I flew into Manaus, which is a city of 2 million people in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. It's a bit overwhelming at first. From the center of the city, you'd never know you're in the middle of a rainforest. It is crowded, lots of traffic, polluted, everything that comes with a big city. A 10 minute walk, however, brings you to the port, which is like the main highway through the Amazon. It is also where the city's main market is located. So it's obviously quite busy there but you start to get a sense of the vast jungle and immense waterway that surrounds the city.

I have been travelling off and on with Mali, the Mexican woman that rented me the last apartment I stayed in Mexico and ran the hostel that was attached to it. It's been kind of a mixed blessing. She's the one that got me to come to Brazil in the first place, for which I am ever grateful. She mentioned that she was planning to come to Brazil and invited me along. I said that I've always wanted to come to Brazil and figured it would be great to have a travelling companion. Unfortunately, our compatibility has proven to be less than ideal since then, to the point where she actually kicked me out of her place when my rent was up a week before we left for Brazil. We have made peace somewhat since then but our differences flare up again every so often. It's kind of like being in a relationship without many of the benefits. She is an amazing person and a very talented artist (which she is trying to use to help fund her travels through Brazil) and I wish her the best of luck but we were obviously not made to travel together. Fortunately, it seems like it should be easy to pick up travel companions whenever I want along the way.

One of the big shocks of coming to Brazil has been how expensive it is here. I kind of assumed it would be relatively on par with Mexico, maybe a little more expensive. But it is somewhere on the magnitude of 2 to 3 times more expensive. Even shopping in the supermarket does not necessarily save money. Fortunately, I have saved up a fair amount for travelling and Chase Manhattan Bank has unwittingly contributed to the cause as well. Nevertheless, to see all that I want to see in Brazil is going to put a much bigger dent into those savings than I had originally planned on but I'm pretty certain that it will be well worth it. I can always try and settle down somewhere and try to get some more work to replenish the savings again but a potential wrinkle in that plan is that technically I can only stay for a maximum of 6 months on my tourist visa here in Brazil. So perhaps I will try to cover as much as possible of Brazil in those 6 months and then try to some work in a neighboring country that will hopefully be a bit easier on the pocketbook and have more flexible visa regulations.

Another fairly major concern is the level of crime. My computer and all of the associated gadgetry I have adds quite a bit of bulk to my luggage and I am wary it makes me an easy target for theft. I have already heard many stories of people getting robbed. Thus far it has been fairly carefree but I think that once I get to the coast it will be another story. I already talked to someone that was robbed in the market in the next city I am heading to - Belem. It was early in the morning and she said she should have known better but someone just walked up to her and flashed her a machete and she handed over her purse - just like that. It seems that they can smell when a tourist is where they shouldn't be. Obviously I'm going to avoid walking around with my valuables as much as possible but I still need to get from one place to the other. I have been thinking that perhaps I will try and choose some home bases to use to stash my computer and stuff and then travel back and forth from those bases. One thing that should be helpful in accomplishing that strategy is my use of the CouchSurfing and HospitalityClub websites. These are websites where people post their profile and offer to put travellers up free of charge in their homes. I have already used these sites to hook up with other travellers in Mexico and back in the United States and have met quite a few really nice people that way. Hopefully I might be able to stash things with kind souls from those sites along the way. Another thing I have considered is sending my valuables ahead using the mail or some sort of messenger service but I am not so sure how well this strategy will work as I'm a bit skeptical about the cost and reliability of doing this. Obviously I'd prefer to send as much of my heavier belongings as possible this way but that will undoubtedly drive up the price as well. Still it's worth checking into.

So I haven't really gotten into what's enamored me of this country yet. One thing that really helped to open my eyes to the beauty here is the Ayahuasca ceremonies I have participated in here in a place called Alter do Chao. It is a small town 32 kilometers from a port town that is kind of a pit stop for riverboat journeys from Manaus to the coast. The riverboat journeys are quite an experience on their own. They last for several days cruising down the Amazon River and everyone sleeps jammed together ridiculously close in their hammocks, sometimes one on top of another. I came with a few guys that I met at the hostel in Manaus and stayed for one night in Alter do Chao. It was really nice and tranquil and relaxing but the Aussie guy I was with was ready to move on after just a day so I figured I'd join him. But then on the bus back to Santarem I overheard a Brazilian guy talking with another tourist and mention Couchsurfing. So I went to the internet in Santarem and looked him up. Sure enough, there he was, a guy called Indios, and he was part of this message group called Ayahuasca. I dug a bit further and discovered that they did these ceremonies every weekend in Alter do Chao. My curiousity was piqued so I decided to turn around and head back to Alter do Chao to check it out.

