Where I stayed in Bintan

The name of the resort is the Yasin Nostalgia Resort. It is the low end cousin of the Agr0 Beach Resort which is a five minute walk up the road from here. Agra is sort of the high end resort (nonetheless, the top end jacuzzi room only costs US$100 a night). The great part about staying at Yasin is that even though you are only paying US$13 a night, you can go to the other resort and use all their facilities including a pool, restaurant and spa. They will also shuttle you to the main resort for no cost. The walk is an easy one. I was able to walk from one to another during it time it took for one long song to play on my iPod. Also, there is a school along the way so you’ll have a ton of kids waving to you saying “Hullo Mist-tuh”.

In the five days I was here, I pretty much didn’t do a damn thing. I got completely caught up on my photos, edited a podcast episode, totally deleted another episode because it sucked so bad, and got another one ready to go. I also ate a lot of cheap food.

To give you an idea of the prices here, a can of coke was US$0.60. Compare that to Tahiti where the same can would cost US$5. You could order off the menu here and most things could cost around US$1.80. Save for three meals I had at the restaurant which I paid in cash, and the occasional use of internet time (which was US$3/hour…cheap), my total bill for 5 days, room, food and drinks, came to US$94.

It isn’t just that it’s cheap. The bungalows are nice and you can get some above the water. A similar (albeit nicer) room in Bora Bora would cost over US$300 a night….plus you have to fly to Bora Bora. Granted, my expectation of luxury are much lower than most people. They had no hot water and the toilets had no water tank. You had to dump a bucket of water in the bowl. But still, even the “high end” resort, the normal rooms were US$45/night.

I’ve been to a few places now that have all shared similar features: smallish resorts, friendly staff, locally made bungalows, and cheap price. Others include the VIllage Inn in Pohnpei, the Village Inn in Kosrae, and place I stayed in Bali the name of which I can’t remember off the top of my head, but it had a stone bathtub the size of a sarcouphous.

One of the dirty secrets I’ve learned traveling is that the best places to stay aren’t the most expensive ones. As a treat to myself, I stayed a weekend at le Meridian in New Caledonia. The room was nice, the bathroom was nice, but in the end, that was all I was paying for. A lot of money for nice sheets. I didn’t meet anyone and the food was over priced. If you want to stay in your room the whole time (which, when you travel like me, is exactly what you want to do sometimes) My standards for luxury now are hot water and a bath tub. (I’m not a big bath guy, but sometimes you just need to sit in water for a long time to get the grime off you and the dirt out from under your fingernails) Oh, and free internet, which you almost certainly will never, ever find in an expensive hotel. The cheaper the hotel, the better the odds of getting free internet.

Hopefully, I”ll be able to find more places like this in the coming weeks as I work my way through SE Asia. I might even stay a few nights in a swank hotel just because the cost of doing so will probably much cheaper than in a place like Singapore or Australia.

The cost of everything in Indonesia is so much cheaper than Singapore it is amazing. (and I think Singapore is cheap compared to Australia) I’m really surprised that more people don’t come here. Given the price and proximity to Singapore, I would have thought it would be packed with people. This would seem like a natural attraction for backpackers.

A can of beer here is about US$1.80, and that is at a hotel bar. I’m sure it is even cheaper if you went to a store. A case of beer in the outback near Uluru was US$60 (24 cans). It is even more expensive in Singapore because of the high alcohol taxes. My bungalow is US$13 a night, which is one of the cheapest places I’ve stayed on my trip. Its a single too, so I don’t have to share it with anyone.

The Indonesian currency has a lot of zeros. The exchange rate is 10,000 rupiah to the US Dollar, and the smallest bill is 1,000 rupiah. That means you basically have a wallet full of dimes. I did see some coins during my previous swing through Java/Bali, but they aren’t that common.

I got a cab from the ferry terminal to the place I was staying. As usual, the cab driver had an ulterior motive in trying to sell you something. In this case, he was trying to serve as a pimp. He had photos of girls on his cell phone and kept showing them to me. I’m sure that will only get worse in Thailand.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bintan became the next big backpacker destination. It has the two biggest selling points of cost and access.

