Under the surface

The fifth day on Tioman. It seems that my sinuses are finally getting better and I can start the diving course. I just got too lazy after last few days of doing nothing that I could keep on like this for ever. Lay in the hammock and read or listen to the music. Holiday at last...

3 days later: I'm certified open water diver ;) underwater is cool, The reef is beautiful, fishes funny, but still there is nothing like air! Off we go towards Indonesia! 

Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur. it's 4.00 in the morning, the fridge that brought us here from Thailand has just dropped us somewhere in the center. It's pitch dark but streets are not empty, it's Ramadan, so many Muslim men are having early breakfast in the nearby, tightly packed, halal food place before the sun will rise. We get a disgusting coffee at McDonald's and think what to do next. Decision - night trek to Petronas Towers. Circling around we get there through 'little India' and its omnipresent sari shops, some backyards where dogs don't even bark but they look from dark corners of a dark city - silent observers. Rats, picking last, delicious pieces of yesterday's kebab's before the washmen will come and clear the pavement with the soap solution. Rich and fancy financial district and there, there! Petronases! Bench! Splendor and two backpackers setting up a camp in front of it, washing faces in the fountain. 

Other rats, the office ones, passing by from time to time, it's hard to tell if they are going to or out of the office... Lights are turning on, off, it's a spectacle for those who have time to watch. It's getting lighter, sun is rising under the towers - photo session - people start to rush, traffic picks up. It's getting crowded. All around the city people in suits, miniskirts, saris, long coats and head scarves, too short trousers, hats and shirts, elegant makeups, emphasizing their origin, religion, social status. All of them with badges hung around their necks, already before they leave home, showing the streets their belonging to the corporates, determining the skyscrapers they are heading to, saying they are not here to fuck spiders. Big city at its core. Lets move on. We're taking first bus to Melaka. 

Retrospective from Cambodia

A few people were asking me about my volunteering in Cambodia, the farm, the project, the people. Well, it was so long ago that I hardly remember and since I've stopped writing anything anywhere it will take  some brain work to recall what was all that about...

Well, apart from the fact that I was super lazy and for most of the time was thinking about getting into a hammock (what I have been often doing) it took some hard work, including swinging a hoe and such. It was very different from what I expected, starting with the fact that nobody had a clue what we want to do and where we want to start. So unless you are a very organized person, always make sure that there actually is some kind of a program, otherwise it can be boring or at times even irritating. Anyway, we've spent half of the time in town based house, trying to organize ourselves, training a lot of yoga, eating healthy food and discussing environment and deteriorating state of human spirit in general. Very hippie style, anarchistic, angry people who would like to change the world so the go to poor Asia to do that. 

No mom, I didn't save the world, nor did I attempt to do that. I haven't learned how to do that either. But I've made a few drawings, a little bit of landscaping and I probably prevented a few people from killing each other (saving the world missions rise murderous tensions, you see). 

When on the farm site, there was a lot of physical work, mostly in full heat, sleeping on the floor in very very basic, village houses and one of the best night skies ever. 

Being in such a remote area of such a poor country makes one realize what actually is poverty and what it takes to get out of it. How resigned must be people who do not care how their surroundings look like, if their children run around dirty and naked together with a herd of same looking pigs. I've never seen anything like that before or after, even India, although often terribly dirty and poor in cities, in villages presented some degree of aesthetics and cleanliness. 

All in all it was a great experience and it timed me up perfectly to meet an amazing group of people a few days later in Laos:)

Laos - my adopted second motherland

Lonley Planet on Lao: "Lao commonly express the notion that 'too much work is bad for your brain' and they often say they feel sorry for people who 'think too much'".

Cambodia's environmental issues

For those of you who haven't seen them yet, here are some photos from Vietnam, which I've had a chance to develope some time ago.

https://plus.google.com/photos/104268395531637428125/albums/5887341286937768881?authkey=CJTU0bHTv_bS5wE

I'm in Cambodia now, preparing a plan for ecological farm in remote village in Rattanakiri province.
60% of rainforest disappeared during last 40 years, indigenous people who were finding their food in the jungle before have to buy it in the market now, as they don't know how to grow it. Villages look poos and rather depressive.


Oryginal forest, getting denser when deeper




















Areas cleared from trees, some of them still smouldering. With mono crop farming system soil gets poor within 5 years and plantation moves further, clearing next part of the land from trees and using chemical fertilizers to keep things growing.




















Rubber trees plantations, that cover big part of the whole province, decreasing food production.




















Traditional houses: left - for young, unmarried man, right - unmarried girl. Unfortunately I'm shooting those pics blind with my small camera.

Over.

"I will love you good!"

I've got an offer of marriage today. From 60 years old Chinese man.
"Hello! What's your name? Are you married? Boyfriend? Marry me than! I'm better than all those young boys, I will take care of you, I will love you good!" Mom, dad, what do you think?

Jobs

I'm boarding the ship to Ly Son Island and what I see is the floor of the passanger cabin covered with green plastic bags full of vomits. Pukes should be the logo of  vietnameese  means of transportation. Bus - pukes, ship - pukes. Unfortunately vomitting is like yawning - when you hear somebody fighting two rows behind you, all that you have in your stomach start bubbling joyfully and wants to catch some fresh air as well. I managed to avoid this till now somehow, but I'm also not stuffing myselfe with the big bowl of beef soup before the bumpy ride as others do.
Back to the topic. Through the cabin goes a boy with the bucket and collects those plastic bubbles filled with half digested soup. What a job... Just the view makes me dizzy so I immediately decide to spend the whole journey on the sun burned deck but at least with the wind in my hair. Soon after the puke-picker follows with the bucket full of bubbles and of course empties it straight to the sea. Some of them go straight down, but some sway playfully on the waves, glistening in the sun.

Ly Son. Beautiful shore, cliffs, white sand and super nice people. Completely off turistic track!

Island of garlic fields. They even put it in rice wine and drink garlic alcohol. Cant imagine the morning breath after a night of going wild... ;)

Viet Nam+ Ba Lan = Number 1!! A beer with locals and only phrase I could understand. I happily went on in polish, they talked vietnameese. We had fun.

Beautiful sunset on the beach full of waste - thats the landfill of the village :( kids take a swim and have fun anyway)

Mekong Delta 8h boat ride. Was nice but my buttocks acquired the shape of the bench...

Sunset under the monsoony sky