Three loves reunite!

I was fortunate to take another trip to Indonesia. While it is clearly my favorite Southeast Asian country (love number one), I was also reunited with diving (love number two) and my family came to visit in Bali (love number three...my family, not Bali). Those are clearly not written in order of importance, rather in order chronologically.

Love #1 Returning to Indonesia. The people. The food. The weather. Everything that I love, remember. Still just as fantastic.

Love #2 Diving in Raja Ampat, Indonesia (way far east, near Papua, which is the furthest eastern island of Indonesia) has been at the top of my list of diving that needed to happen since I started these travels in June. I decided to live (eat, sleep and dive) on a boat for seven days so that I could experience some of the best dive sites in the Raja Ampat area. Pictures will give you a better idea of how absolutely amazing and mindblowing it was. It has been, hands down, the best diving I have done so far! Seven days of living on the boat, meeting more great people (the diving community is so much fun) and doing seventeen dives! Life doesn't get much better than that.

The Jaya. Our boat with Komodo Diving.

I was bored while waiting for the
next dive so I climbed the mast.

We even took a little hike for sunset at a nearby lookout point.

Our awesome dive group! Germany and USA represent.

I am so glad we had an underwater camera with our group.

Almost every dive was like swimming in an aquarium!

I wouldn't usually link a blog post in my own blog post, but a dive guide on our trip, who works for Wicked Diving, also writes a blog for them. So, if you're interested in more of the specifics of our week of diving, check it out. I think he did a great job.

http://wickeddiving.com/2015/03/concerning-the-big-picture-and-fishy-fish-fatigue-trip-report-for-raja-ampat-liveaboard-trip-13/ 

After the liveaboard trip, we relaxed at a homestay at a nearby island, still in Raja Ampat. We thought we would need time to unwind from the massive amount of dives we had done and just from living on a boat. It turns out, we just wanted to keep diving. Luckily, our homestay also had a small diveshop where we did five more dives. When I wasn't diving, I was sitting in my hammock reading or laying on the sand in the sun. 

Do you think we were done diving yet? Ha! We headed to southern Sulawesi for more diving. It's the off season (apparently there are a ton of sharks in the peak season), but we still had fun diving and met some more interesting characters (mainly boat builders and spear fishermen). We did five more dives here.

The view from the restaurant where we ate fresh fish barbecue.

Notice the beautiful water colors?
Or were you distracted...by the tree, right?
This is for my sister and her "love" of spiders. 

Love #3 My Family!!

I met the fam in Bali. My dad, sister, brother-in-law and two cousins made the long journey to check out what was so great about Asia and Indonesia. I can't say that any of them enjoyed the plane rides and long flight times, but they all survived (some better than others), and maybe I convinced them that it's a pretty great place to be (but I don't know, you'll just have to ask them for yourself). 

We stayed in Canggu for three days. We went to the beach a couple of days. We went on a water sport adventure, including a jet ski, banana boat ride and a tube ride. We drank a lot of Bintang, the local beer, while sitting next to the pool. We went out one night to the crazy strip of bars and clubs.
 

Dad at the dance club. It was hilarious!

We took a big van for some rice field site seeing, coffee tasting and stopping at the Sacred Monkey Forest along our way to Ubud, where we spent three days. We got massages (while the boys drank beer) and went shopping. I took my cousin to try an introductory course for scuba diving. I think he's hooked, and I'm happy to be that "bad" influence (I don't know if he realizes, yet, that diving can become an expensive habit, and will most likely involve trips around the world to desirable divesites. Darn). More beer was consumed pool side, except this time our villa had a private pool. This led to more jumping in,splashing around and ridiculous water fights. We even had a night of playing euchre. From here, we took an early morning excursion up Mt Batur to see the sunrise from the top.

Rice field green. Gorgeous!

Mt Batur is 1,717 meters high.
So proud of everyone for making the climb!

View from the top of Mt Batur, right before sunrise.

 

Then, their short vacation was finished, and we all flew back to Jakarta together.  Unfortunately, I don't have any group photos, so I'll put one on here later from one of my family members. I am so glad they came to visit and I could share with them a little bit of my Indonesia experience. I hope they had as much fun as I did! Thanks for coming. Love you guys!

Viet...VROOM...nam!

January to February 2015

Me and my chariot! Gotta love those trucks who honk loudly
and don't like to share the road.