Ayahuasca is a strong hallucinogenic tea brewed from two different plants that grow in the Amazon. There is a long history of shamen in the Amazon river basin using the tea for spiritual and religious ceremonies. The place here in Alter do Chao that does it is called ComunIndios and kind of sees itself as an alternative living community. They do the ceremonies every Saturday. The tea that they make there is actually more like a syrup, slightly bitter tasting, but not all that bad. Unfortunately, the bodies of most people do not exactly agree and it causes nausea and many people vomit. Once the effects kick in, however, the side effects are largely forgotten by most. The effects vary greatly depending on the person and some people do not feel anything at all the first time. For me, however, the effects started within half an hour and included seeing swirling colors, a feeling of lightness, and just feeling very connected, both with the people around as well as with the nature. My thoughts wandered greatly from my relationships with people to all the travels and adventures I've had so far. But through it all was a feeling of lightness and I was actually laughing like a madman for most of the time.

The participants were generally about a 50/50 mix of tourists and Brazilians and that was also very nice. Although there still remains a large language barrier for me, it was nice to participate with the locals, and one way or another we managed to communicate, and everyone seemed to be supernice and remarkable in their own ways. One other thing that really blew me away was the music - throughout the experience they had music playing over the soundsystem. At first, I was a bit wary about that, because it seemed to be a bit new agey and I'm very particular about my music especially in circumstances like that. But once I got into it, the music was really beautiful. And then later on, the guy Indios and several others started playing along on drums and various instruments. One was like a clay vase that made amazing sounds like water dropping. Another was a little mouth harp kind of instrument, similar to a jew's harp but just one straight piece of metal. The sounds that he could make come out of it were just mind-blowing, though. I've never seen anything like it. I later found out that much of the music being played was actually created by the family that runs the community and I purchased several of their CDs afterwards.

That's another thing that's blown me away so far, the music. I knew that the music here would be great and was one of the main motivating factors for me to come but to actually experience the depth and breadth of the amazing music here is another story entirely. It seems that for many of the people here, the music is just in their blood and almost taken for granted. When I asked one guy playing drums how long he's been playing for, he just shrugged as if duh, all of his life, of course. And everyone seems to know lots of songs that they all sing along with. And of course, the language itself is almost like a song, the way they speak.

The amazing part, too, is that there's so many places I look forward to going to. After speaking with other travellers and the Brazilians themselves, it seems like there's so many incredible places to visit, each one more amazing. So I've got lots to look forward to. I'll do my best to keep y'all posted but it's very difficult to convey in words or even pictures the beauty of this place. I'll do my best to keep it going, though. Stay tuned.

As usual, it's been entirely way too long since my last update. For those of you that thought I might have dropped off the face of the planet, fear not. I am alive and super-bien. I have finally made good on my long ago made promise to leave the country and await regime change from abroad should it ever come to pass that George W. Bush gets elected.

I bought myself a 1985 VW Westfalia camper and hit the road for Mexico way. The van's name is Gua-Gua (pronounced WaWa, like the convenience store from the days of my youth in Philly). It's also a Spanish slang term for bus in some parts. The van has been working out spectacularly well. It's a great way to travel and has everything I need.

So I've kind of set up shop for the time being in La Paz, near the tip of Baja. I found this shark and ray conservation group Iemanya (pronounced ya manja) on the web and have been doing some volunteer work for them. One of my main tasks is to clean up their website, so keep that in mind if you check it out. It should be looking better fairly soon, hopefully.

So I spend my days keeping up with my freelance programming work for Simple Star as well as working on the Iemanya site. We also occasionally take a boat out and go searching for Manta Rays and Whale Sharks The guy that heads the Iemanya office here, Paul, is trying to study the Giant Manta Rays, but unfortunately they are rapidly disappearing and I haven't been able to spot any yet. Paul was able to spot one very briefly recently, so there's still some hope.

So yeah, that's a brief update about what I'm up to. I really promise to try to post updates on a more regular basis but in the meantime you can check out my latest picts.

Hasta la proxima.

Also, I met up with a friend who travelled to Cuba, but for reasons of the asinine and unconstitutional restrictions on US residents travelling to Cuba, wishes to remain anonymous. Therefore, I am posting his pictures for him. You can check them out here:

Stay tuned for some travel stories and observations from both myself and my American friend...

"SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

`(c) Waiver-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.

