Nasi Nasi Nasi (rice)

hello everyone,
This is a novel. I apologize but i think its got some interesting stuff and a couple of laughs!!
Anyways, i will start this email off by letting you all know that my life is complete. In Borneo we went from Sandakan in northern Malaysian Borneo to Sukau which is this little town on the largest river in Borneo. A lot of Borneo has been devastated by the Palm Oil plantations so the wildlife have less and less forest to use. The area around Sukau is an area that has tons of wildlife. We took a boat out on the river around sunset and saw wild orangutans, proboscis monkeys ( which if you have not seen look them up cuz they are so funny looking), amazing birds including horn bills, macaws, and, yes this where the life complete thing comes into play, Pygmy elephants. That's right, six real live wild pygmy elephants. Just like regular elephants but smaller. They ranged in size but the smallest full grown elephant was about the size of a large dog and the biggest was about the size of a huge horse. They may have been the coolest animals I have ever seen. We were in a small boat and they were bathing and eating not 5 feet from us. Unbelievable! I will send pics later so that you all can take a look, especially you Jon and Marcus!
After Sukau, we spent a couple of days around Northern Borneo before we headed back to Kota Kinabalu. We decided not to go to Sipidan on the east coast, which is supposed to be one of the 5 best places to dive in the world. It was either dive and stay for a couple of days or by a plane ticket to Indonesia, so i chose the ticket. I love diving but I couldn't pass up the chance to go to another country. Lauran stayed in KK for the next three days because we had booked a really cheap flight ahead of time to Jakarta and we some time to hang out. I decided to go to Brunei, which is a 3 hour boat trip to a tax free offshore island that the British used to own. It is called Labuan. From Labuan its another 1 hour ride to Brunei. As many of you know I lived on a ship for 3 months, and Inever got sea sick once. But here's the thing, the boat they used to transport you in the open water was some where inbetween half a submarine and half a tin can. It was long and skinny and you sat half way under water. The seas where fine on my way to Brunei but I didn't get to see much cuz I spent the whole time in the gentleman's room. Haha I had some bad Mee goreng (fried noodles). On the way back, the seas where absolutely terrible. I spent the whole journey getting rid of everything that was in my stomach into the nice trash can that was placed at my seat. It was conveniently picked up about every 20 minutes by the nice gentlemen that worked for the boat company. Don't worry though, I was one of many people using the bins provided. I think the sickness could have been a mixture of things, I am not ready to call it sea sickness yet. I met a couple of Norwegians the night before and could have had one to many San Miguels. Also I had some Mee Goreng right before the boat ride. You think I would have learned my lesson the first time. In fairness though, mee goreng is so tasty and Lauran got sick because she ate to much Mee Goreng a couple of days after me. Haha!
Brunei was really tremendous. I have been fascinated with it since childhood, so I wanted to go see it. It is one of the nicest places I have ever been. The architecture is fantastic. It is a little spendy and in Bansar Seri, the capital. there is only one cheep place to stay. I think it is being illegally run. I stayed there though and it was nice and luckily i found it because everything else was super expensive. I knew this coming in and was prepared to sleep in the bus station. I brought my sleeping bag just in case. The Sultan's palace is amazing, its like the Islamic version of Bill Gates house. There is one of the most beautiful mosques in the middle of town that I have ever seen. The really amazing thing about Brunei is that even though it is so affluent they have managed to keep so much of their culture. For example, on the sultans 60th birthday, two years ago, they paraded him around in a golden chair pulled by young men dressed traditionally with elephant muskets. Its truly a remarkable place.
From Kota Kinabalu, KK, we traveled down to Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta is unbelievable. The city is so enormous. It literally takes you 3 hours to get from one side of the town to the other on a train that barely has any stops. It is a town of more then 30 million people and its crazy but so intriguing. It was built purely for purpose. Skyscrapers were built on top of neighborhoods. They built over almost all the lakes and rivers in the area. So there is a bit of civil engineering nightmare. The city floods constantly during the rainy season. Ben if you need work this is the place. Its a great city though. It had been plagued by natural disaster after natural disaster recently but its wonderful. It is a city that needs to be taken and loved for what it is, super chaotic and unbelievable intriguing. We met the coolest guy named Arman and he took us around for a couple of days. He turned into a really good friend. I met him the second night when he yelled at me as I was coming out of our guesthouse. He asked if I wanted a taxi and I said no but do you want to have a beer. It is amazing how buying someone a beer is a such a universal sign of friendship.
