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...
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2015
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
Travel Log: Phuket
What do you get when you cross Las Vegas with Chinatown? That's what this place has been like for the last several days. Originally it was supposed to be a quick stop on our way to another island or jungle adventure, but finding a tailor to do a wedding dress and having a back that suddenly decided to stop working caused us to stay longer than we planned. While it's not exactly a bad city to visit, the "charm" wears off quickly when you realize that every single place is like all the others. They all have the same stuff and "for you a good price". I appreciate how hard it must be to make a living here, but after the third day we've learned how to say "no thanks, don't want" and "too expensive" in Thai.
Apparently everyone is surprised by us being Americans. It seems that we're a bit of an anomoly because Americans aren't really expected to be here at this time. Everyone seems to think that we're Australian at first or possibly Canadian. We're working hard to not play up to the ugly American stereotype, however, it's easy to see how these things get started. There have been several times when someone on the street extends a hand for a handshake and I have to forcefully ignore them. The first couple of times someone put out their hand I took it and then was being lead to a suit shop. Now that I have a suit I shake my head no and have to seem like the asshole because I don't want to interact with some guy wearing a shimmering purple dress shirt who calls me "boss". Sometimes they just give up, but there have been sometimes where as I'm walking away I can tell they say something derogatory, which hopefully makes them feel better because if I can't understand the insult then it really doesn't count to me. Because of this I'm looking forward to getting out of this hyperactive sales area.
We did at least go to a couple beaches while we were here. While it was fun to see the islands that you know from movies, it felt like I was a part of what's destrorying them as well. The beach from the movie The Beach had hundreds of people standing around on it. The shore looked like a parking lot for boats. It's a little sad watching people, including myself, trample down the thing that was once beautiful so that we can get a picture of it and say we were there. It makes me appreciate times when we go somewhere and there is no one else around.
We leave for the jungle today. Hopefully we can do some sort of camping/hiking trip to drastically change up what we've been experiencing so far. While we do have to come back to Phuket for the wedding dress, we will only be here for another day and then we move on to hopefully nicer places that don't feel like there totally devoid of anything real.
Apparently everyone is surprised by us being Americans. It seems that we're a bit of an anomoly because Americans aren't really expected to be here at this time. Everyone seems to think that we're Australian at first or possibly Canadian. We're working hard to not play up to the ugly American stereotype, however, it's easy to see how these things get started. There have been several times when someone on the street extends a hand for a handshake and I have to forcefully ignore them. The first couple of times someone put out their hand I took it and then was being lead to a suit shop. Now that I have a suit I shake my head no and have to seem like the asshole because I don't want to interact with some guy wearing a shimmering purple dress shirt who calls me "boss". Sometimes they just give up, but there have been sometimes where as I'm walking away I can tell they say something derogatory, which hopefully makes them feel better because if I can't understand the insult then it really doesn't count to me. Because of this I'm looking forward to getting out of this hyperactive sales area.
We did at least go to a couple beaches while we were here. While it was fun to see the islands that you know from movies, it felt like I was a part of what's destrorying them as well. The beach from the movie The Beach had hundreds of people standing around on it. The shore looked like a parking lot for boats. It's a little sad watching people, including myself, trample down the thing that was once beautiful so that we can get a picture of it and say we were there. It makes me appreciate times when we go somewhere and there is no one else around.
We leave for the jungle today. Hopefully we can do some sort of camping/hiking trip to drastically change up what we've been experiencing so far. While we do have to come back to Phuket for the wedding dress, we will only be here for another day and then we move on to hopefully nicer places that don't feel like there totally devoid of anything real.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Travel Log: Island Life
I sometimes wonder if a universal translator would be helpful or harmful to us. I suppose the immediate benefits are obvious, everyone would be able to understand everyone else. When I ask for noodle soup with chicken I'm not going to get a whole fried fish that's staring back at me. Then again , just knowing what the words translates to doesn't always mean you'll get their intent. People who speak my own language say one thing and mean an another. I understand the words, but have to watch for the subtext. Still it's a little strange being in a place where everyone except me speaks at least one other language. There have been several times when people are talking near me and I being self-involved, I wonder are they talking about me. In some cases they probably are. In others it's like being at the grocery store when the checkers are talking amongst themselves and you're barely there. As it is, I know enough German to know someone is speaking German. Oh I can also say good morning, count to five, and tell them my birthday is in May, you know, if that sort of thing comes up. I know enough Spanish to ask for bottled water and tell them that they have a nice cat, may I give it some milk. The rest of my language skills comes down to good old fashion mountain man gibberish.
