Java, one Island, two worlds

I had the chance to flight to Java twice over the last weeks, once for personal travel, once for business trip, but I definitely feel like I've been traveling to two different countries: the urban sprawl of Jakarta is a the exact opposite of the quiet and gorgeous remote countryside of the rest of Java.

The first time I went there for a one week tour on Central and East Java with Pilou, Marie and a bunch of expat friends. Pilou is a good old school pal of mine. We had plenty of great times few years ago in our campus in Brittany, and we hang out a bit every now and then whenever I crash in Paris for few days. Pilou was kind enough to come visit me all the way to M'sia for a few weeks. It was also the opportunity for me to get to know his lovely special one: Aurelie.



In order to immerse Pilou straight away in a true Asian experience, we left KL almost upon his arrival, after only a very short night. There we go, en route to a one week intense experience in remote Java. On the menu: discovering the legendary Hindu and Buddhist temples of Prambanan and Borobudur ; climbing the grand volcano of Bromo (noticed the new banner on this blog?) ; visiting Surakarta and Jogyakarta ; discovering Madura Island before the Indonesian government succeeds in his attempt to transform this farmer's Island into a place for tourists. Knowing me, needless to mention that we traveled on a budget (local buses, dirty guesthouses, fried rice at the stalls, etc...) That's the only way to get an authentic taste of Java

All along our journey, I was constantly amazed by the kindness and the openness of the Javanese people. Everyone was curious to know where we came from, what we where doing in such places so far from the tourists roads. Everyone was willing to give us directions, and most of the time without ulterior motive. At some point in Surakarta bus station a crowd of Javaneses gathered around us in the blink of an eye, and everyone was shouting to advise us on the best way to reach the next hop. Don't give me wrong, I'm not naive and I know that our wallet was also very attractive, but most of the time I didn't feel that I was pushed to purchase anything. I really believe that people where flattered that we come from so far to visit their villages, and that we were able to speak (a little bit) their language. They wanted us to have the best experience of their country. This simplicity in the human contact is really appreciable. Quite a change for a European! However this is only true for the remote countryside villages. In the tourist spots (the temples for instance), it's a whole different story, and you are not a traveler anymore: you become a prey.

Bottom line: a great experience, a lot of contacts with the Javaneses, UNESCO-like sites (BTW, Prambanan and Borobudur are listed).

Only a week after this trip, I was requested to travel to Jakarta for business. IMHO Jakarta is definitely another world, made of pollution, traffic jam, violence, prostitutes, greediness. The landscape is spoiled and Jakarta is a huge soulless urban sprawl. The taxi is the only was of transportation since it's not possible to walk around.

What a contrast! I'm not Marxist at all but I can't help thinking that human beings are not made to live in big cities and that government should kick everyone back to the countryside...

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Colmar Tropical

A few year ago the prime minister's wife traveled to France over her summer vacation and had a chance to discover the charming town of Colmar, famous for its typical Alsace architecture. She actually loved it so much that she wanted to get the same back home in Malaysia.

The prime minister's wife desires are a serious issue in Malaysia, therefore it didn't take long to built a replica of Colmar's main street in the mountain area of Bukit Tinggi, 80km North of KL.

Not that I was that homesick, but I'm always open to any day trip outside of KL outskirt, especially when the bike ride is supposed to be nice, along a small path climbing up the mountains! And it was the occasion for Vincent to take his bike out of KL for the first time.

It's really astonishing to walk along this replica's streets: it's like France, but surrounded by jungle and in a 35 C moist atmosphere... It feels fake, though. It's a bit like Eurodisney's castles!

Of course there are French restaurants, and yes, it is possible to order a choucroute! Now the real challenge is: can you decently enjoy a choucroute by 35 degrees???

Health First!

Last weekend I couldn't postpone it anymore, I had to do the boring chore of grocery shopping. While in the supermarket I saw a nice and cheap made in China juice extractor. As I don't have very healthy eating habits those days, I thought I could compensate with a daily freshly squeezed fruit juice. I also brought about 10 kg of fresh fruits (mangoes, pineapple, papaya, banana, kiwi, lime, manggis, oranges, coconut milk, you name it)





To celebrate this new purchase I had some friends coming over. One of them brought plenty of cheap Philippines' Rhum... It all begun with fresh home-made Piña Colada. It ended up with exotic experiments... I'm not sure about the target completion regarding the healthy thing, but at least we had fun ;-)

Bubble Share for dummies

Following remarks I had from several Internet-illiterate readers, I think I need to publish a short manual to support my readers for a better blog experience ;-)

When you see the Bubble Share applet, feel free to click on the "play" button, it will then display the pictures embedded in the page.

