Is Not Chicago

Yesterday is best presented as a haiku:

Five thirty a. m.
There’s no hangover today
A monk at my door.

Two days ago I awoke with a a raging hangover from Halloween festivities and a missing camera. I was going to Koyosan for the evening, so I knew it would be a relaxed day. In Koyosan, a small mountain town about two hours south of Osaka, you stay at a Buddhist temple. They serve you dinner and breakfast in your room at the temple, but it’s all vegitarian. Some tasty and some not so tasty. Definitely the best miso soup I’ve ever had. But the weird tofu squares that explode with wettness when you bite into them, not so enjoyable.

I didn’t know what I was going to be having, so I prepared myself (and relieved my hangover) with the best thing I could think of at the train station: McDonalds. Nothing says no meat after this for a day like a double cheeseburger and fries. Plus all I had had the day before was conveyor belt sushi and octopus balls (imagine six tiny corn dogs, only instead of hot dogs in the middle, it’s octopus. The octopus ball stand is their version of Chicago’s taco stand. Funny enough tako in Japanese means octopus).

If you ever go to Osaka, definitely take the overnight trip out to Koyosan. It’s a little while away, but the train ride has some awesome views and the cable car ascent to the town is spectacular. There’s some awesome temples and shrines. One of my favorites was this room filled with nothing but hundreds and hundreds of lanterns. There’s just rows and rows of them. They’re on the ceiling. They’re everywhere. Unfortunately by that point my newly purchased disposable camera was already out of film.

The town shuts down after dusk/dinner time–5:30ish–and you don’t know what to do with yourself, but you can do things like read the provided Teachings of Buddha, even if it’s in Spanish. I found the place where they keep the books, and they have every language from German to Polish to Arabic to Portuguese. But no English. I understood about half of the teachings of Buddha, thanks to my high school Spanish.

So you end up falling asleep around 10. It still has been some of the most sleep I’ve gotten all trip. They wake you up at 5:30 for the morning service, which is nice-the service, not the being awoken at 5:30-only you can’t understand what’s going on. But the gong is cool sounding and the fire they build is awesome. Well, because both gongs and fire are awesome.

I also reccommend checking out the cemetary at night. It’s giant, about a kilometer long. While a Christian cemetary tends to be be very creepy at night, a Buddhist cemetary has a very different feel. It is peaceful and serene, even as the candle light lanterns light your path.

It’s true. My camera is lost amongst the craziness that is Dottambori in Osaka. Unfortunately that means that all of my pictures from Phuket and Osaka are no more. Brian, do your best to get pictures from the wedding from the other Jason.

I have a lot to say about Japan, and I feel like it will be best as multiple posts, so you only get a little at a time.

Japan is insane. I arrived in Osaka on Friday morning and was actually quite underwhelmed. It’s big. It’s crazy. Everybody is walking around in business suits. But I’ve seen New York.

Then the sun went down and the neon went up. If I wanted to make lame jokes (and I do), you might say I saw it in a whole new light. Imagine Times Square, but bigger. Well, then I saw Kyoto, which is an even bigger and even more neony beast; but that comes later. I wish I still had the pictures to prove it. One minute you’re hitting on an Australian girl, next minute her Japanese friends are buying you beer and saying your name in that crazy gutteral Kurasawa film voice.. Next minute you’re in a $20 cab ride home because you missed the last train and you’re out a camera.

Hopefully tomorrow I can pick up a new one; the only thing I’ve found so far that has menus in English is 40,000 yen (about $330 USD). Anyone that knows where I can get something cheaper, let me know. Otherwise, you don’t get pictures.

And then there was one…

I know I have been very delinguent in my blog posts, but I have much to talk about on this one and finally some time to do it, so get ready-

So many things have been going on lately –my pal Ewen got married in Phuket, Jason is off in Japan, we slept through a bachelor party, we practiced our international relations with some young Isreali ladies, Tuk Tuk Reagan is probably still playing board games with his parasites and staying away from live fowl, and I just passed my Open Water Diver Scuba certification back on Phi Phi island. All in all, it has been a very busy few days. (Speaking of board games, connect four is huge here –it is apparently the bar game of choice. Jason and I found this out the hard way at a small bar on Phuket where the seemingly innocent young thai girls working there proceeded to demolish us both at connect four – I think they were about to play for money when we hastily left.)

In addition to talking about what we have been up to, I would also like to give a few brief insights into life here and some of things we have noticed, so I am going to forgo any chronological order-

First of all, the wedding was spectacular. For those of you that don’t know, the “excuse” for this whole trip was so that I could attend the wedding of my Australian travel photographer friend, Ewen Bell. The wedding was done in tradional Buddhist style (even though both Ewen and his wife are Australian) on the beach at sunset. There were chanting monks, local traditional dancers, a water ceremony where every guests helped wash the hands of the newlyweds while whispering kind words, everyone was given brightly colored parasols –it was amazing. All of this as the sun was setting over Kata Noi beach on Phuket, literally a picture postcard setting. As a man whole has played at thousands of weddings, I can honestly say it was the best banquet hall I have ever been to.

