I AM LUCKY

I am lucky. I am lucky to be where I am right now. I am lucky to have seen the things I´ve seen, done the things I have done, and been the places I´ve been. I am lucky to have my family and friends back home who love me, support me, and make this all possible. I am lucky to have met the amazing people I have met along the way. Sometimes I sit and wonder how I got to where I am right now. All I can tell my self that I am lucky and to savor every second of it. I have met many different people from opposite sides of the world, yet their kindness is the same. I am lucky to have met my friends in Thailand and to have been invited to their homes. I am lucky to have met Yanina and been able to visit and stay with her and her family. These experiences truly are priceless and show how good and kind people can be. I know that a lot of people go through their entire lives and don´t get to experience any of this. I truly am lucky.

Buenos Aires

I have now been in Buenos Aires for 3 weeks. It is the longest I have been in one place in over 10 months. It sounds crazy when you put it like that, this has been a great place to settle. This is by far the best city I have ever been to. I am not a big city guy, but this place is great. I know I can´t really compare it to most of the other cities I have been to simply because I´ve been staying with my friend here. I have had a whole different experience living with a local. I am really lucky to have had this experience. If not, it is very possible that I would have just moved through this city trying to find anther beach or jungle somewhere.

I can´t explain how great Yanina and her family and friends are. They are the epitome of kindness and generosity. They have taken me into their home and treated me as if I were part of the family. Lenor, her mother opened her house up to originally 3 complete strangers. Matt and Mike left after a week, I have been here another 2. All she knew was that her daughter traveled with us on some tour in Asia 9 months before. It takes a special kind of person to do something like that. It is not just that let us stay here, but how she made us feel when we were here. Paula, here sister baked me brownies for my bus ride tomorrow. They are just kind people, and it has been an amazing and surreal time here. I hope that someday I can return the favor some how. I loved having dinner with the family, then we would all just hang around the living room watching Latin American Idle. These are the things kinds of experiences that you hope for when you set off on a journey like mine. We spent a weekend at her fathers outside of town. He took us out to a little Parilla (bbq) place that was great. It was a very laid back get a little dirty while you eat as much meat as you possibly can kind of place. He wanted to know how the meat compared to Texas haha. He to welcomed us into his where we spent the day talking and visiting. When we left he gave us his business card with all his contact information telling us if we ever need anything to contact him. It was great that just after spending an afternoon with him, it was if we were old friends.

This hospitality and kindness was not only from Yanina and her family, but her friends as well. When ever they had something going on they would invite us to come. When Yani was at work they would take me out. They would make sure that I had seen all the neat areas of town. I loved the parillas so they took me to many different parillas. My time here in Buenos Aires has been great. I could not have asked for anything more. The city itself is beautiful and full of great restaurants funky shops. But for me the experience has been getting know Yanina and her family and friends.

Brazil

I really didn´t know what to expect from Brazil. I have heard so much about it I just knew that I would have an amazing time. I was doing a tour from Rio down to Buenos Aires, but got to Rio a week before to have more time there.
Piratas is the name of the hostel we ended up at. This place was great. It was run by younger American guy named Brian and his Brazilian partner Fred. It was a great place to start our South American Adventure. They were both extremely helpful and full of information. We spent most of our time in Rio soaking up the rays on Copacabana beach. We also visited Corcavado (Christ Redeemer) which was awesome, definitely one of the coolest things I have seen. From Rio we headed down to Ilha Grande. By this time were are on the tour. Everyone including our guide seemed cool so that was a relief. When you do a tour it is always a gamble, they can make or break a trip. I was not too worried though because it was so short. Ilha Grande is one of the most beautiful islands I have been to, maybe even the best. The only thing it was missing was good diving. If the water there was good for diving I would probably still be there. After Ilha Grande we had a quick stop in Paratay which was small little town with cobblestone streets. It was a neat place to see, but nothing spectacular. We then headed to the highlight of our trip. This was Iguazzu Falls. Third biggest waterfall in the world. It is 3 times the size of Niagra Falls if that helps out. Words or pictures can not describe this place. The size, beauty, and power, of these falls were jaw dropping. The falls are on the border of Argentina and Brazil. We spent a day on the Brazilian side and a day on the Argentinian side. Argentina's portion of the falls was much better than the Brazilian.

