So what are we doing now that the Excellent Adventure is over? Well, first of all, for the Wheelers, the adventure is never over. Life itself is the Grand Adventure and we plan to live it as such!
I can't speak for Kevin, but I know I had a great time traveling the world, experiencing new cultures, tasting new foods, and meeting new people. The memories and the friends (not to mention the tattoos) will certainly last a lifetime. To me, it's a shame more people don't make the effort to go out and experience all the things this world has to offer. There's so many things to see and all you have to do is look outside your window. Metaphorically as well as literally. It really is so much easier than most people think. All you need is a goal. If you have common sense, are open to try new things, and speak english, you can literally go almost anywhere! And if you're worried about money, I bussed tables at a restaurant for eight months before this trip. What I saved in that time paid my way through five countries and left me with enough buy a pimped out super-computer when I returned home. You literally have no excuse.
But enough rambling...it's time to focus on the next chapter in life. And like I said before, us Wheelers are always on the lookout for the next big adventure. Anyone for some afternoon tea?
If our story inspires just one person to go out and have an adventure, then I'll consider my time well spent.
As I write this, I am sitting in a little art studio I put together in the spare bedroom of my house in North Kingsville, Ohio, United States of America. That's right, we're back home. The Excellent Adventure is over. For now. I'm sure another adventure will start soon enough.
Now the story of how we ended up back home so soon instead of, say, exploring Oman or India or perhaps Abu Dhabi, begins in the city of Kathmandu, Nepal...
Nepal had long been planned as the pinnacle of our trip; the Himalayas had been beckoning us for quite some time. In fact, before this full-on Excellent Adventure was put into play, Kevin and I, along with our older brother Brian, were making rough plans to trek the Annapurna Circuit, a famous 3 week long trail in central Nepal. Instead, we ended up surprising our dad with a week-long fishing trip in Ontario. But that's another story...
Needless to say, we were looking forward to this part of our journey. We arrived in Kathmandu after nearly missing our flight out of Bangkok and, against our better judgment, allowed our taxi driver to talk us into taking a look at the hotel he "represented." And that right there I'd say was one of the biggest turning points in this trip. Now don't get me wrong, this place was great. In fact, if you ever find yourself on vacation in Kathmandu I would certainly recommend Hotel Encounter Nepal. Since we knew this was near the end of our trip, we decided to splurge a bit on our room and spent a whopping $20 (gasp!) for a rooftop suite with real flushing toilets, a bathtub, and a TV. Shoot, there was even a coat rack! But I'll tell you what, the view from our rooftop patio was worth every cent and more.
Obviously, pictures don't do it justice, but this is our view looking out over the city of Kathmandu
Of every amazing thing I saw on this journey, from the coral reefs of Thailand to the ancient, ruined temples of Cambodia, nothing compared to looking out over the rooftops of Kathmandu. I'm not sure why I was so floored by the sight, but gee whiz, it was something alright.
Me attempting (poorly) to capture the scene on paper
So we lived the high life for a couple days, ordering chicken cordon bleu for dinner every night along with a side order of macaroni and cheese (to be honest, possibly the most delicious meal I have ever consumed). Now, when I said coming to this hotel was a turning point, that was because instead of going off and tackling one of these treks on our own, we decided to check out the trekking company run by the hotel. To cut a long story short, we ended up with a 21 day trekking package to the Mount Everest Base Camp by way of the beautiful Gokyo Valley, followed by an ascent to the top of Island Peak, a 20,000 foot tall mountain in the shadow of Everest itself. Being the generous brother I am, I ended up loaning Kevin the $1,500 to cover his half of the trip. It may sound like a lot, but $1,500 covered food, lodging, mountain climbing gear rental, the flight to and from the start of the trek, and a personal guide for the entire 21 days. And considering the original price of all that was around $2,500, I'd say we got a good deal. Even so, it pretty much wiped out the end of our budget.
