BubblesandBugs.com - Travel and Scuba

4 countries, 1 week

I bet most of you can’t say that…If I was still at my deskjob in Charlotte, I would only be able to say 4 donuts in one day… damn I was fat. 

In all seriousness, we have been to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and now Vietnam in 7 days.  I don’t recommend that anyone move this fast….but I think this will be the fastest we move on the entire trip. 

 We last left you in Laos…

Laos was beautiful…I think only second to Nepal so far on this trip.  Huge sharply shaped moutains covered with greenery and limestone.  

 Beautiful eh? - took this on the side of the road on the drive from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng.  There were a couple a guys with machine guys behind us.

But for real, we all know the reason for going to Laos…the tubing!!  We tubed, we drank for the children, we played the “Whats the name of the f*cking game”, we swung, we slid, we zipped, and somehow no-one got hurt or even naked.  Thanks to the Tumbleweeds (a group of 17 rag-tag world travelers) for letting us join them throughout Laos.  They made it most memorable.  We miss you guys already! Here are some pictures of our crazy day.

Us and the Tumbleweeds

Cindi on the first big swing

Me on the HUGE swing

Cindi and I then Kayaked our way from Vang Vieng to Vientienne, the capital of Laos.  It was cool - we actually tipped our kayak on the 2nd set of rapids….er also the last set of rapids.  It was chill and fun, but the group was lame as ever.

Kayaking from Vang Vieng to Vientienne

We hung out in Vientienne for the day with the highlight being Spicy Chicken Laab, pitchers of Beer Lao and Buddha Park.

Relaxin Buddha

After leaving Laos for Thailand on night train, we stayed a night in Bangkok before heading to Cambodia.

Thai Noodles make us crazy!

The crossing from Thailand into Cambodia was a nightmare, we got screwed on our Visa prices, we couldn’t find a bus, the town of Poipet was dirty, crappy, and full of lying touts.  It was definately the roughest border we have had.  Avoid Poipet if possible.

Once in Siem Riep, we hired a tuk-tuk for the day and enjoyed the sights of Angkor Wat and the other temples.  They were beautiful…but you know my view on temples.  1 day was enough for us.  Here are 2 of the 500 pictures we took.

Tah Prom - Siem Riep - yes that’s a tree

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Then we moved on to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia and this is the center of the tragedy that occurred from 1975-1979.  We visited both the killing fields and one of the prisons that is now a museum.  The communist regime under Pol Pot was responsible for killings hundreds of thousands of Cambodians and it seems that most of the population was effected.  Even our tuk-tuk driver told us his father was killed.  They killed all the educated people that spoke other languages and wore glasses.  It was a somber day, but opened our eyes to the torture that happened here only about 35 years ago. 

The Killing fields in Cambodia - that stupa is filled with 9000 human skulls from the masacre by the Khmer Rouge

A prison cell at Toul Sleng

Today we traveled from Phnom Penh to Saigon.  We haven’t had TV for awhile, so we broke down and got a room with cable tv for 12$ a night….hey big spenders!!!

We have 19-20 days in Vietnam before heading back to the south of Thailand.  More to come  - from Cindi - it’s her turn next.

Jason

Extreme Nepal

Latest update….Cindi eats sh*t (falls) canyoning and earns a blackeye whitewater rafting!!!  More on that later.

Let me start first by saying Nepal is one of our favorite places so far on the trip.  It is definately the most beautiful place I have been on the planet.  The people are nice and genuine, the food is good, and beer has been the best we have had on the trip.  The one thing I have learned in the past 2 weeks in Nepal is that 2 weeks is not enough.  We will definately come back one day.

When we last left off, we were in Chitwan National Park relaxing by the river and bathing with elephants.  It was a great relief from India and I would highly recommend the elephant safari, and jungle walk.  We were lucky enough to spot wild rhinos on both adventures.  Check us out on the  elephants…this 20 minutes of fun cost us 5 bucks each…if that.

