Intro to the Middle East

Today is our last day in Oman, and our introduction to the Middle East has been a fascinating one. We've actually felt safer here than in SE Asia which I think most people would be surprised by. Oman is full of the nicest people, but is a bit bizarre and full of contradictions. For example, the malls have stores like the Gap and H & M, but almost all of the women wear burkas and are completely covered all of the time. In other areas we'd see rows of shops with identical plain black burkas lining the store windows. In Muscat all of the buildings are white which gives the city a sterile feel, but the people present a potent culture. Muscat is also full of western fast food chains and other modern amenities, but it all feels a bit forced, like the city has been artificially modernized. In many ways it has. With oil money and a competent Sultan, the infrastructure of the country has only recently sprouted up. Of course most of the country is still a vast, uninhabited desert. We got to make the 11 hour drive between Muscat and Salalah, and I've never seen so much nothing! We drove for hours seeing only sand, dirt, and lots of camels. Driving through the Empty Quarter was great though, it was awesome knowing that whatever direction you went there would just be more desert until you hit the ocean or Saudi Arabia.

Our other activities in Oman included 3 days of rock climbing, playing in the waves of a deserted beach, visiting Jebel Shams (the Grand Canyon of Oman), and eating lots of good food! We got to climb over the ocean, do some great bolted routes in a small canyon, and explore some unclimbed rock in Salalah. Jason and I spent a day cleaning and setting 3 routes on rock that hadn't been climbed before--it's hard to find that in the U.S.! The canyon was very impressive and different from other canyons I'd seen. There are very few colors so each one seems crisper than if there were many. The distinct shades of brown and gray stand out against the blue sky. All of the Omanis we have met have been so welcoming and helpful! Many speak English so getting around hasn't been difficult, and we've definitely gotten to experience some Arab hospitality.

One of the best parts of Oman has been visiting with our friend Shannon from the U.S. She lives in Salalah and was the most generous hostess! She showed us the best parts of Oman, took us to great meals, and let us stay at her home with her. Thanks for everything Shannon!

Tomorrow we are heading to Dubai for a few days. The Burj Khalifa is one of the things we've been most excited to see along with the other architectural feats the city offers. We will also go to the first Taco Bell of the trip! It feels like it's winding down fast unfortunately, but I think the last 7 weeks in the Mid-East will be great!

A Major Change of Place

As I write this I am enjoying my last day in India. Or, depending on preferences and priorities, my last day in a 5 Star hotel (which might be a more accurate description). In all seriousness, we do wish we could spend more time in India exploring the "small" towns (less than 10 million people, hah) but at this point in the trip I simply don't think Michelle and I have the patience and energy to tackle another country of this size and scope. 6 months ago we'd have dived right in, but now we're content to recharge our batteries in the Grand Hyatt and plan out the rest of the trip. And for the opportunity to do that we are infinitely thankful to my Dad for being able to meet us in this "Godforsaken Country" (his words, not ours)and letting us live the high life for a solid week. Thanks Dad- it's been an awesome week!

In a switch back to semi-normality, we head to Oman tonight. Oman doesn't have cheap backpacker hotels like we're used to (less than $10 a night) so we're going to have to stay in an actual hotel for a couple nights (closer to $70 a night). Yuk. That great news, however, is that we have a friend that currently resides in Oman who will be driving up to meet us in Muscat. We'll have a friendly face around, a means of transportation, and a ride back to the south of the country so we get to see a larger area. Plus, having a free place to stay for a short while never hurts!

Also, as you may notice, we've added yet another map to the right sidebar of this website. The amount of ground we've covered on the trip has gotten to be too large for one map, so we now have a map for everything up to India, and are starting a new one for all of the Middle East.

Well, Michelle wants to eat breakfast (go figure) so I guess this blog post is over. =)

Not fun Stuff

For those of you who haven't heard, we got robbed. Nothing violent, we just had our backpack sitting on the floor between us at an internet cafe and it got snatched... no idea how one of us didn't notice. While it didn't have much money in it, it did have my passport and camera along with a few other small things. Losing the camera is heartbreaking, as it was terribly expensive, but at least we didn't' lose any pictures (they are all backed up on this site).

The fact that the passport was taken has just been a mess. We first had to file a police report. Then we went to the US Embassy and got a new temporary passport issued within a few hours. Then we went back to the Indian Consulate and got a new Indian Visa issued (thankfully it only took 1 day this time, as opposed to 11 like last time). It couldn't just be easy though... after all of the running around and paperwork, we ran into trouble because the Malaysian authorities won't let me leave the country without having an entry stamp (which was in the old passport). I needed to visit the Immigration Headquarters which is in an entirely different city about 30 minutes outside Kuala Lumpur, and because of their office hours, it simply wasn't possible to do it in time for my Friday flight 9am flight. As a result, we've had to change my flight to Saturday (yet again), and Michelle left on Friday (this morning). Since her passport wasn't stolen we would have had to pay to change her flight, but the airline pushed mine back for free, so we decided the best way to do it was to split up for a day. While she flew to India, I traversed the Malaysian Immigration system, which is essentially a nightmare in a building. But it should be done now (knock on wood!) so hopefully we will be rejoined at about this time tomorrow.

