Last night and tonight I have a new airbnb. There is a delightful couple living there. She didn’t speak a lot of English, but was excited to show me all around. It was kind of like a hostel with only single rooms. The husband was very excited to meet me and find out what I thought about Trump. No one can understand why we would have elected him president. They all look at either like we are crazy or like it’s some bad reality tv show.
Today I went to look for breakfast and had a heck of a time finding a restaurant that was open. Even though I like the new airbnb better than the last one, it’s far enough from “downtown” to be a hassle. I did finally find a coffee shop. After that, I navigated the bus system and finally got to the skyrail station. The skyrail is a gondola that goes up to Kuranda, an aboriginal village in the mountains near Cairns. The gondola was so expensive, but it looked awesome from everything I had researched. The views were great. They gave you information on the different rainforest ecosystems you would go through so it was educational too. There were two stops on the way. One was a boardwalk through the forest and the other was waterfall viewing of Barron Falls. There is nothing aboriginal looking or feeling about the village. It’s a tourist mountain village. I had lunch, did a little shopping and went to another wildlife park. I am now convinced I am on the animal tour of the world. I keep wanting to go to zoos and wildlife parks. So, you will get to see more animal photos today. The wildlife park in Kuranda has indigenous rescue animals. They let you take pictures holding the koalas, but I didn’t do that. You can feed the kangaroos. I was sooooo excited about feeding kangaroos. The wallabies were not interested and hid under the boardwalk. I think they were hiding from the sun, but maybe they were hiding from the people. One of the kangaroos would let me feed him. It was very anticlimactic. But I got to see a baby wombat so that almost made up for the ho hum kangaroo feeding.
Early morning pick up again. Why do I have to get up early more often on vacation than when working? The people on the shuttle van were so excited to meet me and wanted to know where I was from and how long I had been diving. They were from Singapore. What a wonderful way to start my day with smiling people that were so excited to go diving! They did the same with everyone we picked up and by the time we got to the boat, it was a van full of very excited happy people. It seems like everyone on the boat are new divers. The boat has 40+ people. I wonder how this will ever go smoothly. It’s a bit chaotic. The last few times I’ve been diving, they divided the divers up by skill level, but this was more a free-for all. They obviously took the students in a different group and those that were brand new divers or hadn’t been in a long time in another group, but the rest was left to divide out own selves up. I managed to find two dive buddies that were a pretty good match for me though. We dove from that boat twice and then those of staying on the live aboard boat switched boats and did all the boat briefing. One more dive in the afternoon. I was going to do a night dive, but I had equipment issues and was having trouble catching my breath. I decided that pushing through was a bad idea. That’s when bad things happen so I got back on the boat. I was very disappointed. There’s a new trend in night diving. A lot of corals and fish are fluorescent. They give off florescent light that can only be seen if you use a blue torch. I really wanted to try this. I have one more night on the boat so I can still do it. I had heard that much of the Great Barrier Reef is damaged, bleached or dying. It’s not as bad as I had feared, but it’s definitely no longer the best diving in the world.
They make rum and coke in a can. What?
Second day of diving – dive – eat – dive – eat – dive – eat. You can do 5 dives a day. I skipped the 3rd dive because I want to make sure I’m not too tired to do the night dive. I did the Fluoro Diving. It would have been wonderful except we had to go with a guide and the group was too big and not very good divers. They kicked up a lot of sand, making it difficult to see. You had to be really close to the corals and fish to see them fluoresce. The spot the guide picked to dive is known for its lion fish. There were so many lion fish and they are highly poisonous. So, it was difficult to get close to the corals because I couldn’t see if there were lion fish because everyone was kicking up so much sand. What I did see was wonderful and I’d love to do it again with a small, more experienced group sometime. I left some of Scott’s ashes with the lion fish and florescent corals.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat. I could have done 3 dives, but I only did one. I felt taking it easy so my body could use energy to get healthy was more important than diving.
I had to make the 15 minute walk from the apartment to the warf with my suitcase, but it was mostly downhill so it wasn’t too bad. I took the ferry and then a train. It only took an hour and was way cheaper than a taxi. At the airport, not one person checked my id, but cuticle cutters are dangerous and needed to be confiscated. Wouldn’t want some unidentified person keeping their cuticles well maintained.
Cairns is pronounced Cans. So, the I and R are silent. This bothers me. I don’t know why.