My last days in Asia

From Indo I headed back to Thailand to say my goodbyes. I had about two weeks before I made my way to South America. I spent most of that time on Ko Tao at seashell since that is where my Thai family is. On the way to Ko Tao I stopped for a couple of days at Morning Mist to see Nid and Moki. I was in Asia for such a long time and I did not spend much time there, so I definitely wanted to stop by and say bye. They were so good to me last year and after spending just one day there I wished that I had made time earlier on in the trip to visist. I could not believe how big Moki was. She is growing up so fast just like Marin. It was great to see her and Nid. As soon as I arrived and saw Moki she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug. I didn´t even know if she would remember me. I was there for 3 days and I spent those three days just playing with Moki. Every morning she would ride her little pink bike down to my bungalow to see if I was up. I wanted to spend more time there but I had to make it to Ko Tao to see everyone else. Morning Mist is going to be my first stop when I make it back. My time in Ko Tao was just what I expected. Great weather, relaxing on the beach and hanging out with my seasehell family. I was sad that I didn´t get to see Ptok though. She was on Ko Samui recovering, she had a baby only a few days before. On the night before I left we had one last suki bbq. The day before my flight I said my good byes and headed to Bangkok.

Orangutans

My main reason for coming to Borneo was this amazing ape and I was not let down. It was one of the best experiences of my life. It is crazy how people like these guys are. Especially the babies. Everything about them is human like except for all the hair of course. Before I made it to the Rehab Center I met a guy who had the experience that I wanted. He was on a hike by himself and an Orangutan actually came up and touched him on the head. This is what I was going for as well.

The rehab center is a huge tourist attraction, so there was a ton of people there. It was a bit a bummer having to deal with all these people, but they were there for same reason as I was. It did´t seem that way though. Many of the people were just running around and talking not paying any attention to the apes. That was bit annoying. The way the center works is that there are two feedings per day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Everyone gathers on a deck a few meters away from the feeding platform. It is mash of people competing for the ultimate picture. This is when you see them eating and fighting off all the other smaller monkeys, but I was not going to get my one on one interaction in the middle of all this. I was lucky to have met my friend before because he told me about the extra hike. There is a trail that goes beyond the feeding platform, but it looks to be blocked off. You have to ask for an extra ticket when checking in to get a the hiking pass (at no extra charge). They make it difficult to because they don´t want all the people from the platform going back into the jungle...it is just too many people. You have to wait around for all the people to leave the feeding platform then sneak off on the trail that appears to be blocked off. They have a barrier set up with workers hanging around to make it look like you are not supposed to go beyond that point, but if you do go they don´t say anything.

I did this the first morning I was there and saw nothing except for the 4 leeches that were crawling on my leg and few small macaques. I was a bit disappointed about that, but I thought maybe my expectations were too high. I went back for the afternoon feeding and there were less people at the feeding which was nice. I did the same thing...hanging around till most people had left then walked further down the pathway. This time it was a different story. As soon as I turned the corner there was a young adult orang swinging on a rope only a few meters away. I couldn´t believe it. I was so close to him. I just sat down right there in the pathway and watched him show off for a bit. He was swinging around by his arm then his leg just trying to impress me, it was great. Then he swung off of the rope and landed in a tree right in front of me. He climbed right down the tree and walked right up to me. He sat at on the balcony rail just two feet away. It was awesome. I was so close to him I actually reached out and touched him. It didn´t last long because one of the staff came up and walked him back into the jungle, but it was a highlight of my life. To make things even better as soon as the young guy was escorted off a younger orang came up just down the way and started showing off as well. This one was a baby it probably weighed around 8-10 lbs. She played around the walkway in the trees and on the rail for a good 30 min. I just sat and watched her play around like a little kid. I could not have asked for a better experience with the orangs. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience. Except for the fact that I plan on returning there someday :0)

Indonesia

I wasn´t planning on going down to Indo but I met many people who said they loved it. So again I figured I should check it out. I also met some friends who said that were heading that direction around the same time as me which worked out great. I did plan on making it out to the islands of Komodo, but unfortunately that didn´t work out. I still had a great time and really enjoyed the country.