We spent our entire 30+ day visa (apparently they just gave us from 20 Jan. until 20 Feb) driving our motorbikes from the south of Vietnam all the way to the north. We even made it to the Chinese border, but then we turned around. The driving in Vietnam is a whole other can of worms than any of the countries I've driven in throughout Southeast Asia. I felt like I had to relearn how to drive, because the "rules" are definitely not the same as Indonesia or Thailand. The best advice I got, from an American expat living in Ho Chi Minh City, the day I bought my bike: "Think of the craziest, stupidest, most unexpected thing that the other driver(s) can do. And then just expect them to do it." That was exactly what happened so many times while driving, especially with the sheer amount of motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Defensive driving was the name of the game. Some days it was quite exhausting. Even when we left the cities, it was the same advice taken to heart when driving on the highways with the buses and trucks. I just got out of their way. They're bigger. They will win. I will lose. We quickly learned how to use the atlas along with google maps and city maps to create our best route, which we made sure avoided Hwy 1 (the main road from south to north, full of road construction and the big trucks and buses). We chose the parallel roads, which usually allowed us to drive more slowly through rice paddy roads, local villages and have a chance to take in the beautiful scenery.

All that being said, we had no problems with our bikes, mechanically, and we had no accidents with any of the aforementioned other motorbikes, trucks or buses. Thank Goodness! After one day of driving, here are a few things we learned. Mainly, wear pants, a mask and gloves for dirt and sun protection. Layers became necessary as we drove further north into colder temperatures, as well. Buy a bungee cord to strap the backpack onto the seat and always have two ponchos ready, one to put around my backpack and one to wear. Also, avoid the main highway in order to avoid the big trucks. 

In the following, I'll give you an idea of our trip, from the south all the way to the north of Vietnam. I would say, "Buckle up" but I think the more appropriate is "Put your helmet on!"

Stop 1: The south. Ho Chi Minh City (you may know it better as Saigon). Crazy full of motorbikes! We did some site seeing to The Reunification Palace: the former government of South Vietnam was housed here. The War Remnants Museum: full of displays of war pictures, propaganda, Agent Orange effects from what is referred to in this country as the "American War". Opera House: acrobatic show about typical Vietnamese life on the countryside, and performers used only bamboo materials as props. Convenience Store: bought two semi-automatic motorbikes from a local man outside of the convenience store.

Crawling through part
of the Cu Chi Tunnels

Cao Dai Temple

Stop 2: First day of driving. Cu Chi tunnels: built and used by Vietnamese soldiers to hide in and attack American soldiers. Tay Ninh: Cao Dai Temple, which has an interesting mix of Taoism, Buddhism and Confuscianism, with Christianity and Islam also thrown in there.

Stop 3: Da Lat. Cooler temperatures here due to higher altitude. French colonists used it as an escape from the Saigon city heat, back in the day. We used it as a couple of days for relaxing and cooler weather (little did we realize how much colder we would get as we drove further north in the country).

Stop 4: Doc Let. Along the coast. We stayed at a "beach resort" to break up our longer drive. We also stopped at a cool place called Ganh Da Dia. I would like you to notice two things in this picture. First of all, you may wonder what I am sitting in. That's actually the "boat" the local fishermen use to get to his fishing boat. Second, what is that crazy rock formation behind me? I actually had to check the interwebs for a scientific explanation. Here's what I found, thanks to www.vietnam-beauty.com.

Ganh Da Dia

"Millions of years ago, during volcano eruption, mineral flows melting will be frozen when they encounter water and then the solid breaks into columns or obliques. That created the beautiful landscape of Ghenh Da Dia for the present time. Time over time, the landscape is rearranged as an artistic work by the hand of nature. Ghenh Da Dia is about 1km large, half in the sea and half above sea level."

Stop 5: Hoi An. Old city, full of history. Delicious foods. Vietnamese cooking class. Outside of the city, Son My ruins and Marble Mountain. Bought a tailor-made jacket and pair of shorts.

We traveled over the Hai Van Pass. There is a tunnel through
the mountain, but motorbikes are not allowed through it. 

Stop 6: Da Nang. Another stop to break up the drive.

Stop 7: Dong Ha. DMZ (the demilitarized zone) tour. Tam, a local owner of a cafe and hotel, set up the tour. Our guide was a South Vietnamese war veteran who fought alongside the Americans. I learned so much about the differences between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and our guide was very willing and open to share his story and answer our questions. Here's a plug for Tam, which I don't usually do, but he's the reason why Dong Ha is one of my favorite places in the country! He gave us a great deal at his newly acquired hotel and then even invited us out to join in a snake dinner. He actually works for a NGO, and he is just a genuinely caring person who wants to share the history of Dong Ha and Vietnam.

