Changing Currents (Koror, Palau)

Bad Current

My time in Palau is coming to an end. It has been quite a roller coaster ride of emotion. My "vacation" didn't get off to a very good start. A "bad" current got the best of me. After a good 1st dive I managed to get seasick at the end due to choppy surface waters. I puked at least 5 times. If you have ever seen the movie Total Recall (With Arnold Schwarzenegger) then the scenes where people are exposed to the Mars environment without a spacesuit - that is how I felt like as I stared into the blue ocean. Eyes convulsing, and stuff coming out of my mouth and nose. I'm sure glad there wasn't a mirror. I might have scared myself to death.

I felt so weak that I didn't do the 2nd dive. In fact, I was out of commission largely in my hotel room for the next 3 days because a virus or bacteria of some sort took over my weakened body and I ended up with a fever and diarrhea - definitely worse than any stomach problems on this trip. Go figure, I took so much care not to get sick in India and get sick the 2nd day while in Palau.

Lesson learned...don't take 6 month expired Dramamine. Even two tablets.

I could write a whole article about this lowest point in my travels ("Sickest I've been the entire trip") and the thoughts running through my head regarding travel, religion ,etc.... In fact, I probably will, just not sitting here at an Internet cafe.

So I found the local health store and bought some essential vitamins and echinacea and nursed myself back to health. I started off kayaking and snorkeling then diving again. (The Bonine brand of motion sickness medicine works great!) I have one more dive day left, but 2 days ago I was the beneficiary of a "super good" current when I experienced what must be one of the "highest" highs of my entire trip so far - and perhaps even among all my travels.

Good Current

In one day I dived two of the premier dive sites in Palau - Blue Holes and Blue Corner. (Blue Corner is often ranked in the top 10 dive sites around the world by diver polls) Then later in the day I snorkeled Jellyfish Lake. The dive at Blue Corner especially is very thrilling and adrenaline pumping. I feel very lucky to be among those who have experienced it. Let's just say you get the feeling of swimming WITH sharks (About 5'- 6' in length). Not looking at sharks. But swimming WITH them just a few feet away. And that is not even mentioning the other sealife. While it was a good day there, my understanding is that it can be even better depending on conditions. So instead of seeing about 10 sharks at any given moment, it might be double that.

I understand there are other sites around here that could be even better depending on the conditions. Let me hope that my final dive day I can experience something similar.

I've written (And finished!) a short article that I will upload later (Hong Kong?) about my experience at Blue Corner. A weblink below talks a bit about Blue Corner, but certainly not in my more "descriptive poetry." I call it the BLUE HURRICANE HIGHWAY.

Of course...there are the wonderfully beautiful corals, exotic jellyfish, and small colorful fish while snorkeling and other island landscapes here. But this is too much to talk about in one journal.

Swimming the Currents

So from the depths of feeling shitty to total excitement and a BIG smile on my face I have traveled recently. What I also found interesting is my thought process now versus the last time I felt pretty "down" while traveling...that was in Austria in 1998 due to traveling alone in an unfamiliar world for the 1st time.
Let me just say that experience and knowledge triumphed in this situation, not appeals to an unseen force.

Palau Dive Sites (Scuba Safaris)

Looking Ahead to India again

Looking a few days ahead my preliminary research actually has me somewhat looking forward to Mumbai, India. I did say I might be unfair about India. For one - it is a big country, but secondly, I have not yet had a VERY POSITIVE experience in India to help me put the country in perspective yet. I suspect it won't be hard to find one given the abundance of sights up North. It is cliche but I will go to the Taj Mahal. I'm counting on at least that.

My experience at Blue Corner has definitely injected me with another blast of "travel wonder." Much needed after South India. It definitely has put Palau in a very different light to how I felt after my first few days. And in this is a lesson that one can apply to many aspects of life.

