Ghost Sets and Spirit Cards

Variations on the card game Set.

ghost set -- a set not on the board that is defined by three pairs of cards, such that each pair of cards completes a set with a distinct card in the ghost set.

spirit card -- a card not on the board that completes a set with three pairs of cards on the board.

The game Set can then be played as usual, but players look for the six cards that define ghost sets or spirit cards instead of regular sets. It should be noted that game play is considerably slower because these sets are rarer (I believe. Maybe I'll do the math later.).

I learned about both these variations this weekend. The card above is my spirit card, the first one I found.

Let's play.

Anxiety Dreams

My monitor at work disappeared. Regina Spektor sang at a small table but the piano would not work. She wanted people to sing along but I'd forgotten the lyrics. A little girl knew all the lyrics to Plastic Jesus. David Greenberg was angry. Lily was busy and trying to help Ilana and I crash at her place. I was frustrated with Ilana. I flew through Splashdown's Loch Ness with giant frogs, spiders and snakes. A snake bit my arm.

Pyramid of Problems

The roughest of rough, criticism welcome. Something I think about from time to time. Not even really sure what it is.

I keep coming back to this idea that I have to solidify my idea better. Feelings of being overwhelmed by the complexity of the world, and sometimes even specific situations/problems. Sometimes I can find words, but grammar fails me. Language. Does not being able to talk about something mean that I don't really understand it?

Day 19: Tokyo, Japan

We slept in a bit this morning and left at about 10am to head to the fish market, Tzukiji. The subway in Tokyo was much easier to figure out than in Kyoto because most of the stations in the areas we were in had transliteration and the maps were clearly laid out. We also had an awesome free tourist booklet from our hostel that had attractions and how to get there. We made a plan to get sushie at Tzukiji but wanted to see the main market before it closed in the morning. The market was really cool. A lot of old timey fish stands and weird dried sea products like huge squid and every kind of fish cake variation imaginable. There were tourists, mostly domestic tourists or Chinese, and some business men going for an early lunch. 

We wanted to get a little hungrier before eating lunch so we set off to find a pretty park we found in the tourist brochure thing. The park was called Kiyu Shiba Rikyu. It was a Japanese style garden like the Silver Plaza, except the well manicure trees and grass contrasted tall buildings instead of temples. We were getting hungry at this point and very hot, so we didn't spend too long in the garden. It was a nice place though and cool to see a space of green amidst the shiny metal skyscrapers. 

We walked back to the fish market, Tsukiji, along these "business parks" (Amelia called them). Tokyo looks like New York but with more levels. There are promenades above and below street level connecting the buildings. It gives the city more of a modern feel, because the promenades are cleaner and newer than US city sidewalks and because being above ground is futuristic and shit.

By the time we made it back, it was almost 2pm and the market looked totally different, almost all of the stalls were closed. We wanted to get sushi because what better place than a fish market in Japan. We found a cute place in the market which even had air conditioning (thank god). We got a mixed sushi plate to split and a couple extra rolls. It was delicious, although Amelia appreciated it a bit more than me. I was happy to have sushi and it was good, but I've think I've lost the palette for being able to tell what's good and what's better.

Still hot in the afternoon humidity and heat, Amelia and I wanted to go shopping in Shibuya assuming there would be airconditioned malls. Shibuya is where the famous shot of Tokyo with all the lights and stores is, so we wanted to get a photo op. Also, Shibuya is near Harajuku of Gwen Stefani fame. I don't really know what Harajuku actually is and Amelia wasn't sure but we were tourists and felt it was our American duty to go try to find it. So we got off in Shibuya and walked around the shopping. Amelia wanted to go in an arcade again to find DDR (so that she could show off her skills), but we never found DDR! Our cousin Nate told us that it was out of style. The styles in Japan are intense, he said that if something was in you would see it everywhere and once it was out people would often just throw their clothes away. We did do another photobooth pic though without Emily. I'm really impressed by the amount of easy to use photoshop like tools you can use to manipulate the picture. They could make your eyes look bigger or put highlights in your hair or change the background. The Japanese are really not fucking around with their advanced technology.

We did not unfortunately find a mall in Shibuya though and eventually went back to the hotel at like 4pm because we were too tired from walking around outside. We read our books and used the internet for a couple hours before showering and getting ready to go out. Emily had given us a recommendation for where to go out, apparently a place that was usually hopping and fun for non-Japanese speakers because of the number of ex-pats: Roppongi. 

We stopped along the way to get a snack before dinner and some more of the delicious Japenese vodka grapefruit cocktail things. Drinking it public is convenient, although some quick Google-ing showed us that apparently even though it's chill in Kyoto its considered low class in Japan... Oops. Guess we were those Americans. We also spent way longer than normal in the store because I was trying to remember what the Japanese character for pickled plum looked like. They have these delicious rice balls wrapped in seaweed, but most have fish or meat except the pickled plum which is delicious and tangy. We opted for a red bean and rice ball instead because it was easily recognized.

We took a 45 minute subway ride to Roppongi but things didn't really seem hopping. Could have been because it was a Thursday night or it could have been because we asked a boring person for a recommendation on where to have fun... It was still early though so we go dinner. Our plan had been to get ramen but our ramen-blogging cousin did not return out email, so we agreed on sushi again. After all, I only had another day of my self defined period of non-veganness and sushi in Japan is pretty delicious. Neither of us were particularly set on trying ramen (sorry, Devon). We found a random sushi place that was reasonably priced. We had a few beers along with our dinner. It was delicious, I think my appreciation for sushi grew every time we had it. When we got the check though it was 1500 yen (which is about $15) more expensive than it should have been. We tried to figure it out with the waiter, but he hardly spoke English and we obviously don't speak any Japanese. Luckily we had been sitting at the bar and the sushi chef knew exactly what we got. Our night in shining apron came to our rescue and we figured out the correct tally for the bill with no hard feelings- it seemed like more of an honest mistake than a purposeful tourist trick.

Amelia and I set off down the street on a quest to find some fun. Amelia really wanted to karaoke but it was box karaoke so we needed a crew and finding a crew needed to be step 1. Along the street there were a lot of Nigerians who are apparently hired to try to bring people into bars. Amelia fell for it and we went to an empty bar playing reggae music. We were the only patrons. I wanted to leave, but I think Amelia felt bad and I didn't want to be an asshole either. The bar tender was a Japanese-Brazilian guy so we chatted with him while we had one beer before leaving. He gave us some recommendations for where to go, one which sounded like "Hispanic" with a few letters switched around (he had a heavy Brazilian and Japanese combined accent) so we were like "ok sure" and just set back out on the street to find something on our own. 

