Yellowknife, Canada

I am now back in Yellowknife. My levels of excitement of that fact are exactly what the more pessimistic among you would expect.

Vancouver was fun. St. Paddy's Day was a complete mess, as it should be. And spending a couple days on a university friend's couch fills you with the kind of nostalgia that makes you wonder why you ever stopped hanging out on university friend's couches and at some point decided to be silly and get a job.

And good news!!! My camera did not delete all of my pictures! So I still have photos of the first half of my trip! Hurrah!

Today I need to sort through a small mountain of souvenirs and get a haircut. No one in Asia will cut curly hair. I asked all of them, it took up the majority of my trip.

Till next time!





(Mongolia?....)

Hong Kong (2)

It occured to me today that Sunday is not a good day to really see the consumerism capital of Asia. The British influence is still here in a couple ways, including 70% of shops being closed on Sundays. That being said, they still was a lot of frenized shoppers around. Early on in the day I ducked into a store and bought a shirt that was on sale just so that I could have a shopping bag to walk around with and feel a bit more in place. Being a backpacker in one of the nicest dressed cities in the world makes one feel a tad out of their element.

I also love subways, I realized today. They're wonderfully efficient. I found out today that I can get practically from the doorstep of Chungking Mansion to the Airport terminal althrough the subway. It made me very happy.

Also, Chungking Mansion is just the hellhole I was lead to believe it was. When telling people in Hanoi that I was going to stay in Chungking they all laughed and smiled and would say no more. It's packed with touts and little stalls trying to sell you something, and the rooms are arranged in the same manner that I imagine bees step up their hives. Every little corner has it's own hostel. My first room last night was an old converted bathroom, turned into a four bed dormitory. All the electrical wiring fixtures had been accomplished by masking type. The mattress was paper thin and the bathroom was absurdly tiny. I ran into a Quebecois there and he remarked what a nice place it was. I can only assume one of three things:

1. He's nuts.
2. The owner pays him to walk into crap rooms and make clearly ridiculous statements like this.
3. He's had a very sad and very poor quality life so far.

Today I switched into a different room. Equally tiny, but much nicer.

They picnic in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if people are aware of this. But they don't picnic in the park or in the wilderness, like normal people. They picnic in shopping malls and across from Cartier and Burberry stores. They lay down a blanket, get out their lunch, play cards, just all the normal things people do on picnics, but beside a parking meter and breathing in car fumes.

The guy beside me really needs to blow his nose.

Hong Kong really is kind of like Vancouver, just with more Asians.

Okay, the same number of Asians.

They have McDonalds here! It's one of those awful things from home you start to miss after a while. At least I do. I went today for a little bit of lunch. They don't really understand the tray system here. You finish your meal, you do to the garbage, dump it in, put the tray on top. As I watched everyone just left their tray on the table or put the fully loaded try right on top of the garbage. When I was done eating I very slowly and very deliberately went through the proper steps for the benefit of everyone watching. I like to think I've bettered Hong Kong a tiny bit.

I may never say this again, but thank God for British colonialism. After a month of trying to navigate streets named Hong Trang, Bang Lo, Sveet Chariot finding streets named things like "Pender", "Nathan" and "Hollywood" is a big relief.

I leave Hong Kong tomorrow. Right now I am off to a bar recommended by this guy Jimmy I met in Finnigans in Hanoi. I've been there before, and sure enough, random bar dudes really now the good places to drink.

Hong Kong

I just passed by a luggage store called "Ever Rich". The YKers get it.

Hanoi it turns out was a very good time. It was nice to be back in the enveloping socialness of a hostel. Every night in Hanoi ended with a trip to Finnigans. Of course the capital city of Vietnam has an Irish bar down the road from the hostel.

I spent one day trying to see an old communist's dead body, but when that didn't work out I got a guy with a motorbike to drive me around to some museums. It was all very culturally enriching. However the only fact that stayed with me is the Vietnamese women blacken their teeth on purpose by chewing a certain type of root. I thought it was just poor hygiene.

While in Hanoi I took a trip to Halong Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was stunningly beautiful, of course. It was also the most randomly organized tour I've taken. On at least four separate occasions I thought that they had completely forgotten me on this bus stop/restaurant/junk/parking lot. Only one of those times they actually had. We were stopping to see some very nice caves and I was in the bathroom. My junk was pulling out as I got out of the bathroom (I just re-read that sentence. I think I need to clarify that "junk" is a certain type of Asian boat), so I had to jump onto another one that was pulling into the dock. In the process I broke my watch, but made it to the caves.

The rest of the trip was cruising around the mist shrouded limestone juts of stone and drinking beers on the top deck. At one point we got to do some night kayaking through a floating village. One of the top ten most surreal experiences of my life. We were kayaking in what I will forever consider a Terry Gitersos Special. Not an actual kayak, but this cheap plastic open bodied affair. Suffice it to say me and Jon (my Swedish kayaking partner) were thoroughly soaked by the end of it and ludicrously happy.