Us on the back of an elephant on safari

After a 5 hour drive to Kathmandu, we explored the sub-city area of Thamel and greater Kathmandu for several days.  Thamel is the central backpacker hub of Kathmandu and is where the trekkers gear up at the many fake Northface, and Columbia shops, eat great american and continental food, drink beer, and enjoy nightly Bob Marley and reggae cover bands. 

Kathmandu has plenty to offer by way of sightseeing, including lots of temples, and cultural sights.  To be honest, I am over the temples and now prefer the adventure activities.  Here is a shot of the Bodnath Stupa, the largest stupa in Nepal.  It is of course Buddhist.  We took this shot with our Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens from the roof top cafe while drinking an Everest beer and eating Veg and Chicken momos.  What better way to spend the day? 

One to the extreme part.  We booked a 2 day canyoning excursion in Thamel which would take us to the beautiful Borderlands resort a short 4 hour van ride outsite of Kathmandu.  Propped on the banks of the Bhote Kosi River, this place was amazing.  They put us up in Safari style luxury tents and fed us well….but the real show was the canyoning.  –Willits - this was waaaaay better than what we did in Interlocken Switzerland. –

For those that don’t know canyoning is the act of abseiling (rapelling), jumping, sliding, and hiking your way down a water-cut canyon.  Most of the way is steep, slippery, sharp, and wrought with danger.  It was excellent!!  If you come to Nepal, and you like to be scared witless but safe, be sure you go Canyoning.  The first day was only abseiling….9 or 10 rappells in all, the biggest being about 75 feet.  The 2nd day we spent more time jumping and sliding…and to be honest, jumping is the hardest part about canyoning.  This is because most of the take off points are at a steep angle, usually about 1 sq foot in size, and slippery as hell.  Half the battle is being able to stand without falling before you make the leap.  Not to mention that the water is 15-20 feet down and the spot you are supposed to land in is about 3 feet wide and only 6 feet deep.  Sometimes you can’t even see the water! - haha

Cindi broke the #1 rule…”Once your feet are set, don’t move them”  She took a step, slipped and bit it hard into the 15 foot jump.  You can see below that she is covering her face in fear, and in a last ditch effort to save herself, she grabbed a handful of weeds on the way down! hahahaha - We laughed our asses off when we saw this picture…but only because she was ok.   After the fall she was laughing with a few tears mixed in because she was scared.  Oh yeah, she bit it on the next jump too! - haha

The biggest rappell on the 2nd day was a steap 100 ft with water and rocks being hurled down while the 7 of us hunched together clipped into the wall on a tiny ledge below.   Here are a few more shots of us in the canyon…

Jason Abseiling

Jason abseiling 100ft wall

 Canyoneer Cindi

 Our next adventure was to be whitewater rafting.  The goal was simple…give us the biggest rapids Nepal has to offer.  The Marsyangdi river did not disappoint.  We booked with Ultimate Descents Nepal and would highly recommend this 3-4 day trip to anyone looking for great crew, food, camping, gear, service, and of course the harriest rafting you have ever seen.  Most were 4-5 class rapids and they were ripping…almost flipping us on the first day.   On the second day, we had to portage around a few un-runnable rapids (one known as the Boateater).  Our guides insisted on running this rapid alone.  The 2 of them in the 9 man raft alone heading towards the Boateater is a fun thing to watch.  Especially when they get hung up, jump off to save their lives while the raft flips upside down and heads down river….crazy!

We are now back in Kathmandu, excited and sad at the same time to be flying to Bangkok tomorrow.  I think it will be nice to get away from the India, Nepal style of food and get ready for some spicy noodles on Koh San road.  Nepal has been great and I highly recommend coming here.  Next time we trek….or unicyle from Lhasa, China to Kathmandu, or raft the Karnali river on a 10 day trip, or head to Everest base camp, - you get the point - tons to do here.

Here are a few more pictures we thought were good…

A holy man (Sadhu) at Pashu Patinath

A kid paddling in a coffin while the previous occupant is being cremated 30 feet away at the riverside.

