58th Stop: Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas

Happy Birthday Louis!

Louis and I left Minneapolis for a weekend visit with my dad and his girlfriend Nan in Euless, Texas, smack in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth. Lucky Louis got a second birthday party and cupcakes on arrival!

Cupcake down, one ice cream sundae to go

On Saturday, we went into Fort Worth for a walking tour of the city. Both Louis and I really enjoyed the beautiful water sculpture/architecture park. It’s so sad that a few years ago several people drowned in it. Fortunately, they made some changes so it isn’t as dangerous.

Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth

Please don't wear anything at all!

Water sculpture park

Afterwards, we went to a brewery event that I found out about on www.couchsurfing.org. Every Wednesday and Saturday, the Rahr and Sons Brewing Company offers a tour, three pints of beer, and a souvenir glass for $7. The place was packed! A mix of bikers, hippies, college kids, and a rocking blues band. I thought I would never find the couchsurfers but they ended up finding me! We chatted a little bit and then left for the stockyards. Thanks for inviting us and pleasure meeting you Kimmie!

My dad, contemplating his next pint

We went for a walk through the stockyards to see the infamous Texas longhorns and their cowboys. I tried to convince Louis to go for a ride on the electronic bucking bull: "No way Daddy!"

Taking the longhorns for a stroll through town

For dinner, my dad and Nan took us to their favorite Italian restaurant... owned and operated by an Albanian!

We had a lovely visit and want to thank both Nan and my dad for having us.  That’s 3 more bednets for 3 more families--thanks again and see you soon in France!!!

Next stop: New York, NY!

57th Stop: Minneapolis, Minnesota (Part 3)

Louis versus the Volcano

After sending off Thomas and Co., Maria, Dave, and I met some of their friends for dinner at Mango Thai in Saint Paul. This is an excellent Thai restaurant that allows you to bring your own booze with no corking fee! I definitely recommend it if you’re in the neighborhood.

The next days, Louis and I spent at school, the pool, and playing with toys. He got his first swimming lesson at Lifetime Fitness, down the road from us. I also cruised through my book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which hi highly recommend if you enjoy a good cyber-punk cum S&M women’s rights crime thriller.

New Year's Celebration

On New Year’s Eve, I met up with Joe B., his girlfriend, and their friend Kat to ring in the new year in downtown Minneapolis. We were struck by fortune and misfortunate at the same time: we met at the right place but they entered another way and ended up shelling out $20 each as a cover fee. Fortunately, I went in the other way and didn’t have to pay... 2011is already shaping up to be a lucky year for me!

One night later in the week, I was showing my brother-in-law how CouchSurfing.org works and happened upon Rebekah living in Lakeville. I sent her message asking if she wanted to meet for coffee or a drink. I had a response moments later and after a few more messages, was out the door to meet up at Babe’s!

Callie and Rebekah

I really enjoyed Rebekah’s company and her keen sense of humor. Later that week, she came over to play Scrabble and I’ll never forget the word she used when she lost: I got waffle-stomped. Maria, Dave, and I had never heard it before so we looked it up. ‘Waffle-stomp’ means to utterly defeat someone or be utterly defeated (in the case of Rebekah). There is however another definition. Check out definition number one here and tell me what you think ;-)

My friend Chuck-E

On the day before Louis and I left for Texas to see my dad and Nan, my mom threw a Chuck-E Cheese birthday party for Louis and my nephew Charlie. I remember being a kid and how magical stuff like this could be. Now, it’s not so much the fun and theatrics that appeals to an adult like me but the smiles on the kids faces the entire night. Thanks Mom for the party!

I want to thank Casey, Danny, Rita, Katherine, Maria, and Dave for hosting me over the past few weeks. That’s 20 bednets to protect 20 families from malaria for the next 5 years!

Next stop: Dallas, Texas!

39th Stop: Kuala Lumpur, Part 2

Pool on the rooftop at Hemant's

Back to Kuala Lumpur, this time smack dab in the heart of the city. Hemant, from India, lives next to the Petronas towers and was hosting me. We met at his place and introduced ourselves. It didn’t take long for the occupation question to reach the surface. Hemant said, “You’re probably going to hate me if I tell you.”

“Of course not!” I replied.