I slept the night on the junk and made it back to Hanoi just in time for the hostel's happy hour. After a brief visit to Finnigans I got email addresses and said goodbye. I got up at 5:30am and shared a taxi with Jon and Christina (my Swedish kayaking partners Swedish wife) to the airport and got into Hong Kong at around 1pm.

I have no idea what to do in Hong Kong. This is one of the few times I've been in a foreign city without the benefit of a guide book. I asked a Hong Kong girl Jenny (we were sharing a room on the junk) what there was to do and she just shrugged, so I've spent my afternoon doing that old backpacker staple; wandering around and getting hopelessly lost in a foreign city.

Hong Kong is very clean and very vertical. Right now I'm sitting in an cyber cafe on the fifth floor of a building that has a very small sign outside a very small door. Everything seems to be like that. Only the very poshest stores actually have space on the bottom of the building, everything else is straight up.

What else... I want to do a Vietnamese coffee tasting when I am back at home. I am determined to find the optimum milk:coffee ratio.

Other than that, I will be back in Vancouver, Canada in just two days!

Hoi An, Vietnam

I just went to get my plane tickets to go from here to Hanoi and from Hanoi to Hong Kong and found out my flight from here to Hanoi has been delayed, so I have an extra hour or so to waste here. I figured I'd fill the time with lists.

Personalities of Nationalities

• Aussies: Friendly, energetic and outgoing for the most part. As it turns out, when you get a group of Aussie boys together they turn into that inexplicable creature, Assholis Maximus. I've found the best way to deal with that is to engage them in some sort of physical violence. Slap them, punch them, whatever. After that they figure you're alright.
• Thais: Talkers. EXTREME talkers. Very friendly, again. Having a conversation with a Thai is one of the easiest things you can ever do. You can just stand there while they rattle off a list of a hundred questions until they know the intimate details of what you do in the bathroom every morning.
• Cambodians: I think they might also be friendly. However, it's next to impossible to really verify this since I only ever met one Cambodian who was not trying to actively sell me something. You can't really blame them though, because as I found out from the one Cambodian I had an actual conversation with, a good wage in Cambodia is 50 cents an hour, and that's only if you are very lucky and are willing to work almost all of your waking hours.
• Vietnamese: Surprisingly funny. You would think a war wracked country would be a bit on the bitter side, but not these guys. And Vietnamese women are surprisingly flirtatious. I found out at the cultural performance Patrick and I went to that if you catch a Vietnamese girl's eye and smile you can make her smile and blush and completely forget what she is doing, in a very charming way.

Weird things I've seen carried on the back of motorbikes
Motorbikes are THE transport for most people in Southeast Asia. And not just for transporting people, for transporting goods as well.

• Six nude mannequins
• Three dead pigs
• A five foot high floral arrangement
• Three (hopefully, but probably not) empty propane tanks
• An entire family of four

Additions to Matt's List of Life Lessons

• Number 74: Never let strange men touch you in a bar
  

Hoi An, Vietnam

So what did I do in Saigon... seems so long ago.... oh yes, I went on a tour of Cu Chi Tunnels, a tunnel network that the Viet Cong used to get within 30km of Saigon during the Vietnam War (or, as they call it here, the American War).

My tour guide was this little crazy, dancing, singing Vietnamese dude. He routinely serenaded us throughout the trip.

Our first stop was at a place with the best name ever - Handicapped Handicrafts. As you can probably guess, the reason behind the place is not equally awesome. It's a place where those disabled by the American use of agent orange are taught how to make crafts, which they then sell to tourists to raise funds for the medical needs of those affected by agent orange. They have some pretty cool stuff.

When we eventually got to the tunnels we got to see a short video about the place. It's quite interesting to see it from the other point of view. The local Vietnamese are very proud of the Viet Cong and how they drove out the Americans. In the video they go through a list of Vietnamese war heroes, usually with a voiceover saying something like "This great Vietnam hero. This number one American killer! She kill more Americans with bombs than anyone else in her section!". All very interesting. The tunnels themselves are incredibly tiny. Our tour guide could fit in them, but no one else could. And he was telling us that some of these stretches are 2km long, with no chance to come up into open air.

At the end of the tour I finally got to fire an AK47! They had a shooting range with ridiculously high priced bullets. So I fired off 10 rounds in about 30 seconds. They guy running the range was getting mad that I was taking too long. Man, are those things loud.

Also on this tour I ran into Patrick, a guy from Winnipeg I first met in Phnom Penh. We were both going to Hoi An, so we booked our tickets and split a room when we got here. He left yesterday, but we're both staying at the same place in Hanoi so we'll see each other again.

