Fraser Island

Will put pics up and write about the greatness that was Fraser Island as soon as I can. Laundry, lunch, surfing while the sun is still up here in Byron Bay.

Whitsunday Pics-Boomerang

Sailed the Whitsunday Islands after hearing about it from Leeann and Holly for ages and now I absolutely get what they were talking about. the little beach town is called Airlie Beach and it is really cool but basically one street, haha. I signed up, grabbed some beers for the trip and headed to my boat at 2pm on saturday and hopped on board with my other 28 passengers. We immediately began racing our sailboat, the Boomerang, against another one called Broomstick and won but not by much. I was pretty impressed that these are actual ex raceboats and they sail competitively. Our crew was Heidi-skipper, Max-deckhand/first mate, Adam-chef and they were hilarious and awesome. We had amazing weather too considering it has basically been raining every day for the last month and we had a little break of perfect weather.

Our group consisted of Irish, Dutch, British, Welsh, tons of Germans, Aussies, and I of course was the only American. After sailing our faces off, we stopped off at an island where we snorkeled and saw loads of huge stingrays! I was amazed that they were so damn big and so close to us. One guy saw a small shark too. It is stinger season and I wasnt wearing a stinger suit so no chances were taken, but i got some cool pics. As we all started becoming friends we started having a ton of fun and it is just so ridiculously gorgeous out there and you are sailing on this awesome ship, it is just amazing. the guys had to pull up the main sail with the grinders, and the girls had to pull up the jib sail which was hilarious.

I got to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef in the middle of the trip and saw and touched a big ol sea turtle. We had a little party each night and played card games and just laughed a bunch in general. We snorkeled a ton and I even got to sail the boat for an hour or so. there are so many cultural differences and once again I had a guy tell me that I had changed his view of Americans as he had previously hated us. Why does everyone hate us Americans? Its ok, all international relations were improved and I learned to appreciate Irish and British drinkers more, haha. There are tons of Germans traveling Australia, but they always stay in their own little packs and only speak German. Same story with these Germans, they stayed in their pack but were nice enough. Ive met some cool ones, but they all just say that their English isnt good enough to have full conversations and that is why they are shy.

When you are sleeping on a boat, one thing I never really thought about was how early you get up. the sun shines in the boat like crazy and you really just have no other option other than getting up and starting your day. This provided for a lot of sun and long days with little sleep. We got to see Whitehaven Beach which was gorgeous and extremely white. There is a sinkhole around the corner from the beach that spits up silica which then deposits on this particular beach due to the current which makes it 99% silica beach. That is the highest percentage silica sand anywhere in the world. Cool fact and amazing scenery.

got back and went out with all the whole crew and had laughs talking about our trip over a couple of beers. Great friends who I will definitely keep in touch with.

got on a bus at 9 last night and it is 10 am here in Hervey Bay, over 12 hour bus ride, damn....gonna take a break here and grab breakfast and prob take it easy today. My ankle is all jacked up and I need to be fully healthy for Fraser Island Camping tomorrow.

PS- 110 Greenwich better be having fun back in NYC! Jun, Julian, and Berk, yall will be happy to know I have passed on the Tim berg videos to Australians, haha.

Whitsundays!

Just finished sailing the Whitsunday Islands and holy crap that was amazing! will actually write more when im at a computere that doesnt suck and I can upload pics while writing. Suffice it to say, W...O...W...