`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court, administrative agency, or other entity shall have jurisdiction--

`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or

`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'"

In human speak, this basically says that the Secretary of Homeland Security is above the law as long as he says his actions are meant to rapidly build fences around "the home of the free". How's that for superpowers?

Woops, upon further checking it appears that someone came to their senses and had this modified to make it slightly less omnipotent. The bill now reads:

"`(c) Waiver-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive all legal requirements such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section. Any such decision by the Secretary shall be effective upon being published in the Federal Register.

`(2) FEDERAL COURT REVIEW-

`(A) IN GENERAL- The district courts of the United States shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear all causes or claims arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1). A cause of action or claim may only be brought alleging a violation of the Constitution of the United States. The court shall not have jurisdiction to hear any claim not specified in this subparagraph.

`(B) TIME FOR FILING OF COMPLAINT- Any cause or claim brought pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be filed not later than 60 days after the date of the action or decision made by the Secretary of Homeland Security. A claim shall be barred unless it is filed within the time specified.

`(C) ABILITY TO SEEK APPELLATE REVIEW- An interlocutory or final judgment, decree, or order of the district court may be reviewed only upon petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States.'."

Nevertheless, it's still pretty far-reaching.

All I can say is, I can't wait to move to a country where backhanded politics like this face much more resistance than what the TV-sedated masses in this country seem to be able to conjure.

Towards that end, I'm flying to London on June 6 and will be coming back on July 20 but hopefully only for long enough to pack my things and move on to my next big adventure. While over in Europe, I'm planning on going to see my sweetie in Germany, scoping out places in Spain, and hopefully catch up with a few other amigos while I'm over there. I can't wait.

Just a brief update, there was one guy in particular that my mate Elton introduced me to in Thailand. His name is Chai-T and he ran a bar in Ton Sai, one of the places directly in the wake of the tsunami. I was quite worried about his welfare afterwards, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I discovered that Chai-T is alive and well, much to my relief, and continues to be the host with most on the little piece of paradise known as Ton Sai. It seems that Ton Sai, in general, managed to escape the worst of the wrath of the tsunami due to the fact that it's in somewhat of a bay and has a couple of islands just offshore that helped to protect it. I did hear several stories of rock climbers there, though, that had to scramble for safety when the tsunami struck. Thankfully, things seem to have pretty much returned to normal there now.

So I've also moved my site to a new host, graciously provided by my brother Philip. In the process I've added a few upgrades. You'll notice that there's now a link to my latest photo gallery on the right side there, and for my plugged-in techie friends, the photo gallery now has its own RSS feed, so everyone should now be able to keep up with my latest photo submissions. Speaking of which, there is now posted photos from my travels through Laos, and hopefully coming soon will be pictures from the rest of my trip -Thailand and Indonesia again. So stay tuned, y'all and drop me a line if I haven't from you for a while. Hasta luego, Pedro

Hey all, I just wanted to show you a passage from my diary, I wrote it about a week ago now:

"I've just got back from the restaurant having watched a video focused on the bombing of Laos during the war, and the lasting legacy that the campaign has left behind. A lot of the material I've already read about but seeing the words put into pictures has left me feeling deeply moved, sad, infuriated and ashamed. The estimates vary with different sources but the exact figures dont matter- its the sheer magnitude of them that do.

One plane load of American bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years, costing over $2 million a day (back in the 70's). Thats between 0.5 and 2 tonnes for every man, woman and child in Laos: 1 million metric tonnes in all.

After the bombing of Vietnam ceased, all american firepower was concentrated on the utter demolition of Laos... the secret war that no one back home knew about, and most people today still dont know about. Even congress did not know about it! Often bombs were dropped by US planes returning from missions in vietnam ealy due to bad weather or anti-air defenses, simply becuase they did not want to land with unexploded ordance on board.

So what do u do?
drop it wherever you happen to be at the time.

Where is that?
Laos.

Criminal. Nothing short of criminal

One of the main problems is that a lot of the bombs dropped were anti-personel bombs, i.e. cluster bombs that contain dozens of ball bearings that fly off in all directions at ballistic speeds. Some would say that the lucky ones died, the unlucky were left mutilated for life, while families were torn apart. All in the name of fighting the ''evils of communism''.

One of the scenes in the video is of an accident... a young boy of 9 or 10 lies lifeless on the ground, a ball bearing stuck in his skull, the mother greiving over a lost son. A scene powerful enough to make any man cry: many of us did.