Hoi An is a lovely town, and really what you expect when you think of Vietnam. A little town on the edge or a river, with a fusion of Vietnamese and French colonial architecture. The old historic town has a number of sights to see, you buy a ticket and get to see five of them. They're all very nice, but my favourite culture activity of Hoi An so far has to be the cultural performance Patrick and I went to see yesterday. It was in the top of a bar, in a small room. There were only four of us, and about 6 dancers and 4 people in the band. It was cool to see some traditional dances and here the traditional music, made a little odd by there being more performers than audience and that several of the performers couldn't keep from cracking up halfway through.

And boy does this place suck your money. I've bought more tourist knick knacks here than I have in the rest of my trip combined.

Right now I have to go pick up some custom tailored shoes and sort my stuff out before going to Hanoi this afternoon.

Saigon, Vietnam

My camera has stopped working again! Shit fuck damn. Now it won't even turn on. And I have a sinking feeling that it may have deleted all of my pictures from my card...

Saigon officially wins for Most Terrifying City to Cross the Street. You just step out into the path of hundreds of cars and motorcycles and hop between the spaces. Kinda like Frogger.

Anyhow, right now I am off to Hoi An. More later!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

My camera has started to work again! Not all the buttons, but it looks like it can at least take pictures now.

My last day in Phnom Penh I went to see various sites. I meant to see the Killing Fields, but there was some confusion with my moto driver (or he just didn't want to take me the 14 km out of town) and instead ended up at the Toul Sleng (sp?) prison, where Pol Pot sent... well, pretty much anyone, to get tortured before they were sent to be murdered at the killing fields. After that I didn't think I could take any more depression in one day, so went and checked out the Royal Palace. After the seeing the absolute poverty that Phnom Penh stews in, the opulence of the Palace is a little staggering. I went into one room called the Silver Pagoda, where the entire room is filled with treasures and the floor is tiled with silver. They all have religious and cultural significance, but I couldn't help wondering how many hospitals and schools could be built with the money in that one room.

So I went out my last night in Phnom Penh with some random Aussies/Brits/Swiss/Accents I Couldn't Place. We barhopped around where they were staying (and I have never been offered so many drugs in my life, their neighborhood was like a street pharmacy) for a bit and then I packed it in. And of course, I slept right through my alarm the next day and was woken up by the guesthouse driver pounding on my door. The bus was downstairs waiting for me. So I threw everything into my bag and hoofed it down. Out the door I grabbed my laundry bag from the reception.

The bus ride was a little rough to begin with, since I had nothing to eat and the toilet (like many in Asia) took some figuring out before I got the hang of it. I also bought a disgusting sandwich from a stall at noon that I couldn't finish, and that used up the last of the cash I had on me, so I spent the rest of the trip hungry until I got to Siem Reap.

When I did arrive the bus was swarmed by kids asking for money, or straight out trying to get their hands into your pockets. They were very aggressive, so it was kinda overwhelming. That, combined with being constantly hassled by drivers, made me just want to get out of there (Oh, I should mention, moto and tuk-tuk drivers in Cambodia are the most tenacious people I have ever met. I never walked anywhere in Phnom Penh. I would try to walk to the end of my street, but I would be hassled by no less than half a dozen drivers). I saw someone with a sign displaying the name of my guesthouse (who, it turned out, was not actually the driver my guesthouse sent), so I went to him and he gave me a ride for free (the drivers get commissions from the guesthouses/restaurants for picking up tourists and dropping them off at their businesses). We arranged to meet the next day for a trip to Angkor Wat and surrounds.

Oh, and then I realized that I had forgot my laundry bag on the bus. So I lost all my underwear and most of my shirts. I went on an emergency shopping session in the market, and then took in a early night for my next day at Angkor.

Angkor Wat is AMAZING. I haven't been too sure about Cambodia so far. So far it had just seemed like the poorest country I'd been to yet. But Angkor definetly made the trip worthwhile. I over paid for a guidebook and took that around the site with me. Oh, and Terry, I now share your hate of tour groups. The temples at Angkor were never intended for the masses to worship at, instead they were intended as the homes of single deities, so all the passage ways are very narrow, and when they're packed with thirty or forty Japanese and Italians, it makes it almost impossible to see the bas reliefs and stonework.

My camera still wasn't working at this point, but hopefully the disposable I had with me can do it justice.

After Angkor Wat my driver took me around to some other temples and sites in the Angkor area. It was all very nice, but it was very hot out and the climbs up the temple sides were very steep. This resulted, at the end of the day, of me getting back to the hotel and having a replay of what happened to me in Nicaragua after climbing a volcanoe. I developed a very high fever, horribly aching joints and a massive headache. I spent the next eight hours in bed with a wet cold towel wrapped around my head. This morning I was supposed to see more of Angkor, but had to call it off to give my body sometime to rest. I feel fine now, but definitely did not want to repeat that feeling.

