All Sorted In Ireland

After the first couple weeks here in Ireland I think I have finally got everything all sorted out. The program is so far so good, and the group is small and like minded. The weather has been great so far, but I feel like a long, cold, rainy winter is right around the corner. I have been enjoying some good craic (fun?), but I think soon I will not have much time for anything but school. My new Irish phone number is +353 089 205 0337. You can download an app, WhatsApp, for texting and picture messaging, and my Skype name is ajwindybanks. If you find yourself in Ireland, you know where I am.

Back Where I Started

The trip has come full circle and I'm back in Bangkok. It's been a long trip, we saw many unbelievable things, and I will never forget it. The train ride from Malaysia was good fun, and early tomorrow I head to the airport to make my way home. I'm excited to come back to the cold weather, drink water from a tap, and get on to the next thing. I will come back to Asia, don't know when, but I will.

Georgetown

It's been a nice quite few days here in Georgetown. Mostly we have been stuffing our faces with large amounts of Indian food which is very plentiful here in Malaysia. Today we rented a bike and checked out some botanical gardens and a jungle nature preserve. Kind of a stormy day though and we got caught in one on our moped on the way home, I always forget how quick storms can come in the tropics.
After being with Tyler for ten weeks, twenty four hours a day, it has come time for us to part ways. Tonight he's catching a bus to head to Krabi Thailand to spend the rest of his trip rock climbing on the beach. I have one more day in Georgetown then it's a 24 hour train ride up to Bangkok for me. The end is in sight and it seems quite surreal.

KL

It was hard, however we had to say goodbye to Indonesia. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur late last night to begin the final days of the trip in Malaysia. Malaysia is like a combination of all the places we have been so far in one country, and KL is a giant futuristic mega city that seems to have quite a bit of money flowing around. It was a funny transition to be in the dirty backpacker scene just a day ago, but be window shopping for Gucci, Cartier, and the like today. Tomorrow we leave the big city and head for Penang, the original British port colony in Asia.

Bali

Yesterday we took the ferry to Bali from Lombok. Here we will spend our last two days in Indonesia before flying back to the mainland. Bali is very interesting and quite different than the rest of Indonesia because its the only Hindu island. We made a stop in Ubud, and we are staying in a hotel next to a monkey forest. Lets just say the monkeys don't really stay in their designated park. Upon arriving in town Tyler was warned not to walk around carrying fruit because the monkeys would get it off him by any means. Indonesia has been amazing and I don't want to leave, with or without monkey rabies.

Gilli Tarwangan

Did some island hopping yesterday and made the long 15 min journey over to Gilli Tarwangan. About the same as Gilli Air, but more tourists and more of a party scene. Met some German girls on the boat ride over and joined their group. There is enough of us to charter our own snorkel boat for the day today. Tomorrow we will have to head to Bali to catch our flight back to the mainland to start making our way back to Bangkok.

Gilli Air

Forced to move onward we made our way to the Gillis today. They're a set of three islands off the northwest coast of Lombok. Once again a very beautiful spot, and everyone is just as friendly as everywhere else here. If I don't come back just assume I'm somewhere in Indonesia.

Kuta

The days are starting to meld together here on the beaches of Lombok. I feel like I could spend a lifetime in Indonesia and not see the half of it. Kuta has been very very nice.

Lombok

We have found another paradise here in Asia. Lombok is just east of Bali and has a much slower pace and way less tourists. After a delayed flight we got onto the island fairly late and decided to head down to Kuta and go from there. Found some surfboards and mopeds to rent for a couple days and a cheap bungalow to match. Forgot my sunscreen when we went surfing today and now I have a lobster face. Maybe I will wear my straw hat surfing tomorrow.

Yogjakarta

We have spent a fairly lazy couple days in Yogji. Ankor Wat seemed hard to beat so we opted out of the temples near here and we slept in too late today to see the sultans palace in town. However we found probably the nicest hotel we have stayed in yet, and within our budget! It has been real vacation time here and we have been mostly sleeping, eating, and shopping. Spent a lot of time eating sate and learning indonesian with our food cart friend, the only time he wasn't smiling and laughing was when I took his picture, sate is a serious business I guess. Tomorrow we head to Lombok where we will spend most of our time we have left in Indonesia.

A bike comparison for Will, that is one of the nicest motorcycles we've seen. Over here your bike is just down right illegal. Oh and if your looking to expand your business, we went to a mall today and there were 30+ cell phone stores, competition maybe, but all with outdated technology....

!! Happy Birthday Kate !!

Of course the only time I actually need Internet on this trip to contact Kate on her birthday we found ourselves in our first WiFi-less town. Cibodas was however a very nice little town at the base of some volcanoes in the mountains of West Java. We stayed at Freddie's Homestay and he was an interesting old man, very much wanting to school us in some of the 700 languages of Indonesia. We checked out a nearby waterfall and the local botanical gardens, where our handsome American faces drew a large amount of attention. Around noon we left town by bus and are now waiting at the train station for our night ride to Yogjakarta. Happy birthday Kate, miss you, expect that cake in the mail in about 3-4 weeks ;)... Love you.

Jakarta

I think we're really gonna enjoy Indonesia. Seems like a giant melting pot of cultures, food, and environments. Spent the day exploring Jakarta on foot and by bus. Just hoards of people here, got squeezed into the busses during rush hour, and almost got run over playing human frogger on more than one occasion. We're heading out early tomorrow for Cibodas to check out some botanical gardens, and then continuing east from there. Seems like we will be able to do more train travel here as well which I'm quite excited for.