Everything I had stuffed into my pack at this point of the trip
Now, I suppose I should say it would've been a good deal if we had lasted the full 21 days. For you see, about a week into the trek, we started to run into problems. At around 12,000 feet I started to feel the effects of high altitude. Altitude sickness was something I had never even thought of before, but once you're in the mountains, it's something that's on your mind every day. We kept hearing stories of two Dutch guys who ignored the warning signs and climbed too high too fast and ended having to be life-flighted back to Kathmandu; the helicopter ride alone cost them $9,000. Needless to say, I started taking altitude sickness seriously. So when I started getting the early symptoms, such as tiredness, poor appetite, and headaches, I had a tough decision to make.
Namche Bazaar, the last town on the trek. We stayed here several days acclimatizing to the altitude.
On one hand, I had paid a significant amount of money for this potentially once-in-a-lifetime experience to visit Mount Everest and then climb a 20,000 ft Himalayan mountain, but on the other hand, I had my very life to consider. If I had continued, the symptoms would have progressed from headaches to coughing to vomiting. And from there, potential loss of consciousness followed by a coma and even death. Combine that with Kevin's problem of a nasty knee infection that was spreading and I believe the other hand made a better case.
Kevin's infection. Nasty...
So, sadly, we made the tough descision to cut our losses and return home. Losing out on a thousand dollars is much better than spending $9,000 for a helicopter ride to a hospital.
But you know what? The days we did have out on the trail with our faithful guide Birus were some of the best days of all. There's just simply no way to convey the immenseness of the Himalayas, and the feeling of freedom that comes from trekking into the wild with all your wordly possesions on your back; you just can't put a price on that.
With good friends at your side and a keen sense of adventure, you can go anywhere, do anything, and be anyone you want to be. So what are you waiting for?
Quick update: We're back in Bangkok in time for Kevin's birthday...unfortunately it's raining hard at the moment. Just got the photos up from Laos. Check out the link on the sidebar. I tried to upload some video, we got some good ones, but again, I was foiled by this computer. Check 'em out, we had a good time in Laos, made some good friends, and we'll be heading to Nepal next!
So in two days, we went from Cambodia to Bangkok, and from Bangkok into Laos. Laos wasn't originally in our itinerary, but we met some new friends on the bus ride from Cambodia and they talked us into joining them.
Apparently there is only one thing worth coming to Laos for and that's tubing down a river. As nice and relaxing as that sounds, it turned out to be a wild ride! All along the riverbank are bars with, I guess you would call them fishermen, who throw out lines to tubers coming by and pull them in. Apart from the drinks, these bars also have giant swings and waterslides to fling you out into the river. Some of these swings were so high, both Kevin and I lost our lip piercings upon landing in the water. It's wicked fun though. Some other highlights include mud wrestling, mud tug-of-war, and mud volleyball. A quick swing into the river cleans you right off! Anyway, we had so much fun that by the time darkness fell, we had only made it halfway down the river and we had to navigate the last kilometer or so in the dark. We have about a week here in Laos and most of that time I'm sure is going to be spent on the river. Today, however, we all woke up rather sore from awkward landings into the water and decided to take the day off. I wish I could post some photos and videos from our day yesterday, but this computer doesn't want to read my memory card. It's a shame, because I've got some good ones! I'd write more too, but this keyboard is a piece of junk and most of the keys stick. The things I have to deal with...
Oh, by the way, a new itinerary we're considering is Nepal next (we already bought our tickets) followed by India. Then to Dubai, where we would have free accommodation with the parents of a girl we're traveling with, then to Oman where we would stay with Andre and Sarah, then to London for New Year's, where we have several friends we could stay with, and then finally home. Again, rough idea, and our plans change daily. Stay tuned!
Todd and I reached one of our biggest milestones for the trip today, we rented bikes for $1 and headed out towards the Angkor Temple complex. This area was huge, we rode around all day and saw maybe half of the temples just in this one complex! And I must say, it unquestionably lived up to expectation. Some of the pictures simply can't capture the awe inspiring ruins. But we were able to just walk around at leisure and kind of scramble around the walls like Indiana Jones (the better, old ones) and that really made the experience, because it was just that, not sight seeing, but experiencing it, being able to lose ourselves in another time, a time of Great ancient Khmer civilizations, seeing the holes in the massive building blocks where laborers carried them into place, presumably with bamboo poles, seeing the ancient squatty-potty (and realizing that things haven't changed much), being able to run our hands over the meticulous carvings in the stone and imagining a chisel in our tired hands. This is what we came for. Enjoy the pictures... I'd write more, but I've been battling this (ancient?) computer for about 3 hours trying to manage all these pictures and to honest, I'm plum tuckered out! Cycling around the Angkor Temples-Day One-Photo Album
And what a welcome it was! When they say that the Cambodian border town of Poipet rhymes with Toilet, there's a reason for that. Let's start at the beginning...