Tomorrow I head off to Saigon in Vietnam. I am debating skipping Hanoi, as it seems to get to Hong Kong I will have to go back down to Saigon anyway, and everyone I've talked to who has gone through Hanoi hasn't been that impressed.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Crap, I just lost my entire post. Keystrokes do random things in Asia. And it was a really good one too...

I don't want to type it out again, so I'll just summarize.... in Phnom Penh, got in yesterday, took a motorbike through the city to the guesthouse, Phnom Penh is like a recently rediscovered ancient city, crumbling decadence, etc, met some Aussies, the staff of the guesthouse got off work, we started drinking, dancing on a rooftop with shirtless Cambodians singing AC/DC.

SO after that me and the Aussies, Sam and Sam, went to a pizza place and had some pizza, and then started an evening bar tour of Phnom Penh. They had been here for a few days, so knew some good places. After a couple bars and trying to dance with some locals we realize that our driver had been in all the bars with us, and was probably kinda drunk, so we told him just to take us back to the guesthouse.

Today has pretty much just been recovering. But tomorrow I plan to actually do something. I want to see the Royal Palace, the Killing Fields, maybe go to a shooting range and fire a AK47. Good times!

Koh Samui, Thailand

I survived the Full Moon Party through a formidable amount of pacing.

The day before, the 23rd, we did a round-the-island boat tour, saw the falls that several famous kings of Thailand used to visit, and generally got to see more of the island and hung out on a lot of beaches.

The 24th was the Full Moon Party. Not as crazy as I was expecting really, but still a good time. We met up with some Norwegian girls from the boat trip the day before. May and them broke off and I went off in search of Random Friends. I met three Irish boys, four English blokes, one Aussie guy and two Aussie girls. The Aussies were the most fun of any of them, it made me miss Australia. Around 4am we made our way back to Rainbow Bungalows.

The next day I took off to come here and May went off to Koh Tau, the scuba diving mecca of Thailand. If I had the money or the time to refresh my scuba skills I would have joined her, but instead I'm here on Koh Samui, making my way to Bangkok before heading off to Cambodia. It's unlikely we'll see each other again, so we said our goodbyes at the pier and I was off.

Either the scale on my map is wrong, or my taxi driver took the most circuitous path possible. What looks like 10 km on my map according to the scale ended up being an hour and a half drive. It's amazing how far 100 baht (about $3.25) can take you.

And my bad luck with traveling with cameras continues. My waterproof/shockproof/should-be-generally-indestructible camera is no longer working. At first it kept on insisting that the battery case was open, then the lens got all fogged up, and now none of the buttons other than the power button work. I'm going to look up some troubleshooting guides and hopefully figure it out.

As for now, I'm off to explore a little bit of Koh Samui and generally waste time till my flight leaves tonight for Bangkok.

Koh Phangan, Thailand

Alright, May and I made it! May's flight was canceled, so she ended up getting here a day late. So my first night here I went to Haad Rin with some Canadians from my hotel, met some Swedes at a bar and went to the beach. Good times. The next day May showed up and we spent the day lounging as she acclimatized to Koh Phangan.

Today we've just been walking around Haad Rin, seeing what there is to do. Apparently the Full Moon Party has been delayed to the 24th, so we won't leave till the 25th. We got a Thai Massage today, my second massage ever. That 90 pound girl beat the crap out of me like I stole her money and called her ugly. I'm limping a little bit from what she did to my left leg. All part of the experience though. Tonight we're thinking of going to see a Muay Thai fight.

Bangkok Airport, Thailand

Alright.... I've been at the airport for three hours. No sign of May.... she should have been out of customs about two and a half hours ago... and I'm not sure what flight she is on...

Bangkok, Thailand

Wow.....

Okay, this has been the craziest most intense day of my trip. Not so much because of anything that happened, but just because Bangkok is an intense, crazy place.

I got in last night and made my way through customs and all that, took about an hour and a half, no worries. Got out into the airport proper and laid my hands on some cash from the ATM and did some halfhearted haggling over the taxi fare before going to my hotel. It's the Viengtai Hotel, a pretty snazzy place for $60 a night. I could have gotten a place for much cheaper, but I had heard that Bangkok is a little crazy, so you might just want to stay some place a bit more opulent your first time. I got to the hotel and checked in, had a shower and a beer from the minibar and went to bed. Nothing too exciting.

This morning I got up and checked out and started walking around.

Bangkok is a hellion. Every moves so fast and everything is packed together, no one waits for anything. And the Thai can chat like no one else. Sometimes I'm bad for not talking to the actual residents of where I am visiting, but in the four hours (I can't believe it was only four hours... it really seemed like four days) I spent making my way around town I stopped and had serious conversations with about half a dozen people.

The first was a man who stopped me on the street, thinking my bag was open (it wasn't). He asked me where I was from and we started chatting. He recently bought a computer for his 4 year old son and works at the post office. He told me that today is a Buddhist holiday and that the new Prime Minister has waived the entrance fee on several temples and sites. He sat down with me and my map and made a little plan of what I should do today. He even waved down a tuk-tuk (more on them later) and told the driver where to take me and for how much. Driving around for four hours only cost me 20 baht (about 70 cents)!