American Jobs (Chennai, India)

I was reading the paper here regarding the introduction of an American Jobs Act - regarding the outsourcing of service jobs -as opposed to manufacturing. I wrote about this right before I departed in September of last year...regarding call center jobs going to India. If the majority of Americans (Or any "modern world inhabitant" for that fact) saw where their jobs were going to - high tech - or otherwise I think they would be in utter shock for quite some time.

I am not going to pass judgement yet on good or bad of service outsourcing but I will show you a few pictures.
Feel free to email them to a friend and form your own conclusions. I took these photos in Bangalore, India.



Bangalore Picture #1 - 800x600

Bangalore Picture #2 - 800x600

Bangalore Picture #3 - 800x600

Random Thoughts (Chennai, India)

To say I am looking forward to go to Palau is a massive understatement. My impressions of India thus far are very negative. There are gleaming bright spots no doubt, but the overall picture is sickening. Maybe I am being unfair.

Below are some links on where the only India listed cities - Mumbai and Delhi rank according to Economist magazine for Western expatriates in terms of "hardship."

Economist Intelligence Unit's Hardship Survey (BBC)

The whole list can be found on this CNN Link - although CNN links tend to expire after awhile. I'll post the list in the Compare N' Contrast section someday.

They don't even list Chennai. Not enough of a major city. Everything I have seen in Chennai is sickening. Bangalore is
better but still pretty bad in my book. Of course if you only confined your vision to the ITPL (Technology Park) in Bangalore or a few housing projects it is pretty good. But getting to the tech park or around Bangalore anywhere itself is a different view altogether.

The lowest ranked city on the list I have been to is place 119 - Jakarta. Jakarta recently held the top spot in my shittiest major city I have ever been to list. Chennai definitely takes that crown now. After that, I have been to Colombo - 113, Bangkok - 101, and soon Manila - 105. Let's just say there is a huge difference between Bangkok and Colombo. And Colombo is better than Chennai by far. If Mumbai or Delhi is anything like Chennai then I won't stick around those cities for long.

Although I must say one has to take the rankings with a little grain of salt as they did rank Houston and Los Angeles less of a hardship than Seattle. I definitely do not understand that logic. But, I'm figuring many of the cities could be bunched in the upper 3/4 of the list with a sharp drop off after that - generally speaking.


Main Page Images changed:

I changed the images on the main page. If you are wondering why I included French Fries then you can read a couple of the links below.

Some info on Growth of Size of French Fries in US (Chiro Community)

More info on changing of sizes over time (Wellness Word)

Horns, more horns and ... Spiritual Insights and a Change in Plan? (Bangalore, India)

I've been in India for a almost a week now and I'm so glad I only have a couple more days before leaving. I've experienced two Indian cities now. Chennai, and more thoroughly - Bangalore, India's "Silicon Valley." Anyone who has known me for any length of time or read through this website, will know that I really dislike excessive cars and pollution. There are so many vehicles here honking seemingly every second that it is really starting to annoy me. I'm not overwhelmed in the sense of sensory assault, but just aggravated at having to put up with all the carbon monoxide belching vehicles and worse than that...noise pollution (The weather on the other hand is quite pleasant in Bangalore right now).

In traffic congested Bangkok, Jakarta (Still near the top of my list for my least favorite major cities), Beijing, and Los Angeles (Among notable totally car congested places that come to mind) there isn't anywhere near the same degree of horn honking. Where is the soundproof Lexus or Mercedes when I really need it (Not that I've ever owned one)?

Thus far the driving in India is not proving to be as crazy as Sri Lanka or even Bali for that fact (Something about island life). I think this has more to do with the sheer volume of traffic. One just can't drive that fast around these South Indian cities. Maybe it is worse in the rural areas of India than Sri Lanka...but it is likely a close shade of gray.

Garbage

One thing I don't like looking at but which I am forcing myself to is all the pollution and shoddily constructed streets and dirty run down buildings and slummy areas (I have some good shots of slum areas in the midst of high tech areas - with a familiar US computer company's logo in the background..though this should not be construed as a negative for the US Company)......more than any place I have been thus far. People have such a lack of regard for littering too.
I have seen people receive a piece of paper advertising from a man walking the streets and just turn around and throw it out the window of their car. In another instance a store keeper was emptying his garbage on the street in front of his sidewalk. One doesn't have to work hard to imagine this taking place many times over...the trash in the river channels and almost on every corner is very sad. More analysis and thoughts on this later....to a more important matter on my travels....