Well, I have to go have lunch and I have an active day ahead of me of doing nothing.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to the Singapore Zoo. I had heard it called one of the best zoos in the world, and I can see why. Like everything else in Singapore, it is top notch. I got about 30 min of video at the zoo and it will be its own podcast episode.

Saturday, I went with Dave and his girlfriend Mingko to Malaysia to visit a tropical fruit farm and eat durian. Durian is a fruit I’ve never heard of before I came to Singapore, but some people here are crazy about it. It isn’t anything like you’d expect from a fruit. It tastes more like a baked vegetable or a pastry. It is really hard to explain. The fruit itself is large with spikes, with a giant seed in the middle. In the wild, it is normally eaten by elephants or tigers who spread the seed. The smell of durian is so strong that you can’t bring it on the subway in Singapore. Some people at the farm at so much durian, they had enormous piles of durian husks on their table.

I’ve also done a fair amount of just walking around the city. Had dinner in Chinatown and at at a real vegetarian restaurant in Little India. (I’m defining “real” as a place where normally only Indians eat, most everyone eats with their fingers, and they have a sink to wash your hands in the dining room). A meal there was SG$2 (US$1.50). I also went inside a function Hindu temple for the first time.

In terms of sheer variety, Singapore is by far the best food city I’ve visited on my trip. There are hawker stands everywhere where you can find any number of varieties of food. (I’ll have a lot more to say on that in a few days in a post of its own).

I visited the Asian Museum of Culture, which is one of the better museums I’ve been to (Singapore….go figure). The museum covers most of Asian culture from SE Asia to the Middle East. (It omits anything from Korea or Japan which I thought odd. I was told later that it might be a matter of difficulty in getting artifacts from those countries.)

Everyone I talk to says Singapore is expensive. Compared to the rest of SE Asia it is, but coming from Australia, it’s like shopping at Wal-Mart.

I also got to talk at length to several native Singaporeans, and their thoughts on the country are interesting to say the least (more on that later as well). Suffice to say that Singapore is a truly unique country. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world.

I hope to have internet access somehow on Bintan, but we’ll see. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some sort of connection given its proximity to Singapore.

Moon over Borobudur

I can go on and on about how certain places have certain images associated with them.

Sometimes the image isn’t of an object or a building. If you think of Argentina, you think of people doing the tango or of gauchos.

What comes to mind when you think of Indonesia? Unless you live there or have visited there, my guess is it isn’t a good image. It is probably one of earthquakes, landslides or tsunamis.

I would like to suggest, however, a new (actually quite old) iconic image for Indonesia: Borobudur

Borobudur and Prambanan have not achieved the level fame of a Taj Mahal or the Great Pyramids, but they probably should be on the short list of the great, ancient places of the world.

It was difficult to get the entire structure in my camera, even with a wide angle lens.

It is labeled as the largest single Buddhist temple in the world. Many people think that Angkor Wat is, but that is technically a temple complex. Borobudur is larger than any one temple in Angkor Wat.

The temple was lost for hundreds of years, buried in volcanic ash and covered in forest growth. It was only during the brief period which the British ruled Java (1806-1811) when Sir Thomas Raffles re-discovered Borobudur. Being covered in ash for that long probably preserved the temple from thieves and earthquakes. The Indonesian government commissioned an expansive restoration of the temple in the 1980s and it is in relatively good condition considering its age. (It should be noted that the temple was never really “lost” to locals. Local legends always knew it existed, it is just that no one ever bothered to excavate it. it should also be pointed out that much of the archeology on Java was done during the brief British control of the islands, where as the Dutch controlled it for hundreds of years and did very little.)

Bas Relief

Near the top of the structure are many bell shaped objects called stupas. They contain statues of sitting Buddhas. There is one grand stupa at the top center of the building which does not have a statue inside.

Me and the teachers

I had a bunch of students walking up to me and asking me questions in English. Everyone also wanted to get their photo taken with me (something which happened to me all over Indonesia). It turned out they were there for an English class trip so they could practice speaking English. I was able strike up a conversation with their teachers. They said that Borobudur used to be packed with foreign tourists. Since the 2002 Bali bombing, hardly any foreigners come to Java anymore. Now you will see mostly domestic tourists at Borobudur. That is really a shame because Borobudur and neighboring Prambanan are really the two standout attractions in Indonesia.

