Holy cow. We are slackers! Just kidding! No, we've been doing some serious hanging out with great friends and amazing family; traveling and exploring Asia. Internet access is not too cheap and we don't have our own computer, so I hope you can understand our lack of posts. Sorry. But I'm glad to hear that somebody at least is still interested.
So our time in Thailand blended into a blur. We ended up spending the better part of 3 months there, traveling around, but mostly climbing around at Tonsai. After Cambodia, we headed back to Tonsai for a good long while, then down to Turutao Island in the Andaman, almost to Malaysia. There we had some amazing adventures, like exploring mangroves and the Crocodile Cave, an estuary that flows through a 200m cave that had freshwater crocodiles living in it some years ago. Luckily, we didn't spot any, but we had quite a day. It felt as if we were exploring some jungle from a long time ago. Untouched and wild, filled with cliffs and caves and massive, I mean
massive stout palm trees with seed pods that looked like huge spiky bowling balls hanging down. We portaged our kayak several times over razor sharp rocks and downed logs to continue our progress on the water. We found some vividly colored red and blue crabs in the mud, and we quite amazed at how little distance we had actually covered in so much time. We were so engrossed in our surroundings; it felt like Jurassic Park or something.
After that, we bussed it down to Penang, Malaysia, for a short break from Thailand and to get our passports restamped for 30 more days. Penang is a beautiful city with an amazing culture and history, full of Hokkien Chinese and Indians. All along the southwestern coast of the Malaysian Peninsula, we had felt the depth of history of this area begin to sink in. Being shadowed from the wild Indian Ocean by the Indonesian Archipelago, these Straights of Melaka have been major shipping channels for many hundreds of years. The impact of the confluence of cultures is deep here, but the sea life still predominates, and pirates operated in the Straights during the chaos of the Second World War. Still, a major economic indicator for Southeast Asia is how busy are the container ports in Singapore. It felt like we had dipped into the stream of a long-flowing time, of human history , struggles, and geography.
We caught a few flights to land us back up in Thailand, far to the north, in Chaing Mai. We climbed a bit there and again, felt a touch of the history of the region. It makes our puny American history look infantile by comparison. We did get to see some Asian Elephants, which was quite interesting. I guess the treatment they receive there varies wildly, and I have heard that there are few wild elephants anymore. Capitalism is in full swing here though and, as has been shown with the recent capitalist crisis, it's difficult to get the true story out of anybody. In any case, seeing the elephants was bittersweet. Of course, they are amazing, powerful, sentient animals, but their drivers use hooks to prod their thick skin and we heard about some spirit-breaking practices that would make any wild animal lover cringe. But getting to interact with them, for our part, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In Chaing Mai, Mac and Steph headed home after much deliberation about what to do next. It seems that we all are at a crossroads in our lives and careers, and have enjoyed having some time to reflect. Short digression: this might be part of the reason for the lack of posts. We have been having some introspective discussions with many friends and family about the crossroads we are approaching, and have needed some time for reflection. In any case, we are coming to draw our own conclusions about life, through the lens of this trip. Nothing too definitive, but at least some guidance that points us toward where we want to be, and hopefully works for us. I hope to share them all with you in person when we meet again.
Anyhow, Anna's folks showed up soon after Mac & Steph left. We were very excited to see them after so long, but after having many discussions with them over Skype, the separation of distance had had less of an effect on us all. We also ran into an old family friend, Eloise, who happened to be travelling through Chaing Mai at the exact same time. Pure luck. We all enjoyed being with each other in a new place, but its amazing how relationships maintain this continuity, that "picking up where you left off" kind-of feeling.
After Chaing Mai, we flew back down to Bangkok where we met up with Julie at the airport. The family continued on their way on (back) to Siem Reap, Cambodia (Anna's 3rd trip there) and I (Tony) caught a train to the South, where I made my way back to Tonsai for the 3rd time in as many months. I know that the family all had a great time at Angkor where, again, one is steeped in a history that goes a bit beyond comprehension, and the artfully piled stacks of stones and intricate reliefs show something of the depth of human creation and how nature's fecundity can swallow it all up into the teeming jungle again.
Tonsai was a treat, as always. I took a 2nd deep water soloing trip, which is as crazy as it sounds for those who don't know about it. It's where you climb on rocks above the water, no rope, just the ocean's pillow to catch when you do, inevitably, fall (or jump) off. It's easy to feel your heart pounding up into your throat as you ascend, knowing that for every meter you greedily climb up, you will have to drop back down again. It is quite a feeling though, to climb up unencumbered by equipment, and it's remarkable how quickly you can get higher than you were hoping to get. A friend took some video footage of the leap of faith, and as soon as I get the link, I'll post it up.
