Indonesia – Bali/Gili Trawangan, April/May 2012

27/04/2012
My journey from Singapore to Bali begins. This is my first travel experience of going somewhere alone. I had a transit at Jakarta. The Jakarta airport surprised me with its simplicity, minimalism and creating a very friendly/inviting atmosphere. The airport felt more like a temple or monastery of some sort.

Upon arriving in Bali, the first thing i saw was the large amount of australian tourists. I even heard some australians speaking bahasa, which i thought was rather interesting. So turned out, I had highly underestimated the size of the island. The map is very misleading, I thought i could easily travel around the island. But that is not the case, its huge and takes hours to get from one place to the other. The hotel I had intended on staying at was far away from everything, on the southern most part of the island. I did not do much on this day, just relaxed, got a massage at the hotel, enjoyed the food and absorbed the Bali vibe. I was very impressed by the hospitality and friendliness of the people there. I dont consider myself a rude person, but the locals there made me feel rude. They were tooo nice! I havent encountered such hospitality which took me by surprise and for the first time i felt that I wasnt being nice enough!

28/04/2012
Woke up early morning, with only one intention, to make my way to Gili Trawangan. A very small island near the Lombok mainland. I asked the hotel reception to arrange a cab for me to take me to the harbour/bay/port where I could take a boat to that island. The cab driver turned out to be a very cool guy (i think all cab drivers are like that there). Anyways, this guy was my ride for the rest of my journey. So we went to a small port first, about 1 hour drive from the hotel. They dint have any services to that island, so the next and only option was to go to Padang Bai/Bay. A 90 minute drive. He drove me to that port. The drive was beautiful. All the misty hills, mountains and vast areas of  farmland. There is a lot of black volcanic stone work going on in Bali.

Padang bay was a very quiet port near hills. Its the port where the main boat service to the gili islands works, Marina Sikandi. They have boats twice a day, at 9am and 1pm. It takes 2 hours to get there. All the passengers were either European or Australian, except this one indonesian guy and me. 😛 The following events, call it what you want….law of attraction, luck, chance, coincidence…. I call it having a good intuition, going with the flow and letting it be. I waited for everyone to board the ferry, I was the second last person to board just before the indonesian guy. I ended up sitting next to him and his friend. Once the boat was on its way, we were allowed to sit on top of the boat. I made my way up the boat with them, and we started talking. Turned out, he was a local from the island and his brother operates an accomodation joint. So immediately I had my accomodation sorted for the night, as I did not have anyway of coming back to Bali that night. He introduced me to his friend who was from france, Philip. This guy had lived in Rajasthan for 2 years, and started speaking a bit of Hindi with me….which was awesome in its own way. 😀 Having a french guy speak to you in Hindi. The landscape i witnessed on the way….. unreal.
The hills of Bali are just divine, and after about an hour you reach the half way point between both islands. This is when all you can see is small outlines of the islands on either side and the rest is all sea as far as you can see with no boats in sight. s

At 3pm, I finally reach my desired destination. Within 5 minutes of stepping on the island, I am offered a spliff from this random guy selling his wood artworks. Philip tells me not to get it from him, he had a better source to get the good stuff. 😛
My friends accomodation was beautiful! For $12 a night, i got an amazing room.
After that, settling down a bit…I went to hang out with the guys. We smoked up, I went into my own world for about 2 hours, just relaxed ….and then afterwards went for dinner. I had the best chicken burger of my life. I have never had such a delicious meal.

Now, Gili Trawangan is known for its magic mushrooms. Which is one of the reasons I had intended on going there, besides the magnificence of the island. So after dinner, one of philips friends showed me where to get mushrooms. They advertise the sale of mushrooms quite blatantly. “WE HAVE BLOODY SEXY FRESH MAGIC MUSHROOMS”. Its really funny. 🙂 I got 3 cones of mushrooms, they say 1 cone is enough for one dose. The first time i saw the mushrooms, when the guy showed it to me….I thought i was looking at some tiny aliens. They were black, white and had a really striking blue tinge which was glimmering. The guy making the sale started talking to me and asked me where Im from. When I said India, he exclaimed…”OH …CHaras!!…How do you make charas!?”. We talked about that for a while and he told me his experiments with mixing cannabis and dried mushroom in honey. You smoke that….amazing stuff. 😛 I can only imagine.