Petronas Towers

Hemant works in the oil business. Hate you? I fly frequently and have a car, consuming my fair (anybody know what fair would be?) share of oil ever day. I should thank you! We can always be looking for solutions to ween us off our oil dependence, and it looks like the oil majors are the best placed to do so (check out cellulose based bio-fuels and who the biggest investors are).

We met Ankur, one of Hemant’s colleagues downstairs, grabbed a bite to eat, then went to Twenty-one, a trendy bar for hip youngsters like us ;-) Everyone seemed to know Hemant there; a mix of couch surfing friends and other friends of his. I met Liz who was organizing a fireflies outing on Friday and asked if I wanted to come along. Always say yes... Yes!

So excited after seeing all the fireflies

Fireflies Friday was upon us in no time. I met with Liz and Julian around 7:30 pm and we drove to a rendez-vous point with the rest of the group. Liz managed to get more than 20 people to join us! Twenty people, however, means at least 5 cars, a lot of wrong directions, mix-ups, tardies, and more... we didn’t get to the firefly park until 11 pm! Though it was closed, we managed to convince the night guard to call up the boat captain and take us out. Hooray!

Fireflies expedition

The theme of the night was light, so after dinner (about 2 am) we went to i-City. This is a recent development with thousands of artificial trees, statues, and more covered with colored lights. Great for photos and photos did we take. Liz even had two tripods with her for long exposure shots.

Late night dinner

Like gnomes in a city of lights

It was getting late, but the group still had energy so Vina invited us all back to her house for a swim. Mind you, it was nearly 4 in the morning by this time: traveling is not for the faint of hearted. I met a lot of really nice people that night and want to give a special thanks to Liz for organizing everything and to Vina for having us over early in the morning!

It took most of Saturday to recover from Friday night’s adventures. I had to recharge my batteries because tonight was Hemant’s belated birthday party celebration at a Bollywood disco downtown. Needless to say, another fun night with 20 or so people that also ended quite late. Thanks Hemant and all the other hipshakers who kept the dance floor thumping all night long!

Bollywood Cinema Party

The Bollywood magic wasn’t over; Hemant invited about 15 people over to his place to watch a movie on Sunday afternoon. Vina brought over samosas for everyone and Jasmin made chai tea as well as a few other specialties. Delicious, thanks! We watched Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., a great movie that got me all teary-eyed, at least six times.

When the movie ended, Jasmin asked if anyone wanted to go with her to go see a free jazz concert just outside of town. Only one person raised their hand: me! Off we went and met up with Atie, one of her friends. We listened to a couple of groups, then it got late so we headed home. On the way, Jasmin asked if I wanted to stop at her friend’s house, Dato’ Dale.

Dato' Dale, Jasmin, and John

Dato’ actually means “Sir” and is similar to the being knighted in England. Dato’ Dale is a very nice, gracious host, and a celebrity to boot! We arrived at 11 pm and sat on the terrace tasting different peanuts from Bali, Malaysia, and Java. We talked about Dato’ Dale’s experiences living in France (his father was the Malaysian ambassador at the time) and the USA. I also learned that Dale used to host a TV show and was a news anchorman. This partly explains why he has nearly 5,000 Facebook friends!

The three of us met up again for lunch the following day at an Indian banana-leaf restaurant. By coincidence, we ran into A Kadir Jasin, the editor-in-chief of a magazine publishing company, Berita Publishing Sdn Bhd. He keeps a blog, check it out: www.kadirjasin.blogspot.com

After lunch, I went to meet my new host, Ken, for my last night in KL. Ken and I had originally l planned to go to the water park at Sun Valley but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. We just had time for dinner and conversation about the ten years or so that Ken spent in the USA. Now he teaches multimedia communications and marketing at a university in KL.

John and Ken

Ken is a really nice host and likes to make people feel at home. Naturally, he made a sausage, scrambled eggs, and baked bean breakfast. Ken was leaving that afternoon for Borneo and I would be heading out myself.

Atie the rock star

John singing in Malaysian (yeah right!)

Atie had initially invited me to a karaoke joint on Monday night but had to cancel so it was time to cash in the raincheck! Tuesday afternoon, we sang our hearts out until her lunch break was up, then I made my way back to the city for my last few hour in KLs.

I want to extend a big thanks to Hemant and Ken for their hospitality during my second stay in KL. I really had a fantastic time with you and everyone else I met. Another big thanks to Jasmin for letting me tag along to the jazz concert and for introducing me to her friends and to Liz for organizing the outing over the weekend! I’ll miss you KL and looking forward to my next visit already.

