i just got a new cell phone number. if i know you and you want it, let me know and i'll give it to you. even if i know you and you don't want it, i'll give to you. actually, if i don't know you and you ask nice enough, i might bless you with my digits anyway.
(if you haven't read this post yet, read it now)
weary after sitting on planes for most of the day, shawn and i grab a cab to belize city (the airport is about 20 minutes outside of it). ambergris caye is an island (it's actually what madonna's "la isla bonita" is about), and we need to catch a boat to get there. since we have about an hour and a half before the next boat leaves and since we didn't plan on ever staying in belize city, shawn and i decide to walk around a bit and catch whatever sights there are to be seen. yeah, they weren't any. it was your run of the mill poor city. that combined with the fact that shawn and i are tired and still hauling around our luggage, we decide to wait out our time for the boat at the water taxi station. shawn and i are hanging out and just finish talking about how we should try meeting some other travelers around our age since it'd be cool to have people to kick it with but at the same time not be tied to. right on cue, three girls walk in. they're obviously tourists too, judging by their bags, but also because one is asian, and i think she's the first asian person i've seen since i've entered the country. they end up sitting down right next to us. we get to talking and sooner or later, i ask, "so where you girls from?" "ohh, we're from california." i kinda laugh, "really? i'm from san diego." "we are too." what a small world. two are from north park and one is from encinitas. eventually we get on the boat (it's about an hour and a half ride) and get to ambergris caye. talking to those girls (mimo, wendy, and marty) made the ride go quicker. once we got to the island, stupid us parted ways with the girls without making plans to meet back up.
our hotel was a short walk from the water taxi pier. often times with things like this, websites and pictures make the place look/sound better than it actually is. not the case her
e. the room was simple: two beds and a bathroom, pretty much, but the view from our deck was amazing. it was right on the beach and pretty much in middle of town. we settle in a bit and wander around. the island is pretty small. there are very few cars. actually, the majority of people got around the island in golf carts (where's sidney when you need him?!). after grabbing some dinner and killing some more time wandering around, we make our way to fidos, which we had seen numerous advertisements for in belize city ... "the place where singles come to mingle." there's a band playing 80s songs and some people dancing. it was mostly an older crowd, but we decide to grab a table and a few beers anyway. **side note** there's basically only one beer in belize, called beliken. they have their regular and a stout, which is darker and more alcoholic ... for the same price. we also caught word of a premium, which was supposedly an amber beer, but we were never able to track it down. US$1.50-2.00 each **end side note** shawn and i are hanging out at this place for a bit, when in walks the three girls from sd. they join us, and the five us entertain ourselves by making fun of the people dancing. san pedro (the main ... i mean, only ... town on ambergris caye) has a few clubs. the five of us decide to check out some place called jaguars, mainly because it was nearby and because it looked cool from the outside (the entrance is the mouth of a jaguar ... i should have taken a picture of it). on the inside, it looked like many clubs here, maybe just not as nice. the majority of people there were locals with a handful of tourists. the place was pretty packed because there was a dj battle going on that night. apparently it had been the talk to the town amongst the locals our age for awhile now. now shawn and i are a little excited ... foreign dj battle ... sounds good to us. unfortunately, it wasn't what we were expecting. belize dj's don't really use vinyl. actually shawn had done some research into this area (would you expect any less from shawn?), and the country in general didn't really sell/use/produce music on wax. belize's version of a dj battle was simply the two djs playing/mixing music off the cds they had. the first guy was pretty bad ... no continuity to his set, beats were running into each other all over the place. the five of us were pretty annoyed because it made it very difficult to dance to. mimo and marty don't drink (still not sure why) but all three of them went off to the bar. they came back with five drinks (two were diet cokes). they handed shawn and me a drink even though we still have the drinks we bought ourselves. shawn looks at me, smiles, and says "terence would be proud." i was like, "why." he holds up both drinks, "double fisting, baby." i laugh, then responded, "actually he be proud because we're double fisting, and they bought us drinks." the next dj (obviously the crowd favorite) was considerably better, but for whatever reason, after his set, they go into a round two runoff. this round consisted of each dj playing a song that dissed the other dj, with each dj getting five songs. once again, this made it very difficult to dance to the music. once they announced they were going into round three, we decided we had had enough. plus since it was past 3am, we called it a night ... but this time shawn and i had the sense to make plans to meet up with the girls the next night.