A rebuilt version of the bridge to separate
North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

That's snake in my chopsticks.
It wasn't bad, but I won't start eating meat again for it.

Stop 8: Phong Nga-Ke Bang National Park. Home of the world's largest cave, Son Doong, as well as one of the world's longest cave systems, which is found in Phong Nga Cave. We explored Phong Nga cave, only about 1 km deep, as the system further inside is closed to visitors. We also went into Paradise Cave. We drove our bikes on the 60 km loop around the park, with its beautiful Karst outcrops. We met a lot of other people who were driving bikes, many from North to South (opposite of our travel plans). For the sake of convenience, and really to save time in our thirty day visa, we sold our bikes here and took an overnight bus further north to Hanoi. 

My camera clearly cannot capture neither the size nor
majesty of this cave. It is unbelievable!

View of the area from outside of a cave entrance.
Beautiful even on a rainy day.

Stop 9: The north. Hanoi. A little sight seeing. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum: Ho Chi Minh is, simply put, the Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader and key figure in founding the People's Army of Vietnam and Viet Cong. He is typically shown deep respect and is considered the liberator of the Vietnamese people from colonialism, as his vision was to unite North Vietnam and South Vietnam to form a united, communist Vietnam. The "Hanoi Hilton". American prisoners of war were kept here and there are displays of how well they were treated, hence the nickname of the prison. We also met up with a former colleague from Jakarta who happened to come through the city the same day as us. We all met and chatted over a beer, and then we had dinner with his family that evening.

Ho Chi Minh on a propaganda poster.
They refer to him affectionately as "Uncle Ho".

Get it?!
Saigon "2" Hanoi! We made it (and in one piece). 

Stop 10: further north! Ha Giang. Thanks to a traveler we met in Dong Ha, we had the idea and plan for the northern loop on our motorbikes. Oops, you say, we already sold them. That is true, so we rented bikes from a hotel. They were so much nicer than what we had owned, it was amazing to drive them! From this hotel, we also had to pay for a permit to enter the area further north, since it is a protected area and National Geo Park. Over the course of five days, we drove from Ha Giang to Nin Minh to Gong Ha to Meo Vac and back to Ha Giang. This loop included stops at markets, absolutely amazing views of the karst limestone outcroppings, local villagers along the road at every turn, a drive down a path that lead us to the northern most point in the country. There is a tower and flagpole here that can be climbed, so that we could "look into" China to the north. Hands down, the driving of this loop showed me the best scenery in the entire country, in my humble opinion (but I can't compare it to Sapa or Halong Bay, as I chose to drive this loop in lieu of traveling to those more touristy destinations). 

Guess what? That's China behind me.

Ha Giang Loop

Winding, mountain roads is an understatement.

Convinced of the beauty, yet?

Stop 11: back to Hanoi. Vietnamese New Year and my birthday. The hostel where we stayed threw me a birthday party and even bought me a cake. They were so sweet! The owner had also been very helpful in helping us plan our motorbike loop in the north, as he used to organize tours in that area. At midnight, there was a fireworks display to celebrate the New Year (and my birthday, of course). 

Vroom! Vroom!

It's more fun in The Philippines

Backtrack to the month I spent in The Philippines for Christmas and New Year's
December 2014-January 2015 

Merry Christmas!

Having decided to not go back home for the holidays (for the first time. Ever), Kristina and I chose to be in The Philippines. Two reasons: the population is mostly Christian (Catholic, actually) and we have former colleagues/friends who invited us to spend the holidays with them. This country starts prepping for and celebrating the holidays in September (no Halloween and Thanksgiving interference). They get very serious in their decorating and shopping, which I found out by staying at a hotel in Manila directly across from a mall (actually three big interconnected malls. very much like Jakarta. meh). The bonus of being in The Philippines was the potential for some awesome diving (yes, I'm still doing that).

My favorite public transport, the Jeepney

We spent a week hanging out in Manila. We did some site seeing, had fun riding around on the many forms of local transport and hung out with our awesome friends. It mainly reminded me of Jakarta.

In trying to be less homesick about missing our families, friends and the holidays, Kristina and I bought a tree and decorated our hotel room. Even though there was no snow, we made (no bake) cookies, drank hot chocolate and exchanged gifts.