We arrived on Koh Tao about four days ago and I've been sick the whole time. It started as a little sniffle and cough and has lingered on and become an exercise is expelling grossness from my face. Still I've been doing my best to not let that keep me down since we're right next to Paradise. The other portion of the restort we're at is called Paradise Zone. Granted it's a hike up about 15 flights of stone steps through some ant infested jungle, but it's really lovely once your heart starts beating at a normal pace again. Originally we were coming to the island to learn scuba, but given my cold and the week long course, we decided against it. Instead we'll likely snorkel, when I can breath normally again anyway.
We're leaving the island today and heading to Phuket. That makes today a travel day, which means schedules are going to be somewhat flexible. Hopefully we'll make it there sometime this evening. That will give us a day to get settled because on the 13th is the Thai New Year and there is a country-wide water fight to prepare for. It should be a good time, assuming I'm not wearing my white tuxedo out that night. It will be a little strange heading back into a city after nearly two weeks of island life. Living like a cat has its advantages, but I suppose it's time to mix it up a bit.
We arrived on Koh Tao about four days ago and I've been sick the whole time. It started as a little sniffle and cough and has lingered on and become an exercise is expelling grossness from my face. Still I've been doing my best to not let that keep me down since we're right next to Paradise. The other portion of the restort we're at is called Paradise Zone. Granted it's a hike up about 15 flights of stone steps through some ant infested jungle, but it's really lovely once your heart starts beating at a normal pace again. Originally we were coming to the island to learn scuba, but given my cold and the week long course, we decided against it. Instead we'll likely snorkel, when I can breath normally again anyway.
We're leaving the island today and heading to Phuket. That makes today a travel day, which means schedules are going to be somewhat flexible. Hopefully we'll make it there sometime this evening. That will give us a day to get settled because on the 13th is the Thai New Year and there is a country-wide water fight to prepare for. It should be a good time, assuming I'm not wearing my white tuxedo out that night. It will be a little strange heading back into a city after nearly two weeks of island life. Living like a cat has its advantages, but I suppose it's time to mix it up a bit.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Travel Log: Full Moon
1Tuk Tuk: 2 stops, 2 buses: 2 stops, 1 ferry and 17 hours later we made it out of Bangkok to our first island. The party island. The first thing I'm learning is that schedules are very flexible here. 7 o'clock could mean anything in a two hour window and patience is as good a friend as a traveler's neck pillow. After arriving here we got settled into our bungalow near the local chickens and quickly realized that paying extra for air conditioning isn't being spoiled, it's essential if you want to sleep for more than an hour.
This place is known for its Full Moon Party, which is really just an excuse to have 30,000 tourists on the beach at the same time all dancing to the same beat. Thankfully we met some fellow travelers who are on the tail end of their nineteen month long holiday. Makes our hundred day vacation look like a qaint little getaway weekend. Glow in the dark body paint and buckets of alcohol combined with fire and water made for a pretty amazing time. I feel like I really got to know that guy crouched in the sand digging with his bare hands for like five minutes.
It's a lot of fun watching people the next day. There are those who still had paint on their faces and looked like were ready to keep going. Then you had those that had a thousand yard stare as they slowly shoveled scrambled eggs into their mouths in some hope that it would make them feel better.
The last two days have been spent laying in cabanas reading and napping. Sometimes it feels like we should be doing more with our time, but part of vacation is knowing when to do nothing until the next adventure comes along. Tomorrow is a trip to a different island and most likely learning how to swim with the fishes. Until then we'll just have to get along with relaxing in the shade.
