I found this place at 4 am in the morning, were I had the best soup ever.

 

I met these guys who tried to explain what was on the menu. I swear I could totally understand and speak Cantonese. It was awesome!

 

They made this soup for me. Not sure what was in it, but it was delicious. After that I stumbled back to my room and went to sleep.

 

Hong Kong Convention Center.

 

Hong Kong at night.

 

Hong Kong building.

 

Cool building in Hong Kong.

 

Garden in Hong Kong.

 

I saw this window display in Hong Kong. Best hat ever!

 

Diving buddies

 

Resort before we went diving

 

On the way to the dive site.

 

At the dive site

 

Dive site

 

At the dive site

 

Coming home after dive.

 

Picture from scuba dive.

 

Scuba diving in the Philippines

iPod Touch

Just checking if I could blog from this thing.

No Camera, No Pictures, No Problems

After spending all of 20 minutes packing for my trip to India, I left a few things behind, most notably my camera, which I have missed greatly. Not that I see myself as this amazing photographer (which of course I am). It’s just that it is so much easier to take a picture, than write a description.

Ripped Off By The Man

Getting to Bangalore was a lot easier this time around, although I did have to pay customs $300 to bring my laptop into the country. They were trying to get me to bribe them, but I refused. So they applied the maximum duty. That sucked.

Independence

India turned 60 years old last week. It made me feel very strange, as if I was crashing a private party, or watching a celebration for something I could never understand.

I was walking down MG Road, about a mile from my hotel, when I came across a flagpole painted saffron (orange), white, and green. At its base was a chair with a picture of Gandhi. Flower garlands were lying around the picture and hanging off the sides. All around the chair were scattered petals, and candles, along with brightly colored saffron, white, and green powder.

I started thinking of all the old people who were scattered around the streets. Did they live through the struggle for independence? Did they march? Get beat? Get back up? Did life eventually beat them down for good?

I felt a deep sadness.

Monsoon

I got to run around in an Indian monsoon rain shower! How cool is that!!!

Word of advice, if you decide to do that, do not wear sandals. Ughhhh.

This is a picture of a bend in the Chagres River. We beached our canoes here before hiking 45 minutes through the rain forest to get to an amazing waterfall.
 

Headed down the Chagres River towards a rumored water fall.  

Headed to Embera Indian village via the Chagres River. It took about 1 hour to get there.  

This spider attacked me while on the boat. It was about 5 inches long and 4 inches wide.  

Waterfall our guide took us too. I swam in it for hours. After the 45 min hike to get there the cold water felt amazing.

 

Our guide next to the waterfall. 

Piece of wood left over after tree was cut down to make boat.  

I kept finding these red rocks everywhere on the banks of the Chagres River. Not sure of their origin, but they seem to be some sort of red sandstone similar to rocks in Arizona and New Mexico. 

More Rocks 

This rock seemed to be made of harder stone. It also seemed to be the end of a much larger piece with the more substantial base buried out of site. Due to time constraints we were not able to excavate. 

Our boat was very colorful. 

Coming back to camp after exploring the Chagres River 

When I was in India this last time, I went on a safari. We rode around in these huge land rovers with wire cages welded all around them. I thought that was a bit much until I saw the tigers. They're 400 lbs. Of solid muscle, tooth, and claw. I was sitting right next to the driver and complaining that all the tiger shots I had were from the side. So logically what does the driver do? He opens the door. For fucks sake. It was like ringing a fucking dinner bell. The tiger turned looked at me and started licking it's teeth. I, took the picture, craped my pants, and didn't say shit the rest of the day. Priceless.

I took this picture in Bangalore, India. I couldn't take an elephant safari, because the week before, the elephants rioted and killed one of the people in the near by village. I love this picture because it looks like they're reminiscing about that.