Spiritual Insights and a Change in Plan

I didn't think it would happen this soon but I have come to several important "spiritual realizations" that will have a profound effect on the rest of my travels. And the events which led me to this realization are unorthodox to say the least. But, I hope you are not reading the Circus of Life for orthodox views, otherwise I need a serious re-examination of my own writing and analysis.

The 3 culminating events:

Two related ones -

1) Buying a pack of tissue paper in my Kandy, Sri Lanka Hotel

2) Buying a wood carving of an elephant in Sri Lanka from a tout near Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

and the final hammer -

3) Reading the in-flight magazine on Jet Airways while flying from Chennai - Bangalore.

Of course, these events don't stand alone as many other places and events have put me in the right mindset for formulating my conclusion and realization, but they are the culminating events in my mind at this time. My realization is so powerful in my mind right now that I don't even feel it necessary to visit any more spiritual sites anywhere other than to just see them for curiosity's sake. This also affects my coincidence "quest" (for lack of a better name).

I doubt I am the first to draw such conclusions, but I can't recall reading or watching anything of the sort as to the method of reaching my conclusion. A search on the Internet is in order.

With this in mind, I may cut short my travels in North India and spend more time in Nepal. Strictly, because I am finding India to be so annoying, despite the majestic sights. While my preliminary itinerary for North India has me going to the #1 spiritual / pilgrimage sites of Sikhs, Hindu, and Buddhism, this would be more of an exercise in curiosity, understanding, and I might even say gawking now. I guess it ultimately depends on how I feel after 2 weeks in Palau.
The wonders of air travel. Heck, I might even leave sooner than planned to Arabia where I could use a little more time.

As for an explanation of these 3 events, that is going to take a bit of writing on my part. I hope Palau will allow me to post at least a rudimentary outline and explanation.

Wishing for my Albertson's Yogurt,
Wayne

I’m in India (Chennai, India)

So I was leafing through the newspaper delivered to my room this morning and came across some real estate advertising. “Funny” enough that I’ll show you right now.




Click here for a larger version


Yet I get the sense that people here don’t find it funny. They probably take it very seriously.
But, as an outsider it seems hilarious. So I wondered - what else might be humorous and or thought of as loony depending on whose eyes you are looking through:


Is the ad above:


- Any funnier than a Chinese complaining about bad Feng Shui and going to great lengths and expense to remodel a home or business?

- Any more ridiculous than someone blowing themselves up as a suicide bomber in the name of some fellow named Allah?

- Any funnier than getting dunked in a tank in front of all your friends and countless hundreds of other people, to be baptized in the name of some fellow named Jesus Christ?

- Any crazier than a procession of people expressing blind to some guy named Buddha by offering flowers to a reputed tooth of Buddha that they have never seen?

(It’s only shown once every 7 years for 5 days I’m told in Kandy, Sri Lanka - I sure as heck didn’t see anything, though I did join the throngs of people and offer a flower - it was Poya, the monthly full moon festival. The next time the tooth is supposed to be shown is 2007. Hey wait...isn't it a similar policy for the Shroud of Turin?)



Photo of past events related to Buddha's tooth - Temple of Tooth - Kandy, Sri Lanka



One more...kind of reminds me of similar Christian themed photos re: sacred objects

.... speaking of teeth...

- Any funnier than a child believing in the tooth fairy?

- Any more ridiculous than people who consign themselves to sitting in a cubicle for the greater part of their waking lives?

- Any funnier than someone wearing a cross on their neck to ward off evil spirits?

- Any more ridiculous than your local astrologer - and there are a lot of them here in India. And I think they take it deadly seriously....didn’t US President Reagan rely on astrology?

- Any funnier than a child believing in Santa Claus?

