Jackie's World Tour 2009 – Let the mayhem begin!

Here I am sitting laying on the sleeper train going from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur (in Malaysia if you are wondering) and I am a mix of emotions. Part of me is at peace and is very happy, the other part is lonely and missing lots of different people and things. I am especially missing my Poopers. Everytime I turn on my computer there is her adorable little face staring up at me. I miss her so much! I just want to scoop her up in my arms and give her lots of kisses. I am really afraid that she is not going to remember me when I finally get to see her. She will have not seen me in a year. God, I will be devastated if she doesn’t remember me. Is it possible for doggies to forget their Mommy? I hope not.

Wow, that was kind of a sucky way to start off my blog but I guess not everything can be peaches and roses, right? I have my down moments and I guess this is one of them. I am alone for the first time in awhile and I guess it is making me think about how much I miss home, my family and friends. You know you never really think to much about missing people when you plan a trip like this and for the most part I have been ok but it totally hits me at points. I just want you all to know that although I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, I think about you guys often and I really do miss you all. I have a pretty kick ass life and friends  outside of my travels and I can’t wait to get back to you guys in another 6 months!

Ok, enough being mushy and stuff…onto BALI!!!!!! I absolutley LOVED Bali. Well I really should say that I loved Ubud. Ubud is the cultural town of Bali. It is where they have all the artist villages for woodworking, stone work, jewelry, painting and metalwork. It is also a very chill laid back town with lots of crystal hugger types. Lots of yoga freaks (sorry yoga peeps but there are some of you out there, not any of the people that I know,  that are just a little too weird and out there with it!) make their home in Ubud so there is this wacky spiritual thing going on there as well. I didn’t get involved with that but I loved everything else about it. There were great little eateries with all healthy and organic food and just a great vibe to the town. I swear I could have stayed there for months. Claire and I decided that we were going to treat ourselves a little bit and stayed at this awesome place, Ketut’s place. It was up a side street from the main drag and it was beautful. Our room was on it’s own floor with a little pond, veranda, balcony and places to sit. Across from our baclony was the jungle with a river running about 150 feet below us. It was so peaceful. We had breakfast every morning on our veranda and just listened to the flowing water. It was just amazing. It was nice, we were able to get into a little bit of a routine. We signed up for yoga classes and went to yoga classes everyday. Yoga was great. The classroom was on the second floor and had no walls. It was beautiful cause the studio overlooked these lush emerald green rice paddy fields. So serene and just a perfect setting for yoga. We rented bicycles to get around the town and did alot of exploring during the day. We also did lots of shopping. We went to an amazing jeweler and spent way too much money on some really outstanding jewelry. We also went to see traditional Cecak dancing which was mesmerizing. I took place in a temple and it there was no music. All of the music was done by a group of about  men sitting in a circle around the stage and making different noises with their mouths. Lots of chuck, chuck, chuck kind of stuff with varying tempo and volume. It was so cool. The dancers danced the same story as the one we had previously saw in Jogja so it was nice to actually know the story. It was great. The dancing was of course amazing. I love to watch Thai dancing and they make it look so eays. I took a class and thought I was going to die. It is really strenuous and way harder than it looks. It is beautiful and I wish I had more time to properly study the artform. Like I said, I could easily stay in Ubud for months. The other random thing I did in Ubud was visit this famous local healer. It was really interesting. We went to his house which was like all traditonal Balinese houses. It was a compound where his whole  extended family lives. These compounds are usually pretty large considering that huge families are living there. It is pretty cool. Anyway, he had me sit down with my back facing him and he then felt all around my head and face pinpointing areas that were not 100%. He would find a spot that hurt and he would tell me what it was associated with. He bascially said that I am still living in the past and I need to let go of whatever is holding my heart and be happy again. hmmmm…..interesting. He then had me lay down and he used this littel twig thing and pressed on certain pressure points on my foot. There was one spot on my foot where I almost leaped out of my skin it hurt so much. He said that area was for my heart. He did some prayer thing over my body and then went and pressed the twig into the same spot again and it didn’t hurt anymore. It was so weird. He said that he opened up the blockage I had from my heart to my liver. It was pretty cool. Can’t say I feel much different but I was blown away at the fact that the pressure point no longer hurt after her did that little prayer thing over me. 