This place is known for its Full Moon Party, which is really just an excuse to have 30,000 tourists on the beach at the same time all dancing to the same beat. Thankfully we met some fellow travelers who are on the tail end of their nineteen month long holiday. Makes our hundred day vacation look like a qaint little getaway weekend. Glow in the dark body paint and buckets of alcohol combined with fire and water made for a pretty amazing time. I feel like I really got to know that guy crouched in the sand digging with his bare hands for like five minutes.
It's a lot of fun watching people the next day. There are those who still had paint on their faces and looked like were ready to keep going. Then you had those that had a thousand yard stare as they slowly shoveled scrambled eggs into their mouths in some hope that it would make them feel better.
The last two days have been spent laying in cabanas reading and napping. Sometimes it feels like we should be doing more with our time, but part of vacation is knowing when to do nothing until the next adventure comes along. Tomorrow is a trip to a different island and most likely learning how to swim with the fishes. Until then we'll just have to get along with relaxing in the shade.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Travel Log: Day One...or Two
I sometimes wonder how many pictures I must be in taken by people I don't know. Today was a busy day of trying to do all the main tourist attractions. This included at least one wardrobe change before we left the hostel. Even though it was 90 degrees with 90% humidity The Grand Palace doesn't allow shorts or bare shoulders, which I suppose makes sense since it's a royal palace and all. They do, however, allow tour guides to wander around with stuffed animals on sticks as they led herds of tourists carrying umbrelas into each photo opportunity. My confused face will likely be showing up in so many different photos of the royal lawn or whatever. After getting into line and then realizing that everyone had already bought tickets to get in, we decided it was too hot and too crowded to really enjoy, so we wandered off to our next destination.
It's strange to think that even in a strange place there are very familiar things. Things you wouldn't even think about. Stop signs are the same shape and color here, with only the word 'Stop' being different. Traffic markers are all relatively the same, which makes me wonder who started what and who decided that was the best way to go about it. Apparently the yellow dashed line means it's legal to pass and the double yellow line means it's illegal, which stops no one. I don't know what I was expecting. It's not like we traveled to Mars, where the people here decided to just skip all the widely accepted rules. Although it makes me wonder if someday we do come into contact with an alien species, who will adopt the most from the other. Will we see what they're doing and suddenly realize that the bike lane has been this ludacrious experiment that has been doomed from the start?
Traveling through the various markets it occurs to me just how hard it must be to make a living. I've been very spoiled in my life in that I've always been lucky enough to have a job that doesn't require me to try and sell things. Convincing someone that they need something has always been a tricky task. It's probably even harder when ten feet away someone else is selling that "ancient" Buddha coin necklace for 10 Baht and you want 15. I sometimes wish that everyone had some kind of low level telepathy or maybe empathy. That way you could at least understand where the other person is coming from when you interact with them. The problem with not speaking the language is that it's hard to know what the intention is with someone else. Are they being nice because they are nice or are they being nice because they know you have money and respond better to a smile and friendly advice? I think I've seen too many strange movies where there are ulterior motives for everything and everyone. Maybe most people are what they show on the surface and it's safe to accept that as the truth. So far it seems to be that they are simply being nice because they are so I suppose it should just be accepted.
Tomorrow we're off to an island for a Full Moon Festival.. It will be nice to actually get out of the big crazy city and start the real vacation. I feel like this place has been an interesting gateway to this whole adventure, but it's not what I've been looking forward to. That's somewhere else.
It's strange to think that even in a strange place there are very familiar things. Things you wouldn't even think about. Stop signs are the same shape and color here, with only the word 'Stop' being different. Traffic markers are all relatively the same, which makes me wonder who started what and who decided that was the best way to go about it. Apparently the yellow dashed line means it's legal to pass and the double yellow line means it's illegal, which stops no one. I don't know what I was expecting. It's not like we traveled to Mars, where the people here decided to just skip all the widely accepted rules. Although it makes me wonder if someday we do come into contact with an alien species, who will adopt the most from the other. Will we see what they're doing and suddenly realize that the bike lane has been this ludacrious experiment that has been doomed from the start?
