Tripping Out Alone

The first day of the trek was very pleasant, we didn't leave early, everyone took their time, there was no rush, and the first stop was to move our belongings over to another guest house over the river for our return. The return lodge was not as pretty as Sam's but it was super cheap and functional with pretty balconies overlooking the river. After lunch we began the walk into the forest, and the first part of our trekking was underway. It had rained and the river was swollen and brown, the forest was misty and hummed with insect and bird life, soft leaves under foot a slight dripping from the canopy and the heat was rising ..it was not hard work, the paths were clear and the pacing of the trekking was well managed into one and half hour sections and a variety of incline and decline, nothing too strenuous for that first day. The major impact was that there was a constant buzz of chain saws in the distance. I was hoping we could get deeper in to escape the sound eventually. The...

The start was early, four am, but with a delicious breakfast hamper prepared in the car it was not too bad to drive through the early dawn from Malang to Surabaya past the view, often obscured by trucks and buildings of Mount Merapi. At the airport I discovered I had made an error of imagination and that the flight was three and a half hours..I thought that it would be an hour and had not realized, once again, quite how large Indonesia is..it is so long..You can fly to most capital cities in Europe , one to the other in about an hour, Barcelona to London, Paris to Rome so I think I had just neglected to consider the distance. North Sumatra is at the Northern end of the of the northest island with only Aceh further north. Medan is the capital of North Sumatra and because we were picked up and taken from it rapidly it did not have a chance to make an impression,or not a very good one. It seemed industrial and I didn't see much to describe as pretty in terms of architecture. Besi...

After returning from Bangkok it wasn't long before I embarked on the next section of the summer's adventure a journey that would take me into the fragile beating heart of the last remaining rainforests of Indonesia. The first stop though would be the beautiful city of Malang, East Java. Cool mountainous and famous for its fresh air and fruits Malang indeed was a rich experience. Flying in on a prop plane it took only an hour to reach this hidden gem. I was staying at the Tugu Malang, the famous hotel that has a suite always reserved for the former President Megawati, a Malang home town girl. The hotel was the first of the Tugu hotels and houses an extensive collection of art, artefacts, paintings, sculptures belonging to the founder of the hotel and representing the most eclectic collection of erotic art, ancient Javanese art, wooden puppets and incredible decor. After meeting up with Sebastien, who used to manage the Hotel Tugu in Bali, and a friend from my early Bali day...

My days at the gym did not prevent me from enjoying more Bangkok nightlife and in the days I had remaining Nima and I escaped our study and deadlines momentarily to celebrate life in the city. One evening we went for cocktails at The Hotel Muse, Langsuan Road Muse is a concept hotel that goes for the speak easy style and has a sort of thirties Cab Calloway style to it, that in its location of Bangkok City translates to something swanky and a bit different for the night. The roof top bar was fabulous, Alka, Nima and I had a perfectly delightful girls night out before heading back to Sesame Street for more stories. We ate Mexican food, went to a birthday party, I met lots of strangers and made tons of small talk..and discovered this phenomena that the girls told me is called "I am just using you for your brain" or actually "A mind fuck". So you are at an event, well dressed, elegant, obviously European, and you know, quite the minx of adventure and intelligence, ...

Muay Thai is skillful and fast, it brings adrenaline to the body and by my second session I was feeling like I had grasped some basic positions and some understanding and although I lacked either real stamina or skill I was having a very good time. I learned a lot by watching others and translating what I saw into my own practice and got a pretty balanced swing kick happening by the end of day three. My trainer stopped calling me 'ol' and for some reason thought it was very funny instead to call me "ha sip" which means fifty. It stopped mattering to me as I developed a strange syndrome over the four days which does not bode well for any future situation where I am taken captive. The derision of my inadequacies, my fumbling left and rights mostly made me so frustrated I wanted really badly to do better and took the 'punishment' as some form of inspiration that made me work harder and harder. When my trainer told me to rest I refused, when he said I was lazy...

Beautiful Thailand, never fails to impress. I arrived in Bangkok late Thursday afternoon, by Friday having made a 4.5 k walk around Lumpini Park I am in car heading down to Pra Nam Prak, by the time we leave on Sunday I have climbed a rocky out crop , made beach walks and attempted somewhat poorly to ( stand up ) paddle board. The stand up part did not fare too well and my feet were cut up and bruised. Pra Nam Prak is beautiful and Craig and Siri have created a wonderful home there with a special ability to take care of people while wrapping them up in their own boundless enthusiasm for life and each other. Sharing Craig's birthday with them was a lot of fun, laughter and ludicrousness ... Back to Bangkok for a sleep and after a 5.5 k walk on the running machine, Monday morning Nima and I board a plane to Phuket where we spend three days working on our lap tops and enjoying the environment of the Banyan Tree, Laguna Beach. I do also get to try out v...

It is August, I am back at school, and my blog has been neglected. I have stories to share and I shall share them soon. I have been to Thailand, East Java, North Sumatra and Singapore.. I have pictures! I have thoughts, I have a final six weeks of uni study...I will be writing on these pages soon....

Tripping Out Alone Jakarta The best way to say goodbye is to leave without saying goodbye…the last school week was full of speeches, departing staff fare welled by those remaining and some innocuous speeches made by people in charge who represent not much in terms of lasting friendships or even supportive collegiality so it was better to get out, jump in a plane to the Big Durian and get some song writing lessons from Ed. Jakarta doesn’t grow on me, although I visited it only last week it doesn’t have familiarity, only sudden moments of recognition amongst a vast spread of confusing landmarks. We made it to Lincoln’s apartment to drop my bags, add a few lyrics and then headed over to another area. How far away I have no idea, it took an hour to get there but it could have been round the corner. The taxi driver moaned and sighed like an old heifer as we encountered one gridlock after another, not a good job for a man who wore his intolerance on his sleeve. From the hotel we went to...

I have really been tripping out recently, so much so that I have not posted pictures of the rest of the Taj Mahal, or the trip to Europe, or the trip to Singapore to meet the girls, or even the trip to Jakarta, but that was a school trip so may not feature here. And as the holidays approach I am off again on a second trip to Jakarta, a trip to Thailand and then a very interesting adventure in Java and Sumatra. I will get to the photographs and get up to date as this blog serves me well given the amount of computer crashes , the two thefts and a malfunctioning motherboard have all disrupted my logical and sequential digitalizing of my images. And while I am not tripping out I like to look at where I tripped out, those spaces between school and study that sometimes find me restful and wandering in the delightful memories of places, things and people, tastes, smells and sounds that make up the recall of a moment of life. Could the top ten favorite memories of one person give rise to ...

Cushla, Claire and I headed out of the smog of Gurgaon on Sunday afternoon and headed down a manic highway to Agra. Our plan was to spend the day at the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort as well as the deserted city of Fatehapur Sikri. Our inspiration was to meet and celebrate our milestones together, Claire her move to Yangon, Cushla her move to Paris and me, the last year of my masters.We have known each other over some years in South East Asia, Cushla from Bangkok, Claire from HoChiMinh City, and have met up in Bali with regularity. We had our girls own adventure and were individually inspired and awed by the beauty of what we saw. People, buildings and the mad things on the road including strangely shaped bulbous carriages that looked like moving castles. Great food and a welcome bottle of champagne on our arrival back into Dehli provided by Eric, Cushla's husband sealed the trip and then it was home time!