Coconuts and Monkeys

Today I got up early and was able to go golfing with my dad. It was great to get a round in late in December. As mentioned the club house appears to be that of a castle, and the course itself is breathtaking. I will be getting better pictures of the course later, but here is a picture of the clubhouse.

After amorning nine holes, we headed off to a Hindu temple that was built inside of a cave in the hill side. We had to climb 200 some odd stairs to get to the top and inside the cave was their temple with all of their multi-armed-elephant-looking-red-dotted god statues shrined everywhere. It was really neat to see the cave itself and all the detailed sculptures, but I could have done without all the harsh inscense that was burning.

On the giant staircase there were dozens of monkeys all fighting for any food or items that you had in your hands. You were able to buy fruit and flowers to give to the monkeys, which is probably why they live on the staircase. You were able to get right up to them ... but upon seeing the unsterile animals that no doubt had diseases from eating potato chips and drinking pop (I saw a monkey take a can of Sprite from someone), I decided against touching them. Here are some of the better monkey pictures we got.

After playing with the monkeys, we went down for a bite to eat, at which point my brother and I celebrated the warm weather with a freshly cut coconut. The deal was that they cut open a coconut on the spot and give you a spoon and a straw to eat it with, and you give them 60 cents. So even though coconut milk isnt the most refreshing thing in the world to drink, it still makes for quite the exotic drink.

As for the next week, we will be in Thailand on a small resort on an island in the Indian Ocean. I know most people are jealous that I am over in the rain forest and on the beaches for the holiday, but I am still missing snowboarding incredibly much. That is why I am working extra hard to cover up my jealousy of those who are carving up the slopes, which means taking pictures of myself bare-chested, lying on a beach in the hot sun. So you guys can look forward to those in the net couple of days.

Mall/Jungle Excursions

So foar this week, we have been very lazy and done a heck of a lot of shopping during the day. I've told some of you before about the sizes of the malls here, but even though I've seen them before, they still manage to blow me away. I would bet that there are around 12 malls that are as big, if not bigger, than West Edmonton Mall.

These pictures were taken Wed when we were downtown. This mall we were in has over ten floors, and on each floor, there are almost the number of shops that Polo Park has. It's just unreal how much these people like to shop. We are on the third floor looking up in that one. As for the other one ... I just thought the two went together somehow.

The next day (Thursday), we had decided to head into the jungle and visit an elephant sanctuary. I wasnt all too excited in the beginning when we decided to go, but The scenery on the way there was beautiful. I'm not sure if anyone else has really seen the rainforest, but it is just a beautiful thing, and it was expanding as far as the eye could see in all directions. We travelled about an hour into the rain forest and through a small village to the sanctuary. We then watched a video about how the organization rescues wild Asian elephants and relocates them away to the national rain forest park. We then were able to feed the elephants and take a ride around the lot on their backs. The group of tourists then gathered aroud the river that ran through and we all got a chance to ride the elephant in the river where it would lay down, thus send you toppleing into the muddy waters yourself.

This is my dad as he feeds the elephants. Elephants are really amazing creatures, but they dont sound like anything in the cartoons. Mostly they would just let out something that either sounded like a T-Rex from Jurassic Park or some two year old who doesnt know how to blow a trumpet. It was a great experience to get uo close and personal with some of the strangest looking creatures in the world.

As for today ... its 6:40am right now. I am getting up at 7:00 to go golfing with my dad. Make sure to check back tomorrow or the next day to see some pictures of the golf course here. The clbhouse looks like Buccingham Palace.

Hong Kong

Well the big leg is over, now just a four hour hop over to Malaysia. I just want to say that Asian aircrafts are not meant for average sized Canadians. My knees were tight up against the seat in front of me the whole trip.

On the plus side, I did manage to get some sleep to be able to make it through the day here. On the downside, Monday Dec. 18th 2007 will be a day thatI will never be apart of ever. It's wierd because as I am writing this, it is around 6:00pm on Dec.18th, but because of the international Dateline ... I'm pretty sure I had only minutes in Monday until we skipped over to Tuesday. So begs the question ... am I a day ahead of you guys, or a day behind everyone here? See technically I'm a day ahead of you guys, but because I skipped a day, diesnt that make me a day behind in total somewhere? Too much thinking for 9:00 in the morning.

Well my next flight is leaving shortly, I'll try to post some pictures next time. It's too bad I don't have a camera, Hong Kong is beautiful.

PS - I had a good chuckle to myself when the flight atttendent asked if I wanted the beef or pooooorrrrrrk for dinner ... sorry.

The Chewing Gum Joke

Well, what is there to do while sitting alone in an airport for 12 hours. There is only so much that one person can do to keep themselves physically awake ... and so it has come down to two things:

1. Think and ponder about the last few days and nights and ...
2. Come up with a way to extend how long it takes to ponder and think about things.

So how does one extend what one is ponder about? It's simple, create a form of media in which one must communicate their thoughts to a mass audience, forcing them to re-live the events and topics they were pondering over and over again until they become comprehensive to everyone. Thus leadeth to the creation of the first Byrnes blog ever.

And if you were asking yourself what the chewing gum joke is I might as well start off my online journal by clarifying the choice of name:

"Chewing gum is proof that you can have motion without progress"

For some reason the joke came up again, as it always does, and I was the only one laughing as usual. I can still hear Derek in my head asking when's the punchline coming ... oh Derek, just ask Lisa. So now that we have defined the title of the blog, we can move onto other topics, such as the internet in this stupid airport. It keeps flaking out on me and sometimes it is really frustrating. But then i take a step back from my pathetic attempt to kill some time and realize that sometimes having to write the same email/blog entry three or four times is exactly what your looking for when you still have 5 hours to kill after spending all day here. It's sad, but I'm looking forward to being confined in a small chair for 15 hours ... at least I'll be able to sleep.

Let's all raise our glasses and give a toast to being bored and having no-one but your computer to have a conversation with.