Travel Videos
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Sipidan Montage
Pulau Sipidan, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust 12-19, 2007
A few snips from our dives at Sipidan, Mabul and Kapalai. First up is a waterfall of fish all moving along like the highway scene in 'Finding Nemo'. There's a bit of swimming eel, octopus and an unhappy cuttlefish before the finale of our relentless pursuit of a frogfish that just wanted to be left alone.
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Sharks of Sipidan
Sipidan, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust 12-17, 2007
You can't go two minutes at Sipadan without coming across a turtle or shark. Here's a few of the sharks we came across. All the sharks in the video are whitetips, but we also saw a few greys and a leopard.
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Diving the Rig
Seaventure Oil Rig off Pulau Mabul, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust 17-19, 2007
What the Seaventure oil rig lacks in resort luxury, it makes up for in cool. It is an oil rig. It has an open-air elevator to dive off. You sleep in rusty barracks with portholes. Don't want to use the stairs? Take the ladders that connect most floors. It's not a place to go on a honeymoon, but perfect for some diving and hanging out with Peter and John
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Sipidan Kapalai Resort
Kapalai Reef near Pulau Sipidan, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust 12-16, 2007
We picked the perfect splurge. This resort of water bungalows out in the middle of the sea is just beautiful. It was really tempting to skip a few dives and just sit on our balcony watching the fish school right underneath us.
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Turtles going National Geographic for us
Pulau Sipidan, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust 16, 2007
We're minding our own business on a dive and see a bunch of turtles behaving a bit odd in the distance. Pretty quickly, that odd behavior turns into a full fledge mating session and we're not the only spectators. Other turtles hang around and even dive in to bite the female now and then. Really peculiar.
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Turtle Tomb
Pulau Sipidan, Sabah (Borneo), MalaysiaAugust, 2007
Caves are fun. Underwater caves are even better. Sipadan has a pretty extensive cave system called "Turtle tombs", named after all the turtle skeletons found inside. The belief is that they come in and can't find their way out. Unfortunately, turtles aren't the only ones that get stuck. Porpoises, a sailfish and 5 divers have also found their way in but not out. Given that, we didn't go in too much further than the cool warning signs.
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Diving Pulau Derawan, Indonesia
Pulau Derawan, Kalimantan (Borneo), IndonesiaAugust 6, 2007
The little and remote islands of Derawan, Sangalakki, Kakaban and Mara Toa off the eastern coast of Borneo offer some great SCUBA diving. The first bit of the video shows the quick reaction of a manta after a cleaner fish bites a little too hard in the wrong spot. The next bit is a decorator crab we found on a sand bar at low tide. We finish with a swim through a lake full of millions of stingless jellyfish. Creepy.
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Monkeys of Borneo
Banjarmasin, Kalimantan (Bornea), IndonesiaJuly 28, 2007
First we were attacked by the locals of Monkey Island. That was expected. What we didn't expect were the local kids living on the canals who are just as rowdy as their furry friends.
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Kite of Dreams
Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, IndonesiaJuly 13, 2007
Kites are really popular around Indonesia. All it takes is a bit of trashbag, some sticks and thread and you're in business.
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Sad Pig in a Blanket = Dinner
Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, IndonesiaJuly 11, 2007
Sad as it may be, piggie has to make it home somehow if we're having bacon for breakfast.
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Stupid Tourists and a Komodo Dragon
Komodo National Park (Nusa Terra), IndonesiaJuly 3, 2007
All I can say is that you get what you expect when you throw little bits of fish at a 9' Komodo Dragon.
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Ijen Plateau Sulfur Mine
Ijen Plateau, Java, IndonesiaMay 28, 2007
Liquid sulfur oozes out of the earth at the center of Ijen crater. Miners cool the sulfur into chunks they carry 180 pounds at a time up a dangerous pathway for something like $4 a day. The path isn't the only hazard, though. Sulfuric acid clouds pass through so thick that at one point I to stick my whole face into my camera bag searching for some breathable air.