Our day started early. As in 4:00am. That's in the morning. Our train to the Thailand/Cambodian border left at 5:55 so we had to catch a tuk-tuk (a motorized three-wheeled taxi) from our guesthouse in the Bangkok backpacker-ghetto of Khao San Road to the Hualamphong Train Station. Once there, we bought our tickets for 48 baht a piece ($1.41 American) and settled in for what was supposed to be an easy six-hour journey. Notice I said "Supposed to be." Not 20 minutes from Bangkok our train slowed to a halt and then started moving backwards towards a small station we had just past. An announcement came over the loudspeaker, but since we don't speak Thai, we couldn't tell what was going on. Since none of the other passengers seemed too worried, we relaxed. Three hours later...we finally started moving again. And just when we had got off the train to stretch and hack some sack, too. Apparently our engine had broke down and they had to order us up another one from Bangkok. The ride from that point on was quite enjoyable though. I like travelling by train because it gets you off the highway and lets you see much of the countryside. We took some great photos along the way.
Once we arrived in the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet we managed to snag a tuk-tuk ride the final 6km to the actual border for only 20 baht! (Our Lonely Planet guidebook said it would be about 80 baht) Our guidebook also said to watch out for the numerous scams along either side of the border. Scam #1: Don't let your driver take you to an "immigration outpost" that claims to speed up the process of getting your visa. These are blatant scams that rip off unsuspecting tourists. We sensed the scam right away and held our ground, insisting on being taken to the official Cambodian "big office." Our driver attempted to take us to another scam place practically right next door before finally relenting and bringing us to the official embassy. We finally got our visas for $25usd and proceeded to the border. We met up with a German couple who had sat across from us on the train and together ran the gauntlet of beggers, taxi drivers, and touts, but we finally got our passports stamped and crossed into Cambodia. Kevin and I talked the Germans into splitting the taxi fair from Poipet to Siem Reap, since the cost would be around $40. And this is where the story really gets good. Immediately after setting foot into Cambodia, we were besieged by several touts trying desperatley to get us into their car. Luckily, we had read our guidebook and had been forewarned about this so-called "taxi mafia." Apparently they offer you a great price ($30 for the four of us) but halfway to Siem Reap, they pull over and demand more money to take you the rest of the way. So we stuck to our guns and decided to walk the mile and a half to the bus station where we could hire a legitimate taxi. The entire way, these taxi touts followed us, doing everthing they possibly could to get us into their car. They showed certificates, licsences, official-looking badges, everything you could easily get made on the streets of Bangkok. We weren't fooled. (By the way, Dad, if you really want us to have college degrees, we can get them cheap. Just tell us what university--Frankfurt, Harvard, Melbourne, you name it!) Anyway, after a very stressful walk, we finally made it to the bus station, our loyal followers waiting outside the gates. We hired a taxi for $40, squeezed into a car, and drove off. Needless to say, our "friends" waiting outside were none to happy to see us leave in another's car. Once we were on the road though, we were able to relax. We introduced ourselves to the Germans since there hadn't been a chance for that yet, and we all agreed we would've cracked had it not been for the support of the other duo. Aside from our driver obsessivly honking at everything that moved on the side of the road, the journey to Siem Reap, home of the incredible temple complex of Angkor Wat, was without incident. We arrived at the Happy Guesthouse, suggested to us by the Germans, got a super-nice room complete with two beds, private bathroom, a fan, and *gasp* a TV, for an entire $6 and settled in for the night. One thing that needs to be said is Cambodia should not at all be judged by the first experience in Poipet, for everyone in Siem Reap is extremely nice and friendly. I anticipate our time here to be quite enjoyable, so stay tuned.