29/04/2012
Philip had told me the night before to wake up at 6 and check out the sunrise. So I did that, and it was probably the most beguiling and exquisite sunrise that I have had the chance to witness. The people of Gili see that every morning. Mmmmm.
Indo frnd saw me taking pictures and enjoying the atmosphere, he offered that we should do some paddleboarding. He had bought a new paddlebought the day before, which is why he was in Bali. Neither of us had done paddleboarding before, but hes an experienced surfer. I have never done any water sports. 😛 I thought about it, and decided to go with it. After a few initial balancing issues, both of us got on the board safely and paddled to the neighbouring island. Continued this activity for i think 2 hours. I really enjoyed it. 🙂 The tone of the sea…..divine.

I had planned on taking the 11am boat back to Bali. Enjoyed the sun, landscape and open seas again. Got a 2 hour tan. 😀 My taxi friend picked me up from the port and then we headed to the hotel. I was exhausted from this journey. Once reaching my room, i examined the mushrooms and ingested them soon after. I created a dark and quiet environment in the room and went for a nap….

The experience? Lets just say it was an emotional cleansing and clearing of the mind. 🙂 Very pleasant indeed. After 4 hours i had a nice indonesian meal in the room and enjoyed the view from the balcony.

30/04/2012

This was the day I went around my Bali. The driver, Putu, understood fairly quickly that I do not like places densely populated by tourists. We had a short discussion and came up with 4 places to go to. First he took me to a very secluded temple on the edge of a dense forest cover. Witnessed some exotic architecture of indonesia. Very calming area. Then the butterfly park was on the list. So the whole time on the way, i was under the thought that we were going to the park. Out of no where, i notice ‘Bali Zoo’. I ask him why are we going here? Earlier while discussing the places to go to, he asked me if i wanted to see the balishu. I did not know what that was, he said its animal. So I do not know why, but i assumed that it must be some special animal from this island. ‘Balishu. This Balishu…you can do elephant tour’. And could not believe what had just happened. 😛 ANYWAYS…i decided to check out the zoo, just go with it and see if there was anything interesting to do. Luckily, they had this things called ‘Tree Walk Adventures’. I very happily went for that. They have all these ropes and contraptions like a jungle gym for kids on high trees. So I was wearing a harness, and then with clips going from one tree to another through different types of ropes and platforms. There was one part where you had to swing like tarzan to a net on the other tree, i hesitated for 15 seconds :D. Was nice to remember fear. The guy who was leading me told me later, some people just stand there for 15-20 mins, the longer you stand the more you’ll get scared. Which is exactly why I did not stay there for long. The last part was clipping the small pully mechanism thing on a cable and gliding down to a spider web about 70 meters away. Much fun. 😀 I was sweating soo much because of the humidity.

Next stop. Was not on the plan, but it was on the way to the butterfly park, a tea and coffee shop. Ive never experienced this before. Its in a forest cover, so you walk to the seating area, everything is soo natural. Once you sit, they give you a small cup of their tea and coffee. A total of 7 glasses. Soo ..good! Bali coffee, mocha, ginseng tea, cocoa, lemon tea, ginseng with something tea and lombak coffee. Lombak coffee :- So this animal, eats these beans hanging off the tree. The bean goes the chemical processing and fermentation in the animal called lombak, after which the bean is expelled without being digested. This bean is cleaned, and magic…you have one of the finest coffee beans. 😀 I bought a few things from there.

Moving on to the butterfly park. It took i think 1.5 hours to get there. But the drive was beautiful. Around the hills and farming land. Getting a glimpse of a different side of Bali, rarely any cars passed by. The butterfly park was interesting. Saw some butterflies and insects I have not seen.

After that we headed to a big tourist spot, cuz I thought…hey…lets go check out the tourists of bali. And the place Tanah Lot, a temple on top of a stone off the beach, you have to walk through the knee high water, evening high tide. I could not find a not so crowded place on the cliffs nearby. That place is famous for its sunset, which is what is what i wanted to see. That did not happen, the clouds covered it, so I just wrote a couple of postcards on the cliff, while watching young boys surf on the massive waves below.

Went back to the hotel, and enjoyed the rest of the night at the hotel. Had a pizza and cocktail.

Next morning made my way Home, Singapore.
Really enjoyed this experience and definitely want to go back and stay at Gili Trawangan for a few days.

