Mainlining Life

 2:30am- The alarm goes off. Time for 45 minutes of physical and mental exercise. A quick bowl of granola and yogurt, some instant coffee and its time to go.

4:00am- Work truck leaves. It's a 30 minute drive to the job site. The stars look nice in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Gotta keep my eyes on the road... damn kangaroo's love playing chicken in these awful hours.

4:30am- Arrive at the job site. Time to clear the guards and multiple check points... "No sir, another cavity search will not be necessary today, sir!"

5:00-11:00am- Work. The sun's still low and so is the heat. Like clockwork, when the sun pops up, the flies arrive.

11:00am- Lunch (One of my favorite times of year)

12:00pm- Back to work. (To replicate the average condition of working in summer in the outback of Australia; enter into a sauna wearing long pants and long sleeve shirt. Turn on super lamps and release a medium sized bag of flies and commence with manual labor).

3:00pm- Time to go. Finally.

3:30-6:30pm- Relax, rehydrate, food, beer, TV, dinner, etc.

6:30pm- Pass out.

2:30am- The alarm goes off...

Rinse and repeat this for 6 days a week for 10 weeks and you will get the idea. Ever seen the movie "Groundhogs Day"? The mind-numbing monotony was broken up only by the one day off a week (Sunday), which was often spent recovering from Saturday night. This is how I spent most my time from early Feb through the middle of April.

So there... now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let your hair down, loosen up that tie, and pour yourself a stiff drink...

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. The scales have been tipped in one direction and its time to even the score. After 2 and a half months of work its time for 2 and a half months of fun, right? That's how it works for you guys, isn't it?  "So long Alice Springs; Cairns, here I come!"



Bungee jumping, 3 dives in the Great Barrier Reef, crocodiles and jungle tours? Geez... I better pace myself. This is only the first 4 days of vacation.


After a near 3 months of being down-under it seemed like it was time to move on. "To Indonesia, Jeeves."

Shortly after arriving in Bali I made my way to the nearby island of Lombok. It was there that my path crossed with that of a crew of scurvy sea dogs. Shanghaied, I soon found myself on a small vessel carrying us toward the infamous Komodo islands.

We sailed the warm, clear, calm waters of the Indian Ocean (this is the color blue that ocean water ought to be), surrounded by a plethora of lush and dramatic volcanic islands. After four days of snorkeling, swimming with Manta Rays, midnight dips in bio luminescent plankton, island hopping, and a hundred other shenanigans, we had arrived... the Komodo Islands!

It was here that one of those wretched dinosaurs made a go at me. Shortly after crossing his path, the cunning beast flanked a couple of us and began to run. The stick I had in hand would have done little to help me, but I'm guessing I could have outrun the cute blond girl in the flip flops. Only a few days before we had arrived, a ranger had been bitten by one of these voracious monsters.

The initial wound is perhaps the least of your concerns, although the pictures assure that no part of a Komodo Dragon bite with worth experiencing. A dragon has 64 different types of bacteria in its mouth. After it bites its prey, it stalks it for days, biting it more and more. Eventually the wounded animal becomes too sick and falls over. This is when the dragon moves in... feeding time. The ranger ended up having his foot amputated due to the amount of infection that had set in (health care is never close in Indonesia). And oh, don't mind the vipers and cobras....

Having landed in Labuan Bajo (Flores Island), it was time for a new plan. After returning to Lombok and spending a few days surfing and consuming copious amounts of fresh coconut on the beach, it seemed like I needed to take it a bit easier... Next stop; Gili Islands!

The Gili Islands are by all appearances, paradise. To walk around one of the islands would take perhaps a couple of hours (or more depending largely on how many beach side bars your stop at). There are no cars and no police. I will leave much to your imagination. When I was able to pry myself from my beach side hammock, I would stagger only a short distance to enjoy the cuisine and views from one of the many beautiful restaurants like that in the picture above. 

 

After spending far too much time in the sun, it seemed best to enjoy the interior of some of the islands. It is on the eastern end of Java that numerous active volcanoes are located. The one above is called Bromo. The one below is Ijen.

 These men are mining sulfur. This is without a doubt the worst job I have ever seen anyone do and each one of them is smiling, singing and happy. To give you an idea of what these guys go through everyday... Imagine hiking uphill for an hour, and then down 30 minutes into the crater of a volcano. Congratulations, you have arrived at work.  Now bust up the sulfur as you are asphyxiated by thick billowing smoke. Done? Got your (150lb-200lb) load? Good, now throw all of that weight onto one shoulder and hike back up and out of the crater and then down the volcano. Still smiling and singing? You should be... you just earned 70 cents. Don't spend it all in one place.

 

 As my Indonesia trip drew to an end I soaked up at much as I could in Ubud. Ubud is a beautiful place in the center of Bali where the rice paddies are immaculate, the police are corrupt, the Luwac coffee flows like a river (now that's a visual), and a fight with a monkey is not out of the question.

Returning from Indonesia I had but a week long layover in Colorado before departing again. Where to this time? Colombia! My oldest of friends had his wedding in Bogota and so I took it upon myself to go early to get some good ol' fashioned exploring in.

 I was a bit caught off guard that very few people in Colombia spoke English. It was time to dust off the school Spanish lessons and do my best to pantomime as little as possible.

I tried to take in as much as possible, but there is just so much to do and see in Colombia. The countryside is peppered with quaint little colonial villages. The Andes offer a lifetime of fun and excitement. The people are so incredibly friendly. If you get a chance... go.

My friend Jasmine accompanied me for the second week. We spent our time getting to know Bogota as well as we could.

As you can see from this photo, Bogota is both colorful and beautiful (as are the women)... damn this language barrier. But I suppose there is no need to be well versed in Spanish when you are fluent in the language of love.

So there it is.... sheesh. I think I need a vacation from all of my vacation. Where to next? Tune in next time to find out. And remember; dont do anything I wouldn't do!

Truly, madly, deeply,

ME