Prologue

I got a tune up ride in this weekend with the gregarious Ruud Batta, a Dutchman dating another Shansi fellow. Having brought his bike to Kunming over a year ago he is one of the most knowedgeable cyclists I can talk to in these here parts. I rented a quality mountain bike for a pittance and we shoved off late on Saturday morning. The ride out of the city was hectic, because I haven't mastered the no-rules flavor of asian driving. The idea of biking directly in front of a moving semi-truck is something I'm still not comfortable with. Ruud jumped ahead of me about 50 meters at every intersection.

Once we got out of the city, cars got scarce and hills got frequent. We passed farmers covering the road with hay in order for car's tires to thresh it. It was a cloudy day so we couldn't see for ever, but the endless green ridges soldiering off to oblivion was image enough. It was a good ride.

Side note, we were supposed to pass a house with ferocious and unchained dogs. I steeled myself for it, and all Ruud could tell me is to bike for my life. The dogs never appeared, but the terror was definately there. I plan on having a three foot smackin' stick at easy access on my bike and to take mounted combat lessons over the next week.

The ride was about 60 k. All above 2000 meters. I'm excited.

OK, this is pretty ridiculous. I think that China is trying to censor my
blog. At first I blamed internet explorer for not directing me to the
Shawdyssey, but now I am beginning to truely think that the problem runs
deeper. I can't read any of my favorite blogs [Rough Draft and The APB]
or search craigslist. Very sinister. I'm going underground by having my
daddy post this from 'mrrica.

China has been great though, as you can see. The May holidays made for a 5
day weekend for Sophie. We got oput of Kunming and up into one of my most
romanticized parts of the globe, where the Yangtze, Mekong and another river
bunch up and run parallel out of the himalaya. We had a fantastic two day
hike through the Tiger Leaping Gorge where the Yangze basically undercuts
frosty peakes two and a half miles above it.

Another highlight of the trip was Dali, a medieval feeling city made of
marble with mountains on one side and a large lake on the other. We took a
bateau mouche out to the middle of the lake to a picturesque monastery.
After that, we were ferried to a small fishing town where before we knew it
a man had smacked two wriggling green fish on the pavement and begun to gut
them for us. After other dishes were agreed upon (by them), we had just
enough time to walk through a small cave with some pretty stalactites before
our midday feast was prepared. The shock came at the end of the delicious
meal that also included tiny squids and lettucy fungi when the bill read 250
yuan or about $40 (10x a reagular meal). Gram, your gracious contribution to
our travels covered it. An unforgetable experience.

As for those who think that I'm not training up here, just know that I'm
living at an elevation somewhat above Denver. I'M TRAINING ALL THE TIME MUAH
HA HA HA HA.

it's lump it's lump it's Kuala Lumpur

I sneaked this photo off the internet because my photos arent available, but this is Kuala Lumpur. S, J, and I spent three taking in the sights.

Things about KL that are sweet: The architecture, especially this at night. Also the hawker centers where you are carried by the crowd past countless stalls selling countless tasties for a pittance.

Things about KL that are strange: Everything in the city center is geared towards shopping. Even these Petronas Towers have a 5 story mall at their base. I've never seen multiple Luis Vuitton boutiques within walking distance of each other. As Minnesota is the birthplace of malls, my friends asked me to comment. My thoughts: there is a reason malls were invented by folks living with the temps we have. Why these ideas have taken off in the tropics? I have no idea.

Yesterday I bid my good friends S and J farewell. Its hard to say goodbye because even though it has been 10 months, this trip was always in the plans. Now there is no set date. I hope one turns us up soon. After a night of watching soccer in a bus station food stall and two flights, I have arrived in Kunming, beginning book two of the Shawdyssey. We're located at 25 degrees North here putting me out of the tropics. Its about 60 out and I'm wearing all my clothes. Having been here for 24 hours all I have noticed is that Chinese aren't affraid to budge in line. Dispicable.

The southern hemisphere

I am writing you all from the Southern Hemisphere, more specifically the town of Sumenep on the island of Madura just north of Java. For all you who haven't been, this hemisphere is not that much different than the real one. Only three hamburgers have tried to eat me.

The Southern Hemisphere does have a surprising amount of Oberlin graduates though. The day after arriving in the SH I was joined by 7 other Oberlin grads on the slopes of Mount Bromo. I think this would be a good band photo.

