Bangkok

So the main thing that I have learned in the last few weeks is that you cant get jetlagged if you dont sleep. It works much better.

I am now in Bangkok. I have been here about 18 hours. My flight got in at 11PM and I think I had a pretty typical first few hours. Customs and everything was no problem. Got in a cab to take me to the hotel. It drops me off and tells me to walk down the street, everything is perfect. My hotel is no where to be found. Dammit. I walk for about 15 minutes, get into another cab who drives around in a huge circle, drops me off at the same place but this time gives me directions (in Thai). I follow them to a hotel that has a very similar name to mine, but I talk to someone inside who gives me new directions. While walking down a back alley, I pass two teenagers with automatic weapons. I think they were fake. I check into my hotel about 1 AM and go to sleep about 45 minutes later when my heart rate was no longer 200.

The next morning I talk to a couple of very unhelpful travel agents, wander around and get a cab to go to STA travel so that I can change my tickets to stay in Africa for longer. We hit serious traffic, and they just closed when we finally get there. The cab takes me to a bunch of spots for commission that I need to talk him out of and pulls out a brochure of hookers and asks if I am interested. After finally getting him to go back to my hotel, he tries to charge me extra because we hit traffic. I was not in the mood for that. Jesse would be quite satisfied, that for once everything was not going right for me.

But then I found a new hostel that I like much better. They have a very nice travel agent so I talked with her for a while and tomorrow morning I am going into a National Park in the area I wanted to visit, west from Bangkok near the Myanmar border. We are hiking, floating on bamboo rafts, riding on elephants, etc. I suppose I may write a post in a few days about that. I wish I spoke a little Thai, that would help.

Blitz-Road-Trip

From 4 months in OZ, the main thing I have learned about myself is that I am a poor blog updater...

Last week, my cousin Megan showed up with a friend. We hung out in Sydney for two days and then jumped into a van that they rented and headed north. I had 2 ½ days off, and they were flying out of Brisbane in 3 days. There was a bunch of flooding on the coast highways in between Sydney and Brisbane. Most people use the Pacific Highway, and we started our whirlwind tour in similar fashion. After buying some supplies, we made lunch in a park in Newcastle and headed inland to avoid the closed freeways. We jumped over some mountains and drove for a ways in the dark after an unreal sunset. It was sad to miss the scenery, but when we stopped cooked an easy dinner the best stars I have ever seen were out. The Milky Way completely filled a huge section of the sky, it was unbelievable. We drove on and slept a little way off the highway in a wooded area.
The next morning we continue along inland and found a set of beautiful waterfalls. When we finally ran back into the coast, snacked on some cheese and crackers, went for a swim and enjoyed the sun on a nice little beach. We rolled into Nimbin that afternoon to check it out. It is hard to spend long in OZ without hearing of Nimbin. This is straight from Wikipedia…
“In New South Wales, the cultivation, selling and possession of cannabis is illegal. In Nimbin all three activities are part of every day hippie culture. Nimbin has a high tolerance for cannabis plant (marijuana), with the open buying, selling and consumption of locally grown cannabis on the streets and laneways.”
I avoided the drug dealers and spent 6 minutes in an internet café booking my flight for the next morning. We arrived in Byron Bay just after sundown because I was driving too slow, the left side of the road thing is still very weird. We had a nice little birthday dinner, drove up to a random forest above the gold coast and spent the night there. The next morning I packed while Megan drove us to the airport, and I made it early enough to work to take a quick shower. Great little trip. Thanks girls.

Anzac Day

OK so I have been mostly working and not wandering around as much as I want, but last Saturday was Anzac Day. From what I was told, it is Veterans Day in the states except it celebrates a day where Australia invaded a country and got slaughtered. Also unlike our veterans day, the main Anzac tradition is "Two-up". I had been told a lot about two-up before going out but I was still quite surprised.
So we go to this bar that is about a 10 minute drive away and is about the size of a small Vegas casino. We show up around 1 PM and it is already quite busy. When we walk out into the courtyard, there are about 400 people standing in a circle. Everyone has a beer and many are holding money up in the air and shouting. The the announcer yells gibberish and everyone cheers.
Two-up rules: A person from the crowd (similar to craps) goes into the middle of the circle and gets a wooden stick with three coins sitting on it. They throw it up in the air and which ever one has "2-up", or three up, Wins. Everyone else in the crowd holds $10 or more above there head (only girls are allowed to bet $5) and yells "10 on heads". Everyone else then walks around and gives 10 to a person with their money in the air, who is now betting tails. The announcer yells tails, where the handful of money is exchanged, or hehehehaawwlllllsssss in which case the whole crowd cheers, the person holding the money keeps it and the tosser gets to toss again.
I was down $10 to random Australians most of the day and finally break even on the last toss as the sun is going down. We go to a couple of other bars, and a party then I walk back home. I feel a little groggy at work the next day.