At least there were really beautiful sunsets,
even though we couldn't dive.

From Manila, we headed south to Sablayan to begin our diving. The plan was to dive around the Apo Reef for a few days. Unfortunately, due to rough waters and weather conditions (*cough*typhoon) we were unable to get to the reef. After being stranded at the resort for longer than we had intended to stay, and still not having the chance to dive, we headed out to the next destination. In an attempt to steer clear of the previously mentioned storm (*cough*typhoon) which was going to the south western islands, over Palawan, we flew the the south eastern islands. There are more friends in this area, as well, so that was another bonus!

We made our way to an island called Malapascua, famous for its Thresher sharks. We found a great dive shop, stayed and dove with them for the better part of a week. We decided to leave there to our next destination as soon as we heard weather reports of another bout of bad weather (*cough*typhoon) coming directly for that area.

Thresher Cove Dive delivered. We saw the Threshers!

Chocolate Hills

We headed to Bohol, an island famous for its 'Chocolate Hills' and the Tarsier, the world's smallest primate. It was quite rainy for a couple of days, so we decided to poncho up and drive a motorbike to see the famed Chocolate Hills'. They weren't brown in color at the time we were there, but it's still pretty cool that they were formed by the sea in those shapes.

Bike zip line

On our way back, we stopped by an adventure park, where we did a bicycle zip line. I definitely didn't know that even existed. It was easy, (as long as I didn't look down), fun and offered the best view of the Hills.

Freediving. Looks a bit different than the full scuba gear.

Enough 'site seeing'. Let's go diving! So far, in meeting other scuba divers throughout my travels, I've heard enough mention freediving to make me curious. Alona Beach just happens to have a shop run by one of the current world record holders in freediving. If you don't know anything about freediving, it's basically diving down, headfirst, with only a weight belt, fins and mask (no air tank). I signed up for a course with an instructor to tell me about the basics of the sport as well as teach me a few of the techniques for holding my breath. The biggest challenge, for me, was how to best equalize ('pop') my ears as I swam down headfirst. I made it down to ten meters, but only once. I had to try it mostly out of curiosity. Some people do it for the challenge and others simply because there's more of a sense of freedom with less equipment and no air tank. I definitely crossed off professional freediver from the list of possible future careers, but it was fun to try something new.

Relaxed in my hammock and enjoyed the sunsets.

We moved on to our next destination called Apo Island (not the same as Apo Reef). The beach was tiny, but the weather was gorgeous, I had a shady spot to hang my hammock and there was plenty of diving to be had. Overall, a very small, relaxing place.

Not surprisingly, we heard again that another storm (seriously, that's the third, if you've been counting) was on its way. We headed back to Cebu City early, so that we could fly to Manila for our flight out of the country. We just happened to be there during the Sinulog Festival, a part of the Santo Niño celebration. This involved our, unintended,  participation in the street party as our friend showed us around the city.

Street Party fun!

As the streets became more crowded and the taxis were fewer by the hour, we realized it was time to get to the airport to catch our flight to Manila. To keep it easy, and not stand in the taxi queue for hours, we decided to walk the 10 km to the airport (that's a little over 6 miles). That may sound like a joke,  but we seriously followed the Google map directions, out of the busy city center on foot. Luckily, our bags were already left at the airport earlier in the day. We had all intentions of getting far enough away from the crowded area so that we could find an empty taxi, but we ended up walking nearly the entire way (things turned dicey at the end, and we got in a taxi for five minutes, because the Google maps kept leading us to walk through a military airbase, which apparently is around the airport. Needless to say the security guards didn't let us through to the airport). While we were having a great chat (with a San Miguel to toast) and enjoying our last evening in The Philippines, we even watched a few fireworks displays from the street and the bridge to the airport island.

Last, but certainly not least. We slept overnight in the Manila airport. In the morning, we were stuck with no taxis, a closed airport road into the city and all flights canceled/changed (we had gotten prior notice from the airline, so it didn't affect our plans or anything). This was totally worth it, as we got to wave to The Pope as he rode by in his Pope-mobile on his way to catch his flight out of the country.

No big deal. 

Unexpectedly saw The Pope drive by.
That has happened to everyone, right?

So, I left The Philippines with a blessing and plenty worth going back for, thanks to all of the changes in plans due to the rain (*cough*typhoons). There is still spelunking (caving) to do in Sagada in the north and plenty of unexplored dive sites throughout the entire country, just maybe in a different (not typhoon) season next time.