theboonedoggle

In the time we have been traveling (7 months now!), we each have found little places here and there which we simply can't be bothered to tear ourselves away from. Unfortunately, they have never been the same places; I love the isolated beaches, and Tatyana has a thing for comfy little towns... But for the first time, we both found such simple contentment in one little spot, it was really quite difficult to leave. And now, I can't seem to get it out of my head... Our introduction to Sulawesi, as you know from the previous entry, was not a pleasant one. The loss of our camera, itself, was no big deal... the loss of the pictures was a devastation for Tatyana, who loves her pictures. Once we got past it (with the help of quite a few "anger beers"), we were able to get on with enjoying what is one of the coolest places we've been to yet. Sulawesi, if one looks it up, resembles a giant octopus in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago. No place on the island is more t...

Selamat, A month in Thailand and Malaysia was just what we needed to recover from two months of hard travel through Nepal and India. But towards the end we were itching to get back off the beaten path. So, we decided to scratch Java and Bali and head for Borneo and Sulawesi. Kalimantan is Indonesia's part of Borneo Island which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei. So we took a cheap flight to Malaysia's Sabah area and crossed over by boat. This area is absolutely stunning and while our guidebook says that about 80% of forest has been cut down over the last 20 years, the island is still filled with thick and lush forests. The country has benefited a lot from logging and palm oil and while people are well off, infrastructure here is still very poor - for instance there is no way to get from the east coast to the west by car and on even the major highways (a narrow dirt road through the forest) it can take more than 4 hrs to go 50 kilometers. While the Dayak people live pretty mode...

Love this place! As a whole, some of the nicest people we've come across on this entire trip; right up there with Malawians. A lot of tourists skip Malaysia, which was great for us. The really amazing spots have not been completely ruined by tourism and it has afforded us a few weeks of general solitude. The other foreigners we come across here tend to be the sort of 'travelers' we like: those who seek out the more remote locations in an attempt to avoid the crowds; those who will eat nothing but bread and ketchup for weeks to save up just enough scratch for a really good dive; those who will wear their underwear inside-out and backwards before they dare waste precious soap on a wash... people like ME. Our first stop in Malaysia was the Perhentian Islands. Amazingly beautiful! Hands down, the clearest water I have ever been in. Tourism exists here, but not much, so the islands and the coral around them are still generally pristine. We spent five days swimming, snorkeling, r...

We gambled against the monsoon for four days on Tonsai Beach. When it wasn't raining, it was pouring; and when it wasn't pouring, it was just beautiful. We saw much more sun than the season called for, and enjoyed all the benefits of low season -namely solitude. Tonsai Beach is not on an island, but one of a quartet of amazing beaches along the Krabi coast, in an area where the thick jungle and steep limestone terrain make access from the mainlaind a non-starter. The only way there is by longtail boat, a ten-minute ride from Ao Nang. The beaches are surrounded by towering limestone karsts, making this something of a mecca for rock climbing enthusiasts. And there is nothing to do here but swim, snorkel, climb, and explore the thick jungle surroundings. So that is what we did for four days. We have posted pictures to my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026421&id=1009299883&l=43a5edb3c4 We stayed in a little bungalow, about two hundred meters off...

I'm back, baby! If you thought the last few postings were getting a bit anemic (and Tatyana back-filled half the last post), you were dead-on... India sucked the wind out of me, and then kicked the crap out of me... and then it stole from me... and I was a bit tuckered out over the last month. If you ever do go to India, go on a full tank. After four months of traveling, I think we were simply in no mood for it... But now I've got a song to sing, and you're going to get more than you'd like. So, having made the best of our side-trip to India, we booked it to Bangkok for a much needed change. Loved it there. Much of our first impressions of Thailand were tempered by our experience in India, so the things we loved so much about it are very much simple contrasts to the subcontinent... Bangkok is quiet. No doubt anyone who has been there will screw up their face and say 'whaaaa?', but let me explain. Bangkok is busy , yes, but loud it is not. Amidst all the ...

Namaste, So.....After a few days in Delhi, we took the overnight train to Varanasi , one of the holiest places India, and one of the oldest cities in the world. Bordered by the river Ganges, multitudes migrate here near the time of their death to be cremated on the river's banks and laid to rest in the river itself. We spent an hour one afternoon watching cremations (which consist of laying a body across a stack of wood and setting it afire) from the balcony of a hospice, where the aged waited patiently, collecting donations for the wood of their own pyre. The source fire for these cremations, we were told, has been burning non stop for thousands of years. Hundreds are disposed of this way at these "burning ghats" each day. After a few hours each fire dies down and the remains are collected and transported three meters or so to the river, where a boat dumps them a few meters off shore. -Not everything burns completely: rib cages and hip bones make up the bulk of what is t...

NEPAL After Bhutan we spent another week in Kathmandu waiting for our Indian visas. It was nice coming back for round two -Kathmandu seemed much more manageable the second time around. Our first full day back was great -the Maoists were protesting (as they do about once a week) and the party was forcing businesses (whether they supported the cause or not) to shutter their doors. Moreover, all vehicles, including public transportation and even bicycles, were forbidden from operating within the city. This made the otherwise lunatic streets of Kathmandu pleasantly palatable for an entire day.... we enjoyed a full day of walking about town, with thousands of others, free of the ever-present danger of being run down by a bus or auto rickshaw. As long as we gave the protesters a wide berth as they marched down the major thoroughfares, we were at no risk whatsoever of violence against our good selves. Five days of bumming around Kathmandu earned us our visas, and we made for the Indian border...