If you want to browse the pictures with higher resolution, please click anywhere on the picture itself, it will redirect you towards the album hosted on Bubble Share website where you will be able to browse them full size as well as to download an archive of it.



(The one above is just a picture for the illustration purpose, it's not an actual clickable Bubble Share applet. But you can practice on the previous post just below)!!

Trekking Taman Melawati

It will soon be one year that I live in Malaysia and I now have some routines. One of them is a trek on a cliff (actually the technical term is ridge) called Taman Melawati.

One particularity of KL is that it is enclosed in a valley (Klang Valley) surrounded by cliffs. You can really tell when looking from tall buildings. And that's great because it offers plenty of nice opportunities of day treks. The Taman Melawati (officially called Klang Gates Ridge) is one of them. It actually is a WWF classified spot and the officials claim it is the biggest pure quartz ridge in the world... The Taman Melawati is located North East of KL, about 30 min bike ride from downtown. Well, that's when you know the way to the trail head. It's actually hidden at the end of a small dirt path leaving from the village called Melawati. It took me long time to discover it.

The journey to get there is quite an adventure by itself. We've been caught there by the tropical rain once. In Malaysia it can rain 10 cm in a 10 min time frame, and when this sudden huge amount of water is collected by the ridge and concentrated on the dirt path, it gets swamped in the blink of an eye. I had to ride my bike out before getting really flooded and I found myself riding in 30 cm (1 ft) of water, no kidding!! The whole exhaust pipe was sunk underwater so I had to make sure never to release the throttle to continuously exhaust gas and therefore prevent water from entering into the engine via the exhaust pipe, while praying not to fall into the ravine (couldn't see the ground because of dirty water flowing over)! Stressful time! So bad I didn't shoot pictures of it 'cause it was really impressive.

Anyway, most of the time the weather is nice and this is a really pleasant walk. I've been there about 5 times, bringing different friends each time. They all loved it. It is so unexpected to feel so remote from the city after just a 30 min ride. That's a good thing with KL: nature is never that far away. Kuala Lumpur is definitely a rather small capital. Once up there, the view is breathtaking. We actually stand at the edge of the KL area. And as we are on a ridge, we have a perfect 360 view. On one side we can see the whole Klang valley: KL and its suburbs; and one the other side the wild rainforest, the mountains, etc... Strong contrast! I like to be there, I feel like I'm at the edge of the civilized world...

Most of the time the path becomes pretty wild, but we can't get lost since it follows the top of the ridge. Sometimes it becomes more about climbing than walking! It can even be dangerous: a friend of mine survived a 2 meters fall with just minor scratches! Apart from this the real difficulty comes from the heat: there is no shadow at all and the quartz acts as a reflector concentrating the heat... That's why we usually (try to) get there by sunrise.

I heard about other nearby spots like this one, I'll keep you posted about it.






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(thanks to Guilhem for some of those pics)


A friend of mine tracked our itinerary with his GPS. Here is a Google Earth screening of it. You can download the whole kml trace here.

Impossible Mission

- we need to catch a plane to Penang leaving at 21:30 tonight
- therefore we need to be at the airport (KUL - LCCT) at 21:10, no latter
- she leaves office at 20:00 at Jalan Tun Razzak and Jalan Ampang
- Kuala Lumpur is highly jammed at this time, no way to make it by cab

Your mission if you choose to accept it: pick her up with your bike when she leaves the office. Make it to the airport in less than one hour and ten minutes. (as a reminder: 85 km to be covered on jammed highways with crazy Malaysian drivers rushing home for the weekend).

If you don't get any news before Monday, it will mean that we mad it :-)

If you don't get any news at all, it means that we crashed onto a car :-(

(just kiddin' Mom lah, safety first: I can make it any time to Penang anyway, if not this weekend)

Edit: did it, was nice to discover Penang, especially the old Georgetown and the West coast.

Livin' with the Orang Asli

Long time no post, again! What can I say, I've been crawling under big workload and also I'm a bit lazy... But for those who where wondering about me, good news is I survived the Taman Negara.

