The adventure begins. This is everything I took with me. Still more than I really needed.
My Tokyo guide, Noriko, took me to a store that sells "plastic food" to restaurants for their display windows. It was pretty impressive.
Noriko and more plastic food...
Resident of Japanese Garden in Tokyo
Beautiful Japanese Garden
A sweating Erik (it was really hot!) and Noriko at Japanese Garden
Dancers at Japanese Festival
Japanese masses at Japanese festival
more hip Tokyo-ites
In Thailand now. One way to prevent sunburn.
A dogs life is a good life
I'm not sure why I ate this grub, but it was WAY worse that i expected. But since this happened my first week, it probably kept me from getting myself in even worse trouble throughout the rest of the trip...
I quickly developed an appreciation for swim-up bars. And I soon realized that 2 for 1 drinks specials are even better when you get to drink both of the drinks yourself...
(sigh), I miss Thailand...
My friends from Karon Beach (Phuket). My masseuse, (Mai, across from me), my "tour guide" (Julie, next to me), and their friend Laura.
Reconnecting with the family via Skype in an internet cafe!
View from my room in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. The island you see there is where "The Beach" was filmed.
Hike to top of Koh Phi Phi. The town you see behind me was completely wiped out by the tsunami. Then quickly rebuilt...
Even cats find Thailand in July to be too hot at times...
mmm, Beer Chiang on empty beach...
Same empty beach at sunset
world class rock climbing at Railay, Thailand. Plus some things that even I could climb!
Wonderful isolated and (very!) rustic floating hut in Thailand's Khao Sok National Park. Here's a quick except from my journal: "...the jungle here is super-charged and it is feeding my soul. It is almost too much to take. Dynamic stillness everywhere..."
First leech of the trip
Morning nature viewing boat ride in Khao Sok. My new temporary friends where from the US (2 brunets, dude) and the Netherlands (blonds)
misty mountain tops
Me Tarzan!
We hiked up to here from the lake.
Superior swim spot. Our guide demonstrated the proper technique for jumping off the rock wall.
Poisonous snake under my hut known locally as the "arrow of God"
hungry leech
Army of jungle termites
more termites
This dog joined me on my leech-hike-to-hell-and-back. At least I had opposible thumbs to try to pull the leeches off, so I guess I shouldn't complain...
Leech damage. Teva's aren't ideal in leech country...
Me and dog at the hike destination (a pretty unimpressive waterfall). Only 9 km in the poring rain through massive leech zones with no water left!
More people trying not to get sunburned on a kayak trip around Phang-Nga
Last night in Thailand
Thai Scoobie
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for two days. One more day than necessary...
The Petronas Towers were pretty cool though...
Doing some laundry in Sandakan in Malaysian Borneo
Getting a haircut. Yeah, a little gross...But exciting!
Feeding time at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center
Probably the best video I took of the biggest butterfly I've ever seen. It was more like a hang-glider that a butterfly...
Spent many hours in this jungle canopy perch nature watching, reading, napping...from journal: "Read and napped on bird lookout. Almost found God."
That huge butterfly. 8 inch wingspan?
Looking for nature on the Kinabatangan River
Jumping Proboscis Monkeys, Batman!
Big One
Dominant male proboscis
Maquac monkey and the moon
A sunset along the Kinabatangan
A sleeping blue bird discovered on a night walk
proboscis family
A pissed off dominant male
A local putting some shrimp on the bar-bie
Transcendental caterpillar
The snake that almost killed me
More temporary friends. Two school teachers from Taiwan and a very nice Dutch family. I tried to travel onward with the Dutch family but logistics intervened.
Very temporary friends: Some college students that came to chat with me in Kota Kinabula for no special reason
Kota Kinabula's consistently killer sunsets...
Hike up Mt. Kinabula. Imagine 9 km of nothing put this. Starting at 5000 feet, cresting at 13,000 ft. Supposed to be a 2 day hike, but I had to do it in one day because no room at the mountain lodge half way up. Ack!
Oh yeah, sometimes it got even steeper.
There's the top. Can we leave now?
3 days of recovery at a hot spring was next required.
...took a morning walk to a bat cave while recovering.