We all met up again on the Ao Nang Princess, which is the ferry that runs between Ao Nang (imagine that) and Phi Phi Island. It was great to get back to Phi Phi Island, although it's a little frantic there and the party scene can get a little out of hand. That is where we spent St. Patty's Day. We took the folks climbing up at Tonsai Tower there right up off the beach, which was a special treat for us, to share our passion for adventure in the outdoors with them. We also did a great little snorkeling trip out to the little island, Phi Phi Leh, where we were amazed by all the fish and had a private beach for lunch all to ourselves.
We made our way back to the mainland, and stayed a short while in Railay. The beach there at Phra Nang really is amazing, but we parted ways with the folks before too long. Their short two weeks were over in a flash, but I must say that we all saw a lot in that time. We waved goodbye to them as they set out in a longtail boat from East Railay; a pretty classic way to depart, and before we knew it, it was just the three of us. Our plan was to make our way back to Tonsai that day but we hung out at our place in Railay until dark, watching our new favorite movie, Kung Fu Panda. That was a double edged sword though, because the rain soon started to pour and thunder and lightning resounded within the cliffed-in bays. We heavily considered taking a longtail boat for the short ride, but the cost was just too high for us. Anyway, we were in need of an adventure; so we set out across the beach in the pouring rain with our fully-loaded packs in the dark. Anyone who's done that walk knows its not too far, but is steep and slippery in parts, even when dry, and darkness can't make it any easier. But we smiled and laughed our way through it and, of course, by the time we were through the hardest part, the rain abated. We trudged on through to Paasook, where we settled in and dried out over the next few days. It was there that we bought some plane tickets to Bali and then (after Julie flies home) on to Melbourne, Australia. We climbed some more and got our fill. We really love Tonsai and were amazed at how easy life is there. It is easy to see why people keep coming back year after year for long trips.
We caught a cramped van-ride to Hat Yai where we switched to a posh overnight bus to Kuala Lumper. We enjoyed getting to know the city a little bit before our flight to Bali. So here we are now. We arrived just before the Balinese Hindu festival called Nyepi, which we related to something like Passover. It is a celebration of the lunar new year (which happens to coincide with the end of the rainy season and the start of the tourist season) so on the very dark night just before Nyepi proper, people go out into the streets for a parade of paper-mache monsters called Ogoh-ogoh. These monsters are quite masterfully prepared and are super realistic. I wish we had pictures to share with you, but our camera was pickpocketed in the fray that night, so we'll have to get some shots from Julie. There were so many people there it was crazy. I thought to myself 'I didn't even know this many people existed in the world'. So we don't have too many pics of Bali, although we just bought a new camera, so hopefully we'll get some more good shots before we go. Anyway, on Nyepi proper, no one is allowed to go outside. We were essentially locked in our hotel. The belief is that if you light no fires and keep quiet, those monsters who fly over head that day and dark night will see a deserted island and decide not to stop and torment its inhabitants. People are quite serious about it, and it was surprising to hear that you might get arrested if you go out into the street, and the day was uncharacteristically quiet and the night was super dark. We relaxed and laid by the pool and were psyched to be at a nice hotel if we were required to stay there all day. But very late that night, a serious rain set in and thunder and lightning boomed so loud that we were awakened. Anna and I thought that must have been the Ogoh-ogohs passing by...
So we've been doing a lot of surfing around on the beach breaks here that are good for beginners, lots of water in our noses, body rash, and sand in our shorts, you know. But it's worth all the pain for that moment of clarity on the crashing wave. The day Julie flew home, we met up with our new friend Ed, for some waves at Legian and watched as the squall came in from the Southeast. The rain started to pour and the little system brought some bigger swell. We were surrounded by water and it felt so amazing. A very elemental experience, as Ed put it. We're catching on and realizing that our love for water is pretty deep...
Also, the snorkeling here is out of this world, best I've ever done (which isn't saying much). Big fish and beautiful coral. With so many miles of coastline in this massive archipelago that straddles the equator, there is still a lot of wildness under the surface of the sea.
That's our story for now. Thanks for reading and sorry for the huge post. I hope we'll do a better job of updating as our trip wraps up. It's April already and we're thinking about how we are going to get home...
Sending our love from Bali, Indonesia,
T&A