The sun never sets on the cool

Next stop: Tokyo, Japan

32nd Stop - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Whoa, careful there!

This would be my first time returning to Southeast Asia since I left Vietnam in 2005. I was excited since I had never been to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as everyone here calls it, or anywhere else in Malaysia for that matter. I was expecting a hot, humid mix of Thailand and Singapore and wasn’t let down.

I made it to my hosts’ place, Ang and Wenwen, by late morning and we had breakfast together in an Indian food stand next to their apartment. Ang recently graduated from the university and has started practicing law while Wenwen had just found a job as an accountant. Congrats to both of you! They had movie and mall plans that day and offered to take me along. Great!

JC Brian and JC John

As it so happens, I had been in contact with Brian Lee from JCI Malaysia who was helping organize a cut-athon in the Sunway Pyramid mall just outside of KL. Hair dresser students would be cutting people’s hair all day long for 10 RM (about €2.50) to raise scholarship money for underprivileged students. For those JC's who don't know Brian, you probably should. He's everywhere on Facebook but more importantly, a very active member of JCI Malaysia! Great meeting you JC Brian!

Wenwen's sister

We picked up Wenwen’s sister at the university, met JC Brian at Sunway and got a quick trim (just the back please!) at the cut-athon. Then we went to see the latest kung-fu movie, Legend of the Fist, a quasi-sequel to Bruce Lee’s legendary Fist of Fury. I assure you, it was action-packed, butt-kicking fun!

We stopped at the archery range in the mall to shoot some arrows (thanks JC Brian for the coupon!), then went to an outdoor food court for Chinese food and drinks. I think all of us were full but Ang insisted that we try the cheesy wedges at KFC since I couldn’t get them at KFC in the USA. Sure, why not!

Sunday was a relaxing day, a little more shopping, this time at the Mid Valley Mega Mall but before that, we celebrated Hari Raya. This is a muslim religious tradition where people invite you to their homes one day between the end of Ramadan and Eid to visit and celebrate with each other. I tagged along with Ang and Wenwen to one of their friend's homes. It was very nice to partake in this and learn more about Malaysian muslim traditions.

Ang and Wenwen

On Monday morning, I had big plans. I had just finished reading Richard Branson’s auto-biography and on the flight over, flipping through the in-flight magazine, I saw an advertisement for the Invest in Asia forum and guess who was going to be a guest speaker? That’s right, Sir Richard.

Entrance to the event was $1000, just the kind of money I didn’t have, but I figured maybe I could catch him on the way in or way out. Unfortunately for me, I had not set my watch right. By the time I arrived and asked where he was, someone told me he had already spoken and left. Rats!

Later that day I was changing hosts. I got my things together, said good-bye to Ang and Wenwen and then went to meet Amy. Amy recently returned from working in the Netherlands as a nanny. She used couchsurfing to discover Europe during her weekends off and the last month of her stay. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she caught a bad case of travel bugs and was already planning to leave in three weeks for New Zealand. She hopes to find a job and settle down there.

KL Menara towers view

I was reminded how difficult it can be for people to move about freely in this world and choose where they want to live and work. I hope that one day we get rid of all these borders and put an end to all these policies that hold us captive in our respective countries.

Amy and I went for dinner at an open-air food court with quite a unique way of serving food. There is an area about 200 square meters in size with tables in the middle and surrounded on all sides by small food stands. You go up to the any of the stands or even multiple stands, place your order, give them your table number and when they bring you your food, you pay.

One more day in KL, time to do some sight-seeing! First an early morning run in the park with Amy, and a mid-morning chat with Amy’s grandmother, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards, I went to the KL Menara Communications tower, one of the tallest in the world, to meet up with a couchsurfer named Zack who works there. Zack met me at the bottom and got me up to the top for free. Thanks! This is definitely worth checking out. It’s much better and higher than the view from the Petronas towers’ bridge. Plus, to get into the latter, you have to wait in line early in the morning to snag one of the 100 free tickets that only gets you halfway up to the bridge.

Two other surfers were there at the same time, and we chatted about our travels, where they were going next and so on. Zack then got us into the Malaysian village park so we could see what traditional homes look like and watch a dance concert. Thanks again Zack! Max, one of the couchsurfers, and I even got to dance!

