Around the world and back again!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Chicago-HOME!-Minnesota-Milwaukee-Dubuque-WEDDING!-Madison-Chicago-San Jose-Monterey-Hong Kong-Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-*sigh*

My RoadtrippinSoutheastAsia travels were briefly interrupted as I flew home for three weeks for Brittney's wedding in September. It was a short, but definitely sweet, trip! I had a fantastic time hanging out and catching up with my friends and family. I truly appreciated the time spent with my little sister and the chance to get to know my brother-in-law a little better. I think being the thousand-ish miles away has made my relationship with Britt even stronger, somehow. Some of my family even got together for a Brewer's game, since I requested some tailgating fun while I was home. I spent the week before the wedding with her, helping with anything that I could. Luckily, there were only two small hurdles that we overcame the day before the wedding (a missing tux and a bussle-less dress). I learned my lesson about writing my maid of honor toast on an index card...anyone who was at the reception knows that I couldn't read it through my teary eyes. The Monday after the wedding, we went to the apple orchard, so I of course made Brittney and Jason take a ridiculous picture with me.

Yee-haw!

 

This is the same spot on Hwy 1 that's in a Corona commercial.

On my way back to Asia, I thought it made sense to stop by California (since I was flying over anyway) to visit Julia, who is currently attending grad school there. I spent a long weekend salsa dancing, hiking, rock climbing, watching otters and sea cows in the bay, visiting the aquarium, and walking around beautiful Monterey.





I finally made it back to Asia, with a stop in Jakarta, to pick up my big backpack at a friend's apartment. I met up with Kristina and Nicole in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They had been in Siem Reap, Cambodia for the majority of my time at home (the site of the famous Angkor Wat). After a couple of days for me to get over my jet lag, we headed west to the island of Penang. This is a place we had already been in March 2012, during a short school holiday. We had plenty more time to explore the island and Georgetown (the area where we stayed). We walked around to find the street art, got acupuncture on my knees, visited a mosque, hiked up Penang Hill, visited Fort Cornwallis and even took a hike in the State Park during a torrential downpour. 

Being non-Muslim tourists, we were required to cover our heads.

It didn't hurt, but it was strange to watch needles in my skin.

Having fun with some of the Penang street art.

We went back to the Cameron Highlands to go hiking, eat delicious Indian food and pick strawberries. Once again, this is a place we had been before, but we were returning for further exploration. 

Raffelesia flower in bloom. So huge!

The bamboo on the right of the picture is the bridge we crossed.

We went to another island called Langkawi, where we met Kristina's cousin for a few days. This was a beach stop where I could "top up" my tan, after my time back home. There's only so much sun my body could take, though, so we spent a couple of days on motorbikes, driving around the island and finding waterfalls. This was also my first encounter with a single leech. Little did I realize, it was only the beginning...

That's just one leech on the bottom of my foot.

Enjoying a Langkawi sunset.

Having fun in a temple.

Natural waterslide!

 After Langkawi, and the reason I mentioned the leeches, is that we next took a bus (or two) to the National Park, called Teman Negara. We were warned about the leeches, but I actually am traveling with only hiking sandals. I have no close-toed shoes of any kind. I figured that I would just have to tough it out with the leeches. Luckily I thought to rubber band the bottoms of my pant legs, so as to stop the leeches from crawling up my pants. I'm not kidding. One did make its way to my neck, but Kristina caught it before it started eating. I definitely fed them plenty well! We signed up for a three day/two night trek with our guesthouse, and by the time we left the next morning, there was a total of thirteen in our group with two guides as well. After the first day of hiking, I had counted fifteen leeches just on my right foot. I stopped counting after that, and I really just tried to ignore any that were on my feet as I walked. If I didn't notice a leech in time before it dug its teeth in, then I either had to pull it out (which apparently could leave its teeth in me) or just wait until it was full in about 30-40 minutes. I usually chose the latter, until I noticed some were just being very greedy and got disgustingly big on my feet. Unfortunately, now a week later, as the "wounds"heal, they are extremely itchy (which is what our guide warned us about as we pulled the leeches out). Anyways, a picture is worth a thousand words, so have a look for yourself.