Traveling through the various markets it occurs to me just how hard it must be to make a living. I've been very spoiled in my life in that I've always been lucky enough to have a job that doesn't require me to try and sell things. Convincing someone that they need something has always been a tricky task. It's probably even harder when ten feet away someone else is selling that "ancient" Buddha coin necklace for 10 Baht and you want 15. I sometimes wish that everyone had some kind of low level telepathy or maybe empathy. That way you could at least understand where the other person is coming from when you interact with them. The problem with not speaking the language is that it's hard to know what the intention is with someone else. Are they being nice because they are nice or are they being nice because they know you have money and respond better to a smile and friendly advice? I think I've seen too many strange movies where there are ulterior motives for everything and everyone. Maybe most people are what they show on the surface and it's safe to accept that as the truth. So far it seems to be that they are simply being nice because they are so I suppose it should just be accepted.
Tomorrow we're off to an island for a Full Moon Festival.. It will be nice to actually get out of the big crazy city and start the real vacation. I feel like this place has been an interesting gateway to this whole adventure, but it's not what I've been looking forward to. That's somewhere else.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Travel Log: Day Zero
Everyone keeps asking if I'm excited about my upcoming travel, which I suppose is fair. The thing is though that this kind of travel is vastly different than anything I've ever done before so the situation is a bit overwhelming to the point that my brain hasn't fully caught up to the idea of what's about to happen. I've spent a couple months away before, but it's been back in the safety of where I grew up, which meant I knew exactly what to expect. The house I grew up in, my old room (with different curtains), and seeing familiar faces. It was very comfortable. Almost like being on summer break, but as an adult. This trip is completely different because I'm leaving the country and going to a place I've never been, don't know the language, and am not quite sure what to expect. Thankfully I'm not going alone. Having someone with me who's been before will be a great way to hold onto home and who I am.
Right now we're standing on a ledge, getting ready to leap off the side. We're pretty sure that it's safe down below, but we can't be sure until we've made the jump. The whole thing has me thinking about how my perception of things is likely to change with this trip. A part of me is nervous about how this new version of me is going to look back at my current life. My life is pretty safe and on any given day I can predict how the next several weeks are going to play out. The adventures we have in the every day world are fun and exciting in their own way. I wonder though how I'm going to relate them after this trip. The current me hopes that I still enjoy the things I enjoy now after having been exposed to a different world. I like the things in my life, but is that because they've always been there and I've not experienced something completely different? Will they have the same meaning to me when I return?
Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to what's about to happen and I'm working on not spending too much energy thinking about what's being left behind. Life will go on while we're away and I think that will be one of the harder things. Because we'll be having fun off somewhere else, the people in our every day will be living their lives without us. It's a bit like leaving for college the first time and then returning back home. The place you knew has been going along fine without you. It's the same place that you left, except just a little bit different now. You realize that the world you thought you knew was so much smaller than you could have imagined, making you question your place in it.
I guess the only thing left to do is see what happens tomorrow.
Right now we're standing on a ledge, getting ready to leap off the side. We're pretty sure that it's safe down below, but we can't be sure until we've made the jump. The whole thing has me thinking about how my perception of things is likely to change with this trip. A part of me is nervous about how this new version of me is going to look back at my current life. My life is pretty safe and on any given day I can predict how the next several weeks are going to play out. The adventures we have in the every day world are fun and exciting in their own way. I wonder though how I'm going to relate them after this trip. The current me hopes that I still enjoy the things I enjoy now after having been exposed to a different world. I like the things in my life, but is that because they've always been there and I've not experienced something completely different? Will they have the same meaning to me when I return?
Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to what's about to happen and I'm working on not spending too much energy thinking about what's being left behind. Life will go on while we're away and I think that will be one of the harder things. Because we'll be having fun off somewhere else, the people in our every day will be living their lives without us. It's a bit like leaving for college the first time and then returning back home. The place you knew has been going along fine without you. It's the same place that you left, except just a little bit different now. You realize that the world you thought you knew was so much smaller than you could have imagined, making you question your place in it.
