The Rundown

Brunei, not to be confused with Bahrain or Burundi (which is what dad's emailed itinerary said for a long time, and I thought, "wow we start out in sub-Saharan Africa eh?"), happens to be a tiny Islamic Nation on the island of Borneo, shared with Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. On our flight there we were blessed by a reading over the PA system of the "Muslim Travel Prayer" which was translated into English on the screens. Oh Allah that he may deliver us in this vessel to other lands in his Great name, Praise Allah. Something like this, all in glorious Arabic monotone syllables trailing deeply at the end of each stanza. It is Federally prohibited by law to tamper with the smoke detector in the lavatories... or to eat pork. Once settled into the capital (which takes up a good portion of the country) Badar Seri Begawan, We promptly ventured into the jungles of Borneo. It was beautiful, a rain forest complete with steamy canopy of treetops. I've never seeped so much from my sebaceous glands in my life!

Our next stop required that we transit through Singapore (busy bustling city that we very nearly saw only through the metro system until we decided to visit the zoo where we saw beautiful enormous trees like I've never seen before and lush gardens, not to mention a stroll with the Dik-Diks and Zaboomafoo Lemurs) and on to Cairns, Australia for a slightly longer layover. Cairns, turns out, is prime Great Barrier Reef going, so we did. Yes indeed, I snorkeled yet again, and who wouldn't chuck their ictheaophobia to the surf at the old GBR? Dad did an introductory dive that in the end I wish I had done as well, but the experience was still amazing. Cerulean waters that can otherwise only be conjured with pallet-able acrylics. The fish were pretty freaky, but far enough away that I was not entirely threatened. One of our boat crew tried to point out a turtle and "inadvertently" chucked me overboard! He proceeded to entice me to swim around while he threw leftovers to the massive horrifying big ones with incisors, well, I did no such thing. Bizarre phobias like mine elicit everyone to attempt fish antics.

Port Moresby is notoriously one of the most dangerous cities around these days--so says guidebooks and everyone we met. Where do we sign? After a fitful rest full of terrifying nightmares shortly after we arrived, of people entering the hotel room and brandishing machetes and blowing up barricades, we ended up having loads of fun in Papua New Guinea. Fantastic folks, we never saw any machetes or rape or throat slitting that the area is known for. We were by far the only tourists, a few foreigners (Japanese and Australian) on business with oil, but no tourists. We met a coffee farmer, called Joe, who loves his half of the island (not caring so much for the Indonesian half) and showed us a great time.

From PNG we realized we were that close to the Solomon Islands, so why not? We paid a visit to Honiara, where again only NGOs and missionaries tend to tread. This was the spot where JFK washed up shore after his ship was torpedoed in WWII. Some of the Solomoners have amazingly contrasted dark skin with bright blond hair! Goes to show me (I can only speak for myself I suppose) how little of this world I can really know tucked away in our ethnocentric U.S. of A.

We had to return to Oz-tralia to the outback capital of Darwin, which despite my predisposed ideas, was nothing like cowboyland Montana. From there we took off to Dili, East Timor. Everyone kept asking if we were on the UN flight? Oh no, we said, we're on the earlier one, we'll make sure it's OK for them though. Dili was awesome. It was fun to try to speak a blend of Indonesian and Portuguese. We met several of the UN presence that were around every corner, and learned that they don't associate much with the locals, they (the UNers) seemed suspicious and pretentious. But I would definitely make my way back to Timor Leste someday. I'm also happy to have made it through the densest part of the disease-carrying mosquito territory for the trip (resistant malaria, hemorrhagic dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, blah blah blah).

Back through Singapore and onto Bangkok we have recharged for the remainder of the ride. With two shiny new visas in hand and after having finally found the movie theater where you sit in luxurious lazy boys and are treated to massage chairs and complimentary drinks all for $15, we are ready to keep going.

It's been a whirlwind to say the least and once-in-a-lifetime to say the most!