So the driver took me to a temple and inside a man approached me and showed me around the temple, explaining the praying rituals of the Thais and the different Buddha statues. Then we segwayed into commerce and such, and we talked about getting custom suits and shirts in Bangkok.

So then my next stop was at a custom suit store. The salesman Mike really wanted me to buy two suits, three shirts and a couple ties for $400, but I eventually got it through to him that I don't have that kind of money, so instead I will have a couple custom tailored shirts to pick up in a few days for $70.

After that was another temple. It was just nice to walk around and sit for a while. Walking the streets in Bangkok, you get hassled a lot by taxi drivers (Not NEARLY as bad as Central American ones though. A simple "No, thank you" will usually be enough to get away, no yelling or pushing required.)

Then I went to the Golden Mount, a Buddhist temple built high on a hill, that offers good views of the city. Unfortunately, Bangkok is covered in smog, and getting up there just made me realize that I'm standing in filth. And that a lot of Bangkok is made up of ghettos right next to highrise luxury apartments.

After the Golden Mount I walked back to my hostel and ran into a teacher from a local high school. We chatted, he has family in Toronto. He thinks I look Thai. I actually got that a lot today. My skin right now is the exact colour of most Thai's skin, and the facial features aren't that far off either. It's hard explaining to Thais why I'm the colour I am. Most of the ones I met today walked away with the impression that my mother is from India. So anyway, he gave me directions back to my hotel, and now I'm sitting in a cafe, desperately wanting a shower and a nap, but I've checked out already so will have to power through for the next 7 hours till it's time to go meet May at the airport and head to Koh Phangan.

Oh, and the tuk-tuks! These are basically three wheeled contraptions. The driver sits in the front, and there is a bench big enough for two people in the back. It was a little worrying at first, for a few reasons:

1. Bangkok drivers take road lanes as suggestions only. The first time we veered into the other lane into oncoming traffic I nearly jumped out, but apparently that's just how it is done.
2. They're pretty flimsy vehicles. So if a tuktuk gets in a accident with a car, the car wins.
3. There are very few traffic lights. Right of way is determined by who ever gets to the intersection first.

But I didn't actually see any accidents, so I guess they now what they are doing.

That's all for now, next stop is an island in the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Phangan!

Perth, Australia (again)

I can't believe I am halfway through my trip. It's always the way. I've been gone a month, but it seems like a week ago at most. And tomorrow the Australia portion of my trip ends. So goodbye sunny beaches and freckled girls, hello mad Asian traffic. Everyone I've met who has been to Bangkok talks about the traffic. There are no real crosswalks, I was told the best way was to close your eyes and start walking at a steady pace and trust the attentiveness of Bangkok drivers to notice you.

The new hostel is nice, I've met many people, maybe three of whom I can name. Last night I went out for the first time in Perth, so I can scratch that off my list. Right now I am just wasting time till we start a bbq in a few minutes. So here are some random observances of Australia:

• Aussie boys are really macho. It's a bit much at times.
• Burger King here is called Hungry Jacks. Same logo and food, only the name is different.
• Australians don't use ketchup. But they give you fries with everything. What is the purpose of fries, but as a receptacle for ketchup?
• They drive on the other side of the road and I still haven't gotten used to it. I keep on looking at cars and thinking "These guys pay no attention to the road!" before realizing I'm looking at the wrong side.
• Everywhere in Adelaide is "Two blocks down, to the left". Every time I asked for directions to get anywhere at all it was "Two blocks down, to the left".
• Pretty much everyone traveling in Oz is working while doing it (bar work and fruit picking are the two most popular occupations). I'm one of maybe four people in this hostel just on vacation.
  

Perth, Australia

Just got back from a three day tour around the southwestern part of Australia. I think I have now seen every tiny shite town in SW Australia (the town of Northcliffe's actual slogan: "Where the hell is Northcliffe?").

It was an alright tour. Met some good people, we formed Team Alcoholic. It started with touring a brewery and tasting each and every beer they made. Not as a whole, individually. Last night we had to be thrown out of the bar down the road from the hostel because they were closing and we wouldn't leave. Good times.

Other more responsible highlights:

• Going to a very nice beach and going for a swim. This is significant because it was my first foray into the Indian Ocean, meaning that I have now swam in every ocean on Earth. They also have a "Southern Ocean" in Australia, so I swam in that one too a couple weeks back just to cover my bases.
• Climbing up a 70m tree. I didn't really climb all of it, I got spooked halfway and stopped. Whatever.
• Seeing some interesting rock formations. This trip has really been full of interesting rock formations.