Trip Statisticals

We are still in Kuala Lumpur. Good news is, our Visa situation for India is worked out, my Dad is going to meet us in India for sure, we get to see Sri Lanka for a few hours on our layover, and we are flying out of here on Friday April 9th. Unfortunately we still have to hang around here all week, but we're finding ways to pass the time. For example last night, while we sat around enjoying Paul Blart: Mall Cop on HBO, we decided to compile some statistics on the trip so far. Here's what we've got (per person)

Miles - 23,000 (strait line distances on Google Earth - underestimate)
Flights - 11
Bus Rides - 42
Countries - 8
Hotels - 59
Boats - 15
Trains - 2
Times we've tried to kill each other - 47
Books Read - 20
Games of Rummy - 291 (154 wins for Jason, 137 for Michelle)
Pairs of Sunglasses lost - 5
Trips to Clinics - 11 (motorbike crash, dengue fever, rabies shots, stomach problems)

And there you have it, our trip in a nutshell.

Quick Update

So we're in Kuala Lumpur, and we're waiting for our Indian Visa. We have no idea how long it will take... they told us "At least 5 business days, but possibly 2-3 business days," which doesn't even make sense. Anyway, while we've working on missing our flight to India we've also taken advantage of the good internet access and uploaded lots of pics. If you use the links on the right, all pictures have been uploaded in the Eastern Indonesia, Underwater Indonesia, and Malaysia folders. If you'd prefer to see the summarized version, just use the links below.

Singapore Pictures

Indonesia Pictures

A Week in Paradise

The Togean Islands were nothing less! We spent about 9 days on the island of Kadidiri and stayed at a fantastic place called Black Marlin. We had our own little bungalow, fresh fish and veggies for all of our meals, and spectacular diving and snorkeling. Jason and I decided to take the course for our advanced scuba diving certification, and had an excellent instructor from California. We each did 6 dives, including a dive at night, a deep dive (100 ft!), and a wreck dive. There is a B-24 bomber that was shot down in 1945 in the area. The plane landed in tact on the water and floated for over an hour before sinking gently, so it is in great condition. We really enjoyed the dive to it, and Jason said it was one of his favorite dives so far. The deep dive was also very cool, and was probably my favorite of the trip. Being able to dive that deep is so exciting!! The night dive didn't go so great for me...I was scared! There was quite a strong current during it as well which didn't help, and I was just a bit uncomfortable with it. I completed the dive though, but I think I'll wait awhile to try another. When we weren't diving we were snorkeling and finding lots of eels, parrotfish, clownfish, sweetlips, and countless others along with beautiful corals. There were a few nights that we had fires on the beach, and we really enjoyed the other people that were staying at the hotel. I could have stayed much much longer! Jason was able to use an underwater camera for 2 of the dives and got some good pictures. We will be in Kuala Lumpur in a couple of days and hope to get our pictures updated there, including the ones from the previous blog post!

Tomorrow we leave Indonesia which is a bit sad. It is by FAR my favorite country on the trip. Easily has the best scenery, best wildlife, nicest people, most diversity, and we have so much more of the country to see! We have spent over 6 weeks here and it's not nearly enough. Anyone trying to figure out their next vacation should come here :) Tonight is our last night here, and we are going to try spicy dog meat! Tomorrow we fly to Kuala Lumpur and will be scrambling to get our visa for India. Then that will be all for Southeast Asia! We're excited to move on to another part of the world.

I See Dead People

Yesterday was wild! We are in Tana Toraja in central Sulawesi and spent yesterday visiting a few villages. The Torajan people are really fascinating, particularly their funeral and burial customs. When a person dies they keep the body in their home for months while saving up money for elaborate funerals. They still talk with the person and sit and have tea with them. Most funerals are held during July and August and are huge events. After the funeral some bodies are put in tombs in cliffsides--they literally carve a grave out of the stone, which you can see in some of our pictures. Others are put in wood coffins and put inside caves, which you can also see in our pictures. We went in one cave that was quite large and filled with many dozens of coffins. Many had rotted and skulls and other loose bones were strewn about the ground. In one part many skulls had been meticulously placed on ledges right inside the entrance. Jason and I were the only ones in the cave at the time and our light wasn't working well, so it was a bit eery. Jason would use his camera flash to light up an area, and we could see glimpses of skulls and rotting wood and clothes every time the light went on--it reminded us both of a horror movie. As we stumbled through I didn't want to reach out and grab the rock for fear of grabbing a body! Outside of the caves they carve shelves into the rock where wooden effigies of the dead stand. They change the clothes on these statues regularly and place offerings beside the coffins (food, drinks, cigarettes, etc.). One of the caves smelled a bit, and we could tell there was a fresher body in there. It was fascinating to see all of it! Unfortunately there are no funerals while we are here so we don't get to see that. It's a really great place though, and there are virtually no tourists.

Tomorrow we are leaving here and heading to the Togean Islands! They are pretty remote islands with fantastic diving and snorkeling; we've been looking forward to going there for a very long time! We will probably spend at least a week there and won't have internet access, so we'll be unavailable for awhile. We're going to definitely do a few dives (hopefully see some sharks!), some snorkeling and swimming, and lots of relaxing. It should be a great time, and we'll update again when we're back to civilization!

P.S. Actually the pictures might not get up, so if they don't check back in a couple of weeks if you want to see the pictures of the graves!