March 6, 2008
Wow I never thought I would actually be banned from a country! I came back to Thailand for a few reasons. 1) See my dentist (which I just did, and my mouth is still numb from the Novocaine!) 2) Get all my visas together for the next leg of my trip. Over the last few years I have been toying with the idea of going to Burma (Myanmar). But every time I get close to going I decide not to go. Most of the world knows what happened last September when there were protests and mass killings. So I was kind of on the fence as if I should go or not. People say that if you travel to Burma your money goes to the government and that helps fuel the bad things that are happening there. On the flip side I have also heard that its good for the international community to be there since its unlikely for those things to happen when foreigners are there with their video cameras in hand. I went to a place that helps with getting visas, they turned in my application and it came back saying I was on some sort of Blacklist! The lady said that she has only had this happen one time before and the guy was a journalist. It makes sense that Burma doesn’t want journalists or photographers there since they could easily capture images that could show the country in a way that they are trying to hide. It has happened in the past, last September a Japanese journalist was killed. I started to think why I would be on that list… then I realized that I have done some work with the Freedom Campaign which is a human rights organization that’s fighting to stop what’s happening in Burma. Now it all makes sense, and for some reason the thought of being black listed makes me want to go even more. I got to thinking and thought hey let me try to apply for the visa with my other passport (Canadian) and see if I can slide under the radar. I went to a different visa office so that the lady wouldn’t remember me. I handed in my passport and everything looks good… no black list but I still have to wait 4 days to get it. So you never know they might still put 2 and 2 together! But it sure felt like such a Jason Bourne move!
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Jimmy under Burma, Thailand, Updates |
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March 4, 2008
Today is my last day in the Philippines, so I decided to climb up to the lookout point for some peace. For some reason here in the Philippines it’s hard to find a quiet place. Everywhere I go it seems to be booming with construction, buildings are going up everywhere and with that the lovely sounds of hammers banging and saws sawing. Also here in the Philippines cock fighting is huge, the sounds of roosters can be heard at all hours of the day. The town I’m staying in is called Coron, upon arrival it’s hard not to notice the big letters spelling out C O R O N. It seems they have stolen the look of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. I decided to hike up the mountain and see the view from the top. Today was another blistering hot day, I had to take a few stops along the way to catch my breath and cool down. While I was sitting there in the shade all alone enjoying the silence I could hear the sounds of little feet running up the stairs. A group of 10 year olds followed me up the hill, they were curious since they don’t see too many foreigners. The view from the top was beautiful. They definitely don’t have the smog like they do in Los Angeles. On a totally different note my tooth has been hurting for last few days, so I guess it’s time to go see my dentist in Thailand. Getting my tooth fixed is just one of the reasons I’m going to Thailand. Before I came to the Philippines friends of mine told me that the food was pretty bad…well they were right. The food in the Philippines sucks! So I am looking forward to the lovely food that is waiting for me in Thailand.
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Jimmy under Philippines, Thailand, Travel Tips, Uncategorized |
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March 1, 2008
Its not often we have never death experiences, but when we do, they sure can scare the shit out of you! I find myself in west Philippines in a group of islands called Palawan. My main reason for coming to Palawan was to dive on some of the world’s “best” wrecks (sunken ships). On September 24th 1944 the United States handed out a serious ass whipping resulting in 24 sunken Japanese ships, which were part of the Imperial Japanese Navy. So thanks to the Yanks, Coron Bay is littered with ships for divers of all levels. The first thing they teach you when diving is not to panic, now sometimes that’s much easier said then done. I consider myself a decent diver, but after a bad experience a long time ago I find myself not wanting to go too deep, or into tight spaces. Well for some reason today I decided not to listen to my gut. Most of the wrecks have openings where you can go inside. I told my dive master that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go inside and that I would see how I felt when I got down there.
What I expected was to go down and see the whole ship and then swim up close and look inside one of the holes and decide if I felt comfortable, but this wasn’t the case. The visibility was crap; I could see maybe 2 feet in front of me. As I was going down I started to panic since I couldn’t see anything. We just keep going down and down. Finally my dive master, which was right in front of me signaled to swim straight ahead. I had no idea where the ship was until I looked up and could see the dim sunlight coming through a small hole. I totally freaked out when I realized that I was already inside the ship. I started sucking on the air like a crack head hitting the pipe. My lungs filled with air, which in turn shot me to the roof of the ship. I could feel my head bang against the roof stirring up the dust and sand and now I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. At this point I was hyperventilating soo much that my lungs were hurting. I tried to remember to stay calm and not panic. I looked down and could see what I thought was my dive masters flash light. I made sure all the air was out of my BCD and tried to go down to the light. At this point I felt like I was caught on something and this is where I really started to shit my pants. Somehow in the process I got my backup regulator hose stuck on something. I was completely freaking out thrashing around cutting up my knuckles on the barnacles. In the frenzy I knocked my main regulator out of my mouth (the thing that gives me air…. The thing that keeps you alive) Now I was really losing it, I was trying to find my regulator while still caught on something and couldn’t see anything. My mask was getting bumped around, so I had salt water in my eyes, which was burning. This is pretty much the worst possible situation you could find yourself in. I finally found my main regulator and stuck it back in my mouth, it was a beautiful moment, at least I had air. I then felt someone under me, it was my dive master. It was such a great feeling to not be alone in all this. He was able to free me and lead me out of the cargo hold.
On my way up I was happy to be alive but yet pissed at my dive master for taking me inside the ship after I told him I didn’t want to! I was thinking of all the things I was going to say to him when I got out of the water, but in the end he did save my life even though he kind of got me into it. So I decided to let it all go and just be thankful to be alive. What seemed like 20 long agonizing minutes was actually only about 3 minutes. When I got to the top I found out from my dive master that when I crashed up against the roof I somehow shish kabob myself onto a pole that was sticking out. Next time around I will be listening to my gut!
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Jimmy under Philippines, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Updates |
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