So There I Was…

– Equal parts self-confidence, stupity, and faith

– 825 mg Diamox

– Several cups of hot sugar water

Mix all ingredients in large bucket, drink down quickly before it freezes, and save the bucket for the inevitable vomiting and/or diarrhea that will occur.

(Thanks to the above, I successfully reached Uhuru Peak at approx. 7:20 AM on July 29th. More details to follow…)

Yesterday my friend Lisa and I went up to Machame Village and hiked around in the hills for about 5 hours. The day trip was arranged for me by KPAP, and when we got to the village we were met by Frederick, one of the porters on the Machame route up Kili. Our plan for the day was to hike from the village up to Machame Gate, back down to the village for lunch at Frederick’s house, and then hike around the village for a while before catching the dalla dalla (a minivan bus) back into Moshi. Most villagers here walk everywhere, and each village seems to have hundreds of kilometers of footpaths. On the way up to the gate we hiked through acres and acres of gardens growing beans, sweet potatoes, corn, cabbage, and who knows what else. Growing among the gardens were thousands of banana trees, coffee plants, and avacado trees. The hills around Kilimanjaro a full of little rivers and streams that run off the mountain, and the soil is very rich and dense. Things seem to grow like crazy here.

[read on]

I’m in Africa! Getting here from Bangkok turned out to be quite an ordeal, but I finally arrived in Moshi, Tanzania on Saturday afternoon after two full days of travel. My adventure started in Bangkok when about 10 hours before my flight I got an email from Ethiopian Airlines saying that although I had a confirmed booking, they had had problems with their online booking system and couldn’t guarantee my fare and that my credit card had not been billed. So there I was, booked on a flight later that night, and I had no idea how much it was going to cost me. I was a little nervous, to say the least, but after looking up the fares online, I decided that the most they could charge me based on the current fares was another $50 or so. I decided to take my chances.

That night, I arrived at the airport at about 10:00 PM, four hours before my flight was to depart. I went to find the Ethiopian Airlines office, and surprisingly enough they were still open. They pulled up my booking and the fare was only $37 more than my original fare. I said that would be fine (not like I really had any other choice by that time) and they issued me a ticket. I thought all was good until it was time to pay for the ticket and they told me they couldn’t take a credit card and that I had to pay cash since they didn’t have a machine to run the card through. I asked them where I was supposed to get 25,000 Baht (~$650) at 10:00 at night, and they said there were banks up stairs in the terminal. So upstairs I went again, trying to find a bank that would give me that amount of cash off of my Visa card. I finally found one that would, but their limit was 15,000 Baht, so then I went looking for another bank to get the remaining money. Luckily, I was able to get another 10,000 from the ATM machine, so I went back downstairs with the cash, got my ticket and was on my way.

[read on]

For what has got to be the first time in my life, I went through the entire 4th of July holiday without seeing a single firework or hearing any firecrackers go off. No baseball either, or apple pie, and I certainly didn’t see any Chevys driving around. Little wonder though, as Thailand doesn’t have much reason to celbrate a purely American holiday. I have to admit, I feel a little homesick. I rather like stuffing myself on hot dogs and blowing up explosives. I did call up Jason, hoping to hear about some big blowout bar-be-que or at least that they were at the baseball game but apparently not much was happening at home either. Turns out they were watching soccer, with isn’t exactly America’s pastime, but at least they were bar-be-quing up a big hunk of meat. 🙂

[read on]

One of the mantras of the independent traveler is “No Expectations.” It was with this in mind that I ran in and finished my second marathon. This time it was the Phuket International Marathon in Phuket, Thailand. It was a pitiful performance to say the least, but considering I’ve only ran 4-5 times since I left the U.S., and never longer than 3 miles, finishing was definitely an accomplishment. I crossed the finish line in 5 hours and 50 minutes, or over an hour and a half slower than the Portland Marathon last fall.

[read on]

As with most things, you get what you pay for, and paradise doesn’t come cheap. But it does go on sale every once in a while. I’m now staying at Bangtao Beach, on the northwest coast of Phuket. The Bangtao Beach Resort is part of the Best Western chain, and was one of the recommended hotels for the Phuket Marathon. It’s expensive by backpacker’s standards, but at $45 USD a night it’s still a steal. And I figured since I’m running a marathon this weekend, the least I could do is reward myself with air conditioning and a comfortable king-size bed. Along with the great room, the resort also has two pools, a spa, a great outdoor restaurant, and is about 20 meters from the beach.

