Hello World

Cam On Vietnam

2010-08-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Vietnam! After a hellacious bus ride from Cambodia, I nearly kissed the ground when we finally arrived in Saigon. I met a Danish couple on the bus and followed them to find a hotel. Once checked in, we met for a beer or two and then crashed for the night. The next morning I strolled around the city, walking for hours and seeing the sights. Saigon is a crazy, bustling city with more motorbikes than you can shake a stick at. Seriously. Absolutely nuts. Crossing the huge streets requires guts and a lot of trust. There are really no rules when it comes to being in or on a vehicle here, so as a pedestrian trying to cross the street, you just start walking across slowly, and somehow, the cars and bikes don't hit you. It's pretty impressive. They manage to swerve around you on both sides, and all you have to do is keep walking, don't run across. So, after many hours of walking and stopping to eat (wash, rinse, repeat), I hit the hay and started again in the morning.One of the many things I immediately loved here in Vietnam, is the coffee! So, so, good. There are these great little, single-sized filters, that you just place on your cup, guaranteeing a fresh brew. I actually bought a couple to bring back, hoping to recreate the magic. hehe I managed a night pic of the lovely palm trees reflecting in my java. One of the more interesting 'attractions' was the War Remnants Museum. A remembrance of the American war, and all of the destruction it left behind. Naturally, it's a very biased view of the war, but one cannot leave here feeling good about what the American government did. The walls were lined with countless images that might never leave my mind. The most disturbing were those of the poor, innocent Vietnamese that were affected by the U.S. usage of the defoliant, Dioxin, most often known as Agent Orange. The amount of chemicals sprayed by the U.S., killed millions of people (not only Vietnamese), defoliated the lands, destroyed crops and polluted clean water supplies. Men, women and children, especially those in the rural villages, continue to be effected by these chemicals, suffering from sometimes fatal, malformations and mutations. It was a very difficult museum to get through. War, what a shame. Well, on to a lighter note.

After a couple of days of Saigon, I headed up to Mui Ne. This is a charming beach town that is heavily inhabited with Russians. Who knows why but it is. The beach is great and because of the wind, is known for it's various types of surfing. Beaching a beach lover, I spent my fair share of time here.I found a cute little place and spent loads of time chilling out, knowing that my beach time is drawing to a close. I met a very sweet girl named, Kirsten. We had a great time chatting, sunning and dining.
July 26th was a full moon and I tried oh so hard to get a good pic, as Kirsten and I sat by the beach and ate a lovely dinner. My lady of leisure behavior is getting a bit out of control. Kirsten headed off the next day towards Saigon and I set out to the massive sand dunes about 35 km out of town. I hoped on the back of the motorbike for yet another day of sightseeing and a sore arse. There are two different locations of these massive sand dunes, one white sand and the other red sand. Quite strange to me. The white sand dunes were beautiful, rolling, steep hills that were unfortunately defiled with the many tourist footprints from early morning visiting. I guess you'd have to be there around 4 to see pristine, desert-like conditions. The fun part is renting a sled, which my guide kept calling a boat, and sliding down the slopes. It was a bit fun, if only you were able to go fast. For the some reason, the sand doesn't allow you much momentum. By the time we left the white dunes, heading for the red dunes, I was covered head to toe in sand, even gritting between my teeth. Poor, poor, little camera. You've had such a beating.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/VietnamSaigonAndWarMuseum#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/VietnamMuiNe#

What a beach!

2010-07-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well, there was definitely one spot in Cambodia I wasn't going to miss. Mainly because of the beach and the chance to dive again. I'd been land-locked for too many months now and was so increadibly ready to see the sea again. On the south coast is a quaint little town of Sihanoukville. As my tan was quickly fading, I was longing to set up camp near the waters edge. The beach area is actually just outside of Sihanoukvillle and is home to Serendipity and Otres Beaches. There are several other beaches but these are the only two I went to. Serendipity is the bubbling, peddling, loungy beach by day, and crazy party scene by night. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Otres where lounging is about all you can, and want to do. I enjoyed both actually. After a day and a half of Serendipity, Keren and I booked a dive trip for the following day. Four dives and a night dive and staying over on tiny little Ko Rung. We were both very excited for the adventure. We'd both dived in Koh Tao and were interested to see how Cambodia's waters were. After a two hour boat ride to Ko Rung, we settled into our digs, grabbed our gear, and hopped onto the boat for the day. First dive was a bit of a disappointment since I had major trouble equalizing and had to abort the dive. Sadly I sat on the boat and waited for the rest to finish. The visability was actually pretty crappy so I don't think I missed much. Second dive was a bit more shallow than the first, so my ears didn't get a chance to mess with me. Then it was back to the island to rest before the night dive. This was my first night dive and I was a little nervous. Just the thought of being down in the pitch black waters was starting to play with me a bit. All the girls said that it was actually easier to see in a night dive so I had to trust them. By now, I'm actually quite excited about the dive and we decend into the black abyss. Wow, it wasn't scary at all and it was pretty amazing to play in the plankton. If you mute your torch against your body, then wave your hands around in front of you, the plankton makes this amazing, magic-like green, sparkley lights. Unfortuneately, my ears started giving me trouble again and I wasn't able to go as deep as the girls, and eventually had to surface. So back to the boat for me. Drats. Once the others finished their dive, they were all excited about everything that they saw. Drats again. The dive master actually said that was the best night dive she's ever had. Oh well, what can you do. I am looking forward to another chance at a night dive in the future! So, back to the island, dinner and then bed. Two more dives the following day and I was crossing my fingers that I would be able to equalize and my ears wouldn't kill me. All my wishing paid off and we had two great dives. Not the best vis but much better than the day before. Diving is such fun! Anywho, we made it back to the mainland and spent the next two days chilling out at the beaches again. Our day at Otres was fabulous but Keren and I both got a little more sun than we hoped. Both red, but two different shades. Fortunately for me, I brown by the next morning and she, poor thing, was a lobster in pain. And to top it all off, she had to travel by bus, for something like 36 hours, through to Bangkok and up to Chiang Mai. Ouch. I myself, hoped on the bus heading for Kampot. Luckily my trip was only 4 hours. So we said our goodbyes, and she made me promise to make a trip to Isreal in the future! Sounds good to me. Now, Kampot is a cute, little town but seriously, not much to do there. I took a tour to Kep, stopping along the way to a, not so exciting cave, not so exciting pepper plantation and a not so exciting salt farm. The countryside was very nice as I rode for several hours on the back of the motorbike. Whilst the pepper and salt farms were not the most fascinating, it was interesting to see how the pepper was grown and the salt made. The best part of the entire day was the meal I had in Kep. It's a beach and fishing town, and I had the most delicious plate of fresh crab cooked in garlic and the fresh Kampot pepper. It took me nearly an hour to finish, and I relished every bite. Hard work. Having nothing left to do in this town, I booked a bus to Saigon, Vietnam. It was a travel day from hell and I couldn't wait to find my bed when we finally arrived.