Tonight’s dinner at a local butcher.  We had a better day than he did. I love lamb brains!!

Some Prayer flags at Bodnath Stupa 

Cindi’s Blackeye…from a paddle t-grip

view from the top of canyon 95 

Later Jason

India Observations

Hello All -

First off, we wanted to let everyone know that although we are in New Delhi and there was a bombing yesterday, we are safe and sound. We arrived in New Delhi after the bombing occurred and we are staying away from main markets until we head north to Amritsar tomorrow.

Also, wanted to provide a rundown on what we have been doing the last week:

- Cindi found out that there really are camels on the busy streets of Bangalore

- We visited our first temple in Hampi, India.  Yes…we were both very uncomfortable wearing the red dot.  It was still fun

- Cindi helped to bless the royal elephant of Hampi after we watched him bathe in the local river.  For 5 rupees, the elephant will even kiss you.

- We gazed at the beautiful temples and boulders of Hampi.  We have tons of pictures, and can’t wait to share the beauty of this place with all of you.   The top of this temple was built on that boulder.

- We have taken 2 overnight trains….upper berth is the place to be.  Needless to say, I am larger than the average Indian, so I am a walking Ambien commercial.  “Ambien…best for overnight trains in India”

- We enjoyed the beautiful beaches of Goa, Inida at Arombol

Here are some other thoughts Cindi and I have had while in India:

- Indian food is GOOD…waaaaaay better than Central America.  I don’t even miss eating meat…we have been a  hearty diet of Veggie Currie, Naan Bread, and some (very little) chicken.  Nothing in the South of India has been too spice…in fact we have to beg them to get it hot.

- Beware of touts in New Delhi.  They will lie, cheat, and lie some more in order to earn a hefty commision.  They lie about train tickets, tourism offices, auto rickshaw rides and everything else.  It took us 2 hours to book train tickets this morning.  Without these assholes, it would have taken 10 minutes.

- India is smelly…damn smelly.  Shit, Urine, Bums, burning trash, and anything else you can think of fill the air all in the same breath. 

- Cindi doesn’t like sh*tting in a hole in the ground…those were her exact words just 5 seconds ago - hahaha

- yes camels, elephants, and cows roam the road freely

- it is cheap here.  room for the night is around 6$, we both eat a good meal for around 5$, standard autorickshaw ride around the city is 1-3$

- cindi saw her first cobra (snake charmer) today…but he ran quickly when the cops came cruising by.

- most people are nice as long as you are not talking about price or money…then all bets are off.  But when not bargaining, the people are very curious as to where we are from, and what we are doing here.  The restaurant owners have all been great too.

- most hotels don’t have a real shower.  we often bathe by puring buckets of water over our bodies.  wierd…and toilet paper is never included.

- we are still sweating…just like the rest of our trip.

We have plenty more where these came from.  Today we saw the Memorial to Gandi at Rajghat, as well as the Lotus temple.  Tomorrow we take our first day train(hooray for scenery) headed for Amritsar where we will visit the Golden Temple of the Sihk, witness the changing of the guard at the Pakistan border, eat a free lunchtime meal with 40,000 others, and hang out in the Tibetan rich town of Dharmasala and McLeod Ganj.

Hope you are all having as much fun as we are!  Also, congrats to Randy and Jill, they are the proud new parents of a beautiful baby Girl name Kaelyn Turner.  We wish we were there to celebrate this grand occasion.

Later
Jason

Pics are Up

Hello Everyone…

If you are interested, we have new pics up on Flickr.  Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandindigo/collections/72157604360580057/

Also, check out the new Nicaragua beer report.

Later
Jason

Finally…the Beer of Nicaragua

2 things Central America does have going for them is that they serve their beer ICY cold.  Nicaragua follows suit here.   I would hate to try one of these nasties warm.

The other is that the beer is only 75 cents to a 1$.