So now I have two more days at the YHA (puke) and then I change to the Witches Hat hostel (horray!) which has come highly recommended. Tomorrow I will either visit Rottnest Island, just southwest of Perth which is supposed to be very nice and have some adorable wallabies, or I will go to Freemantle, which has some adorable museums. Going to Rottnest means getting up early, so I will probably just spend an afternoon in Freemantle.

Perth, Australia

I think I might be a rain god. Or some kind of rain avatar, at least. I've had rain probably once every three days I've been in Australia. Keep in mind this is the driest continent on Earth, in the middle of their summer. I've been rained out of resorts in Fiji, and a drought actually ended when I showed up in south eastern Australia. I got rained on at night while camping in the DESERT.

It's raining in Perth today, so I'm whittling away my afternoon on the internet and travel planning.

So I did a three day tour from Alice Springs to Uluru (a distance of about 750 km) with The Rock Tours. A really good time, good guides, good people, an all around awesome experience. The first day we hiked through Kings Canyon, that I mentioned earlier. A three and a half hour hike, and I have never been hotter in my life. Thank God halfway through we come upon a waterhole known as the Garden of Eden. We all have a good splash and cool down. After Kings Canyon we grab some beers and head to our camping spot for the night.

We had one place to go, but our trainee guide Bree got a little lost in the night time, so after driving through the bush in the dark for half an hour and having to unhitch the trailer so that the bus could turn around, we go to a different camp spot, which turns out to be a construction depot. More funny than anything. We roast up some kangeroo tail, get rained on in the middle of the desert, and have the construction foreman come up and tell us the place in going to full of trucks and tractors in 10 minutes, so we have to get out.

The next day we make a couple more stops, see some kangeroos and wild camels, and hike through the Olga mountain range, just outside of Uluru (and actually part of the same geological event). After yesterdays Kings Canyon adventure, most of the group doesn't feel up to a 8km hike through this mountain range. Their loss. For the 7 of us (out of 21) who did the hike, it was absolutely stunning. These red domes raising out of the desert and circling you all around was really something to see. The people who did the hike, Natalie, Julian (my bus bench buddy and time wasting game opponent), Sean, Jerome, Horshct and the old German couple (never did learn their names...) all had a great time.

That night we went to watch the sunset over Uluru and have a couple beers. Probably the most chill and awe inspiring part of my trip so far. We sat there for about an hour and a half and watched the clouds and shadows play along Uluru's alternating jagged and smooth edges. That night we camped at the nearest campground, had a shower, went for a swim in the pool and ended the night with some games, Sleeping Bag Sumo and The Box Game (pick up a box with your mouth, without touching your knees or hands to the ground). Natalie won the latter easily. Turns out our 18 year old German is also a ballerina.

The next day we watched the sunrise over Uluru while having breakfast and started the drive back to Alice Springs. We made a few notable stops. I bought a painting from an aborignee who came to see if we had any leftover bread after our lunch at a small town stop, and then rode a camel, an hour out of Alice Springs. Man, those guys have a rough gait. And getting down from a camel is a whole new experience in fright.

That night we all got together for drinks and dinner. We exchanged names and email addresses, had a few laughs, some interesting conversations, bought a shot for a British birthday girl. A good end to a good trip.

So now I am in Perth. So far, I am not terribly impressed. Apparently really everything good about Perth is actually outside of Perth. I walked through the downtown area yesterday, which was bland. Even the riverside was pretty meh. I was going to check out the edgier Northridge area today, but, like I said, it's raining. It also doesn't help that I'm in a YHA (Australia's version of HI hostels, for those who know what those are). Basically, it's a very large, very impersonal hostel/budget hotel that has no real style and doesn't have any nice small, intimate areas that facilitate meeting people. I met one guy, Lee, in my room and that's been it. A rude Frenchman was thrown out of my room at about 2am last night, but neither Lee nor I have any idea why. It's surprisingly hard to find accomodation in Perth, so moving would be tricky. I might do another tour in a couple days, and then book a different hostel for after that, but Perth doesn't seem to have many reasonably priced tour deals. And of course, all this bitching and complaining could just be because I'm coming down off a high after a really good trip to Uluru.

Alice Springs, Australia

Just a quick update before I run out and join my tour group for dinner and drinks.

I'm alive! Turns out my little joke from the end of the last post wasn't such a little joke. On the first hike we were told that 3 people have died doing it in the past 2 weeks, and while we were hiking two people had to be heli-lifted out of the canyon we were hiking and a third was left on the ground because there was only room for two. Our tour guide gave her "50/50 chances" of surviving. Pretty sobering stuff. But thankfully our tour guides were very competent and well prepared.

Uluru was awesome, off to Perth tomorrow!

Alice Springs, Australia

For those who don't know, Alice Springs is smack in the middle of abso-freaking-lutely nowhere. Pretty much dead centre, Australia. All around this little 30,000 person town is desert. And man is it hot. So hot that the exertion of typing is making me sweat a little bit. Yeah.

