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October 31, 2004

Naomi Shares her pearl of wisdom mid-Marathon

this is an audio post - click to play

October 22, 2004

Hong Kong

Surprisingly, the most heroing experience of the whole trip occured in Hong Kong. The Balinese driving was close at points but I'm afraid the Sai Kung Speedboat Incident takes precedence. For sheer physical danger the driving wins out but the speedboating wins on emotional scarring. Here's what happened:

After a cab ride that lasted way too long (due to the drivers not having a clue where they were going and dreadfully over shooting the mark), seven hikers were dropped off at a place in the New Territories starting with the letter "T" (I can't remember the name, Jessica?). They then hiked an hour on a mostly well paved path with brilliant views and cows on the way (no, the cows weren't brilliant). The path then spit them out in a village with a lovely cafe, the food was good and the puppies were cute. Our intrepid expats then spent a couple hours on the most beautiful beach in Hong Kong, before realizing that the sun was beginning to set and one of them had a flight back to the US that night. So they packed up and made the 15 minute hike to another small village with two cafes (I think) and a phone where they could call a speed boat to pick them up.

The plan was perfect, or so they thought. Only one of the hikers spoke Cantonese, he therefore was nominated to have all dealings with speedboat drivers. So while the other six hikers contemplated buying icecream and switching into their flipflops, or smacking eachothers bug bites as the case may be, Steve was informed that the seas were too rough for the little speedboats to make the trip. Steve, sadly relayed the information, that the only place in these rough waves to catch a boat was another hour's walk back the way they came. The hikers were dismayed but they had a plane deadline to make, so on they went.

On arriving at the alternate pier they found that there is a regular Ferry but that they had just missed it and it wouldn't be back for another half hour. There were however, several speedboats trolling around the harbour that seemed to be looking for work. Steve, the invaluable linguist, opened bargaining with the closest driver. After several exchanges a price was reached and she drove her boat over to the pier so that we might hop in. Just as we were to begin loading, however, another speedboat wedged his way between the hikers and the boat. Thus, followed a very heated argument between the two drivers in some strange speed boat dialect, that for all Steve knew, was not Cantonese. As far as the hikers could tell there seemed to be some sort of rivalry or pecking order that had somehow been violated. The two drivers, eventually, came to an understanding and the hikers were split into two groups and loaded 3 in the man's boat, 4 in the woman's boat.

Steve and the other two in the man's boat sped off, out of the bay, they were waylaid halfway to their destination by a Police boat. The police scrutinized their passports but otherwise let them on their way, they were then dropped off at the pier with the busstop.

Meanwhile, the woman's boat with her 4 passengers took a slow sweep of the bay while the woman seemed to be chatting with all of her fellow speedboaters. Soon, they pointed out of the bay and were headed off at top speed, they stopped once so that the woman could tell two of the passengers to get in front, seemingly to balance out the boat. It wasn't 5 minutes, however, until they stopped again and the woman demanded that she get paid. The hikers looked around them they weren't far from land but it was dark and they didn't know where they were going so they decided to pay her what had been agreed on back at the pier. She seemed happy with this and continued on. Again they hadn't gone very far when the woman stopped the boat once more. This time there was another boat headed right for her and it didn't seem to be stopping. The driver yelled something and quickly turned the wheel so that the boats didn't collide. The other boat was empty except for the driver, who was wearing a dark vest similar to what a policeman might wear. There were, however, no markings or lights on his boat and it didn't look much different from all of the other speed boats. The hikers were concerned. The two drivers were shouting, but this time not at eachother. The woman was yelling something about the police and the man was yelling something as well. The hikers were now very concerned. They finally figured out through gestures that drivers wanted the only male hiker in the boat to transfer over the this new boat, leaving the female hikers behind. All sorts of horrible scenarios were popping into all of their heads, kidnappings at the forefront. Upon realizing this, Jon, chivalrously refused the invitation and firmly stated that either all of them switched boats or none of them did. The drivers got the point and seemed upset, but resigned, the one boat headed off in one direction the other with it's passengers went on. The hikers hearts did not fully descend back into their chests, however, until they saw the lights of their destination in the distance and to their great relief were quickly reunited with the rest of their party.

Diane luckily made it back in time to catch her flight, if not have dinner first. And the rest of the hikers went out for a night of partying in order to forget the experience.
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Here are all of the Hong Kong pictures, sadly I didn't take as many as I did in Bali. This is partially because I kept forgetting my camera at night and partially because I was a bit under the weather for much of my time there. Also, I did not get any pictures of our trecherous speedboat ride, it was too dark and I was a little too scared but be fooling with my camera. Ah well, I did get a few good ones, and here they are:


October 21, 2004

Bali photos numero ultimo

Here's the last installment from Bali. There are several things that I didn't get a picture of in Bali that I really wish I had.

1) Balinese (like most south east asians i guess) like to fit as many people as possible on their little motorcycles. I thing that I saw an entire family of 5 on one once.