Taman Negara is the main national park of peninsular Malaysia. This 4,500 sq. km wild area has been established about a century ago in order to preserve the untouched rain forest of Malaysia: this forest is 130 million years old and hosts some endangered species like the Indochinese Tiger, the Sumatran Rhinoceros, the Malayan Gaur (seladang), the Asian Elephant and the mahseer fish. On top of that, Taman Negara is a perfect place to watch a crowd of colorful birds like the horn bill (my favorite one, it woke us up every morning with its unique fireman siren noise)... Really a nice place, and two thumbs up for Malaysian authorities for the effort they put in preserving the rain forest (unfortunately, that is really not the case in many other places where tourism incomes take over nature preservation).

This trek was among the most memorable treks I ever did. After a looooonnng drive (traffic jam because of Chinese New Year), we finally made it to the Taman Negara. I give credit to Minh, Sandrine, Audrey and Sam (yes, you counted 4 heads) for being cramped on the rear seat of the car during 5 hours with almost no complaining! (yes, traveling on a budget...)

The first view of the park was a bit surprising: having traveled across USA and having enjoyed most of the gorgeous American national parks, I was expecting a huge parking lot with rows of RVs, big park headquarter with plenty of information booth, camping gear stores, hotels, etc... Well actually when we arrive we saw some guest houses, some food stalls installed on floating barges and that's pretty much it!! Cool :-)

We spent the rest of the afternoon checking for a good guide and working with him on the best itinerary. We made it clear that we wanted to go as deep as possible in the rain forest, as far as possible from the so touristy "canopy walk". Well, our guide clearly understood that we wanted adventure, lack of comfort, loneliness, etc...

The next morning we left early and boarded in a very thin dugout for a 3 hours trip upstream the river. I still wonder how come we didn't end up in the river, eaten by piranhas... Congrats to the dugout driver! We had a chance to see some Orang Asli (native people of Malaysia, still leaving in the jungle).

We made it to Kuala Keniam on the far North of the park. As soon as the dugout driver dropped us, we knew that the only way out of the jungle was to walk three days along the elephants path to reach kuala Tahan. This was the non-return point! The walk was very intense. Imagine a thick jungle, a constant moist heat, a swamped path, occasional heavy rain, bugs, hungry leeches (those are the worst of all). But don't give me wrong, in spite of all that I really enjoyed it, we had fun!

And the first night by itself was worth all the pain: we slept in a cave. A really impressively big cave. The kind of cave in which you totally imagine a tribe of prehistoric people living there decades ago. It felt really weird to be in such a place, so surrealistic in the middle of a wild jungle. We made a fire, made some drawings on the walls (just kiddin' for the latter). It would be perfect place except for the bats: I didn't realize at first because the ceiling is like 50m high, but it is packed with bats. And at night time, bats shit... Just on you when you feel asleep after a long long hike day... Not only the idea of bats dropping on you is disturbing, but also when this dried feces hits you after a 50m fall, it really hurts!!!

The second night was a bit less fun: we fought with rats all night long. And by rats I mean monster rats. The kind of rats that look more like a dog. There where looking after our food, and even hanging the backpacks didn't solve the issue because those clever things found a way to climb along the rope. We basically spent the night round robining to chase them with our flash lights.

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Selamat tahun baru cina!!

Happy Chinese new year!!!

Taking advantage of the extended week-end, we go trekking for 4 days in the inner jungle at Taman Negara! 4 days in a moist heat, fighting with mosquito's, giant ants, leeches, snakes (among 100 species, only 36 are dangerous for human being :-), tigers...

We are a group of 6, target is to come back with 4 at least.

Back in a few days (hopefully) with great pictures!

You are not alone!

Hey Mathieu, don't worry you're not alone: we do pretty much the same job in the same company, just in different locations... And I'm at my desk on Sunday at 9am, starting a long work day!
Cheers man!

Pangkor Island: double shot

I've been to Pangkor Island two week-ends in a row! This Island lays on the West coast, about 200 km North of KL. Unlike the paradise white-sand Islands on the East coast, Pangkor is more developed and the sea is less appealing. However Pangkor offers a nice opportunity to discover the very traditional life of the fishermen, to see women working at drying the fish brought by the men, etc...

The inner jungle offers some nice trekking opportunity, but watch the leeches! I found a bunch of them sucking my blood after a short walk in the rubber trees forest, and I really had a hard time getting them off my feet, and that's really not a nice feeling! (Thanks again Marie, you saved my life, I owe you big time!!)

The atmosphere on Pangkor is very laid back, people are more eager to have a small talk than in KL. There are not many landmarks aside from a typical Taoist temple, but it's still a perfect place close to KL to spend the week-end on the beach :-)








Thnaks Marie for those nice picts!