Anyhow, Adelaide. A lot of people say Adelaide is boring. They're right. It seems like a great town if you were in your 40s. A lot of museums, a lot of churches. The octogenarians wandering town seemed to like it well enough though.

Our first night most of my group met up at a hostel bar and, since it was a mostly female group, went to this Irish pub where it was ladies night. A nice bar, full of very nicely dressed people. Some of the local Aussie boys were jackasses, but slap them around a bit and they respect you more and back off. One thing about the bar though: The worst music I have ever heard. Yes, including in Yellowknife. But the Aussies LOVE IT. Really bad, corny music from the 80s and 90s, and the dance floor is packed. And - Robi and Robert have spoiled me here - the transitions were dreadful. No one else seemed to notice, but it was like nails on a chalkboard.

The next day I walked around and shopped. I ripped off the waist strap of my old bag, getting it out the back of the bus trailer, so I get a new one. Man, am I ever hemorrhaging money in Australia. Every time I check my credit card balance I cringe. Oh well. Thank God southeast Asia is cheap! That night I took it easy, went to see the Darjeeling Limited with Helena, a girl I met on the tour bus and packed it in relatively early.

So now I am in Alice Springs. Which is hot. Really, really hot. In case I hadn't mentioned. And early, crack-o-dawn, tomorrow I set off on my tour to Uluru (Ayer's Rock, to those culturally insensitive few amongst you). I really hope I don't die. Because it is really, really hot out.

Adelaide, Australia

Phew! Sorry for the long delay between updates. I've spent the last three days on a bus tour of the Great Ocean Road and surrounds. I have about five million pictures (give or take) of things like the Twelve Apostles, lots of cool beaches, etc, etc.

I also went on a wine tour in Melbourne to the Yarra valley, which was very nice. Met Steve the Army Engineer and his friends and had a laugh with them and watched Steve repeatedly get in trouble from the tour guide.

Oh, and before that spent my Australia Day dancing at a huge mega-bar called the Espy in Melbourne with some British girls.

And I just finished a flurry of bookings over the past hour and a half for the next 11 days of my trip. Which include:

• Staying two nights in Adelaide at the hostel I'm at now, Backpack Oz. I splurged for a private room even. I could use some solitude after three days packed in a bus with the same 22 people.
• Flying to Alice Springs On Saturday.
• Starting a three day tour to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) on Sunday.
• Flying to Perth on Wednesday
• Staying in Perth for at least 4 days. I have to leave from there on the 17th.

It''s an exhausting life I lead.

Now I am going to go scrounge up something to eat, before meeting up with the people from the tour for drinks!

Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne is a nice little city. I'm not actually in Melbourne though. I'm in St. Kilda, which is connected to Melbourne and about a 20 minute tram ride from to Melbourne downtown (they have trams here! How quaint!). My guide book described it as "casual and atmospheric", which I later found out meant "grubby and full of whores". And not the good kind of whores. Actual whores.

But I actual do like this area. It's full of backpackers and is more casual than Melbourne Proper. I went downtown today, to explore and see what it was all about. The first thing I noticed was, and I say this with no intended effront to my bi- and homo-sexual friends, urban Aussie men dress super, super, really gay. You don't need gaydar in Melbourne, you need gaygoogles, to block out the plunging metrosexual necklines and bright retro lines. Chris, you'd love it! But I gotta admit, I did buy a new shirt so I could blend in a bit better. And it was on sale! Aw shit, I might be going gay. Again.... no offense.

Other than that.... my first night here I got into the hostel and 15 minutes later was picked up and whisked off to a night out with this girl I met in Fiji and her husband and friends. We didn't get to do a pub quiz as planned, but the husband and I did engage in a Aussie beer tasting, which turned out very well, with my sleeping in their spare room and him showing up to work an hour late and unshowered.

Yesterday I just recovered from the night before and the night before that (Never, never go drink for drink with random Aussies you meet in the pub. How many more times before I figure that out? Actually, I think I surpassed them at one point. Man. Oh... and there's more to this segway. I had to be woken up by housekeeping the next morning at 11:30, to be told that checkout time is 10:00 and people need my bed. Then a mad, painful, painful, oh so painful rush ensued to get to the airport for my 1:15 flight.).

Now I have extended my stay in Melbourne at a hostel down the road which is a bit nicer. And for some reason I just don't mesh well with the people here. A bit too loud and drunken for me. Jesus. Gay AND old.....

Anyhow, I hope to go see some tiny penguins on an island south of here before I leave and go on a budget winery tour (they exist! I'm taking one!). I'll let y'all know how that goes.

PS - Saw Juno today too. Really good! Jason Bateman is unexpectedly creepy.

Sydney, Australia

Castaway! Part 2 (Nadi, Fiji)

I ran out of time yesterday so had to post it without completing my story.

