Jerteh
One of the side effects of the anti-malarial pills I am taking is supposed to be really strange dreams (another side effect is 1 in 10,000 experience psychotic episodes . . . ), but my dreams haven't seemed much strager than usual, though they definitely seem more vivid and real. Last night I was out on a geology field school climbing some mountains when I came across a little baby alligator in a stream. he was cute, but I could tell he would eat me if he could. Then I spotted his mother and siblings not far away, and they seemed a little scared. SO I stood up to tell my partner that something was up, and he was busy being stalked by a mountain lion! I saw it, all bunched up in the snow, waiting to pounce. No wonder the alligators were scared- such cross-ecosystem biodiversity can be alarming for their little reptile minds.
Anyways, I valourously chose to get the cougar to chase me, and it jumped on me and was biting me, but then we ran away and tobogganed down the mountainside, and it was so fun.
Back in real life, we are near some islands on the eastern coast of Malaysia, waiting to hop over to the beaches there. Rainy season seems to have arrived in force, judging by last night's torrentiousness (it was even raining inside our bus!), but the sun is up at the moment and I am sure there will be at least some time for being a sun bear here.

Homie and the Binturong

Homie Bear said to the binturong
"How are you? It's been too long!
"Any chance I get to meet
"A fellow bear is quite a treat
"Let's celebrate and sing and dance
"I'll eat berries and you eat ants!"
The binturong said, "I'd love to chat
"But I'm not a bear I'm more of a cat
"I'm smaller than you and really quite frail
"And as you can see I have a long tail
"So obviously I am not of your genus
"You are like hockey and I'm more like tennis
"Nonsense!" said Homie, "Bears aren't exclusive
"We try to be friendship-conducive
"Bear, cat or human, it's all the same
"Inside is what matters, not what's our name"
So the binturong climbed down out of his tree
And joined paws and cheered with his new friend Homie!

Singapore
Remember the green polar bear the Green Man mentioned a few months ago? I met her yesterday. She lives at the Singapore Zoological Gardens, and her green color is caused by an algal invasion in her transparent hairs. Though I of course love meeting my bear brethren wherever I go, I am not so sure polar bears are very well-adapted to the near-equatorial climate of Singapore. Maybe their greenish tinge is a subtle hint to that effect. But I have to say the Zoo was pretty impressive- they had mostly decent habitats for their animals, including orang-utans and white Bengals. And I got to meet some Malayan Sun Bears, too, so that was cool. I think. gabrielle and I have been discussing the issues of zoos and conservation and it's a tough call- most zoos these days are actively involved in conservation efforts so supporting them is good, though they also obviously make their living off holding wild animals captive. But on the other hand they protect those animals from poaching. So it's a tough call. However, when we went next door to the famous Night Safari we were enchanted by the eeriness of seeing nocturnal animals at night- fruit bats swooping by our heads, otters poking their heads up to say hi, and yet another bear- a sloth bear! Yay! Plus a bunch of animals I wasn't really very aware of- bearcats ("I went to the zoo, just the other week, saw a kangaroo, had a chat with a chimpanzee, he said hey brother, you want a thing that's hip, do the bearcat!" Anyone know that one?) also called binturongs, and some kind of boar whose tusks actually grow through their mouths.
The other Singaporean highlight was the drag cabaret at the Boom Boom Room. Singaporean drag queens- one of those things you just can't anticipate when traveling, but that's what makes travel so fun.
While I was waiting for a terminal (back in Melaka now) I happened to notice someone using the blogger interface (I wasn't snooping, the familiarity of it caught my peripheral eye- honest!) so I asked her for her blogspot, and here it is! She lives here in Malaysia and thus she has better insight into the country, so head on over and say hi for me.

Back in high school my friends and I (of the SHM clan) would go swimming in the pools of fancy Jasper resorts, after camping, hiking and mountain climbing. So long as we kept a lively pace, it was never a problem. Once we even scooped a newly-completed hotel that wasn't actually open for business yet by swimming in their pristine pool, and runnning away when someone came to investiagte the splashing sounds. Today I carried on that noble tradition, but the Malaysians are so laid back I don't think they really cared. We went to Pulau Besan, a little island not far from here, and there was this pool just sitting there not being used, so I borrowed it for a while. It was soooo nice. Also, we saw monkeys. That has been a very important sub-quest of this trip, due to our love of animals and our love of the Marilyn Manson song My Monkey, about a poor little monkey who could not withstand the rigours of life in the country. Today we saw a whole family of macacques. Not tamed and fattened tourist monkeys, just normal free-ranging monkeys. So there are way too many pictures of them in the photopage but that is the advantage of a digital camera- you can take as many as you want without wasting film or poo. My favorite picture, though, is this one, of a huge grasshopper we saw. I just like the green. So now I have to start looking in earnest for the Malayan Sun bear. But only if I can avoid disturbing their peace.