Biker's Heaven

Today I found the true biker's Paradize! It's called Fraser's Hill. Fraser's Hill is a mountain resort named after a british fortune hunter who started a tin mine over there about two centuries ago. It's a small cozy and so british styled town lost in the middle of nowhere in the jungle, about 100 km North of KL.






Marie and I wanted to escape KL's heavy heat and chill out for one day in this resort. We took my bike to get there. And this ride happened to be the perfect ride! Especially the second half of the trip. Imagine a small road (actually more a slope), cutting through a quiet and dense jungle, climbing across a steep mountain. Imagine a desert one way road, just for you, laid in a perfect environment and which discloses a breathtaking lansdscape after each curve... Imagine a road in very good condition and plenty of curves! I really had a good time riding up there!

For those KL-based readers who ever plan on going over there, here is a good trick: about half-way to Fraser's Hill, a few kilometers after Kuala Kubu Baharu on road 55, on the left handside and after a bridge there is a freshwater river and cascade with a lake at the bottom. There are big rocks and tiny sand beaches around it. It's surrounded by jungle. Many locals were having a barbecue and swimming in the lake. This is a perfect secret place for a break, and sandwitch and a short swim on the way to Fraser's hill. It can even be the destination by itself! Always good to leave noisy KL for a week-end and end up in such perfect location for nature-lovers. Plus it's just about one hour away from KL.

David vs. Goliath

Yesterday 30th of January, Micro$oft released its last version of Windows OS: Vista. With a development budget as high as 20 billion USD, and a marketing campaign worth 900 million USD (including fireworks in Paris and many other cities in the world!), Vista is a great symbol of monopolistic capitalism. An expert study has been conducted and according to them Microsoft will force Vista into 80% of the PC on Earth within 3 years...

Well, I'll be part of the 20% rebels because I freshly installed Linux (Mandriva) just yesterday on my laptop :-) In your face, Bill!! What? You don't give a shit about me??

Livin' with the Karens

During our trip through Thailand, Marie and I had the chance to spend some days with our friend Jim. We met Jim two years ago in Indian, USA where he teaches anthropology. Lucky us, Jim was traveling across South East Asia just when Marie and I took some days of! He offered us to join him for his field trip in a tribal village near Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. That’s how we got to meet the Karen people and share their lives for some days! Thanks again Jim, for this unforgettable experience and unique opportunity.

Let’s start with a short background reminder: who are the Karen people?

The Karens are one of the 20 ethnics groups composing the Thai Hill Tribes. With a population of about 400,000 the Karens are by far the largest tribe in Thailand. Those ethnic groups migrated from Tibet, China and Laos in the 19^th century and settled in the mountains at the Myanmar/Thailand border. Most of them are Buddhists. They are self-sufficient and live a very simple life, mainly unchanged since decades (well, until recently at least...) The Thai government recognizes them and tries to respect their culture, while prevented them from some traditions like growing opium poppy for instance.

We meet Jim at Chiang Mai airport. To reach the tribal village, it takes a 3 hours ride on the back of an old pick-up through a desert and bumpy dirt path climbing across steep mountains. At this point of the trip, I realized that I had definitively left the beaten tracks!...

But the first view of the village confirmed that it was worth the journey and that the coming days would be unforgettable! The little village is composed of about 20 to 30 small bamboo houses built on stilts. The ground floor below the house is used as a storage area and for poultry and pigs farming. The alleys between the houses are made of beaten red-clay, which combined with the setting sun light made a perfect landscape! The most surprising thing was the silence! With the next TV being probably 50 miles away the village was surprisingly calm. We slept in one of the bamboo houses. The inside structure is very simple: only one main room, with the kitchen in a corner and with the fire pit. Yes, they make fire inside the houses… Cough, cough!!

We woke up before the sunrise and climbed the pick above the village and the view in the morning mighty mist was just perfect! On the way back we had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the morning routine of the villagers: the elders start the fire to warm the house up and cook the breakfast. The kids go pick up the traps they left overnight and are very proud to show us how big their catch is… Hmm, makes me hungry! I actually tasted this rat, and not surprisingly I didn’t like it!! The taste is really strong, almost disgusting. The closest I can think of, taste wise, is wild boar.

The mothers get their child ready to go to school. The daily life is very laborious, whether it’s in the rice paddy, at cloth making or to prepare rice seeds… Almost everything they need (food – shelter – cloth, etc…) is provided by the nature.