[read on]

This morning I got up early (first time in a while) and went for a run around Hua Hin. The streets in Asia are narrow, some with sidewalks and some without. And if you find a sidewalk it is probably cluttered with vendors, scooters, and dogs. 🙂 So finding a place to run can be a challenge. The only solution is to pick a time when there’s not much traffic and run down the middle of the street. So that’s exactly what I did.

Aside from the main street in Hua Hin, most of the streets seem to be pretty short. I cobbled together a route that went from my guesthouse up the beach past the fancy resorts, crossing the main road and heading toward the train station where I had arrived into town. There wasn’t much going on at 7:15 in the morning, so the run was pretty easy going. It only took me about 7 minutes to get to the train station, so from there I had to make up the route as I went. I decided to cross the tracks and run toward the hills. Once I crossed the tracks was when I got a taste of the real Thailand. The homes were all quiet and there were much fewer vendors around. Cattle were roaming about, and I passed one bull that was nosing around in the roadside garbage can. The school busses were making their rounds and it looked pretty much like any other small country town. Except for the fact that I was the only westerner around. I did get a couple of curious looks, but for the most part the locals seemed to ignore the beet-faced and sweaty white guy running by. It was vastly different from the touristy beach side of town, with it’s open-air bars, shops, and massage parlors. It was a nice change of scenery. I finished my run back where I started, and walked out to the fishing jetty too cool off. There were several men out on the jetty searching the water for signs of fish, ready to cast out their nets. A couple of boats were launching out sea, and it made for a nice morning.

[read on]

Well, I guess it’s been a few weeks since I’ve checked in. I’m in Hua Hin, Thailand right now, about 200Km south of Bangkok on the Gulf Coast. It’s a pretty nice town, very clean and tourist friendly. I came here specifically for the Hua Hin Jazz Festival that is happening this weekend.

I spent much of the last few weeks in Taichung hanging out with Kristen, my friend from Eugene and one of the people I traveled to Borneo with. She’s been living in Taichung and teaching English for the last year. She was awesome enough to let me crash on the floor at her place for two weeks, and it was nice to take a little break from the traveling and chill out in one spot for a while.

The first thing that struck me about Taiwan was that almost everyone drives a scooter. When I arrived in Taichung at 12:00 in the morning, Kristen came and picked me up on her scooter (me and my forty-plus pound pack). The scooters outnumber cars in Taiwan. Several times, I saw an entire family on one scooter: mom, dad, two kids, and some times a dog. It was pretty funny. But given the amount of traffic, it really makes sense, as it is much easier to get around on a scooter, and it’s much easier to park. The scariest thing I saw was the guy driving around with two large propane tanks strapped to the back of his scooter. (Just like most other Asian countries, Taiwan also has a lot of food stalls, and I imagine that all of them use gas stoves to cook on.)

[read on]

My pictures from Borneo and Mt. Kinabalu are now up. Visit my photo page to see them.

Gan Pei!

The week in Borneo was awesome! We really had a great time and packed a lot of stuff into the few days we were there. Our base was Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. (Sabah is one of the two states in Borneo Malaysia.) Our first order of business on Monday morning was to sort out accommodations for Mt. Kinabalu National Park and our climb up the mountain. Aside from going to Mt. K, we also wanted to go to Poring Hot Springs, and we decided to go to Poring first so we could do the canopy walk there before climbing the mountain the next day. So we booked Monday night at Poring and booked a night on the mountain for Tuesday night. In order to get to Poring, we had to get a bus from Kota Kinabalu up to the National Park and then hire a driver to take us to Poring. By the time we got everything sorted we had just enough time to pick up some groceries, check out of the hotel, and catch a cab to the bus station. Upon arriving at the bus station, we were immediately approached by the touts wanting to take us to the mountain. One guy offered to take us in his taxi for $200 MYR, or about $55 USD. However, we were finally able to find a bus service that would take us there for $10 MYR each. The bus ride took about an hour and a half and was pretty comfortable considering the bumpy roads. Thankfully the bus had A/C, and Kristen and I had the exit row so we had a lot of room to stretch out our legs. The TV on the bus was playing some Chinese war movie, which was pretty entertaining even though I couldn’t understand a single word being said.

[read on]