I know it's been a little while since I've last posted, and unfortunately it'll probably be this way for the forseeable future. However, that's only really because I'm so busy doing awesome stuff. Since we last left off, I've made a significant shift in my travel style and am now work exchanging my way around the world. My last two weeks were spent on Koh Lanta, an island off the coast of southern Thailand, working at a guesthouse/organic farm doing construction on a cafe using only clay and other local materials. It was a very easy-going place, where long siestas broke up the hot hours of working the clay under the blazing tropical sun. Each day, I'd get off work at around six, change into my swim trunks and go wash off in the Andaman Sea as the sun set over the distant islands and the squid boats heading out for their nightly rounds. It was paradise, and I didn't often spend more than a couple dollars a day... usually on beer.
That.
Paradise wasn't without its flaws though. When I arrived, the couple that were hosting me were running a funky guesthouse in addition to their farm where the clay cafe is being constructed. Within a couple days of me arriving, however, it was revealed that they had sold the guesthouse and us few helpers would move over to the farm. Apparently things with the sale weren't as smooth as they should've been, because by the time the guesthouse was handed over to its new owners, my host couple had gotten into a series of (awkwardly) heated arguments and split up. I'm pretty sure they weren't married, but they did have a child together. So then there was a lot of that "she's my kid-- no she's my kid" drama while the volunteers just kept trying to pretend like we didn't notice anything. Oh and I shot myself in the finger with a nail gun. All in all though, fun times.
I built a chicken coop! Well, more of a chicken lean-to, really.
Now I'm farther south, off the coast of Malaysia, working on a seventy-foot traditional Malaysian yacht. This boat's got more teak than that giant millipede that fell on my head a few days ago had legs. Right off the bat, the skipper put my skills as a SCUBA diver to use scraping a few years worth of barnacle, mussel, and even coral growth off the bottom of the hull. I'm a specialist! Otherwise, there's been a lot of scrubbing, sanding, and painting, in various orders. We'll be hauling the ship out into a slip in a couple of weeks to do maintainenance on the hull, but until then we're sailing around Langkawi and enjoying the tropical island beauty that is abound.
I'm on a boat, motherf*ckers!
Come mid-November, I'll be flying on to Turkey where I'll continue to work in exchange for room and board. It really is an incredible system to travel while still learning new skills and feeling productive. Not to mention it makes travelling cheap as hell. Also, have I mentioned that I'm living on a luxury yacht off the coast of Malaysia right now? Damn straight, bro.
1 comments:
Hey Luke,
Love the post and your plans! What a trip - All my best - will miss you over the holidays though.
L.A.Jay
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