I guess the only thing left to do is see what happens tomorrow.
Friday, October 22, 2010
On Home
What is it about the places we call home? What makes them so special? Maybe it's partly because of the security we get when we're there. The world can be a pretty aggressive place and our home is a kind of sanctuary from everything that's out there. For each person though home can mean different things. In some cases it's a specific geographical location that feels the most comfortable. For others it's not a physical location, but rather an individual that creates that center of security. No matter where in the world you are, as long as you're with that person then you feel at home. There is also another version of home, one that can be a lot more elusive. It's the one that doesn't matter where you are or who you're with. Where you are in life feels exactly right and home is more of a state of mind. Maybe it's always a state of mind, it's just different for each of us.
They say you can never go home again. At least not back to the place you used to call home. I wonder though if there is some kind of cutoff for that. Maybe there is a certain window of time where, if you wanted, you could return home without it being vastly different than you remember. I guess the real question is why can't we go home again? Is it because we've outgrown the place where we were young? Maybe the place has outgrown us. Maybe nothing has physically changed, but our perception of what home has been altered while we were away. People can be lumped into a few categories when it comes to leaving home. There are those who never leave. They have no desire to leave what they know. There isn't anything wrong with this. If you know what you like and it's been working for you then it may seem silly to leave it behind for that unknown something else. Then there are others who see this as though you've been eating vanilla ice cream your whole life. Then one day someone reveals to you that you could have any flavor you want, you only have to pick. These are the people who, while they may like vanilla ice cream, decide that they're going to try something else out. So they leave home to try out what life is like elsewhere. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they stay away. For those that leave home becomes some place different than for those who decide to stay.
Growing up I only really lived in one place. My parents lived in the same house for over thirty years and before it was built we lived in a couple different apartments, but they were for a relatively short time. So my idea of home is that of a singular location. Before I left for college I knew home had become too small for me. It would have been easy to stay because it was comfortable, but for my long term happiness I had to leave. Once I was away I realized just how big the world was. I still loved my family and where I grew up, but it stopped being my real home the moment I left. It's strange though because after I moved out to go to college I tended to keep on the move a lot more. Since leaving home I've lived in ten different places. I wonder if part of that comes from knowing that no apartment is going to match what I think of as home and don't put a lot of stock into the various places I hang my hat. On the flip side I've known people who moved around a lot when they were younger so when the reached adulthood they purchased a home that they could call their own. It was a place that wouldn't change and would hopefully provide stability that they didn't get growing up. Coming back to visit was strange because everything seemed the same, but I was now different, even if only slightly. I had an apartment of my own near the college, but it wasn't really my home. It was just my apartment and a place to store my stuff. My parents' house wasn't my home anymore either. I had become one without a real home.
I have this picture of home in my head. It's not where I used to live when I was young. It's also not where I live now. That is to say it's obviously not my current living situation, but also my general location within the world. I'm not exactly sure where home is though. The picture in my head doesn't come with GPS coordinates. I wonder if other people have this same somewhat vague notion of where they feel they belong and until they find it, everything feels like a journey towards it. So I've been wandering through the world looking for that moment when I feel like I've come home. As we find out when we leave home and come back, things don't look the same as they did when we left. Either we've changed or the place we remember has. It makes what looks familiar on the surface unfamiliar when we take a closer look. I only hope that I recognize it after being away for so long.
They say you can never go home again. At least not back to the place you used to call home. I wonder though if there is some kind of cutoff for that. Maybe there is a certain window of time where, if you wanted, you could return home without it being vastly different than you remember. I guess the real question is why can't we go home again? Is it because we've outgrown the place where we were young? Maybe the place has outgrown us. Maybe nothing has physically changed, but our perception of what home has been altered while we were away. People can be lumped into a few categories when it comes to leaving home. There are those who never leave. They have no desire to leave what they know. There isn't anything wrong with this. If you know what you like and it's been working for you then it may seem silly to leave it behind for that unknown something else. Then there are others who see this as though you've been eating vanilla ice cream your whole life. Then one day someone reveals to you that you could have any flavor you want, you only have to pick. These are the people who, while they may like vanilla ice cream, decide that they're going to try something else out. So they leave home to try out what life is like elsewhere. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they stay away. For those that leave home becomes some place different than for those who decide to stay.