LAMANAI:
the next day we had to be up around 6am for a tour that was leaving at 7am. we get picked from one of the docks and head across the water towards the mainland with about 20 other tourists. on the way over, we see some dolphins and manatees swimming around. our guide steers the boat toward the bank, which is completely covered with mangroves. i have no idea where he is heading at this
point because it seems like we're heading straight toward a mangrove covered bank. all of sudden, he makes a slight turn, and we see an opening in the mangroves ... basically a small river inlet covered all over by plants (even above). we travel up this river for a few minutes then stop for breakfast. there were five or six manatees hanging out where we were stopped. i definitely understand why these animals are called the cows of the sea. we head off again, and the rest of trip upriver was pretty awesome. think disney's jungle boat road, but real. we saw all kinds of stuff: crocodiles, iguanas, lizards, bats, hawks, vultures (circling around something), and many many other types of birds. the most amazing part was our guide would be manuevering the boat through the river at about 20 mph, then stop all of sudden, turn the boat around, and point out some animal. however, even when we're stopped and he's pointing out where it is, half the time half of us couldn't see it ... or least, it took us 5-10 minutes to find it finally. how this guy would see this stuff while driving the boat at 20 mph is unimaginable to me. check out this picture. see the iguana? do you think you could see it while driving a boat 20 mph. nuts, huh?
after about a few hours on the boat, we get off the boat. shawn reminds me that we have yet to be in the country for 24 hours yet, which is crazy considering how much we've done and seen. now we're at lamanai, which is ancient mayan for 'submerged crocodile' (kinda). we walked around the site, seeing all kinds of ancient mayan building, structures, etchings, etc. we even got to climb up a very large one. supposedly, from the top, you can se both mexico and guatamala (in opposite directions). great view, but i must say, it was HOT up there. you could feel the heat coming off the stones. after some more wandering around, we did the whole river in reverse and headed home.
later that night, we met up the girls at some random bar. we ended up talking to some local who gaves us a hilarious recount of his ex-wife and their divorce. eventually the five of us ended up having some pretty intense conversations about relationships, culture, religion, etc. it was then that i found out more about our new friends. mimo, late 20s, has been in a relationship for about 4 years now (once rocky but now going really well). she kept relating her experiences to mine with sue ellen. wendy, turning 30 soon, is dating a 42 year old ... woman. marty, early 30s, is an ex-marine who's just little off her rocker (i already knew that one actually). we ended up heading back to jaguars that night, which is apparently the thing to do on sat nights. it was more of the same but with decent music this time.
HOL CHAN MARINE RESERVE AND SHARK RAY ALLEY:
the next morning we went snorkeling. i had never been snorkeling and i mu
st say it was pretty cool. we saw all kinds of fish, a buncha sting rays, a few sharks, and one large sea turtle. the pictures of the sea turtle do it no justice. it was much larger than it appears to be in the pictures. i would guess at least 2' wide. at one point, i thought it was going to run into me, and, luckily for me, it turned before it did. i easily could have touched it. i did touch a sting ray that our guide picked up.
we knew where the girls were going to be for lunch and met them there. we ate some good bbq and drank some more beer. we parted ways with the girls again, and shawn and i needed to get some laundry done. we both ended up passing out near the laundry machines because of the afternoo
n heat (but only shawn got his picture taken). since it was sunday, we had planned on going to church that evening. the girls decided to join us. all three were raised catholic and none practiced anymore. the mass had to be one of the most entertaining/interesting masses that i've ever sat through. it was supposed to be a spanish mass, but for some reason, the regular priest wasn't there, but the priest that was there didn't speak spanish (worked for us). he grabbed some guy from the crowd to translate for him, but it was obvious the guy wasn't doing a very good job. during the priest's homily, he breaks out with some story about a donkey. when he looks to the guy to translate, the guy just looks at him with a "are you seriously preaching about a donkey and expect me to translate" look. the priest was like, "go ahead ... you know, burrrro." from then on, the priest stopped using the word 'donkey' from then on and only used 'burro.' funny stuff. i completely missed the point the priest was trying to make. the homily was topped off when at the end, he said something about being jesus's burro, and then used his hands to make donkey ears on himself. i couldn't help but laugh ... luckily, i wasn't the only one.