Missed my 11th Anniversary, but got Katie a Rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world
It was nice to watch the Olympics, but it was pretty much all table tennis and badminton. And not exactly shown on a 46" screen in HD...
This kid tried (and failed) about 10 times to make this Styrofoam boat float. But he seemed to enjoy ever attempt
Mabul (the island near Sipadan where I stayed while diving) had easily the cutest kids of the whole trip...
This hut in on the left in the foreground (before the woman cutting fish) was my room on Mabul for 5 nights. Perhaps simultaneously both the funkiest and nicest place i stayed.
Stay away from the 6 foot long monitor lizards when they are looking for food...
nice lizard...
Me on a break between dives on Sipadan
More cute Mabul kids
more cute kids!
View back to our guesthouse from our pier. This pier was a pretty awesome star gazing spot at night.
yet more cute children of Mabul
As big as these sharks look, I can guarantee you that they looked bigger in person!
Sipadan self-portrait. The water was sooo clear there...
Swimming with sharks
Hey! Why are you coming back towards me?!
White tipped reef shark
Nemo!
Giant (and i mean GIANT) Moray Eel
Wreck dive near Mabul with Barracuda. Much murkier here than on Sipadan.
Leaving Mabul. Rainbow appearing on cue as if i didn't already know this place was paradise.
My Guide Lait (left) and the son of my host family in Long Pasia. We are waiting out a downpour.
Not sure what this game is called, but they were alot better at it than I was...
Sideways video of Lait clearing away the cutting grass for me
Wiggling leeches wondering where my legs went
Ok leech! Now its PERSONAL!
Me enjoying the fruit of my porters labor. I got pretty used to sleeping in a hammock after a few days.
On our first night of trekking we camped near this waterfall
It was freakin' cold up there! This is one of only 2 or 3 times I wore this long sleeve short and sock hat...
More termites
cute and poisonous frog
wild orchids
A leech taking a romantic interest in my Nike swoosh
Very cool waterfall near 2nd night camping spot
Me after a shower in waterfall. The brown water is a product of all the organic materials decomposing in the jungle.
self portrait after and exceedingly cold bath
another cute and poisonous frog
gourmet dinner on a wood stove
uh, i think someone just photoshopped this one up...
this one too...
beautiful spot
Well, how would YOU clean a pig?
At a long table feast. This is the rehearsal dinner for the village Chief's daughters wedding (the next day).
The feast was...interesting
more pig prep
My Long Pasia host family. Only the mother, Magdalena, spoke any English. She was a real sweetheart and took great care of me.
Traditional Christian wedding in Borneo. Who knew?
Here comes the bride and groom
Find the white guy! There were actually two of us at this point. A french tour guide came with his Malaysian tour guide friend to see the wedding.
A hungry lizard slightly less hungry after a successful catch in Borneo's remarkable Gunung Mulu National Park
Stick insect
Bats leaving the bat cave
string of bats looking more like smoke than animals. Literally millions of bats come of this one cave every night.
never ending bat show...
bat smoke
You can't really tell, but this where a pretty big river exists several miles of cave and starts its life as an above ground river
large butterfly's
Me again on the front of another boat...
big tree
another killer snake ready to pounce
Yo. check me out. I'm on a canopy-walk...
snail
curious bug
Hey! I'm in Singapore now! And so is Katie!!
Central Singapore financial district
Don't bring any stinky fruits onto the Singapore subway...
Hey, I'm back on Koh Phi Phi!
...but this time with Katie!
pizza and beer at sunset in paradise...
pancake, pancake, pancake, pancake. yoohoo, yoohoo!
Another swim up bar. But sharing the drinks this time. grrr...
Phuket sunset
Heartbreaking visit to Phnom Pehn's torture museum. Seeing the pictures of children who were killed by the Khmer Rogue was probably the saddest of the many sad and disturbing sites here. But a telling and poignant window into the cruelty and insanity of the KR.
Barbed wire was used to keep people for jumping to commit suicide.
"Juvenal Female" skull's excavated from the Killing Fields
A wildflower growing out of the Killing Fields
The Killing Fields. Each of these divots is an uncovered mass grave.