Cambodian Genocide

2010-07-30T00:22:00.001-07:00

While traveling to all of these wonderful places, and having such great experiences, you can't overlook the history of these countries. Cambodia suffered extremely through mass genocide by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Even though the technical dates are these 4 years, the attacks and murders by the Khmer Rouge lasted until 1998. One third of the entire Khmer population was killed, from starvation, malnutrition and brutal tactics of the Khmer Rouge themselves. It was a sort of ethnic cleansing by ways of knocking out any western influence partaken of their own people. The wealthy, educated, military and government workers, and pretty much anyone who wasn't a peasant working out in the rural villages were banished from the cities, sent out to their demise. Disease was a major player in the deaths as medicine was a western invention and doctors were thoroughly educated. Many families lost all of their members and many more were left with only one or two survivors. Thousands made thier way to refugee camps in Vietnam and Thailand. And many of these refugees were sent away to live in other countries like Canada and USA. During their reign, the Khmer Rouge managed to impregnate the land with countless mines, which today, still kill and mame people. So, a little bit of history that most people in the world don't have any clue about. I think it's important to learn about all that has happened. In the capital, Phnom Penh, which was the first city to be evacuated on April 17th 1975, the Khmer Rouge used a vacated school house, Tuol Svay Prey High School, as a prison, called Toul Sleng or Security Prison 21 (S-21). It's estimated that 20,000 people entered S-21, including women and children. They were imprisoned, interrogated, tortured and then killed. While most of the victims were Cambodian, it is known that some British, Australians, and Americans were also imprisoned. At the end of the war, the stench of the dead bodies was what led the Vietnamese to find the prison. Only 7 victims were barely alive. Many of the prisoners were marched 15 km to the killing fields, Choeung Ek, outside of Phnom Penh. It's estimated that 17,000 people were exacuted and buried here in mass graves. Since 1980, 8,895 bodies have been excavated and the skulls sit in the 17 level memorial that has been built in rememberance. Not all of the mass graves have been excavated. This was one of the most difficult things to see in person. The skulls are catagorized according to gender and age. Truly heartbreaking to see the sea of lost lives.Underneath the 1st tier is a huge pile of the clothing that has been recovered with the remains. Walking around the actual mass graves, pieces of bone fragment, and clothing surface as the rains errode the soil. You can literally see it. I honestly felt wrong for taking pictures of these things, but I really wanted to share these terrible sites, in hope that more people would learn what has happened to this country. The brutality of the Khmer Rouge was beyond extreme in the fact that they didn't use guns to kill, they tortured, and starved and executed their own people with tools and handmade weapons. At Choeung Ek, there is a large tree, still standing, that they used to bash in babies heads by slamming them up against it. One of the excavated graves had only women and children in it, naked. In another, all of the corpses were headless. It was the most barbaric experience. I don't think anyone leaves after visiting this memorial without a tear stained face.

After all of this tradgedy, the Khmer people have done all they can to rebuild their country. They were truly some of the most warm and friendly people. If you have any interest in learning more about the Khmer Rouge genocide, I strongly suggest doing a little research. It's amazing to me that I never learned about this history in school.

Now, I took a few pictures of S-21 and Choeung Ek. Please take a look since you now know a little bit of the history, if you didn't already. There are also several biographical books about the misrule of the Khmer Rouge. I read Loung Ung's 'First they killed my father' and am currently reading her second book, 'Lucky Child'. They are worth the read.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/KillingFieldsAndS21PrisonPhnomPenh

Khmer You

2010-07-23T03:42:00.001-07:00

Yikes, I'd written a few paragraphs of this post and it didn't save. crap. Let's hope that I can remember what I said before. I'm sure it was brilliant. hehe

While you are traveling anywhere, especially S.E Asia, you meet so many people along the way. Asia is dirt cheap and therefore, draws many tourists, since you get more bang for your buck. No pun intended, unless you are that type of guy. Anyway, you are constantly meeting fellow travelers who are on the same route as you. Some are following in your tracks and others have just explored where you're heading. Obviously there is much advice given and taken about each others future destinations. And truly, it can really help you out. A couple of girls I met my last days in Laos, gave me spot on tips on guesthouses and things to do in Cambodia. As well as suggestions and advice, I like to know the opinion of fellow travelers on what they thought of a country that I'll be soon exploring. I know I gladly give my opinion of Malaysia, since it was the least pleasant experience I've had in all of my travels. Having said that, most countries here are preceded with glowing reviews. However, views of Cambodia were equally split on good and bad. Some said that you'd be hard pressed to fill an entire week and that the people were unfriendly. Others said that 2 months still wasn't enough time and that the people were absolutely lovely. So I had no idea what to expect.
I left Laos with my new found Isreali friend Keren. We took a crazy long bus ride into Siem Reap. Our border crossing experience was less than favorable, with Khmer officials squeezing more dollars out of you at every turn. It really sucks when you constantly feel like you're being scammed and there's nothing you can do about it. Finally arriving in Siem Reap well past midnight, we wanted to go to the GH that was recommended. So at this point, we were 3 Americans and 4 Isrealis. We nestled into our rooms and couldn't have been happier to NOT be bouncing around on that horrid bus.
What can I say, I absolutely loved Siem Reap. Most people who visit Cambodia, do so because of the famous Angkor Wat. It's the 8th wonder of the world and truly magnificent. You can tour the vast area for one, three or seven days. I opted for the 3 day pass so I wasn't rushed to see it all. You hire a tuk tuk for the day at an astronomical $12. Let me tell you that by Asian standards, this is very expensive. We lucked out on a very sweet driver, Dat, who is currently studying English. You begin with Angkor Wat (the main temple that people just refer to the whole area as), and then make your way around to the countless other ruins in Angkor Thom. I did manage, after three days, to take almost 400 photos. The ruins are so amazing that you just don't think you'll be able to explain it all, so maybe pics will help. As I look back at my photos, it just doesn't seem to capture the magnitude of the place.
Day 2, Dat picked us up and we set off to do the big circuit, which is mainly a larger loop that reaches even more temples. Wow, the sun was so incredibly hot the entire time. I'm amazed that not one of us got ill. It was a ton of walking and climbing.
My two favorite sites were the countless faces or Baphuon and the stangehold of trees at Ta. These are probably the most iconic ruins and what you'll see photos of most often. Rightfully so, they are extraordinary.
After two long, exhausting days, we opted to use the final day to wake at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise. You'd be amazed at the amount of people show up at 5 am to see this site. It was quite nice and I'm glad we did it. After however, we decided to squeeze in one last ruin. Apparently this final place was known for it's dangerously steep steps leading to the top. Of course we had to tackle it. Once at the top, we stalled knowing that our decent would not be a fun one. Even if I had taken a photo, it would portray the severity of steepness. It did take us nearly a half hour to reach the bottom. More than one of us was terrified. Needless to say, we were at our wits end of temples and honestly I didn't care to see another wat for quite a while. I think that everyone should make a trip to see Angkor Wat. You won't regret it.

Even though Angkor Wat was the main attraction in Siem Reap, this city is lovely and filled with plenty else to do. I took a tour of the Silk Farm and was quite delighted. You get to see beginning to end how the silk is made and it was very interesting. The worms make this bright yellow cacoons. By the time they are finished, they are incased in these tight little pods of silk. After which, unfortuneately, they are then dropped into boiling water (poor little guys) and a hand cranked machine begins to detatch the silk from the pod into a long thread-like strand.

