Malaysia and India

It has been well over two months and pushing three in another part of the world besides the United States. I am happy to find out that my visa has been approved and I will start my job searching in Australia in the beginning of March. My journey has been an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. I have two weeks left till my flight leaves out of Bangkok and I have decided to spend those two weeks in North India. I will see the Taj Mahal and be there for Holli day. Before this trip I was in Malaysia for five days to check out the city Kuala Lumpur.

I’ll be honest with you we didn’t really check out any of Malaysia. We basically just saw the Petronas Towers and went to shopping markets. Why is this? Because honestly we were tired of always being on the move and just wanted to relax, lay back, and have some brews. A vacation in a vacation. It amazes me how when you travel for a while and are on vacation, shit starts to get real tiring real quick. Someone’s reading this and is probably like, give me a fucking break, I’m working 40 plus hours a week and your complaining about traveling. Trust me I know, and I try to tell myself that every day. Take in the moment because soon you will be working again wishing that you were traveling. But man I’ve been to a lot of places in less than three months. I’ve been 9 cities in Thailand, 3 cities in Laos, 10 cities in Vietnam, 1 city in Singapore, and 1 city in Malaysia. That’s a lot of shit in 2 and half months man. So like I was saying, we decided to do nothing for five days in Kuala Lumpur, rent an air bnb, and just drink. We deserved it.

I liked Kuala Lumpur from what I saw. The city felt like it was a mix of Thailand’s craziness with Singapore’s infrastructure. Had the same kind of mix culture vibe with people from every corner of the world. Felt like a real melting pot. The bars were really cool. Very modern like the U.S. with a little bit of a middle east vibe. People were friendly and outgoing, and everyone knew how to speak english. The food was the bomb, and if you don’t like SE Asian food they had really good western food. I ate a lot of western food here to fatten me up for India. Plus you get really sick of Asian food after months. At least I think so. Again I’m just an average american traveling Asia for a good bit. Opening up my mind and seeing what these places are really like and trying new things like the food (but it gets old). Getting out of my comfort zone and exploring the unknown. But I’m not a hippie. Probably a bad term to say and I have no problem with hippies, but I didn’t come to Asia for enlightenment. I didn’t think this trip was going to change me to a spiritual being that sees a whole new way of life. Fuck that would have been great but I know myself, and I am not like that. I looked at this trip as time to clear my mind and figure out what I want to do, and do a path that most people don’t usually take in the U.S. I read some people’s blogs about traveling and I’m just like fucking hell they thought everything was magical as hell and life’s never been so perfect and there’s fairy dust everywhere. For some parts of this trip I feel them and I have wrote some blogs about certain magical times in my trip like biking through Vietnam through these amazing mountain ranges. The whole adventure though I’m just saying isn’t so magical. It gets to a point where your just like oh that’s pretty cool. Or that’s neat. Or even like this is shitty. However every 3 or so days you see something that just stimulates the fuck out of your mind and you’re like hell yeah! that’s so cool! It sucks to think this way, but I am just telling you it is the truth. Thing’s just start becoming the norm when everything is not normal. It’s a weird concept but I’m just letting the mind flow. People hype shit up. Sorry for going on a tangent. I was just talking about food and went completely another way with that. Oh well.

Anyways so back to Malaysia. We had a super sick condo right on drinking street. Basically drank almost every night, met amazing people with the same idea, and had a break from seeing the world. Pictures below are the Petronas Towers:

Now I’m chilling in India. I’ve been here for about five days now. I remember being in college and one of my friends wanted to go to India and teach kids how to speak english. I told the man that he’s fucking crazy and India seems just like a shit hole with too many people running around and acting weird and shit. I said I would never go to India and I have no desire. Well traveling has opened my mind a little bit and now I’m eating crow. My buddies have convince to come to India to explore the cities Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and New Delhi for holli day. I said, “you know what why the fuck not?” If I don’t like it I’ll never come back but I won’t know unless I go, so here I am.