How do you exit a vortex? That is the question Todd and I started to ask ourselves several days ago. Its not that we didn't enjoy Ko Tao, because we most definitely did, its just that we were becoming a bit too complacent. Complacent with our money (nightly beers weren't factored into the original budget), and complacent with our time (lots of sitting at the restaurant talking about where to go next). Adn our amazing new friends made it even more difficult to move on. Andre and Sarah have been a real hoot to hang out with, welcoming us into the community at the Black Tip Resort and joining up for some real adventures (Andre, we'll always have Venice ;). Plus we got to know some other great people like Tyler and Nadine, and of course when no body could find a lighter, we could always turn to Patches! So it was no easy task removing ourselves from the vortex of good times, but we knew we needed to see other things and gain new experiences and friends. And now we're in Bangkok, for a few days as our Visa is nearing its end. So far Bangkok has been significantly easier to adjust to than Phuket. Sure there are go-go bars and prostitutes roaming the streets, but its not as in your face. So Bangkok is a fun little stop-over before we head towards our next unkown adventures, which will be taking place in the dense, green jungles and ancient derelict temples of Cambodia. We could spell out our plans for after Cambodia, such as travelling up the Mekong River towards northern Thailand, exploring the Buddhist Temples, and hill-tribe villages of the Chang Mai region, but honestly, who knows what even tomorrow will bring? So when we know, so shall you. -Kevin
It's funny what kinds of things people have in common, no matter where they are from. For example- mohawks!
All you need to create memories is some good friends, a camera, and an electric razor.
We came really close to giving Sarah a mohawk, but luckily we had a last minute vote and decided to get her dreadlocks instead. Here's how close we were:
The next morning we agreed dreadlocks was a far better decision. However, getting dreadlocks was far easier said than done. We walked all around town, trying to find someone who would do it for a maximum of 2000 baht, around $60. But since dreads are an incredibly labor intensive endeavor, no one would make us a deal. So, we regrouped at a nearby pub and decided on what we should do next. Andre decided that if nothing else, we should all get lip rings. So we did. Surprise!
After we regrouped again at the pub, we decided, you know what, why pay a stranger to destroy Sarah's hair when she has perfectly capable friends to do it for her! So we bought some combs from 7-11, rounded up Tyler, a dive instructor from Boston who had previously joined in on the mohawks, and got started!
And you know what...after several hours of taking chunks of Sarah's hair and combing them backwards until they matted and knotted together, we realized why exactly dreadlocks are so expensive to get done. It's a lot of dang work! We finally called it quits around midnight, barely half done, and agreed to meet up again tonight to finish the job. But you know what? It's all been worth it, for the good times and memories.
I was about to say the last couple of days have been quite eventful, but you know what, I'm pretty sure we've started every blog post that way. So let's just say the last couple days have been business as usual. First off, we now have a PADI Open Water certified diver in the family! Notice I said "a" PADI Open Water certified diver. While Kevin finished the course with flying colors, I had to drop out after my first dive due to medical complications. That's fine with me though, there's enough to occupy my time on land. Kevin, however, has taken to diving like, well, a fish to water. He hasn't stopped diving since we finished the course. In fact, he's already working his way to becoming an Advanced Open Water diver. Here on Ko Tao is definitely the place to do it. The diving here is brilliant, and cheap. But since I haven't gone with him, he'll have to write about his experiences underwater. When everyone is back on land, we've been living the good life, island style. Which means looong naps, laying in the sun, hanging out with new friends, and staying up all night. We've met some fun new people here on the island, from all over the world. Katherine and Noelia, from Bolivia and Spain respectively, were our neighbors for one night. We eventually moved to our current residence just down the path. But we met up with them again later on the beach and convinced them to stay on Ko Tao a few more days using the patented Wheeler "Why Not?" argument. When they said, "if only we could stay longer..." we asked, "well why not?" They found it a convincing argument.