- Any more funny than those who are "laughing all the way to the bank" as they take advantage of others for extreme profit (As opposed to reasonable profit). The days of colonialism came to mind as I toured the tea plantations.

- Any crazier than crashing a couple of planes into the WTC so you can reach heaven with your harem of virgin wives waiting for you?

- Any funnier than supermodels working for PETA (People for Ethical treatment of Animals) buying lobsters from stores and setting them free in the ocean?

- Any funnier than watching the Ab Swing infomercial while waiting for my flight from Sri Lanka to India. No CNN Airport here.

- Any funnier than people in ancient Rome laughing and cheering while watching people kill each other in the Colosseum? As I watched Gladiator on the movie channel here again last night.

- And... any funnier than watching Australian aborigine men in Arnhem Land (Northern Australia) watching an aerobics exercise TV show, no doubt to admire the hot bodied Australian girls. Meanwhile my small group went up in the hills to look at ancient rock art that we paid good money for.

- Any funnier than when I laugh at myself when I look back and see how I viewed the world a couple of years ago versus today?

I’ll be laughing again soon enough after I reflect on everything else I will have learned in the next few months.
But I don't have to wait that long - for there are plenty of "funny" things to witness first hand.

After all – this is the Circus of Life, isn’t it? Ha hah ha ha.

Finding Heaven Twice in 48 hours (Chennai, India)

On the drive back to Colombo airport from the mountains of Sri Lanka, I had trouble keeping a couple words out of mind as I sat in the passenger seat. The words Extinguished and Fully Insured kept coming to mind. The first word came from a short story I had read in a Lonely Planet guide earlier about one author’s experience in India riding in 2nd class on a train from Mumbai. He was talking about his desire for travel being extinguished forever possibly, due to the rough conditions. The words fully insured.....well take a look at the picture below.



Oh yeah...the trucks go both ways! Often there might be a bus or other vehicle coming the other direction. We certainly passed other vehicles when they were. But no worries! It's fully insured! Click here for a closeup of the truck



Note, we are driving at least 40km-60km/hr. A little crowded eh?



Utterly psychotic!I had more major close calls on the drive back than I have had quite possibly my entire life!



Others too!




...and if you’re real lucky...they deliver your coffin too!



...just a day earlier

It was just a day earlier that I had come across one of those places that will never leave my memory. A place that I’ll go so far as to say that if there is a heaven, this might well be what it would feel like. I won’t tell you where this is place is right now, but I’ll give you a hint - you may be holding the name of it right in your hand as you read this. Places like this (I’ve only come across a few in my life) don’t seem to photograph well, or maybe I’m just not a good enough photographer. But I’ll give you a close up of some of the people who have the fortune to live and work in such a place:
(Though I'll add from what I saw of the living conditions - buildings, not so great...but that is common in Sri Lanka)




Tea leaf pickers...we exchanged addresses for postcards!


...arriving in India

I made it to the Colombo airport in one fully working piece thanks to the skill of my driver - Gamage. As I waited to board the aircraft I wondered what lay ahead in India. Could it be worse? Of course, I have read books and seen pictures, and spoken to a number of people, but the main two impressions in my mind of what India would be like come from two good friends. One friend traveled in India for about a month during a world trip. To this day he doesn’t eat Indian food. Another friend described in a recent email - major culture shock (Although his went away by the end of his 3 week trip), and that famous US race car driver Mario Andretti might have problems here. This other friend though had never been to SE Asia or China except for a stopover in Singapore, which is really an anomaly. He had also come fresh from the US. I don’t need to repeat my recent experiences.

As a final reminder, a Sri Lankan lady sitting next to me on the plane said India is worse. I was about to find out. Oh yeah...her husband had been killed in a bomb blast 2 years ago in Colombo. While there is currently a cease fire between the Tamils here and the Govt, it is shaky. At one ATM in the NE corner of Sri Lanka there was a guard with a machine gun sitting next to it. Inside a nearby bank a guard with a huge shotgun greeted me.