The only people we saw around our age were two gay Germans. They were just heading to dinner and didn't seem intent on going out, but were helpful in pointing out a few places in their guide book and giving us some recommendations for karaoke (should we happen to find a crew). One place they said they passed that seemed to have people was an American themed bar with middle aged ex-pats. Well, some people is better than no people, so we found the bar. 

We started chatting with a group of men who were about 40... the sort of age where it's not really polite to ask. They were interesting enough and had been living in Japan for a few years or more. They were all friendly and helpful in finding places to go- except Keith who was a total debbie downer. "Are you looking to have tonight? Because you might as well just give up now," was his general message and potentially his exact words. Cool Keith. Nobody likes you. But we had some good convos about Twitter with the other guys. 

Inside we also met some guys who seemed about our age. There were two British guys and two Americans talking to them. You can always tell if someone's American by the patterned frat tanks. The Americans were down to go find somewhere to go out, they had just gotten to Tokyo that day and wanted to find a fun place. They were even down to do karaoke if we couldn't find a fun bar to hang out at, which showed they were flexible and in a mindset to have a good time even if it was some silly karaoke.

We walked back down the area of the street with all of the Nigerians. The American boys were clearly sketched out by them, but one Nigerian guy mentioned the name of a club, "Gas Panic", and I realized was the one the Japanese-Brazilian had suggested. Yes, the club was called Gas Panic- a horrible mixture between a flatulence joke and a Holocaust reference (Amelia's words). The drinks were only 300 yen, so even if it sucked at least the drinks would be cheap. The music was some very housey but tolerable and got better as the night went on. 

It turned out our male companions were Harvard people, but they weren't that pretentious. One had just graduated and the other was a rising junior. The one who just graduated was in Japan for the summer to study Haikus and was going to law school in the fall. "I know I sold out" was how he prefaced going to law school... which I guess goes to show the difference between Penn and Harvard. They were fun to hang out with even though the kiddo kind of wanted to dance with Amelia and she wasn't having it. 

The subway closed at midnight so at 11:45 we needed to decide whether or not we wanted to stay out. The boys told us that they were planning on cabbing back to their place which was only 15 minutes away so we could stay with them if we wanted. Because our subway ride was long, we thought that sounded like the best option that would allow us to stay out since I thought our cab could easily have been $100 USD.

Once we had danced ourselves out, the kiddo had already left so we cabbed back with Mr. Haiku. I was kind of worried about the kiddo, but Haikus said that the kiddo had an amazing way of always making it back. We hopped in the cab and the cab driver had no idea where the area their hotel was in was. Because Haikus had just arrived in Tokyo less than 24 hours before, he also didn't know how to explain to the cab driver where it was. Luckily Amelia and I had the map, but with the language barrier we still had some major struggles, especially because the map didn't have the detailed map of where they were staying. The cab driver drove around for almost an hour and had to get out of the cab to ask for directions not once, but three times. Eventually we made it.

Lo and behold, the kiddo was already there which is good that we didn't need to worry about him. Also he had a head start and probably didn't take the longest cab ride ever. Apparently their hotel had some mineral baths and we planned to soak in them for a bit before going to bed but then the people who were working their were like "yeah, obviously it's closed at 3am on a Thursday, you stupid Americans" in nicer, more broken English so we gave up and went to bed.

In the morning we commuted with the business from Bumblefuck nowhere, Tokyo, Japan to the center of town. It became clear to us, that the boys had been bad at estimating distances, didn't realize their hotel was on the outskirts of Tokyo, and we should have just gone back to our hotel which was probably easier to get to from Roppongi than theirs, although theirs technically may have been closer. I made a sort of Queens to Manhattan sort of analogy. Oh well, no harm no foul and we made some new friends.

-Ilana

Days 16-17: Kyoto, Japan

Day 16

We arrived in Japan bright and early at 6 15am. Of the countries we visited, we knew already that Japan would have the least amount of English speaking people and English translated signs. We had booked a shuttle from Osaka airport to Kyoto per our cousins suggestion.

Even though we had hardly slept we started touristing right away, because we couldn't check into the hotel until 3pm. Nate met us at our hotel, we left our bags in the bell closet, and set off walking. We walked along the "Philosopher's path" which took us on the backstreets of Kyoto in a residential area along a river with Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines along the way.

Our cousin Nate, who has a professorship at Bard and has a Phd in modern Japanese literature, was a great guide. He taught us some Japanese history. Kyoto was the old capital of Japan until the mid 19th century. The city was planned to mimic the layout of some city in China that was a symbol of power at the time when Kyoto was built in the 6th century (?). Kyoto was the ideal place for a city because it had mountains in the northwest which is the direction bad energy comes from and no mountains in places that makes all the good energy fly around in ways that bring good luck.

The main religions practiced in the history of Japan are Buddhism and Shintoism. Shintoism is more of a practice than a religion, focused on local deities and shrines. Both religions feed into what I would call "superstitions" of Japan but I wish I had a better word. Instead of a God or gods with a personal relationship to the people, the religions focus on actions that bring good or bad luck.

The shrine we stopped at had many statues of rats and foxes. Foxes are spirits who like Sake and sometimes disguise themselves as women to trick local people. Nate said he knew a lot of Japanese people who would never go to a shrine at night because they're afraid of spirits and ghosts.

The practice of Shintoism and Buddhism are similar in Japan so its sometimes difficult to tell which place of worship belongs to which and people of both religions may worship in the same place, kind of like Hinduism and Buddhism in Cambodia. Shrines are free because they are owned publicly; temples charge a few and are owned by the monks.

We visited a temple afterwards that also had a grave yard. The morning itself was gray and wet, so the stone graves look nice in a calm yet eerie way. Lawns of moss stood out against the grey. There were also planted cedar trees adding more green and some reddish brown.

The next temple we visited was the Silver Pavilion. The pavilion, which is just one of a few buildings in the temple complex is no longer silver,but the gardens are as beautiful as ever- Nathan said theres a small army of gardners who keep it in top shape. They have the traditional Japanese zen garden look with ponds, twisted pines, stone paths curving around mossy boulders and trees, and even some sand paintings. Nate told us how the gardens are carefully designed to be a representation of Nature in its "Platonic" form and maintained to offer varied picture-like views designed to balance nature with architecture from stopping places around the path. For example, from one bridge you can see how the curve of a branch has been trained by gardeners to match the curve of the pavilion roof, while another spot is ideal for seeing the pavilion straight on framed by the mountains.