Traditional Malaysian dance

Max and I took a bus to meet Amy at the Mid Valley Mega Mall to see the new Wall Street movie, but first stopped for lunch. It was right about this time that it suddenly dawned on me: my flight was tonight and not tomorrow night! I had kept looking at Wednesday on the paper and forgetting that it was Wednesday morning at 12:45 am. In other words, Tuesday night.

We still had time to catch the movie, grab dinner, get back to Amy’s before heading off to the airport. A big thanks to Amy and her nice family for hosting me for one night and to Ang and Wenwen for two nights. That’s three more bednets to protect a several children for the next 5 years!

Next stop: Casablanca?

No smoking unless you're on fire!

Reserved for marsupials and people with exploding stomachs.

30th Stop - Varkala, Kerala, India

I parted ways on Monday morning with Deni and Bela as they had to return to Bangalore and I was staying a few more days in Kerala. I got to the bus station about 15 minutes before the direct bus was scheduled to leave. It took me about 4 people to figure out where to find it. The last person I spoke to, a young man in his early 20’s, told me it would probably be late. Sure enough, a little over an hour later it pulled into the station. In the meantime, we struck up a conversation. Once we had covered all the usuals (country of origin, job, weather, where I’ve been in India, and favorite Bollywood movie), we started talking about girls.

He told me about the love of his life, an Irish girl he had met earlier this week, traveling through the country with a guitar, a genuine beatnik beauty, fair as a princess with a voice to put Sinead O’Connor to shame. I then surprised the hell out of him by saying, “Sure, I’ve met Paige too.” (Ran into her two nights ago with Alex from Fort Cochi, see previous post). His eyes literally popped out of his head. After several failed attempts to hear her play and sing, she left and he didn’t have a chance to say good-bye. I convinced him to write her a love letter that I could give to her in Varkala if I ran into her.

I had slightly changed my original plans which were to head into the mountains first to see some tea plantations. Tired of all the running around, a quaint beach town sounded like just the break I needed.

The bus dropped me off in the center of town and I started to walk towards the beach area. I figured I’d eventually grab a rickshaw to take me to the Skylark Guesthouse where I would meet Faith and her husband Sanjee who would be hosting me for a couple of nights. Then I spotted a post office and remembered that I needed stamps.

About 15 minutes later, I was back on the street and had just started negotiations with a rickshaw driver when a white woman approached to make sure I wasn’t getting ripped off. Then she looked at with a puzzled expression and said, “John?”

“Faith?” I replied. Faith wasn’t expecting me for another day or so. I explained how I had changed my plans and figured I would rent a room at her inn for the impromptu days I was there. “Ok, no problem!”

Faith is originally from Washington state in the USA and has been in India for a few years. She married a local man, Sanjee, from Varkala, and they are now running a guest house together. I really liked a couple of things Faith has up on her CS profile:

1. Get rid of the UN and have everyone join couchsurfing. It’s a surefire way to achieve world peace. I couldn’t agree with you more Faith.
2. Faith does not wear, nor own any socks. She lives in a tropical paradise, why bother?

As for Sanjee, he’s a trained chef and thus an excellent cook, but by no means megalomaniac. in fact, he’s rather laid back. He whipped up an delicious spicy red curry the first night I was there.

The next day, I went with Sanjee and two other guests, Tosh and Natasha (the puns and figures of speech were really fun: it's Tosh, not Tasha!) from Canada, on a day trip to a waterfall in the mountains. It was a wild day. Not the Canadians, they were tame; it was the two elephants, a snake, millipedes, and monkeys that kept us on our toes.

After a refreshing dip in the waterfall and gravity-induced aqua shoulder and neck massage, we went for lunch. What luck! It was a very special day in the region, a day to commemorate a deceased guru, so the village we passed through on our way to lunch was preparing a communal meal in the park. We joined about 50 others as the guests of honor for a spicy curry and rice dish, cooked on the spot in the biggest pots I’ve ever seen and served on a banana-leaf.

It was another one of those eat and run affairs, we were off before they had time to cook dessert. We cordially thanked them, snapped a few photos, and then went to an eco-tourism park to walk through a sculpture garden. A dense, sticky, storm haze oozed in by mid-afternoon and we got the feeling that rain wasn’t far behind. So we picked up the pace, got in the rick with Sanjee and headed back—in a torrential downpour.