Melaka
The Malaysian unit of currency is called the ringgit. So whenever gabrielle shows me her One Ring which she is carrying to throw in Mt. Doom once we get to New Zealand, I can counter with my One Ringgit, which can't really turn me invisible or do much of anything, actually, being worth about 30 cents.
Something I told you yesterday was erroneous- the Petronas Towers are not the tallest building in the world! According to this page, which I linked to once before actually, they are in third place. Taipei 101 is the tallest, by their reckoning, which doesn't include spires. And don't forget Barad-dur, though technically no longer still standing. Actually we were just in Taipei for an hour or two en route from LA to KL, but I didn't notice it. You would think it would be hard to miss but we were always losing sight of the Petronas Towers, too.
Now that we are in Melaka the Petronas Towers are no longer of interest. What is of interest is whether the rain will stop long enough for us to head to a beach tomorrow. If not that's fine. Lots of beaches to be had in the next little while.
I will be regularly uploading my pictures to here, so check out our first batch.

Kuala Lumpur
After something like 25.poo hours of traveling and layovering, we finally made it to KL. Our gargantuan trip was made almost easy by the super-friendly and competent Malaysian Air staff. We started off on Air Canada and even they were pretty decent, even when we only had about ten minutes to deplane in Calgary, collect our baggage, go through customs, and get on our connecting flight to LAX.
Anyways, enough about the actual physical trip- pretty standard stuff if you have evr flown internationally. What you really want to know about, I am sure, is what kind of toilets we have? Squatties or sit-downs? Sadly, I have to report that pooing here is no different than in the Western Woods, as so far all the toilets have been normal. Don't worry, I will seek out and patronize a squatty before my time is out- perhaps tomorrow when we hit the coastal town of Melaka.

I always think of September 15ths as auspicious days because it was on this date in 1997 that I left on a little cross-Canada hitch-hiking trip that continues to define me to this day. It was a cold, bleary and rainy day, as though God were testing my resolve. Now, seven years later, I am resolved to go away again, taking with me the wisdom and experience gained from all the other adventures before this. Am I invincible? No. Am I guaranteed safety and protection? No. About the only guarantee I feel comfortable making is that it will be full of fun, adventure and testing, and we, gabrielle and I, will emerge as better people. And that is worth any amount of discomfort or fright or even actual danger.
Any locals of my friends who want to join us at the Sugarbowl tonight at 7:00 please do.

Being 30 isn't so bad- it doesn't feel any different really. So I guess I am okay with it. Besides, I found out today that bowhead whales can live to be 200 years old! Wow. I wonder how long bears can live. 30 years for sure, and hopefully a few more than that.
My birthday was spent with some of the people I love most in the world, including two who have their b-days today- Mama Bear and my oldest friend Travis. So happy birthdays to them. Lots of birthdays in September, actually, January being such a cold month in Alberta. So, blessings wished upon the following people as well: blu, Jennika, and blarg and Kim who were married the other day in a lovely ceremony.

Anyways, enough with that. I have to tell you guys about Aradhna! My girlfriend and I went to one of their performances on the weekend, not really knowing what to expect- it was billed as an Indian/Nepali worship experience, so obviously I was intrigued, even though our itinerary no longer includes Nepal or India. Anyways, it was beatiful- sitar and guitar and really cool drums. They're Christian, but with some very interesting Eastern tinges to the lyrics. Anyways, if you ever get the chance, go out and see them. It will be unlike anything else you have ever heard, I think.
On the other end of the musical spectrum, and yet with much the same spiritual bent, I got to see my good friends Seven Devil Fix rehearse a bit last night- the last time I will see them for six months at least. I guess I will miss their opening show for King's X in October but any of you in the area can make it I'm sure. So go and tell me how it was.

Arowanas are a rare fish found (though not very easily) in Malaysia. A man was fined $60,000 for selling them illegally from the basement of West Edmonton Mall or something, which is what brought them to my attention. I doubt I can find any in Malysia but it is something I will keep in mind anyways- as well as vigorously doing my best to avoid the poisonous slugs Crogdor told me about.