After the ceremony, they held the reception (for the 40 guests in attendance) at the villa they had been renting out (this “villa” was ridiculous, imagine 5 small houses all centered on a pool, with maids, a cook, a gym, and a bar all connected to your compound –all for about $650 US a night). It was an incredible party (I think that happens whenever you put a lot Australians together and give them copious amounts of mojitos.) It also happened to be on my birthday, so the bottle of Black Label I brought to aid the celebrations mostly got drank by me in the form of undesired shots. Interestingly however, I lasted the night while Jason was passed out in the gymnasium by 11.

Quick Thai fact — every monday, it is tradition here to wear bright yellow, usually in the form of a polo shirt with an emblem of the king on it. They do this to honor the king (as they also do by having a standing ovation for him before they start movies and by putting his photo up literally everywhere, and not always the most flatering photos, our favorites are the ones of him doing his hobbies like photography –in the amulet market in Bangkok we actually found one of the King playing the saxophone!). Well, since it is the month of the king’s birthday, nearly every thai wears these yellow shirts almost every day. Luckily, one of the three t-shirts that I brought happens to be the exact right color of bright yellow. Though the shirt is for my Kung Fu school in Chicago, I can’t tell you how many compliments I have gotten for it.

So, after the wedding, I hightailed it back to Ko Phi Phi, literally one of the mopst beautiful places on earth. I came to do my Scuba course because I heard the sites here were fabulous and just because I liked the island so much. Though my course started out a bit rough (I was in the theory class with a 40-year-old Norwegian who didn’t understand English nearly as well as he thought and who certainly couldn’t learn Scuba in that language), the dives were spectacular. The water and the reefs here are amazing. I actually did one dive in the bay where “The Beach” was filmed. All said and done, I spent three days and did four real dives. I saw everything from crazy anenomees to lionfish, big grouper to morey eels. I am even considering staying for two more days to do the Advanced course where I get to dive on a shipwreck, at night, and very deep. The night dive starts in a couple of hours so I need to decide quick. The other option which I wish I had time for is to do a 3-day liveaboard cruise to the Similan islands and do 14 dives in 3 days. The Similans are supposed to be one of the best places in the world to dive.

Anyway, there is so much else to tell. I will have to post a bit later today (I think after my night dive!).

Brian

If I don’t stay longer on Phi Phi, the plan is to head to Railey beach to do some rock climbing. It is supposed to be a very beautiful place.

Go forth Traveler Dema. Hold thight to that which binds us in youth; A desire to look behind the waterfall and discover your tomorrow.

“Trust Thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string. . “
-R. W. Emerson

Happy BDay Buddy!

As we walked past the restaurant, it looked too familiar. We looked down and saw it: the same damn turtle.

It was pushing five in the morning and we just wanted to get get back to our bungalow. It had been a long day of travel from Koh Pha-ngang to Kho Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee. It never gets old). After two days of bucket drinking (a plastic bucket one flask of vodka or whiskey, one coke, and one super-concentrated Red Bull with about 10 straws – so tasty, but so dangerous) on the beach in Pha-ngang and an attempt to stay up all night we woke up at 5:50 just in time to catch our bus. A bus, a ferry, another bus, another ferry, and a longtail water taxi, we checked into the bungalow.

Our beach, Long Beach, was a nice secluded beach. Beautiful and quiet, it unfortunately is separated from the main part of town by a 15 minute taxi boat ride. Of course we had to experience the nightlife of Koh Phi Phi, so we headed into town. Several hours, several beers, and several beautiful Norwegian girls later we realized it was four in the morning and we were ready to crash.

But, the tide was out and the taxi boats were no longer running. Our options were to sleep on the beach for two or three hours until the boats started running again or to take what Lonely Planet described as “a 45 minute walk.” We figured that sounded OK and we asked one of the local late night food servers directions.

It was not a road, it was not even really a walk. It was a trek through the jungle. There was a path to follow, not always well marked, but we had been prepared and brough a flashlight with us. We climbed up 45 degree hills. Climbed over boulders near the beach.

As we passed a small beach with a couple bungalows, a French guy called to us asking if we were going to Long Beach. He and his girlfriend were also trying to get back. She was very upset, crying and scared. She didn’t want to go through the woods with only two people. The four of us set out on the second half of our adventure.

The next beach down we passed a restaurant with a stone turtle out front. We continued up the hill. Ten to fifteen minutes later as we came down the hill, we saw some tiki torches that looked a little familiar. The girl began crying again as she saw we had somehow gone in a circle. We couldn’t believe it and continued on. Then we saw the turtle. It was Blair Witch Project in the middle of Thailand. That turtle freaked me out a little, but nothing compared the the girl.

Because the tide was low, I was able to walk out a little ways and climb on some rocks to see our beach was very close, we just had to make it over the hill (or scale incredibly slippery rocks).

Finally we got up the courage and continued on. A Thai couple heard us from one of the bungalows and led us on the correct path. We had gone the right way, but at one point there was a large path going up and a small obscure path going down. We had gone up. We went down and two minutes later were on our beach.

The next morning we moved into town.