Golden sake and waves of the Indian Ocean

Sitting in a restaurant in Kuta, Bali. Waves of the Indian Ocean rolling in at the beach across the street. I have just imported the last few pictures from my camera, so here is a little selection:


Kai brought me a bottle of sake with gold flakes in it. Somewhere between awesome and tacky. But the taste was great. And with the aid of some beer and whiskey, we also achieved the goal of getting awesomely drunk.


Afternoon smoko outside the office container.


Kai and Esther are working with slightly different tasks.


Esther and me on the ferry to Pulau Pangkor the other weekend. Kai is to my left, right outside the picture and he is snoring, buta mitai yo, kai-kun! Be relieved that I didn't publish the picture I took up your nostrils Kai!


Here is the entrance to the weird temple I mentioned in my blog after the first time I went to Pangkor. Esther and Kai were able to interpret the archaic Chinese text and told me it was dedicated to Kwanon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.


TV tower in Kuala Lumpur and in the background the Petronas Towers. Not too many years ago, they where the tallest buildings in the world.

Last Saturday evening was spent drinking in Lumut. I got on the bus to KL at midnight, with the scariest driver ever. Don't know if he was high, drunk or extremely tired, probably a combination. Buses here do have a bit of a bad rep. Anyway, I arrived in KL after four in the morning and spent a few hours at the bus terminal before a got on the airport couch. And now I am on Bali and it is time for some serious surfing!

Adventures of Erik the Inappropriate, Japanese Magic and Esther the Accountant

Sorry everyone, it's been a while since my latest update here. Sitting in the office container right now but have to leave in a little while, so this post is going to be a short one. And no pictures, haven't transferred them from my camera yet.

Loads of things have happened but let's start from the beginning, or more precisely from Saturday two weeks ago. That is when I received the following e-mail message from Kai Yamamoto:

"I came to Malaysia! And now in Kuala Lumpur. How do I see you do now?"

Kai was one of the deckies on Søren Larsen ("Japanese Magic"). He was interested in working with us on the Royal Albatross, but in the end we opted for more local crew, at lower cost. Anyhow, Kai was not really satisfied with sitting in Tokyo, picking his nose, drinking rum and turning down well paid jobs on tug boats. (Who wants to work on a vessel with no sails anyway?) So dude just jumped on a plane, one-way ticket, and showed up unannounced. He has been working here almost two weeks now, as a volunteer. It's been great fun! Last weekend we went to Pangkor Island together with Esther, to let the job stress melt away on the beach, in the shade of the palm trees. We have also spent a lot of time in the bars of Lumut and Ipoh. My room in the apartment, once my own hidden oasis, is now the local Chinese-Japanese hangout spot.

A couple of days after Kai's arrival, I resigned. I had been thinking of it for a while. Now that the decision is made, it feels good. Going back to school again to pursuit old opportunities... I have a one month notice and will probably stick around here until August 8. After that I am planning to travel around the region a little and visit Japan. It is so weird, when I last left my second home country, I reckoned I'd be back in a year or two. And now eleven years have passed.

And tomorrow evening, I am leaving Lumut for my long-planned holiday on Bali. Going to the big Shorinji Kempo World Taikai, where I will surf the waves of the Indian Ocean and get my butt kicked by my friends from Sweden.

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/worldtaikai/index.html

Knocking a guy to the floor but getting ass kicked anyway...

I picked up Taekwondo a little while ago. Did a bit of a rocket career a guess, and went up for my first competition on Sunday last week, after only two weeks of training. Of course I got my ass kicked, but it was great fun anyway! The Shorinji Kempo which I usually do back home is pretty different. Taekwondo is a full contact sport, but only a small number of specific attacks will give you score. It favors fast and high kicks and lousy guard. Kempo on the other hand is not a sport, but a martial art, and anything goes as long as you you avoid hurting your partner during training.

In the competition, I kept doing kicks that did not give me any score and I made all kinds of silly footwork that put me in ideal positions for attacks that I was not allowed to perform. It took a lot of effort not to use elbows, not to kick the groin, not to grab and throw, etc... And on one occasion I kind of accidentally knocked my opponent to the floor with a prohibited left hand jab. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures from my own matches but I caught some of the other competitors on camera.



Most of the club members are kids and their competition filled the major part of the day. During training sessions, I have actually tried sparring against four-year olds. Quite an experience!



There were many girls in the competition. You don't usually associate muslim headscarfs with lightning speed kicks to the head. I like it!