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Ramayana Ballet at Prambanam Temple at Jogjakarta
Jogjakarta, Java, IndonesiaMay 20, 2007
The 2 hour "short" version of the Ramayana ballet we watched at the Prambanam Temple is a great mix of costume, dance and fire. This story is often told with marionettes in Indonesia and the character on the left in the video moves just like they do.
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Going where no scooter has gone before in the Harao Valley
Harao Valley outside Bukkitinggi, Sumatra, IndonesiaJuly 28, 2007
We took our scooter just a bit off road to climb a hill in the middle of nowhere. The bumpy ride was well worth the view.
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Gracy the Dugong
Sentosa Island, SingaporeMay 7, 2007
Singapore's aquarium lets you SCUBA dive with their resident dugong. 7 year old Gracie grew up at the aquarium and is super friendly and curious; especially when you're holding her lunch.
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Pink dolphins
Sentosa Island, SingaporeMay 6, 2007
How lucky are we? Both of us got picked to pet the pink dolphins at Singapore's version of Sea World. Sadly, I didn't get Mary's winning hoola hoop dance on film.
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The Seychelles
La Digue, SeychellesApril 18, 2007
We went to the Seychelles expecting to be somewhat disappointed after hearing so much hype. But wow, the island of La Digue is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
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Heeeeere Sharky Sharkey
Capetown,South AfricaApril 9, 2007
The open ocean, a steel cage and thousands of seals. What more do you need? How about a few 15' great white sharks?
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Sandsliding, the next big thing
Swakopmund, NamibiaMarch 26, 2007
It started with carrying our modified snowboards 15 minutes up a sand dune. After a few runs down a lot of time spent walking back up, we moved up to sliding down on sheets of linoleum with top speed about 50mph. Beats cardboard on grassy hills any day
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Jumper, Take 3
Swakopmund, NamibiaMarch 26, 2007
After a half day of intense (haha) training, we were ready for our first solo skydives. I landed first and made it back to get the camera from the hanger in time to catch Mary coming in for a nice landing. Super nice if you compare it to one of our classmates who landed a few hundred yards away!
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Heeere kitty kitty
Cheetah Park, somewhere in NamibiaMarch 22, 2007
Got a farm in Africa and nothing else to do? Start collecting Cheetahs and keep a few as house pets. We met a family who did. Compared to the lions, the cheetahs are terrifying. They just don't seem emotionally stable. One look into their eyes and you know he's thinking of eating you.
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Elephant Show-offs
Chobe National Park, BotswanaMarch 13, 2007
We had a couple close calls on our safari drive through Chobe NP when we came across a herd of elephants bathing in the river. One nearly stuck his trunk into our truck
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Jumper, take 2
Victoria Falls, ZimbabweMarch 11, 2007
Have I mentioned I'm afraid of heights? With the backdrop of the massive Victoria Falls, I jumped off the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia. What was Mary's excuse for not jumping? "I've already done that". Right...
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Falls in the mist
Victoria Falls, ZimbabweMarch 10, 2007
You don't see Victoria Falls so much as you experience it. It's quite wide and you view it from a very near cliff that runs parallel to it. If there's much water flow, you can forget about seeing it. Just enjoy watching the water rain upwards.
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Good Kitty...Bad Kitty!
Antelope Park, Gweru, ZimbabweMarch 4, 2007
One morning at the Antelope Park game preserve, we took a pair of 10 month old lion cubs out for a playful walk. The next night, we went hunting with them and watched them tear apart a young gazelle
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Stupid Elephant Tricks
Antelope Park, Gweru, ZimbabweMarch 4, 2007
Antelope Park has a few elephants, and we got to try our hands at training them. They're a lot like we are; they'll do anything for food.
