Lessons learned, life lived, la dee da
Ξ November 29th, 2009 | → | ∇ Food, Hike the Kong, Hong Kong, Tours and stuff, Travels, hospitalizations |
Be mindful of fish bones.
Take only the water you’ll need.
Spandex is your friend.
If you need help, ask for it.
Go to Bali.
A 35-kilometer hike in the Vietnam heat can be harder than a 100-kilometer hike in the Hong Kong cold.
Take good care of your mother. She’s important.
Since I last wrote in August, I’ve had a few adventures. Shed some tears. Laughed with my whole belly. Made friends. Conquered challenges. Here are just a few shots of recent adventures. More soon, possibly…
Kids on the beach in Amed, Bali
I spent the good part of a week scootering around Bali, Indonesia in August. I spent three days in the SamaSama guesthouse in Amed, on the northeast side of the island. Then three days in Ubud. Think rice terraces, monkey forest, mountain biking. It was excellent. According to Indonesia immigration, I spent eight days, but it was literally less than seven. That cost me US$25, which was more than I paid for two nights in Sanya’s House in Ubud. Can’t complain.
The kids in the photo above were hawking their wares (necklaces, kites, good-luck boxes) and playing with the ball in the photo when I got home from an outing one day. I asked if they’d like to play Frisbee then fetched mine. We had a blast. Then I bought them Cokes and Fantas and suddenly there were twice as many kids, and they were all so thirsty. And, they figured, if I had enough money to buy them drinks, I surely had enough money to buy their trinkets. Lesson learned. I bought one necklace from the tallest fella in the photo. I don’t remember any of their names, but I remember the one standing at my right introduced himself as Barack Obama. Nice. I had a blast hanging out with them as the day wound down, sitting on the black sand beach outside my hotel.
Have banana, will climb.
After Amed I got a ride to Ubud, which was about 100 times more commercialized and civilization-like. And very cool. Have I mentioned the amazing food in Bali?
My trip after Bali was to Danang, Vietnam. This was supposed to be part of a three-day 100-kilometer adventure race through villages and remote areas near the border with Laos. However, a typhoon wiped out many of the bridges and roads and damaged villages where we were supposed to go. So we ended up in and around Danang. It was hot, and I don’t do well in the heat. But the race was great training for the one-day, 100-kilometer Oxfam Trailwalker I was signed up to do Nov. 20-21. That deserves it’s own post.
Here’s Danang:
I ran across those bridges pictured way below.
Here’s me finishing day 2 of the race. I decided to sit out day 3. My aching joints got a well-deserved rest.
It was so hot out there!!!
After Vietnam, I had a quick trip home to surprise Dad for his 60th birthday party. It was great — all six siblings were there, too, plus Mom and Non! A quick trip, but a great trip. On our way back to Hong Kong, Mom and I stopped in San Francisco to catch up with Annemarie (aka my very best friend) and the always-awesome Marilyn and Deb. Of course, I don’t think any of us took pictures (again).
That brings me to today, roughly. Yes, I’ve purposefully left out mention of the fishbone incident.
Yesterday Kevin took Mom and I on a tour of Macau. (flickr set begins here) Now I’ll be able to show people around there too (hint, hint, Anthony). We ate. Boy, did we eat. That really is ideal, to plan a daytrip around food. It helps when the food is fantastic.
Kevin and Emily at the old fort