2) Geremy and I passed a guy on street with a bicycle loaded up with little baby chickens, there must have been a least a hundred all in their little individual cages and every one of them was dyed a different pastel color.

3) There aren't any pictures of us surfing :( I think that we all did pretty well considering the waves were pretty choppy. Also, I don't think that Geremy had ever been on a surf board before, and he really did great!

4) I didn't take any pictures of us really haggling, we were pros by the end of the trip. We were all over those coconuts man!

5) I was so sad when my battery died right at the beginning of the Balinese dance, I really wish i could have gotten some video of that. Even the womens eye movements were synchronize it was really awesome, probably the coolest type of dancing I've ever seen.

6) I also wish I had gotten a picture of Jessica's pen pal, or maybe Jess's face as she accidentally walked by the section of the temple where all the men from the village go to bath naked.

7) And of course I should have gotten a picture of Geremy at the pool in Waka Namya with about 6 flowers placed oh so fashionably in his hair.


So many missed opportunities, oh well. Hope you all like the pictures I did manage to get.


October 20, 2004

Bali Photos numero dos

And here is the second installment. Sorry if i'm not particularly talkative, but uploading and writing captions for all these pictures is taking it all out of me.



Note: oops I obviously didn't do a quality check read through on those captions

October 19, 2004

Bali Photos numero uno

Here is the first installment of pictures, these cover the first couple days of Bali. Enjoy!


(link to shutterfly)

October 18, 2004

Selemat Pagi or is it Siang?

Well, I was pummeled by waves, stalked by street hawkers, laid out by Bali belly, bowled over by pedestrian masses, and nearly nabbed by a deranged speed boat driver, but none of these hinderances could stop me from taking nearly 500 pictures!!! Though i clearly went for quantity over quality it will still take me a while to go through them and pick out the really good ones. I do hope to have to first installment up tomorrow however, so get your work done today :-)

I had an amazing time in both Bali and Hong Kong and Jessica, I don't think that I could ever fully repay you for 1) inspiring me to make the trip 2) doing practically all of the planning and organizing and 3) showing me such a great time in Hong Kong including allowing me to take over your pull out couch for most of a week. Terima kasih, terima kasih, terima kasih, terima kasih!!!

There are many stories and I hope to put them all up here eventually but that will have to wait till my brain is less addled by jet lag and lack of sleep. I got into NYC last night and grabbed a quick 5 hrs sleep at my Aunt and Uncle's, before getting up a 5:30 this morning to catch my plane to Dulles and am now back at work. I haven't even been home yet!!

Anyway, those of you who know Jessica may have already seen this picture but it's just too funny not to share with you all, also, it's the only picture from our trip that I have access to at the moment.


October 06, 2004

Bali Hoo

So today is the day that I leave for my very first trip to Asia. I'm so excited that I'm almost forgetting the 2 days of travelling I have ahead of me. I leave today at 6 from DC and don't arrive in Bali until like 2:45pm Friday! But that's ok because then I'll be in Bali and as everyone knows the one thing you can't bring into Bali (besides Chinese books) is stress. I'm sure I'll have tons and tons of pictures when I get back so I want you all to be waiting with baited breath. In the meantime have fun with these pictures.(The picture should be linked to my shutterfly album)




October 04, 2004

Happy Birthday Kimmy!!

Happy belated B-Day my sista! Kim's bday was Saturday, I'm an awefull sister and haven't called her yet :-( but I will call her tonight for sure!


Apa kabar?

Erg, I'm so frustrated with my work and not knowing when exactly our biggest meeting of the whole year is going to be. Basically all I know is that it could be any time in the second half of april or the whole month of May. The reason that this is so frustrating is because that is exactly the time that I want to go to Italy with friends. The plan is to rent a Villa in Tuscany and have all sorts of glamourous vespa riding, winery touring fun. But, I'm going to have to just stick it out and hope for the best, and meanwhile concentrate on my HUGE trip this week!!!

I'm heading to Bali and Hong Kong!!! I've been carrying my travel books around all day at work making everyone so jealous by showing them all the pretty pictures and practicing certain Indonesian phrases. I have discovered that not only are Cockfights common as part of traditional ceremonies but also it is unwise to tell a balinese person that you are 30 and unmarried, since they will automatically assume that there is something severely wrong with your personality. Likewise, it is unwise to tell them that you are an atheist as they will automatically assume you are a communist as well. Here are some usefull phrases out of the Lonely Planet: Bali.

How are you?__________Apa kabar?

I'm fine._____________Kabar baik.

What's your name?_____Siapa nama anda?

My name is Julie._____Nama saya Julie.

Are you married?______Sudah kawin?

Not yet.______________Belum.

How old are you?______Berapa umur anda?

I'm 24 years old._____Umur saya dua pulah empat tahun.

What is this?_________Apa ini?

A large green fruit
with a hard, spiky
exterior and a
horrific stench.______Durian.

These are all very important things to know and I will be studying them along with many more words on the plane ride over.

Here are a couple of the pictures from my Lonely Planet guide



Are you drooling yet?

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