We spent 8 awesome days in Ubud and then decided that we should probably experience some other areas of Bali. So we left to go to Kuta ( a huge beach party town) and then onto the Gili Islands. As much as I loved Ubud I am glad that we did this. I fell in love with the Gilis. It was so much fun! Kuta was ok, just a typical beach town with lots of resturants, shops and bars. I could have stayed there for a couple of days but probably would have gotten bored pretty quickly. Now the Gili Islands are a different story. Claire and I both LOVED it. It is such a cool island with such an amazing laid back attitude. We met a couple of people on the boat ride over to the island who we wound up hanging out with for the whole time we were on the island. Hugh wound up being my dive buddy for the week and we had a great time. Claire and I stayed at one of the diving hotels called the Big Bubble and it was a great experience. Claire did her Discover Scuba diving course which was a super huge accomplishment cause she is afraid of water. I did 4 dives while I was there and I enjoyed them all. The water was warm and I really liked the divemaster that took us on our dives. And Hugh is as much of a jackass underwater as I am! Whoo-hoo, good times! The dive sites were pretty nice but I think that I am a bit spoiled from Fiji. It is hard to compare to Fiji in my mind. All in all Gili’s was just what I needed. It was a nice balance of chill and party. The first night we were there our little crew went out had dinner and then made our way over to the shisha bar. It was all down hill after that. We all went to a bar after that and drank our faces off. So much fun! Oh yeah and guess what, my room was right by the mosque so I got to hear the wonderful singing at 4:30 in the morning again! I told you I couldn’t escape those damn call to prayers! LOL
Claire and I both agreed that we would have stayed in the Gilis for another week or so if our visas weren’t running out! After a week we had to leave cause our visas were expiring so we decided to head over to Malaysia and go to the Perhetian Islands.

Getting to Malaysia was pretty uneventful. Took our flight into Kuala Lumpur and then another flight over to Khota Baru. We then hopped on a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. There are 2 islands, Besar and Kecil. We stayed on Kecil cause it was much cheaper and more laid back. We managed to find a room right off the bat which was just a steak of good luck for us. You see they do not pre-book rooms on the island so you just have to show up and pray you find something. I have heard stories of people having to sleep on the beach cause they couldn’t find any rooms. Like I said, we were lucky. 🙂 The room was pretty basic but I liked the place. It had a certain kind of run-down charm. And the bonus plan was that it was not near a mosque! LOL! I did some diving which was ok. Nice dives but nothing to write home about. I think the snorkeling was better than the diving. We went snorkeling twice and the first time we went we saw a school (around 8) black tip sharks together swimming around. I have never seen that before. It was pretty amazing! I see lots of sharks but I have never seen 8 together at one time. Very, very cool! We also met up with our friend Nigel who we had met in Singapore. He was in Malaysia and I told him we were going to the Perhentians and he decided to come on over and hang with us. It was really nice to see him and we all had a great time.

Now of course this would not be a Jackie blog if something silly didn’t happen and of course the Perhentians delivered! The last night we were there I had decided to go to bed somewhat early. I woke up around 2 in the morning cause I had to go to the bathroom. Our room did not have a bathroom in it so I had to go around the back of the room to where the toilets and showers were located. I stumble out of my room half asleep and go to open the gate to the toilets only to discover that they are locked!!! The only place where half of the people staying could go to the bathroom had a huge padlock on the door. WTF?!?! So I go to the front desk and of course no one is there. I then see a bunch of guys who work there walking past. I tell them that the bathrooms are locked and I need to go to the bathroom. I was told that they had no water so they locked the bathrooms. I am sorry, you did what? Half the rooms here do not have attached bathrooms so basically we are shit out of luck if we have to pee? I didn’t say that to the guy although I really wanted to. Instead, I asked him what I was supposed to  do cause I had to go to the bathroom. So the guy tells me to come back in the morning! WHAT????? I have to pee NOW!!! That is the whole point of this conversation. All he could tell me was to come back in the morning. Of all the answers I would have expected, come back in the morning was not one of them. I was disgusted so I just left and wandered around to other places that had a toilet. Thank god I found one before I pissed myself. Unbelievable!!! I swear this shit only happens to me.

Besides my little toilet incident, the stay on the island was really good. It was a really nice way to finish off my time with Claire. After 3 days we hopped back on the ferry and went back to the airport. claire headed off to Kuala Lumpur to go back Singapore and then home. I headed to the train station and took an overnight train to Kuala Lumpur ( much cheaper than flying!) Obviously that is where this blog started. But now I am past the train and I have been to KL and other places so I will update you on that as well.