Manly Apartment and such

OK I am going to stop being lazy now. I don’t have internet at my new apartment so there will certainly be a drop in my online availability. First we will start with some details. I started working for Trek and Travel last week. They are an outdoor retailer selling high end really good hiking and mountaineering products. I seem to be averaging about 30 hours a week which will probably not be enough to sustain me so I will probably get another job soon. The reason that it will not sustain me is because I am living on Manly Beach.
6/31 Victoria Pde.
Manly, NSW 2095
Australia
…if anyone was interested. Really cool apartment and I living with an Aussie girl and a Kiwi guy. OK probably most people know this already but I will put it in here. If anyone in the States calls (925) 208-4723 it will forward to my cell phone here. The time difference is 5 hours behind, but tomorrow. I really like where I am working and where I am living. I go into the ocean every day, run on the beach or in the national park nearby, and today I think I am going to swim in the marine reserve about 5 minute walk from my apartment. The picture is out my living room window. OK hopefully more shortly….

Settled in Sydney?

Wednesday the 18th of February really wasn’t that unusual of a day. I didn’t do anything crazy but I think I will talk about it for a minute. I woke up had a bowl of muesli, took a shower, and caught a bus to the city. Once in the city I stopped by Trek and Travel and picked up a packet of catalogs to read before starting work next week. That will probably deserve its own entry some day. I then walked up towards the ferry and bought a set of headphones (my headphones got messed up in Ecuador because of the humidity and I finally gave up on them). I caught the ferry from the city to Manly (during the trip an apartment I wanted to see in Manly called me and a bunch of people glared at me for talking on the phone). I walked over to the Allens’ house and met Allen Yulle (sp?) for some tea. Allen Hill showed up and we went for a walk and then had lunch (they know how to eat) Mediterranean salad, potatoes, corn on the cob and kangaroo steaks. I was pissed that I only brought jeans (it was raining when I left) because at this point it is beautiful and everyone goes for a swim except me so I walk around exploring Manly a bit. I drop by the apartment and its right on the beach, everything is cool, unfurnished and really expensive. I then bolt out catch the ferry back and jump on a bus to Maroubra (most southern beach that I know of in Sydney). The apartment smells like cigarettes the second I walk in so that’s probably a no but she offers me a beer so I hang out and chat with her, she was very nice. I catch a bus transfer to another bus to Bondi and meet 2 new guys in an apartment in the most popular beach in Sydney. Another cool place. I mess up leaving their place and the bus driver tells me in the middle of nowhere that this is the last stop. A couple gives me directions to the bus I want but there is an Italian restaurant right next to the bus stop so I sit down for dinner. I was thinking about how cool the Manly place was but that I couldn’t afford it and the guy from Manly calls to say the place is mine if I want it and I say yes. Totally irresponsible but brilliant. I catch two busses and a train back to Balmain for quite a productive day. I spent over $30 on public transportation in one day.

Newcastle

I once again took a weekend train trip from Sydney. But this weekend I went to Newcastle with no plans except for what hostel I was checking into. I go for a run when I get there and get very lost seeing incredible beaches, beautiful lighthouse, and a cool little part of the town. The hostel is right on the beach. I find myself in a poker game just after getting back with 5 other guys (German and Canadian). After the game we hang out, meet more people and go out to some bars which weren’t much fun. The next day I take a free surfing lesson which is awesome and meet a bunch of girls (German and Canadian, I think this will be the theme of my time in Australia). Played a couple more games of poker, watched a couple of movies and wandered around. On Sunday I was pretty sun burnt by 11 o’clock (they claimed it was going to be 37 degrees), had another surf lesson, played a game of poker and headed back to Sydney. Absolutely the most beautiful beaches I have seen since I was backpacking in Hawaii 10 years ago. I will definitely go back and spend some more time there. I wonder what grad programs they have at the university…

Blue Mountain National Park

For the weekend, I headed to the blue mountain national park and the town of Katoomba. I checked into a YHA hostel and set off into the national park. I was out of the range of my map quickly and wandered around the trails aimlessly. I came back to the hostel to find that everyone cooks at YHA hostels which I would take advantage of the next day. It is very quiet that night and at least half of the guests are over 40 years old. I meet a German guy that night and we decide to hike the next day. The next day we go to ruined castle, a very cool hike and climb the golden staircase on the way. I probably did close to 40 kilometers over the two days. I bought some beer and came back to the hostel and offered them out to make more friends, in return I had dinner made for me of salmon, potatoes, squash, and steak. The crowd was a girl from Santa Cruz, two Canadians, one Scottish, two Germans, two French, and an Irish. We stayed up late playing a guitar that I checked out from the hostel, drinking wine, and telling stories.