feel comfortable with English as a second language. That comes with traveling abroad. This was something else. This was the equivalent of holding your hand to someone's ear and whispering while looking directly at the person you're talking about. I don't need to get to know that kind of person. We have plenty of those kinds of people back home.
Don't get me wrong. The jungle adventure was fun, even with some unfriendly people, sunburn, and a few scrapes and buises. Going on it makes one appreciate little things a lot more, which I think is another thing we wanted from this trip as a whole. A little bit of perspective. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
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