Have you figured out yet that you are getting about a week's worth of poosts in one? Ducky sent me this link which is exactly why this blog was created in the first place- to celebrate the awesome power of poo!

And if you are planning on traveling internationally during a time which happens to coincide with the expiry date on your driver's licence, make sure you allow for two weeks to procure a new one. For some reason, it now takes two weeks to process a driver's licence. It used to be an instantaneous process, but now it costs more and takes longer. Good old progress. So for now I have an odd-sized piece of paper that acts as my interim licence. It's already starting to get frayed in my wallet but what can you do? My new licence will get here in two weeks, and then my folks I guess will have to mail it to me in New Zealand. Good thing i'm 30- I probably don't need to worry about getting ID'd in bars over there.

My new abode is in the home of Mr. And Mrs. Gotthammer. In their characteristic incredibly generous way, they went all out and set up my own little bear den in their basement, complete with a sign at the entrance saying pretty much the opposite of "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" and decorative posters of bears on the walls.
Yesterday Gotthammer Mike and I went and saw one of the most beautiful films ever made, Zhang Yimou's Hero. Seriously, every single frame was a masterpiece. The martial arts choreography was perfect and the story was surprisingly layered- I won't say much about it, though.
But one thought I did have while watching the movie is that devoting one's life to the perfection of an art or philosophy is not a life wasted. Within the movie we saw a few examples of this, and the movie itself is Zhang Yimou's pinnacle achievement in his chosen field (and the same could be said for Jet Li and the other actors).
Sort of related, but not really, I was reading Parabola magazine today and found an essay on Lord of the Rings which had this quote:

It appears that all Frodo and Gandalf can attempt is to relinquish the use of power so some other new way of living and being can emerge that is not predicated on the use of power. In The Lord of the Rings power cannot defeat power. Only the abandonment of power can truly defeat power. Might does not make right and never will. It can't. It is unnatural and not generative. Only the forsaking of power allows for the possibility of something other than brute force to prevail.
-Donald Raiche

And check out this link, if I was sticking around I would definitely be interested in picking this book up.
I have about ten poobillion other things to tell you guys about but it is time for me to go. I leave you with this zenlike utterance:
It is rare for a bear to care about where.

And another thing- I'm still 29!

The key to independent travel, I long ago learned, is flexibility. For example, one time I woke up in my tent in Moncton, New Brunswick and had to decide whether to go to Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia that day. I stretched and yawned and decided on PEI.
As you may know, gabrielle and I have quit our jobs, sold our cars and moved out of the Woodsy Crypt in preparation for an epic trip around the world. At least, that was the plan two days ago when we went to buy our tickets. Our master plan was to start in Kathmandu, do the Annapurna Circuit Trek (this was HUGE to me, like a lifelong highlight adventure for all time), and then travel all over Asia, before heading to Egypt and over to Europe, and then, finances permitting, over to New Zealand.
As we entered the travel agency to purchase our tickets, gabrielle turned to me and said, "You know, I kind of doubt we'll actually get to New Zealand." And I agreed that it seemed unlikely.
Greeting the travel agent, we told her we wanted two tickets to Kathmandu, please. She said they were burning things down over there and that there was a travel advisory and that the very airline we wanted to fly on had just had their offices burned down by an angry mob that morning, due to the execution of 12 Nepali citizens by Iraqis. So, we (and I have to kind of boast a little about our mutual flexibility here, not many people can handle such an egregious blow to their year-long plans) said, "Well, how about if we just go straight to New Zealand then?" And so we are. We leave in two weeks from today, with a three week stopover in Malaysia just to see what, if anything, is there to do.
New Zealand, wow. It will be fun! And the Annapurna Circuit Trek will still be there for me to hike some other day, don't worry about that. I'm not done with Asia yet!

Quite unexpectedly I find myself with some time to relax. It's been a hectic few days moving out and storing stuff, not to mention that I still had to work every day. Yesterday I pulled a muscle in my back first thing in the morning and the day just kept getting better from there. But now I think I am done what can be done, for now at least. Which leaves me with a few minutes to blog. So . . . what to write about? Should I mention the ethereal wraith that floated by outside my work last night? It was a guy dressed as Jesus in a white robe and a crown of thorns, walking by himself late at night. When I had a chance I went outside to see if he was still there, but by then he was halfway across the vast parking lot, ambling his way to Bethlehem, I suppose. But really, what more is there to say about that?
Anyways, I'm staying with Alissa and her awesome roommate Kavi for a few days so if you need to get a hold of me, well, you can't. but you CAN go read Alissa's blog which is utterly charming.