Madagui Trophy Jungle Race

So there I am at 5:30 AM running through the Vietnamese jungle in absolute pitch darkness alongside a bunch of French expatriates, while vines and branches smash into my helmet and water sloshes into my mud-covered running shoes. Perhaps a scene from the new Parisian box-office hit, "Le Platoon"? Wrong! It's the 5th annual Madagui Trophy Race about 4 hours away from Ho Chi Minh City, near Cat Tien National Park. Vietadventure is one of my favorite companies in Vietnam. Run and funded by a French juice baron (his company - Le Fruit), they run adventure races in the region and always have an environmental and/or social aspect. Every time I enter one of these things, I wish that I'd prepared better.

This particular race was a team challenge, and included jungle running, mountain biking, and something ominously called simply "downriver." Preparing for a race of unclear distance, that was supposed to take between 4 and 8 hours, was a bit challenging. At the last minute I left my head lamp behind in my bag – big mistake. As the race started across a precariously swaying suspension bridge, I noted that at least three-quarters of the other participants had made a similar decision. Half an hour after the 5:00 AM start, we were all regretting our poor judgment, clustering around those few individuals with enough common sense to bring a light to a pre-dawn race. We trudged up mountains and slipped down gullies, desperately grabbing foliage that we hoped was not covered in spines (I was unlucky a few times on that front) or hiding snakes, scorpions, or worse. It's a wonder that no one broke a leg.

My partner was an amiable American expat named Collin who I had just met through the race organizers when both of our original teammates bailed out at the last minute. We were making good time in the middle of the pack, but ran into some trouble when we finally made it to our mountain bikes as the sun started rising into the sky. Collin's rear brake (and in fact the whole rear wheel) was acting up and giving him trouble, forcing him to disengage it and rely on the front brake alone. This might have been ok on a mostly flat ride, but with hills getting in to the 40 plus degree range, this was not going to be pretty. Miraculously, Collin was able to mostly stay on the seat, passing virtually everyone on the downhills, with only one or two spectacular crashes. We carried our bikes through rivers and up huge hills, trying to remember to take in the stunning scenery.

We lost a little bit of time on the running sections later in the race, making an accidental half mile detour at one point that cost us several places. Luckily we had plenty of water, gels, and powerbars (I finally planned something right!), so we avoided totally bonking. When we reached the river wearing bright orange life jackets supplied by the race organizers, we were instructed to jump in to the opaque brown water and keep an eye out for the exit a little ways down the river. We flopped about in the river, trying unsuccessfully to determine an effective method of locomotion, while slamming knees into submerged rocks and fish traps and cringing in pain every few minutes as our fatigued muscles spasmed and cramped in the cold water. Finally we reached the appropriate river bank, where I promptly tripped on a obscured root and fell on my face. We picked ourselves up and forced our exhausted muscles to carry us back along the river, over the suspension bridge, and to the finish – just under 6 hours in 10th place and the first (albeit only) Americans!

What a blast. After much needed showers, we stumbled over to an outdoor barbeque for pork ribs and beer – doesn't get much better than that after a long effort. We relaxed for a bit, chatting with other race participants, before reluctantly piling in the car to start the 4 hour drive back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Nikki's Birthday Weekend in Thailand

Nikki and I took advantage of a three day holiday weekend to visit southern Thailand for her birthday. After a night in Bangkok, a flight to Krabi, an hour-long bus ride, and a 20 minute boat ride we finally arrived in the climber-backpacker destination of Railay. Here, limestone peaks rise out of the azure-colored water, with idyllic white sand beaches tucked in between caves and mangroves. With a Chang beer in your hand, sitting at a beachside bar playing reggae and watching longtail boats come and go, it's kind of hard to imagine a better place. We brought along our climbing gear – it's been a year and a half since we used it in DC – and had fun scrambling up the jagged karst cliffs. When our arms were no longer capable of pulling our Thai-food-filled-bellies up the mountain, we kayaked around the islands to get a closer look at the expert climbers scaling huge sheer walls. A perfect little birthday mini-break!

One Month, Four Countries: Temples, Mountains, and Seafloors

I can't believe that we were able to travel for an entire month. In each country, Nikki is allowed a month-long "R & R" break, designed to let the beleaguered foreign service officer living in a far-flung location to reconnect with the Western world. Naturally, Nikki and I used this opportunity to better explore a few places on our ever-growing tourism wish list.

First up was the Maldives. Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a few hundred miles southwest of India, this series of atolls has gorgeous white sand beaches and excellent diving. We spent a week hanging out in a private hut over the water on Kuredu Island, which can only be accessed via seaplane (an adventure in itself). We kayaked, windsurfed, dove, and gorged ourselves on delicious food. Since the resort was all-inclusive, we had to get our fair share of food and drinks! We took proverbial long walks on the beach, watching baby sharks hunt schools of tiny fish in the shallows, flying foxes swoop down from the trees, and some of the most spectacular sunsets we have ever seen.