The Karens traditionally practice slash-and-burn agriculture, which turned out to be very bad for the environment. Therefore the royal government took action to prevent such practice. But in order to preserve Karen’s fragile culture a committee was created to interact with the Karens in a non-destructive manner. Purpose was to teach them how to evolve their habits while maintaining their culture and their self-sufficiency. Lot of pedagogy was used and it took time, but the outcome is pretty satisfying as most of the hill tribes accepted to change their way of cultivation. Well, that’s the official story. Some Human Right association mentioned that those tribes traded their nomad way of life against a sedentary one… That was the condition imposed by the Thai government to grant full citizenship to the tribe’s people. It’s true that some traditions are lost, but on the other side, thanks to educational programs, chance is given to the Karens to adapt to modern life and to continue to exist… What’s right, what’s wrong? Dunno!...

Another outcome of the official tribe development policies is the school system. The government sponsors parents who send their children to school. We visited a nearby school. A particularity is that the students bring food for their teacher. Kids are the same all over the world when it comes to school playground.

The next day we took a walk on the mountains. This is just a perfect area for trekking! Nature is good and there is almost no threat (except for some snakes). Villagers are shy but very welcoming. It’s extremely quiet and the landscapes are just breathtaking, especially in the morning mist!!! I’ll be back some day, that’s for sure!

This trip in a tribal village was really a memorable experience. It’s good to remember that life can be (and should be?) much simpler than it is in big cities, working for big worldwide companies…

Next hop for Marie and me: short layover in Chiang Mai for some days and then en route to Cambodia!

[to be continued...]



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Back on track!

Sorry, I’ve been lazy on the posting those days, but a combination of heavy workload and plenty of parties/week-ends out made things hectic since I’m back from Cambodia three weeks ago. But it was worth waiting! Soon to be posted: perfect pictures and stories from our adventures in Thailand and Cambodia. On the menu: New cuisine style... Have you ever wondered how does rat taste? Don’t look further than my blog to figure out. But also: some days spent within a tribal village in northern Thailand ; a day on a Cambodian floating village ; a glimpse of a paradise Island off Shianoukville ; Crazy Christmas’ Eve celebrated in a crappy overnight train through remote Thailand with drunken Belgium guys... and even more coming soon… Stay tuned!

Meeting the Karens People

I'm off to Thailand (North of Chiang Mai), and then to Cambodia!!!
'll be back in 3 weeks with great stories and pictures...

There is not such thing as a free meal...

... as the proverb says. However tonight in Changkat Bukit Bintang street I had the best free meal ever!!

A new restaurant had its opening tonight just down my condo. For the connoisseurs, it replaces former Copper Chimney but it is managed by the same owner. Marie and I got invitation as loyal customers. The Moghul House serves typical North Indian Food. And tonight, everything was free!...

In a nutshell: I'm stuffed! I'm full! I enjoyed excellent Indian food from 8 to 1am! I never ate so much tasty food in one meal. I think I now understand what a Roman orgy could be... My jaw is still hurting, I don't know if it's due to chewing or laughing!

Shall I also mention that there was an open bar for beer too? Needless to mention how high I am now...

Beyond that, the menu is great, the food is good and the prices are reasonable for Changkat Bukit Bintang. I'm glad to find out that the substitute for the lovely Copper Chimney will keep the same spirit.

Huh, what's that? How, yes, I forgot: I got to wake up in 5 hours to go climb the Taman Melawati : a quartz ridge at the edge of the Klang Valley (WWF classified). A long hike which includes several steps along the way where it really becomes about climbing... Hopefully I will sleep my beer off by the time I will hang with one hand above a 20 ft deep gap :-)

Bons baisers de Jules Vernes

Yesterday I had the chance to spend the evening with Tristan, Charlie and Jean-Claude, 3 artists currently on tour in South-East Asia. Jean-Claude is a pianist/singer. Tristan is a photographer and Charlie is a theatrical performer. They found a way to match their talents and build an incredible show (cf. title above mentioned), which I strongly recommend (they will perform in Hanoi, Vietnam
tomorrow night).

Those artists have been touring the world for a long time. It was really interesting to chat with them. Their experience of the cultural difference is endless. Jean-Claude in particular has been traveling in the USA for 3 years. Marie and I were amused to figure out that we all have the same feelings about this country. A great country to which one can’t stay indifferent!

I wanna have a gypsy life, so bad!

Haze-ardous!