After many more steps, the silk is spun and dyed. The spools of silk are then placed on the massive, hand looms and weaved into beautiful material. The intricate scarfs were amazing.

Needless to say, I've enjoyed some incredibly amazing food on my travels. However, there is only so many days you can go eating Asian food. It is so good but as soon as I spot a Mexican restaurant, no matter how expensive it is, I'm there in a heartbeat. This was actually Keren's birthday dinner and the fellow American, Christine, might have been just as happy as I was for our fiesta, AND, happy hour margaritas. NICE! The three of us spent our first day, shopping our legs off. I was proud to be the one who spent the least amount of dough. I still spent enough but in Asia terms, that means $20. Who could ask for anything more? To reward ourselves we tried the fish spa. Holy crap, it was the strangest thing. It took severe consentration to now wriggle around from the tickling sucks of all those tiny fish. You end up with soft and smooth feet. Again, NICE!
We pulled ourselves out of the clutches of Siem Reap and made it to Phnom Penh. At the risk of saying, once more, that I love food, Cambodia is no exception. I really loved the cuisine here. While not nearly as spicy as Thailand, which was unfortunate, I filled myself with their fresh spring rolls and traditional dish Fish Amok. I actually couldn't get enough of the Amok. The girls and I took a cooking class and learned how to make both of those dishes. Yum. Certainly a fun day!

Check out the pics!
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/CambodiaSiamReap
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/AngkorWat
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/SilkFarmSiemReap
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/CambodianCookingClassAndMonks

Laos PDR- Please Don't Rush

2010-07-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

My visit to Laos began with an uncomfortable yet very fun 2 day ride down the Mekong River on the slow boat. The boat on the first day was filled with short, shallow wooden benches that my western tush could barely fit on. I certainly don't have a tiny Asian butt. The boat was packed and we still managed to pick up locals along the way, as well as many various animals, even a motorbike. After 7 hours floating down the cappuccino-colored waters of the picturesque Mekong, we arrived at Pak Beng. Nice guesthouse with a gracious owner who forcefully filled us with the local homemade rice wine, Lao Lao. Uh, not the tastiest and burns all the way down your throat and chest. The glass was passed around many, many times and no refusal was accepted. Fun but deadly. he he. We wandered around the streets, desperately trying to find someplace showing the World Cup but with no luck.
Early the next morning, much to every one's surprise, our boat had huge, cushioned seats, just like from a mini van. Nice. This made for a much more comfortable ride to our final destination of Luang Prabang. The scenery was amazing. We even saw an elephant just up from the riverbank as well as numerous water buffalo. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone who is heading to Laos. If your arse can stand it that is.
Arriving in Luang Prabang was much anticipated. What a lovely city it us too. I fell in love with it as soon as I arrived. It's a quaint little city with a heavy French colonial influence. Much to my amazement, Lao is
the first country since I've arrived in SEA where baguettes and vino is in abundance. Having said that, I don't usually eat much bread and even though the wine is cheap, it's still 3 times more expensive than the beer. Of course. So my beer belly continues to grow.
I rented a bicycle for several days whilst in Luang Prabang. It's a great city to explore on two wheels. During the middle of the day, i.e. the hottest, I usually sneaked away to my room to nap and hide from the heat. You'll rarely catch a local awake, let alone moving, during this time of day. When entering a local hang to grab a drink or bite to eat, you almost always end up waking someone to get any service. It's quite hilarious. Lao must be the slowest country in the world. Seriously.

I went kayaking one day down a river, which I can't remember the name of, and had a great time. There weren't any rapids or anything even close; however, the people in two different kayaks, managed to tip their boats over, twice. I couldn't quite figure out how they managed that one. You had to have pretty much jumped out of it to end up in the water. Who knows. Even though the river was pretty tame, it's amazing how much your arms hurt after. I guess it's just the muscles you don't use very often. Especially when you are traveling, lazy and completely out of shape. Hmm
The best part of the entire day was the children when we stopped for lunch. As soon as they saw our kayaks approaching, the run down the hill towards the river, throw off all of their clothes and jump in to swim towards us. The climbed up on our boats and pulled us into the bank. You've never seen so many happy, little naked kids. They were having such a blast playing in the water. One of the guys in our group was taking turns throwing them up in the air while they back flipped and splashed back into the water. They were loving it. The boys were pretending to be afraid to be next in line but as soon as they had their turn and ran up to the camera to see the picture just taken of them, they were all smiles and laughs. A bunch of hams really. None of them were shy to all of the photos and many were eager to be the center of attention. We had a delicious spread of local Lao dishes all laid out on huge banana leaves over the dirt ground. Once finished, the kids devoured the left overs. I'm sure this a daily event for them with all of the kayaking tours.

Also in LP was a fabulous waterfall that was so nice, I went back again. The pools of water were a gorgeous turquoise. There were several levels as you headed towards the fall itself. On the walk up the side of the falls, towards the top, there was a not so obvious path which lead up to this amazing level of pools, cliffs and falls.

Although the water was freezing, it was fantastic to lean over the edge and look down to your possible, impending death. As I said before, I went twice. It's hard to believe that these are naturally formed pools.
Well, after many days in this great city, I finally had to pull myself away and head to the next town of Vang Vieng. Now, I'd heard many things about this place and wasn't quite sure how I was going to like it. Basically, it's a tiny town, overrun with tourists and their main, actually only goal, is to go tubing down the river and get pissed drunk. I mean wasted.

You hire huge, tractor inter-tubes, and a tuk-tuk takes you up river and drops you off. From there, you float downstream. But what actually happens is that there are loads of 'bars' lined on both sides of the river. When you are approaching, they throw out a rope with something attached to the end of it, and try to pull you in. Once you get out, they give you free shots and such, and if you want to jump off the many giant rope swings or slides, you must buy drinks before they will let you up. Each bar does the exact same thing. End result, lots of incredibly drunk 20-somethings, jumping off super high things into rapidly moving water. Yikes. Many people die here every year. Stupid people.
Instead of taking that route, I only stopped at one bar and then leisurely floated down the remainder of the river, which was, absolutely beautiful! I really am getting old.

Not wanting to experience Vang Vieng the way most people do, I moved to a guesthouse on the other side of the river called Maylyn. This was such a wonderful place. It's owned by an English guy who's married to a Lao woman. He's quite a character and made for a very entertaining host. This side of the river is where the real beauty of the country is. It has several caves which were such fun to explore. I've never actually had to squeeze myself into such tiny spaces as I did in one of the caves. Had I been any bigger, there's no way I would have fit. I walked out of there covered head to toe in mud. This wasn't the only time however. I went on my first ever mountain bike ride. Wow, what fun. If I thought I was dirty before, that was nothing. It's the rainy season now and the amount of mud I road through was such a blast. Luckily along the way, there were streams to wade through, which helped cool me down and wash me off.

