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Well, I was supposed to be posting this entry from San Francisco. I was supposed to be warm. I was supposed to catch Delta Airlines flight 721 from JFK today. But alas, we got a light sprinkling of snow (ok, 9 inches actually) and they shut the bloody airports down.

Now, I am still in New Jersey. I am still cold. And I am no closer to getting in the EcoRoamer and enjoying the holidays. In fact quite the opposite. Instead of flying out today (Dec 20) they're now saying the earliest they can get us on a plane is Dec 24th. That's some delay!

We're on our way! ...again

After leaving the truck for 3 months in San Francisco after BurningMan, we are on our way this weekend to go pick it up and start heading east!

Here is the planned route:

Below are some of my favorite, old blog postings from my trips in Indonesia and Nepal. They're ancient, but still fun to read. Enjoy! -Jay.

Well, this time yesterday I didn't think I would be sitting here having a cup ofTeh-Oh (clear tea) on Batam island in Indonesia. Yet another last minute 'impulse-adventure'. Faced with a week off, and the looming probability that I will be leaving Asia in 8 weeks, I decided that I couldn't go home a second time never having been to Singapore's direct neighbor Indonesia. For that matter so long as I was going to go, might as well go all the way and cross into the southern hemisphere which at the ancient age of26 I've never been to! (I think this is the late 20thcentury

Island number two on the journey: Bintan. The boat ride ITomSekupang was gorgeous. It
would up leaving late (even by Indonesian standards) so we went during the sunset. The light was incredible, I think I'm falling in love with the Contax camera that Johann loaned me.

Of course leaving late, means arriving late. The ticket office for my boat to Singkep was closed, so I have to spend the night. I decided that ''Pinang'' looked a little rough to camp anywhere within 200kilometers of, so I came here to ''Bong's Homestay"-Lonely Planet p254.

Where do I even begin to start telling the events of this day?!? It was time to move on to the next island "Pulau Lingga". I cycled back up to Jago on the north coast ofPulau Singkep, where I could catch a 45 minute sampan over to Lingga. I got there around noon and sat down at one of the little drinks stalls to rest from the ride and try to find a boat. There were a few nice guys there and we had a really nice conversation about where they buy their Nike caps, and Polo shirts in Jambi, and did I think they could find a Converse cap like mine in Jakarta?

Three hours and four breakdowns later, we slowly puttered into the port at Pulau Lingga, sunburnt, hungry, and very glad to be back on land and off that damn boat. I thanked Bakar for getting me there alive, and paid him 50,000 Rupiah anyhow for all his trouble.

One of the really interesting things in the Riau Islands is the "Orang Laut" or "Sea People". They are people whose lives are fishing, only instead of living on the mainland and hauling their butts out to the ocean every morning in a fishing boat, they've just decided to make the whole process a lot more efficient by actually living out on the ocean. There are literally thousands of these little thatched roof shacks supported on stilts out in the middle of the seas around the islands of Indonesia. The shack sits about 15ft above the surface of the water (depending on the

Trekking in Nepal - The Story

...and now the low-down on the high-up:

Ban-tut-kaap campsite
[JAY] - We've just come back from a morning hike through this amazing 1.6 million year old virgin rainforest. Supposedly this place is dated as being older and more 'ecologically rich' than the amazon or nile forests. There are elephants, panthers, tigers and the asian black bear. Of course all we saw were leaches and massive bamboo trees. Last night we camped in the park next to the river.

It was so nice and cool compared to the past couple of nights camping on the beach.