What's going on in KL? The whole city is covered with a thick fog smelling just like a charcoal barbecue before you drop the meat on the grill... What's that? Oh, I know: the haze is back in KL :'-( Cough, cough!! What is the haze? It's easy as a pie: farmers in Indonesia (especially on the neighboring island of Sumatra) burn the forest in order to clear off fields for cultivation. This generates huge amount of smoke. Depending on the wind, those clouds of smoke make their journey over the Melacca sea and end up reaching Malaysia West coast.

See "before" and "after" pictures of KL:

Sometimes, when the smoke is too thick, schools are closed, as well as some industry manufactures and offices. This is bad for productivity. And needless to mention the health hazard... But to me the most surprising thing about it is the Malaysians reaction: obviously some of them are very concerned about the above mentioned troubles. But others are pretty happy about it because during haze attack the sun can't reach KL and the temperature drops from a few degrees!!

Malaysian government urged Indonesia for collaboration in chasing those illegal forest fires. Indonesia sent some officers in Sumatra jungle. They caught several fire criminals and deported them towards Malaysia... because they were Malays!! Yes, some Malay people setup business among the pyromaniacs... An excellent way for Indonesia to tell Malaysia: "See, the criminals are from your country, all this is your fault so now stop boring us with this smoke story and let our farmers burn forest if they want to"...

I bet you, we are not gonna see blue sky in KL before pigs fly.

Koh Lipe picts

There we go:

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One week with the Sea Gypsies

Get there ASAP, before it becomes overcrowded and corrupted by tourism and easy dollars!!!

Koh Lipe is a small Island located in the South Western Thailand, in the Andaman sea. This Island is part of the Tarutao national park, spreading over a small archipelago. Most of the Islands are wild. Nobody lives there permanently. Koh Lipe is the only inhabited island.

To reach the Island from M'sia, it's a hell of a journey... Count 24h, two buses, three boat hops (including one with the most noisy engine I ever heard in my life (and will ever ear because I'm deaf now), one cab ride. But believe me, Koh Lipe is worth it!

The Island is really like in the movies: thin white sand, lagoon blue water, coral reefs, multicolor underwater life, etc... We lived in a very simple bungalow with a perfect view on the lagoon. We shared our room with plenty of animals, including a fleet of cockroaches, a giant worm and believe it or not, a spider bigger that my hand!

One remark, though: I read on the 1999 Lonely Planet about Koh Lipe that it is a wild Island with almost no facilities for tourists, and that opportunity is given to the visitors to live like the fishermen. On the 2003 edition, some bungalows and guest houses + restaurants are mentioned. And my 2006 experience is that there is a lot of tourism facilities! Especially on Pattaya beach. And not only there are already a lot of them, but also there are a lot being constructed currently... I even got to meet a French girl who settled there, living from necklaces she sells to the tourists! Until recently Koh Lipe was wild and authentic, visited by only a few respectful tourists looking for true experience. My sad feeling is that this time is over, and Koh Lipe is "growing" very fast. In a few years it will just be like Koh Phiphi or Koh Lanta, i-e transformed into a giant recreational park for tourists in spite of its own soul...

However even if it seems pessimistic, there is still hope for those looking for an adventure a la Robinson Crusoe: the neighboring Islands are still untouched (Koh Adang, Koh Rawi, etc...) For a few bahts a fisherman will drop you there for a week... That's actually what we planned at first for this trip, but due to several reasons we couldn't do it :'-( Next time, for sure!

Koh Lipe is inhabited by a handful of sea gypsies, or Chao Lae, the Thai for "people of the sea". Traditionally, they were nomads who traveled from island to island fishing and collecting shellfish. Ethnologists believe their ancestors were some of the first inhabitants of this area. Most of them settled now and they live mainly from fishing. They ride the famous "long-tail boats": their propellers are at the end of a pole, so the person steering the "long-tail" boat looks like a gondolier. We had a chance to walk through their little village, we could see how those gypsies live their life outdoor.