Well, I finally had to leave Vang Vieng and headed down through Vientienne, very uneventful, then on to Si Phon Don ( 4 thousand islands). It was a long trek but there were some amazing sunsets around these tiny islands. There really isn't much to do here but I did meet a new friend, Keren from Isreal. We were both heading the same direction so after 2 days on Don Det, we hoped a bus to Cambodia. Ready for new adventures in a new country.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosTakingABoatDownTheMekongRiver#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosLuangPrabang#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosVangVieng#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosSiPhonDon#

Bangkok and Chiang Mai

2010-06-12T03:23:00.000-07:00

Twas a sad day to leave the fantabulous Isle of Tao. Of course it had to be done if I ever wanted to see the rest of Thailand, however, to this day I long for the beautiful waters and sands of the islands. After taking a ferry to Chumpon, I had a long, bumpy bus ride up to busy Bangkok. The only thing I was looking forward to there was to see my friend Leslie, whom I met in Bali. Strangely enough, my friend Tarun from SF was in Bangkok visiting his parents at the same time. Knowing that I wouldn't be spending but a day or two in town, I planned to met Tarun the next day for lunch. Unfortunately, out lunch reunion was foiled because, having absolutely no idea where I was in this crazy city, I wandered around for over an hour in Siam Sq. and never found the meeting place. Turns out, the very spot had been burned only a couple weeks before during the recent rioting. Nevertheless, I had plans to meet with Leslie for drinks later that night, so Tarun joined us. It all worked out and it was quite nice to see two familiar faces. It's been a long time.
Not having a lot of time in Bangkok, I did the normal touristy things like visiting the Royal Palace and of course my Where's Waldo in Siam Square. To me, Bangkok was just an overpopulated, overly polluted city. I think if I had a fair amount of time there, I would have been able to find the good things about this city. One thing I did enjoy was the trip to the floating market. I even though it is very touristy, it was quite interesting and I had some very good food.
After Bangkok, I was very much wanting to head up the western border town of Umpang for some trekking. I was thoroughly disappointed when I couldn't seem to find any way to get there. It's off the farang-beaten path so it was turning out to be way to difficult, incredibly lengthy and quite expensive to get there. But alas, you can get all the way up to Chiang Mai, anytime and virtually free at 250 Baht. Thailand tourism is really hurting because of the recent disputes and they were offering some crazy deals. However, not wanting to take another long bus ride, I hoped a flight instead on Nok Air to Chiang Mai. Yay. I tell you, if flights weren't as expensive, meaning on a backpackers budget, I'd fly between every city. It's fast, painless and much more desirable. So poof, there I was in Chiang Mai and hour later. And what a great city it is. So much to do, in and around the city, I had a fabulous time.
The first few days were about relaxing and seeing a couple things around the city. I really enjoyed the zoo and the beautiful temple at Doi Suthep. One night I met a nice couple, Irish guy and his Thai wife. They have a small farm about 30km outside of the city centre. They were kind enough to invite me out to see the place so the following day I rode out on the motorbike to check out what it might be like to farm in this region. Of course, it's the same to farm most everywhere you go. I loved it because they have a new baby goat, ducks, quail (which they sell their eggs at the local market), oxen, chickens, cat, dog and a couple of huge hogs. Very fun.
I'd signed up for 3 days of trekking. Thought it would be good to finally have some exercise. After all, one can't pretend that all of the delicious meals with no exercise leads to keeping trim. I am still waiting to achieve my 'Asia weight'.........still waiting......really. I'd heard how touristy these trekking tours could be, but since my dreams of doing it in Umpang were long gone, I'd have to settle for Chiang Mai. In the group were three, 22 year old Chilean guys and two, 19 year old Canadian girls. Wow, if you ever felt like the camp counselor. Overall it was OK. The trekking was enough to get my heart rate above any level it's seen in the past 3 months and the scenery was quite nice at times. Other than that, it wasn't much to write home about.
Back to Chiang Mai, I spent a few more days exploring the town and met another Canadian girl, Erin. She was a blast and we had a fun time. She had just spent a day at the Baan Chang Elephant Park and after hearing all about it, I decided I just had to do it. I must say, it has been one of the best parts of my entire trip thus far. I wish I could describe the feelings I had towards these animals. Their grandeur and regality plus childlike playfulness was over-powering. They are quite loved by their personal mahouts (care takers), and even through the power of the their massive bodies, there is a permeating gentleness as they are fed and bathed. I left at the end of the day unwillingly and watched out the rear window as we drove away. It was awe-inspiring. Truly.
Last but not least in my final city in Thailand, I took a Thai cooking class. Wow. I love food, especially Thai. We picked out 6 dishes to make and began with a visit to the market to buy our ingredients. Surprisingly, Thai food is so quick and easy to make. I think I left that afternoon so full that I could barely walk. I am very much looking forward to trying many new things back home. Yum
Realizing that my visa was soon to expire and that I just couldn't stay in Thailand forever, as much as I would have liked to, I headed thru Chiang Rai then the border town Chiang Kong, where I crossed, in about 5 minutes, over to Laos. Sadly.
Bye bye Thailand, I will miss you terribly.

I have many photos of all the adventures I had my last few weeks here. Currently I don't have the best internet connection, so uploading pics is not possible. If you'd like to see my pics, click on these picasa links to my albums! Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandBangkokAndAround#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ChiangMai#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaanChangElephantPark#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThaiCookingClass#

Thai-slands are a girl's best friend- Part du

2010-06-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

After a longtail to Krabi, a shuttle (which really means bench seats in the bed of a pick-up) to the bus, the bus across to the other coast to Surat Thani, another bus to the pier, the ferry to Koh Samui and finally a taxi to a guesthouse, I was super stoked to be on beautiful Lamai Beach. Just lovely! Having really no idea about exactly what area onthe island was the best to go, I just headed in the direction of my friend Sinead's brother's bar in Lamai. Unfortunately, I never actually got to see Hugh since we kept missing each other each night. But I was in heaven on this stretch of beach. Uncrowded and serene, to date, this is the best beach I've been on. The water was clear and calm, the ocean floor was sand as far as I could reach, and the temperature was perfect. Nice. I think I could've stayed on that beach for at least another week.
I hired a motorbike here on Samui to explore the rest of the island, especially a bit more inland. Then I headed up north towards Big Budda and saw some of the Wats up there. I don't know why, but I'm absolutely fascinated by the monks. I love them. They're so adorable in their orange robes. I tried to get a good shot of their laundry hanging on the line. It's more difficult than you think, actually, to get photos of the monks themselves. I always feel 'bad' for trying but of course I still do. hehe
Big Budda on Samui was my first Wat in Thailand. Little did I know that there are gazillions of them and many, much more intriguing. Once inside the temple, certain praying areas are designated for the monks. Traditionally, every male is supposed to become a monk for a short period of his life. I was admiring the shutters on the windows of the Wat that were so ornately wood carved. I could swear that my dance teacher, Miss Nelda, had me do this move in some acro routine as a kid. Honest!
Wanting to explore a bit more inland, I hired a motorbike not realizing that you need a freaking monster truck to pass on some of these roads. It was actually quite humerous trying to attempt on a scooter. Once a strong burning smell began to eminate from the bike, I think it was best to abort the mission and get on my way. Fun though I'll admit.
After four glorious days on Koh Samui, it was time to move on to Ko Tao. Parting is such sweet sorrow from the beaches that you love. I was only hoping that Tao had equally mesmerizing shores. Once again ferried over to the island, stopping mid-way to drop all of the young, party kids off on Ko Phangan since the full moon party was only days away. Trying to keep hydrated and trying my best not to have umpteen number of plastic bottles. I chose the mega 6 liter bottles. People look at you quite funny when trying to drink out of one.
Arriving in Koh Tao was again, wonderful. There are a sleu of guesthouses along the Sairee beach. Much to my luck, there was a gorgeous black lab belonging to the neighboring beach bar, whom I named George. He seriously spent all day, everyday, playing in the water and befriending tourists on the beach. I LOVED him. He might be the only black lab I've seen in Asia. He was a super friendly dog. He also loved to play, stealing peoples flip-flops or snorklers fins. I don't know if they got a kick out of it, but I thought it was hilarious.
On Koh Tao, I rode a much more appropriate bike for the roads. I don't know what you call it, but not knowing anything about motorbikes, I'd liken it to an over-sized dirt bike with massively treaded tires. What do I know? Nada. But, it was the best choice for manuvering the roads. I drove the entire island and discovered some absolutely stunning beaches on the East side of the island. Water clearer than any swimming pool I've been in. Too bad I didn't have snorkle gear at the time.

