The hardest part is knowing where you are...

In order to get where you want to go, you first have to know where you are.  And it seems to me that no place is that harder than in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Ok, that may be a little bit of an exageration, but the grid system they use here is so simple that finding a location should be as easy as one, two, three.  I remember somebody saying when I was young that avenues go east west and streets go north south.  Of course I grew up on east west Main Street right between Central and Linder Avenues, so the rule didn't seem so set in stone.  That's exactly how it works here though.  You have Avenidas which travel east west and Calles which travel north south.  Unlike the northern parts of Chicago, you don't even need to remember the order of street names.  Either they lack creativity here, or they just love simplicity because the streets all have numbers -- accept of course Avenida Centrale and Calle Centrale. 
It took me about a day to figure out how you'd know if you were looking for the east or west 21st Street.  I thought it was just coincidence that all the street signs I saw east of central happened to be odd numbers...  It's a good thing I never had to walk from 21st street to 20th street because I would have had a long way to go.  Basically all the avenues and streets north and west of central have even numbers and south and east have odd numbers.  I have no clue how the addresses or house numbers themselves work, but usually directions are given with an avenue and street number followed by a the avenues or streets between which your destination is located.  So it would seem that finding a location would be incredibly easy, and it would, if only they had a little thing called street signs here. 
If your lucky, you might find a street sign on the side of a corner building.  That only seems to be the case about ten percent of the time though.  I've had to walk three blocks out of my way just to figure out what road I was on.  So basically, if you have one, don't throw out your GPS just yet...
It's nice in San Jose.  We're up in the hills about a thousand meters so the temperature is generally a nice comfortable 70 degrees or so.  Since I've arrived every day has been pretty much the same.  The clouds disperse and the sun shows through around ten in the morning and then it cools down a bit in the afternoon when the skies cloud over again around three.  In the evening it drizzles on and off unpredictably. 
I'm loving the food!  Gallo Pinto is one of my favorites.  Its a mixture of black beans and rice generally served with eggs and plantaines.  I finally figured out what Casado is.  Apparently that just refers to black beans and rice (but served separately on the side rather than mixed together as with Gallo).  Casado means married and today when I asked the girl at the hostel what exactly Gallo is, she said it means Honey Moon.  So I can only imagine that in the honey moon stage of a relationship the wife is nice enough to actually go through the extra step of mixing the beans and rice together whereas a long time married guy just gets a spoon or rice and a spoon of beans unceremoniously slopped onto his plate.  Or maybe married women just quickly realize their husbands aren't stupid and can mix the beans and rice together themselves...
I think I've cleared up my credit card problems, although I probably shouldn't count my chickens until they've hatched.  Citibank should be sending a new card to a corporate office I located in a suburb of San Jose.  When the card arrives they'll call my hostel to let me know.  Today I let the girl at the front desk know, but she seemed reluctant to say that they would be able to take a message for me let alone pass it on.  Actually that's putting it lightly.  She said, no, they couldn't.  I'm also wondering how I'm going to get the pin number.  I have a feeling my struggles have only just begun...  I also noticed today that my online banking is apparently connected to my atm card.  This makes absolutely no sense to me.  I lost my ATM card.  It's not like I wrote my login or password on the card!  Why would security protocols dictate that they have to shut off my online access?  Suppose I had a back up card with another bank and I needed to wire money over to it, cutting off my online access because I'd lost my atm card would lock down any ability I had to do that. 
In two words, Citibank Sucks. 
Actually, the reason I went to log onto my citibank account was because they'd apparently sent me a message.  I wonder if the message says, 'Thankyou for contacting us about your lost citibank atm card, we are now canceling that card and blocking off all access to your online account so you will be unable to see this message.'
Oh yeah, one last thing I know most of you are waiting to hear...  The keyboards here are a pain =)

Aargh!!!

Well, I guess it was bound to happen eventually.  I lost my bank card today.  I left it in the bank machine at the airport...  I guess a year of using idiot proof machines in europe and asia that won`t even spit out your money until you`ve taken your card back has gotten to me.  That and the absolute exhaustion. 

I noticed my card was missing when I went to pay for lunch.  Unfortunately I also made a second mistake when I took the original money out -- I thought I was gettng about 200 dollars worth or currency, but instead I only took out 20.  So I`m already low on money here and I have no way of getting more.  I guess I`ll be breaking into the cash and travelers checks early this trip.

No worries though.  I didn`t panic.  It`s not the end of the world, just a bit of a nuisance.  Calling the bank to report it was harder than I ever expected.  I looked up the number and the collect number they list for if you`re calling from out of the country refused to accept the charges.  Then I paid international rates to call the american toll free number.  When you`re calling a number specifically designed to report your card has been lost or stolen, why is the first thing they ask for the card number?  And why do they make it so hard to get through to an operator without giving that card number?  And why exactly did my online bank give me the number to report a lost credit card?  I didn`t lose my credit card, I lost my ATM card.  Fortunately I caught the customer service reps mistake when he mentioned the last transaction on the card -- no, that was another card, I didn`t lose that one!  Please don`t cancel it!!!!  Hopefully he didn`t. 

Let`s just say this is Citibank`s third strike.  I`m not happy with them and I`ll definitely be looking to move more of my business to other banks now...

home sweet home...

Well, I'm "back home" in koh tao again.  I should know by the feel of the crappy keyboard under my fingers...

 

Not too much to say about bangladesh.  I basically spent three weeks hanging out in a hotel room watching hbo.  We arranged some containers on a barge and I learned how to signal the difference between boom down and chain down to a crain operator, but aside from that I didn't really learn much.  Theoretically I could get called back, but based on my last experience, I expect the chance that they'll have things ready to equipment training before the end of this week to be pretty slim, and there isn't much point to sending me back there for seven days...  So I expect I'll live out the rest of my trip here in home sweet home koh tao...  

 

It's actually been a dream of a home coming.  The last day or so has gone about as perfectly as one could imagine.  After arriving in bangkok yesterday I spent seven hours on a local bus with 50 or so of my closest thai friends.  The only other foreigners were a German man and his son (or so I thought), as chance would have it, sitting right behind me.  The "father" asked me an hour or so into the ride in german wether I was german or english.  I said "beide, oder das heisst ich kann beide, ich bin aber ami..."  (both, or rather I can speak both.  I'm american thoguh.)  Then we launched into a bit of a conversation about whether or not the bus would make any stops along the way. I said with a seven hour bus ride and no bathroom aboard I couldn't see how it wouldn't...  When we finally arrived in chumporn (a town anlong the coast where I was going to spend the night before taking a ferry over to koh tao) I asked if he knew his way around, and more specifically if he knew how to get to farang bar (a friend had recomended the hotel across the street).  He did one better and said his wife and kids were picking him up and they could offer me a ride!  Sweet!!!!  It turned out his "son" was actually his son's friend and his son and daugther were already there to meet him.  We all squeezed into a car and took headed over to a travel agent who they knew and with whom they were staying, and more importantly who arranged a room for me and a ferry ticket in the morning. 

