Daily Absurdities

Arrived in Sydney and finally got to get out and really take a look around. Went to the obvious spots and took photos. As if people weren’t asking enough questions about us, we bought dinner jackets and went to the symphony in the famed opera house. A very powerful performance from their solo violinist.

Capped it off at a bistro overlooking the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Pics from Thursday out with Melbourne friends. Had my first Italian Food in ages. 

and later on a friendly game…

Kind of fuzzy because I was shaking from the excitement of being in Australia. Some friends of mine were kind enough to send a driver to pick us up. Our first stop?

Then it was to the hotel for 12 hours of sleep. So far so good in Melbourne. 

We hung out with the monkeys yesterday in Ubud. We had to get out of Kuta, the street vendors and the ueber-annoying guys wh0 stand on the side of the road and say the same thing while making a wheel/driving gesture (”boss, transport?”) then insulting you when you ignore them, was getting old. About the only cool thing about Kuta is the beach and our air-conditioned room. 

So we’re walking into this monkey jungle and I buy a bushel of bananas for $1 and suddenly this tribe of monkeys comes flying out of nowhere to get a piece of Jakob. One pulls at my shorts, another looks like he’s about to go for my head. I discard the bananas at a safe distance and keep walking. A lesser soul would have shrieked in terror. 

The rest of the walk through the forest was great. Monkeys crawling all over ancient ruins and temples was like something out of “Congo”. I could have watched them all day. We even ran into a puppy that had been adopted by the little primates. They ran and played, pulled his little tail, and humped him with glee. 

We capped it off with an amazing dinner in a little forest restaurant. My dish (below) was about $5. 

Had some pretty incredible sword fish after a walk on the beach last night. Pretty solid end to the work day. It’s hot here and I’ll be ready to go soon. 

So one of the things I promised myself I wouldn’t do is come back to the states and use little tidbits that I learned in conversation with 1st generation Asian people. FAIL. 

Today I was at a nice little Thai place in my neighborhood for a to go order. Almost without thinking – but definitely thinking – I said kapunka (thank you) to the owner before I left. But this is why I do it: she was thrilled when I said it and excitedly said it back. Thai isn’t a mainstream language, so saying “hello” or “thank you” or “chopsticks” is actually a nice gesture. 

Conversely, I almost never speak German to Germans outside of Germany. They don’t like it, and sometimes get annoyed. Since they’re such seasoned travellers, they want to completely escape their language and culture, but insulate themselves with enough friends when they do it so as to not dive too deeply into another culture. One exception is out at pubs though. It’s a nice treat for them when an American speaks German I think because it’s like, “why the hell would you live in Cologne and learn German?”. Dunno, honestly, good question.

No pics over the last two days, just a video of one of the most powerful nights of my life (forthcoming). If God does exist, he was very angry. We were sitting around a fish barbecue and people were dancing all over the place. Lighting was tearing up the sky but there was no thunder because the sound was blocked by a mountain. No rain either, just the sky on fire. Suddenly around 10PM the entire island goes dark, not just my beach, but the whole piece of land in the middle of the sea. The power was out for the rest of the night and the only light was produced by candles and lightning. It was like being on a different planet.

Yesterday we rented jet skis and tore around the Gulf of Thailand. We got about a mile out and the sky got dark again with clouds. The sea became violent (but manageable), and life was amazing.

Had some amazing congee this morning after hike to the top of Hong Kong.

Chewed one of these lil’ fellas for about an hour after the blood infusion. Has similar properties to nicotine without the nicotine or addiction, so they say. Hallucinated a little.

So tonight we’re puttering around looking for dinner and we roll up to this FRESH seafood place. Gumby can’t stomach it and we’re about to move on until we run into one of the two black guys in Taiwan. Turns out we met him the other night at a bar. He invites us to this fire eating show he and his friends are putting on tomorrow night. We catch a glimpse of it on his PSP — looks pretty intense. And his hands are covered with burn marks.

We eventually find some breaded chicken, hold the chicken, and move on.

PS: Lucky You off of Deftones’ self-titled. DaGGer.