Katherine and Noelia in front of a gorgeous Ko Tao sunset Ko Tao means Turtle Island, hence the giant turtle
We've also been spending a lot of time with our former dive instructor, Andre, and his girlfriend Sarah. Andre, from South Africa, and Sarah, from England, have been living in Thailand and working as dive instructors for the last 9 months. In 7 days, however, they will be departing for their dream job diving in Oman (look it up on a map if you have to, we'll be coming back to this). We were originally going to leave Ko Tao on Sunday, but we've decided to stick around a few more days and leave when they do so we can have one big going away party.
Andre, Sarah, and their dog Barker showing off her "alien face"
This computer on an island off the coast of Thailand is being difficult, so I won't get all my videos up tonight. So check back soon! (well maybe not too soon, it might be a couple days before we get on a computer again)
Wow, so much lost time to make up for... I suppose I can start off where Todd left off, this being our last night in Singapore. So we had met back up with our amiable host, Adrian, who once again toured us around new parts of the city and once again took us to a great little restaurant where we once again ate an amazing dinner! I hope the pattern doesn't escape you ;) another wonderful little evening in Singapore that wasn't yet over...Adrian asked us if we were interested in smoking some shisha. SAY WHAT? is that like hash or something? Nope, it's hooka, a mild flavored tobacco, we went with orange, smoked communally from a big glass water pipe. (Think the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland) anyways this was a nice way to slow down and just hang out and talk and share stories.
The next day brings us to the big event we've stayed in Singapore for, Singapore National Day. The national day was a neat way to get out and really see the people of this City State, celebrating their independence and cultural differences and their strong sense of community. We also met up with a really swell couple from Canada who had just done our route in reverse, so we were able to chat with them and share stories and information over a few beers back at Adrian's apartment (somehow I ended up sharing my lesson on how to poop in the woods).
Finally, we left Singapore and began what we felt was the real meat of our trip. We caught a flight from Singapore to Phuket (pronounced "Poo-ket") where we had another Couchsurfing host set up. So we arrived into Phuket around 8 p.m. and caught a taxi to our host, Danny's house. We thought it would be neat to stay with an American, who also happened to own a bar there in town, kind of giving us an outsiders insider view if you will. Well Danny said he was going to go into work around 10pm that evening and after giving us some of that insider info, such as "if the broads are taller than you, don't mess with them, they're dudes" and "dont accept any drugs or anything from anyone on the street, it's all laced", Todd and I looked at each other, agreed to leave half our money behind, and just accept that this is Thailand and we just need to go let our inhibitions go and experience it. And did we ever experience it! **There is really no way to put this next part gracefully, plus it would just take away from the brash reality that we were smacked in the face with, so for those of you with innocent eyes, take a seat. So...we head out onto the town with Danny and his Thai girlfriend and our first stop is his bar. The bars in Thailand are different in a few ways, first off, the bar is really just that, a single bar with maybe 10 stools and there are maybe 40 of these bars along the walls and in the middle of a big long room, it kind of made me think of a alcoholics carnival, lots of lights, lots of drinking games, and lots and lots of girls. Which brings us to the other big difference in Thai bars. Bars here weren't just serving beer and liquor, they serving up the hunnies as well. Each bar had its stable of girls that would simply hang around the bar encouraging the respectable patrons to purchase them drinks, and if you were so inclined, to purchase them for the night. This was quite noticeable as soon as we turned onto the main street, fat old white men, young rich European boys, all with the Thai flavor of the night hanging off their arms. Well the bar bunnies didn't escape us either and soon enough, about half a beer in, I noticed Loosay sit down next to me as I was trying to have a decent conversation with Todd. Loosay however didn't seem to notice that I was ignoring her as she rubbed my leg and massaged arms, literally pulling for my attention, "engage me in a serious looking conversation Todd, so I don't have to pay attention to her!" Now don't get me wrong, she was a lovely girl, probably not yet 30 years old, nice smile and very admirable chest, but like I said, I was barely through my first beer. Well I expected that she felt my cold shoulder because she eventually ran off to "get to know" some other young white fellas. So finally Todd and I could continue to enjoy our beers, beer after beer after beer, cause at Danny's bar "it's Happy Hour all night for friends!" It was quite neat, and very different than what we were used to, being led through VIP doors and having shots bought for us all