To be more precise, I’m sick of every single person I encounter while walking down the street harassing me to buy their shit. I literally can’t go 10 seconds without someone trying to get me to take a taxi, get a massage, buy their cheap crap, eat in their restaurant or rent their motorbike.

I’ve experienced this sort of thing before in Manila and Hong Kong, but never anything close to the degree which I’ve experienced it in Bali. In Java, at worst, someone would come up to me and want to practice English. They’d talk, ask about the Presidential elections and just chat. Here, you are a walking dollar sign. It has made my experience in Bali less and less enjoyable the longer I’ve had to stay.

I’m staying in Kuta which is sort of the tourist area, but the thing is, it is actually worse as you go into the island. When I took my day tour, I actually had about six women pushing and rushing up to my car door to sell me crap when our car pulled in to park.

it isn’t just that they try to sell you stuff. I actually understand that and get it. It is part of the territory when you visit a place like Bali. However, when they stick t-shirts and postcards in your face, they literally stick it in your face and will not back away when you say “no”, as if they were trying to find new ways to make sure you didn’t buy anything from them.

If you should make the mistake of buying something when you are on the beach, you will be mobbed by people who saw you buy something. They must think that anyone who will buy one thing will buy an infinite number of things. Again, it is as if they they want to make sure you never by anything by making the experience as unpleasant as possible.

I have also been highly annoyed because it has been so difficult to get a ticket to Dili, East Timor.

I first stopped at local places that had “Airline Tickets” on a sign out front. The first three places didn’t do international tickets. I eventually found one that only took cash and didn’t have a computer. Their “reservation system” consisted of calling some guy. When they called their “guy”, he kept quoting me different prices for a one way ticket to Dili based on how long I was staying. It made no sense.

There is one and only one airline which flies from Bali to Dili and their website doesn’t do online reservations.

I eventually just asked the front desk at the place I was staying where a real travel agency was. They made a call to their “guy” and worked it out, but to pay with a credit card, they had to send a courier over to get a photocopy of my credit card. There is no way in hell I’m going to make a photocopy of my credit card and give it to some “guy”. I eventually had to get a ride to the travel agency to take care of it in person.

East Timor has to be one of the hardest to reach countries in the world, which is especially odd considering it is just north of Australia and connected to a large country like Indonesia. There is also one and only one airline which flies to Australia and that flies into Darwin. The flights from Bali and Darwin are the only flights which service the entire country of East Timor.

My flight to Darwin was easy to book as was my flight from Darwin to Melbourne. The Darwin to Melbourne leg is by far the longest, but also the cheapest. Competition will do that.

I have to kill 12 hours in Darwin because my flight to Melbourne leaves at 12:30am Tuesday morning. I hope they have lockers at the Darwin airport.

I think I’m also becoming frustrated because I’ve been sort of mentally looking forward to taking time off in Melbourne and taking care of business. It is odd that when you take a vacation from vacation, you end up working and doing stuff. It really is an anti-vacation. Everything which is delaying that is making me frustrated and pissing me off.

Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before. I visited a spa. The area around my hotel has a lot of spas which are really cheap. You can get a massage, facial, body scrub, and a pedicure for $15. That’s about 2 hours of time. There is really very little overhead and labor is cheap, so you see a lot of spas around Bali. It was quite nice, especially considering I didn’t have to pay much for it.

I’ve heard spotty things about the Internet in East Timor, so I have no idea how often I’ll be able to log on. I’m sure I’ll manage at least one post, but don’t expect too much the next few days.

• Scott, Minneapolis, MN
• Wendy, Springboro, OH
• Cheyanne, Durham, NC
• Annie, Murrieta, CA
• Ben, Bloomington, IL
• Matthew, Appleton, WI
• Gunter, Belgium
• Saumel, Switerland
• Denise, NSW, Australia
• Sherry, New York, NY
• Wayne, Long Beach, CA
• Susie, Crystal Lake, IL
• Sean, Irving, CA
• Mike, Indianapolis, IN
• Jay, Minneapolis, MN
• Aibek, Czech Republic
• Kevin, San Rafael, CA
• Claire, Eagan, MN
• Robert & Courtney, Antigo, WI
• Rolf, Germany

I have some knick-knacks which will be sent out a bit later.