We left via the main street that leads to the entrance to the temple. It was lined with little shops selling sweets, pickles, and some souvenirs like slippers and fans. It was very crowded with tourists, almost all Asian. Apparently most of them were domestic Japanese or actually Chinese. Visiting temples is very important in order to obtain what Nate calls "buddha points." Just a block or two off the main street the streets were practically deserted. It sounds like there are basically prescribed tourist activities and anything else isn't really done. There isn't as much of the idea of exploring a place. It's all about the Buddha points.

We found a lovely udon noodle shop where we sat on tatami mats on the floor to eat lunch. This was our first meal in Japan. Amelia and I were worried about being the rude Americans who don't know the Japanese customs since everything seemed so formal and we were glad to have Nate with us.

After lunch we took the bus to one of the furthest temples along the eastern mountains of Kyoto. This temple was actually on the side of the mountain so it looked out on all of Kyoto, to the western mountains. This also meant that there were many steps, at the top of which were two massive wooden statues of demons, at least 15 feet tall. Unfortunately they were enclosed in mesh cages and not well lit so they were hard to see.

Next we walked along the most traditional streets of kyoto, in search of a sweet shop. We found a traditional sweet shop. Almost everything was green tea flavored with accents of vanilla and sweet red bean. Many also included weird gelatinous substances from mochi to flavorless jello blocks. The restaurant was in the traditional style so we sat on tatami mats again. There was a carp pond outside with huge prize winning carp- we saw about a half dozen huge trophies for their fish.

After all our touristing and lack of sleep, we were exhausted. I was also feeling sick from the side effects of Imodium like dry mouth and nausea (See previous email and sorry if TMI). It was after check in time so we could finally go to our room. We walked in ready to pass out and realized we had no beds! Our room was traditional Japanese style, so our sleeping mats were folded up in the closet. We put the mats on the floor and tried to nap. I had some success. Amelia had none. We did get to relax though and showered before going to meet Nate for dinner.

As it turned out we had serendipitously planned our  two nights and a morning trip during the two nights and morning long summer festival in Kyoto. Or maybe they had the festival for us this year and the past few hundred years. Up to the interpretation of the reader.

We had seen a lot of men and women in summer kimonos, more common around festival times and at temples. It was pretty neat to see.

Before dinner we took part in the traditional Japanese activity of public drinking, which is totally legal. We stopped at a convenience store and got canned mix drinks. Amelia had a particularly good Japanese vodka and grapefruit thing. We then went to one of Nate's favorite restaurants to get fried soba noodles with egg on top and an egg pancake with mochi and onions inside. The place is a hole in the wall and delicious, both of which you can always expect from a Nate recommendation.

After dinner we went to the festival. The festival took place in downtown Kyoto. They had blocked off a large portion of the city to cars so the hordes of people could mill around and people could set up booths. There were booths set up for food and games. Amelia got fried mochi with a kind of yakitori sauce. We had a couple more dranks from stands along the way including sake for Amelia and Nate. We watched Nate play a traditional Japanese game of catching fish with a paper net. Some of the other people playing were really good but Nate didn't catch any. We looked at some of the floats which were set up on the street and are used in a parade on the last day. In the larger floats, there were people in traditional festival outfits playing "festival" music which was not on the traditional Western scale, so it sounded dissonant to me. A lot of wooden flutes and bells, a little droning.

They closed down the festival at 10 30. The Japanese people all evacuated the street immediately, completely unlike what would happen with a thousand tipsy Americans. We got a pretty hilarious video of Nate talking about the guys with blinking vests ushering the people off the street.

- Ilana with help from Amelia

Day 17

For our second day in Japan we decided to take a hike to some hot springs in the mountains in Kyoto. We stopped at a convenience store first to pick up breakfast. The store people in Japan have a habit of talking in Japanese even though we know they know we don't understand. I asked Nate to translate and he told us it was something like, "Hi, welcome to 7 11. You have purchased two rice balls and a tea. It cost 450 yen. You have given me 500 yen. Your change is 50 yen. Do you need a bag? No you don't need a bag. Are you sure, ok, sure. Ok. Thank you for visiting 7 11, have a nice day, come back soon." All without a response from either of us. 

The beginning of the hike was just along the road next to a stream. There were many fancy restaurants along the way that had built platforms across the stream so the stream actually flowed underneath you as you ate. We stopped at a temple and bought a paper fortune for ourselves. It was a water fortune, so first the paper looked blank, but once it got wet in the fountain the writing appeared. Nate told us that it was basically the second to worst fortune: take extra care of your health, success will not come in business, love will come late if it comes at all, etc. Great. Supposedly fortunes from temples that are harder to visit are usually better... Maybe because you get more buddha points the harder it is to reach the temple. I guess we're just not hard core enough. We tied our wet fortune to an array of horizontal dowls, as you do with unwanted fortunes, and continued on our hike.

Off the main road finally, we started up the side of a ridge. The whole area that we hikes through for about an hour was part of one temple complex, so as we hiked we saw the occasional stone with writing carved into it or a fountain. There were also some more modern looking sculptures, very geometric but sill organic-looking. At the top there were many temple buildings and a nice view of the valley on the other side, where we would find the hot springs.

These springs had been turned into traditional Japanese baths, and of course the waters have healing powers. Men and women bathe separately so we had to part with Nate, very concerned again with our ignorance of the customs. Luckily they had a few signs in English informing us of the proper way to do things. For example, always sit on the provided stool while you shower. Surprisingly comfortable! I may adopt such a stool for my own daily cleansing :) The baths themselves were very peaceful and serene. The small pool was in a courtyard surrounded by pines and other trees, above which you could see the tops of the mountains around the valley. For most of the time we were the only people there, so who knows if we did it right.

Lunch was on tatami mats again, which is apparently not as common as our small sample would suggest. I had the traditional Kyoto boiled soft tofu and Amelia got udon with tempura. Unsurprisingly, putting tempura in soup eliminates most of its crunchy charm, but it was tasty nonetheless. Ilana and Nate enjoyed their tofu.

On the way back to Kyoto, Nate got a call from his friend who was visiting saying he had arrived. We met Nate's friend Bryan, a fellow ramen blogger who also had a column in a Japanese Playboy type magazine sold in convenience stores. We walked around a covered promenade and bought my mom tea.