Cluster bombs are still being made... they are not made in order to destroy military positions... a cluster bomb would do fuck all to a tank. it is purely designed to hurt anyone standing in the area, irrispective of whether thay are military or civillian. They were used by NATO in Kosovo, theyve been used in Sierra Leone, Somalia, Iraq. They are weapons of pure evil, designed so badly that they often resurface decades later when a 6 year old boy thinks he's found a new ball to play with. If he is still alive, he'll have no arms left to play with a ball.

They claim that they manage to clear away 10,000 'bombies' a year, potentially 10,000 lives saved. but at this rate it will still be decades before Laos has been cleared of mines and bombs. not years but decades. And they are found all over the place; schools, paddy fields, rivers... all places where children often roam.

We in the west, we'll see images like those on this video, we'll say ''Oh my God, that's awful, really horrible'', and then we'll go back to eating our dinners. Take me, I'll probably write a guilt-inducing email to all my friends, I'll give 15 dollars to the organisation and then 2 weeks later I'll be in a pub, somewhere in Thailand with a group of bubbly travellers, chatting away about the next great place we're gonna go too, and not a thought about that one-handed 17 year old boy from who I rented a bungalow from and chatted to for 15 minutes one afternoon, not a single thought about that boy will have crossed my mind.

Not one.

Shameful"

The people of Laos should not have to live in this constant fear. They do not deserve it. They are loving people who have forgiven and now welcome foreigners with open arms despite what we have done to them, what we have put them through. We are all ignorant to these problems until we ourselves come face to face with... and even then after a couple of days we forget all about it again.

Please visit www.magclearsmines.org. MAG (Mines Advisory Group) are an England-based organisation that work around the globe to help rid the world of mines and unexploded bombs, to try and let people carry on their lives normally without the constant fear of this moment being your last. Please donate to them. Please forward this mail to your mates and family. Please talk about this when you're drinking in the pub. Help raise awareness about the problems. This wasn't an email that was supposed to be anti-american or whatever, just thought-provoking. What's happened has happened, we can't change that- the hands of time cannot go back. But we can help now, help make the future better for those that we never think of. So please spread the word.

Laos did not deserve this. Laos does not deerve to have unexploded bombs lying around next to countryside paths. (I walked within an inch of it). And neither does any of the other countries that have to live through such ordeals on a daily basis.

Prashant

Here is an account from the website:

Back in the cave the village headman is very complimentary about MAG's work:
"At last something is being done here to make this land safe. Unexploded bombs have killed ten people here. Just a few months ago a boy was killed in the village digging for crickets. When the war finished, this place was like the surface of the moon and now it has come back to life. But death still lurks under the ground. The team hear is changing people's lives. Every time we dig the rice paddies we have been afraid. Soon things will be different."

I've gone ahead and booked my flight home from Bangkok to SF on March 6 for an amazing $450. It's on China Airlines though, who had their last crash only three years ago, so keep your fingers crossed for me. I still might move the date back a few days to get my last look at Asia for a while, but should be around then. I look forward greatly to hooking up with all my old friends back in the States and preparing for my next big adventure, probably the biggest one yet, so stay tuned.

OK, it's been a shamefully long time since my last blog entry. I've almost passed thru two countries with barely an entry except to say that I haven't been washed away by the tsunamis. OK, so let's start with Cambodia - I met up with my mates Prash and Jenni in Bangkok, took in the sordid sights of Pat Pong Road and then headed out the next day for the bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's a pretty hellish journey to begin with but the shady conduct of the bus operators just compounds the issue. The tickets from Bangkok to Siem Reap are very cheap, however they have all sorts of ways of squeezing more money out of you. The bus ride to the Thai border is relatively painless, a nice big bus, good roads, however there was the delay of several hours at a roadside shop in the middle of nowhere where they seemed to remove one of the tires of the bus and replace it again without having actually done anything to it. This process took about two hours. Then they stop at a cafe near the border where everyone that wasn't savvy enough or didn't have time to get their visas in advance are given forms to fill out, our passports were taken, along with $25 US, and a man drives off down the road and returns about half an hour later with the passports complete with visa stamps. Upon arrivig at the border, however, we pass the window where we could have filled out the same form, submitted our passports directly, and only have been charged $20 for the visa. After everyone from the bus gets thru the border, we are loaded on another bus, driven 500 meters down the road and told we have to get off to switch buses. The drivers and staff are very evasive when questioned about the reason for changing buses, saying it's up to their boss. But we are strongly encouraged to exchange our Thai baht into Cambodian riels at the place we're brought to, being told that baht is not accepted when we get to Siem Reap (an outright lie). Of course, the exchange rates offered are horrible, but a few unfortunate souls fall for it. So we're waiting another hour or so at that waypoint and getting increasingly restless at being treated so poorly. So finally they herd us onto a bus and we drive another bone-jarring 5 or 6 hours along roads that have not seen any repairs for a good 25 or so years. When we finally arrive in Siem Reap, everyone is so shattered that we agree to stay at the hotel we have been taken to, which is of course the whole reasoning behind the numerous delays. The hotel was actually quite nice and reasonably priced so we did end up staying there for most of our stay in Siem Reap but we would have greatly appreciated a more up-front and direct journey.