Growing up I only really lived in one place. My parents lived in the same house for over thirty years and before it was built we lived in a couple different apartments, but they were for a relatively short time. So my idea of home is that of a singular location. Before I left for college I knew home had become too small for me. It would have been easy to stay because it was comfortable, but for my long term happiness I had to leave. Once I was away I realized just how big the world was. I still loved my family and where I grew up, but it stopped being my real home the moment I left. It's strange though because after I moved out to go to college I tended to keep on the move a lot more. Since leaving home I've lived in ten different places. I wonder if part of that comes from knowing that no apartment is going to match what I think of as home and don't put a lot of stock into the various places I hang my hat. On the flip side I've known people who moved around a lot when they were younger so when the reached adulthood they purchased a home that they could call their own. It was a place that wouldn't change and would hopefully provide stability that they didn't get growing up. Coming back to visit was strange because everything seemed the same, but I was now different, even if only slightly. I had an apartment of my own near the college, but it wasn't really my home. It was just my apartment and a place to store my stuff. My parents' house wasn't my home anymore either. I had become one without a real home.
I have this picture of home in my head. It's not where I used to live when I was young. It's also not where I live now. That is to say it's obviously not my current living situation, but also my general location within the world. I'm not exactly sure where home is though. The picture in my head doesn't come with GPS coordinates. I wonder if other people have this same somewhat vague notion of where they feel they belong and until they find it, everything feels like a journey towards it. So I've been wandering through the world looking for that moment when I feel like I've come home. As we find out when we leave home and come back, things don't look the same as they did when we left. Either we've changed or the place we remember has. It makes what looks familiar on the surface unfamiliar when we take a closer look. I only hope that I recognize it after being away for so long.
Monday, August 30, 2010
On The Motion of the Source
Technology is great. It seems like every day there are new breakthroughs that border on science fiction. Each new development leads us to another. Sometimes I wonder if our technological limitations are only held back by our imagination. Or maybe it's the other way around. One of the main themes in Dune was that computers were ultimately a limitation to human potential. We thought that computers and technology would be the tools that made us better, but in fact the mind was the true tool to our advancement. The message was that technology, while seemingly beneficial in the short term, was actually going to eventually stunt our long term growth. We have yet to uncover the true potential of our own minds so it's anyone's guess as to what we are really capable of. Instead we rely on computers to do our thinking for us. As I've mentioned before we're giving up the ability to process simple things because a machine is doing it for us. The whole idea is that the machine frees us up to think about other things. What are those other things though?
Maybe the technology we create to make life easier is really slowing us down. In a way we tend to use it as a crutch. There is this belief that if technology can't solve the problem then maybe it can't be solved. I find the concept of time travel endlessly fascinating. I've been thinking about it lately though that maybe technology will never reach a point where it provides us with a means to travel through time. Then again that's based entirely on the fact that as of right now it seems next to impossible. So what if the way to travel through time had nothing to do with physical travel, but rather conscious travel? There was a book by Richard Matheson called Somewhere in Time where the main character used the force of will to travel back in time. What he did was mentally concentrate on a specific time and his body followed. Maybe there is some hope in that idea. There are times when you kind of "zone out". Your conscious mind slips off somewhere. So technically are you not really there? Your body my still exist in the same location, but your mind is somewhere else. What if we were able to take that and go to the next level and instead of just mentally checking out, we then focused our ability to mentally traverse previously experienced times?