We went to an amazing small plates dinner. We had miso eggplant, sesame lotus, eggplant with fried fish, sashimi and mackerel, a Kyoto specialty. Amelia, Nate and Bryan had some nice sake too. Afterwards we walked around the festival again with a couple brewskies.

Days 14-15: Climbing in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Day 14

So glad we canceled the second day of that scammy tour. Instead, we got to go climbing! We booked an excursion through our hotel and were picked up in the morning with two other travelers, given gear, and driven an hour outside Chiang mai to crazy horse buttress (fig. 1). Our guides were Mario and Jun, two Thai thirty-somethings, and our fellow travelers Sebastian, a comp sci student from Holland and Kana, a nurse from Japan.

Tldr: I got my climbing fix and Ilana got a bit tired out and discouraged, but it was overall a great day. This next paragraph is full of climbing jargon so skip if you like. But then keep reading!

They used the French system to rate the routes so who knows how hard I really climbed, but I started with a 6a chimney. Maybe like 5.10b ish? But it was hard after not having climbed for three weeks! On real rock. In shitty shoes. And 90 degree humid weather. I was basically dripping sweat the whole day. I sped up all of the 5as and bs, then led (clean!) a 5c (fig. 2). Deeericious. Jun was super encouraging the entire time and seemed impressed. Ilana made it up a few 5as and bs but struggle with the c and refused to try the 6s except the 6a chimney that I did first. And she made it up that one! And didn't even whine as much as Kana!

The most adorable dog came to visit us as we were climbing. Brown and super soft, she just couldn't get enough love (fig. 3). And then she stole our guide's lunch. Oops!

Ilana and I rode back to Chiang mai in the back of the pickup truck until it started to rain and Jun offered to swap out for one of us. I found the rain very refreshing :) chatting with Jun was also fun; he was very friendly (though his English wasn't great) and we talked about deep water soloing and Thailand in general.

We got back to the hotel and cleaned up to go to dinner. Sebastian had told us about some street food along the moat of old Chiang Mai and that there was a good are for going out called zoes garden nearby so we tuktuked our way there. We wandered around the street food to see what there was to see and settled for some delicious pad Thai and pad see ew. Om nom nom. Authentic. Some chang beers from the convenience store two doors down and we were set.

After dinner I was ready to ptfo. We wandered over to Zoes garden but it was still pretty empty. This was probably around 9:15. I whined but Ilana convinced me to stay out, suggesting some sugar might get my energy up. Queue the greasy banana roti. Om nom again and I was ready to party.

We sat down at a table at zoes and ordered a couple beers. A few sips and we had the courage to join the table of reasonable-enough-looking guys a few rows over. Looking maybe, sounding...not so much. David, Ryan, and Kevin were from Toronto and had just graduated with a degree in business and just sold their flower company. (My parents and I actually likely encountered their stands at Penn's graduation in may.) They had settled on doing one exciting thing a day...because they were consistently too hung over to so any more. I think I prefer our m.o. Ryan's head sweatband should have been warning enough.

Eventually we spotted Sebastian and joined him and a few friend from his hostel. Much more pleasant company.

Then came drum and bass. Fuck yes. Danced hard for a bit, with Shaggy and Azaelia. If only I'd worn shorts. Unfortunately the dance floor was soon too crowded and hot so I sat back down. It was also now too loud to talk so I was pretty ready to peace. But Ilana wanted to keep going.

After some more dancing at a less crowded, less poppy, electronic club, Ilana and I split up. She kept dancing while I wandered back to the hostel with the boys to  sample some greenery via Germany. Sebastian and I had a great time talking about cyber security/identities and quantum computing. Fabu and Deepin, his hostel mates, seemed a little lost so they went to sleep and Sebastian followed shortly.

I walked back to the club, past the cafe with the toads in heat that Ilana and I had mistaken for recordings of cows. I bumped into Ilana on the street and we tuktuked it back to the hotel.

- Amelia

Day 14

Our flight was at 6 30 on our last day in Chiang Mai, so we could have a lazy morning and afternoon. Amelia had wanted to get her haircut so we envisioned a spa day because Thailand is famous for its pampering. There was a wide choice for massage, but finding a place for a haircut was a little more difficult. We asked for a recommendation from the hotel but the place was closed. We asked for another recommendation from the money changer and he suggested a place across the street.

The proprietor of the barber shop was eating lunch so Amelia and I went to wonder around the mall. I was pretty hungry for lunch while Amelia wasn't because she had eaten half my breakfast while waiting for hers. Equating street food to mall food, I got Pad Thai at the food court. This operation included a confusing system of buying coupons in one place and ordering food in another. The Pad Thai was even better than last night and we wandered back to the barber shop.

The only person working the shop was a fairly convincing transvestite. I opted for a manicure instead of a massage but Amelia and I couldn't be served at the same time. The hair dresser struggled to understand what Amelia wanted for a haircut and did a hack kind of job. Not seeing this as an indication of her/his lack of prowess in the personal care industry I still opted for a manicure and pedicure (not something I've done since high school but it was cheap and we were going to Japan the next day). Wrought with fears about hygiene and feeling the onset of the 3rd world traveler's inevitable intestinal discomfort, I was not a happy camper. Torn between my reluctance to brave the squat style commode with my freshly done toes and the peristalsis of my lower digestive tract, eventually the latter won out and I walked in bare foot to a cesspool of who knows what. Without getting into details, I'll just say Amelia's reaction on seeing me led from the backroom with the shorts pantsuit wearing ladyman was that I had unwilling been giving a happy ending to my manicure that was neither happy nor at the end of my manicure. Yes, with no sink or disinfectant I sat back down for the end of my manicure. By the end we were antsy to get out. All in all my Thailand spa experience was shitty.

Chiang Mai airport was the easiest and most pleasant airport so far. Clear signage, pleasant gate agents and comfortable places to sit. Not to mention it was small and empty, so it was pretty hard to get lost.

We settled into our seats on the plane and suddenly "Haaa!" The head and arms of a toddler (whose existence was literally surprising to us) popped over the seats in front of us. Ilana jumped and cowered instinctively and then we all, the boy's parents included started laughing uncontrollably. It looked like a tricky matter to ask the boy to apologize to us when his mom could barely stop giggling.

Our travel from south east Asia to Japan was otherwise uneventful and unfortunately not that restful. We had a red eye of two less than 4 hr flights and a 3 hr layover in Hong Kong. We descended into Hong Kong through a thunderstorm. It was a spectacular sight, looking down on all the colored lights of the city, illuminated building-lined streets twisting around mountains and bays, massive clouds flashing electric light at different altitudes.