This sounds like they are a bunch of people having a very peaceful and simple life, by the sea, self-sufficient, etc... However the reality is a bit darker than this perfect picture: I had the chance to meet Chris, a German guy who has been wandering in the area for the past 7 years, and who lived the last two years on Koh Lipe. He lived like the Sea Gypsies and and was adopted by them (they named him after the Thai for "our older child"). He had a chance to realize how dark the future is for this People: first they have not been granted citizenship by the Thai government, although they were the very first inhabitants of this land centuries ago. However the Thai government conceded them ownership of lands on the Island. But there came the ruthless Chinese who offered them to buy their land for a few fistful of dollars... Ugly scam! However the Chao Lae are not educate, they are simple people living by the sea. Of course they accepted! They have now just enough land to built their houses that's all. It so reminds me of pioneers buying off Indian lands with alcohol. On top of that they suffer strong racism from the other few inhabitants of the Islands. They are really regarded as inferior human beings. Add to this that they are exposed and were strongly hit by the Tsunami two years ago... And they are still smiling at us. One of them invited us to have a curry dinner at his place and was delighted to help us the best he could when my friend Guilhem lost his passport... Really really nice people.

Overall this was a great trip! So good to leave the noisy KL for such perfect place. However I keep a slight taste of bitterness because I was expecting a truly wild Island... Now I'm informed, next time's gonna be just perfect :-)

PS: pictures to be posted soon!

Off to Koh Tarutao, Thailand!

Long time no post... I have been kept really really busy by my job lately! I didn't even have a chance to have dinner with my dear one in the last two weeks :-(

But half of next week is public holidays in Malaysia (combinaison of Indian Deepavali festival + muslim Hari Raya celebration for the end of the Ramadan). And tonight I'm off to Koh Tarutao in the Southern Thailand with some friends! Plan is: reach one of the desert wild islands off Satun region and settle there for some days, living like Robinson :-) Hum... Ring a bell? "The Beach" maybe ;-)

Checklist:

-matches: ok
-fishing gear: ok
-booze: ok

Alright Charly, I think we're good to go!...

Long time no see, huh?

About one year ago I graduated from Ball State University (IN, USA). A former classmate (my former roommate actually) just sent an email to all the alumni last week in order to get back in touch and write a newsletter to know what each one is doing with his life... I am still in touch with a few, but I will really appreciate to get a chance to get back in touch with those I regret not to be anymore! Thank you for this great initiative, Garth!


Only one year ago, and all this seems so far away for me! So many memories suddenly resurfaced. This email relates to a point of my life were I was a heedless student... Not that I am all stressed out now, but the gap between student life and professional life is a huge one. Don't give me wrong, not that I don't like the way it is now, it's just a bit of nostalgia! To be fair, the mood within our class was really positive. I was part of the so called "CICS mafia". I felt more welcome in the USA than in my own country!

This year in was definitely one of the best. First overseas experience, unforgettable travels across Canada, USA, Mexico. North America is so appealing for travels! I also got to met really different and interesting people... When I got back to France for a short while after this year spent in the US, I really felt this was not the place I wanted to be!




Huh!... I gad forgotten how curly my hair gets when I live it for a while...

Small world...

Last Friday I had a great dinner at a colleague's place, with home made crepes enjoyed while chitchatting. Really great time!

The funny thing is that his girlfriend happens to be the best friend of my brother's former classmate... How small is the world!

Kuala L'impure

I can't pretend I wasn't warned about this because it happened to almost all of my expat colleagues here. I have been briefed many times. I heard many stories. But it was meant to be, I guess: I have been victim of bag snatching last Thursday night :-(

After a great gathering at Guilhem's I gave a ride back home to a friend living in the opposite side of KL. She sat behind me on my motorcycle while Marie was following me on hers. It was around 2a. As I just got my new motorcycle I don't have the rear fly case yet so I don't have a place where to put my handbag. So I dropped it in Marie's motorcycle front basket, along with her purse.

We have had a very good evening at our friends place. We were happy. We felt comfortable and secure in this district of KL we know well. So we didn't act especially carefully. There was not much we could do anyway: two guys riding on custom bikes came from being, snatched our two bags and flew away. For a sec I thought about chasing them, but I might I put myself in much bigger trouble, not even mentioning the risk for a car accident.

Content of the bags:

• our two wallets, including several hundreds of ringgits, 3 credit/debit cards
• one digital camera + a 1Go flash drive
  
• two cell phones
• Marie's eyeglasses + my sunglasses
  
• two international driving licences which happen to be not renewable from overseas
• my Malaysian motorcycle licence which I had obtained the very same day!
• and last but not least: the keys to our apartment

So there we are, in the middle of the night in KL, with no money, no ID, locked out of our apartment, and in the urge of finding a way to cancel our credit cards...