 

So I splurged.  Stayed in a nice posh hotel with AC for 10 bucks and slept in until noon.  Took the taxi (truck) with 20 or so of my best friends to the ferry and made it over here a little after three this afternoon.  One of the girls on the taxi, who was clearly a regular coming back from a visa run, looked a bit familiar.  On the boat I noticed she was reading a german magazine (yeah, I know, I'm such a stalker).  When I got off the boat I saw her sitting around and asked (in german) how long she'd been on koh tao. 

 

"A year.  "

 

"Oh, really, where do you stay?"

 

"Chalok ban kao."

 

"Oh, wow, that's where I stayed too, no wonder you looked familiar, I must have seen you around.  Where did you dive?"

 

"Big bubble."

 

"Oh, I know sophia.  (blank stare) And Sandra."

 

"Yeah!  Sandra.  Did you do your open water with her?"

 

"No, but some friends of mine did."

 

Whatever, the details of the conversation don't really matter.  The important part is -- I got a free ride out of it!!!!  She was waiting for somebody who was coming to get her and offered me a ride back.  It was the big bubble truck, but they didn't charge me -- the bastards at buddhaview would have...  More importantly, it was a good feeling to be back where I knew people =)  And that was only the start of my good luck streak.  I asked how things were and she said busy ( i.e. good luck finding a place).  Well, good luck was all I had.  The first place I checked was the spot where I stayed last time.  Right away I saw Heinz -- a fifty something northern german guy who instructs at a mostly danish dive shop and has a thai wife and a one or so year old girl name jenny.  The "landlord" was installing a toilet in his place so I went around back and asked if he had a room for me.  Nope.  Oh well.  Didn't expect one -- especially since I was only going to be there for two weeks.  As I was walking away though they called after me.  Apparently somebody had checked out that morning and he didn't realize it.  He showed me the room and it looked fine to me so I took it!  So I was back a few minutes and already I had a place to stay -- right next to the room I stayed in last time...

 

So like I said, it's good to be home again. 

 

Tonight I met a few people from the new crowd.  When I introduced myself I said, "Hi, I'm Jeff".  Ok, This is something only Jared and his gang would get, but there are people I've introduced myself to as "Jeff" who simply say, "Hi Jeff, it's nice to meet you."  Then half an hour later they discover I'm "Jeff Hansen" and suddenly they're like, "OH, you're Jeff Hansen! I've heard so much about you!"  So tonight was a little bit like that.  I've only once met one other Jeff on the island -- which given how many Jeff's I've known in my life is a bit strange.  Nice, but strange.  So a little after meeting me, somebody suddenly said, "wait, are you NAKED Jeff?"  Uh, Yeah, I guess that would be me.  Apparently I have a reputation and a whole new moniker for when I put my name up on the dive board =) 

 

Ok, it's late, and I've decided to assist a friend on the last day of an open water course tomorrow -- he was assisting, but the instructor got in an accident, and as he's not an instructor it was all to convenient for him to take the course over, so I might as well take over as assistant =)  And as it was raining buckets this evening, I didn't do much in the way of partying, so here I am closing the night out with a blog entry...

 

So I'll be off to bed now.

 

Let me just close with this.  Yeah mom, I heard about the fact that Sanjoy's barbeque party is the weekend before I'm coming home.  And yeah, I'm a bit bummed that I spent and extra 200 dollars to come home before the labor day weekend in hopes that we could hold it then only to find that they'd already scheduled it for the weekend before... But no, I wouldn't want them to change it on my behalf... Especially since some people won't be there for labor day weekend...  We'll just have to have a second bbq party I guess.  A welcome back party or something...  Oh well. 

 

By the way,  I'm back in touch with Hina.  She wants to see everybody.  I told her she was invited to Sanjoy's bday, so invite her.

 

Good night all =)

 

 

Working life

It's funny.  When I'm walking around the streets of KL, I have so much going through my head lately that you'd think I'd have plenty to say.  But then for some reason, I sit down in the internet cafe and suddenly I go brain dead.  Ok, maybe not brain dead, just too vacant and lazy to bother writing anything...  Maybe just uninspired.  Or maybe just too disorganized. 
I've been reading a lot since getting here which has been nice.  Sure, I could do that anywhere, why do I need to be in Malaysia?  Uh, no real good reason, but then again, suppose you wanted to take a year off and just read all those books you've had lined up on your to do list?  Where would be the best place to do it?  Hmm, probably some place nice, comfortable, with lots of amenities, and above all else, somewhere cheap!  Unfortnately KL isn't the cheapest place I've been, but then again this isn't where I'd go if I was going to take a year off and just read.  I'd probably go to some remote hill top where there were no distractions...  As expensive as it is here, it is cheaper than home.  If you look at the Big Mac factor, a double cheese burger value meal here is only 7.15 RM -- that's just over two dollars.  Back home it would be at least three something.  Movies are only about three dollars and if I wanted to live real spartain like, I could have stayed in a dorm bed for three dollars a night too -- originally I did, but then after two nights sharing a room with some of the sketchiest bunkmates I've run into I upgraded to a private room for twice that amount.  Actually the two main expenses I've hit are going out to clubs which charge obnoxious covers (and which I haven't frequented for just that reason) and buying books.  Frequent trips to starbucks to escape the heat also have a way of adding up...
The time has finally come for me to leave it all behind though.  I've long since sorted out all the annoyances of getting my visa and tonight I head up to Bangladesh.  I know one of the main reasons I left home to travel around the world was my, err, shall we call it "reluctance" to work, but I'm looking forward to what I'm sure will be an interesting experience.  As I've never done anything like this before, I hope to learn a lot even though I have no idea quite what it is I should expect to learn...
At any rate, I don't think I'll be going on line much while I'm in Bangladesh for two reasons.  First I imagine I'll be busy working and second I don't expect the barge I stay on will have much of an internet connection -- somewhat ironic considering the barge will be carrying about 8 kilometers of fiber optic cable...
Ok, I'm going to go soak up my last few hours of western civilization. 
Take care,
Jf

More than meets the eye...

Transformers.  Robots in disguise...

Malaysia rocks -- I just saw Transformers in a theater (i.e. completely legally) for three bucks and before it was released in the states =)  I don't care what the critics were saying.  So what if it would only ever appeal to twenty/thirty something guys who grew up with the toys -- it was awesome!!!!  It actually came out last Friday but then I was in a small town in the hills with no movie theater. 

