Hiking great. 17 days in the tent, walking deserts in California and Nevada.
Cycling was the most problematic. But I still made it 11 days on the Trans Canada Great Trail, starting in Vernon and ending up in Fernie (with a busted bike).
What’s next?
Still considering my options.
The only thing fixed for sure is World Gymnastics Championships in Netherlands Oct. 2026.
I did make the best of the past 4 months in Asia — but not likely to return.
I traveled Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, and Taiwan (which is actually in Asia, not S.E. Asia).
S.E. Asia is ideal for young party animalswithout much money — who want to ride a crappy rented motorcycle in a thong bikini while drinking cheap beer on the way to the beach.
It’s not great for me as multi-day hiking and cycling cultures are near non-existent.
MOST of the outdoor activities are water related. 🐟
I believe the ocean should be avoided due to boxjellyfish and sea monsters.
I’d only gone to S.E. Asia because two Gymnastics competitions were scheduled there. Both excellent. I was happy to be at both with a media credential.
I got used to the heat and humidity of S.E. Asia. NOT my favourite climate, however.
On the upside, I saw very few mosquitoes. Only one cockroach. Second hand smoke is not nearly as bad as Europe.
MANY rats. Most in public parks eating garbage litter and around outdoor street food kiosks.
Many would list food as a highlight of S.E. Asia. Personally, I quickly tired of rice based meals. Most of my cravings were for western comfort foods. Toast, in particular. I ended up in McDonalds often as it’s clean, fast, and you can pay by credit card in a machine.
One pet peeve is trying to check-out of any grocery or convenience store. I can’t recall Canada EVER being so slow. Philippines has dozens of people in a grocery store doing something, but still makes customers. spend 20 minutes in a check-out line.
Cash based economies seem so backwards to me now.
S.E. Asia, in general is super inefficient. I do love Singapore, however, exactly the opposite. Everything is fast and well organized.
Many things are closed. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows if and when they will ever reopen.
What Asian nations will I likely visit in coming years?
Mongolia. I’m planning an adventure there in the next year or two.
I spent about 2 weeks in Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the most populous urban sprawls in the world. Terrible traffic.
It’s fair to say that Jakarta is not much of a tourist city. Few attractions, most difficult to reach by public transportation.
New subway, LRT, and dedicated bus lanes are definitely helping.
President A.I. Nano Banana
Almost met 😀 President Prabowo Subianto. He drove by us in a motorcade, past his 120-member cavalry guard, with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
I was here for the World Gymnastics Championships 2025. An excellent event, marred by Indonesia disallowing Israeli gymnast to compete. This means Indonesia won’t be hosting international sports competitions for many years to come.
Most mornings I went for a 30 minute run. Sunday morning I joined in the BIG weekly fun run on one of the major roadways which is shut down to traffic. I called it my personal NO KINGS protest. 😀
Hardy booked a site-seeing day tour for a group of us. We enjoyed a guided trip into Istiqial Mosque, capacity over 120,000. Twice a year, with people outside, they have about 200,000.
Across the street is the largest Catholic Cathedral. Religious harmony is the intent.
In fact, I found Islam to be very moderate in Indonesia, at least in the tourist areas I visited.
We stopped at the National Monument. Disallowed going up to the top. This was my 3rd failed attempt to get up for the view from the top. 😀
I just travelled Indonesia for a month. Most of the popular attractions.
It’s not a good fit for this old backpacker.
Aside from major city train / bus service, tourists end up taking a lot of personal vehicles. Bad for the environment. Terrible for traffic jams.
Ride sharing apps like Grab and GoJek are essential as there are no alternatives in much of the nation.
Indonesia is ideal for young invincible backpackers who love to ride scooters through dangerous traffic. While chain smoking. Adrenaline junkies.
Instead of touring, I’d recommend picking one spot you like. Rent a place for a month. Concentrate on a few things: scuba, snorkelling, health & fitness, yoga, surfing, writing, reading, partying, …. Whatever you’ve always want more time for.
Don’t travel very far.
I’d like a month in the Gili Islands, for example.
The culture tourists face is (mostly) men, (mostly) chain smoking.
Every young guy in Indonesia dreams of getting a scooter. And then enough money for fuel and cigarettes.
This MIGHT be an A.I. generated image. 😀
While it’s easy and quick to move between Bali, Lombok and the Gilis, island-hopping elsewhere often involves a flight, bad bus, or lengthy boat journey.
To be fair, there ARE a number of island chains where you can jump between islands on a short speedboat or long-tail-boat ride. The Banda Islands and Kei Islands in southern Maluku are compact and a breeze to travel among, while it’s also easy to move around the Karimunjawa Islands off Java, the Togean Islands off Sulawesi, the Banyak Islands off Sumatra and Raja Ampat off Papua.
That said — I’ll be returning to Jakarta soon for the World Gymnastics Championships.
Tony Retrosi is a highly respected Gymnastics coach, educator, and leader.
He’s one of the Americans dismayed with the turn of Republican politicians to ReTrumplicanism. Angry, hateful, intolerant, near totalitarianism.
In 2025 you must parrot the low IQ Trump’s lies, or be banished from the GOP.
I was impressed with Tony summing up in this post:
a country should take care of its weakest members … children, disabled, sick, and elderly
healthcare is a right, not a privilege
higher education should be affordable
massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying
companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage
don’t force religion on me or mine
LGBT people should have the SAME rights as everyone else
we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc.
systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think
enforcement of present firearms laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations
I believe in so-called political correctness … social politeness
funding sustainable energy
women should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse
For most people, Instagram and TikTok are the most entertaining. I don’t much look at either.
If you want to avoid POLITICS, Meta (Instagram, Facebook, Threads) has definitely reduced the emphasis on political arguments. In Canada, a bonus for using Facebook is that news links are banned.
I haven’t quit Twitter — surprisingly — as my own feeds focused on Gymnastics and Hiking are still good. If I click on Following and avoid For You, the stream is valuable. Of course I quickly block anything I don’t like.
I post today as many of the people online I trust and respect are migrating to Bluesky.
Looking more for VIDEO than anything else, these are the sites I use most:
I hate advertising. Facebook doesn’t offer paid ad-free feeds, so I use ad blockers.
I hate Elon Musk and refuse to send him even one penny. So use ad blockers.
I use WhatsApp only for small group communication. It’s excellent. Messenger, as well, only for communication with very few people.
I’ll check Reddit once in a while if I’m looking for something specific.
Mastodon could be my favourite, but it’s not caught on with the people I want to follow.
LinkedIn should be best of all. But I’ve never seen much value for my purposes.
I never signed up for Snapchat. Hikers are mostly on Instagram. Gymnastics coaches mostly on Twitter.
I’ll try Bluesky. But I’m worried it will never grow big enough.
If desperate, I’ll create a browser bookmark folder and open all these social media sites simultaneously to check the latest news in Gymnastics and Hiking. OR … could I use an A.I. client to do that for me?
Rick McCharles 