As I exited the airport at night and got into the taxi I quickly realized that this was different than Sri Lanka. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether the cab driver knew where my hotel was. As we left the airport and entered the chaos of traffic I was hoping against all hope that he knew where it was. I didn’t want to get stuck anywhere this late (About 9pm now). The chaos of bicyclists, motorcycles, pedestrians, auto-rickshaws / tuk-tuks, buses, cars, and trucks blaring their horns was bordering on overwhelming. But, an interesting feeling rushed through me. I wasn’t overwhelmed. In fact - I felt a sense of calm. And also a feeling of deja vu. Like I had seen this all before - yet never all at the same time.

Rushing to the front of my brain cortex were all of my previous travel experiences. Shouting out loud to me - “Hey Wayne - no sweat. You’ve been through worse”

From:

China - huge crowds of people, more than here

Taiwan and Indonesia - moped and motorcycle chaos

Bangkok, Thailand - very bad traffic

Island of Java, Indonesia - Thus far home of the shittiest auto-rickshaws / tuk-tuks that I have seen.

For the record here is my ranking from best to worst:
1) Thailand (These are luxurious almost Mercedes like Tuk-Tuks compared to the others),
2)Sri Lanka
3) India
4) Indonesia

Also in Indonesia and Thailand, and Sri Lanka the sheer variety of modes of transport that one would observe at any single moment.

Island of Bali, Indonesia and Sri Lanka - Crazy driving

For the record in Bali it is more due to motorcycles and mopeds madly flying around in the streets. In Sri Lanka - it is dodging very fast big trucks and buses.

Jakarta , Indonesia - hellish traffic, pollution, potholes, run down areas, and noise

Sri Lanka - Dirty run down looking streets and shop areas, largely due to the pavement not extending to the shops on the sides of the road. No sidewalks either. Even in the smallest towns.

Most places in SE Asia - garbage everywhere

Paraguay - Crappiest taxi I have ever ridden in. The taxi I was in last night, while crappy it definitely has character.

As I saw the sign for the Beverly Hotel, where I write this now, a sense of relief came over me. As I walked into my room - I felt like I was in heaven again.



heaven again...my US$33 room at the Beverly Hotel


NOTE: I have pictures expressing every single place above. One of these days I'll put it all together in a nicer article. :)

Uh....let me say that again... (Kandy, Sri Lanka)

"If all goes according to plan I will be experiencing the most holy Buddhist places one week, the mighty Himalayas the next, with the following week in Palau, then 2 weeks later - the deserts of Arabia. This no doubt will be a weird AND unnatural sensation. I'll let you know how it goes. All ahead!"

Quoted from two journals ago. I was in such a rush while at the airport lounge that I got the order of where I was going confused in that paragraph above!!

It should read like this:

If all goes according to plan I will be experiencing the underwater wonders of Palau one week, then the chaos of India, the holiest places of Buddhism (And Hinduism I'll add now), then the Himalayas in Nepal, then the deserts of Arabia. This no doubt will be a weird AND unnatural sensation. I'll let you know how it goes. All ahead!

...I'll add now that I have done further research and traveled in Sri Lanka...there are quite a few major Buddhist spots here in Sri Lanka. It is now also clear the difference between Sri Lanka and India. While India is the source of Buddhism, there are very few Buddhists there (Less than 1%), it is dominantly Hindu. Sri Lanka is mostly Buddhists. Despite the fact that the Dalai Lama bases himself in India for some parts of the year too. ...Also...though the line is gray (So I read) Nepal is more Hindu thasn Buddhism. It's Tibet - where I won't be going - that is Buddhist.

And it turns out that there are two major schools of Buddhism too spread between different countries...but that discussion is for another day. I'm sure if you look on the Internet it will be easy to learn more about it. Mahayana and Theravada. I guess somewhat like the differences between all the schools of Islam, Christianity, etc...

Going to check out the Temple of the Tooth. A Tooth from Buddha...yeah. Like the Shroud of Turin I suppose.

More soon...