Siem Reap is a pretty crazy place. About 80% of the tourists coming into Cambodia come here to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, considered to be the largest religious monument in the world. The town itself is in the middle of a construction boom. Already there are loads of hotels ranging from lowly backpacker guesthouses to mega-opulent luxury resorts. In between, however, there's loads more being built, so much of the town has the feel of being one big construction area. Jenni and I had promised ourselves a bit of decadence for Xmas when we were originally planning to meet up again in Cambodia. So we spent most of our second day being driven around in a tuk-tuk looking at the various mid to upper range hotel options. The reason it took us so long was because most of the more expensive hotels didn't really seem to offer much value. The rooms were barely distinguishable from your average Motel 6 and yes, they might have had a swimming pool (one of Jenni's requirements), but other than that they didn't really seem that much better than our $7 a night backpacker hotel. After doing some research on the net and trying to find some upper-range bargains that offered something really nice, we decided to check one last one out that seemed very nice from the pictures and was being offered on the net for $70 a night, which was way more than I was originally planning on spending but thought it would at least be worth a look. So off we went. The rooms were quite plush and had beautiful hardwood floors and furniture with a balcony overlooking the gorgeous swimming pool and gardens. The rooms list for $170 a night. We were originally quoted $120, which gradually came down to $90 when it was apparent we were skeptical about dropping so much money. Finally they agreed to honor the $70 price we saw on the net if we could provide them with the address where we had seen it. Apparently that price was news to them. There was also a Christmas buffet dinner and performance that was on offer for $25. Jenni and I were still hesitant to spend so much money on one night and were back in the tuk-tuk on our way back to town before we finally decided to say Fuck It and go for it. After all, $60 a piece for a night in a four star hotel complete with Christmas buffet dinner and performance would be chicken feed back home and we would probably never even consider paying the price it would really cost. So this was a unique opportunity to see how the other half lives. I've gotta say, it was quite worth it. The buffet dinner was scrumptious. The entertainment consisted of traditional Cambodian music and Apsara dancers (the ones with the gold crown-like things on their head), and then some kids from one of the local orphanages singing Christmas Carols. It was all very tastefully done. The next day we spent lazing in bed, watching cable TV and then sunning ourselves by the pool, swimming in the pool/jacuzzi, and melting in the sauna and steam room. It was all quite blissful. Like all good things, however, it came to an end all too soon.

We returned to our backpacker hotel and spent the next several days exploring the Angkor Wat ruins. They are really quite inspiring. It really makes you think about what life must have been like when they were built and how impressive they must have been. Not that they aren't still very impressive but they are definitely ruins and time and the elements (not to mention opportunistic treasure hunters) have definitely taken their toll. One temple that is many people's favorite (and was actually featured in the original Tomb Raider movie) - Ta Prohm, is so charming exactly because of way the jungle has been reclaiming it. Roots of huge trees seem to drip down and climb around the various features of the ruins. Other parts are strewn with huge blocks of solid rock that resemble piles of Lego blocks left behind by some wayward child that neglected to clean up after himself.

One of the more disturbing aspects of Cambodia is the amount of people that approach you for money with missing and deformed limbs, as well as the street kids. You want to help them but tossing them a few riel probably doesn't really help much in the big picture and besides there's just way too many of them. But I gotta say I admire my friend Jenni because she decided to devote herself to something that will genuinely make a difference in people's lives there. After the Xmas performance by the kids from the orphanage we decided to take them up on their public offer for people to come out and say hello and see how they work. It was truly very inspiring. It is run by two main people, some Cambodians that decided to try and do something to help rebuild their country after the devastation that was wreaked upon it for over thirty years. So they set up their orphanage and take care of some of the many children left homeless or otherwise unprovided for. They have many programs to try and teach them farming and auto mechanics so they can become successful members of society. The workshops also help to cover the costs of running the orphanage. Right now, the orphanage is run on a combination of donations, grants, and proceeds from their workshops, but they are aiming to be self-sustainable through the workshops and any additional funds acquired will just be icing on the cake. It is a very ambitious plan but they seem to be well on their way. Anyway, you can find out more information about it here. So, Jenni is there right now, helping to teach English and provide whatever other services she can to help them make a difference. That was one thing that was fairly inspiring to see - in a country wracked by so much turmoil, there do seem to be a lot of organizations dedicated to helping recover. Most of them receive very little funding relative to what they are trying to do, but many seem to get entrepeneurial about teaching skills to the people and then marketing those skills to further fund their work. Another such organization that we were very impressed by was the Friends cafe in Phnom Penh.