night just because we were with the right person...but no fun comes without flaws, because as we made our way back to Danny's bar, Loosay made her way back to me. By now I was "feeling the buzz" and simply did not feel like continuing to brush her off, so I started joking around with her and playing some of the drinking games ("I win, you buy drink for me!) she was very good at the games and I bought lots of drinks for the both of us. She asked where we were going next and I told her "to Ko Tao", she got very excited you see because with the booze and the loud music, it sounded like I said "to Hotel". And at some point in the night while I was talking with Todd I noticed an awkward guy sitting next to me at the bar and he seemed to be paying me some mind, I looked over at Danny and he gave me a reassuring raise of the eyebrows and a nod, signaling that it was all good. So the awkward fella buys me a drink and I thank him with a cheers and turn back towards Todd, actually Loosay was in between us trying to force her way onto my lap, when this guy starts patting me on the leg and rubbing my shoulder, so I look back over at him and he puts his long, well manicured pinkie nail up to his nose and I realize he is offering me cocaine! Well I of course said no thank you and perhaps because of the alcohol, thought it was quite amusing, so I yell over to Todd in a joking manner, "hey Todd you want some coke? This guy is offering!" and Todd of course being the well-raised young lad that he is yelled back "no way man, that's crazy!" well Danny quickly came to my side and informed me that this awkwardly generous fella sitting next to me was kind of a big wig in the Thai mafia and I should just be congenial. Suddenly it hit me in a sobering way, here I was sitting in a hooker bar in Thailand with a Thai gangster on one side and some Thai prostitute sitting drunkenly on my lap....yup, we sure did experience Thailand. (and no, we didn't go home with either of them)
But that was just our first night, and that was Phuket. Todd and I decided as much as we appreciated Danny's hospitality (he and his girlfriend cooked us an amazing Thai dinner the next night) we needed to move in another direction. So we headed East to the opposite coast where we caught an overnight ferry to our much anticipated destination, Ko Tao, Turtle Island. We arrived early, about 7am and found a motorcycle of sorts to rent for a while, we had heard that the roads from the Pier to where we were going to stay was over the mountains and very, very rugged. No problemo, I love being on two wheels, as you all know mountain biking is what I live for and a motorcycle is just like a bike, just a little heavier and a you don't have to pedal. Well not quite, with Todd on the back, and both our packs on our backs, we headed off gallantly towards our bungalow, actually I stalled out twice and almost ran into a car before we even pulled away from the rental shop. But after that we headed off towards Tanote Bay, up some pretty steep terrain, terrain that Todd, after I laid the bike down, decided that he would be more comfortable walking. So after about 2 miles up and down, over the islands central mountains on a rugged dirt road that would have been exhilarating on a mountain bike, we finally made it down to...some random isolated resort that was not the one we were looking for, I stopped a local and asked him where Tanote Bay was, "back to town, head South." I said "no" he said "yes." I almost cried.
But we made it back to town, totally soaked in sweat and bitten up by mosquitos, dirty and stressed from the hike/bike, went to the 7/11 for some Gatorade and re-grouped. After getting directions we headed the opposite way and quickly found our desired location: Tanote Bay, a little bit of Paradise, not easily won, but well worth the struggle.
And that's where we are now, we found a quaint little bungalow for around 8 bucks a person a night (fan included!) we've been snorkeling a few times, exploring some of the fascinating underwater floral and fauna and justt today we started our PADI Open Water Diver course! Quite the turnaround from the hustle and bustle of Phuket, but much more our style. We are Happy.
So here I am, sitting in an internet cafe in Little India, Singapore. It's been a wild first couple of days in Southeast Asia, I'll say that much. Admittedly, it's all a bit overwhelming. I guess I'll start at the beginning- Day 1. Well, technically, Day 1 didn't actually exist, as it disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as we crossed the International Dateline. So Day 2 is where we'll start.
We didn't have a place to stay the first night we arrived, and since we got in around midnight, we weren't going to try and find one. Instead, we decided to bunk down in the airport until morning. Now, Singapore Changi International Airport is supposedly one of the nicest, most amazing airports out there, so we weren't too bummed about staying there. Unfortunately, once we went through customs, the arrivals part of the airport was much less inviting--hard linoleum floors, hard wooden benches, every shop closed for the night-even LegoLand. So finally, we just found a quiet little place on the floor underneath an escalator, spread out our nice new blankets generously donated to us by United Airlines and passed out.