Now I'm in Kuala Lumpur.  Very metropolitan.  I spent the morning getting all the things I need for my work visa application but didn't get to the embassy early enough to drop it off so I'll have to do that tomorrow.  Then I hung out at the twin towers -- didn't go up though (I'll stop by early tomorrow morning and see if I can get a ticket to visit the sky bridge).  I was amazed by how american the mall seemed.  Reminded me of 900 North Michigan (or is it 600...) in Chicago.  There was a Chile's, California Pizza Kitchen, Auntie Annes and pretty much all the upscale clothing stores you'd expect to see all over the Magnificent Mile. 

The hills were a nice break from the heat.  It was actually cold at night.  Unfortunately now my body has to adjust back to the heat and humidity. 

Not really too much else to say.  I'm a bit tired and need to get to bed so I can get up early and head back to the embassy.  Not sure exactly when I'll be leaving for bangladesh, but it sounds like it'll be soon. 

Happy 4th everybody back home.  Enjoy your day off -- I know I will =)

 

On the road again...

I just can't wait to get back on the road again...
Well, the wait is coming to an end.  Tomorrow I should be heading down to malaysia.  As is I've already overstayed my visa here by five days so I'll be paying a hefty fine when I get to the border.  Better than getting locked up in prison though I guess. 
Not sure exactly what my plans are, but I think I'll probably spend a few days in a hill station in the Cameron Highlands cooling off in the crisp mountain air and walking through the tea fields.  After that I'll head down to Kuala Lumpur to see a bit of the city and then on to Singapore.  There I should be meeting up with Dave -- the guy I'll be working with in Bangladesh -- to help him get things prepared to "mobilize".  After that I expect I'll head back up through malaysia, make a stop at the Thai embassy in Panang, then come back here, pick up the rest of my stuff, head up to Bangkok, get my visa for Bangladesh and then go work on the River.  At least that's how I'm hoping it will work out.  You never really know though.  Things change.
I'll successfully be leaving without finishing my Dive Master training =)  That should leave one person a bit peeved that he has to hang onto my file...  I'll be back though.  Who knows.  Maybe in between malaysia and bangladesh, or maybe after bangladesh.  Or maybe I'll just come back after heading home for September.  Speaking of which, I should really start thinking about those arrangements...
Take care all,
Jf

Die Verwandlung

It's been a good week. I had some really nice dives and the antibiotics I got for my lingering ear ache and cough seem to have helped.  

About a week ago I walked into the dive shop a little before noon intending to have a simple lunch and then go over to the other dive company where the friend I'll be working with works and try on a different full face mask.  When I showed up at at the shop, one of my friends was trying to recruit enough paying customers so that could arrange a spur of the moment afternoon dive on the small boat.  We have three boats -- big boat, medium boat and little boat (pretty much self explanatorily named).  One of them was taking students out for the afternoon and the other one was out for a full day excursion to a dive site that's further than the usual ones.  That morning a Whale shark had been spotted at one of the deep dive sites nearby though and Tom wanted to go whale shark hunting.  He succeeded in finding enough customers, but suddenly realized nobody was around to take them out so as I was eating my lunch he asked if I could lead a group of four.  Hmm...  Sure, why not.  Let me just call and see if I can reschedule my other plans... 

A few minutes later I was packed up and ready to go.  Tom, another DM, 12 or so fun divers and I all hopped on the truck to the pier, got on little boat and headed out to Southwest Pinnacle.  Ok, leading fun dives isn't particularly complicated, but it helps if you know the site and know where all the interesting things to see are.  I'd personally only done it once and that time all I did was take two girls out and make sure they got back to the boat when they were out of air.  The site we were going to is a gorgeous one but I haven't dived it too much so far so I wouldn't be the best tour guide -- fortunately the customers had only dived a few times themselves so they didn't really know any better...  Half way through the dive I heard somebody banging their tank and assumed that was the sign that the whale shark had been spotted.  Unfortunately I didn't catch the signal clearly enough -- five bangs followed by a pause and then the location -- one bang for north, two for east, three for south, four for west.  Fortunately I saw Tom and he had heard and understood the signal. 

So off we were.  We rounded the pinnacle and there in the distance I could just catch a glimpse of it.  I turned around and pointed to my divers and tried to hurry them in that direction in hopes they too could see it before it swam too far off to see.  Three spead off after it but when I looked back I saw one was hanging behind -- she had tiny feet and wore small fins that don't do much for propulsion...  Obviously the first rule of taking divers out is not to lose any of them so I turned back, grabbed her by the tank and kicked as hard as I could until we caught up with the others -- unfortunately too late to catch up with the shark...

The two guys in my group were low on air so I sent them back up with another group meandered around for another five minutes with the girls before heading back up to the boat.  That's when the fun really began.  I don't know exactly how it happened but we pulled up anchor, moved the boat a bit and then somebody saw it.  Just off the starbord side of the boat the whale shark was swimming around on the surface -- within 20 seconds everybody was back in the water.  Some actually took the time to put fins on but I just jumped in with my mask.  We spent the next half hour swimming around the surface with it while some other divers swam under it.  Then we hopped back on the boat, got geared back up and jumped right back into the water for one of the most unusual dives I've had here.  Normally you go down on or at least near a boughy line that the boats tied up to and one that's there for a reason -- some formation of coral on a rocky pinnacle, but at this point we weren't anywhere near a divesite anymore.  Just ten of us, a whale shark and the deep blue sea.  Soon after getting in the whale shark decided to descend -- 5 meters... 10 meters...  15 meters...  20 meters...  We followed.  Then he changed his mind and headed up to the surface.  At this point I thought it might be a good idea to find my two divers -- the girls sat the second dive out.  When I saw them and we exchanged our OK symbols and swam after the rest of the divers I noticed the crowd was growing.  We were no longer 10 but now more like twenty.  I looked over and saw one of my friends Sarah waving at me.  Huh!  She wasn't on our boat...  Then I turn around and see Kris.  Kris!!!  Suddenly it all made sense.  I knew he'd gone out on the full day boat to Sail Rock.  Apparently they'd heard about the whale shark on their way back and decided to meet up with us.  Later I heard that they had all entered the water right as the whale shark left us for the surface -- in fact it probably left us to see who the new arrivals were!  So now's where the dive got a bit wierd.  I had no idea where we were but figured we'd be fine as long as we all stuck together.  I couldn't see the whale shark but I assume up at the front somebody could and was following it because we were swimming.  Thirty euphoric divers swimming through the nothingness joking around with their unexpectedly reunited friends.  Eventually we all just stopped.  Tom went up to the surface, came back down, borrowed somebody slate and wrote "Southwest 60 degrees".  We all looked at our compasses and like a flock of birds flying in a formation 30 divers turned northeast more or less in unison and headed back to the boat. 