I don’t think the Komodo Dragons are going to be in the cards for me. I could do it, but it is going to cost way too much for what would amount to 3-4 hours on the actual island. I’m just going to head to Melbourne via East Timor tomorrow.

Over the last several days I’ve seen cops shake people down for bribes three times. There only difference between the police here and the mafia seems to be the uniforms. I’ll have a lot more to say once I can sit still for a few days.

My guide was great. When he isn’t doing tours he works for Australian news outlets reporting on Indonesian stories.

I was prepared to write about how my trip to Komodo wasn’t going to happen. I’ve had no luck finding a reasonable priced tour out of Bali. However, as I sat down to write this, I got an email from a company in Flores (the populated island near Komodo) which gave me hope for just flying out to Flores and doing something directly from there. My travel instincts were correct. Tomorrow is devoted to figuring that out and booking my ticket. Either to Flores or to East Timor/Melbourne. I also need to send a package of crap back to the US.

My other goal for tomorrow is to find a place where I can watch the Super Bowl over breakfast.

I have an enormous glut of photos that will be dumped on everyone once I get out of Indonesia. I still have photos from Sabah and even a few from Brunei to put up. I probably took close to 200 today (but I hardly took any prior to today in Bali).

With that, I’m going to go watch one of my 29 DVDs I purchased for $20 and take a bath in my giant, stone bath tub in my room which is so big, I can literally float in it and not touch the sides.

The more I research going to Komodo, the more interesting stuff I discover to do in the rest of Indonesia.

Tomorrow I’m off to explore the rest of Bali. I have a guide who will be driving me around the island for the day and the price is very reasonable. I can see why the culture of Bali is so interesting to people. It is very different than what I saw in Java. I’ll have a lot to say about it once I’ve left Bali.

The area where I’m staying in Bali is very touristy. There is a Hard Rock Cafe here which I think sums the area up nicely.

I just had dinner with Dave from GoBackpacking.com. We were both in Bali at the same time. He just came from Australia and I’m on my way there after Bali. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who is both American and doing a similar long term trip (and blogging).

Also, I will probably only be in Indonesia for another 5 days or so. If you want a post card, please remember to send me an email (gary (at) everything-everywhere.com). Right now, if you email me, your odds of getting a postcard are looking very good.

In the few taxi trips I’ve taken in Bali, after saying I’m an American, every cab driver has said the same thing “We don’t get many Americans here anymore.”

For those who are news impared, back in 2002 there was a terrorist bombing at Bali nightclub. 202 people were killed, mostly foreign tourists, the largest group of which were Australians. Since then, tourism in Indonesia has never fully recovered.

The subject of safety is probably the biggest issue which comes up when people talk about traveling overseas. Both for myself and other people who have taken longer trips, everyone is first and foremost concerned about safety. So far, I can’t say I’ve really had any experiences which I’d consider dangerous (other than almsot being trampled to death in Taipei). Everyone I’ve met in Indonesia has been exceptionally nice as they were in the Philippines, both of which the US State Department has issued travel advisories about.

This is due to a very asymmetrical information we get from other countries. We only hear about bad things so our perceptions of other places are built on only negative information. What have you heard about Indonesia in the last few years? There was a tsunami, a landslide, an earthquake, the Bali Bombings, a battle for independence over East Timor, and fighting in Sulawesi. When all the news is bad, it is natural to be apprehensive.

This is not to say I don’t take precautions while I’m on the road. I always lock my computer when it is in my room. (the potential of theft from other travelers is probably greater than what I’d experience on the street). I avoid nightclubs. I have no plans on visiting any war zones.

My biggest fear while traveling is being in a car crash. This is by far the biggest killer of tourists. I just read in a local paper that 800 people are killed in Jakarta a month on motorcycles. This is one thing that I really have no control over other than picking taxis that look relatively new. I also try to pay very close attention when doing simple things like crossing the street and walking. In Indonesia for example, most places do not have sidewalks or controlled intersections.

Likewise, I’ve met some Europeans who are terrified at the idea of coming to the United States. They think they will get off the plane and a gun battle will break out because every American carries a six shooter. What is even funnier, is that I’ve talked to Canadians who were afraid to come to he US. (I suppose the culture shock of crossing the Sault Ste. Marie bridge into the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would be to much for anyone.)