Got to Kuala Lumpur in the morning and took the really good public transportation to my hostel in Chow Kit. I have to say that I found it very easy to get around KL. Ther transport in not really linked together but it is really easy to understand. KL is another big city with tons of shopping! The first day I got there I headed to Petronas Towers and to the mall that occupies the ground floor. It was a huge mall and there were tons of stores. I spent the day doing nothing really and just cruised around the mall and surrounding areas. It was just what the doctor ordered after the overnight train! The next day I hooked up with Rich who I met at the hostel and we decided to go Batu Caves. Batu Caves were pretty cool. We took a darkness tour which basically takes you through a side cave and then we went and visited the shrines built inside the caves. It was really different and very cool. After that we went over to Chinatown and perused the markets and got some food. It was another good day. The rest of the days I spent in KL were kind oflow key just doing some browsing thru the mega malls and hanging out. Nothing to amazing but it was nice.

After KL I decided to head over to Semporna to try and dive Sipidan, which is a world class dive site. It was a somewhat expensive flight but I had high hopes for Semporna and Sipidan. You see the problem with Sipidan is that you need a permit to dive there. They only allow 120 snorklers and divers there a day. People book there permits months in advance. Lots of times there are cancellations so you can get a permit regardless of having booked in advance or not. So I get to Semporna and check in with the dive shop, Scuba Junkie. No cancellations for Sipidan for the next day but I am scheduled into 3 dives at Mabul, which is supposed to be great diving as well. Ok cool. I go check into the Scuba Junkie hostel where I had booked a dorm room. Oh my god, what a SHITHOLE!!! I tried to make the best of it but man it was pretty bad. I figured I was just tired and in the morning it would seem better. So I sleep the night in the shithole, get eaten alive by mosquitoes and get up stupid early to meet the boat for my dives. Ok, the dives were really good. I especially loved the first dive, which incidentally was my 100th dive! Whoo-hoo, go me! 🙂 NO wonder I am broke, I pick all the expensive hobbies! Anyway, I can’t say I really liked the staff at Scuba Junkie. It wasn’t anything specific but I left feeling like I didn’t really want to give them anymore of my money and I cancelled my next days dives. After coming back from the dives I came to realize that Semporna did not look any better than it did the night before and all I really wanted to do was get the hell out of there. So I checked out the next morning and left town with Andrea, another diver who was staying in the dorm and felt the same way I did. We took a taxi to Sepilok and checked into this really nice jungle resort by the oranghutan rehab center. Yes, I know, more oranguhtans! I can’t get away from them. This place was really nice and it was such a step up from Semporna! Really a ditch in the side of the road would have been better than Semporna but this place legitimally was nice. We were in heaven. I was a little hesitant about travelling with Andrea. I was not sure if our two personalities would mesh well together but I am really glad that we did decide to join ways. She is very candid and upfront and intelligent. We had a really great conversation over dinner talking about everyting from politics, perceptions of other parts of the world and just life in general. I spent the next couple of days with Andrea. We spent one day in Sepilok swimming in the pool and exploring. We then took a flight over to Kuala Lumpur. We got in about 11pm and wound up having to stay by the airport so Andrea could work some things out with Air Asia. Well the ONE hotel by the airport was fully booked so we were told that we could stay in the lobby as long as we did not sleep. So what ensued was about 6 hours of using the internet and drinking lots of caffenated drinks till the service desk opened at 5:30 in the morning. That was a fun evening! 🙂 But thankfully, Andrea was able to get everything worked out and we headed over to our hostel. The hostel was REALLY nice and we loved the fact that we had AC. Yes, AC is aluxury for someone backpacking on a budget. LOL Spent the next couple of days with Andrea doing some random shopping, getting massages and just hanging out. Nice and relaxing.

During this time I decided that I wanted to find a place to park my butt for a month before I went to on my tour of Cambodia and Laos. I looked into going to Kho Pangang in Southern Thailand and taking yoga classes for a month but then it dawned on me that I could take Muay Thai classes. So, I found a place in Phuket where I could train 2x a day, 6 days a week for a really reasonable price. So I decided to get my ass in shape and go do some hardcore training. I have been here for 6 days so far and I have trained 5 days so far. It is really hardcore and it is seriously kicking my ass. I love it though. I will definitley be in great shape after a month of this. I will be updating some more in a couple of weeks. I am exhausted and need to go to bed! As always, miss you all! 🙂 BUG HUGS!