The next days I hung out with another couchsurfer from Texas, Chris, who had studied art at Yale (sculpture) and was working on a museum project in Delhi for the past 5 months. He had pretty much finished up and was now taking some long-needed vacation before heading back to Austin.

Just a few last words on Varkala. I’ve never been to a place quite like it. You have to imagine standing on a 50 meter high cliff overlooking the ocean with a few scattered beaches below but hardly any beach at all. You are standing on a foot path that runs for a little under 2 km along the cliff’s edge and behind you are small restaurants, guest houses, and souvenir shops. Not too overbuilt, no cars, no noise... it’s just right.

Thanks again to Faith and Sanjee for hosting me a couple nights in Varkala. Drop in and stay at their guest house if you ever make it there. They really make you feel at home: they write your name on your door in chalk, let you use the kitchen to cook your own food, have a great collection of books and movies, and even play scrabble with you in the early evening.

Next stop: Bangalore!

29th Stop - Kerala, India

As we stepped out of terminal and walked towards the bus in the sweltering heat of tropical India, I couldn’t resist the fresh squeezed sugar cane juice stand—it’s been ages! The best fruit juice in the world, plus it’s healthy (I think). We took the bus into town and got off in in the outskirts of Ernakulum to meet up with Steve from www.CouchSurfing.org. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in touch with him so we took another bus and rickshaw to the ferry terminal to cross over and spend the night at Fort Cochi.

Fort Cochi is an old trading post along the tea and spice routes. It was ruled by Indians, the Portugese, the British and probably a few more in-between. Now it is a sleepy fisherman town and tourist attraction. We checked into a hotel and then went out to a bar for drinks.

We had a late lunch so we skipped dinner altogether. After a few drinks, some other tourists started to show up. Mike, a former financial portfolio manager from Hawaii, recently left it all behind to teach in Thailand and would be traveling around India for a few weeks before the semester started promoting his new website www.powerkickinc.com. A Scottish girl from Glasgow who insisted that it was not a good idea for a girl to travel alone in India (especially in Delhi) after experiencing it first hand for the past few months. Apparently, she almost got gang raped in Delhi which explains the hard feelings. Then there was the Australian girl who was on a round-the-world trip and was traveling around India on a motorcycle. Cool.

Up early the next day, we hopped on a bus and rumbled on down to Alleppy, the gateway to Kerala’s famous backwaters. I was engrossed in my book, Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson’s autobiography) for most of the ride, looking up from time to time to take in the scenery. At one point, when we had almost reached our destination, I spotted a JCI banner with a picture of Roland Kweiman, this year’s world president, on it! Wow, JCI is truly everywhere, even in the most remote, “backwaters” places like Alleppy!

That afternoon, we checked in with Antony, our CouchSurfer host who owns a tourism business and resort: http://tourinalleppey.com/. We had a cup of coffee and then he sent us out on a relaxing canoe trip.

The backwaters gets its name from the 1,000 km of canals and rivers that intertwine in a dense tropical fruit tree paradise. Also a tourist photo-happy paradise (thanks by the way to Bela and Deni for all the photos!).

By the time we made it back to our residence, it was dark and we needed to make plans fast. Antony and his Finnish girlfriend decided to join us for dinner so we all went to a nice hotel for cocktails and Indian fare.

Rarely have I relied on guidebooks for my travels so far, but I do look into them from time to time, especially when one is readily available (thanks again Bela and Deni!). The Lonely Planet advised us not to miss out on a backwaters house boat tour, despite the fact that the price would be about 50 times more expensive than anything we’ll have done so far in India. Let me reiterate their advice: you have to do this if you go to Kerala, you won’t be disappointed!

We got on the houseboat around noon, put our things in our rooms and slipped into our houseboat attire: shades and bathing suits! Our captain took us to the middle of the lake first so we could cool off with a swim. Getting into the water wasn’t hard; swimming in the water on the other hand brought back memories of Indiana Jones trying to cross the river of man-eating crocodiles in the Temple of Doom. Our fears got the better of us, so we climbed back aboard for lunch!

The rest of the afternoon we tooled around the canals, listened to Bollywood music, read books, took pictures, and meditated. If you ever go to India, do make a stop in Kerala and tour the backwaters. Thanks to Bess and all the Indian friends who told me to come here! Thanks also to Antony who hosted me on Saturday night.

Next stop: Varkala, India!