I do not worry about terrorism. The are thousands of things to worry about before terrorism. Terrorism gets the headlines but the honest odds of being effected by it are very low, even if you live in a place such as Israel. The reaction to terrorism can often be worse than terrorism itself. In the aftermath of 9/11, many people avoiding flying and drove to destinations instead. The increase in traffic fatalities above the mean during three months after 9/11 was about 1,000 people. If you extend that out farther, you probably would equal the entire number of people killed in the terrorists attacks. Car crashes don’t dominate the headlines however, and there was probably never any one single accident you could point to and say “this happened because the person was afraid to fly”.

I actually don’t fault the media for only reporting bad things. A flood of stories every day from around the world about how disasters are not occurring isn’t really that interesting. It would quickly get like Homer Simpsons “Everything is OK Alarm”. That being said, when you think of travel, just remember that there are billions of people every day who are NOT being killed in natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

I have yet to meet a person who was hostile to me because I was an American. Usually, the reaction is quite the opposite as Americans are not nearly as well represented traveling as other countries. (The only time someone has yelled at me for being an American was in Iceland back in 2000, and that was because we spent money to release the Free Willy whale while Icelandic whalers were losing jobs.)

My last postcard extravaganza was back when I was in Palau. This time I’ll be sending postcards from Bali.

I have two objectives in doing this: First, I’m trying to flush out people who read and never comment. It is nice to know who is actually visiting your site. Second, I’d like to increase the number of RSS subscribers.

You just need to do the following:

1) Sign up to get updates via RSS or email. If you haven’t done it already, click on the links on the top of the column on the left. Make sure to do this.

2) Send an email to gary@Everything-Everywhere.com with “Bali Postcard Contest” in the subject.

3) Include your name and an address where I can send the postcard. It can be a PO Box, your work, whatever. I don’t keep a mailing list, I just need the address to send the postcard. Remember to put your country on the address.

4) Tell me how you first found the site and what you like/hate about it. Anything really. Remember, I travel alone so I enjoy getting email from people who read the site. If there is anything you think I should see/do in Australia, let me know. I got several good tips from people on what to see in Japan from my last contest.

I’ll use Random.org to pick 20 people to send postcards to, so you’re odds are not bad. I’ll also pick an additional 3 people to send some small knick-knacks to. This will be something small like a necklace or a bracelet which I can buy from local vendors. I’ll send the winners an email asking them what sort of thing they’d like.

The contest will be running until I leave Bali, which I’m guessing will be in about a week, so the earlier you send me an email the better.

Also, while I’m on the self promotion train, if you haven’t already, take a few seconds and vote for me at The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards.

I’m off to Kuta beach and going to arrange my trip to go see the Komodo Dragons.

My adventure started in Yogyakarta at about 8am on Monday. I wanted to get to Bali and the popular (sort of) way to get there from Jogya (as it is known) is to take a bus and stop at Mount Bromo on the way. The bus was an eight passenger van with myself, two Austrian guys, and three people I think where Indonesian. I’m not sure. One of the guys had a book written in Japanese, but he never said a word.

If you have been watching the news, you know the big thing in Indonesia right now is the death of former president Suharto. As it turns out, his funeral was being held in Surakarta (aka Solo) which was where we had to drive through to get to Bromo. When we drove through Solo, the streets were lined with people waiting for the funeral procession to pass. There were quite a few people who came out. Moreover, the entire time we were driving through Java, there were Indonesian flags in front of almost every house flying at half staff.

When we stopped for lunch, every waitress at the restaurant was glued to the TV watching the funeral. I still for the life of me cannot figure out what most people in Indonesia think of this guy. I asked a few Indonesians what they thought and they all sort of avoided the question. They didn’t say anything bad or anything good. The only thing I can say for certain is that the opinion of him in Bali and Java are very different. I haven’t seen nearly as many flags at half staff in Bali as I did in Java. Very few here in fact.

Travel by car through Java is slow. Very slow. It reminded me very much of taking the bus through Luzon in the Philippines. There are only two lane roads, the roads go through the center of every town, and there are houses and villages hugging the roads everywhere. Every few minutes the bus is passing trucks and motorcycles in ways which would seem suicidal on an American highway. A few times, we had to hit the brakes because we were coming head on with another truck which couldn’t get back into its lane.