After a fitful 5 hours of sleep, we called it quits, got up, skyped ma, and set off for the big city. And once we arrived we....didn't know what to do. So we just started walking. And that's pretty much what we did for the next, I don't know, maybe 6 or 7 hours or so. While carrying 25 pound packs on our back, mind you. In 90 degree, 100% humidity, mind you. We eventually got to the point where we were so hot and bothered that we bought a train ticket and rode around the entire country just to be able to sit in air conditioning. Singapore's kind of small, in case you didn't know, so riding around the country didn't take too long. But once 7 0'clock rolled around, we "alighted" from the train and met up with Adrian, a Singaporean I met through CouchSurfing.com who was going to put us up for a couple of nights. I'll tell you what, within the first couple minutes of talking with Adrian, the city just changed dramatically. When we first arrived, we knew nothing about anything in Singapore, but Adrian humanized the big city for us. He answered every question, pointed out the landmarks, and ordered local delicacies like the practised CouchSurfing host he is. But after a big meal including such goodies as lamb and chicken satay, barbecued stingray, and oyster omelet, both Kevin and I were overcome by downright exhaustion. So Adrian took us back to his place and we crashed. Unfortunately, Adrian didn't have a spare key to his place so we had to wake up when he left for work. At 7 am in the morning.
Thus begins Day 3.
Another loooonnng day of walking. We hit up a nice park with a 9km long trail and got some nice photos along the way. We spotted a giant spider the size of Kevin's face on the side of the trail. After that we stopped by a fun little place called Haw Par Villa with all sorts of great photo opportunities. It's a whole park filled with thousands of statues depicting lessons of morality and stories from Chinese mythology. The crowning display was a charming little place called the 10 Courts of Hell. It displayed with incredible gory detail the various punishments dealt to all kinds of evildoers. A personal favorite was your "body sawn into two" for the misuse of books and/or wasting food. So you better finish all your vegetables.
We met up again with Adrian again that night, got some drinks at a hospital-themed bar, with wheelchairs for seats and IV's for sipping on, then called it quits.
Day 4. Adrian had the day off work, so after waking up at noon, washing some shirts in the sink, we were ready to go. He took us around the ethnic neighborhoods of Chinatown and Little India. I can safely say I never seen sooo many things for sale in such small amounts of space in all my life. Adrian had to leave for a wedding, so he left us in a mind-blowing shopping center called Mustafa Centre. I mean wow. This one shopping center had anything you could ever possibly need. I'm not exaggerating. From every electronic made, to clothes, to dried squid, to home humidifiers (that just made absolutely no sense to me). This place had it all. Kevin and I fell to the consumerism, I won't lie. I bought a new digital camera (which truthfully, I planned on buying once we got here anyway) and we both split the cost of a small travel beard and mustache trimmer. No need to look unkempt, right?
And that brings us to the present. We're meeting up with Adrian later and we might go eat, or we might go back to his place (where there's AC) and sleep. Only time will tell. Stay Tuned.
p.s. I doubt I'll feel like writing half this much again, so don't get used to it. Though sometimes, the urge does hit me. I mean, every traveler fancies the idea of being a "travel writer," so we'll see how it goes...
Well its the night before we leave and i must say, it still hasn't hit that we'll be starting this journey tomorrow. it has been a whirlwind of a week, i finished my last course on monday and todd flew in from ohio on tuesday, brian drove in from colorado on tuesdsay and mom flew in from ohio on saturday! in between all that i had to pack up my life in oregon, sell my truck and re-focus my energy towards this next adventure. and we still have over 27 hours of flying before we truely get started! todds set up a couch surf for a couple nights in singapore and then we'll fly on to phuket, thailand on the 10th. we hope to keep this thing updated at least a couple times a week (todd has an iTouch) and we'll be checking facebook as well. anyone with skype can look us up at todd.wheeler (thats his skype name) and we can do phone calls! we'll miss everyone and we really want to keep in touch so help us out! cheers, kevin