In Nicaragua they have one major brewer called Cerveceria de Nicaragua.  Apparently the company dates back to the 1920’s and they employ a German brewmaster classically trained at Weihenstephan brewing school.  I bet he is proud of producing millions of gallons of “beer”…that most people wouldn’t bathe their dogs in.

Here they are…looking rather delicious as Cindi and I snapped pictures just before checking out at a small pulperia in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.  

People… don’t let those glistening bottles, shiny labels, or our superp photography skills fool you.  These beers also follow the standard theme of Central American beer. 

The Tona on the left is a “Lager Especial” that is a ultra pale golden color that carries a 4.6 alcohol by volume.  According to the Tona website, it is produced… “using only the finest North American and European malts and hops, certified by world renowned laboratories (Siebel Institute of Technology, Chicago and Brautechnische Prüf- und Versuchsanstalt, Munich-Weihenstephan).”

Their marketing department could sell shit to pigs.  It is terrible, horrible and after a hot day hiking Volcan Mombacho, sweating bullets, Tona only tastes good because it is cold.  If you never drink this beer consider yourselves lucky.   1/2 star on the Opdycke beer scale.

The Victoria on the right is labeled a “Pisen Especial”. This is definately the best of the Nicaraguan beer line, but still only pulls 1 star on the Opdycke beer scale.  I would say that this is the most popular and most widely available beer in Nicaragua.

Later All…Costa Rica and Panama to follow!

jason

quick update

here is a quick update bullet style:

• After Jaco, we went to Quepos and Manuel Antonio
• Willits missed the park because it is closed Mondays. We tried to sneak in through the crocodile reserve but were promptly kicked out
• Cindi and I went back to the national park Tuesday. It was cool …but not that cool willits!! haha . We were lucky enough to see about 10 white faced monkeys for about 20 minutes. The closest one was about 6 ft from us. Looked like the monkey from Friends. Also saw a sloth and hung out on the beautiful beaches where racoons were stealing peoples stuff.
• We then worked our way to Tamarindo beach..with a stopover in Nicoya. We had to take the ferry from PuntaRenas to Playa Naranjo…then busses to Tamarindo
• Right when we got to Tamrindo, we tried to fix our pictures. Not sure what is wrong…but we will wait a week until we get home to recover them….we hope.
• While waiting for the pics, cindi pulled up an article about the fecal pollution in Tamarindo. There are supposed to be 400 parts of fecal matter in 3.3 oz for it to be safe. Tamrindo has 3.3 million parts of fecal matter. Good thing our hotel has a pool.
• Last night we went to Witches Rock Surf Camp and ate Nachos ¨as big as your ass¨

Last but not least, We have booked our Tickets to India. We leave on Sept 18th for 5 weeks of India, Nepal, Tibet, and hopefully Everest base camp.

To all the readers waiting for beer reports…i have them ready…just waiting to get our pictures ready. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama beer reports will come in the first few days of Sept.

Can´t wait to be home for a few weeks, while getting India Visas. Planning on hitting a Mizzou tigers football game and hanging out with Sawyer and Ben.

Later

jason

Perro Frito por fa vor!! -

yes…that´s right…fried dog would be better than the food in Nicaragua.  The best meal we had in the last week has been a 1$ hotdog in Granada.  There has been pizza, with what we think was rat tail sausauge, cheese that doesn´t seem like a dairy product, weird squash salad, spagetti that you could classify as radioactive, and i had some bacon that might make me never eat bacon again.  I have been utterly disappointed in the lack of street food in Nicaragua.  Everywhere else they have had grilled meats and typical dishes in abundance.  We had trouble finding anything local to eat.  Hopefully CR will be better.