More to come soon hopefully. Stand by.

OK, well as I somewhat expected (but hated to admit), the darling girlfriend that I returned to Bali for was less interested in me and more interested in my wallet. A number of revelations came out upon my return to Bali, not the least of which was that she had three children, not just one (the other two being cared for by family members), and that her husband was not really dead, but had become an ex-husband unbeknownst to him, in his absence. I was still willing to let all that slide and hoped that a new leaf had been turned whereby she would be completely honest with me. Of course that was not meant to be and I drew the line when I discovered money missing from my wallet after becoming increasingly reluctant to give into her demands of presents and money.

Feeling totally deflated and not a little bit vengeful, I ended up at a local bar to drown my sorrows and plot my next move now that my return to Bali was sans companion. I started chatting to the bar staff about my desires to rent a motorcycle and tour around the island a bit. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had rented a spiffy Honda motorcycle (not one of the two-bit scooters that are normally rented out to tourists, but a real honest to god motorcycle with proper clutch and all that). Starting to feel a bit better about myself and plans for the future I began to try and chat up anyone passing by - partly to have someone to talk to and partly to help out the bar staff who had told me that the place just opened and was still struggling to acquire a regular clientele. The tourists passing by pretty much universally blew me off, quite jaded at this point by the numerous come-ons from all of the various business establishments lining the alley where the bar was located.

Then I saw one local girl chatting in Indonesian to one of the staff and asked if she spoke English and having responded positively, whether I could buy her a drink. She declined the offer for a drink but accepted the invitation to sit and have a chat. Events start to become a little bit blurry in my mind after that due to my increasing level of inebriation. I started spilling my sob story about my romantic woes and fortunately for me this didn't repel her as it might have normally done. We got to chatting about a number of different things and I guess it got to the point where she felt somewhat responsible for my well-being as it became somewhat clear that I was no longer completely up to the task myself. So she took me under her wing and brought me along to meet a few of her friends she had previously arranged to meet up with. When it got to the end of the night I was no longer coherent enough to articulate where it was that I was staying. Rather than leave me to fend for myself, she was kind enough to bring me back to her place and make sure that I did not end up in the gutter. One thing led to another and by the next morning I was fortunately sober enough to realize that I had stumbled across quite an extraordinary girl. She moved into my hotel room the next day and we spent pretty much the entire rest of my stay hanging out together.

Her name is Lola and she is originally from Surabaya on the island of Java, but lives in Germany now, working for a cargo shipping company that she originally started working for in Indonesia but has branches all over the world so she eventually transferred to Germany. She was originally scheduled to return to Germany the week after we first met but after we hit it off so well, we agreed to split the cost of a new ticket back to Germany so she would leave Indonesia at the same time as me.

So we spent the next week taking day trips around Bali on the motorcycle I had rented and getting to know each other better. The more I got to know her, the more I respected and admired her. She's got grandparents, a sister, and several nephews and cousins that live in a small house she owns outside of Kuta in Bali, who she helps to support with her earnings. On top of that, she's also got sort of an adopted family on the island of Lombok, where she ran away to when she got pregnant at a young age and was scared to face up to her family. She helps to support them as much as possible as well. She's also quite resourceful, running her own import business of Indonesian handicrafts in Germany through her connections at the cargo company. She also ran her own business of a more illicit nature when she was younger but gave that up after having her daughter and invested the proceeds into her house in Bali. So yeah, she's also got a 7 year old daughter who she raised singlehandedly (with much assistance from her adopted family in Lombok but not from the father, who exited the picture upon learning that she had become pregnant by him, an all too common occurrance in Indonesia, unfortunately). Her daughter, Verta (pronounce Berta), also seems to be quite sharp and very independent-minded for a girl of her age, helping her mom to make some of the crucial life decisions that brought her to where she is today, like moving to Germany.