On the island are nearly 45 different dive shops. Which is crazy for such a tiny island. Obviously this is why people come here, it's laden with great dive spots. Surprisingly, they are not very competitive in their prices. However, I did come across one shop that had ridiculous deals for fun dives since I'd already done my training in Bali. So the next couple of days I did 4 dives. Most of which were pretty great, and I was a bit nervous since it'd been a month since I'd last dived. I was not sure I'd remember everything. But, alas, it did all come back and I was much more at ease with it then I had been before. Only the last dive had bad visibility which is not so terrible I think.
I had some absolutely lovely shots of me in all of my gear. You'll have to look thru my web album to see them though. In rememberance of all my days in pointe shoes in my youth, I was blessed with two massive blisters on my big toes and another across my achilles. It's incredibly difficult to keep sand out of those areas and the salt water burned me for days. I almost forgot how much pain I used to put myself through.

The last, sad, sad day on the island I went the the postcard-perfect, neighboring island Koh Nangyuan. Surrounding this little cluster of 3 tiny, connected islands, are loads of dive sights and fabulous snorkling in the Japanese Gardens. This is where I suffered a stupidly accquired sunburn on the entire backside of my body from snorkling for too long and not reapplying my sunscreen. I'm an idiot. At least I got rid of those old tan lines on my bum.
It was now time to move on from the island paradise and head into mainland Thailand. Boo. I mean, I was very excited, but very, very sad to leave the sand, sun and water. I headed out the next day to get the ferry to Chumphon. While waiting I snapped a shot of the entry to a shop that tickled me.

Check out more pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandKohTao#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandKohSamui#

Thai-slands are a girl's best friend- Part 1

2010-06-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Thailand. What a relief it was to finally arrive in beautiful Thailand. On May 18Th I flew to Krabi from Kuala Lumpur. Krabi is in the southwest, not too far from Phuket. From Krabi town, you can take a quick long tail boat ride to one of the fabulous beaches around the western bend. I set out towards Ao Nang but somehow ended up in East Railey, which was a blessing in the end. Already you could feel the calmness and relaxation of the place. All around this area are huge rock formations, making it the prime location for rock climbing. I actually never made it round to doing any climbing, but did some kayaking instead. It was quite a fun time even though it was blistering hot. I would've loved to have jumped in the water, only there were an ungodly number of jellyfish everywhere. I kid you not when I say there were 100's of them in the water. Now, I've never actually seen large jellies except at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California but I certainly felt them whilst diving, and even then they were so small you could barely see them. These monsters however, freaked the crap out of me. HUGE! There were some heavy storms a few days prior and apparently brought them all in towards land. I was even nervous to swim by the beach since they were there as well. Yikes. Needless to say, I didn't spend a lot of time in the water these 4 days.
One of things I love about the area of the world are the geckos. I absolutely love them. They are EVERYWHERE! Usually when I try to get photos up close, they are gone before I can push the zoom on my camera. For some reason, this old guy with his bum eye just sat and stared at me. I thought he was pretty cool.
So, for those of you who know anything about me, you know that I love to eat. And one, very important reason I came to Thailand was for the food. This pic is my first meal in the country, Som Tam, and I savored every bite. I must admit that my nose started running at first bite, but I didn't care; it was great. I ate nearly everyday at this place since it was dirt cheap and super tasty.
Railey (all of Thailand, it seems) is over-run with cats, which means there are many kittens. They are ridiculously adorable and I should probably take some worming pills with all of the animal coddling I've been doing. I can't help it, I am an animal freak. Apparently this kitten was happy just lounging around in the crook of my arm.
Ok, so I was staying on East Railey and there was a path leading over to the West side, which was a better beach and beautiful sunsets. So nearly every evening was spent watching the sun go down on this beach. The absolute best part though, about walking the path to the westside was this huge advertisement along the way. If I remember, it was an ad for one of the hotels there, which caters to weddings and such. Well, there were a few different photos posted on this board but only this one made me laugh out loud, each and every time I passed it. I don't think my photo does it justice, and some of you might think I'm nuts for getting such a kick out of it, but it's possibly one of the worst wedding pics I've seen AND it's posted, larger than life, on this billboard. Poor, poor people.
Well, after 4 days it was time to leave good ole Krabi and Railay Beach. Off to Koh Samui and Koh Tao. YAY

Check out more pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandKrabi#

Muy Mal-asia

2010-06-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

On May 5Th, I sadly left fabulous Bali and headed through Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. I had honestly been back and forth in my mind weather or not to travel in Malaysia. Towards the end of my stay in Indo I heard many good things about the country from other tra-velers, so I decided that it would be nice to spend a couple weeks seeing the mainland. I spent the first 3 nights in KL and just milled about the city checking out the attractions. I enjoyed the Batu Caves, impressing Petronas Towers, and the government buildings. Other than that, I could take or leave KL.

Next I headed down to Malacca, which is a couple of hours south of KL. It's a Portuguese settled city and has some lovely architecture and a nice vibe. Overall, I must admit that this city had the most charm than any other city I visited. All of the tuk tuks were ornately decorated with fake flowers and pretty much anything else they could get their hands on. It was so funny to watch. Each one was very individual and usually projected some random genre of music over loud speakers in the carriage. There may be some old Malay guy driving the bike while "Baby Got Back" blared from his carriage. Hilarious!

After 3 nights in Malacca, I decided to head all the way up the country to Langkawi Island and then work my way back down to KL. A friend I met in Indo said that it was very nice and worth checking out. I was sold since I LOVE the islands. So I took an overnight bus up to Kuala Perlis, a small coastal town that is mainly just a jump off point for the island, and then hopped on the ferry to Langkawi. My guide book had recommended a backpackers called Gecko Guesthouse. I know that at this point in my travels I've experienced weeks on end of hot, humid weather. Well, Langkawi took the cake. It was nearing 40 degrees C. with heavy humidity. Being exhausted from my trip up the country, I headed to a shady bit on the beach, laid out my sarong, and stretched out and napped. At least outside I'd get, hopefully, a breeze. That evening I had a terrible experience at this awful GECKO GUESTHOUSE and was not protected by its owners, staff or even the guest who witnessed what had happened. It truly saddened and frightened me that there are cultures in this world that have no regard or respect for women. That women in these cultures must endure the unfair treatment and inequality on a daily basis infuriates me. It's amazing how naive I am in assuming that all women feel this way. What is almost worse is that none of the men around when this incident happened stood up for me or did anything to help. It was, and still is, difficult for me to understand the lack of balls in every man there. So, needless to say, this solitary experience shattered my view of Malaysia and it's people. I had not felt totally comfortable at the any point in my journey thru this country and was having a tremendous time following my experience.