We spent about three days in Jakarta and then took the overnight train to YogyJakarta. The train was epic! We took the economy train because it was cheaper. Mind you, we could have payed 4 dollars more for the nice air conditioned sleeper but that was way to expensive and lacked culture. The train was pretty packed and the fans didn't work. It was a bit stuffy but the real kicker was everyone who walked up and down the whole night selling nasi (rice) and everything else you could possibly imagine. We thought that around midnight or one o'clock they might stop but they didn't. We both got about an hour of sleep. It was great though. At one point we both woke up to a man yelling nasi and started laughing when we looked at our watches and it was 430 in the morning. They sold everything on the train. A man even went through and sprayed fabreeze for money. Genius! YogyJakarta was a really wonderful city. It is full of art. We stayed in this guesthouse run by a famous local artist. He had paintings everywhere. From YogyJar. we went to Borobudur which is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. It is a Buddhist complex built in the 9th century with an undeniable aura and energy. It was filled with people, so many people, and was still so peaceful. We got there in the morning and watched the sun come up and the mist as it rose over the valley. So beautiful. From there we went to Prambanan, which are Hindu temples built near and in the same time frame as Borobudur. They were just as amazing. They were somewhat damaged in the recent earthquake that happened but still remarkable, and filled with statues of Vishnu, Shiva, Brahman. We stayed there for about 8 hours to watch the traditional dance they do with the temples in the background. It told the story of the region. Grandma you would have loved it!!!
From YogyJar we took the same overnight train, and i mean everything was the same even the nasi guys, to the end of Java, where we took a flight to Lombok island. So Lauran constantly made fun of me during this trip because I am more cautious then her about the mosquitoes. I was even more cautious in Indonesia because it was the rainy season. I put bug spray on ever once in a while and wore pants at night cuz they were really bad. Well when we got to Lombok the mosquitoes were worse then I have ever experienced in my life. Mom and Dad they were like Mt. Baker that one summer where we left with like 60 bites in 2 days. We would walk out of our room in the morning, have breakfast and would have 10 bites by the end of the meal. Well as irony would have it, little old Lauran got Dengue Fever! Which if you don't know what Dengue Fever is I will sum up the whole illness by its nickname "the bone breaking disease". She wasn't feeling so good in the middle of the one day, so she went back and laid down. I went to this really cool temple in a town called Sengigi and when I can back she was rockin about a 103+ fever (I couldn't tell exactly cuz I bought a thermometer and it was in Celsius), the worst headache of her life, the worst stomach ache of her life, and body aches everywhere. She is tough though. She had a horrible 2 days but didn't really ever complain. Luckily, this is funny, there are two types of Dengue, one type is like malaria and one type is like encephalitis, she thankfully, i guess, got the one like malaria. She is fine now, but it took her a while. She is tough though, the next afternoon after she was really sick, we took a hour bus ride and hour boat ride to the most epic islands on the planet, the Gili Islands.
The Gili Islands are a bit indescribable but I will try. Picture 3 islands that you can walk around in less than an hour, the most amazing tropical fish you have ever imagined, sea turtles everywhere, manta rays and white tips swimming just off the reef, 4 dollar bungalows, no cops( which i will say changed the vibe of the place, a lot of Bob Marley being smoked and Josh Heytvelts' being taken, which are legal. Crazy place in the middle of a Muslim country that gives the death penalty for drug trafficking. The whole island is surrounded by white sand beaches and there is just enough nightlife that every night you wont be bored. Not that you ever would! We stayed there for 6 days and it was unbelievable. There was a break just before the manta reef that was good for people like me learning to surf. What an unbelievable place. Paradise if you will! Ohh and the best part is that it takes so long to get there that it isn't over run with people. One island is a bit more built up but the others are bare.
From Gili we went to Bali which is amazing. It is filled with Balinese Hinduism which is unreal. Ryan you would absolutely die.There are temples and offering chairs everywhere. Literally every single block there is a temple. Every morning everyone wakes up and spreads flowers all over the ground. It is so beautiful. They walk out and sprinkle holy water and give rice offerings. I have never experience anything like it. The first 3 days in Bali, I spent at an ashram, a Hindu monastery devoted to tranquility and peace, in a town called Candidasa. I showed up in the mornings and talked with the kids and read about traditional medicine and they taught me all about the culture. I leaned so much in those three days. I got to meditate with them. They even fed me. It is truly remarkable. They taught me the difference between Balinese Hinduism and Indian Hinduism and its pretty substantial. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done. After the ashram we went up to Ubud, which is a sacred town for Balinese people. I had the best meal of my life. If any of you have seen the "No Reservations" episode with Anthony Bourdain where he is in Bali, he eats at this place with suckling pig that is famous. That is all the serve but it was the best meal of my life. Lauran agrees, it was amazing!
Well that was long but I hope interesting. I was thinking the other day that when I first traveled a couple of years ago I saw all the differences in the culture and people. Different dress different language, different customs, but this time around I see all the similarities. Maybe because there are so many. Customs maybe different but everyone's emotions are the same.

Hope all is well!

Brent


"To be good and genuinely good as a person is two different things; to be good as a person mean to helps others, to be genuinely good as a person means you would drop everything, no matter how trying the circumstances, to help someone in need."