It’s been a long while since I have posted something. I still have the travel itch but have been too busy trying to update all of the countries/cities I have been to.

Anyways, we went to Heaton Flats trail which is within the Angeles National Park, way east of Los Angeles and north of Pomona. Originally we had other people within our group but after some of our friends read the Yelp reviews they had second thoughts.

Here is an excert from a Yelp review:

“You will cry for your mommy.

Iron Mountain is the sort of climb that might make you cry, find Jesus or curl up and die.  This is definitely not a “day hike” for the folks wanting to give the summit “the ‘ol college try”.  This climb is for people that sleep with uzis, eat raw flesh and make doves cry.”

Hike Report:

Start time: 9:00 AM

End time: 3:05 PM

Temperature: 105 F+

Total Distance: 10 miles

Notes: I don’t think it was that difficult compared to other places I’ve trekked. There was only one section of the trail that was difficult in which we had to pass a steep cliff. At the end we saw people bungee jumping and the water was cold. Watch out for those prickly plants!

Nom nom nom!

In the future I’m going to return to Singapore to eat chili crabs. They are irresistible.

On 2 May 2012, We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal from Bangkok, Thailand. We spent 3 days in the capital of Nepal to obtain our two types of permits from government. While in Kathmandu we bought trekking supplies to survive up in the mountains and left our non-essential belongings at the hotel for free. We also ate at interesting restaurants. There were many signs that were selling STDs.

We went to the convenient store and bought a total of $140 (two people) in supplies for ~21 days of trekking. Here is a picture of our food and misc. stash:

My most prized trekking equipment was my super awesome Suunto Core watch that has an altimeter, barometer, storm alarm, sunrise and sunset timing. I use the altimeter to figure out how high we are up in the mountains to gauge how close we are to the next village.  I use the barometer to read the change of the pressure in the atmosphere, allowing me to know when the weather is going to change, I use the storm alarm system to  notify me when there is going to be a heavy rain storm. My watch also tells me when the sun will rise and set, allowing me to figure out when we can start trekking early in the morning to when to settle down before sunset. 

We started our trek from Besisahar and on average we would trek around 8 to 11 hours per day. We met interesting locals and foreigners along the way and created memorable experiences.

Trekking in Nepal was the real deal. We got closer to nature than ever before. The experience was extreme and dangerous. The excitement is always there. There were many live or die moments. Together as a team we calculated the altitude and recalibrated altitue readings, read maps, checked the compass, etc. In one day we faced all 4 seasons within 5 hours. Blazen sun, strong winds, rain, and heavy snow when we trekked from Manang to Gunsung.

Overall it was a great experience and would recommend it to every traveler. Although I’m burnt from trekking and decided to take a break from doing any treks for a while–phew!

I arrived to Koh Tao, Thailand from Penang, Malaysia by bus and night boat. I arrived at Crystal Diving Resort, which is the preeminent diving school because of the high quality training and affordable prices. I booked for Basic Open Water training and Advance courses in night diving, deep diving (30 meters), wreck diving, buoyancy control, and navigation. The basic open water was comprised of 2 days of theory (yes, I had homework. I had to read a course book and calculate numbers) and 2 days of water training both in the pool and the ocean. The advance courses were a total of 2 days. In my wreck diving training, I saw a whale shark for the second time in my life. I was lucky. That was totally unexpected. I also got it on film.

Here are some pictures of the team prepping, exploring a wreck, checking computer watch while ascending, and keeping it real:

Team Awesome Jump – AOW Deep Dive with GoPro

Whale Shark Encounter With Crystal Diving Resort

I’ll upload the rest of the videos soon. If you want the original copy you can download it or just send me a message.

Team Awesome and our awesome instructors:

Here is the footage of the amazing encounter with the whale shark, also known as “butanding” in the Philippines:

Fellow divers, please contact me and I can send you the original copy if you want it or just drop by and say hello! It was nice meeting all of you guys. Safe trip.

I couldn’t believe how quiet the bullet train ride from Tokyo to Osaka was. I was amazed. I fell asleep right away. It was as smooth as a non-fat person’s butt.

When I arrived in Osaka it was pouring like crazy. I was hungry and tired. These two variables made me crazy. It took me 2 hours to find J-Hoppers, my hostel. When I finally found J-Hoppers I was greeted by Kyohei, the receptionist. He’s really cool. He has travelled to over 20+ countries and knows English, Japanese, and Italian. He plans to backpack throughout Latin America in Summer 2014 during the FIFA World Cup time. I might join him as well. He recommended me a restaurant named ALL 280 Restaurant in which each individual dish only costs 280 yen! Super duper great deal since food in Japanese is expensive.

The food was excellent! I mainly ordered izakaya food. This night I tried so many dishes and it was deslih.

Dish:

1. Momo Kizoku-yuki
2. Mune Shibazuke Mayo-Yaki
3. Mochi Cheese
4. Sweet Potato Salad
5. Edamame
6. Tori-Kamaneshi
7. Milk Kanten

Drinks:

1. Toriki Original Milk (Apple Barrel)
2. Apple Pineapple (Apple Barrel)

Next day I went to the Osaka Castle with Dean Gallagher, an Aussie who tours in a band. 

Then we visited the oldest temple in Osaka (or was Japan?) and then parted our own ways. I went to visit Kobe which was near by Osaka.

 Teasing school children. Look how cool their uniforms are!

My real intentions of visiting Kobe was to eat nomnomnom Kobe beef but made a detour to visit the ship yard first. Unfortunately, I got lost in the shipyard. It was like a maze. I was climbing tires, giant metal boxes, and couldn’t ask for directions because there were no one there! I don’t remember how I found my way out but when I did I was hungry.

I thought about eating the kobe beef at the nice area that sells it but I realized it would be weird since everyone else eating the beef is on a date, married, or with their family. I’m the lone backpacker with technical clothing in a posh area.

Plus, I realized that I don’t need to spend more than $200 on a single meal. I’m a backpacker on a budget, not a posh traveler making loads of $.  Instead, I ate this:

 It was decent food at the Harbor Center.