After I found my airbnb, I headed into town to find a tour company. The first one I went into was very unhelpful. I showed her pictures of what I wanted to do and she kept saying she could only book transport tickets, no tours. I said I wanted a tour and she showed me something completely different. I know there are tours for what I wanted to do because I had found them on line. We went back and forth between no tours, yes we have tours, no tours. I told her we were just not communicating so I was going to leave. There are so many tour companies in Cairns. There’s 2 to 8 on every block so I walked a half a block and picked Peter Pans. They were so much more helpful. They checked on what I wanted to do and found that the train wasn’t running for the next couple of days so I couldn’t do that. They suggested a few other options. They told me of a random field north of town where I can see more kangaroos than I care to see so I don’t need to pay to go to the wildlife park. They recommended a tour called Uncle Brian’s. It went to some waterfalls and was supposed to be full of silly fun. Then we talked about New Zealand. They have offices in New Zealand and they have three tours they recommend there. I got the last spot on one of the 18 day tours. Awesome – One stop shopping. Now I have a lot less research to do.
Cairns is right on the ocean, on the Great Barrier Reef, but there is no beach in town and I’m told that the water is full of crocodiles and jelly fish. So, the town built a giant public pool called the Lagoon. It has sand beaches, a shallow kiddie area, changing rooms, snack bar, and a park next to it. There is a boardwalk that goes along the shore too. The boardwalk has grills, picnic tables, tennis, a skate park, volleyball, rock climbing, and exercise classes. There were Christmas Carolers too.
After dinner I went to an ice cream shop called Nitrolato. They make ice cream for you while you wait using liquid nitrogen to cool it. It is supposed to be fresher and creamier. They were all dressed in lab coats and it was fun to watch the fog come off my ice cream while they were making it. It did seem creamier, but I’m not sure it’s worth the extra cost.
Uncle Brian’s tour was fun. It was all young backpackers on my van and the other van. My group was relatively unfriendly to me. I guess it’s uncool to hang with the older lady. The people on the other van were slightly more friendly. When did 30 year olds become so young? Our guide was phenomenal. His energy was over the top all day long. While in the van going from place to place, he was telling us stories, having us play games or having us sing and dance. No second were we left unentertained. If we drove by road workers or towns people, he’d honk and we’d all wave. Everyone must be use to this, because they would have a huge grin on their faces and would wave back. He told us he’d give us information along the way – some of it true and some of it not. We were welcome to call Bullshit anytime we thought it was false information. We drove through a lot of sugarcane fields up into the mountains. The wet season was about to start and this will be one of the wettest places in Australia soon. Two towns always compete for the most rainfall each year. The winner gets a golden gum boot (rubber rain boot) as a prize. We stopped at the post office in Babinda to view the golden boot as it is proudly displayed there. We went through the forest to see the electrici trees (electrical towers) – everyone called Bullshit on that one. Babinda is a tiny town. It has a u turn area off the road where one is obviously not needed. But, in good fun we toured Babinda’s u turn facility – round and round a few times. The first waterfall was Babinda Rocks. We walked to an overlook, then had tea and snacks and then swam in the river. The next water fall had a rock you could slide down so there was much sliding. Then lunch. This should have been called Uncle Brian’s Eat and Swim Tour. The next waterfall was Millaa Millaa falls which has been featured in some ad campaigns most notably an Herbal Essences Shampoo commercial. So we all too turns practicing the water hair flip and trying to get a good photo. The last stop was a crater lake with a snack. It was a long day so when I got back I just went to the Holiday Inn across the street for dinner as I didn’t think I could find the energy to walk anywhere farther than across the street. I stood at the hostess stand for a while. Someone finally came up and asked if I needed something. Really? Why do you think I’m standing here? I asked if I could eat and she seated me. Again, three waiters zoomed back and forth around the restaurant and completely ignored me. After 15 minutes, I got up to leave and someone finally asked me if I was ok. No, I’m very hungry. What is going on? Is every restaurant like this or am I invisible or is it that unfathomable that someone might eat dinner alone so they assume (without asking) that I want to be ignored until my friend arrives?
The next day I slept in a little later. I headed out for lunch. The place I picked to eat was more because it was the first restaurant I found. It was so hot that I thought I might have heat stroke if I didn’t get inside soon. I spent some time in the Lagoon. I stayed in until my core temperature finally came down and I felt comfortable. The Lagoon is awesome. I decided to get a foot massage. It was a tiny Thai lady who proceeded to beat me up. She stood on my back and cracked it. She stood on my arms, my legs, and my hands. She beat my feet with some pointy thing. About the time I was going to cry mercy and beg to leave she was done. My feet did feel better after. For dinner I picked a steak place. I think you are supposed to eat steak while in Australia. I waited forever, again. I finally got up and asked the bartender how to get served. He handed me a menu. A menu doesn’t do much good if no one takes your order. After 20+ minutes, I walked out. There were more waitresses than customers, but no one would look at me so I couldn’t get anyone’s attention. What do they think I’m sitting there for? I told the bartender on the way out that no one would serve me. He said, “Oh too bad” with no motivation to fix the problem. There was a waitress out front handing out flyers, trying to get people to come in and eat. I don’t understand.