- Ilana

Day 13: "Guided" Tour in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Day 13 was the most expensive and underwhelming day of our trip so far. Hard to imagine considering we got to see a 350 year old temple on top of a mountain, cuddle with tigers, and ride bare back on elephants. Maybe the problem was our guide pushing costly extras on us at every turn, like a trained monkey show or photos with the tigers (which turned out to be mandatory), maybe it was the gimmicky feel at every attraction. After 24 hours in Thailand we have yet to encounter a Thai person who wasn't an interface between us and a photo opp or trying to sell us something.

The day started off on a bad note with the two of us bickering, until I offered a peace offering of swapping breakfasts when Ilana foolishly ordered milky porridge expecting oatmeal. Our guide arrived and was very accommodating by helping us cancel our tour for the next day (somehow we knew this was the right decision even before the mediocrity of the day). We drove up a mountain outside Chiang mai to see a temple that is the symbol of the city. The long steps leading up to the temple were framed by statues of Naga on either side, gilded with scales in different colored pieces of metal. The spectacular approach led to an otherwise forgettable temple. Some aspects were nice but our guide, who was constantly on his phone or iPad, seemed disinterested. His English was the best of our guides so far, but he didn't engage with us other than throwing out the occasional fact and the constant pestering question "Do you want to take a photo?" 

At the temple we saw three Chinese tourists taking part in the Buddhist tradition of releasing birds for good luck. Vendors capture wild birds from the forest and pack them with a half dozen other birds in a wicker basket. They then sell these at a price to Buddhist tourists visiting the temple. With iPhones ready to take pictures, the three Chinese tourists struggled to untie the knots on the wicker cages until they finally succeed and all the birds flew away... Except one who had hurt a leg or wing while inside the tiny basket with the other birds while the tourists repeatedly flipped over the basket to untie the knot. The bird hung to the inside when it opened until it fell to the ground with a thud. This was a metaphor for the rest of our day.

We finished with the temple at 10 30 and were not supposed to be at Tiger Kingdom until lunch. It soon became apparent that the guide had scheduled time for other activities we needed to pay extra for throughout the day. Had we given in to every additional activity, which seemed to be his expectation based on the day's structure it would have cost maybe $40 on a tour that already cost $115 per person. It also became clear that our "guide" was really just a driver. airconditioning and a motivator to spend more. The tour company was clearly not a necessary party for any of the activities we took part in.

We gave in to one of the activities: a snake show. We entered a fenced area with a dozen or so cages, each containing a snake or three in varying degrees of apparent health (or lack thereof). Most had patches of scales falling off and none had that shiny, smoothness that makes snakes so beautiful usually. Finally we were ushered into a small covered arena with wooden tiered benches. The show itself was fairly impressive and more than a little bit frightening: two snake charmers repeatedly narrowly escaping the attacking jabs of cobras, pythons, and boas, all set to a soundtrack of Nicki Minaj and LMFAO. There was a jumping snake rumored to launch itself up to 4 or 5 meters. This one kept trying to escape the performing pit toward the audience and just barely being caught by its tail by one of the snake men. Likely planned, but a few more inches and that snake would have been freeeeeee. They did an impressive stunt where they forced the snake to fall asleep so that it could be passed around members of the audience. The finale was an underwater wrestling match between the older snake charmer and the boa. We suspect the outcome was fixed. Pretty gimmicky overall, but still entertaining.

From there it was Tiger Kingdom. We knew the price of petting and taking pictures with the tigers was not included, but we did not realize the purchase was required to enter the park at all. We selected to take pictures with the small tigers, ages 5-9 months. Admittedly the price was pretty reasonable at about $18. There was also an option for smallest tigers, ages 3-5 months, for an extra cost. Our small tigers were still pretty big but cute nonetheless. The tigers were not drugged or declawed. They were docile because they had been bred in captivity and handled by humans at a young age. It was actually not all that exploitative. The tourists were let into the cages in small groups and instructed closely by trainers so the tigers didn't appear too harassed. The tigers looked healthy and seemed happy enough, playing with each other. We got our pictures and Ilana even got to give a tiger a belly rub. We also walked around and got to see the big tigers and baby tigers.

Then we had lunch which was included in the tour. This was our first real taste of Thai food. It was pretty bad. The Pad Thai was bland and fishy and the soup was oily. What else would you expect from what was basically a theme park restaurant?

After Tiger kingdom we had another chunk of time blocked out to spend more money but we declined to see the women with the rings on their necks and arrived at the elephant place.

The elephant home did seem traditional and not too exploitative. The elephants were friendly and seemed healthy. We got to see a baby elephant Farside, first and feed him bananas. Then we rode our elephants bare back through the jungle (Amelia was not into the bugs) until we reached the river and got to play in the water with the elephants. The handlers did have the elephants do some cute things like give elephant "kisses" with their trunks where they create suction on your cheek and spray water. Ilana was more willing to get dirty and play with the elephants although Amelia kind of got into it too.

Next we were supposed to go to an orchid farm....but it was closed! So he said he'd take us to a different one...also closed. Maybe if he hadn't allotted so much time for extras we didn't agree to pay for we would've gotten to see what we actually planned to. Instead he offered to take us to see the 600 year old temple in the center of town. It was aight. We wish he'd had more to tell us about it.

Finally free of our guide, we went to dinner at the Whole Earth Restaurant, and Ilana got her authentic panang curry. "So good" she says. We wandered back to our hotel through the night market and got some souvenirs. I think I preferred the night market in siem reap but it was still fun.

- Amelia with help from Ilana

Day 11: Diving and Motorbikes in Bali

Day 11
Our dive package included an additional two shore dives on the last day. Our trusty dive master Putu helped us get set up and we went back to dive the huge wreck a second time. We had the dive camera in hand this time and caught a shot of the ladies carrying our tanks and bcs on their heads.

The dive was more crowded because we had a lazier start to our day. We saw an array of angelfish, butterfly fish, boxfish, damselfish and pufferfish. We also saw another turtle and a few cute little crabs in the anemones. We also saw what looked like a patch of sparse seaweed waving in the current.... but was actually two dozen thin black eels trying to catch fish. I don't think I've ever seen as many eels on another dive trip as we did in Bali.