India I kind of like. It’s a weird chaotic place that kind of is a shit hole with uncleanliness, but there’s something about it. Everywhere you look there’s something that interest you. Like a cow blocking a 3 lane highway and everyone is waiting for this cow to move because it’s sacred. Traffic is chaotic, and outside the traffic there’s hecklers doing business and people performing weird tasks like crushing up weird shit that you don’t know why he’s crushing it up, putting some liquid on it, and then throwing it into a fire, then thinking why the fuck did he do all that just to throw it in the fire? Buildings are pretty and old. Never seen building like these. They look like what I would see in Aladdin and that’s probably a horrible reference because I’m thinking Aladdin is probably somewhere completely different than India. The people for the most part are nice if they aren’t trying to get money out of you. The colors are vivid here. I see these women in the most gorgeous colors that make them full of light and they glow. Maybe that’s what I like the most so far? The colors. They all express themselves through colors that captures the eye. Foods great here too. I thought I was going to starve because everyone said Indian food is worse than Thai food but boy are they wrong.

The craziest thing I have done so far in India is met a gypsy that was my tuk tuk driver and go to his house in the slums to met his family after his shift at night. This was in Jaipur in the poorest slums. There was barely a roof that they lived under and there was 15 people living in this building that had to be less than 20 foot by 20 foot upstairs and downstairs. I was mind blown. However he told me it’s not about the money it is about if you are happy, and that is the most important part. I told him you hit it right on the nail bubba. He and his family played music to me all night and his little boys were singing and dancing with the biggest smiles on their face. It does amaze me how people can be so happy in the worst places, but they were and are truly happy.

I am now in Jodhpur. I took a 8 hour bus from Udaipur that was cramped and had no A/C. This city is called the blue city and it’s all blue. Other than that I don’t know what to do here then see the blue city. What I am looking forward to is riding a camel in the desert and camping out, seeing the Taj Mahal, and celebrating the end of my Asia trip with Holli day. These experiences are what I am looking forward to, and hopefully they will be amazing. Down here is some of the pictures I have taken so far while being here:

I Survived Vietnam Traffic

A few days ago I officially finished driving through the whole country of Vietnam, starting from Hanoi to Saigon. The total amount of kilometers we did in the end was a whopping 2400km through mostly the mountains of this beautiful country. The total time it took us to do it was 15 days. It was exciting, nerve wracking, and challenging on the body and mind. I will have to admit there were some days where I was like fuck this shit. But the other days when I couldn’t believe my eyes made it all worth while. I really wished I would of stopped and took pictures at the places that truly made my heart gasp. there were four full days throughout the trip where I was just an awe about the wild and beauty of this country. It reminded me of Jurassic Park or the movie Avatar. I think I said omg probably about a good solid two hours straight for each of these four days of going through amazing landscape. I will however always have these places in the back of my mind. Worlds of paradise and tranquility.

Driving through Vietnam is dangerous. In my group there were three accidents. Not severe, but definitely accidents. One of the accidents was a guy not looking both ways and getting hit by our fellow crew member at 40km/h, making him do a flip in the air from the force. Another was a girl that decided to tag along with us one day and try to go around this car and instead went right through it and destroyed the poor mans bumper and part of her motorcycle, luckily she came out alright. The last was a huge semi throwing another of our crew members off to the side of the road in a big pile of mud and manure. Now all of this was just in our crew but everyday we saw some kind of scooter accident on the road and also heard stories from fellow travelers about their accidents they were involved in. It happens all the time. My outlook however on this for someone that wants to do the same thing I did is don’t be an idiot, don’t be too cocky, and drive defensive. If you do this and act this way you should be A okay. People are going to cut you off and rub the back of your tires. You just have to be defensive and let the man or woman take the advantage (they know what they are doing). The biggest trucks are the fastest things on the road remarkably. They will pass other Semi’s on a upward mountain and don’t care whats on the other side of the hill. They will honk though and if you hear that you better move over. Never try to overtake these bad boys, they’ll always catch back up to you in the end. There is a system in Vietnam, a very chaotic system but nonetheless it works. Everyone drives defensively on a scooter and all of traffic will stop if you stop. They completely understand that were assholes that don’t know how to drive and for some reason they show respect for that, or they just don’t want to get hit or involved in an incident. I am not going to explain it further. You’ll figure it out the first day when you get on the bike. Just honk a lot when you pass someone and pass them on the right.