At royal palace. This Cambodia woman spoke no English, but helped show me know to pray a some of the temples.
Flowers at open market in Phenom Pehn
While eating some noodle dish at the market, I got to stare at these strange, unidentifiable yellow-balls-of-animal-parts. Mmmm.
Roadway anarchy as viewed from a motorcycle taxi
Cambodia had several massage studios with all blind masseuses. I had 2 great massages from Sophea.
A bus-stop snack of fried tarantellas anyone?
...On to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat
Carvings on pretty much all surfaces of Angkor Wat
Literally miles of carvings...
Hey baby, come here often?
Angkor Wat
Erikor Wat
Bayon: Another major ruin near Angkor Wat. It has 216 huge stone faces
Another Bayon face. Want to see the other 214?
Well, here are a few more anyway...
Local kids playing in the ruins
Ta Prohm. Sadly, now also known as the "Tomb Raider Temple" because Angelina Jolie filmed said movie here. Amazing ruins getting eaten by jungle
More kids and ruins
Another cute kid
At a temple. Then it started raining. Then a cow walked by. Guess you had to be there...
kids heading to school in a "floating village" near Siem Reap
inside a school house
more school kids
Peace baby! Even though I was in Cambodia, this school was for Vietnamese kids
All alone at a temple. Glad I didn't hear until I got back that people get mugged at times like this. Even more glad I didn't get mugged...
Buy this! No, buy THIS! No, No! Buy THIS!!!
Nature bats last
Sideways video of tuk-tuk ride though ruins area. This gives you some feel for how surrounded you are by this stuff. So much cool stuff everywhere that you just drive by it like it's no big deal.
more buy this
Bridge ornament
Sleeping workers and motorcycle on truck
cute Cambodian girl at ruins
cute girl posing for me in the ruins
orphans
back for one last stroll through Angkor Wat
A-Wat
local kids at Angkor Wat moat
My Cambodian tuk-tuk driver, Savy, dropping me off at the airport
...and now I'm In Luang Prabang, Laos
...where $1 buys you a fresh chicken sandwich on a fresh baguette
View from temple up on hill down to town and the Mekong River
Luang Prabang market
French cafe + Laotian temple = happy moment
a weaver weaving
Pak Ou Buddha Cave
Giving offerings to the monks
fuzzy video of very cool waterfall about 30k south of town
First successful photo experimentation with shutter speeds
There's that cool waterfall from the fuzzy video. (The video was from the top)
Swimin'. in coooold water...
View of a fisherman and a sunset over the Mekong from my guesthouse terrace
the fisherman throwing his net
chanting (and fidgeting) monks
monks in "class"
This is a monk (right) and "novice" (left) that I met. The monk is Sombath and the novice is Ping
I ended up "sponsoring" Ping to continue his studies for 6 months. Let's just say it costs significantly less than UC Berkeley.
Woman washing clothes
When it rained, my breakfast was brought to my room, rather than out on the terrace overlooking the Mekong
I rented a bike and rode out around the countryside (and back to that supercool waterfall). This was my roadside mystery lunch.
roadside rice patties during bike ride
there's that cool (and fuzzy) waterfall again
hey. it's pretty cool up here. A little slippery though...
ahhhh!
Last breakfast at my Luang Prabang guesthouse. Boy I miss those baguettes
Very nice owner of the guesthouse I stayed at. I was there for 8 nights and it became a very comfortable home for me...
Home stretch. Back in Bangkok a few days before my return flight
Romantic Bangkok pidgins
Bangkok sunset and King poster
school kids at Royal Palace
pretty flower on the grounds of the Royal Palace
No, it's NOT normal for kids to be swimming in Bangkok's Chao Phraya river...
The protests where just heating up when I was there. This guys was about 3 seconds away from throwing a rock at me I think...
riot cops ready to hit me with a billy club if i got any closer...
...but Thai's being Thai's, friendly help is always just around the corner!
Bangkok is 99% Buddhist, but there is one Hindu temple in town that happened to be on the block my hotel was on and happened to be having a festival my last night in town.
My first view of the States in 100 days! Half Moon Bay I believe...
Doggy welcoming party