Back on the boat we had the brilliant idea of packing up quickly and transferring our gear over to medium boat so we could ride back in comfort like civilized people -- not to mention have a beer (not a normal occurence on the boats but stocked specially for the end of the day long excursion).  It's hard to convey the mood.  Whale sharks are kind of that elusive thing that everybody else seems to see but some people always miss.  I know a girl who's been on the island 6 years and has never seen one.  Other people come for a few dives and see them every time.  So imagine a boat of 30 divers.  Some of them here for a week amazed at their good fortune and others here for longer likewise euphoric about the strange twist of events that brought all of us back together for such an odd and unexpected and fun reunion.

 

The next morning I woke up and headed over to "big fish" to assist on an open water course for another company.  Henrik was taking out two students and during the surface interval between dives I was going to try on another full face mask. This one was bigger, heavier and zipped all the way on and then tucked into my wet suit -- so there were no exercises to take it off an put it back on again under water.  While I was there though he said I was welcome to join them on the class if I wanted to dive.  So now I've dived with two companies here.  That afternoon we went back out on a longtail -- thus named because the propeller is attached to a long stick that the boat boy lowers into the water and maneuvers to stare rather than using a rudder -- and tried out the GPS again.  This time we attached the echosounder to the stick so that it was pointing down rather than the boat...  amazingly the water was in fact deeper than 1 foot. 

 

The next day I was asked to assist on the last two days of a german open water course.  Interesting but a bit frustrating because the instructor was brand new.  The students were great but she had them all wearing wet suits one or two sizes too large and carrying too much weight.  As the DMT though it's my responsibility not disagree with her in front of the students...  Poor guys.  She took so much time to do all the exercises that they never really had any time to dive.

 

Finally spent the next two days just going on some fun dives.  It's the half moon so the difference between high and low tide is at a minimum which tends to give the best dive conditions -- low currents and good visibility.  I ended up going out with a new DMT and here's where I finally come back to explain the title for this entry.  Die Verwandlung -- that was the original title to Franz Kafkas short story "the metamorphosis".  An austrian friend of mine is just about to finish up two weeks of instructor training.  I asked him a few days into it (sarcastically) if he could feel the transformation taking place.  I was searching for the word and thought Verwandlung from the Kafka story was fitting. 

Well over the last week I've been thinking more and more about the transformation I've gone through.  You don't really notice it happening because obviously it's just one of those slow changes that comes with experience.  but then you go out diving with somebody who's new and you realize now you're the experienced one and it's your turn to lead the dive and show the other guy around.  And he's looking at you and expects you to actually know what you're doing and where you're going.  Then you think about it for a second and realize you do! 

"Hmm, White Rock.  This is one of the favorite sites which you'll find we go to so often you may quickly get sick of it.  There's a turtle that sometimes hangs out around 210 degrees off the south boughy.  Wanna go turtle hunting?"  And just like that you realize two months ago somebody was saying pretty much the same thing to you.  Ok, I know that doesn't sound like much of a transformation.  That's more like moving into a new town and slowly learning where all the cool places to hang out are.  It's more than that though.  I don't know exactly how when or why it happened, but a few weeks ago I noticed I wasn't using the flutter kick anymore.  I've almost completely switched over to the frog kick.  I remember when I was a new diver I asked a few people why it was so popular with experienced divers.  One of the answers was it doesn't kick up as much sand.  The other day I was out with a dive master who took two "paying customers" out for a fun dive.  They were new but they were good divers.  They weren't waving their hands all over the place.  They had good boyancy control.  But I noticed when they swam close to the sand they tended to kick it up.  Then I looked down my chest at my feet and noticed I was even closer to the sand but wasn't kicking any up.  "Wow, it's true, the frog kick really is good for that!" 

Navigations gotten a lot easier too.  I know jumping in the water and swimming in one direction, then turning around and swimming back doesn't sound all that complicated, but you have to understand.  When you're down there, you can't see as far.  That and the location of the sun isn't as obvious so it does make it a bit harder to just keep going in a straight line unless you check your compass rather frequently.  And that's something that's slowly becoming more habitual -- constantly keeping track of what direction I'm headed so I'll have a general idea of which way to go back.

Mainly it's just a matter of confidence though.  It's a good feeling.  

 

Ok, I need to get going.  Still not sure when I'll be heading to bangladesh, but from what I hear it sounds like things are finally starting to happen and it should be relatively soon...

ciao,

Jf

things change quickly...

Well a day after I last wrote the guy showed up again.  I guess when he said he was coming back saturday, he meant the saturday a week after I expected because he was indeed back on Saturday...  Anyway, the bangladesh trip is still on, just not sure exactly when.  Last I heard he expected we'd be going late this month.  From life experience though I have to assume that's probably a hopeful expectation.  So maybe later.  Who knows.  Will just have to wait and see.
In other news, I'm now a bar man.  Two nights ago I spent my first time on the other side of the bar!  Woo hoo!  My resume is really shaping up now!  Mostly I just served beer and helped clean up, but I did make a few cocktails.  Next time I'm sure I'll be making more and before you know it I'll be a regular Tom Cruise from Cocktail =) 
Not much else to talk about.  The other day I went out on a boat with another dive company (the other guy going to bangladesh works there) and we played around with a GPS and echo sounder that we'll use for surveying the river before we lay the cable.  Then he took me out to try on the full face mask that we'll be using when we occasionally need to go in the water.  It was different.  About ten minutes under water after taking the mask off, putting it back on and clearing the water out of it I suddenly remembered I could breathe through my nose if I wanted.  I'd gotten so used to breathing through my mouth under water...
That's pretty much it for now.
Take care all,
Jf

I'm alive.

I'm safe.
I'm still in thailand.
Not diving much recently.
Enjoying a book -- the devil in the white city.
Feeling a little bit stuck in limbo...
And apparently, somehow, typing on a dvorak keyboard...
Ok, that last one isn't true.  I don't know how to type on a dvorak keyboard, but somehow I accidentally switched the settings over to it and had to figure out how to switch them back before i could continue with this message.
A little over a month ago I met somebody here who works in commercial diving.  He offered me a job on a barge.  Sounded interesting but he didn't know the timing back then so I didn't think too much of it.  A few weeks ago he said they'd gotten the contract and would probably be going at the end of this month.  I said I was interested if the offer was still there.  He said it was.  Last week he needed to go to singapore for a few days though to start mobilizing some of the equipment.  I was hoping to fill out some visa forms before he left, but he didn't have them yet.  He isn't back from singapore.  I'm slowly starting to think I won't be working on a barge in bangladesh after all.  I suppose I should have gotten his contact information before he left.  Oh well. 
I guess that means it's time for me to figure out what to do now and where to go next.  I'm sick of sitting in the same place.  Need to get back on the road.  I don't think I'll finish my dive master training before I leave -- that way I can always come back and dive for free and I have no real intent on working as an official dive master anyway.  I'll finish the book part though.  That way I can get rid of the dead weight before leaving. 
So I guess in the next few days I'll be flipping a lot of coins trying to settle on a new direction. 
That and looking for cheap flights.
ciao

crappy keyboards...