Next up was Sri Lanka, an unexpected gem of a travel destination. We spent 10 days exploring the island via hired car. Lionel, our 65+ year old Sri Lankan driver, was a quirky highlight of the trip, driving like a bat out of hell, constantly burping (he only eats wegetables), and sharing his incredible wealth of knowledge. We started out by exploring ancient temples (some 2000 year old) in the central highlands of the country near Kandy, before heading south to climb the sacred mountain of Adam's Peak – an ascent that starts at 3:00 AM if you want to catch the sunrise. We then drove through hundreds of acres of tea plantations to reach Nuwara Eliya, a British style colonial town, and took another early morning hike through the biological hotspot of Horton's Plain to World's End, where you can gaze out at the stunning landscape 800m below. We stopped off at the cute town of Ella for lunch  on our way out of the highlands, and spent two days exploring Yala National Park, where we saw land monitors, elephants, jackals, wild boar, and (with a stroke of incredible luck) a leopard! Finally, we explored the picturesque beaches of the south coast, where I was able to squeeze in a little surfing and we released cute baby green turtles as part of a conservation project, while staying outside the Dutch colonial city of Galle.

We have always wanted to visit the ancient Buddhist monument of Borobudur, so we flew to the island of Java in Indonesia next and stayed in the bustling, culturally-rich town of Yogyakarta. The city itself was a bit overwhelming – so many vendors trying to sell you batik – but was a good jumping off point to see nearby temples. By now we were used to the sunrise routine, joining a handful of tourists to arrive at Borobudur before dawn. The monument is massive and older than Angkor Wat, with thousands of engraved panels. Several other temples in the area were similarly impressive, including the Hindu masterpiece of Prambanan, where we returned in the evening to see a 2 hour, well done dance performance of the epic Ramayana. The active volcano or Merapi looms over the city, so we rented a scooter one day and drove up into the countryside for a closer look. We didn't climb to the top (it had a devastating eruption only a year ago), but we did visit an interesting volcano museum.

For the last leg of our trip, we returned to Malaysian Borneo, this time to the state of Sabah. After a quick visit to the sprawling night market in Kota Kinabalu (so much mouth-watering seafood barbequing!), we got to bed early in preparation for our hike to the top of Mount Kinabalu. Although only 13,500-odd feet, it's the tallest mountain in southeast asia, and the ascent would take us two days. We spent the night in a cabin half-way up (taking in yet another breath-taking sunset) and started the final ascent at 2:45 AM in order to reach the top of the granite peak before sunrise. We descended the sheer face of the mountain on the way down via a system of cables and fixed pegs called the "via ferrata." The view was of course stunning, and we were exhausted by the time we reached our lunch spot half way down the mountain (and we still had 3 hours of hiking in the rain to go!).

We ended the trip as we started it – diving in tropical waters. Sipadan is world-renown for scuba-diving for good reason. We swam through huge schools of jacks, barracuda, and the funny buck-toothed bumphead parrotfish, in addition to tons of turtles and sharks. We stayed at a dive resort on the island of Mabul, where we saw at least 15 new species of nudibranchs, as well as color-changing cuddlefish, and diverse crustaceans while "muck-diving." Definitely some of the best diving of our lives.

After a month away, it's nice to be back in our comfortable apartment in Ho Chi Minh City. We are expecting a few visitors this spring (great to see Che, as well as Abbie and Katie already!), and looking forward to showing our friends around. We only have 6 months left here, so will have to fit in a few more trips before we leave!

New Years on Langkawi

Near the border of Malaysia and Thailand on the Andaman Sea lies the beautiful island of Langkawi. Nikki and I learned about this vacation spot while sitting in a Malaysian tourism office a few weeks ago, and thought it would be a fantastic place to celebrate the start of 2012. We weren't disappointed. We rented a cheap, tiny (right-hand drive) car and circumnavigated the island, stopping off to see waterfalls, jungle vistas, and beautiful sunsets. We drank tea at the top of the island's tallest mountain and took a cable car to a "sky bridge" high up in the clouds. The island was teeming with wildlife, including hornbills, sea eagles, brahminy kites, and colugos (also called "flying lemurs"). We also toured the 99 island archipelago via jetski, enjoying the turquoise water surrounded by limestone cliffs and a monkey-infested, supposedly fertility-inducing lake. New years eve itself was low-key. We rang in 2012 at a beach barbeque, with requisite fireworks as well as firebreathers. Not a bad way to start another exciting year!