we grabbed dinner with the girls and decided to take the night easy tonight (after two straight nights at 3am+). there seemed to be a lot of creepy old men on the island (i felt like they were preying on the younger female tourists). while walking around, marty sees some old guy that was talking to her the first night at fidos. he sees her and says, "hey, i know you." to which, she responds, "i know you too." then he said, "not as well i'd like." the normally loud and outspoken marty was speechless and walked away. hilarious ... but like i said, creepy considering the guy had to be twice her age. we ended up at a bar on one of the docks and caught a live 'punta rock' (kinda reggae-ish) band play and just hung out there all night.
the next morning, we packed up and caught a boat back to the mainland. coincidentally, when the boat stopped at caye caulker to pick up more passengers, an indian girl got on. shawn thought i was just staring because she was cute and indian, but i was like, i know that girl. it ended up being poulina (sp?) from cal. she was in the raas i did for culture show my sophomore year, lived a floor below me in my apt on hillegass, and graduated a couple years before i did. talk about random.
once we got back to belize city, we found this hole in the wall joint that had really good food and friendly people, then headed to the bus station ...
... goin through places, bags in hand.
even before we got to belize, this trip was getting exciting. for those of you who know my mom, you know she stresses ... a LOT. it's what she does (i obviously got my genes in this area from my dad). we get to the airport around 10, and when she finds out that shawn is still in van nuys (about 30 min from lax), naturally, she starts worrying. let me get one thing straight first, our flight is at 1210. it's still only 10ish. even if shawn gets here in 30 minutes, it's still more than an hour before our flight. yeah, we're going to belize, which is international, but the flight is a domestic one, since we have to go through dallas and miami first. nevertheless, mom is freaking out. of course, shawn gets to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and mom can finally rest easy (well as easy as she ever does). shawn and i make our way to the security line with about an hour left before our flight is scheduled to leave. and guess who's in line behind us ... vivica fox. shawn tries to get a video of her using his phone, but she's facing the other way, and he only manages to get a clip of her from the back (which is fine by me because she has a nice ass). in shawn's words, "i hope she's going where we're going." unfortunately, we're not that lucky. actually our luck got worse ... flight's delayed. like i said before, we have to go through dallas and miami before getting to belize, and our connection time in dallas was tight to begin with. if we miss the connection in dallas, we'll easily miss our flight out of miami too. i'm thinking, "i've already missed one flight this week, i don't want to miss two (maybe three)." it turns out that there were about 20-30 other people in the same boat (plane?) as us. we ended up making our connection in dallas (and consequently, in miami); although, it was pretty close. picture 20-30 people filing out of one plane and then rushing to the gate where our other plane was departing out of. in the end, we got to belize on time and with no real problems. let the vacation begin!! our trip was broken up into three segments. we spent three nights in each of ambergris caye, san ignacio, and caye caulker. i'll probably blog separately for each, but a few words about belize in general first. great place. shawn and i had a really good time. the three places we stayed were each very different from the other two. from talking to other tourists and other people that have been to belize, it sounded like most people (especially americans) only visit ambergris caye. after visiting san ignacio, i think those people missed out on a good picture of the rest of belize. too bad for them. belizeans, on a whole, were very friendly and helpful. their currency has been tied to ours for awhile now ($1 of ours = $2 of theirs), and you could use US money everywhere. i actually didn't exchange any money (did have to hit up their atm a few times though). we also met a good amount of interesting people (locals and other tourists). it was cool talking with random people and hearing everyone's story. like i said, we had a really good time, and i would definitely recommend a visit to belize to anyone based on my experiences there.