That being said,  I wanted to give everyone an update on where things stand:

• we have just arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica
• It took about 11 hours by bus from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
• We had zero trouble at the border and were welcomed very warmly into Costa Rica
• We spent the last week in Nicaragua…Granada, Laguna De Apoyo, and San Juan Del Sur.
• Our readers were right, Laguna De Apoyo was great.  We went totally blind based on a comment from a reader.  Thanks Sean!!
• If you are ever in Granada, make a stop at Crater´s Edge resort.  Most comfortable we have been on the entire trip.
• The beach in San Juan Del Sur proper is very pretty, but pretty much sucks.
• We finally figured out where everyone goes.  Maderas beach (just took the shuttle from Casa Oro).  Maderas was amazing.  Huge cliffs, clear water, fun waves, and lots of surfers (of all skill levels) to watch.   We went to the beach 2 days in a row.
• we slept like crap the last 2 nights in San Juan Del Sur.  we learned our lesson in staying for cheap next to a bar.  The first night was ok, but the 2nd they had a loud metal band playing and last night a poker tourney that sounded like Armageddon.  I swear there were 40 surfer guys singing Bob Marley at the top of their lungs for like an hour.
• We still can´t upload pictures.  The computer I am on now is locked in a huge Military grade cage, so I can´t plug in the USB reader.  More to come, I promise
• We are picking up Willits, Julia, and Travis at the airport tomorrow.  Can´t wait guys!!
• Then we are off to La Fortuna and Volcano Arenal for some zip lines, whitewater rafting, hot springs, and maybe a beer or 2…haha

Later

jason

Nicaragua…my first time…

…this is Cindi’s 2nd time. We barely made it however….more on this in a bit.

So at the time of last update, we were in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. A beautiful little town with cobblestone streets. We stayed at a small place call Hotel Guest House for 2 nights. It was ok…but we didnt’ have water. Bastards…I know they had water in the sistern…but they were playing games turning it on and off to our room. Not sure when they thought the ideal time for a shower was…but we obviously didn’t agree on this matter. For 16$ a night…you think water would be included.

The Ruins were spectacular. Below are a few pictures. We spent about 4 hours walking around the structures and taking pictures. It was a great first time Ruin experience. Cindi said she appreciated it more the 2nd time around…but maybe only because she had been to 6 or 7 sets of ruins the last time she came to Central America. Mom, I think you would have loved this place.

We tried to find a place to take tortilla making lessons, but failed miserably…so we just decided to get on a bus towards southern Honduras and make a pit stop at the highly recommended Pulaphanzak Waterfalls. We were also told about a cool Hostel/Brewery called D and D. American owned…this place was supposed to serve great Home Brewed beers and offer good tour service. It was ok…I got a cot for 2 nights and Cindi was sleeping on a couch….for 2$ a night. There were no other hostels or hotels anywhere clost. The owner was kinda rude at first…but they said he was relapsing on Dengue fever…guess that could piss anyone off. The food was great…and after the first day the owner offered to show me his collection of handmade honduran guitars and Mayan pottery. He took me into is Marijuana hot boxing room…i could only tell because I couldn’t see him 2 feet away…but he did play slide guitar amazingly. I had to get out of there quickly. The beer was extremely tasty..but after 7 or 8 home brews you should be singing to the birds…we weren’t. I guess it was really weak.

He set up a bird tour for us on Lake Yojoa. It blew. Don’t ever take a bird tour here. Birds are boring enough…without the shitty boat, non-english speaking tour guide, …for 4 hours? Who does that? Maybe this is why he smokes so much pot. Cindi got a good picture of the boat all 5 of us sat in…

So by this time, we are frustrated with the place and these waterfalls better be worth it. Holy Shit they were. I would say this is one of the top 10 things I have ever done in my life…a few slots behind running with the bulls in pamplona. They are about 160 feet tall…and roaring. Looking is an experience in its own. They a young guy on a bike asked us if we wanted to see the cave behind the falls. Only 5$ per person. People…this is by far the best 5$ I have ever spent in my life….It was 30 minutes of crazy, chaotic, scary, insane, and fun. He takes us to the bottom of the falls…only in swimming trunks and strap on sandals…and climbs over a few rocks…then gone. Where is he? Oh just jumped down 20 feet into the falls…and now he is smiling and waiting for us. Oh yeah…for about 30 minutes we made our way through the falls amidst the pounding water, crazy mist in your face (i lost a contact lens), and rocks you can’t see. We then powered our way under the main stream (all while making sure you don’t go over the edge to your death) to a small cave. Cave was lame…but getting there and back was awesome. If you are ever within 3, 6, 9 hours of this place…come…enjoy, you won’t reget it. Here are a few pics:

From the falls, we took 4 cabs, 5 buses, spent some time in Tegicigalpa, and a night in Managua…we are now in Granada, Nicaragua. Crossing the border by bus showed us some beautiful scenery and Hillary Duff in Cinderela story.

