Die boer wat toer (Go Bok!! - by the way)

Hello All of you Beautiful Bastards

Well, it is about time for an update and I'm horrible at these blogs to tell you what I have been up to but I'll try cause I think I owe it to at least some of you.

I'm sitting down in Banana Guest House in Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia. Adam (my Free and Easy trainer and traveling partner for the last two weeks) and I just arrived here last night from a two week trip in Sumatra, Indonesia. And what a crazy, rad, mad, fantastic trip it was! Just too short as they always seem to turn out - but great!
I am waiting for my next Thailand visa and heading back to Bangkok tomorrow and then to a little 'team build' for the leaders in Kanchanaburi before our groups arrive - mine on the 2nd of May. I'm very excited to take on this responsibility and go back to some of my favorite places in the country of Smiling Thais.

We left Bangkok two weeks ago and via Pinang moved onto Medan in Sumatra. Got ripped of at immigration in Belawan and I saw the official put the extra money in her purse just before she closed the office and left. From there on in we got ripped off quite a lot but it seems to be part of the fun when you travel there Went to lake Toba (supposedly the biggest lake in South East Asia - but I don't believe it) for a few nights and stayed on Pulau (Island) Samosir where we explored some of the countryside and 'missable' tourist attractions by motorcycle and got some nice pictures of the beautiful landscape. Experienced some awesome music and some dances (to be honest the dances were a bit lame but ok) of the local Batak People and seeing that it is such a peaceful place we chilled a lot too!
From Parapat (next to the lake) we got some local mini buses carrying us over very bad roads - (paaie in Transkei is fokol) - to Sibolga - from where the ferry leaves for Pulau Nias - our ultimate destination.
Sibolga is a shit hole and we were harassed really bad by taxi drivers, and kids. The night we arrived in Sibolga - walking around to find the harbor and a guest house - approximately 20 kids followed us shouting: "Hello mister.. mister.... where you from". Parents at roadside eateries tapped their kids on the shoulder and pointed to the 'whities' walking down the road. We had to cross a busy street and keep on one to get rid of them 'cause the just kept on following us. This was a pretty cool experience and seeing that we didn't see one white guy in Sibolga - pretty understandable.
Hopped on the ferry the next evening and arrived in Sorake beach on Pulau Nias the next afternoon. Paradise with a mean right hand wave straight from a surfing magazine. I loved it. The owner of Pleasure Losmen (Guest House), Tetus were very good to us. Gave us good rates (it's not season so there aren't many tourist around - apart from having a lower than average year so far) on our room and also provided a nice 6'10 board to use for free. Just a pitty my surfing skills don't justify a visit to this break but nevertheless I was in the water everyday and enjoyed it immensely!! Constant glassy waves of around 5 - 6 ft are nice even to look at as you are paddling out to where the locals and some whities take off to get barreled. All this while the sun creates palm tree silhouettes as it is setting in soft pastel colors.
We stayed there for four nights and after the mean backtrack - uncomfortable night boat beds, horrible roads and harassing Indonesians, I'm back in Pinang and very much ready to take on my group for some more traveling in Thailand.

The group we had in March was a lot of fun and a good training experience for me. Picked up on some finer skills to make my upcoming trips unforgettable and I'm stoked about this opportunity. Didn't get as much diving done as I would have liked to but at least got my advanced and Nitrox in Kho PhiPhi - only a few more fun dives, rescue and then I can hopefully do my master diver course sooner than later!

I miss all of you and wish you could experience some of this rad shit with me! Who knows - maybe some of you would like to come out here later this year - I know Jacques is
Check out Free and Easy's website if you want to know more about the company - www.freeandeasy.ca
If you promise not to post dirty words or nude pictures of yourself (or me) on my facebook - I will give you the username and password to check out some photos of our march trip but you'll have to ask me for it first... don't just want to send it on to everybody.

Laters Dudes and lovely ladies...