Here I am sitting in the airport at Kuala Lumpor trying to kill 2+ hours before our next flight. Yep, I am no longer in Indonesia and I am now off to Malaysia. Not wanting to be in a big city, my travel buddy Claire and I decided to fly into KL and then right out again to head for a the Perinthian Islands off the coast of Northern Malaysia. I am very excited even though I am limping along from lack of sleep. I know it has been a long time since I posted so I am going to back up and tell you all about my adventures in Singapore and Indonesia.

Last I left you I promised I was going to talk about Singapore. What a weird country. I mean it is about the size of Manhattan and has no real defining qualities except that it is like 20 different countries in one. I stayed in a hostel that was right outside of Little India and let me say that when they say it is Little India, it really is. It seriously seems like you are stepping into India. And I have to say that everyone talks about how clean Singapore is, well I am calling Shenanigans. It found it to be somewhat dirty, especially in Little India. Everyone was on top of each other and it was always crowded. I went to the 24 hour mall at 12am and it was packed…on a weekday. I mean don’t people work? It was so weird. I really enjoyed Chinatown. That was pretty cool. It was just like a typical Chinese market area you would see in Thailand or NYC Chinatown. The food in Chinatown was kick ass and super cheap. I spent most of my time there. They also had a huge Buddhist temple that I visited in the heart of Chinatown. It was beautiful and they had a museum of all different kinds of buddahs. It was really interesting. Other than that it was like any other big city. Big malls, expensive shops, etc, etc. They also had the one resort area, Sentosa. I went there one day with some people I met at the hostel I was staying in. It was fun. We rode the 3D rides and went to the aquarium where I got to see some pink dolphins. I didn’t even know pink dolphins existed. Learn something new everyday. 🙂 The one really great thing about Singapore was that I got a travel buddy for Indonesia. Claire was in the same room as me in the hostel and due to some wonky work issues she was able to extend her trip and come to Indonesia with me. And let me tell you, thank god I had her to travel with cause I think I would have curled into a ball about cried about 1,000 different times throughout my jaunt through Indonesia.

I knew at some point I was going to hit a wall with this whole traveling thing. I suspected that it would be somewhere in SE Asia because that would be the start my trip where I would run into the whole language barrier. Well, I predicted correctly. Indonesia was rough going in the beginning. Thank god I had Claire with me cause I think I would have lost my mind. We decided to fly into Jakarta in Java and then go from there. We got in touch with this woman Clara who runs a B&B out of her house about 20 minutes outside of Jakarta and arranged accommodations with her for about 3 days. She had her driver pick us up from the airport and take us back to her place. Ok, first off, there is never a time in Jakarta where there is not traffic. It was insane. Not only is there so much traffic you could walk faster than the cars, everything is really spread out. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Clara’s place. On top of the fact that there is an amzing amount of traffic people drive like asshats all the time! It seriously puts NY to shame. You have buses, trucks, about a billion motorcycles, pedestrians, beggars and an occassional rooster thrown in for good measure that are traversing the roads all at the same time. Passing slower drivers by driving into oncoming traffic is a common practice all over Indonesia and I seriously thought I was going to die at some points during my journeys. Nothing was worse than the 9 hour drive to Mt Bromo when I was stuck in the front seat with a fellow American, Nathan. We both thought we were going to be eating windshield at least 10 different times during that trip…but I digress. We will get to that later. Back to Jakarta. I am not going to go into to much detail about Jakarta except to say that it is a dirty and overcrowded place. I was not really a fan at all. Clara’s home was the only exception. She and her family were wonderful hosts and the house was just magnificant. It was the highlight of Jakarta. The one down side to her place was that there was a mosque right around the block. Ok, let’s take a poll….how many people here have actually heard a call to prayer from a mosque? I am assuming that not many of you have. Consider yourself lucky! It happens about 6 times a day and I think they choose the person with the absolute worst voice on the face of the planet to sing over the loudspeaker. And it seems that they pick the man with the absolute worse voice to do the 4:30 in the morning call to prayer. The first night in Jakarta I was awoken by what I thought was a dying cat screaming into my ear. Nope, it was super bad singer over the VERY loud loudspeaker which sounded like it was mounted in my room next to my bed. Man, I thought I sang badly. These dudes take the cake! The call to prayer actually became the bane of my existence while in Indonesia. I could not get away from it. Everywhere we stayed I got stuck in the room where you could hear the singing. For some reason Claire always got the rooms where you couldn’t hear it but I was not so lucky. Sigh….that is what you get for visiting Muslim countries I guess.

