Well I’m flying out tonight for Jakarta, Indonesia where I’m going to be traveling with Nerissa for about 3 weeks! I’m pretty excited to be traveling with her and after doing some research on Indonesia for things to check out, it looks like it’s going to be a pretty awesome trip! There should be a nice mix of checking out wicked temples, mountain climbing, wild animal watching (komodo dragons!!), snorkeling, scuba diving and some island paradise relaxing.
Here in Malaysia I basically just spent two weeks on Borneo. I did have 1 day in Kota Bharu and 1 day in Kuala Lumpur but those don’t really count. The two main things I wanted to go to Borneo for was to see monkeys in the wild and climb Mount Kinabalu, which is the tallest mountain in SE Asia at 4095m. I did both and made some great friends along the way. Check out my two friend’s blog, Paul and Klara, that I met there for their hilarious accounts of it! I was also attacked by a monkey on an island off Kota Kinabalu that some friends and I visited. Thankfully a girlish scream and hitting it with a bag containing shoes kept it from closing the last few inches to sinking it’s fang-like teeth into my leg hahah
Malaysia’s quite expensive compared to all the other SE Asia countries I’ve been to and drinking here is almost the same price as back home in Canada (due to the insane amount they tax alcohol), but all in all a pretty good time! Check out the photos below:
Here are four TED talks I’ve been meaning to post on here for a while. Wide range of topics, and some of the best ones I’ve listened to while traveling! Gotta love TED.com!
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Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one. An astonishing story.
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Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can — and should — be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.
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Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved — soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they’re made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain’s 100,000,000,000,000 synapses.
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Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu …
Been a while since I posted some photos so here are the highlights from Cambodia and Thailand so far!
Headed down to Malaysia for a few days next before returning to Thailand (15day visa running out when i thought i had 30days…stupid rule change this year) but should be great as I’ve heard the food in Malaysia is amazing and I might be hitting up some of the islands in the north which are supposed to be spectacular! Anyway, enjoy the pics!