For our second dive we went with Putu off the front of the hotel where we'd dove the night before. The hotel so was so close to the ocean that at high tide the waves splashed up the steps of the dive shop. Right as we got in the water we saw a huge school of jackfish, maybe 100 fish or more. Putu got a video of Amelia and I swimming in the middle of them. We hadn't seen the night before, but there was an underwater statue garden made by the hotel. There was an eerie magic to it, because Putu had left this part of the explanation of the dive plan a surprise (or an ESL gap in understanding). The garden had typical Balinese Hindu figures and temple designs. They were all partially covered in coral and anemones. A huge anemone was even sitting in the lap of a seated figure like a lotus flower. There were also fake "cages" that some fish were chilling in. We saw the biggest eel we had seen and two sea horses! Amelia had to pantomime sea horses to me with some creative charades but eventually I understood.

The day before Putu had suggested we check out another town in Bali, Amed. We had gone to the front desk and asked how we could get there and she said it cost money so we said we'd think about it. We went back the day to ask how much it would cost and she said more than 40 American dollars. We said we would think about it again. After talking with Putu and him telling us to be ready to go at 4pm, the next thing the girl at the front desk saw was Amelia and I leaving on the backs of motorbikes driven by Putu and his friend, Sablang.

It was my first time on a motorbike and I had a good idea of the dangers and what rules to follow to avoid them. Having eschewed the ultimate rule, always wear a helmet, and been a little lax with the penultimate rule, don't ride with strangers I was sure to at least follow the third most important rule- don't touch the exhaust pipe. Unlike Rachel, my mom and my cousin Lily, Amelia and I at the very least ended the night with no burns. We also sent an email to Amelia's friends Carmel and Rachel with the info of where we were going and who we were going with. 

Although we were nervous and saw this as a bit of an adventure, we knew we were safe with Putu. After all, if you can trust a guy to take you down 90ft in the ocean, can't trust him to take you a few or 15 miles down the road? Putu's friend Sablang was a 30 something  year old tattoo artist who had done Putu's tattoos and was dressed like he thought this was a date in a white button down and fedora. Putu motioned for me to hop on the back of his bike and for Amelia to ride with Sablang. Then we sped off back through the hilly road with jungle on either side that we had taken from the airport before turning off on a smaller road.

After about 20 or 30 minutes, we arrived at our first stop- a scenic overlook of Amed to watch the sunset. The view was gorgeous, clearly a popular spot for both tourists and locals. Some of Putu and Sablang's friends also showed up later: Kommang, a hippie with long curly orange and black hair, another dive master named Bene who spoke the best English with an Australian accent, and Ali who liked to joke around and throw out cheesy but tasteful pick up lines. We took some pictures and hung out while the Balinese guys chained smoked more cigarettes than the cast of Mad Men. We learned that Balinese and Indonesian are different languages. On listening closer I could hear that they spoke Balinese with most people who came to the hill and Indonesian with only a few others.

After the sunset we went to dinner at an authentic "warung", the Balinese word for a small restaurant. I had cap cuy, a vegetable soup, and Amelia had "nasi capur" which was something with chicken, tofu and eggs. Props to Amelia again for not freaking out about the half centimeter dead beetle in her food. (Although if karma is real why was there a 2 inch cockroach in her bed later?) I know the restaurant was authentic because they only had a squat toilet (tmi?).

Putu and Sablang told us about life in the villages. Most people live with their families and are Hindu although there are also Buddhists, Muslims and some Christians on the island. The black and white plaid we had seen on statues represents the criss crossing of good (white) and bad (black) karma. According to Putu, the crime rate is very low on the island because regardless of what religion, most people believe strongly in karma. He also told us about life as a dive master: the diving gets boring after a while (aww) and he's met many different types of divers like the Malaysians who always insist on starting ever day at 5am, the Japanese who look professional with their huge cameras but consistently have horrible buoyancy control and the divers who want to cut their surface intervals short which is safe for a casual diver but dangerous for someone who dives everyday like Putu.

After dinner we went to go hear live music at a bar further south. We stopped along the way for Sablang to get petrol which is sold in recycled glass liquor bottles from booths on the side of the road (we saw this in Cambodia too but I had no idea what it was). We arrived at the bar to catch the end of a Balinese reggae rendition of Adele's Someone like You, ... "Sometime it last in love, sometime it gone instead". We drank a couple of beers and watched the band. Most songs were reggae versions of American pop songs and a few popular Indonesian and Balinese songs which had good rhythm and were fun to dance to. Ali, the jokester from before, was on the djimbe. Amelia and I both took turns dancing with Sablang in an overly explicitly platonic way. Bene from before also showed up and we met some more of their friends, including some (cute) guys who worked at Sablang's tattoo shop. Most people in the bar were Balinese but there were also some white people, maybe people who had gotten caught up in the natural beauty and friendliness of Bali and never left (apparently, it happens enough) or just tourists like us. Sablang made us oragami from the napkins- both orgami and yoga have been practiced on Bali for a time.

Also we learned Putu is in a metal band which for some reason is kind of adorable, probably because he weighs as much as a golden retriever and is about as fierce.

At 11 we hopped back on the motorbikes to go back to the hotel. In the absence of too much light pollution, the stars looked beautiful. We passed the hill where we had watched the sunset, the mountains contrasted against the starry sky and the hotels spotted sparsely along the hillside with yellow lights. It would have been nice to stop and look out at the view, but we didn't want to give the wrong impression to Sablang who seemed a little over eager. Riding the motorbikes was more exciting (ok and terrifying) at night because we went much faster without traffic and it was dark. Amelia and Sablang were singing songs and Putu and I remained quiet, with me holding on tightly and watching the scenery with Putu every so often asking the occasional dive master's calm "You're ok? Ok." Overall it was an adventure and fun experience. Today we're arriving in Thailand and I will get to have my first taste of real Thai food.

Today (Day 12) has been a travel day so not much to report except Amelia's farts have been particularly rank and these planes are small... Someone turned around in front of us after the last one.

- Ilana with help from Amelia

Addendum: the bar was called Wawa Wewei which is like "blah blah blah" in....probably Balinese but maybe Indonesian.

Day 10: Diving in Bali

Turns out the unlimited diving package we have in Bali includes a personal, all day, dive master. Ours was named Putu, a 26 yr old Indonesian man with 1inch gauged ears, a huge squid and shipwreck tattoo among others and hardly 100 pounds on him. He was probably one of the oldest dive masters at the resort- the youngest probably 15 years old. Putu said something like their uncle owns the resort or is the dive master instructor, it was difficult to understand exactly. In general the dive resort seems like a family or multiple family business because there are definitely more employees than people staying here and they seem to know each other well and be of all ages.