posts on each of the three areas will be coming shortly (and may even be here by the time you read this), but until then check out these pictures from the trip
ap (7:04:23 PM): just wanted to let you know that you're not well liked by me
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Auto response from bmasc123 (7:04:23 PM): church
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ap (7:04:53 PM): everyday I log onto the net, and go to your blog, waiting, hoping for something exciting
ap (7:05:09 PM): but alas that is not the case
ap (7:05:12 PM): no new update
ap (7:05:15 PM): no pictures
ap (7:05:30 PM): no detailed accounts reliving your recent vacation
ap (7:05:39 PM): how am i supposed to distract myself?
ap (7:05:45 PM): what is a poor girl to do?
ap (7:05:57 PM): anyhow, i've decided, i'm done with you
ap (7:06:13 PM): i cant live in anticipation and have such high expectations
ap (7:06:21 PM): i should just except the truth
ap (7:06:36 PM): you're lousy at this blogging thing, and there's nothing I can do about it
ap (7:06:46 PM): thanks for that realization
ap (7:06:47 PM): thanks
i know, i know ... i've been lagging on blogging on belize. unfortunately, when i got back from belize, work kicked my ass. basically, a coworker was supposed to take over the parts of the project that i was working on before i left. not only did he not finish that work, he didn't even TOUCH it. so what do i get welcomed with upcome returning from my vacation? 10-12 hour days at work. normally i'd take that as being part of the job, but what pissed me off is that the coworker that was supposed to take over my work and who was also on the project would leave everyday at 530. not cool. at least my project manager recognized the situation wasn't my fault. i worked until about 1030 thursday night, and the only reason i stopped working was because it dynamite time. dynamite's welcome back was more better than work's. like usual, bypassed the line and didn't pay cover, and more importantly, i got the same great service from my bartender. she even remembered that i was going on vacation. i love that place. and on that note, here's belize.
... don't know when i'll be back again. actually i do. i'll be in belize for the next 10 days coming back easter sunday night. i can't wait. and now that all the work shit i had to get done with this week is done with (or at least, i'm done with it), i'm starting to get really excited about the trip. i'm all packed. shawn is all packed and driving down from palmdale. in less than 24 hours, i'll be chillin in belize. maybe i'll stop by here and post if i get to an internet cafe or something. i can't wait to be there already. unfortunately, i got to go through dallas and miami to get there. oh well ... BELIZE BABY!
i'm at work waiting for two coworkers to integrate their code, which needs to happen before i can integrate my code with both of theirs. i figured with this short span of dead time, i'd try taking the chance to blog about my new york trip, especially since i wanted to get it done before i left for belize (which is tonight!!!). so yeah ... new york. i actually didn't fly into JFK nor did i fly out of LAX, but i've always wanted to say that (*see footnote or comment later). terence and i got in early morning friday into newark and trained into manhattan. wandered around for awhile before eventually meeting up with yatin around 1pm. commence drinking (which basically doesn't stop for the rest of the weekend). we wind up at some outdoor bar (the weather was beautiful) and, sooner or later, our original party of 3 grows to about 8 or 9. at some point, my brother's friend ronak decides to grill me about my love life. do i have a gf? what's the deal with my ex? etc, etc. let me point out that i have never met this guy before in my life. after it seems he's done with interrogation. he schools me on the 'four pronge approach to getting girls' the four factors are: research, intelligence, listening, and humor. seems reasonable enough. he then proceeds to tell me that i am lacking one: humor. (thanks ass ... although he later gives up on the four pronged approach). yatin had created an itinerary for the weekend, which was comedy in itself. we kept to the itinerary pretty damn well, except for never making it to the p-lounge (which some would argue was the most important part). the key to this itinerary were the scheduled naps. after naptime, we headed to this bar called kanvas. i was pretty drunk/tired at this point (redeye plus little food plus lotsa alcohol probably isn't the best combination). i'm just glad i was able to catch terence dancing with this girl 'who must have had headphones on because she was definitely dancing to a different tune.'