There were some fuck this shit days. Quite a few to be honest. I think there was four or five where it was 60 degrees fahrenheit and raining on top of you going 70 km/hr on a bike. That makes it cold as shit and miserable, thank god for my poncho. We drove 4 hours sometimes on days like this and at the end of it you felt like you definitely had hyperthermia. On top of that staying at crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere that didn’t have a heater did not help to warm you up. For three days I felt as though I couldn’t warm up my body properly because even the showers were cold. The scootering thing is definitely a challenge if you’re trying to bike in a 15 day period. You don’t have much time to spend in each city and again you have to constantly bike and not stop if you want to make it to the next town before dark. 5 days and 7 hours each day consistently, really puts a ding on you. I suggest if you do this make sure it’s for about three weeks. That way you can spend the extra time in cities to rest and relax before doing an epic journey. There are highs and lows in anything that you do. The highs in this trip though for sure beats the lows and is worth every penny and agony you spend.

So the last week or two of our trip it rained unfortunately since my last blog post. It is supposed to be dry season but for most of the days it was wet. The plan was to go down south Vietnam along the beaches but it was supposed to rain for weeks in the areas we wanted to go, so instead we headed west into the mountains. Through the mountains we found sun again, so ultimately it was the best decision. The three of us that started out on the trip and ended up joining other people making it seven of us throughout most of the trip. The more the merrier baby. Great group of people and we finally parted ways a couple days ago.

I did take some more pictures but I will just put it at the end of the blog. The last weeks of the bike trip was basically a repeat of getting up at 6:30am starting to drive at 8am and finish at 5pm with a meal, a beer, and a guitar (dude we were with was a hell of singer and player). A simple time but a fun time. In the major cities like Saigon we just relaxed. Went to a museum and went to nice cafes. We all needed a break from the end of our scooter journey. I ended up treating myself to a private room over looking Ho Chi Ming. A little present for my accomplishment.

Now I am sitting in a random hostel waiting for the night ferry to head to the island of Koh Tao. The ferry leaves at 10pm and I paid 1.50$ to store my bag here and have free wifi. Tomorrow I will start my open water course which is going to cost me 280$ for four days of learning how to dive. I am really excited but scared I will be exhausted from this night ferry and won’t be fully myself when learning how to dive. We shall see though tomorrow. Till next time.

I feel like I should at least describe where these pictures are since there are only so many. I don’t know if you have seen the show Top Gear, but on one of the finale episodes, they did exactly what I did and bought motor bikes and biked throughout the whole country. These two pictures are the iconic scene in this episodes below on the way to Hoi An from Hue.

These pictures below are from a Chinese Temple on top of a mountain in the city of Hoi An. A place where you can buy a three piece suit for 60 bucks.

These pictures of flowers below are in a botanical garden I found.

The pictures are deep in the south jungle of Vietnam in a national park about 130km away from Saigon. Coming out of this jungle we were all covered in leaches and bleeding everywhere from them. So pretty gnarly stuff.

Reflection

I am now in Ha Noi, Vietnam and it is January 1st, 2018. I am almost half way through my journey, about to attempt to drive through the whole country of Vietnam by scooter. As I sit in my bed I start to reflect on the past few weeks of my life and the experiences I have gained throughout my travels. I am truly blessed to be able to do the things that most people aren’t able to do and have been honored to meet amazing people along the way. The world is beautiful, not only in the places that are known to you but the whole world itself. It amazes me the kindness and hospitality that people in the farthest reaches of earth have. So many times I have been drilled with the idea of the world being a bad place in countries that are undeveloped but that is far from the truth. I have seen more kindness and thoughtfulness in these three beautiful countries than I have seen in a long time. People will literally go out of their way and stop, in this fast moving world to make sure they fully help you which ever thing that acquire.