Cairns reminds me of South Florida when I was growing up. The buildings look the same, the hot, humid weather.
It’s chilly in Sydney. People are wearing way too little for the weather. They are running around in tank tops or really short shorts. I wonder if it’s like the phenomenon that happens in Denver in Spring where it’s warmer than it’s been so people want it to be summer and they dress for summer and then pretend that they don’t notice that it’s still too cold for what they are wearing. I went on a whale watching tour on Sunday. It was the very last tour of the season. It was freaking cold. No whales. I met James though. We had great conversation on the boat and it was nice to have someone to have dinner with afterward. Sunday evening, the girls at the house invited me to go to a local bar for live music. I kind of just wanted to stay in, but, hey, I’m not going to get this opportunity again, so I went. The band was good and it was fun for a while. I went home early though.
On Monday I rented a bike and rode around Manly. You know that story about having to walk to school in horrible weather uphill both ways? I think that story was invented in Sydney. Everything is up hill in all directions. It was a real challenge on a bike, but great exercise. There is park called North Head where you can go out to the ocean cliffs. I rode around there and had a very expensive lunch with bad service. I rode down to the beach. There were so many people enjoying the beach and it was actually warm today. I almost went in the beach but decided not to since I wanted to buy a new bathing suit and I remember all the shops closed early. I went in every store. No one sells board shorts for girls that aren’t unreasonably short – it kind of defeats the point of having shorts. I noticed that all the stores have more men’s clothing than women’s. Most of the stores, the men’s clothes were featured in the front of the store and the women’s were in the back. The complete opposite of the US.
My last full day in Sydney I went and had my hair colored. The “red” I got in Thailand has turned to an ugly brown so I just went back to all black. I ate, worked on the computer, had coffee and then went to the Manly Sea Life Aquarium. It’s smaller than the one in downtown Sydney, but features things found in Manly so the highlight was the tiny penguins. Manly has the smallest penguins. They come up and nest under the warf. They are endangered. The aquarium has some of the ones that were rescued and they also have a successful breeding program. I love penguins. I think I was more excited about these than the koalas the other day. Then I had a completely useless massage and dinner with bad service.
There is always one fly on you at all times in Sydney. I thought maybe I brought him from Thailand until my new friend, James asked if I had noticed that there is constantly a fly. I thought I would be rid of constantly having bugs on me. Not yet.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rental Bike
Sydney from North Head
From The Great Gatsby FilmManly Beach in the Distance
Here is a blog I wrote quite a while ago. Thailand has very strict Les Majistae laws. You can’t say anything negative about the King or royal family. They don’t have the same laws about other things, Thai, but I still thought it best not to post this while I was living in Thailand.
I’m a bit frustrated with the Thai school system. When half my class failed their exams, I’m told I should let them re-test. I tell the students they can re-test and I’ll average the two scores. I tell them exactly which subjects to study and show them pages in the workbook they can do for practice. Almost all of them got the same exact score the second time. These are supposed to be the advanced English classes. They show up late, they don’t turn in their homework and they are constantly doing some school activity or another instead of having classes. No matter how bad they do on homework, classwork or tests, I cannot fail them. I should give them extra work to make up their marks. This extra work should help them learn, but shouldn’t be too hard or time consuming. This extra work shouldn’t have a deadline and neither should the homework. Basically, the concept of consequences for your actions doesn’t exist. If they misbehave, there isn’t much I can do. I can’t assign extra work. I can’t keep them late even though they showed up 20 minutes late to my class because some other teacher kept them late. The Thai teachers can hit them for discipline. How is any of this preparing them for the world outside school? I guess, if their world is just Thailand maybe it’s ok. But, the country wants to prepare its students for being part of the world outside of Thailand. The world outside of Thailand will eat them alive and spit them out. When I asked about teaching curriculum I was told “up to you”. I have no idea what they already know or don’t know. I have no idea what topics I should be teaching. “Oh just teach speaking and listening”. Thanks. That’s useless. Then two weeks before the midterm exams, I’m told I have to create exams. I create exams, but then I’m told they need to match the objectives in my curriculum, the curriculum I was never told I needed to write. So, I make up objectives. I’m told 3 will be enough. Then after the exams I have to do grading, but everyone tells me a different way I need to report the grading. And now I have 10 objectives I need to use, not 3. They have to be these specific objectives, not the 3 I came up with. Why on earth wasn’t I given these before the semester or before the midterms? None of the objectives match anything I have taught and are all just a random jumble of words on a page that sound like a good plan. Is this the way the whole education system works? Then this week, I find out that final exams are after my last day of work. Who do they assume will grade my exams and fill out my grading sheets? No one notifies me of anything ahead of time, but I’m supposed to jump when asked or somehow miraculously have something ready when asked. Then I’m told I’m taking things too seriously – so teaching students is not important or it is? Apparently reading minds is a skill they think I should have. I spend most of my free time alone working and most people wonder why I would ever want to leave. I see other western teachers posting on facebook about how wonderful Thailand is, how much they love it here, and how much they love teaching. Are they lying or am I the only one having this Thailand experience? Don’t get me wrong, there are wonderful things about Thailand and I’ve met wonderful people. I came for the experience, not to stay forever and I’ve gotten an experience. And I’m pretty sure I’ve been more engulfed in the culture than any of them have.