Lola is also quite well travelled, a rarity among Indonesians, who often can't afford to travel much beyond their own island in Indonesia, perhaps having made it once or twice to Jakarta or something like that. Lola has travelled quite a bit around Indonesia itself, as well as Australia and the rest of Southeast Asia, and a bit of Europe as well. She's got loads of friends everywhere she goes and is quite well respected and admired by everyone that has the pleasure of getting to know her. So I feel quite lucky that we have hit it off so well and she somehow seems to share the same feelings for me. Even after spending almost every waking hour together for the month or so that we have spent together those feelings only seem to have grown.

I have long contemplated living outside the United States especially after the election and incredibly baffling re-election of George W. Bush as president. There was a bit of an email debate among friends and family after the election about whether it is patriotic or not to get up and leave the country when the going gets rough, or whether you should stay and try to effect change. But for my part, I consider it a bit of a lost cause to try and change a system (or shitstem as Peter Tosh accurately referred to it) that is so deeply entrenched to reward power to the ones with the most money, regardless of how ill-gotten. I am an American and in many ways proudly so. America is quite a phenomonal place, something I learn to appreciate the more I see of the rest of the world. But these days, I'm not so proud to say I'm an American, although fortunately most people seem to realize that who I am as a person does not reflect how my government behaves. In any case, I have always wanted to live abroad for a while to broaden my horizons and gain new perspectives and what have you. The chain of events just seem to have come together that kind of makes it clear to me that now is the time.

Anyway, to cut to the chase I have decided to move to Spain for a while, something I was strongly considering even before I met Lola. But the fact that she has said she would be willing to transfer her job there to come and live together with me has made the decision pretty much a no-brainer for me. To be honest, the whole prospect scares me in a lot of ways, having never really lived with a girlfriend for any extended period of time, let alone with a young one to look after as well. At the same time, I ain't that young anymore, and it's probably about high time that I give it a shot and start to grow up and settle down, at least a little bit. So cross your fingers for us, it's undoubtedly gonna be my biggest adventure yet.

In the meantime, I am once again on the road, stopping over in Kuala Lumpur for the umpteenth time due to its being the hub of Air Asia, the cheapest way to fly around Asia. I fly to Bangkok later today, where I'm meeting up with my established travel buddy at this point, Jenni, from Australia. I have already met up with another travel mate, Prash, whom I first met in New Zealand. So anyway the three of us are gonna head to Cambodia for Xmas and probably New Year's as well. After that, I spend the next two months travelling around Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, before heading back to the States in March. I will probably spend at least a couple of months in the States settling my affairs and hopefully earning a bit more money, then it's off to Spain. Wish me luck and stay tuned to see how it all works out. No doubt there will be many more twists and turns on the way.

Here's wishing everyone a safe, happy, and loving holiday season and New Year, and best wishes for the new horizons ahead of us.

We were both feeling a bit under the weather so we didn't really do much for several days except read, soak in the atmosphere, and make occasional jaunts around town for sustenance and a daily dose of BBC news for breakfast. I did actually rent a motorcycle to cruise around the island one day. Unfortunately, the roads out of Had Rin are quite steep passages that hug the cliffs around there and while the motorcycle was just powerful enough to manage that on my own, having Jenni on the back was a bit more than it could handle. Combine that with the fact that after the inevitable stall going uphill, the tires did not have enough purchase on the road to keep us from sliding downhill even with both brakes fully utilized, and Jenni was soon marching back to town rather than risking her life on the back of a two-bit motorcycle with a maniac like me. Fortunately, as I mentioned, the motorcycle did seem capable of handling the load of just one fat bastard American and after the initial steep bits, the road turned much more manageable. Outside of Had Rin, there's tons of little nooks and crannies of the island to explore - there's a bunch of waterfalls and loads of tiny little inlets and bays each with their own little tropical resorts promising escape from all the pressures of everyday life without having to give up the modern day conveniences that many of us are used to. For that, it's just brilliant, but at the same time it does all have the feel of Western escapism pasted onto a tropical island paradise and could be any number of postcard perfect island getaways, just exchange the subservient wait staff with other dark-skinned natives and you could be in one of any number of similar type places. If this all sounds a bit cynical, it totally is, and it's a beautiful place and I'm glad I got to check it out more fully but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I prefer places where more of the local vibe comes through.

