coral climbing

there's a ton of diving in the philippines, since there's about 7000 islands. choosing where to go is the only hurdle we encountered. we heard that numerous sites were all very good, and the more we asked people what they recommended, the more we had to choose from. after about 3 days in manila we were tired of smelling the exhaust and had finally made up our minds to dive near the island of palawan. we tried to fly last minute only to find that all flights were sold old. so we took a bus south out of town, toward the coast, and a ferry to sabang on mindoro island. as we hopped off the boat, tons of locals surrounded us to offer hotels, bikes, diving, food, jewelry, and hand carved pool sticks. we've grown accustomed to ignoring peolple in such situations just to avoid the distraction. filipinos seem to be a lot more considerate of tourists than hecklers of other countries, so it's a nice change. they know when to say when, which makes it a lot more enjoyable to shop for things and talk to people.

we started diving the next morning with a local dive master. the ocean currents and recent rain made the water a little cloudy, but huge schools of fish and coral made up for it. scott's battle wounds from songkran made it a little painful for wearing fins and a wetsuit, but nothing a little neosporin and a dozen bandages couldn't fix.

later we took a day trip to a steep reef on verde island, an hour by boat from sabang. there we did three dives in the afternoon, and every one of them was amazing. i've never seen so many fish in my life. the current was a lot stronger, and there were parts of the dive where we could see fish swimming in place against the drift, as if they were on an underwater treadmill.

the last dive was called washing machine, and the name didn't register in my head until the last portion of the dive. at first it seemed pretty normal, we just moved toward the bottom of the sea and around the underwater cliffs of the island. at one point i saw scott exploring some nearby reef, but then was suddenly out of sight. so i swam over to see where he went, only to find that he was clinging onto some coral as the surging current picked up - his hair blowing around like it was being fanned. as i started moving toward him i could feel the current pulling at me as well, so i grabbed onto some coral and made slow moves toward him. the dive master showed up from behind me and pulled scott closer to the other side of the cliff where the current was manageable. apparently, scott was just testing out the current, and then had gotten a charlie horse from trying to fight it. by that time the rest of the diving group had wandered our direction and everyone was clambering to find a good hold; underwater cameras in one hand, coral in the other. some of it stained my fingers blue.

the divemaster signaled for all of us to follow him, making slow moves close of the reef, below the strongest part of the drift. scott started yelling something to me through his respirator, which i couldn't understand. later he told me it was like underwater rock climbing, which was exactly what it felt like. some coral is rough, smooth, slippery, spongy, fragile, and everything in between. it seemed a little destructive at times, especially when pieces would snap, but we tried to keep it low impact. if we wanted to move fast, we just let go and drifted, trying not to run into anyone else. the whole experience was wild, and when i surfaced later, i was dizzy and disoriented. the waves were enormous on the surface, and climbing onto the boat became a task. i found only one scar on my hand, a nice souvenir from the coral. scott's fingers took weeks to return to normal.

i was starving when we arrived back at sabang, though it was several hours before we ate. the restaurant we picked (recommended as one of the best on the island) apparently had only one cook, and probably fewer frying pans. we waited almost two hours for our food to arrive, hoping the quality of the meal would make up for it. the frustrating part of filling up on food you don't like is that you're too full to do anything about it afterward. for a couple of kids who enjoy eating as much as we do, it was more than a bit unfortunate. luckily, that was about the only inexcellent food we encountered in the philippines (unless you count our munching on the duck embryos.)

asian hiatus

i flew into the philippines late friday night; from salt lake city, routed through minneapolis and tokyo. even at midnight in the capital city of manila there was crazy traffic and people everywhere; walking, eating, sleeping on the sidewalk. the car exhaust was overwhelming. the scenery from the airport to the hostel was a lively mixture of latin and tropical asian. i slept a few hours before scott flew in from bangkok early the following morning. it had been 6 months since we parted in thailand, on a trip through asia that we started last summer. we rode trains, boats, and planes from st. petersburg, russia to koh tao, thailand. last october i flew back to utah through oman and london, and scott kept exploring the eastern hemisphere: malaysia, singapore, india, nepal and plenty of time in thailand. the philippines is a first for both of us, and we love it; especially the people. everyone is so friendly. smiling. social. curious. polite. that seems to make a significant difference when traveling somewhere. food is also a major factor, and the filipinos do pretty well with that. they use a lot of strong spices in their dishes; seafood and meats in colorful sauces over rice. and they make just about everything: italian, cuban, korean, and it's easy to find a traditional american breakfast.

Thai Songkran Festival

April 12th, 2009
Songkran has apparently begun here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The original idea for the festival was tame enough - but it has since spawned into a much more sinister event consisting of water gun toting teens and bucket wielding men lying in wait along streets and even freeways for anyone unlucky enough to get within range. Luckily, this is the hottest month of the year and a good dousing can feel quite refreshing at times. My attempt to venture into the old city on my motorbike this afternoon proved impossible due to the barrage of water from squirt guns, buckets & hoses. It's quite an effort just to stay on the bike when hit in unison with such vast amounts of water. Can't imagine how many accidents must occur during these days of all out water fights throughout the country. I now don a rain coat & scuba mask whenever driving.