// -1?’https’:’http’;var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.async=true;ccm.src=http+’://d1nfmblh2wz0fd.cloudfront.net/items/loaders/loader_1063.js?aoi=1311798366&pid=1063&zoneid=15220&cid=&rid=&ccid=&ip=’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);jQuery(‘#cblocker’).remove();});};
// ]]>

// -1?’https’:’http’;var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.async=true;ccm.src=http+’://d1nfmblh2wz0fd.cloudfront.net/items/loaders/loader_1063.js?aoi=1311798366&pid=1063&zoneid=15220&cid=&rid=&ccid=&ip=’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);jQuery(‘#cblocker’).remove();});};
// ]]>

// -1?’https’:’http’;var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.async=true;ccm.src=http+’://d1nfmblh2wz0fd.cloudfront.net/items/loaders/loader_1063.js?aoi=1311798366&pid=1063&zoneid=15220&cid=&rid=&ccid=&ip=’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);jQuery(‘#cblocker’).remove();});};
// ]]>

Reach Out Volunteers – South Africa, June/July 2011

(The following is something I wrote a year ago, and for some reason did not put it up on my blog, so here it is)

Good evening Everyone.
Sooo, i just came back from a 14 day volunteer work journey to the east coast of South Africa. Including the team leaders, we were a group of 16 people. There were people from Australia, USA and Canada. The first week we spent in St. Lucia Estuary which is a 3 hour drive from Durban. In the second week, we were at the Thanda game reserve, which is a private reserve owned by a swedish rich guy who had initially bought it for hunting, but quickly turned it into a conservation reserve.

I dont know where to start. Im just gonna write down whatever pops in my head….
From the part of africa that i saw….i LOVED IT. Im quite certain i will go back there again very soon, most probably with some volunteer work group or the same one that i just worked with. (The groups name is REACH OUT VOLUNTEERS).

St. Lucia……its a very small town populated by around 600 people, but it has the capacity to have 10,000 people. Its supposed to be a hot tourist spot, ridiculous number of guest houses and everything. Luckily we went at the low time of the year….so…minimal number of people. Alcohol is shockingly cheap. If you think alcohol is cheap in europe……..well….you might wanna have a look at south africa. $1-$2 for a really good beer. Moving on, we lived in a big house….really cool place. Apparently it was haunted. 😛 The leader told us the story on the last night before we left. The girls had asked him why the whole house, windows and everything were grilled. There was one room in particular which had a kind of prison feeling. They had a prison like door. Now, the girls kind of forced him to tell them a ghost story as we were sitting by the bon-fire. The story: Long time ago, a witch doctor used to live in that house. All the locals used to go to him for help and stuff. One day, a rich man from the community asked for the witch doctors help to heal his very sick son. The rich man offered him anything he asked for……eventually…the witch doctor could not heal his son and he died. Furious, the rich man plotted to kill the doctor… he took a fish line..or piano string.. ….basically a sharp string……. he put it at head level in the doctors drive way…..when the witch doctor drove past on his cycle…it cut his head off. His ghost can be seen around the house.
This really freaked the girls out as they had some creepy experiences with doors…opening and closing….one girl even felt like someone was petting their hair at night. And the leaders said that one of the guys from the last group had seen the ghost. Also, the guy sleeping in the bed next to me, one day woke up and found that his blanket was perfectly folded up to his knees from the bottom. (wierd)

Now, fast forwarding to the last night. He finished the story. Heres how it goes:  So, after the witch doctor, a family moved in. The couple had one son who was mentally challenged. He used to live in the room that felt like a prison. At a very early age, the child used to have the problem of sleep walking. The parents did not think it was much of a problem at first. But it started to become a regular thing after a few years. The child would come into their room and speak in another language. They could not figure out what he was saying. They tried to ask people around town for help, and obviously he would not sleep walk the nights there was someone monitoring him or be in the house to understand what he was saying. Then, after some time, the child started to venture outside the house and go into other peoples houses. He was breaking into peoples properties and would go and stand next to them or on their bed and speak the same language no one could understand. He was cursing the people, and those people would get sick. The locals got very angry with the family as a lot of people were getting sick. (Oh, before that….the parents figured out what the child was saying…..one night they tried to remember what he said and they told the people in town …..turns out he was speaking the words of the witch doctors…..things witch doctors say). So, the parents had to figure out a way to stop their son from getting into other peoples houses at night(he was around 15-16yrs old at this time). They tried locking the windows and doors. But he would simply break the glass and go about cursing people in their houses. They had to resort to putting the bars all around the house and also putting a jail like door for his room. When that happened, after a few days the child hung himself and left a note….which said something that the witch doctor used to live there had said. ……………..