After Had Rin, we returned to Ko Samui which is more of the same but just amplified. Once again, though, Jenni came through and got me to open up my wallet and stay at a very nice hotel on the beach and sent me off with an exquisite seafood dinner where we chose the items from a cart of fresh seafood at the entrance - huge king prawns, crabs, squid, shark, rounded out with a bit of eggplant, all grilled up on the barby and served with scrumptious spicy Thai sauces and washed down with a nice bottle of Australian sparkling wine. It doesn't get much better than that.

So now, as I mentioned, I'm on my way back to Bali. The reason I'm going back to Bali is that in the four days that I spent there, I managed to meet a local Indonesian girl (originally from the island of Sumatra, actually, not from Bali itself) that has really piqued my interest. She's smart, beautiful, almost exactly my own age (four days younger), and shares a lot of my cynical sense of humor. She's also quite the terror on her motor scooter, zipping through and around traffic, taking me to many places that are only known to locals and longtime residents. She also has a two-year old son. Her husband died two years ago in a motorcycle accident and she tells me she has not dated anyone since. There are many signals that I should have just enjoyed the brief time we had together and move on to the next leg of my adventures. She is quite open about the fact that she is looking for someone to settle down with and in many ways provide for her and her son, while also taking care of that person in the ways that she can. While I'm certainly open to that idea, it does seem to be quite a giant leap to be even considering those things with someone you've known less than four days. Also, I hate to say it, but I do get a bit of the feeling that she likes me more for what I can provide for her than who I am. From the start, she's been less than shy about asking me to buy things for her and whenever we go to buy anything together, inevitably a few items end up in the basket that are for her own personal use and needless to say I always foot the bill. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I know that in Indonesia, making a decent living is very difficult, especially for a single mother, especially on Bali when you're from another island, and that she and I both know that the money I'm spending is much more significant to her than it is to me. At the same time I can't help but feel a bit uneasy, to say the least, when someone assumes so easily that what's mine is theirs and spends my money so easily especially when I, myself, am admittedly very tight with my money while travelling around for an undetermined length of time. I hate the fact that stuff like this enters into the equation at all, but there's no denying the fact that it is part of the equation. But basically I still think there's enough potential there in our relationship that I would have regretted not giving it a go and there's still not much to lose at this point. I just hope that as long as I'm careful and keep my eyes (as well as my heart) open, then I can avoid causing damage to the three of us involved. Stay tuned for the next installment of As Pedro's World Turns to see how it all develops.

It was actually a fairly long but smooth day of travel to get out to the islands. I started my day in Kuala Lumpur, took a short flight to Hat Yai, just over the border in Thailand. From there, I grabbed a train just in the nick of time for the 6 hour journey to Surat Thani. In Surat Thani, I had enough time to have some dinner and then grab a motorcycle taxi (cuz I was to cheap to spring the extra $1.25 for a real taxi, even with my 3 bags, oy ve) to the port, where I caught the 6 hour night ferry to Ko Samui. The ferry ride was actually very smooth (in contrast to my last ferry trip to Ko Pha Ngan 10 years ago which made me quite ill) and I actually managed to sleep pretty much the whole way on the comfy mattresses provided. Once on Ko Samui, I grabbed a taxi to the airport there to meet up with my friend Jenni. After hemming and hawing about where to stay on Samui, we finally said fuck it and decided to head over to Ko Pha Ngan. We caught the one hour ferry to Had Rin and after asking around about the elusive New Moon Party and not being able to get a definitive answer from anyone, we decided to head for a new age resort type place a 20 minute water taxi ride from Had Rin called The Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary was apparently started by a few Brits some 12 years ago trying to escape the chaos of the Full Moon party. They hired a boat and ended up on a then unsettled beach called Hat Tien. They liked it so much they decided to set up shop there and the Sanctuary now consists of a bunch of bungalows, gourmet health food restaurant, meditation center, spa, and general new age paradise retreat. But it's all very tastefully done and only as new agey as you wanna make it. The prices are pretty steep relative to the rest of Thailand but still very cheap by western standards. So we finally got there, got settled, and had a good nap. Then it was off to the spa for a deep tissue neck and shoulder massage followed by a traditional Thai massage. My neck is quite sore by now from the combination of less than ergonomic sleeping conditions, bad sleeping position (on my stomach), and carrying around my three backpacks on the back of a motorcycle taxi for instance. So the expert touch of the Thai masseurs was welcome relief indeed. And the food is just phenomenal. It's almost all vegetarian - a mix of Thai, Indian, Western, and even a bit of Mexican. But everything is prepared exceptionally well, it's all very fresh, very healthy, and very delicious.