I still needed to continue back down to Kuala Lumpur and set out to pass through a few little towns as cautiously as I could.

I stopped for a day in Kuala Kangsar to see a few lovely sights, such as the Ubudiah Mosque and the Palace. After which, I made my way back to KL as quickly as possible to find my way out of Malaysia and into Thailand. Good Riddance!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/Malaysia

Eat, Pray, LOVE

2010-04-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have read the book, Eat Pray Love, you'll know that Bali was the love portion. I arrived here on Thursday the 8Th. My first night I spent in Kuta since my flight arrived late in the evening. The weather slapped me in the face. Muggy warmth, boob-dripping humidity, clammy-clinging clothes. Awwwww.......wonderful, and this was 10 at night! I know most people would probably be turned off by this kind of weather but I relish it. I've been looking forward to this heat for the past 2 months. Two things I've learned about myself; one, I need to be by water, and two, I love heat.

I only spent the morning hours of the next morning in Kuta. As many people told me, I didn't really like it or care to stay there. It's dirty, over run with whities, and just not that nice. So I set off to Ubud, which pretty much everyone told me I'd love.
No sooner than my driver pulled over to let me out, the skies opened up and it poured. I, thankfully, was able to find a guesthouse immediately. I dropped my bags, took a seat on my front porch with a beautiful view of a rice paddy and watched, with delight, the wonderful rain.
They brought me tea, and I felt the mugginess ease with the fall of the rain. I then took a walk around the neighborhood and nestled into a cafe and had a local Bali beer called Storm. Nice and refreshing. The following day I met a new friend who currently lives in Bangkok, Leslie. We hit it off immediately and had a good time seeing Ubud. It'll be fun to meet up with her again when I get to Thailand! She unfortunately, had the opportunity of riding on the back of my motorbike in the pouring rain, which I'm sure scared the shit out of her. She was a very good sport about it though. I swear that by the very next day, I really was a pro at driving that motorbike. He he

I took lots of pics but it just doesn't seem like the camera does the landscape justice. I drove to some beautiful rice paddies which just didn't feel like I did it justice in camera. Bali is full of amazing woodwork as well, which I tried to get some nice shots. I absolutely love all of the ornate doors and entrances. Oh, and I can't forget the monkey forest! That was really great. One even crawled up my back as I was bending down to take a photo. I will admit that I was a little freaked out about that.

After Ubud I headed up to Lovina, which I'd heard had nice beaches. It was an incredibly bumpy ride over the mountain and at times I thought we'd have to actually help push the van up the slopes. Eventually we arrived and I found a wonderful bungalow about a stones throw from the beach. Best part was the fabulous swimming pool. It's much warmer in the north and I could just see myself soaking in that pool. Lovina is also known for diving, as are most towns along the coasts. I signed up for a 3 day Open Water Padi Course. I've never dived before and was most excited to learn. The first day is spent learning and practicing in a pool and the 2nd day we drove to Menjangan Island for 2 dives and the last day to Tulamben for 2 more dives. Wow. Menjangan Island is a tiny island off the NW corner of Bali with crystal clear waters and amazing reefs, coral and fish. I even got to hitch a ride off a gigantic sea turtle. Tulamben is home of a shipwreck from the 1940's I believe and the abundance of fish was amazing; Many barracudas, which is a bit frightening. I also sat in the middle of a huge tornado of large silver fish as they circled around.
If only diving weren't so pricey, I'd do it everywhere!! After my days of diving, I had a couple more days in Lovina. Early one morning I took a boat out to see the dolphins. There were a couple of pods but as the boats just chase them around, you actually feel quite bad for the poor things and just want everyone to leave them alone. After leaving the dolphins we did a bit of snorkling. The are tons of little tiny jellies in the water and you end up with loads of little stings all over your exposed skin. Ouch, but it goes away after a few hours. On my last day, my friend Erik took me to this amazing waterfall in the mountain that again, pictures just didn't do it justice. We hiked down 365 ridiculously steep steps and then waded thru water and over clumsy rock to get to the base of the waterfall. The wind and spray from the water was so strong that it was almost painful to stand there. After I'd had enough of that, we headed back up (that was my excercise for the day) and then headed off on the motorbike to the Buddist Temple and Holy Hot Springs. Overall a great day! Minus the super sore ass.

Moving on from Lovina, I headed to Amed on the shuttle. Not being a fan of this town and the experience I had there, I took the next boat out to the Gili Islands. They are 3 tiny little Islands off the coast of Lombok. Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Gili T is the most crowded with loads of tourist and pretty much all of them just wanting to party and have a good time. This not being my scene, I headed to Gili Meno which is the smallest of the three and has less than 1000 people on it. You can walk the circumfrence in one hour and watch the sunrise in the morning and head to the opposite side and watch the sunset in the evening. It's called the honeymoon island and I seemed to be the only single person there. Nevertheless, it was serene. The beaches were amazing and the water crystal clear. I rented snorkle gear a couple of days and you just swim from the beach and immediately see fish and coral. Pretty nice. I had a great bungalow which was home to the biggest gecko I've ever seen. I think he was just there to keep me company. Everyone on the island was super nice and spending my days lounging around doing nothing but sunning, swimming and reading was something I could get used to. Who am I kidding, at the end of 6 days, I was ready to get moving and see people again. :) I will miss my coconuts and pineapples on the beach though.

Having only a week left in Indonesia, I took the fast boat back to Bali and spent a night in Kuta. I made a few more friends and a good time chatting and having dinner. Today I'll move on towards Uluwatu and see what's it's like down there. I hear they have some of the most amazing sunsets. There is also a huge temple to explore. Should be pretty great. Maybe I'll rent a motorbike and see some of the neighboring towns. As I'm nearing my time here, I'm anxious to move on to Thailand because most of the travelers I've been meeting here say it's amazing. I'm excited to see for myself.

I've loads more pics on picasa if you'd like to check them out!

http://picasaw eb.google.com/candimichael/BaliUbud
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaliLovina
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaliGiliIslands

Oh, You're So Manly

2010-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Sydney and beyond!

I had a wonderful time in Sydney. Prior to me embarking on my trip, my wonderful, long-time friend Julie, so graciously connected me and one of her friends who now lives in Sydney, Matt Young. He, his partner and their two adopted boys, Graham and Michael. It was a fun filled Easter week hanging with the family and exploring the city. Sydney has some fabulous beaches like Bondi and Manly which I wish I would've spent a bit more time at. Unfortunately, summer being over in the southern hemisphere, the weather was beginning to cool off, which was a bit more limiting for beach excursions. But, nonetheless, the beaches are gorgeous and great to swim, people watch and check out the surfers. On my visit to Manly, I did the beautiful 10k walk from Spit Bridge to Manly Beach, which definetely gave me a pair of aching feet. But relaxing on the beach and watching the sunset was a nice payoff. The ferry ride back to Sydney was beautiful with the Opera House and Bridge all lit up in the night sky. Beautiful.