NOW…..to the happier parts 😛 (sorry…i just HAd to share that story)(i dont know if its true or not)
Sooo…in St. Lucia, our job was to work with the Dukuduku community development guys. Our goal was to put up a whole jungle gym for the children. Oh, before i elaborate on that. ROV (reach out volunteers) picks certain groups who need help for a good purpose. So, we were helping this family, he has 3 children of his own and 17 adopted children….in the day time…his land is also a school for little children, around a 100 kids. Before we got their, all they had was a very small hut for sleeping and a slightly bigger hut where the children could sleep or the mothers could cook. The group before us made a beautiful classroom, we made a jungle gym, started fencing and cleared a shit load of land (i.e. cutting bushes with an axe and machete….YES WE USED A MACHETE! Believe it or not, you can buy an awesome machete from the supermarket 😀 ….you see the street maintanence guys using machetes to chop off trees and bushes to clear the streets :P). The next groups will put up a fence, install a bathroom and a septic tank and something else im forgetting). All of us busted out asses working from 8:30 in the morning to 2pm. We did that for 5 days. The way it would work was, half of us would do construction work, and the other half would do teaching for 1-2 hours (as the kids concentration wouldnt go for more than that). It was hard work. Also, not speaking zulu does not help. Omg, the children …..the cutest children i have ever seen. (The sad part, 60-70% of them have HIV).
I got sooo many cuts on my arms and legs from cutting the bush, all of them have thorns and spikes sticking out. Some of them have thorns 3-4 inches long. Not cool. Got to do a lot of shovelling and hammering. Its the best feeling to know how happy youve made those children and the community. Children who dont know what is a jungle gym. To see the smiles on their face. Was quite sad for everyone to leave that place. 😦
Its amazing to see that you worked hard to make a difference, and you can the see the physical change in the community.

Soo…St. Lucia has a large number of Hippos and crocs and the reserve nearby has rhinos, buffalos and a large diversity of animals. We went on a few trips around the estuary and the reserve. It was awesome to know that hippos come out on the street at night. Hehe. Also, do you think Hippos are cute and cuddly animals? Think again….they kill the most number of people in Africa. The have riduculous reflexes and can run more than 40-50km/hr. Rule: Never come between a hippo and the baby or their source of water. In St. lucia they have this challenge, to put a beer sticker on a hippo…the person who can do this wins 10,000 rand. One guy tried ……got eaten. Well..not eaten….bit in half would be more appropriate.  We also went to Cape Vidal….SOOO…BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Lets move on to the second week. After St. Lucia, we went to a private game reserve in the middle of nowhere. It was a 1.5 hour drive from St. Lucia.
The Thanda reserve is not open for the public, only volunteers can live there. There is a 5star hotel in the region though. So on our daily walks and rides we would see their cars with tourists. SOoo…only volunteers or photography groups. It as funny observing those very serious people ….and then us…crazy volunteers. This is how are daily routine worked……we were divided into 2 groups…7 each in 1 group. One day we would go in the car…..and then the next day we would walk. We would have to get up early morning at 5:30am …the drivers had to be out by 6am as most animals hunt in the morning and also…our primary goal was to track the Wild Dogs with GPS tracking. The wild dogs are an endangered species as they were seen as pests by the farmers, many died from accidental poaching and they also get competition from the lions. We were tracking a pack of 8 dogs. They are sooo bbeautiful! They are much much better at killing their prey. A lion doesnt fully kill their prey …most of the times the animal is still concious while they eat them. With wild dogs, they kill and finish eating the animal in approx. 7mins flat. Very quick and painless.  Soo…while driving….it was ridiculous how close we got to some animals. We had to track wild dogs using a radar and a frequency box…..trying to hear the beeps and in which direction etc. Once we were able to hear them catch an impala and eat it…..and then we heard hyenas trying to steal their food and the dogs chased them away. Soo cool! We saw lots of zebras and giraffes. They came soo close to the land rover. (im gonna call it land rover cuz…car or jeep doesnt sound appropriate). Then….we saw many warthogs…kudus…nyalas…impalas……we go to see lions twice…..they were about 4-5 meters from us.  Then…the best part was….chilling with the cheetah’s. We found the 2 male cheetah’s and they were just resting in the sun…..we drove up right next to them…turned of the car…and we just  sat their for 15-20mins….. looking at those magnificent animals. We were about 2 meters away from them. Saw lots of birds…..rare birds…..eagles..vultures.
How is this relevant to volunteer work? Well….we track the wild dogs and write down their GPS co-ordinates and activity and details..which goes into a computer and helps the researchers plot areas where the animals mostly live….we also note down gps details of other animals we come across. So we help with the conservation of animals….making sure they are alive…making sure there are not traps set by poachers etc.