ok, the left shift key on this keyboard doesn't work and a lot of the keys stick a bit in general so excuse the lack of certain punctuation and capital letters...  OUCH!  yowswers, the caps lock does work, and i needed to emphasize that because i just smacked my foot on the chair where i scraped it the other day on the boat -- uh, that where refers to the location on my foot, not the chair...  talk about misplaced modifiers... 
yeah, i know, it's been another two weeks since i last checked in.  i hear krk is back at hwt.  the world very well may be coming to an end.  i'll hold out a bit longer though.  hopefully until the real end of the world.  in the meantime i'll just enjoy life in paradise...
speaking of paradise.  i'm going to complain a little bit here.  it's raining -- a lot.  not just buckets, but the last few days its been overcast and rainy all day.  i shouldn't be complaining because a few days ago i was afraid it would hit 45 degrees on Friday.  it didn't.  actually friday was quite beautiful.  but since then the clouds hit and now it's a bit chilly.  still, better than 45 degrees of heat!  for clarification i'm talking in centigrade...
i don't know how much longer i'll last here though.  haven't figured out where i'm going next, but i think another month of this and i'll be happy to leave.  it's nice here, but it just isn't the place for me. 
i feel like there's huge holes in my thoughts here.  it's true.  i keep jumping from topic to topic when i'm not ever talking about anything.  i'm feeling a bit scatter brained tonight.  Think i may have a bit of a cold and it's clouding my head. 
maybe next time i go online i'll actually have something to say.  oh yeah, visa runs.  Was going to talk about that.  too tired to right now though.  sorry.
next time...

yowsers!

didn't realize I've gone two weeks without checking in.  Sorry about that.  Like I said, internet is a bit expensive here, and as my favorite britishism goes, "I just can't be bothered" to go through the trouble of going on line.  Life is pretty laid back here.  I'm paying about a hundred dollars a month for a room 10 minutes from my dive center.  Most people rent bikes (uh, that is a motorcycle), but so far I've been perfectly happy walking around and occasionally hitching a ride when I need to go further.  There's always taxis -- pick up trucks where everybody hops in the bed -- but you can't "split" a ride because the charge per person no many how many you are.  They also don't haggle -- there's a set rate for specific trips (rates which I personally find exorbitant).  Although apparently they won't let you haggle, but occasionally they will rip you off if you don't know any better.  One guy said he spent 200 bhat (one dollar is 35 bhat) to get here from the harbor.  That ride normally only costs 50. 
I eat a lot of thai food which hasn't gotten boring yet.  And yes, that includes thai satay.  Now whether any of this is really authentic stuff that thai people eat, I don't know.  but I eat it. 
My "bungalow" is clean and comfortable and consists of a bedroom and bathroom -- no kitchen.  But it's nice. 
I finally ate durian the other night!  That was something I've only waited the last 7 or so years to try.  It was a bit of a let down.  Supposedly it stinks so bad you don't want to eat it, but it tastes delicious.  I didn't think it smelled particularly bad or tasted particularly special.  It was good, but nothing extraordinary. 
Diving's been nice, but I've taken it easy.  Some days I make 4 dives, some days none.  Usually I'll do a few days of diving followed by a few days off.  The people here are friendly and always changing.  I'm amazed by the number of germans!  I'd say 20 percent of the people here are german and I end up spending a third of the time speaking german rather than english. 
As for my back pack, I'm considering downsizing, but haven't taken any steps in that direction.  I lost my sleeping bag in india.  I have way too many wool sock for this climate.  Every day I pretty much wear the same thing -- one pair of boxers which have become my dive boxers (as in I wear them under my wet suit) and my swimming trunks.  My black long sleeve patagonia shirt (which is so dirty it can probably stand up on it's own now!) During the dive I strip down to the boxers and afterwards put on the shorts but usually go shirtless (which is how the shirt has lasted the last week or so without a wash).  Afterwards I head home, shower and put on my "clean clothes".  A different pair of boxers, a second pair of shorts, one of two shirts, and of course the same flip flops.  So for as much as I have in my back pack, I'm really only using 3 shirts, three pair of boxers, two shorts and flip flops.  I could easily ditch a lot of stuff given this life style.  Even after leaving the beach life, I'd like to down size a bit.  I'm curious if I can fit everything I need in a 10 liter dry bag...
That's about it for now. 
Enjoy the working life =)

Just went on my first dive in Thailand today

and it was great.  I was a bit stressed this morning.  Couldn't fall asleep until late last night, woke up tired, packed, walked 45 minutes with my backpack over to the dive center to get a room closer, was drenched in sweat...  Then this morning we had CPR "instruction" and after lunch we went out on the boat for two dives.  I was the "rescue diver" which basically meant every few minutes somebody was yelling "Pizza! Pizza!"  -- code for "help! help!" during simuated exercises so everybody else knows the person isn't really drowning. 

Well, it was my first time diving with budhaview, so it was obviously my first time using their equipment or riding on their boats or using their protocol.  For that matter it was my first time doing any of that anywhere other than with Dive India in Andaman!  What a difference -- in andaman we road little 12 person boats (those were the biggest) that were pretty much old boards of wood glued together propelled by an agricultural motor intended for pumping water on farms...  The boats we road today were quite a bit more sophisticated -- and big!  Everybody actually puts together their tanks and regulators -- something we only did for practice in andaman -- the boat boys took care of it for you on the boat.  So it was a different experience.  That and the XXL wetsuit here is quite a bit bigger than XXL I was used to -- so I was wearing an oversized suit which messed up my boyancy.  I did ok though, and I have to say by the time we were headed back on the boat, I felt wide awake and energized!  It was amazing.  There's just something about spending a little time under water that makes everything else around you seem so much better.  

Ok, time for me to go socialize with some new people and see if I can get a decent nights sleep before my tests tomorrow...

 

I know, I've been bad...

Haven't updated much lately.  I'm back to island life and with that comes hyper expensive internet connection fees...  I've started my rescue dive course and once I'm through with that I can start dive master training.  They basically let you dive as much as you want as long as you want (within reason -- that was their wording anyway).  Given that the thai government lets you stay here a cumulative 90 days within every 6 months and no more than 30 days in a row at one time (meaning you have to run to the border and then come back if you want to stay longer than 30 days), I expect I'll be here a few months.  So if anybody feels like visiting in Thailand, just let me know!  The DMT program sounds relatively flexible, so it's not a big deal if I leave the island for a week or more and come back to resume the training.  So I'd be up to some side trips to malasia, burma, cambodia or vietnam too (or anywhere else nearby...)