I got to Sydney exhausted. I guess paying so much for my baggage is just like “Welcome to Australia! Your days of paying reasonable prices for things are over”. My taxi cost $100. I’m staying in an Airbnb because there are no hotels for under $150 a night. Hostels were over $50 a night. I’m staying in some girl’s room while she sleeps on a spare mattress in the laundry room. I got there and she was at work and she failed to tell me she had roommates. I woke one up. She scared the crap out of me because I assumed I was in the house alone. I was so tired from the overnight flight, that I took a nap for a few hours. I got up only to meet another roommate. She has 3 or 4 roommates – I can’t even tell how many. This is really not ideal, but I kind of have no choice at this point. They all seem friendly enough. I spent the rest of the first day wandering around Manly Beach, checking out the visitor’s center and getting food. All the shops closed at 6:00pm. That seems weird. It’s chilly here which I didn’t expect. I have no warm clothes – one hoodie will have to do. Still the chilly air and bright sun is a delightful combination.
Today I decided to do ALL the things in the city. It’s a half hour ferry ride to the central part of Sydney from Manly beach. The ferry ride is beautiful. Firs I went to the Wild Life Sydney Zoo. It’s not Sydney’s main zoo. I kind of wish I had done the main zoo. This place was so small I’m amazed how they fit everything in. But, I had bought tickets on line for a back stage tour. I’m glad I got the back stage tour. It was fascinating to see how they made everything work in such a small space. We went through the kitchens which they share with the aquarium next door. They have half a walk in refrigerator full of eucalyptus for the koalas. We got to see the quarantine areas, the areas where they housed the butterfly chrysalis, the bird cages on the roof where they keep the juvenile birds before they are ready to be released. Many of the animals there are rescue animals. They don’t let you touch the koalas, but you can get close to them. I got to pet a wombat, but only because he was a rescue hand raised there and use to people. The wombat might be my new favorite animal. He’s so much bigger than I expected. They have koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, snakes, lizards, birds, a cassowary, and Tasmanian devils. Everything there was indigenous to Australia. I didn’t get to see the devils as they never came out of their hiding place.
After the zoo, I had lunch. So far this is the 2nd meal I’ve had at a restaurant here and the service was horrible both times. They seat you, but then no one comes to take your order, say hi, bring you water or anything. I almost walked out. After lunch I walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Well, half way over, took some pictures and went back. I walked around the rocks – a shopping, dining area near the bridge. I had seen an ad for a special exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The artist does pieces with led number counters. It looked beautiful. So I went to the museum. Apparently, I don’t like contemporary art. I don’t like it at all. I didn’t like the special exhibit or any of the other exhibits in the museum. How is any of this art? I watched a contortionist street performer outside the museum. Compared to contemporary art, she was fabulous. Then I walked down to the Opera house. There is an outdoor patio bar, the Opera Bar. This must be the busiest bar on the planet. There had to be hundreds of people there. It was fabulous to see, but didn’t make me want to eat or drink there. It was a zoo. I went to the botanic gardens for about a half hour. It was more like a park than a botanic garden. There was some cool building and a lot of fences. The park is huge and I didn’t go far because I had tickets for a movie. I have so missed being able to see movies so I was excited about it.
I have decided that Sydney must have a City ordinance or regulation that only attractive people can live there. Everyone seems fit, young, and pretty.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Manly Beach
Manly BeachBeach HairSydney HarborSydney HarborSydney HarborSydney HarborSydneySydneyOpera House
Tiny CrocodileGreen FrogWallabyFood for animalsFood for KoalasEnter a captionBearded Dragon?Dinosaur?Babies
WombatWombatKookaburra
EchidnaTwo Headed LizzardQuokkaQuollBecause Toilets are DifficultThanks GoogleMaps
I didn’t know what to do today so I went to a nearby hotel where I was told you could pay to use the pool. The hotel was the one I wanted to stay at, but couldn’t because I didn’t book it in time. The pool was beautiful.