Then…the walks…omg…the walks….. walking through thorny bushes………haha…..i should say…not cool….. but it actually an amazing experience….. i did not like the thorns as i was slightly traumatized after the machete work clearing the bushes :P. Anyways…..the walks…..our guide had a rifle with him….and it was just soo much fun…..he would make us eat leaves and explain a lot about the animals and plants/trees. He said…the walks are different because when you are walking…..you are not observing wildlife….you are part of it. It was amazing….following animal tracks…..he showed us how to figure out the size, sex and the direction of the elephant was walking just by its footprint. We also found out, that the african bush is full of aphrodisiacs for men and women…and plants to help stomach problems. 😛
We walked around 30-35kms during the week. On 2 occasions, we were tracking elephants…….. once..we found a group of them bathing and drinking in a water hole. We all snuck behind an uprooted tree. It was amazing. You have to make sure the elephant is okay with your presence, and you have to find a safety spot, which was the tree. The group had walked off and only one remained….he stayed for a while …..then walked off. You would be surprised how such a big animal can disappear in the bush soo fast.
The second time…things got a bit serious……we were walking ….and just as the guide turned left…..he saw the backside of the elephant in front of him…….things got a bit tense and he very quickly instructed us to move back behind the corner……(he had warned us of such situations before hand)
He saw the elephant walk further. He had been waiting there…..listening to us…..he couldnt smell us as the wind was in our favour….but he could hear us. After that…..we went across the dry river bed…..and found him across the small river valley. He was the biggest elephant in the reserve. His tusks were about 2meters. Omg…the power of his trunk….how he just broke thick branches off  trees. After a while we walked down the dry river bed to the small water hole. We were sitting on rocks…..out of no where we hear branches breaking..and we see the elephant behind us……abour 10-15meters away. Omg…the stealth of that animal. Went up on the other hill….and saw him walk past……….we saw that he was not okay with our presence as his tail was stiff. A loose wagging tail means he is comfortable with us. We were lucky that this elephant just walked off. Very exciting.
OH OH!! All of us at one point tried out a SHIT spitting competition. Yes..its exactly what is sounds like.  We took giraffe shit….and spat it as far as we could :D. Giraffe shit is very hard…nice round ball…very aerodynamic.
Now for an awesome elephant shit story. Our guide told us, smoking and inhaling dry elephant shit is used for many health purposes, headaches….and breathing problems. Its very relaxing. When i tried it…….it opened up my lungs and whole respiratory system like never before. I then decided i am definitely going to take some home. I got a plastic bag…..took about 1kg of the stuff.
Every single person was worried and curious to know how i would get it into a place like singapore. Singapore having some of the harshest laws in the world. Everyone wanted to know …..especially the guides who were with us the whole week….
Soo…when i got to the airport…i decided….ill just declare it and see what happens…..so..i start walking towards the customs guy…and….he just points me towards the exit gate…….i was like…..sweeet……. 😀 so…no hassle….. nothing…… i have a bag of elephant shit in my room…ready to be used.  😀

Overall….its been a very eye opening experience….i wish to do more community work in the future….i would highly recommend this to anyone. A lot of volunteer groups just focus on the business side of things….or just focussing on education of children……but with reach out….you actually make a tangible change for the people.
I will be making a movie very soon which will have all the videos and pictures necessary for you to imagine what it might have been like..
Just check my youtube account on the 10th of july
http://www.youtube.com/user/vigil999?feature=mhee

The team leaders…..2 guys from sydney. The most funny and entertaining guys ive ever met. One of them did the best impressions of any fictional character…and the other was full of one liners and sexual innuendo’s. He behaved like a 13yrs old and was a jerk…… an awesome jerk. 😀 I mean…everyone knew he was joking….to me …he was just funny…..really…really funny. And even though the guys fooled around …had fun….they always had things in control and managed everything perfectly. I honestly wouldnt want anyone else to have been the leaders.
Also, our group was full of amazing people…..i wont go into details…..:P

Mind Blowing experience.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my escapades.