The last few days of sleep deprivation have caught up with me though and last night I overslept.  I was supposed to show up at 9 this morning but didn't wake until 9:45!  Usually I'm up as soon as it's light out so I didn't think I'd need to set an alarm.  I won't be making the same mistake today... 

Ok, I'd better go before I run up this internet bill.  Just wanted to say I'm having a great time here so far.

 

Bangkok women really are fellas

That's the pneumonic device they taught us in dive training so we'd remember what to check during our buddy check -- B is for boyancy, W is for weights, R is for releases, A is for air and F is for final (I think)...  That and the male is always right -- as in you should always have the male side of the weight belt on your right side. 

Anyway, I have to say some beautiful Thai girls just walked by outside the internet cafe I'm sitting in and I couldn't help wondering if they really are girls...  As you can probably guess, I successfully made it to thailand.  My last few days in india were quite a blur.  I took a bus from kerala back over to madurai where I caught a very cheap flight back to chenai in time to have late night drinks with a former colleague who just happened to be in india on business for Hewitt! 

My bowels are going to burst so I have to get going.  I wanted to check in quick though and mention that new photos are up.

ciao

Absolute Madness...

Physically I'm back on the mainland of India, but psychologically I've already left it and I'm sitting on a nice tranquil tropical island somewhere in Thailand.  I've decided to end my India trip a bit prematurely before really seeing all that much.  Somehow my heart just feels it isn't in the right place.  Andaman had given me new direction -- one that I hadn't expected.  I've bought a ticket leaving from Chenai to Bangkok next Thursday.  Actually I attempted three times to buy the ticket through orbitz, and each time they gave me the same response a day later saying I needed to rebook my ticket.  After the third day and third attempt I gave up and went directly to the carrier, successfully bought the ticket and even saved a few bucks.
So now I'm just biding my time waiting to get out of here.  I thought maybe I'd spend the week hanging out in Mammallapuram and Pondicherry relaxing, but my first night in mammallapuram (after having already paid for two nights) I met two germans (yes girls) who were leaving the next day for pondicherry.  We made plans to meet up the next morning for breakfast and then visit the caves together.  Afterwards over lunch as we were saying our goodbyes, they said sorry for leaving me all alone again and joked that I could always join them.  Hmm, why not.  An hour later we were sitting on the corner waiting for a bus.  Tonight we're heading toward madurai which is complete and total insanity for me because I'm quickly going further off in the wrong direction and in five days I'll probably find myself on a 30 or so hour train ride back to chenai.  Then again maybe I'll get lazy and hop on a plane.  Who knows.  That's so far off in the future why think about it right now...
In the mean time it is nice to be moving around (it seems to be the state I'm most comfortable with) and of course hanging out with people.

lost in paradise

well, I decided to extend my stay in paradise by an extra two weeks -- increasing my odds of being killed by a falling coconut. 

With the extra time I decided to sign up for a scuba diving course and I just finished the first 4 days (one day of instruction and three days of practical training/diving).  It'd been great!  The theory was easy for me, but I was a bit worried I wouldn't take so well to being under water -- I've always loved being in the water, but my ears are a bit sensitive and I didn't know how comfortable I'd be with the mask and regulator.  I tried snuba once with my family in hawaii -- basically a scuba tank on a raft hooked up to a hose limiting how deep you can go but also requiring little training -- but I've always wanted to do real scuba and now I've had the chance to learn in one of the best places to go diving!  Yesterday we saw a great see turtle.  The coral is always beautiful to see up close, and of course swimming with a school of fish is just an altogether surreal experience.  I've signed up for the advanced course later this week which includes 5 more dives.  Then I'll be headed back to the mainland next week.  From there who knows...

Ok, like I said, the internet connection here is a pain to come by so you probably won't here from me again for a while...

death by coconut

Well, aside from the possibility of a major shift in tectonic plates, and the occasional tourist who takes too much drugs and goes missing, the main hazard here seems to be falling coconuts.  Yesterday morning I stood up from the breakfast table and started to walk toward my hut when a coconut fell right in my path about 10 paces in front of me.  Good thing I didn't get up a few seconds earlier!  I asked a friend here how many people actually die a year from falling coconuts.  He kind of shook his head -- not because he diddn't know, but because he really didn't want to tell me the number!  You hear them falling all the time.  Still, the odds of getting hit are probably similar to those of getting struck by lightning. Maybe a little higher.  Coconuts never fall in the same spot twice though!  Ha ha, fortunately nobodies stupid enough to believe that one...

Technologies a funny thing here.  I think there are three or so internet connections on this island -- all dial up.  Two days ago there was no electricity -- they ran out of petrol and apparently they like to wait here until the run out before ordering more.  The same thing happened with beer two weeks ago -- they were ten days with out it.  Yesterday there was electricity, but no dial tone.  All the while my cell phone kept plugging along just fine though -- sms is the way to go here...

Soaking up the rays and praying the earth stands still...

I'm in Andaman now -- the main island. I flew here this morning and walked from the airport to the port. I figure I'll be flying out of here so that will give me time to stay here on the way out.  Best now to head toward a secluded island and stay on some hut on the beach with no plumbing...  Of course after the last 2 hours walking (it wasn't that far but I took a few wrong but scenic turns) I could definitely use a shower!

The wedding in Calcutta was nice and I'll have to describe it a bit eventually, but for now I just wanted to check in and say I may be going off the grid again for a little bit.  I have no idea if havelock island has any internet connections.  Then again I have no idea if the ticket I bought is for real or if I spent too much on a counterfeit...  We'll just have to hope for the best. 

Ah, incredible india...

I was sick yesterday.  I don't know what I ate that did it, but I can think of a few things!  I think I'm going to go back to being ultra conservative and picky about what I put in my mouth.  You miss out on some good stuff, but then again you don't die...

One thing I noticed was that I was a lot less patient and tolerant of some of the petty annoyances here yesterday when I wasn't feeling well.  My hotel for one -- it's overpriced and I get the impression the main difference between a budget hotel and a midrange one (besides the price) is basically the presense of a tv.  From now on I'm sticking to budget hotels -- the first night I was here it was impossible to sleep because there were a number of indian families staying on my floor and they decided to all hang out together in the hallway outside my door.  Somebody's TV was going at full volume and their door was open -- probably so they could hear it from the hall over everybody elses shouts.  In the morning the noise started up again and I wanted to go scream at them. 