My flight was late leaving Labuan Bajo, but I figured that was ok. I’d just work on my blog. I was wrong. There are no outlets in the airport so I couldn’t charge my computer. I got to the airport in Bali and had to recheck my luggage because I was going from a domestic flight to an international flight and changing airlines. It took me over a half hour to walk to the international terminal. It took forever to find the Jetstar counter because no where did the counter or any of the signs say Jetstar. I went to check in and pay for my excess baggage. The guy first said I couldn’t take the extra bag. What? Then he decided I could, but told me that because I was going to Australia, it was very expensive and I couldn’t afford it. It would be $500. I just stared at him like he was nuts. Then, he decided he would only write down that I had 20 extra kilos. Somehow that brought the price down to $250. But, I had to pay in cash. This makes no sense, but he now has my bags and my passport. I go to the atm to try to pull that much money out and of course, I can’t. He then takes me to another counter as I’m trying to explain that I can’t get that much money. So, he decides I now only have 15 extra kilos which will cost me $185. I wait forever as the couple ahead of me had two tickets and Jetstar randomly changed one of their flights and canceled the other. I’m crying now as I’m pretty sure something illegal is happening and crying seems to be what I do a lot of lately when things get stressful. I finally get to the counter and explain that because I had to pay in cash, that my credit card is now frozen and I won’t be able to buy food or get a taxi when I get to Sydney because they required cash. Oh, you can pay by credit card. Why did you tell me I had to pay cash? So, I try to pay the fee with my other credit card. My card was declined – now the only two cards I have are frozen. The hysterical crying gets me down to $148 which is still ridiculous and I’m pretty sure still illegal, but my bags have already been put on the belt and are gone and they have my passport and boarding card. Maybe I could cry my way into less money, but I have no energy left.
I did manage to call both credit cards and get them reinstated. But, where’s the line between fraud prevention and you fucked me and now I’m stuck in the airport unable to get my baggage or get on a flight or eat? So, this is a bigger airport and still there are no electrical outlets. How is this possible? Right now I hate Indonesia. I get a bottle of water for the plane and some dinner. I’m waiting at the gate and all of a sudden, a SWAT team descends on the gate. Everyone is roughly rounded up, they section off the gate area and make everyone line up to get their bags searched. Everything is allowed on the plane except bottles of water. How is this a security issue? It’s a 5 hour flight and I’m not allowed to have water. I get on the plane and it has the personal movie screens for each seat. You have to pay to watch a movie or tv or play a game. Jetstar is officially the worst airline – Ever.
The first two days of diving were great. On the first day we did two dives and then went to Rincon, a nearby island to see the Komodo Dragons. The dragons were just lounging around under the park ranger’s buildings. They don’t move much in the heat of the day. That was nice from a safety point of view, but not as quite as nice from the cool viewing or photo point of view. We also saw a nest. They bury their eggs under the ground. The females are quite a bit smaller. We only saw one female sitting next to her nest. I learned quite a bit about dragons, but only three facts stuck with me – 1. If one bites you, you will die within 3 days to 3 weeks if you don’t get medical help; 2. They often eat their babies after they hatch; and 3. The males have two penises. The National Park also has deer, monkeys and buffalo. The dragon trek/tour was not quite what I expected, but it was still neat to see them. As we sat waiting for the boat to come back to pick us up, another small boat got stuck in the mangroves as it was trying to back up. All the park rangers and dive guides got up from where we were sitting to watch the boat struggle. They laughed and heckled the boat driver. It was fun to watch them interact. It was almost as interesting as the dragons themselves. People here are so much less uptight than in Thailand, more relaxed and down to earth.
The staff at the dive shop was great. The coral health and the amount of fish life was nice to see, especially after diving in Thailand. I saw all kinds of wonderful things including a lot of manta rays. This area of islands has a lot of currents. They are constantly moving and changing. In the morning they are moving one direction and in the afternoon they go the other way. They create other currents around the islands including swirly currents. The boat captains have to be pretty good at spotting them and driving through them. Ironically, most of our dives had very little current. I took Scott’s ashes on one of the dives and let him go swim with a very large puffer fish. I was going to take him to be with the Komodo Dragons, but tossing him out under ranger housing seemed unglorified. The other divers on the boat for the first two days were fun to hang out with. I met two guys that were travelling around the world for 6 months – their companies just gave them the time off. Sure beat’s America’s 2 weeks off, but then how does anything get done with 6 months off? There were a lot of Dutch people, two newlyweds from America, and some Canadians. I mostly hung out with Johan and Alex, the other two people travelling alone. I met Johan at dinner at my hotel. He said hi, but didn’t speak after that. The whole first day on the boat he barely spoke. Then the next day he started talking. Turns out he was sick before and was just trying to make it through the day. Alex became my dinner buddy and we tried most of the restraunts in this little town. I use the word “town” lightly. I keep secretly (somewhat secretly) hoping I will meet my next boyfriend while traveling. Oh well, not yet. It was nice to have a couple of other people to pal around with though. Saturday night we went to the local bar. It was packed with locals, backpackers and divers. The big pressing question of the day: is every island town in the world full of nothing but man buns and dreadlocks? Is it the island life or the backpacker life or both that makes men not want to cut their hair?