After four of this reunion departed for Yogyakarta, Sarah Jesse Emily and I decided to give volcanos a rest and hit the beach. Volcanos are cool and all, I really love them, but I don't love to smell them. You miss this in postcards and textbooks. Thus, we headed to the little traveled island of Madura instead of the Ijen plateau. Lonely Planet calls the towns well kept and the beaches passable, and as a result we are the first foreigners to stay at our hotel since 2005. And the beaches? Well:

They're so happy to see us that someone in the office of tourism is inviting us to dinner in his home tonight. This is why the Lonely Planet doesn't have all the answers.

Discussion question: How does one acknowledge all the problems in the world without living their lives in eternal stress. Just because I acknowledge the state of the world doesn't mean I should have an unhappy life. I think many liberals have this problem. How do you deal?

Bye Bye Banda

By this time tomorrow, I will be in Kuala Lumpur waiting with Jesse and Sarah for a flight to Surabaya. For the next 10 days we will be vacationing (for me a vacation vacation) in Eastern Java and possibly attending the biggest Oberlin reunion in Indonesia ever. Purportedly, this reunion will include: Moi, Jesse, Sarah, Maya Walton, Nancy Dye, Guy Brown, Ben from Ben and Jerry's, Adrian Fenty, Jake Brody, Ben Wolak, Emily Clark and Ellis Ballard.

As to Banda Aceh, I've had a wonderful time here, even if it severely wasn't what I expected. I saw myself becoming an experienced maritime carpenter while I was here, and that definitely didn't happen. The closest I came was mending the beam of my bed that Sarah and I cracked and drinking supersweet tea with some sailors down by t'river.

I beat myself up because I never satisfied any of my save-the-world urge here, but I did chill a good deal with many Acehnese and thats invaluable. How many of you have heard of Aceh before? Well there are 400,000 people here who will never leave my completely leave my thoughts.

I also learned how to play basketball here; another invaluable skill. When I played basketball in Germany 5 years ago, my friends looked terrified--the tragedy of my skillz was no laughing matter. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty bad, but two days ago I sunk 4 or 5 layups and a few pull-up jumpers. I doubt that this sport will ever supersede endurance sports (I was best at running back to defend the basket), but it will be that much more exciting to watch March Madness.

Then there are Sarah and Jesse. How nice is it to see old friends again? All the way nice. This time will be written into the diaries and stories that I hope will continue for the rest of our lives. I can't wait to move into Kendal with them. Well I can wait, but it will be nice.

To Banda Aceh! I drink a Passion fruit in your honor.

Voici le leeches.

Climbing Gunung Sulawah

For any of you who were tuning in to find an adventure on an Acehnese fishing boat on the strait of Malacca, you will be disappointed. After hanging around the docks for a few hours, the word got out that the waves were too big and we would have to wait until the weekend (nobody thinks about water on Friday, the Islamic sabbath). This might be the last nail in the coffin of helping out the fishing industry in Banda Aceh, which was my excuse for coming here in the first place. Ah well...

I did, however, climb a volcano this weekend. Gunung Sulawah is extinct as the dodo compared to most Indonesian volcanos, but that is not saying much. It rises a vertical mile above the strait of Malacca and is covered by what can only be described as trackless jungle. We took along some hippie guides who are studying Arabic at the Islamic University in Banda Aceh. It takes all Muslims...

The jungle that we began in was loud and active. The insects and bird calls made us have to shout. I was initiall put off by spiders that were spinning webs large enough to catch birds, but we soon pushed those out of our mind in order to deal with the constant onslaught of leeches.
These tropical leeches are much different than their Great Lakes brethren. They are much smaller, and they can move about like an inchworm in the dirt. They actually seemed to come from the dirt which was thick and slippery everywhere. Fortunately, you could pull them off with your fingers once they attached, but that mean that you bled from the spot which attracted more of the buggers. One of our guides said that of all the creatures in the jungle (which does contain tigers), the leeches were her kryptonite.

We began the trip a little late to accommodate Jesse, so we ended up climbing the last (and steepest) part completely in the twilight. The ground was slippery and sloping at 30 degrees or more so the only thing that kept me upright was gripping trunks and vines. It occurred to me that my hands are the way they are in order to grip trees just like these. I had turned into a bona fide oranghutan (in Indonesian, orang = person, hutan = forest). We spent the next morning on the chilly (60 degree) peak even though there wasn't much of a view (jungle, again). The guides were content to just sit back and cook noodles, and relax in the woods. When we asked about the possibility of running into the likes of the man eating tigers I'd seen at the Aceh nature conservancy, we were told not to worry, because even though they were on the mountain, they would never use the same trail that we did. It was a great experience.

Just 5 more days in Aceh before I'm on the road again.

Also check out these girls; they run the show.