I flew into Bali and headed into the town of Ubud. This was a small town that was home to a culture of Art. Everyone who grew up there was taught art though out their childhood. I am not a huge art guy but it was still neat walking around town and checking out all the painting and crafts. One guy I met in Semporna ended up coming a meeting me there in Ubud and we traveled together for the next few weeks. We rented bicycles and cruised around Ubud through rice paddies and to temples. This was great time except for getting lost and nearly getting run over a couple of times. It was definitely a great way to see the town and get some exercise. I try to get exercise when ever I can out here traveling. From Ubud we headed to the island of Gilli. This island was great. It is a tiny spec off the coast of Lombok between Lombok and Bali. I ran around the entire island in 40 minutes just to give you an idea of the size...it was tiny. We met up with two other people that I had met on my jungle tour. We did have plans to head out to Komodo to see the dragons and do some diving, but it ended up being much more expensive than I thought. Plus it was going to take up much more time. We ended up spending a week or so on Gilli then a few days on Lombok. Lombok was nice as well. It was a much bigger island and had some beautiful volcanoes and mountain scenery. Again I would have love to hike the volcano, but it was quite expensive. We did a driving tour around the island and through the volcano and that was a great trip so missing out on the volcano trek was ok. From here we all split our ways and I headed back Thailand for my last 2 weeks in Asia. I have been here for so long...it was weird to think that I would be leaving so soon.

Malaysain Borneo

My time in Malaysia was great. Most of it was spent in Sabah, Borneo. I spent 2 days in Kuala Lumpur and that was as much as I needed. I had come to Malaysia to get out of the city and do some diving and play with Orangutans. For as long as I can remember I have loved monkeys and the Orangutan is the probably one of the most amazing.

As soon as I arrived to Borneo I immediately fell in love with it. The people there were some of the nicest I have ever met locals and travelers. I was trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to my destination from the airport and the first person I asked offered to give me a ride into town. That was the kind of hospitality that I experienced all over Borneo. I had people offering to give me rides across town to the correct bus stations and all kinds of friendly gestures. When I would go on jogs through town every car seemed to shoot me a thumbs up with a huge smile, and many of them actually stopped to see if I needed a ride. It seemed like every other traveler I met was equally friendly. I met many people whom I know I will keep in touch meet up with again in the future. Borneo truly is one of my favorite places for these reasons alone.

Besides being home to some of the friendliest people anywhere, Borneo is just wild. I was walking down the street and on the side of the road was a massive monitor lizard just lounging about. I had never seen one in the wild and it was exciting for me. I would soon be bored by these guys because they were everywhere. As you all know I love animals. I did a jungle trek into the Kinabatagan River area and was basically in heaven. In just 3 days we saw all kinds of wildlife. Growing up I never thought that I would have the chance to see Proboscis monkeys in the wild, but I was wrong. Seeing the specials on Discovery channel it seems like they are so far away and you have to be some scientist the find them. I couldn't believe that we were there in this little canoe in the middle of the river watching these amazing animals leap from tree to tree with their gigantic noses flopping about. I felt like I was on the discovery channel. Exotic looking tree frogs, scary looking insects, blood sucking leeches, and exotic horn bills are a few of the others that we saw. I could have easily spent a month in the jungle but it was time to move on to the sea.

Semporna is where the great diving is. It is on the NE part of Borneo. I really didn't do much research before heading out there. I met a girl in Nepal who said that the diving was some of the best in the world, so I figured I should go. I was just planning on chilling out at the beach and do some world class diving. I was able to accomplish half of that (luckily the important half). The actual diving is off an island called Sipadan. It is about an hour boat ride from the mainland. The port town of Semporna is where all the dive centers are, and Semporna had nothing. It was really just a dirty old port town that smelled of dead fish and poo. Needless to say, I didn't do much chillaxing on the beach. That was no big deal though. The diving was excellent. Beautiful clear water and coral. Massive schools of fish and countless turtles. It was full of life. My main goal was to see the amazing whale shark. I can die happy once I have swam with a whale shark. My first day of diving was an exciting let down if you will. We did 3 dives the first day. My boat was divided up into two groups of five. Two out of the three dives the group that I was not in saw a whale shark. We were literally meters away from the giant fish. One person actually had a picture of the whale shark with my group in the back ground...we were just facing the wrong way. It was exciting that I was so close to one, but I really want to swim with one. The last two days I did some free diving and saw lots of other fish but now whale shark.

From Semporna I headed in to KK (Kota Kinabalu) the main city in Borneo. I spent a few days at the beach there where I saw the most amazing sunset of my life. I was nice there but a little to busy for me. I really just went there because I had a flight to Bali out of there. Borneo has definitely been one of my favorite places...it has everything that I love. I will make it back there someday for sure.