Java has a lot of people. 120 million people live on the island which is half the population of Indonesia and more than the entire population of Japan. Despite the size, there doesn’t seem to be a transportation system designed to handle that level of population. The physical roads are in fine condition. It isn’t as if the roads are falling apart, they just don’t seem to be designed to be major transportation arteries. I read about a plan to link Java and Sumatra by bridge sometime in the next 50 years. It would be the longest bridge in the world. Would it would be very cool, I think a trans-Java highway connecting each end of the island would be a better use of money. A single four lane, divided, controlled access highway from the ports connecting Bali and Sumatra and all big cities in between would probably be one of the single biggest infrastructure projects that would help the economy of Java.

The van eventually arrived in Probolinggo where we changed vehicles for the trip to Cemara Lawang, a village sitting right at the rim of the caldera. We were told how cold it was going to be, given a pitch to buy a ticket for a jeep ride rather than walk, and warned about how early we’d have to get up.

Cemara Lawang seems to have made itself a niche in the Yogyakarta to Bali stop over market. Most people seem to stay there just one night on the way to or from Bali.

I woke up at 3:30am to get ready to see Bromo at sunrise. I was prepare for cold weather as we were pretty high in elevation. I also had all my camera gear ready including my tripod. We were going to a lookout point to see the entire caldera then would drive down into the caldera to walk to the brim of the Bromo’s crater.

It turns out that there was a helluva lot more walking than was sold to us. Not that big of a deal as I was prepared for walking, but they made it sound like we were just going to drive up to the top.

When we got to the top, there was a heavy fog which prevented us from seeing Mount Semeru, the highest point in Java. Semeru is also active and has steam coming out from the peak. (I should also note that during my entire time in Yogyakarta, I never got to see Mount Merapi clearly because of clouds. When we left the city, I was finally able to see the peak and the plume coming out for about 15 minutes. Then the clouds covered it up again.)

I don’t think the photos I got from the view point of Bromo will be as good as some I’ve seen due to the clouds. I haven’t even looked at them yet and they are still on my camera. I assure you some will show up as a daily photo soon. We also hiked up to the view point with some German early 20 something hipsters who smoked and complained the entire time. It is nice to see that not all the bad tourists are Americans.

The drive down into Bromo was interesting as well. We transferred to jeeps and drove across the black sand/ash inside the caldera. At the base there were tons of men with horses trying to sell you horse rides to the steps of Bromo for 20,000 rupiah (about $2). I passed because I couldn’t take photos that well on horseback. The scene with all these men on horseback inside a volcano was sort of surreal.

My near death experience with the shower came here. They place I was staying had only one shower with hot water. It was a small gas water heater that heated the water as it came out. No water tank. As the water starts to flow, the flame is lit. However, when I turned on the water, the flame didn’t start but the gas started flow. I turned off the water and started it again after I smelled gas and there was a big ball of fire in the show. Sort of like what you’d see when you light a gas grill a few seconds after the gas starts. It was very odd to be standing naked in an enclosed space with a big ball of fire. Nothing important was burned.

The inside of Bromo was like being inside Kilauea in Hawaii. Lots of sulfur covered rocks, lot of evidence of mud flows and a never ending steam plume coming out from the top.

My the time I was done with the volcano, it was only 8am.

We drove back to Probolinggo and waited for the bus to take us to Denpasar, Bali. It was supposed to show up at noon but didn’t arrive until 1:30pm. I spent the time sweating and talking to local kids who came over to practice their English.

The trip to the ferry was one of the most boring experiences I’ve ever had. I didn’t put nearly enough music on my iPod, had nothing to read, and my battery was low on my laptop. There were five girls from Slovenia on the bus and I can’t say I’ve met any Slovenians on my trip yet.

We arrived in Denpasar at 12:30am. I had no room booked so I told the taxi driver to just take me some place good and reasonably cheap. This isn’t the busy season, tourism in general is down since the 2002 bombings, and it was a Tuesday, so I figured finding a room wouldn’t be hard. I was right. Got a great place near the beach for a pretty reasonable rate.

I haven’t a clue what I’ll be doing in Bali yet, other than use it as a jumping off point to go to Komodo. I’m going to do laundry today and other things and maybe get up a few photos.

I might shoot some video near the beach as well.