I took two days off from diving to plan my trip to Australia. One day I did little planning and mostly wandered around trying to find reliable wifi. One place, I could connect, but nothing happened. Another I couldn’t even connect. Another was fine until the electricity went out. It kind of went on like that for most of the day. I spent a lot of time researching tours in Tasmania only to discover that none of the ones I liked left on dates I could go. Finally, after hours of research I decided that trying to go to three places in Australia in 2 weeks was too much. I still can’t do everything even though I keep trying. So now I’m going to Sydney and Cairns. I was able to book all my hotels and flights, but am now brain fried and will have to decided what to do and see in Sydney and Cairns at the last minute.
My third day of diving was nice and relaxing, but of course, the people chemistry on the boat was vastly different. There weren’t as many people. Two older men who didn’t want to talk to anyone and two younger men who were a little friendlier. I still had Alex to talk to and the dive guides I had been diving with before. It was a long day due to boat engine problems. But it was better than sitting in a coffee shop wondering if the wifi would go out. The dives were beautiful. The local bar was not packed on week nights. It has a lovely overlook out to the boats in the bay. There was live music a couple nights and I remember getting this feeling of “home” more than “vacation”. I think the live music and looking over the water reminds me of when I lived in Florida. After growing up in Florida, the beach bar kind of place has never felt like vacation to me. It just feels like weekend.
I had an interesting conversation with Yohan about Europeans and Americans. I had some similar conversations with Alex about this too. Americans are quick to be friendly, talk to strangers, introduce themselves, etc. Most Europeans are not. There was one Dutch guy that wouldn’t talk to me and when he left the bar, he said goodbye to everyone but me. The next night he sat at the bar and talked to me as if the previous night had never happened. Americans find it rude when others are unfriendly or standoffish. And of course, all Americans are not friendly, but those that tend to travel tend to be quick to connect and talk with other travelers. Johan’s response was, “He’s Dutch”. We talked about how the forwardness of Americans is about as uncomfortable to some Europeans as their lack of forwardness is to us. I think this may be part of why we have the reputation of being loud and obnoxious, although most Americans are so loud. So, on the surface, it appears that Americans value connection and Europeans do not. But, I don’t think this is the case. I wonder if Europeans avoid connection until it’s “safe” until they know someone a little better. I wonder if Americans are doing the same exact thing by being overly friendly. Are they avoiding real connection by being too quick to connect shallowly with everyone? Of course this is just generalized and the observation of the moment. I reserve the right to change my opinion later. It is interesting the way we will avoid real contact. You go into any restaurant or bar and the first thing everyone does is get the wifi password so they can “connect” with the world out there, completely withdrawing from the actual world in front of them. I’m guilty of it too. I tried to make quite a conscious effort this week to put the phone away.
My last night here I ate by myself at a taco restaurant. Both Johan and Alex left before me. The food was not great, but I ate there more out of curiosity than the thought that they would get Mexican food right. The bonus was that they had seating on the third floor overlooking the docks. The sunset was wonderful – every shade of hot pink you can think of. Today I went to a higher end hotel where you can pay to use the pool. This is one of the hotels that was booked up when I went to look at hotels. If it had not been booked up, I would have stayed there although it was quite a bit more expensive than the one I did stay at. It was worlds nicer. As much as I didn’t like my hotel, the people were nice, the food was good and they took me to the airport for free.
I took a bus from Tak to Chiang Mai on Wednesday. The people in the Tak bus station were rude again. I’m glad this will be my last Tak bus station experience. While sitting at the bus station, I could see the news on tv. There was coverage of the Loi Krathong cleanup. I’m not sure where the cleanup was happening, but it was heavy equipment pulling buckets and buckets of krathongs out of the water and putting them in trash trucks. Even though the materials are all biodegradable, they aren’t going to degrade for a long time and they are still a massive amount of trash in the water.