Another really wonderful thing was meeting up with my friend Vega. We've known each other for probably nearly 10 years now. She's a childhood friend of my very close friend Sinead. Originally we met when she came to visit Sinead in NYC. I didn't see her for many years until Sinead's wedding a year and a half ago in Ireland. She recently got married to an Aussie and has only been in Sydney for the past two months. When Sinead put two and two together, she put us in touch. It was so amazing to hang out and talk about all that has happened with the two of us over the past 1 1/2 years. Which, to say, has been a lot for both of us. It's always such a wonderful feeling to reconnect with someone and it feels like no time has passed since you last spent time together. I am sure that Vega and I will meet again in some random part of the world in the future.

Sydney is a beautiful city and I pretty much walked my feet to the bone. It was a nice closure to my travels in a western country for several months. And what better than to spend it with old and new friends.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/Sydney

Koalas and Roos and Wallabys Oh My!

2010-03-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fabulous 2 day tour this weekend of the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island. It was a great time. We drove down along the coast seeing various sights like The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and several wonderful beaches.

12 Apostles

Great surf beaches down along the coast

We stopped off at a kind of animal rescue zoo. So many wallabys and kangaroos. Loved it.

Sleepy Koalas! Too cute.

Me!bourne: A Gaytime

2010-03-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

As I was waiting for my 30 minutes of free computer time at the library, I learned how to lay a timber deck and replace a brick or tile in a wall in the DIY home repair book. When I got to the chapter on building a partition wall, I remembered that I learned that back in 96 while wasting time at Colosseum Books in NYC, which I did quite often.

I have just returned from St. Kilda beach and am loving my time here in Melbourne. Meeting new friends and touring around the city. I absolutely love the Queen Victoria Market, where I've seriously lost track of hours and hours just milling about. It's amazing.
My hostel is wonderful here. Here's the sunset, viewed from the rooftop, on my first night here.

Jenna having a Golden Gaytime!

Beautiful flowers in the Botanical Garden

Enjoying the beach in St. Kilda. Amazing

I also saw a great exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria. Sculpter Ron Mueck. Check out my pics here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/Melbourne

Think of all that money spent on psychotherapy...

2010-03-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

When all I really needed was some retail-therapy! Who am I kidding? Was I really thinking that I was going to be able to go 7 months without a little retail-therapy? I barely went one month.

I've left my beloved New Zealand and am in the metropolis of Melbourne, Australia. It feels like such a long time since I've been in a big city, that the entire day I've spent perusing around Melbourne has felt like (what I can only imagine) I've come fresh off a 30 day silent meditation retreat. Slightly painful at first but then the mecca of city life courses back into your veins and feels like home. Ah, big smile. I've snaked in and out of stores, weaving in and out of pedestrian-sidewalk traffic, gathering hand fulls of clothing to try on and decide not to buy. I don't know if men understand this feeling but for most of us women, it's wonderful. Of course, the not buying is the difficult part but I keep reminding myself that I've only a tiny little pack that is already stuffed to the gills.
OK, I'm lying, I did buy a cute little summer frock BUT it is necessary. Not like water is necessary, more like coffee is necessary. I can justify this because I'm now in an uber-trendy city where I own nothing that is even remotely acceptable. Lem might be the only one who can understand this. Every woman and man walking down the street is stylishly dressed. Its London punk meets Like a Virgin Madonna, or maybe I'm being redundant. Not quite my style but nonetheless. Hairstyles are a bit wild as well, mainly on the men. I don't even remember seeing these dos in the 80's.
Anyhow. I am perked up again and ready to explore around this city. I've only 2 photos to share from today. As I was using the ladies room, I always enjoy amusing bathroom grafitti. These I have chosen to share. One is explicitly for Alisa, and the other just made me laugh.

Long time no blog

2010-03-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while and I still haven't enough time to actually write all that I'd like to on this post. Once I actually have ample time to write and post pics (maybe back in Christchurch), I will. I'm currently about 10km outside of Renwick, which is 10km out of Blenheim. I'm doing a farmstay with a lovely couple, Sharyn and Neville White. I've been romping around the past few weeks and this is the first sit down I've had. It's been a bit rough for me since I'm used to running around like a chook with his head cut off. I'm desperately missing people and wishing that town was a much closer bike ride. It's 13 miles round trip just to the closest town and twice as much to Blenheim. We'll see if I make it that far. I've a few pics from Sharyn's wares at the farmer's market today. All of which I picked this morning.

Wet and Cold....but fun!

2010-03-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've been in Franz Josef for the past two days. It's on the West coast and is TINY. It consists of two streets, literally, but is super cute and has the feel of a little surf town only snuggled in the mountains. Yesterday was pissing down and today was supposed to be as well. Only, the good thing about this region is that you never know what the weather is going to be like the next day. Today was sunny and beautiful, much warmer than yesterday. I booked a half-day glacier hike which left midday. We got all geared up for the hike and made our way to the Glacier. Bee-you-tee-ful. Well, more like magnificent. We hiked a bit of the way up before we put on our crampons. Yes, they are actually called crampons. They are just the metal spikey things that you strap on the bottoms of your shoes for the ice climbing. It still makes me giggle. I made a bad joke towards the end when we'd made the majority of the decent. I asked our cutie guide, Matt, if it was time to take our cramp-offs. Only the Canadians laughed.

We hiked about half way up and got to chill out there for a while. Bits were definitely a bit sketchy. The ice is beautiful blue and the waterfalls all around were fantastic. I think I got some nice shots. It was a bit shorter than I thought it would be but it was a nice experience.

On my way to the sauna now and then to polish off that bottle of red. Oh yeah, and dinner.

Pics of the day

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/FranzJosefGlacierAndMonteithsBrewery

Photos in abundance and redundance

2010-03-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

These pics are from a week and a half ago but I'm finally uploading them. Of course, there are a ton of them taken of the same thing, but without enough editing equipment and time, that'll all have to be sorted out at a later date. I hope you enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LakeTaupo

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/WellingtonAndFerryRideToSIsland

Abel Tasman National Park and drive down the West Coast

2010-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, now we're talkin. This park is gorgeous and the beaches are fabulous. We began in Motueka and took a water taxi up to Tonga Bay. The beaches are fine white sand and the waters are the most amazing aquamarine. From Tonga Bay we hiked down to Bark Bay which was about an hour and a half and then continued on another 2 hours to Torrent Bay. Once there, we were hoping for a swim only the wind had picked up which made it a bit chilly. The tides on this coast are crazy. When we began in the morning, it was high tide. Only a few hours later, by the time we got to Torrent Bay, the tide had pulled out so far. The water taxis can't pull in as far so you have to walk out a ways to reach them. Once back to the shuttle we headed back to the hostel, picked up our bags and made our way back to Nelson. At this stage it had been a very long day and I was exhausted. We stayed at a hostel called the Paradiso. It was more like a bad college frat party. Although, has there ever been a good college frat party?

I was up this morning at 6 to catch the only bus heading to Greymouth. Hayden and I parted ways this morning and I'm bummed not to have him continue to be my travel buddy. We had a really great time. Thanks a bunch Hayden. Now, I'm sitting in Greymouth catching up on things and soon heading to a Brewery tour.