Beginning of Day 1. World's longest canopy walkway.

End of Day 1: So many leeches!

Our bloody feet after I pulled out some of the leeches and let others finish eating.

Day 2: Leech bite protection. I was afraid all of the bites would bleed as I walked.

Now, the leech bites are healing, and we've spent the past week-ish in Kuala Lumpur. A fantastic city full of free museums, free heritage walks around the city, and a great variety of public transportation (and one of the bus lines is even free). Next we're headed to Malecca, a city in Malaysia that's full of even more history of the country!

I Will Go The Distance

Let the (official) 'Road Trippin Southeast Asia' adventures begin! If you haven't realized, at this point, I've already been traveling for four months, including a trip home and back, so here goes.

My travels have been absolutely fantastic since June! I  finally left Indonesia in mid-August after a 30-day tourist visa, and then a 30-day extension. Don't worry,  I'll be back. We still plan to go to Papua and dive in Raja Ampat.

We swam with stingless jellyfish in Derawan.

Mt Rinjani. Looks harmless in the beginning.

Summit domination! It was cold and rainy.

The volcano is behind me in the picture, slightly smoking.
This is on the way down from the summit (that's why I look so happy).

The porters carried all of the supplies up and down. Water, food, tents, etc for our three day trek.

We got Advanced open water scuba certified at an amazing island called Gili Air.

Now I can dive as deep as 30 metres...that's nearly 100 feet!

We drove motorbikes around, basically, the entire island of Bali (on two separate occasions), got lost, got a better map and only used phone GPS when it was getting dark. Along the way, I saw beautiful scenery, carved a wooden turtle and even got blessed at Ulu Watu.

We returned to Flores, an island in Indonesia. We dove from a live aboard boat around Komodo National Park where we saw huge manta rays (sorry no pictures because my underwater camera case is broken) and my arm was stung by fire coral. We even drove to a waterfall and spent a few days at my favourite beach in Indonesia.

We rode in a huge passenger ship known as the Pelni, to get from Flores to Sulawesi (still both islands in Indonesia). Thanks to Kristina finding the deserted female clinic, we had a great place to sleep during the 14-hour journey.

Jumping off a rock near a waterfall in Flores.

The second captain let me "drive" the Pelni. Such a huge ship!

Some of the most spectacular sunsets I've seen yet!

Worth it!
We watched the majestic manta rays for at least ten minutes.

It looked worse at it was healing. Vinegar was the best medicine.

We saw a bunch (upwards in the hundreds, maybe even in the thousands) of pigs and water buffalo about to be killed at two elaborate funeral ceremonies in Tana Toraja, an area in southern Sulawesi. I actually watched a man kill two pigs and skin them, and also I watched one buffalo get killed. I was legitimately very sad afterward, no joke. This is not a tradition I can even begin to understand, but to each his own.

The Torajan people believe that a good afterlife is guaranteed for the beloved
family member based on how elaborate the funeral ceremony is.

It takes months to build the traditional Torajan rice houses and area for the funeral.

We stayed (hungout, read, napped, snorkeled) on another beautiful island in The Togeans. We also dove a World War II bomber plane that crashed in the 1940's.

A relaxing island in the Togean Islands.

We dove again in Bunaken, a different island in northern Sulawesi and saw loads of turtles and beautiful coral walls. A guy who dove with us had a go-pro, so he recorded and edited a wonderful underwater video of our dive (it's on Facebook).

The Mangroves outside of our guesthouse on Bunaken.

For the two weeks, I stayed in Malaysia at a yoga retreat center. My friend and I did this program (from a website) called "workaway", which means we worked at this place (pulling weeds, making a floor tile mosaic, painting, planting, learning to make sourdough bread from scratch, etc) in exchange for a free place to stay and eat.

Yoga twice a day. This is the meditation chant.

The perfect lime!

Sourdough bread chef.

Pulling weeds was such fulfilling work, even though it took us nearly two weeks to finish.

 All in all, the first four months of travel have been amazing!