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Strike 2
Lake Malawi, MalawiFebruary 23, 2007
During the day, we watched enormous clouds of flies loom over the lake. At night, we were treated to rain and some beautiful thunderstorms.
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Jumper! Take 1
Cove on the coast near Olympos, TurkeySeptember 20, 2006
The 4 day Blue Cruise off the coast of Turkey was relaxing. To break up the days of sailing and sunbathing I took a plunge. I am absolutely terrified of heights, but I'll do anything for the camera. Don't let the looks of that little 30' drop fool you. It's HIGH!
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Rose Valley
Rose Valley (Cappadoccia), TurkeySeptember 16, 2006
View of the amazing features of Rose Valley outside Goreme.
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Surprise!
Mazikoy (near Cappadoccia), TurkeySeptember 15, 2006
What do you do when your guide in a dark and abandoned tunnel runs off with the light saying "just follow, I'll be ahead"? Well, he's got the light, so you follow. And then you learn some more history of the caves.
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Fishing for Steve
Mazikoy (near Cappadoccia), TurkeySeptember 15, 2006
Steve getting a bit of guidance up one of the longer elevator shafts in the underground city of Mazikoy.
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Chutes and Ladders
Mazikoy (near Cappadoccia), TurkeySeptember 15, 2006
Near Goreme, there are hundreds of cities carved into the rocks. Some are above ground, some below into the hillside and some go up and down. These cities were cut into the soft rock thousands of years ago to help Christians hide from the various invaders. They had water sources, kitchens and even elevators. Here's Steve finding his way from the 2nd to 3rd floor in one of these abandoned cities.
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Balloons over Goreme
Mazikoy (near Cappadoccia), TurkeySeptember 15, 2006
I treated us to a balloon ride in Goreme in belated celebration of my birthday. The balloon ride itself was fun, but the sites over Cappadocia are incredible and not to be missed if you're ever in the area.
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Hard way down
Cappadoccia, TurkeySeptember 12, 2006
The Cappadoccia region is some of the most fun and interesting hiking I've ever done. In addition to the well travelled paths, we did a couple days of wandering through the hills and came across a few obstacles like this one.
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AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
Adaland Water Park, Selcuk, TurkeyAugust 12, 2006
We pretended it was my birthday as we splashed and screamed our way through the park. It's a blast to find a water park. They have nothing on Raging Waters, but it was still enough to get Mary screaming.
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Buckingham Palace does the Beatles
London, EnglandJuly 18th, 2006
We did the obligatory Changing of the Guards stop at Buckingham Palace in London. We got a little more than we expected when the band started playing Beatles tunes. It turns out that everyone around the world knows the chorus "I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-and". The birds eye view is courtesy of Mary on my shoulders.
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Sand and SNOW in Morocco
Jebel Toukbal, MoroccoJuly 4th, 2006
From the town of Imlil outside of Marrakech, we hiked Jebel Toukbal, the third highest mountain in Northern Africa (behind Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya). Somewhat to our surprise, we found some snow. Contrary to this video, the snow was actually easier to walk on than the all loose scree on the steep slope.
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Like Sands through the hourglass...
The Sahara outside of Merzouga, MoroccoJune 29th, 2006
Just before the crack of dawn, we hiked to the top of the 600' dune overlooking our campsite. The color of the dunes at sunrise is stunning.
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Dung Beetle Boogie
The Sahara outside of Merzouga, MoroccoJune 28th, 2006
Sleeping out in the open dunes of the Sahara desert is truly magical. There are no lights to dull the bright Milky Way and only the sounds of camels snoring and Mary screaming to break the silence.
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Olympic Pager Toss
Playa Fronton, Samana Peninsula, Dominican RepublicApril 9, 2006
One of the most important rituals we performed in our first stop was to exorcise ourselves of the pager and phone leashes that had bound us for so long. It was during this activity that Steve allowed a sea urchin to get friendly with his big toe. Here is Mary's record breaking toss
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