I eventually got up, had some "corn flex/pooridge" which was corn flakes with hot milk.  Then I hopped on my first bicycle rickshaw.  I offered 20 ruppees to get to the south most ghat -- he finally agreed and then dropped me off half way.  I walked the rest of the way along the river (I'm in varanasi by the way...) and ignored most of the people trying to sell me something.  The sales approach is usually the same.  It starts out with "Hello friend" or "Hello Uncle" or "Excuse me sir" and then progresses to "What country you are [sic] from?"  I generally respond with "United States". They apparently all understand America and most get USA, but I think United States might sound a little too much like "You something something" which confuses them.  Thats when they usually repeat the question and after a few more rounds sometimes I'm nice and just say America.  Then of course there's the "how long you are in India?" and "How you are finding Varanasi?"  That one had me confused for a second -- did they want to know how I got here or how I like it?  After about 2 minutes of chit chat they generally want you to come visit their store.

The rickshaw wallahs are much more direct.  Simply "Hello friend, where you going?"  I hate to be rude, but really, I didn't ask for a ride, so what business is it of theirs?  You can't walk 20 steps from your hotel to the internet cafe or just some street shop to pick up water without five guys asking where you're going and saying they'll take you there for 50 rupees.  The last few nights I walked back to my hotel from the town center -- I gues it's about 5 km. 

"Hello friend, where you going?" 

"This way.  For a walk."

"I give you ride.  50 rupees."

"No thanks"

"Ok sir, 40 rupees."

"For what, I'm just taking a walk!"

"Ok, 30 rupees sir". 

At this point I just try my best to ignore the guy for the next 5 minutes as he rides along side me waiting for me to ask for a ride.  Sometimes I have fun and offer to take them for a ride on my back for just 5 rupees, but yesterday I was tired and that game gets old quick. 

Ok, I should really get out of here.  I need to head over to the train station to see if I can get a ticket out of here in two days.  It's insane.  I went to the tourist office next to my hotel to ask if they could help me arrange a ticket out of town. 

"Sir, it's very easy.  We make nice office for you at train station"
"I know, I've been there.  Its a room with 50 people all waiting for one person to help them get their ticket"

"No sir, we have special room for tourists.  Very nice.  Very easy."

"Yeah, that's the room I was talking about -- there are 50 tourists sitting on the ground waiting to get helped.  Is that the only way to get a ticket?"

"Then now there will be 51."

"So that's the only way?"

"Yes sir, only way."

Time to go be number 51...

New pictures of an adventurous day trip

Ok ok, enough with the laundry jokes...  Sorry I didn't check in earlier, but that story had a happy ending -- the day I left all my left over laundry miraculously turned up and nothing was lost!

 

I'm in kajuraho now -- in between I stopped off at gwalior and orcha each for a night.  The orcha stop involved taking a train to jhansi and walking about five kilometers across town with my back pack.  I was looking for a hotel but didn't like what I saw so when I got to the bus station I took a cheap tempo (kind of like an oversized rickshaw) to orcha.  A private rickshaw probably would have been rupees 150 -- this was only 30 (It should have only been 10 but I was tired, hungry, didn't care and let myself got ripped off -- all I cared was that I didn't pay the 150 rupees).  The tempo had two benches facing each other, each about as wide as the back seat in most western style midsized cars.  We squeezed in 12 people (don't worry, four of them were kids) and my back pack. 

 

The next day I was fortunate to find a tempo back into jhansi. It was relatively empty -- only seven adults -- two of them were travelers with backpacks like me. They were both headed to Kajuraho and we all found our bus together.  It was kind of an unusual meeting in that we exchanged names immediately upon meeting in the tempo!  "I'm sarah." "Hi Sarah, I'm Jeff".  "Oh, I'm Jeff 2" the other jeff said -- the explained its actually jeanfrancois but gets shortened to Jeff.  We all checked into the same hotel and met a french guy named Damien that night.  Somehow that night we also met a few locals and i didn't find out exactly how we met them until a few days later but they showed us around and one offered to take us out to a tiger reserve with water falls 40 kilometers from town.  I don't have time now to go into the details of that adventure but I just uploaded the pictures and until I have a chance to say more I'll let them speak for themselves...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dscheffy/sets/72157594495891495/

 

Until next time,

Namaste

Just uploaded new pictures

I just uploaded the rest of my pictures since thanksgiving so you can find them all over on my flickr account -- <http://www.flickr.com/photos/dscheffy>

I'd love to stick around a bit longer and say more at this point, but I've already been here a while and my bladders about to burst...  It looks like I'll be here one more day and then I'm going to head out early morning toward gwalior on my slow way to Calcutta.  My cold is SLOWLY getting better and I've been sleeping a lot since getting here, but my ears are still going crazy from the plane ride. 

It's like being home here, but there is one slightly annoying thing about staying at the shivalik house in Delhi -- laundry.  The moment I got here I hesitantly deposited a bag of dirty laundry knowing full well I'd likely lose about half of it...  I don't know that things actually get lost, I think they just get shuffled in the laundry queue.  Imagine a gallon of water with a small hole in the bottom.  Everyday half a gallon of water trickles out but another half gallon is added and stired into the vessel.  A week later some of that initial gallon of water is still waiting to spill out...  At the moment I'm missing 4 socks (not 4 pair of socks, but 4 socks -- two of which happen to be from the same pair) a hat and at least one pair of my precious underwear...  Another half of my things I can see hanging outside my door after having been washed this morning -- three days after I put them in the laundry.  Oh well, that's india for you...

Ok, I'm going to run off, grab a bite, use the facilities and go see the Red fort again (it was closed yesterday for monday...)

Namaste

Safe and sound at Shivalik

Well, after two short and pleasant flights (punctuated by a relatively long and uneventful stopover in bahrain) I arrived safely in New Delhi.  It took about an hour for my luggage to show up, but after that the prepaid taxi line was short and the way to my Auntie's house was familiar.  I wasn't sure if they even knew I was coming, but I knew I'd be welcomed with open arms...  Fortunately they were home and awake -- or maybe I woke them...  I had some tea, took a quick nap up in the room on the roof and then I was off on my hunt for idli, dosa and sambar!  Mmmm.  The sambar left a warm and loving feeling in my tummy, but now that feeling has moved to my intestins and it doesn't seem to be stopping so I'd better keep this short and skip my way back to a lieu. 

Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm cozy warm in sunny India.  I have an indian travel book now and a local sim card, so I'm ready to venture out into the world -- as soon as I recuperate from my cold...

Happy orthodox newyear everybody!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Don't know when I'll be back again.  Two days ago I was singing leaving on a night train...  Funny the songs that get stuck in your head.  All through aya sofia I kept thinking now its istanbul, not constantinople.

Anyway, my bag is broken down and stuffed in a duffle bag, my airport shuttle is coming in a few minutes, and I have eggs and coffee coming up for breakfast.  Just another day and I'll be home in india!

Till then...