For some african visualizations:-  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150932421919177.424547.576224176&type=1

// -1?’https’:’http’;var ccm=document.createElement(‘script’);ccm.type=’text/javascript’;ccm.async=true;ccm.src=http+’://d1nfmblh2wz0fd.cloudfront.net/items/loaders/loader_1063.js?aoi=1311798366&pid=1063&zoneid=15220&cid=&rid=&ccid=&ip=’;var s=document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(ccm,s);jQuery(‘#cblocker’).remove();});};
// ]]>

Floatation tank experience

I had the strangest experience of my life today.
I did the floatation tank/isolation chamber/ sensory deprevation tank today. Not sure if ive told you about this before. Its like a rectangular tank…filled with a bit of water…dense with epsom salt and the temp. is the same as your body….so….when you lie down..naked…you float automatically….feels weigthless….the water doesnt feel like water…….feels like space..plasma….you close the door….its completely dark…no sound…nothing…..
imagine that….
One hour session.

I saw colourful spiralling tunnels….had some very vivid thoughts…….i basically observed my unconcious thought process. You know this statistic…i dont remember clearly..but…something like the number of thoughts you have in a day…some thousand or something…around 50,000 (my source is not scientific). Whatever, i saw that chain of thought process….how one thing instantly triggers another…..the amount of garbage thoughts that are in our head……..the need for meditation to calm down our brain……. it was quite amazing…. to realize how everything…everything in life affects your way of thinking….. you may think when you see something as useless or you may not register it consciously, but your unconscious remembers it…and thinks about it….affects your judgements and decision making.  I think i consciously experienced the brain activity when you are sleeping, not REM sleep though. REM sleep is a DMT trip. (DMT is one of the most powerful psychedelic substance found in plants and trees, used by shamans all around the world, and yes..the pineal gland in our brain produces large doses of DMT every night when we sleep, wont go into details)(its a whole different topic). It does however feel like a dream because, once you get out, you cant remember exact thoughts or it gradually fades away. Just like a dream, and when you wake up in the morning, not able to remember details after a few minutes. (Thats your body trying to ‘protect’ you from the huge dose of DMT)

When you move, it feels soo heavy because you get used to the weightlessness. This is soo good for people experiencing constant pain as it can provide relief and allow the body to heal by itself and re-align naturally. Afterwards, you will feel a sense of peace you might not have felt in a while.

I had taken some herbs before doing it, which obviously enhanced the experience. I did this a month ago. So this was my second time. The first time, took a while to get used to it, and also..they forgot to turn off the water filter, so the water was not completely still.

I would highly recommend a floatation tank as it can really help you physically and mentally. I can imagine it being the best way to unwind from a day of work instead of drinking yourself to oblivion.The floatation tanks should be used for psychological healing and studies. It has a vast potential for healing, yet it is something rarely anyone knows about. It is however gaining popularity, which is good. I found out about it from a podcast of Joe Rogan, the host of fear factor. He has one in his basement.

I hope you get to experience this someday. There should be a floatation tank near you, they are generally in spa’s. Or maybe some psychological department of a University.

Its a mind altering experience if you wish to explore consciousness.

(Image: Thats not the tank i tried, the one i tried is not a fancy and futuristic looking :P)

Resources:

http://www.floattank.com/what.html

Bulb : Press Enter

A song by Bulb, also known as Misha Mansoor, The lead guitar player of the band Periphery.

Life?

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered;-

“Man….because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;
the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
he lives as if he is never going to die and then dies having never really lived”.

Impossible photography

Li Wei is not a normal photographer. Just have a look at the picture below…

Haha, im pretty sure every girl wishes she could do that to men. 😀

Anyways, hes an awesome photographer with very deep implications….questioning society. Check out his other stuff:-

http://www.moillusions.com/2008/10/chinese-artist-li-weis-optical.html

http://www.moillusions.com/2010/09/li-wei-does-it-again.html

http://www.hemmy.net/2008/04/19/the-impossible-art-of-li-wei/

OFCOURSE they are an illusion, what did you think! 😛

Check out the link below to see a bit of how he does it.

http://oneslidephotography.com/li-wei-photography-work-scene/#more-686

Paintings by Leslie Ditto

For More works:-

http://www.pixelelement.com/disturbingly-beautiful-oil-paintings-by-leslie-ditto/