Anyway, after a couple of days Claire and I headed out of Jakarta and took a 5 hour train ride to Yogjakarta (Jogja). This is supposedly the cultural area of Java. I liked Jogja much better than Java. We stayed in a really awesome losem (hostel). Again, Jogja, like Jakarta was very dirty and super crowded. There were so many cheap places to shop and I got a pair of nice sandals for $3. Yea! 🙂 We saw a traditonal ballet at the largest Hindu temple in Jogja. That was pretty damn cool. I really enjoyed it. We also went to Borobodur which is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was quite impressive. There are a couple of places I have been in my life where I sit back and I am so awed just thinking about the fact that the stone I was touching or where I was standing was where someone had stood thousands of years ago. It is just crazy to me. That feeling doesn’t hit me often but it certainly did at Borobodur. The sheer amount of work that it must have taken to carve each stone just blows me away. It is a beautiful place and I wish I could have spent more time there. We stayed up at the top amongst all the buddahs to wait for the sun to set but decided to head down early cause there was alot of cloud cover. Too bad cause I am sure it would have been magnificent.

After Borobodur we signed up to take a sunrise tour to Mt Bromo, the largest active volcano in Java. It was a nine hour drive  in a mini van to get to the town where the volcano was located. At irst I thought I was in good shap cause I had the front seat and I thought the vn was full. Well, I was wrong. We stopped in another town and picked up another person who had to squeeze in the front seat with me. Thank god the guy, Nathan, was cool cause I think I would have killed myself if I was cramped next to a moron for 9 long hours. it was pretty funny though cause Nathan had to be the tallest guy on the trip and he got stuck sitting in between me and the driver with the stick shift taking up half of his leg room. Poor guy but he handled it well! He was a cool guy and we chatted the whole 9 hours. Of course that was in between clutching to each other for dear life cause we thought we were going to die. There were many times we both thought that we were going to run headlong into a huge truck. Indonesians give new meaning the playing chicken. At swear at one point I looked up and we were driving on a sidewalk! It was actually kind of funny. Needless to say we got the Bromo in one piece and after about 3 hours of sleep we went to see the sunrise over Mt. Bromo. It was uneal. The colors were so vivid and half the time I thought I was looking at a watercolor. Just stunning. Totally worth freezing my ass off and dealing with the 9 hour drive.
 
After JOgja we headed off to Kalimatan, which is the Indonesian side of Borneo. We decided it was time to get our asses into the jungle and see the oranghutans. What a great trip. The planning of the trip was highly difficult considering that Borneo is not really set up for tourists but we finally were able to get it together with the help of Harry, our saviour in Borneo. He runs a oranghutan tour and he was one of the only people that spoke good english. He helped us with  everything from plane tickets to permits. So into Borneo we fly and we head off to Harry’s boat (called a Klotok) to start our 3 day river tour. The boat was our transport, where we ate, slept and hung out. It was awesome. It was very basic but both Claire and I loved it. There is nothing like cruising down a river in the middle of the jungle and watching monkeys play around in the trees. So cool! During the day we woudl got to different Oranghutan Rehabiliation feeding stations to see the orangs. They were amazing. They are just like hairy little people. I got pretty close to them and I got to hand feed them. Again, totally amazing.

I know you guys are probably getting bored with the adjectives I am using cause if I had a penny for everytime I have used the word awesome or amazing I would be rich. But honestly, I really don’t know how else to explain it. My life at the moment just astounds me. I can’t really believe that it is actually my life. I had this conversation at lunch the other day with Claire. She asked me if I lost the wow factor cause I have been travelling for so long now. I have to say that yes, I have lost the WOW factor a bit. It is like I see these amazing things and it registers but I don’t fully appreciate it until I really think about it or I look back at the pictures. Like sitting here writing my blog or when I post my pictures I actually get a chance to really THINK about what I have seen and experienced and it just blows me away. I mean I get to see the most beautiful things on a daily basis and do the coolest things. I can choose to do nothing but lay on a beach or I can pack my days with adventure. It is totally up to me which is really cool. I have never really had that. I guess I am someone who tends to put other people first and I tend to not be selfish enough. I like being selfish. It is a great feeling to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. It is not in my nature to be like this all the time but it is nice to be able to live just for me for a little while. So when I look back on the last 6 months (I can’t believe it has been 6 months already!) I sometimes need to pinch myself just to convince myself that this is reality. I am so lucky that I get to live this life and I thank the man upstairs everyday for giving me the courage to do this.

Ok need to catch my plane. Next update I will tell you all about Bali, where Indonesia really starts to kick ass! And the next update will be within a couple of days, I promise. Hugs to everyone!