I finally made it to istanbul with very little extra time to spare -- I fly out tomorrow afternoon. I suppose I could have really pushed my luck and arrived tomorrow morning on the night train, but that would have meant nearly three days of straight travel without any shower. That and I wouldn't get to see istanbul! I think last nights train ride was the most stressed I've been. On the ride from belgrade to ljubljana some canadians told me about a guy they met who was traveling to greece, slept through his stop and somehow ended up in istanbul without a visa. They arrested him and he spent a day in a turkish prison. Apparently the cops took pitty on him and that night when he got out they all took him out for a drink and he had a great time. I don't know the guy, so I have no clue how valid the story is, and after making the border crossing certain parts of it seem unlikely, but still, it had me a bit worried because I didn't want to end up in prison and miss my flight tomorrow. My travel guide indicated that you could get a visa upon arrival, but I hadn't met anybody who had personally done the entrance by train and could explain how the whole visa aquisition process would work. I asked on the train, but nobody who worked on the train spoke english, and nobody who spoke english (namely one girl from prague who was only traveling as far as bulgaria) knew.

It all worked out fine in the end, the train stopped at the turkish border around 3 in the morning. Everybody shuffled out to get their passport stamped. I was at the end of the line and by the time I got up to the front the officer told me I needed to go around the corner to get a visa. On my way over I saw too english speaking looking types and asked if they knew where I needed to go -- they pointed off in the direction I was headed and I eventually found it.

Back on the train I was finally able to get some sleep. The train was relatively empty and I had the whole cabin to myself which was both nice in terms of noise and privacy, but also a little bit sketchy... Sometimes its just nice to share the confusion with a fellow traveler who's just as confused -- even if they don't speak your language. The door had a chain on it though, so I really wasn't worried about getting gassed or having my things stolen -- it was just this worry that I'd sleep through the border crossing that kept me from sleeping well until 4 in the morning. That and the cold I caught a few days ago.

In the morning when we arrived They Might Be Giants was playing over and over in my fog filled head. When I got off the train I bumped into the couple that pointed me to the visa office at the border. I asked where they were from -- the standard travelers introduction (which is the reason you can go days without ever learning somebodys name). When they said chicago I was just speechless for a minute. Three months. I went three months and never met anybody from chicago. Then in Salzburg I meet somebody from Roselle. A week later Two weeks later in Wien I meet a girl from Gurnee. Then in Budapest one from Geneva and then just recently in Brasov somebody from Kenosha. She was pretty embarassed to claim to be from Chicago when she isn't even from the right state, but I didn't complain. When you're half way around the world, what's a hundred miles... So what's with the sudden burst of wannabe chicagoans? I explained my surprise to the couple and said from the looks of it they might even be "real" chicagoans.

"No," they replied, "we've only lived their five years."

"Actually I just meant you look like you live in the city -- as opposed to roselle, gurnee, geneva or kenosha. What neighborhood do you live in?"

"Logan Square"

More silence. Finally "Hmm, that might explain why I thought you looked familiar =) I lived at fullerton and kedzie over the summer."

"Yeah, that's right by us."

Of course I never did get their names, but Ruth or Leslie, if you have any friends that went to europe for five weeks, tell them that was your exroommate they bumped into.



I now have a friend in Prague. I finally finished the hat I started a week ago with yarn I bought in Budapest. It didn't take long, but I hadn't spent much time on it and I wanted to finish it before leaving europe -- it had become some kind of a farewell project. At one point I was in a bad mood while crocheting a few rows and felt a little bit like I was releasing all my frustrations into the hat -- that was good for me, but I felt bad about the idea of giving somebody a hat with bad karma... Anyway, when I took it out to finish on the train yesterday, the czech girl I was talking to seemed to take an interest. I had her try it on for the last few rows to help me decide when to stop and then asked her if she'd like it. I explained the whole bad karma thing, but said I was in a good mood for most of it, so the yin balanced the yan out. She graciously accepted and said that she had to give me something in return. I said she should just send me a photo of her wearing it on her ski trip in bulgaria. She apparently wasn't much of a negotiator though as she ended up throwing in a place to stay if ever I was in prague -- so now I have a friend to visit in Prague =)

I really should get going. I'm hungry and I only have a day to see Istanbul. Its been a great last week in europe though. Romania was nice. I spent a day in Sibiu -- apparently this years culture capital of europe -- and another day visiting draculas castle. One of the girls I was traveling with woke up one morning with two mysterious looking bites on her arm! We were all pretty sure they were probably just bed bugs though and not a vampire. Based on the spacing that would have been one wide @$$ jaw if it was a vampire bite... So I don't think she'll be cringing from the light of day anytime soon.

Some gipsy kids tried to pick my pocket in Bucharest. We were walking to the palace -- aparently the worlds second largest building after the pentagon -- and I had my backpack with me because I was going straight to the train. Two kids started asking me for money and wouldn't leave me alone when I said no. They kept following, or rather should I say staying in front of me and making it impossible for me to move. I started yelling "No" and "Go" and motioned for them to get away. After a bit I had to start pushing them away and I caught one reaching for the breast pocket of my jacket. Afterwards I noticed he had succeeded in pulling the zipper all the way down. Whenever they reached for my pockets I'd smack their hands away and it was to the point where I really felt I needed to start elbowing or pushing them down to the ground to get my point across, but some local people started yelling at them and they finally left me alone. A few blocks later though they were back and with reinforcements. Now two had become four and they were hassling all of us. I got a little more aggressive, but we finally just walked into a coffee shop to get away from them -- that and some of the girls wanted to rearrange their passports and wallets.

When we left the coffee shop the kids were gone and I had to head back to the train. I only hope they didn't come back to bother the girls more.

Ok, time for me to go fill my tummy and see the city.

Two more days to Dehli -- Sagar get the idli sambar ready cause here I come!

Transylvania 65000

So I hear Transylvania bites, but I figured I'd have to go and see for it myself.  I've been here chilling out in budapest for a week now.  Had some good fun, walked around, mixed weather -- some days were foggy, some were beautiful.  The baths were nice and relaxing and yesterday I did some caving.  It's been a bit like hotel california though.  Every day I say, I'm going to leave tomorrow.  Tomorrow I'll move on.  But tomorrow comes and I haven't made my plans, and the next thing I know another day goes by. 

Today I met up with some girls that I met caving yesterday.  A friend asked where I'm hanging out that I meet all these girls in caves -- duh, in caves of course...  We went to a wine tasting and they mentioned they were heading to brassov on a night train tonight.  That's exactly where I was planning on going next in between here and turkey, so I asked if I could join them, and now I have an hour to catch a train out of town. So as usual I have a convenient excuse for keeping this short =) 

One more week to india -- It was so tempting to get indian food here, but I think I can hold out one more week...