The service is incredible. We didn't even have to carry our dive gear from site to site. Before we walked to the first dive- a short walk along a sea wall and past some goats- Putu told us someone would carry our bc and tanks. I imagined two spry teenage boys would do so but instead a leathery old woman with a traditional Indonesian head scarf which looks like a flat turban swung one 20lb tank on top of her head (wut) and then without a second's hesitation hoisted the second 20lb tank perpendicularly on top of the first (omg). Many of the women carry things this way on top of their heads, balanced by the coiled scarves. Even so, this was particularly impressive.

We started our morning check out dive with a wreck called the liberty that had been completely reclaimed by the reef. On this dive we saw a tiny garden eel sticking up in the sand gaping at the fishies. We also saw a turtle! I think it was a hawksbill because I was looking in the book later and it had a beaky kind of jaw and was taking bites of the coral. We saw it swim up to the surface above us, which was pretty neat. We also saw a ray. I scared him away by getting too close and while swimming away he looked like some freaky bird flapping his wings (or did I just read Jurassic park too recently).

During our surface interval Amelia and I went back to the room to try to get the camera working. We figured out why it hadn't turned on before... Turns out we had neglected to put in the batteries! Oh technology, you sly beast. We meant to take it on the second dive but had a card error and didn't get any pictures. Too bad too because we saw an octopus (Ilana's favorite). 

The dive was at a coral wall, meaning theres a naturally steep drop off making the reef almost vertical, even overhung at some points. Amelia and I have never seen so much diversity, apparent in the fish but even more so in the invertibrate organisms like sea stars (fat pink ones, bright green ones, lavender ones, and one decoratively patterned red one), sponges (especially translucent blue and purple ones), anemones (big and small hosting a cornucopia of anemone fish), and of course corals (from brain to feathery to huge fans to what looked like a modern art sculpture of a bonsai forrest in lime green).

The 3rd dive was a boat dive on an outrigger which as Putu told us is a traditional Indonesian boat. We had the camera working at this point and have some pictures from the dive. Putu took the lead on taking photos which worked well because now we have better quality pictures and some with Amelia and I in them which will make our parents happy for sure. This dive site was in a little worse condition than the first two but we still saw a spectacular array of colors. In particular, we saw a pink nudibranch, a fleshy red anemone (or not an anemone? Idk) and some sort of melon sized echinoderm that Putu and I played volleyball with in the water.

Our fourth and last dive was a night dive starting at sunset. Night dives are always a little scarier, because beyond the halo of your flashlight is an interminable abyss. Looking into the black ocean is terrifying beyond just the normal heebie geebies of night on land because of the complete lack of sound and smell, leaving a completely senseless experience. But we each had a flashlight and stuck a little closer together than we had earlier. We saw some rays that would follow our flashlights a bit. We also saw some shrimps and crabs that Putu and I played with... Amelias not so into touching things. We saw a gorgeous snail with a curved pink shell and a black and white cow spotted body as long as a hand. We also saw something that I think was a cuttlefish but its unclear. The highlight for Ilana was a tiny little octopus, maybe the size of a tablespoon that scurried along the sand and changed colors. What a cutie. We also saw a school of fish, each maybe 3ft long looking huge and black right out of the range of our flashlights. I wanted to show Amelia the dinoflagellates, little phytoplankton that live in warm climates and flouresce when agitated, for example by a fin kick but she didn't understand. For dinner we had some fresh caught tuna and beer.

After four dives and the hot Bali weather Amelia and I are struggling to stay awake until 10pm to google voice mom and dad. We have two more dives tomorrow then its off to Thailand the next day. Were making lots of lizard friends at the hotel, though no cute Australian human males like we had been told about. The stars are great too. The last things to report are that the toilet is in the shower. Thanks for reading :)

-Ilana

SE Asia Days 4-9

Day 9
Amelia and I have just arrived in Bali, Indonesia. Not too much to report since we just arrived, but the resort does seem very remote (2.5 hr drive up and down hills past rice paddies). We got a see a crazy rainbow that went end to end into the ocean. We get internet here and hopefully we'll have some fun diving stories for tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a quick catch up on the 5 days we missed:

Day 4: Last day in Cambodia
No temples on our last day in Cambodia. We slept lateish- 7 30am - and had delicious pancakes again. Then we hung out by the pool, laying out, reading and swimming until we left at noon. I also took some cute pictures of the doggies who lived at the resort. There were six of these pekinese, chihuahua, fluffy lap dog mutts. They were all named after fruits: mango, lemon, apple, pumpkin, melon and kiwi. But Amelia and I called them the lighter biggish one, the darker biggish one, the bitchy one, the bitchiest one, the favorite and the derpy one. The derpy one who's real name was kiwi was a fatty with skinny legs and a tongue that didn't like to stay in his mouth. This is on my phone but pics to come.  Then we took the short flight from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is where Amelia was mentoring at Decode, put on by Start Up Malaysia. I knew needed to entertain myself while she was working during these next few days, but after arriving I realized that might be more expensive and difficult than I thought. So maybe an hour after arriving in KL I booked a bus to Singapore for the next morning. My host was Devon, a friend from Penn, who has been living in Singapore since he graduated in 2011 and took a job consulting for a ginger, cotton and palm products company.

