Cool Stuff I Am Doing

Dedicated to Mattypoo.

So I haven't been updating my blog much, and when I do I kind of oversee the general gist of things without really addressing many specific details. This post will just cover random cool things I have been doing without really connecting them.

Cool thing #1:
When I got to Marrakech, Morocco, I went on a trek to the desert. We crossed the Atlas mountains by van, stopping sporadically to see the sights, which included an old fortress, a Moroccan cinema museum, and numerous panoramic views of valleys and oases. At one point, we stopped in a town with a population of 350 families. The only thing to see there was this one building that Jean-Claude Van Damme once visited. After about half a day in the car, we got off in the middle of nowhere. As we exited the van, we were greeted by a few men wrapped in cloth from the tops of their heads to to their ankles and also a large group of camels. We mounted the camels and went for a ride to another middle-of-nowhere location where a tent (it was like a Moses and the Israelites kind of tent) was waiting for us. Camels are not comfortable to ride so we were all sore and stiff by the time we got there, but we were all happy 'cause it was awesome. Then some desert boy served us tea and talked to us in French and we ate dinner which was served in giant community pots. After eating, we gathered around a big bonfire outside (this part didnt feel so awesome because they kept the fire going with lighter fluid... desert people FAIL). We listened to off-pitch Moroccan singing, but it was still cool because they did funny dances. We slept, then woke up to beautiful, picture-perfect views of mountains and dunes (there are pictures on Facebook). Along with my two new Spanish friends, I went dune jumping until breakfast time and then we rode camels back to middle-of-nowhere location #1 where we got back on vans and drove back to Marrakech.

Cool Thing #2
Arriving in Bangkok without any plans would have been a bit difficult... but luckily I met a British engineer named Ella on my plane and she had visited Bangkok before. We became friends on the long plane ride from London to Bangkok and so we decided to travel together for a bit. Although we didn't stay at the same guesthouse, we were both staying on the same street (the famous Khao San Road). After two days of going everywhere we could think of via Tuk Tuk, train, ferry, and walking, we decided to book a tour that would take us outside of Bangkok. On our third day there, we took a tour van to some random cemetary where they dropped us off and pretty much just said, "Look!" Using amazing detective skills (we just read the headstones), we deduced that the cemetary was a WWII cemetary housing POWs from Britain and America. This seemed pretty random, but we shrugged it off and moved on to some WWII bridge and the Jeath Museum. I'm not sure what a Jeath is, but I think it's just a misspelled version of Death. This museum again addressed issues about WWII and POWs, and again we used our amazing detective skills to discover that the WWII bridge was a bridge built by POWs and was somehow important during WWII, and that the cemetary we had visited housed the POWs that died building it.

All this stuff was actually pretty boring 'cause we didnt really learn any facts, we just kinda guessed stuff... but it was still cool because I got to pet a baby leopard and our tour guide named Eddie talked really funny.

Next, we went on to a big, tree filled area with lots of elephants. We went, two at a time, into this elevated hut structure where we got on elephants and went for a ride through this random excursion into the trees. After taking pictures, getting sprayed with elephant snot, and feeding our elephants, we went to our next stop at this restaurant where we got food for FREE. I guess it's not free since we paid for the whole tour, but the whole tour was less than 20 dollars! And it's not over yet because after lunch we got onto these bamboo rafts and went down this river. Pictures of this awesome activity are on Facebook as well, though they are not that exciting.

After our raft ride, we went on to a waterfall where local children were swimming and then we took a train (I think on the WWII POW-built tracks that start near that bridge). Though the tour was pretty bad about informing customers about important information, it was still cool. I mean, I rode a freaking elephant.

Cool Thing #3
From Bangkok, I took a 13 hour bus that was filled past capacity to Krabi, a town on the southern coast of Thailand. From there, I took another 1 and half hour ferry to Koh Phi Phi, the island where The Island was filmed. This movie apparently boosted the tourism industry on the island immensely, and now it's practically just for tourists. After two days of just going to beaches (I think I went to 7 different ones), I was going to sign up for a full day snorkeling tour where we visit various nearby islands and bays to see local ocean life. While walking around, I ran into a guy named Gareth who was temporarily living on the island to obtain his PADI Diving Master certification. I told him about my plans for snorkeling and he told me I should go diving instead. He convinced me, so the next morning I woke up bright and early and signed up for my Open Water course. I started right away. I paid my $400 (I looked up prices in the States and they usually run about $600 for a small-group course... and I got a private course) and began by watching videos for my Diving Theory course. After learning basics, I was instructed on equipment and taught to assemble my own diving gear, then I suited up with my instructor and we went to the beach. For most Open Water courses, you're supposed to start by diving in an enclosed space like a swimming pool, but since Koh Phi Phi has no enclosed spaces big enough for diving training, I got to go straight to the beach. I learned basic diving skills in the water, seeing several fish in the water during my lessons. I finished the majority of my Theory Course the first day and the second day was real diving. We took a boat out to two different islands and did two separate dives into the reefs. For my first two dives, I saw two large leopard sharks, two moray eels, a ton of clown fish in anemones, hundreds of thousands of fish, sea cucumbers, sea stars, water snakes, and much more. I finished my Theory Course the second day and passed my Theory Exam as well as my swimming test and flotation test. The day after (today), we got on a boat and went on two deeper dives in new reefs and I saw five sea-turtles (one of them had only three fins), a poisonous lion fish, a mantis shrimp, more sea cucumbers, huge schools of fish, a few small jellyfish, and some neon-colored nudibranches. And much, much more.

Of all the new things I have tried, I must say that diving is one of the things I am happiest I've done. The bottom of the ocean is one of the most amazing things I have seen. And I don't want to sound like a douche or anything, but I've been traveling since July and seen a lot of things. I don't think ANYTHING beats the reefs. It's seriously like you're on another world. I've seen documentaries with divers on TV where I've thought, "That looks really cool!" As often as that's run through my head, nothing prepares you for the feeling of being able to breathe perfectly on the bottom of the ocean while being close enough to sharks, urchins, and schools of fish that you can reach out and touch them. But you shouldn't because you might die. Anyway... as of today, I am a fully certified PADI Open Water Diver! Now I can go on dives that I plan myself as long as I have a buddy. So... friends, it's time to get your licenses too so we can go diving!

And Milee, just because I went diving, I'll still go snorkeling. And to Sea World. And to the Wild Animal Park. Loser.