Here are some pics at Abel Tasman and the Westcoast trip down. http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BeachesOfAbelTasman#

Oh I couldn't be Napier

2010-02-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

After the adrenaline rush wore off from my bungy jump, I chilled out a bit in Taupo before catching the next bus to Napier. Napier is the cutest little town on the East coast directly on the water. It was beautiful. The weather has been pretty marvelous although sunscreen doesn't seem to be doing the slightest bit of good. I dropped my bags in my room at the hostel and set out to walk around the town.
It was a Sunday and Napier is known for their Art Deco, 30's artchitecture. Also, every year they have a week long Art Deco Festival. It was absolutely wonderful. Everyone was dressed to the decade and there was music all around.
They have a big carshow, of course of the era. I took loads of pics of the people and cars. Young and old, people from all over the country make the festival and go all out. It was like jumping back in time.
And all of this was set against the amazing backdrop of the turquoise ocean.
I made it back to the hostel, made dinner and met a few new friends. Hayden, from the UK, and I went out a bit in the town for drinks. I decided to stay an extra day and hang out on the beach and relax. It was great.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/NapierNewZealand#

Don't get your panties in a bungy

2010-02-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

Wow. I knew that I'd be pretty freaked out doing a bungy jump. But seriously, holy shit. It's a 47 meter jump over the Waikato River and absolutely beautiful. I thought that once I actually jumped, or was pushed (which he actually had to do) off the edge, I'd be so happy and excited that I actually did it. Uh......no. I'm not saying that it sucked or anything like that but it wasn't the good kind of feeling that I thought I'd have. The actual fall down was the shittiest part. When you rebound up it's actually fine but then you drop down again (obviously) and each time my hands shook as if I were practicing my shimmying jazz hands. When I made it to the boat, then I was happy! I can say I did it, but I'd rather be skydiving I think. That'll have to be the next stop.

Maori Village

2010-02-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today my friend Sonia and I walked down to a Maori Thermal Village. People do actually live there and they put on a performance that was pretty interesting. The sun was boiling today and despite my sunscreen, I'm still burnt. Pinker by the minute.
The local childrens swim down in the river below the bridge and yell for tourists to throw money at them. Penny diving. Once you throw it in, they have to find it at the bottom. Who knows how often they actually find it. Funny thing is that they demand the gold ones, which of course are the 1 and 2 dollar coins. Smart kids.
I'm heading out to Taupo in a couple hours and am excited about what to do there. My new friend Sonia is planning to bungy so I might join her! We'll see. If I get up to the top and decide I'm too chicken to jump, will they just push me? I hope so. That might be the only way to get me down.

Check out my pics from the last few days!
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/AucklandAndRotoruaNZ

Pics....but no pics

2010-02-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

This was a shot I took out thru the tilted window pane during the rain showers.
SkyTower from below

Chinese New Year on Feb. 14th. There were loads of red lanters throughout the city.

So I'm still having picture uploading problems. It keeps telling me I've uploaded them, but nada. Crap.

Auckland Shmockland

2010-02-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok....I'm on a shallow learning curve with blogging. These pics above were supposed to be on the last post but I couldn't figure out the whole upload thing. What-ev

Anywho, I'm have just had a wonderful last 2 days here in Auckland c/o my friend Ciaran. He has been a gracious host and we've had a grand time.

Yesterday I forced him awake bright and early at half 7 and we were out of the house within the hour. Thank you jet lag. I will say that I took those No-jet-lag tablets during my countless hours of flying and they worked wonders. I highly recommend them.

So we walked up to the train station and rode into the centre city. We walked around a bit and made our way to the Skytower, which if you ask me, is exactly like the Space Needle in Seattle. As we rode the lift (with glass doors) up, my grip tightened on the railing. Man, I hate heights. It was a fabulous view of the city. They even have a fake bungee jump off of the building. It's not truely a bungee, as you're harnassed in and they quickly lower you down. I got a nice shot of the guy coming down.

We had a really tasty lunch at a Mexican cafe (hum, thought it would be lot longer before I had Mexican food again). The weather has been nice and humid. Ciaran is ready for this summer to be over. To me, it's wonderful. We made our way around town and thru a nice park and on our way back home. I made a nice dinner and he went off to work as I flitted around and passed out.

Feb. 18

Poor Ciaran didn't get in from work until half 7 this morning and I was up and adam and got him moving around at 9. I sent out nearly 20 emails for WWOOF hosts in hopes to find someone with availability for next week. We set off on his motorbike up to Karekare and Piha. There are lovely beaches in both towns, in fact, Karekare is where The Piano was filmed. It was beautiful. The sand was near black with irredescent blue, and soft as ever. After Karekare and Piha, my arse was about as numb as an Eskimo's member but the bike ride was beautiful. We then rode in Auckland city to a wealthy part of town and another beach called St. Heliers where we had yummy fish and chips that about put me over the edge. I though American's had large portions. Holy crap.

Once more we hobbled back onto the bike. At this point, I think Ciaran's arse was about as sore as mine. We finally made it back to the house where we are currently relaxing and having some cocktails. Oddly enough, I'm showing him how to do things on the computer. It's my contrabution to his hospitality. He has been a gratious host. Thanks a bunch Ciaran.

And all I got was this lousy postcard

2010-02-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

Feb. 16

My first long journey has ended and I'm lounging around in Auckland, New Zealand. Although long, my flights were quite painless. I was to have a 5 hour layover in LA, after 2 flights from Kansas City and Phoenix, but before an 11 hour trip to
Fiji. Luckily, my friend Maria picked me up from LAX and took me to a fabulous dinner in Hollywood. Strangely enough, all of that time I spent in LA, I'd never been to Hollywood.
Anyway...Fiji!!! Well, It was only a stop over, and we spent three hours inside at the gate, but that warm, refreshingly muggy air that encased our bodies as we boarded our flight to Auckland was FANTASTIC.

If I have two words to describe my very first impression of NZ, it'd have to be, NICE PEOPLE. I'm amazed at how helpful and nice the Kiwis are. You certainly don't find that everywhere, or hardly anywhere for that matter. I was out of that airport in no time at all.
I hopped a cab to my friend Ciaran's house in New Lynn. Mucho dinero. The cab ride that is. He has a cute little house right near the coast with a family of ducks living in his backyard. He showed me around all of his peach,lemon,avocado trees and grape vines. Yum. I ate a peach right off of the tree. It is very quiet and serene here. Although quiet probably isn't the best way to describe it. It's actually very loud, with the sound of bugs....secadas? maybe? It's wonderful. The air is heavy and we had a short, inevitable rain.
I haven't even seen the country. Auckland certainly isn't the part of New Zealand that one raves about, but I'm already falling in love.

Off I Go

2010-02-13T21:34:00.001-08:00

Well, it's the day before the show y'all. I will be leaving my parents tomorrow morning to hop a flight to LA, then a very long flight to Fiji, and finally a flight into Auckland, NZ! A day and a half of travel and I'll be beginning my journies. I send my love to all of my family and friends and am thankful to have such an amazing support group. I'll do my best to keep up on this blog thing and there are sure to be loads of pics to come.