Traveling you are always going to meet people that have similar interests as you. They all want to experience new things and take everything in. Being in a hostel is electric. Everyone is very open and welcoming. Whenever someone is going to explore you can always ask if you can come along and 99 percent of the time they will say yes. I always say the more the merrier when asked this question. There is nothing like sharing first time experiences with someone and the more people that you share it with, the better that experience will come. I have met some fantastic people. I started in Bangkok alone and now I have been traveling with the same four people ever since. One Kiwi and two people from Mexico. The journey traveled has made a tight bond and we will be friends for a long time. It amazes me that I have met these people only a few weeks back but it seems like I have known them for years. Each one of us feeds off of each others energy and good vibes. All of us are accepting to each of our differences and are accepting of other people joining the squad. We all have completely different backgrounds but we share the same values and show the same amount of respect. When I have been traveling that’s what I realize. No matter how foreign the world you travel in, you will always find that people are the same as everywhere else. Kind, good hearted, and giving people. Of course in every society there will be some bad people or ignorant people, but for the most part humans will be humans, loving and caring after one another. This is the beauty of us beings and it gives me great hope to our future.

In life we are all about direction. It makes us feel stable, comfortable, and a sense of balance. Direction is not a bad thing. It is good to have some sort of plan of what you want to do and who you want to be in this world. Certain direction however can be bad. The typical direction everyone thinks everyone should take is go to school, get a degree, get a job, and retire early. We are stuck in this one lane road that everyone takes and we see this finish line that will come eventually. The money is good, but the job is bad, everyday we are praying when the clock hits five, and then going to sleep worrying about the same job the next day. You only get two days to enjoy yourself on the weekend and a few holidays off. For the most part though this is not enough. This is how I felt about my old job, constantly dreading to wake up and go pop open some man holes as a civil engineer and not a laborer. My mind was always fixed on one thought and I never really enjoy living in that moment throughout my work week days. In this state of mind, time would fly by and days would turn into weeks, into months, and then into a year. I finally took a moment to think that I couldn’t keep this up and I would have to change, hence where I am now. Going through my journey I no longer have a solid asphalt road to the finish line that was set up for me. Like I said in my first post I have wandered into the forest next to it and I am lost. This lostness is not a bad thing. It has expanded my mind and my heart and thoughtfulness to the things that surround me. I feel alive and more connected to this world. The fear of instability is not there. I realize it is okay not to know but to live in the moment because that is the one true thing. Sometimes you have to be lost to be found and I am slowly starting to understand that and myself. It is okay not to know, just let things develop and become. Follow your heart and beauty will eventually sprout in this forest that you are lost in and time will start to slow down, making a day feel like day and not a couple of hours. I know I have been traveling for only three weeks but living in this state makes it feel more than that and I am blessed with this feeling.

You are your own person. Your own body and flesh. The only thing that can make you change is yourself. You just have to do it. Stop thinking about what if and just do. I pursued this dream and now I am living it, and you bet your ass it was the best decision I have made in a long time. This scooter trip that I am going on is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and my thoughts of what if I get injured or worse killed pop into my mind. The maturity of myself will always keep this in the back of my head and I will be as careful and aware as possible. But with risk there is reward, and I feel like this will be a journey that I will tell to my children and grandchildren. I am looking forward to start this amazing journey on January 4th and will share my experiences on this 15 day adventure. For now I am off to Ha long Bay on a cruise for two days and a night. I will write a simple blog about the cruise and what is was all about. Till then here are some pictures from Vang Vieng and Vientiane.