It's been theorized that all moments are existing at the same time. If that's true then how come we aren't able to remember the future? What is it about our perception of time that causes us to only view time in a straight line and we can only see what's behind us? If all time is happening at once then one day it might be possible for us to re-experience the past. We would need to just alter our perception. I suppose the would be two schools of thought on that, assuming any of it was possible. 1) You could go back and experience it, but not change it because you can't change a memory. 2) Since the past, present, and future are all happening at the same time then what's to stop a person from altering any point based on previous knowledge? I'm sure everyone has moments in their life that they wish they could back and change. Or even bigger, how many times do you wish that you had today's knowledge yesterday? Imagine where your life would be if the younger you had the experience of older you. I won't get into the whole potential paradox idea when it comes to time travel. Instead I wonder about how you wouldn't know to make the right choice until you made the wrong one. It's only then, when you regret what you've done, that you realize you should have done it a different way. Maybe somewhere out there you already made both choices and it's up to you to decide which route to take.
If the mind believes something then the body is forced to believe it as well. We've all heard about this with the placebo effect. Even hallucinations can cause physical effects because the mind creates its own reality. So while believing something may not make it so, sometimes the mind can't tell the difference between actual reality and perceived reality. I suppose as far as the mind is concerned there is no difference because we all live in our own realities. Everyone else is just a visitor as their reality bumps up against our own. So what's to say if someone truly believed that they traveled back to 1912 that they didn't? We may think them to be crazy or delusional because their perception of reality differs from the accepted norm. How can we ever know what the mind is really doing behind the scenes? The advances in technology can potentially solve many of the mysteries of the universe given enough time. Can that technology ever really help solve the mystery of ourselves or what we're capable of? Maybe one is just a precursor to another, but it's us to figure out which comes first.
Maybe the technology we create to make life easier is really slowing us down. In a way we tend to use it as a crutch. There is this belief that if technology can't solve the problem then maybe it can't be solved. I find the concept of time travel endlessly fascinating. I've been thinking about it lately though that maybe technology will never reach a point where it provides us with a means to travel through time. Then again that's based entirely on the fact that as of right now it seems next to impossible. So what if the way to travel through time had nothing to do with physical travel, but rather conscious travel? There was a book by Richard Matheson called Somewhere in Time where the main character used the force of will to travel back in time. What he did was mentally concentrate on a specific time and his body followed. Maybe there is some hope in that idea. There are times when you kind of "zone out". Your conscious mind slips off somewhere. So technically are you not really there? Your body my still exist in the same location, but your mind is somewhere else. What if we were able to take that and go to the next level and instead of just mentally checking out, we then focused our ability to mentally traverse previously experienced times?
It's been theorized that all moments are existing at the same time. If that's true then how come we aren't able to remember the future? What is it about our perception of time that causes us to only view time in a straight line and we can only see what's behind us? If all time is happening at once then one day it might be possible for us to re-experience the past. We would need to just alter our perception. I suppose the would be two schools of thought on that, assuming any of it was possible. 1) You could go back and experience it, but not change it because you can't change a memory. 2) Since the past, present, and future are all happening at the same time then what's to stop a person from altering any point based on previous knowledge? I'm sure everyone has moments in their life that they wish they could back and change. Or even bigger, how many times do you wish that you had today's knowledge yesterday? Imagine where your life would be if the younger you had the experience of older you. I won't get into the whole potential paradox idea when it comes to time travel. Instead I wonder about how you wouldn't know to make the right choice until you made the wrong one. It's only then, when you regret what you've done, that you realize you should have done it a different way. Maybe somewhere out there you already made both choices and it's up to you to decide which route to take.
If the mind believes something then the body is forced to believe it as well. We've all heard about this with the placebo effect. Even hallucinations can cause physical effects because the mind creates its own reality. So while believing something may not make it so, sometimes the mind can't tell the difference between actual reality and perceived reality. I suppose as far as the mind is concerned there is no difference because we all live in our own realities. Everyone else is just a visitor as their reality bumps up against our own. So what's to say if someone truly believed that they traveled back to 1912 that they didn't? We may think them to be crazy or delusional because their perception of reality differs from the accepted norm. How can we ever know what the mind is really doing behind the scenes? The advances in technology can potentially solve many of the mysteries of the universe given enough time. Can that technology ever really help solve the mystery of ourselves or what we're capable of? Maybe one is just a precursor to another, but it's us to figure out which comes first.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)