saturday:
yat manages to go to the gym in the morning and get back around noon, when we're all waking up. he proceeds to pour himself some goose. 'hey, i just ran five miles. i deserve it.' commence drinking again. we head to cpk for lunch, and as soon as we get seated, someone orders 11 shots of patron. we end up taking another round later. sadly, the waiter refused to give us a third ... so we headed downstairs to the bar for that one. we went bowling (with beer, of course) after that, and some people stuck around for some entertaining rounds of ddr and air hockey. we head back to yatin's place, and what happens next is STRAIGHT COMEDY. basically, 'it's 7 and smitty is in 4am form.' he was walking around the place in just his boxer, and even those he had trouble keeping on (not a pretty sight). smitty manages to pour beer ALL OVER the new guys couch and get pushed onto (and tip over) the coffee table. people are throwing shit everywhere and seriously, the place is a DISASTER. naptime again. when i wake up from my nap, smitty was asleep with his door locked. anuj still wants to bug him some more and proceeds to take smitty's door off the hinges (smitty wasn't too happy about that one). after some serious indecisiveness, we manage to head to ps450. i'm in much better shape than the night before. terence, ankit, and now sriram once again argue about topgun and who the better wingman is: goose, maverick, or iceman. for much of the night, i end up following around a drunkass sheetal, who is hollering at every girl he can using his 'smile' line. at some point, i end up talking to some girl. average looking, not particular cute, but by no means, ugly. next thing i know we've been talking for about 45 minutes. then teesha comes up to me, and tells me we gotta go because anuj got kicked out. i talk about a bit more and tell her i gotta. she asks for my number when i leave, and i give it to her. we end up back at yat's place, still drinking. at like 430, she calls. she asks if she can come over to where i am. i'm like, uhh, there are like 20 people here and it's not my place so probably not. she then says i can come over to her place even though it's far and her roommate doesn't like when she brings guys home. i'm thinking i'm going to pass, but i tell her i'll call her back. she calls me FOUR MORE TIMES that night (ronak renounces the four pronged approach after hearing this story).
sunday:
brunch at hells kitchen with all you can drink. some entertaining/interesting game of never have i ever. the hostess was cute (and i think catholic, guessing by the cross and rosary she was wearing) and sri thinks she was feeling one of us. to make a long story short, terence and i miss our flight by less than 5 minutes after trekking all the way back to nj because of traffic on one of the tunnels. the worst part is that if we had checked in online at home, we would have been fine. we go back to the city where half the group is still drinking and the other half is nappi
ng (sri decided he take the bus back to boston in the morning, and anuj and sheetal missed their flight too, but only because their idiots). after more deliberation, we grab dinner and head a small local bar down the street. terence decides we should drink scotch on the rocks (which i normally don't mind, just not in large amounts). ronak even left reena (again) to meet back up with us. next thing i know it's 4am, we're the only people in the place besides the bartender and her maybe boyfriend and basically everyone is dancing on the bar. good times. we end up back at pooh's apt at 5 or so, and we have to be up in less than an to make it to the airport.
all in all, my first time in ny was AWESOME. lotsa drinking. good times chilling with some down guys. interesting conversation/drinking games.
my pics
terence's pics
if i get permission from terence (or smitty), i'll add some links to some hilarious video clips later.
other notables:
- 'good luck having sex tonight'
- 'why don't you .. uhh ... why don't you ... uhh ... heeeey'
- 'smitty is sleeping backwards on his bed. i wish i could take a picture' *said very sadly*
- my momma hits harder than you
** footnote: some of you (and by 'some of you,' i mean terence and shawn) may know why i've always wanted to say i've gone JFK to LAX. and on that notes, i've decide to attempt to make all the titles of my postings refer to a song, lyric, artist, etc. try guessing what each title refers to. this is also the reason i decide to change the title of my first post. if you don't think a title refers to something, call me on it ... maybe i'm slipping.
** UPDATE **
check out my bro's blog for a little more detailed account of things