So anyway, we hiked through mud, had to gather logs to roll one boat onto shore, and then the manager of the Octopus Resort coralled a couple boats to take us over to the Yasawa Flyer, which is the only big boat that comes to the Yasawa islands, and the only boat that was still running.

Oh, and the reason I had to go through all of this in the first place!

So after it started raining, and gusting, and generally getting worse and worse we found out the reason was because two cyclones were converging off the coast of Fiji and heading our way. So all boat transfers were cancelled indefinetly, except for one last boat leaving yesterday. And since I have an early morning flight tomorrow, I made the decision to get out while I could, and here I am, back in Nadi one day earlier than planned.

So taking the little boat was pretty horrific, we were getting thrashed in the waves pretty badly. A lot of people were pretty worried about getting on a boat this day. You'll see pictures and video at some point, and be able to appreciate why. To add to that, the staff decided to play the Titanic theme (twice!) at lunch, and have the boats pick us up from a graveyard. Oh, those crazy Fijians!

But only one girl of our group, Jasmine, threw up, and other than the initial boat ride over to the Yasawa Flyer, and the intial 15 minutes of the Flyer getting out of the bay, it wasn't so bad.

Today the plan is to walk over to the local Hindu temple and check out the market with the people I've been travelling with.

So my next post will probably be from Sydney in a couple days!

Castaway! (Nadi, Fiji)

So people make a big deal about the words "cyclone" and "evacuation", but that really overdramatizes the whole event. It's really not that bad.

But to that later.

Right after posting my last blog I went to the shuttle pick up zone and ran into three other people who were going to Octopus Resort as well (and whom I am still hanging out with after all of us escaped the island). We all went down and took the boat out to the island. It was a little iffy weather-wise on the way there, but when we got there it was fantastic and we immediately spent the rest of the day on the beach, tanning, reading, swimming, snorkelling. It was exactly what I had imagined of Fiji.

The next couple days.... not so much.

It started raining the next day and didn't really stop till now.

The highlights of the rest of the trip was visiting a local island and seeing a bit truer side of Fiji, a quiz night/talent show (Dancing Quenn will never be the same for me. Don't ask.) and leaving by way of hiking through mud and forest, rolling a boat unto t

Nadi, Fiji

Made it! With my bags, even!

Vancouver was good, great to see people again. And as was astutely pointed out , the day i get back is St Patty's day! So another good Van visit ahead!

Vancouver to LA was fine, it was in a little CR7. And I learned an important lesson. Do not go through LAX. It is so massive and every airline has its own terminal, and if you are switching to another airline, good luck trying to connect. Especially when trying to checkin after finally finding the checkin desk and finding out you lost your bagagge tags and having to run back to another terminal to get the numbers.

However, it really is true what they say about "Fiji Time". After rushing through the terminals and getting a special escort through securiity to make my flight on time, the flight was 40 minutes late anywayy.

On thee flight they were very nice though. Youu got your own TV, a blanket, pillow, eye shades, toothbrush and paste and socks (??? Those goofy bastards). However the seatts were intended for verry narrow people, so not the most comfortable ever. I got 4-5 hours of sleep, 1 hour at a time.

Getting of the plane, the first thing i noticed was that Fiji smells just likke Costa Rica. I hadd fforggetton Costsaa Rica even had a smell (okay.. thiiss keybboard likes to double letters a lot for no reason... i'm siick of going back and chhanging it, so peoople will just have to ddeal).

Ourr flight got in at about 5:30am Fiji time (9:30am minus a day Pacific) and getting through cuustoms and baggagee claims and checkss took about 2 hours. Now I am in the airport terminal, killing time till my shuttle comes in 20 minutes.

Fiji is, of course, beautiful. I would llike to go out exploring, but there are no baggage locker here. Oh, and another thing. When did people my age travel with tonne (the key between a and d no longer work. Weird) of bag? I have the leat amount of bag of annyoone I ee.

Okay, thi i jut gettiing ridiculou.

On the reort I won't havve any interrnet coverage, no one freak out when I don't pot anything for the next 3 day :).

Off to lounge on a beach!

Vancouver, Canada

Well I made it to Vancouver. My bags didn't, but hopefully that will be rectified soon.

Most of my university friends got together last night and went out to a pub, after some finagling by Lauren. It was great to see everyone again, after three years.

Right now I am sitting half naked in bed with my gracious host Kyle, drinking some coffee, getting ready for the day. (that sounds worse than it is)

Today's plan is to go for some good ol' sushi and meet up with May from Nicaragua and plan some of our SE Asia trip together.

Right now I have to shower and get ready because they are picking me up in 15 minutes!

Yellowknife, Canada

Alright, time to fire this baby back up!

I just got back from one last night out with the boys, I am glad to say I behaved myself and am very-nearly sober. It will make tomorrow's trip all that much easier. And leave room for all of tomorrow night's Vancouver/University reunion adventures :).

This time I am off to Fiji by way of Vancouver, Australia, Thailand (probably), Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Wish me luck!