We filed a report at the police station until 5a. We called an overnight locksmith who tried to took advantage of the situation and asked us an insane price to open our door. So we sent him back to his bed. We ended up waking up a friend (thanks again Jerome!) in order to sleep two hours before waking up with the dawn to call the real estate agency for a spare key. Couldn't get a hold of them, so we finally borrowed some cloth from Jerome (yes, Jerome, the tall guy... almost 2m long! We looked funny...) A quick shower and let's look fresh for an intense workday which ended up for me in the late evening... What a day!

I won't let this happen ever again!

Bali forever!

Bali is great! Bali is full of variety. Bali is a glimpse of Paradise! Bali absolutely deserves the worldwide fame it is entitled to. However it's really surprising to notice that what it's mainly famous for is not the best part of it, namely Kuta!

Anyway, I'm too lazy for the full story, so here is a must do/"mustn't do". (disclaimer: all this is just based on my humble own experience)... Let's keep the best for the end and start with the (few) mustn't do:

The South West coast (Kuta, Seminyak, etc...). It's like Cancun for the American springbreakers, except you replace Mexico with Bali, American students with Aussie ones and pesos with rupiah. In a nutshell: beaches packed with tourists, seafront covered with MacDonald's, nightclubs, etc... In a word: you won't find authentic Bali there. Great waves, though: we enjoyed bodysurfing for one or two hours before taking off to KL on the way back.

Bali being on a volcanic hotspot, there are of course a lot of craters here and there. One of them happens to be particularly impressive. According to our guide, GunungBatur is the largest crater in the world (17 km diameter, he said). It was erected hundreds years ago. But then 1962 a second eruption provoked a second crater to appear inside the initial crater. We climbed this inner crater, and from the top, at 1,800m above sea level, the view is just breathtaking. One can walk the whole tour on the crest of the volcano. Needless to mention the perfect 360 degrees view. We could stare at the lake and villages laying inside the outer crater, as well as at the Agung volcano some miles away and the long lavas trail leaking from the inner crater. Just perfect. OK, if it seems so perfect, then why did I mention about Gunung Batur in the "mustn't do" list?? But then, I have to admit that part of the pleasure has been spoiled by the "GunungBatur Gangsters"... A few local inhabitants decided to bar all the slopes to the volcano and despoil the tourists passing through. If you don't pay, it's easy, they beat you, and I am not sugar coating it! Don't give me wrong, it's not that I am not ready to participate and help developing this very remote and rural area. But thing is, they steal 80 USD from every tourist. 80 USD! In one day those guys make the money it takes 6 month to the farmer next door to make! And it really looks like it's not shared at all among the Batur community... I can't help but just hate being screwed like that! Of course, no way I could pay that amount. So after 1 hour bargaining, I cut down the price by 8. And to finish with a positive thought: the trek was a real delight. My advise if you wanna climb a volcano in Bali: forget about Batur and drive 20 more miles to reach Gunung Agung which is supposed to be more wild although as beautiful!

Well, even after a few minutes brainstorming, those are the only mustn't do I could come up with! On the must side:

Ubud, its artist galleries, its Hindu temples and just the atmosphere in those tiny streets. Balinese people are really friendly. At some point you wonder if it's just for marketing purpose, but after having some talks we couldn't identify any ulterior motive. It is natural for Balinese to be smiling. At least I want to believe it...

The North coast (dark volcano sand). The Liberty wreck is really worth some dives! It is just incredible how dense the underwater wildlife is down there! Anywhere you look at there will be some weird colorful specimen... It's like making 10 dives in one! We took some underwater pictures. Soon to be on this blog. Beyond that, we felt like the North coast is much closer to the traditional life. It hasn't been spoiled by tourism and easy made dollars, yet...

Driving in Bali is a truly intense experience, especially at night! First, there are very few signs to find your way. Buying a detailed map is really worth the money! Plus, the road are really narrow! At some point we ended up being lost in a very remote area, and the road became no larger than a bike path... Also, it reminded me of Senegal in Africa were the inhabitants settle along the roads. You can drive half a hour and still feel like you are in the same village, a huge village. But actually this is not a village: there are at best two rows of houses and then the jungle... People live on the road. At night time you can see barbecues setup on the sides of the road, people actually sitting on the sides of the roads, etc... On top of that, add a crowd of motorcycles and you as a driver get really nervous!!!

The mountains, and the wonderful rice plantation landscapes. Even better than in the National Geographic. You got to stop by a little town and stare at the vista while tasting some unusual fruits you never had before.

I am in love with Bali and I plan on discovering the Island further anytime soon. To be continued...