And yeah…we almost didn’t make it across the border. They were claiming we overstayed our Honduras Visas…I know we didn’t. The guy at the airport in San Pedro Sula wrote that we had 60 days on our passports and visas…we stayed about 50 days in Honduras. The guys at the Nicaragua border wrote over the 60 days and made it 30 days. And now they are telling us we might be stuck here…and maybe we have to pay more money. After some help from some Miami based americans…we were allowed through the border into Nicaragua. The entire bus had to wait for us for about 30-40 minutes. Hopefully we will be ok when we go to leave Nicaragua…who knows.

Ok…off to explore Granada.

later jason

still busy at Utila Dive Center

i can’t type with cindi watching….so i just kicked her out of the room.

just wanted to give some more updates:

- we found some free internet at our Dive Center…at least until they catch us

- it is still too slow to upload pictures

- we dove twice this morning…saw an spotted eagle ray, 2 turtles, a sea horse, and a huge southern sting ray

- we have the divemaster underwater stress test today at 3.  we have to exchange all of our equipment (every piece) with someone else…all of this while buddy breathing…and the instructors kicking up sand and pulling on our hoses, purging our alternates…etc.  should be fun

- they moved the stress test from 1pm to 3pm so everyone could watch the european soccer championship.  germany vs. spain…they are really into that here…some people cried at the last game - ha

- tonite we have a staff only night dive at the haliburton wreck.  she lies in about 100ft or 30 meters of water.

- cindi and I just signed up for the wreck and nitrox specialty.  only 50$ each!!

- we should have all of our divemaster requirements completed by next friday except for the snorkel test. 

- they “think” they are going to pour a bunch of straight rum down our snorkel while chanting crude american jokes …we will see

- we got skype…username is opdyckej - if you download on your computer, we can call you computer to computer free.

- all of our online security issues are ok…

- 3-4 more weeks in utila…we think we will go to roatan before we leave honduras…then looking forward to costa rica!!

later
jason

online security issues

Hello All -

I wanted to report that I am currently having some online security issues.  I believe that I may have been a victim of phishing (like an idiot)….they even had what appeared to be a valid SSL certificate.

The internet cafes here are pretty sketchy and i think my paypal may have been compromised.

Ihave taken all the neccessary precautions and have reset passwords on ALL of my accounts.  I don’t believe they will take me for anything, but I am remaining very cautious.  In that process,it seems that I may have locked out my gmail account.  Please email me at jasonopdycke[at]dot[com] …or you can email cindi. I will let you all know when my gmail is back online.

For all the travelers out there…be very wary and careful with typing your password.

We have in our possession an IronKey. This thing is very sweet and I highly recommend using one.  Basically you run an instance of Mozilla Firefox directly from the Ironkey flash drive.  This means all your history, cookies, favorites, settings follow you and your drive.  The ironkey also contains a password manager that allows you to pre-populate your usernames and passwords from a trusted computer and when visiting those sites from an untrusted comuputer, the ironkey password manager auto-fills the fields so you can avoid most keylogging.  I am sure there are ways around this…bu definately more secure than typing our password.  All data on the ironkey is encrypted with 256 bit encryption.

On a lighter note…cindi and I are doing fine….she was able to successfully clear her mask and swim maskless underwater.  She was worried about this and I a very proud to say she scored a 4 out of 5.  One step closer o divemasters!!

We also bought our first dive computers…exciting!!

take care all

jason