I got to Chiang Mai and checked into my hotel then went to By Hand Pizza for my last dinner in Thailand. I had friends that were in Chiang Mai for the festival and they suggested meeting for the parade. Chiang Mai canceled the festival, but it sure didn’t look like it. There were a ton of people lining the road. I found a place near one of the floats and texted my friends where I was. Then the parade started and I discovered I was standing next to a float that wasn’t moving and the parade was happening on the other side of the float. All I could see was the tops of white glittery floats. All the floats were ornate white glittery things with the picture of the King on them. I couldn’t see anything that was happening in between the floats, but I’ll guess it was people dressed all in black. I looked around me and it was 90% tourists, not many Thais at all. This didn’t surprise me, but it just felt wrong. They played the King’s song and no one seemed to notice – how would they – they were all tourists like me. I started crying. This isn’t a Thai festival. It’s a tourist show. This isn’t how I want to spend my last night in Thailand. I couldn’t find my friends and standing in a crowd of people crying and watching a parade I can’t see makes no sense. So, I left to get a massage. I found my friends later. We wandered for a while and then went to a roof top bar. It was a fun bar, but hot and smoky. I didn’t stay long because of the smoke.
Thursday morning, I went and got a healthy breakfast with fresh squeezed juice and a bowl full of healthy granola fruit and other superfood stuff. I tried to find a hotel in Indonesia. The lady at the dive shop had said I shouldn’t book ahead, I could just do it when I got there and it would be cheaper. But that makes me uncomfortable so I thought I would at least look at the options. I wrote down the names of the places I liked.
In the afternoon, I went to the airport. Now I’m traveling with two suitcases. I know I will have to pay extra for the extra suitcase and I’m not looking forward to dragging two through airports, but I don’t see much way around it. It cost me $175 for the extra suitcase. Oh my god I feel violated. It was very confusing that I had to go through the international terminal for a domestic flight to Bangkok. I’m still at the check in desk when my flight should be boarding. The lady said I had plenty of time. I go through immigration and get to the gate and no one is there and there is nothing written on the gate sign. There are a bunch of other confused people on the same flights so I figure I’m in the right place and somehow it will work out. Thailand magic, it does. The flight was delayed so I wasn’t late to the gate. They put stickers on our shirts, put us on a shuttle bus and shuttled us to the domestic flight. Now, I will have less than an hour to make my connection in Bangkok with only a sticker on my shirt to claim I’ve already been through immigration. This would never work in America. I get off the plane and there is a lady holding a sign with the same logo as my sticker. The sign also has two flights written on it with the gate number. One is mine to Jakarta. The sticker gets me easily into the international terminal and I’m at my gate 5 minutes before it boards. Thailand magic.
I remember 10 plus years ago I was sitting in an airport in Taiwan waiting for my connecting flight to somewhere. I had a 6 hour layover and couldn’t leave the airport because I didn’t have a visa. I watched movies and listened to all the flight announcements. I distinctly remembering that I heard flights to Jakarta being announced often. I remember thinking that Jakarta seemed like such a worldly and exotic place, like people more well-traveled than me would go there. It felt like, you haven’t really travelled until you’ve been to Jakarta. I knew nothing about Jakarta. I still know very little about Jakarta. But, I’m going there and even though I will never leave the airport, I feel much more worldly now.
I watched a movie and two Discovery shows on the plane. The Discovery shows were great. Both were about subjects I am naturally interested in and I felt like they were reminders to me of what I need to be doing. One was called “Predict My Future”. It was about an on-going study called the Dunedin Study. They have followed a group of 1,000 people since childhood and kept extensive medical, psychological and sociological records on them over the years. The study group is in their 40s now. A lot of what they discussed is how our childhood shaped our adulthood. It didn’t go into the spiritual side of things, but I bet there is data on that as well. They barely scratched the surface on the amount of data collected, research done and learning gained from this study. As I watch it, all I can think of is ATP. It’s time to make the transition into doing ATP for a living. I have no idea what that looks like, though. By the end of it, I’m crying. The other documentary was about how horrible sugar is. Duh, don’t need to convince me. But, I liked the way it presented the information simply. It’s also time to get back to eating healthy. That documentary was called “Is Sugar the New Fat?”.
Jakarta had the fastest immigration ever. There were no lines and I was through in under 3 minutes. I found the airport hotel pretty easily. The staff was very nice. The rooms are above the terminal so I heard ding ding ding for hours as announcements were being made below me. The lady at the dive shop that I’ve been emailing told me hotels were easy to find and cheaper in person so I didn’t need to book one ahead of time. I thought I’d try this because I was pressed for time and because why not wing it and see what happens. I looked at some of the hotels on line a couple nights ago and found a couple that looked ok. By the time I got to Jakarta I was not ok with winging it. I don’t have a place to stay, I don’t have a plan and I’m not happy about it. My whole body is tight, not that it wasn’t already, but this has definitely added to it. I stayed up late looking at hotels. The two I liked were already booked. Literally every other one on line either had horrible reviews or was over $150 per night. I contacted two, one through their own website and another through airb&b, gave up and went to bed. Thank god the ding ding ding had finished for the evening.