Day 5: Ilana arrives in Singapore
My bus left at 9am from a hotel only a 20 minute walk from ours. It was interesting seeing the morning rush hour in KL before leaving. I certainly saw an adequate sample of the different ethnic groups: east Asians mostly from China, Indians and other south Asians, a handful of Arabs or Persians, and a lot of Muslim Malaysians. Almost all of the women I saw were wearing headscarves. Malaysia has been an Islamic nation since the 15th or 16th century, I found out later. Malaysian people have their religion on their ID cards and Muslims can be arrested for consuming alcohol, although non Muslims can't. On my way to the bus I also saw the KLCC, the big hunk of metal shiny towers that were once the tallest buildings in the world, even taller than the world trade center. The bus was definitely the way to go over flying. It had huge seats that reclined far back with personal TV screens equipped with music and movies. I listened to some Britney Spears, watched a half dozen Korean pop music videos and read Jurassic park. I arrived in Singapore at 2:00 and had 5 hrs to kill before Devon got off work, so I hunkered down with my free tourist map they gave out on arrival and circled some things I wanted to see and what subway lines I needed to take to get there. I took the subway to Chinatown and ate lunch in a mall-stall restaurant with no English translations. I had heard that Chinatown and little India in Singapore are like China and India in a gum-free, drug-free, fairly clean kind of way. Never having been, I don't know if that's true, but there are a ton of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Chinese ex-pats in Singapore. I also saw a mani-pedi place with a fish tank where the fish eat your dead skin which sounded authentic Chinese enough for me. After lunch I wandered around some malls getting a feel for the Singapore style and finding an excuse to get out of the heat. Singapore is basically a city made of malls, some at ground level and some below that connect the office buildings and hotels. I met up with Devon at his office, one of the Suntec towers (I think there are 7) connected to the Suntec shopping center. While I waited for him in the mall outside his office I saw a cute art exhibit by Singaporean school kiddos. It was interesting to get a glimpse of the culture as seen by kids and taught by schools. The different heritages were represented, like a kids representation of classical Chinese water colors, and more than one piece had a "we wanted to show Singapore's diversity" message. Devon and I went to an American themed bar for 4th of July and hung out with some his ex-pat American friends. Meanwhile Amelia spent all day prepping for decode. It was hard :( but she had a nice dinner at a place called Top Hat with the decode sponsors and a woman from John Kerry's office. She also worked through her talks with the other instructors, John, other John and Marcus.

Day 6: Ilana chills in Singapore
I left with Devon when he went to work on Friday morning. We had coffee at a hipstery place in his neighborhood. Unlike most people in Singapore, Devon doesn't live in a huge highrise but instead an old school Singaporean apt building. I went to little India and wandered around, getting some pretty awesome spicy Samosas. A friendly Malaysian guy started chatting with me at one point and gave me some recommendations on what to see. When I told him I was American he said "I will kill you!" ... Uh. "You know, because I am a Muslim and you are American? I'm just kidding, have a nice day." I started walking to the Hindu temple he had suggested but was feeling kind of lonely so I started chatting with a girl who looked like she was traveling alone. She was Swiss and was down to wander around with me before going to meet her ex boyfriend for lunch. The Hindu temple was incredibly beautiful and ornate, with some depictions of characters Amelia and I had met in Cambodia and bustling with Hindu people praying and eating. Afterwards my new friend Marina and I walked to Arab street and stumbled upon the Malaysian heritage center. We learned some cool things. Apparently Malaysia actually used to have a fairly large film industry in the 1960s. Malays are also not just one ethnic group but a composite of many groups from the islands. There are also a mixture of international groups from western and eastern Asia who have been trading or living in Malaysia and Singapore since the 3rd century AD. Marina left to meet her ex and I walked about little India a bit more before heading to downtown. I walked on the River Quay which was touristy but cute, saw some of the British influenced architecture and eventually arrived at the Asian Civilizations museum. The museum was had tons of gorgeous art and was well curated with informative descriptions. I learned a ton and really got a feel for how religion and art diffused through east and south eastern Asia. Also it was only $4 for students, thanks penn card! I wandered some more looking at views and meandering through malls before meeting with Devon for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. Then we went to Sentosa, a man made beach in Singapore where we went to a "Jazz on the Beach" event where his friend's girlfriend was the PR manager. The band was made of Spanish speaking people, who we later found out were from Mexico, Uruguay and Spain. How cosmopolitan and appropriate for Singapore. Many of Devon's friends were ex-pats or international people (by international I mean like my friend Wint Thu who grew up in half a dozen different countries before she was 10). Only the PR manager girl was born in Singapore and Devon told me later that sometimes he thought she put on a slight American or British accent to sound like she was from somewhere else, a really interesting example of how different the "cool factor" in different countries can be. Amelias first day at the program wad a lot of debugging, pretty interesting watching 500 people coding in one room. More on that later.

Day 7: Ilana chills with Devon in Singapore
The next morning Devon and I went to breakfast in his neighborhood at another hipstery place with some delicious baked goods (fuck, real butter is fucking good). We explored a little market nearby and got a "custard apple" which is a weird fruit with the meaty texture of a scallop but the taste of apple pie. They also had other exotic fruits like mangosteen, jackfruit and lychees. After we had digested Devon and I left for a run to the botanical gardens. The gardens were free (for the win) and absolutely incredible. There was so much diversity and again the curators killed it with the layout and descriptions. There's more diversity in the botanical gardens than in in all of north America (says the internet). Hardly covering 3/4 of it we saw the ginger garden, a rainforest walk, the healing garden and an "evolution" garden which described the history of plant life on the planet starting with rocks, mosses, ferns, cycads, etc and eventually flowering plants. Devon also showed me his favorite tree which was pretty big, but not as big as the red woods. Then Devon and I ran back (more of a challenge because we were already tired from the heat). Devon was disappointed in my food choices the day before in little India so we went back to little India so he could properly introduce me to delicious Singaporean south Indian food. After our run we were starving and the food we ate was delicious. Also I ate naan which is not vegan so I normally don't eat it and its so delicious in its buttery garlicky glory especially when dipped in spicy hot yellow daal with all the ginger and whole chillies. That night we had plans to meet up with his friends to go out. One came to his apt and I learned he was Pakistani but went to school in the states. Devon hadt also told me before that this 20something guy was a big deal sugar trader and owned multiple mini markets because of his inherited semilegal connections. Apparently getting around taxes and having connections in Africa and South America also contributed to the success of the company Devon works for. The politics of money in Singapore and the rest of this part of the world blow my mind. The club, Zouk, was fun, with three dance floors and great music. 

Day 8: Ilana arrives back in KL to meet up with Amelia
In the morning Devon took me to a place to get Kaya on toast, which is a coconut jam. It was delicious. I also had planned to get tanaka at this other mall, a root that you grind on a stone and can use to protect your skin from make up, reduce oil and stop sweat that is popular in Burma. One of Devons friends had told me the night before a general area where I might be able to get it but his instructions weren't specific enough and it would have taken too much time. I'm hoping I can find it in Thailand or Japan. Then I had an equally pleasant experience on the bus back to KL. When I arrived I realized I hadn't printed out directions on how to get back to the hotel, oops, but luckily I remembered. When I got back to the hotel I saw a note that said "at skybar, you should come, take a cab" with some Malaysian money from Amelia. Without too much adventure, I found her and met her colleagues including Vani, the lady who helped book this trip. Amelia and I were both exhausted and had to get up early for the flight this morning so that brings us to today. Hope you guys are enjoying these updates. Tomorrow is our first day of diving!!