April 15th, 2oo9
I can now better imagine how many accidents occur during the days of Songkran. While trying to make my way from my hotel to where I intended to return my motorbike a couple kilometers away, a few locals threw enough (buckets of) water to both blind me and prevent my disk brakes from functioning properly... The result was quite painful. Luckily - nothing was broken and the damage was minimal to the bike. I noticed only later how my Chaco sandal was ground down from the long pavement slide - apparently saving my ankle. I realized I mainly needed bandages and a way to clean the road and grit from the wounds, but couldn't find a pharmacy open due to the holiday. I eventually just went to the hospital, hoping to buy some supplies from them. Since my Thai is mostly limited to culinary lingo, I had a hard time communicating exactly what I wanted, so just showed them the bodily damage. Apparently they understood because they plopped me on a gurney in the emergency room. I didn't need emergency care - but it was actually quite entertaining to watch four nurses and a doctor attend to my road rash as if my life depended on it. The fact that they mostly just rubbed iodine into the wounds after only a light scouring did not surprise me. I was additionally curious as to the price of such attention. The answer was 100 Thai Baht - about 3 dollars! Twenty years riding motorbikes without incident - suppose I was due.

I spent the last day of the festival with friends in Bangkok - darting around the city, huddled in the back of a truck alongside multiple barrels of water - to which we added about 100 pounds of dense ice in large blocks. The reaction of each person shot was typically an intense bodily cringe of some sort, then a cry of surrender. I only shot in retaliation or defense. There were cells of activity throughout the whole city, but a few spots were especially intense. One such area was so jammed with people that it took me three hours to squeeze my way down a single city block.

There happened to be a bit of political tension during the festival as the "red shirts" attempted to force the current prime minister out of power. Something similar to what transpired with the "yellow shirts" and their protests while I was in the country last year. The weeks of interchanges this time between the protesters, local residents and Thai army resulted in about 130 injuries and 2 deaths. However - the official carnage from the week of water fights totaled 4,332 injuries and 373 deaths! Interesting comparison.

I'll soon be headed to the Philippines to meet back up with my brother, Dustin. We haven't a clue what to expect and I imagine we're both likely hoping the other is doing some research on the area! Might do some diving, island hopping, funky food sampling...

Sitting Quietly in Thailand

I didn't anticipate being back in Thailand again this soon, but realized I was ready for another dose after the months spent meandering India & Nepal. I was especially interested in practicing the specific method of Vipassana meditation taught at a monastery in northern Thailand, as well as learning the unique form of "yoga massage" common throughout the area. So - I studied and practiced in a spa for a few weeks while preparing for meditation. The meditation retreat took place at Doi Suthep Buddhist Temple - located on top of a nearby mountain outside Chiang Mai. I spent a few weeks living with monks there - mostly in silence & without eating past noon. Days started with meditation at 5:00am - occasionally earlier when the mood struck me. A vegetarian breakfast was served at 6:30am, which typically consisted of a bowl of noodles or rice & vegetables in broth. At 8am each day we had a "Dhamma Talk" by the same monk tasked with teaching us meditation techniques. Vegetarian lunch was at 11am, then the rest of the day is spent meditating. We were invited to join the monks for evening chanting in the main temple, then slept at around midnight. Along with myself were up to a dozen others, mostly foreigners, who were from various, still unknown countries. Seeing as we don't speak to one another, I took it upon myself to name each person according to something they wore or did, typically something that annoyed me. Each meditator had their own room - which came sparsely decorated with 1 thin mattress on the floor, 3 blankets, 1 dense pillow. I thought I had followed what sounded like good advice of having "no expectations" of the experience, but upon arrival learned how drastically different things were from how I had, apparently, expected them. So - that was my first lesson. The rest of what I learned in the following weeks was equally unexpected & surprising. I realize now how one cannot choose what to learn from such an experience. I also discovered a renewed appreciation for sincerity & strictness. Due to the lack of enforcement of the rules, some meditators chose not to follow them. As someone who wanted to gain as much as possible from the experience, that bothered me at times. A lot of things bothered me - which was another lesson about myself. So anyhow, I spent my days walking/pacing extremely slowly for up to an hour, followed by motionless sitting for the same amount of time. The specific meditation style I practiced is called Vipassana/Insight and was developed by a Burmese monk named Mahasi Sayadaw, combined with techniques from a Thai monk named Ajahn Tong. I look forward to practicing & comparing additional styles in the future. I think I'll continue to discover lessons and insight from this experience as I look back on it throughout the coming weeks and months.