I got up early and looked at my emails. I guess when I had hit the button that said “make booking inquiry” I had really made a booking through airb&b. I was just trying to ask some questions and was going to book one of the two places this morning. So, I guess I inadvertently made a decision. There were several emails back and forth as I was getting packed up. Some didn’t quite make sense, but I figured I’d work it out when I got there. I figured I just had to go downstairs to check in, but left extra time for dealing with the possibility of extra suitcase drama. Wow – so glad I left extra time. I was in Terminal 2 and my flight was leaving from Terminal 3. The hotel had a free shuttle and everyone was very helpful. Terminal 3 is really far away. It took over 15 minutes of drive time. Terminal 3 is a big bright shiny new terminal – very worldly indeed. I only had to pay $25 for the extra bag this time. That’s more reasonable. Right before I got on the plane I figured out why the hotel emails were weird. I was emailing both hotels thinking it was only one. I almost had booked two hotels. The guy at the other hotel was not too happy about my mixup. I got to Labuan Bajo just fine. The guy picking me up from the airport was late so I had to deal with pushy taxi drivers for a while. No matter how many times I told them someone was picking me up, they kept wanting to know where I was going, who I was waiting for, what’s my name. If you were the person picking me up, you would know that. I finally told one where I was staying and that someone was picking me up. He actually called the hotel and put me on the phone. The hotel is asking why I called. I didn’t call you, the taxi driver thinks I’m stupid and that he’s going to harass me into his taxi. My ride finally came. Labuan Bajo is not worldly. It makes rural Thailand look worldly. It reminds me of the rural parts of Bali where there is one tiny broke down road in town. The road is lined with small hotels and scuba shops with 8 or 9 restaurants and some shops. I can see why all the hotels had such bad reviews. Nothing in this town is up to western standards. My room is ok. It is real basic. It has wifi that doesn’t really work, air conditioning that doesn’t really work, hot water for 1.5 minutes, a lot of stairs, a decent restaurant and a very loud water pump behind my room that squeals every few seconds. It’s costing me $41 per night and is probably worth $8. But judging from some of the other places I walked by, I’m doing good. Every hotel review I read complained about the 4:30am wake up call from the nearby mosque. I already heard the evening call to prayer and it is insanely loud so there will be no escaping 4:30am.
Today I did not want to get up. I almost missed the free breakfast at the hotel. I was supposed to get up and take a bus to the bus stop near Sam Ngao. Then Noi would pick me up and take me to school. She didn’t have any classes until 11:00am. I missed that. I guess I don’t really want to go to school. I guess that makes sense since I didn’t really want to go to school when I lived there either. I also didn’t want to deal with getting a bus at the Tak bus station since I had such an unpleasant time last time I tried to get a bus out of there. Eventually I made a new plan. I took the bust to the highway bus stop and Ging picked me up and took me to her new coffee shop. She looks so happy. I spent a couple hours with Ging and Tip there.
Then Tip took me to school. I got to see some of the students, but not as many as I would have liked. I got to see very few of the teachers. A lot of teachers had left for a seminar? Some of the students were making flowers out of ribbon and they helped me make one. Pat explained that you but coins in them and then give them to the boys who are just starting out as monks. I met the new western teachers. Apparently there was some issue with Robin so he is gone and there is a young Filipino woman teaching math and science now. Noi asked them if they wanted to join us for Loi Krathong and they said yes.
Noi really wanted to go to Sukohthai instead of Tak. If she is ok driving – it will be a late night for her, then it’s fine with me. I imagine it’s real pretty since it’s held at the historical park. It was real beautiful. There were so many people it was sometimes difficult to walk. There was no rhyme or reason to the floating of the krathongs, just put them in a lake when and where you wanted. There didn’t seem to be a program either, just food stalls, krathong sellers, people selling other stuff and lots of people taking pictures. The only time everyone seemed on the same page was when they played the King’s song. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood still. We wandered around, took pictures, ate food and floated krathongs. If you make a wish before you float it, that wish will come true. Since it’s a super moon, the wish is definitely going to come true. I used the krathong that the hotel in Tak gave me. The wick on it was a rope. Within seconds, the krathong became the the floating sun. I could barely hold it long enough to smile for a picture and get it in the water. It might still be lit tomorrow morning. If the krathong didn’t kill me, the pork balls tried to. Once again, too spicy, tried to make my lips bleed. One of the vendors was selling bags of fish, frogs, and turtles. You can buy the bag and release them into one of the ponds. Since you saved their lives, you will get good luck, merit and a long life in return. What? They wouldn’t need saving if someone hadn’t taken them out of a pond to sell so you could save them.
Overall, it was a very beautiful night!
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
The bus is trying to be prettyBut it’s all broke downAt Ging’s new coffee shopCoffee shop kitchenSukohthai Historical ParkKrathongs for sale
Rraine Drops 