Raj, Ari and Lucky the Jumping Cat

Yesterday we discovered that just because our international electrical adapter works in dozens of countries, that does not mean it works in Malaysia. We decided to take a walk into Tekek, the local village, to see if we could find one that matched the socket in our room. Without an adapter we can't charge our laptop or camera batteries and there are so many pretty things here to share in posts...

We climbed over the headland that had been crawling with monkeys the previous afternoon. As we approached the edge of the village we heard the strains of Arabic music from a hilltop bar and saw the owner waving, smiling to us and calling "Hullo". We determined to make a stop there on our way back.

Tjok Muter's farewell, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Morning's first light had just touched the hillside when it started.

Like echoes of battle, the BOM... BOM BOM of exploding bamboo echoed down the valley. During breakfast the first blue tendrils of smoke drifted above the trees and spread into the river valley, dispersing there to create a blue wonderland of light shaft and shadow. The vibrant colour of the flowering trees, the intense greens of the lush jungle and the pellucid blue air combine to create the illusion of the river gorge as a submarine garden, the dense tropical landscape transformed to coral reef.

111^o in the shade - waiting for sunset

Things get weird the night after the wave

          Strange storm coming           Static reaches the camera from nearby bolt           Bigger, closer, but still no thunder           Getting worried           Refuge in the vehicle           Rivermouth Arabesque           Bright as day           White skyfire...           ...fades...           ...to reveal the bearer Strange storm coming

The hour before midnight, the night after the world tipped, the four of us were riding in the car, amazed and as excited as kids on the Christmas Eve just passed.

As we slipped through the livid darkness by the cemetery the horizon to the north began to strobe. Wide sheets of dirty yellow billowed in the sky, embroidered with electric silver thread...