Magnetic Island Full Moon Party and Airlie Beach

I definitely skipped my bus out of Cairns because I went out with all my friends from rafting and had a blast enough to not want to jump on a midnight bus to Magnetic Island. I got lucky and rebooked my bus ticket and jumped on the 1pm bus and got to Townsville around 7pm. Took the wildest ferry ride of my life across to Magnetic Island and checked into Bungalow Bay. Grabbed some chicken tikka masala, which was awesome but Australia is really expensive, and a beer and waited for the bus to take me to the Full Moon Party. Well, these schoolies, which are high school kids who just graduated high school and have a weeklong party, were all at the bus stop and the driver decided they werent worth stopping for, thus leaving me to figure out my journey to the party. I made some friends with some local Aussie dudes, Simon and Larry, and we grabbed a taxi in a flash. Simon is a DJ on the island so they got me in with a free VIP wristband, sweet!

the party was cool etc. This morning I hopped on a bus, then a ferry, then a Greyhound on my way to Airlie Beach. This is where you get to sail the Whitsunday Islands! I have been pumped about doing this ever since my friends Leeann and Holly from Austin talked it up while back home. I made some friends on the bus and we are going to dinner in a bit here, but I am staying at the coolest hostel in town, Beaches, and already love this little beach city.

So the way the sailing works is you bring your own beer or spirits(which are convenently premixed in cans by the way??) and you get on a big sailboat for 2 days and 2 nights. I signed up to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef too while out there and am excited to see this boat and all the islands. The Whitsundays are a collection of 74 islands off the coast of Proserpine, which is the area Airlie Beach is located in. these vessels take you around and just go to a bunch of islands and you get to chill on this huge old racing sailboat and hang out with fellow backpackers and Aussies alike. All the pictures look absolutely breathtaking and I have been excited about doing this for a while so I am charging my camera solidly, haha.

http://www.sailing-whitsundays.com/
http://blueparadisesailing.com.au/?c=18687971&a=835390811&gclid=CPzyy6CEvqUCFQHabgodXSOh_g

there are a couple links to see what it is supposed to be like.

Time for dinner, Im starving!

Traveling Ups and Downs, gotta roll with the punches

Here are pics of Bali, fast internet is amazing












so sometimes traveling has ups and sometimes it has its downs, today started off as a pretty shitty down day but as you will see, things usually work out for the best in the end...

Today I was supposed to go dive the Great Barrier Reef but that didn't happen. i woke up really early in the morning or you could just classify it as the middle of the night with horrible stomach pains and got sick all night long. When I went to meet up for the scuba truck they saw that I was kind of sick and as I was explaining, i had to run to go throw up again. Well, apparently they thought that i was a risk to have on the boat or something and told me to take a hike. I thought that sucked but kind of understand how they dont want some guy puking on the boat. This, however was what got me. they didnt refund my money! I argued and argued with the "boss" and got nowhere and decided I should just sleep off my bad feelings and anger for this crappy company.

I knocked out and woke up at 11am, just an hour late for checkout, boom another deposit gone, sweet. So up to this point I have no food in my stomach, lost 260 dollars, havent seen the Great Barrier Reef, and am getting kicked out of my hostel without my deposit fee.

I decided to just try to make the best out of it. So i got a huge water, and packed up and went for a stroll to try to figure out my best plan of attack. I found a travel agency with free internet and read some brochures and decided that I could go White Water Rafting in the rainforest which I have never done before. I signed up, grabbed a steak and a beer for 10 bucks, sweet deal, and got my stuff together.

I knew this would be an awesome excursion as soon as I got on the bus! My friends from the plane were on my bus and they asked me to be on their raft and the guides were all hilarious people. we got out to Barron River and got our stuff on and I was paired up with an Indian man, Bregsi, his wife Lolita, and daughter, the spanish girl from the plane, german girl from plane, and our guide was Tom. We kicked ass! I had such a blast with our group, we raced the other two rafts, did the best on the rapids when one of the other boat full of Japanese tourists literally all fell out of the boat and I even got to save two of them, haha, safety first right! Really cool rapids and great people. And we are all going to dinner tonight before my bus leaves for magnetic Island around midnight.

Lesson in everything and this one is just to try to make the best out of your situation. Now my stomach feels great, i have a ton of cool new friends going down the same path as me and I have an amazing experience under my belt. the money and sleep lost are worth pennies compared to the memories I got today.

today is a great day!








ps, yes mom, that is a fake tattoo

pics of volcano

really slow internet connection so i will add more pics later

Toya Bungkah Volcano, Beach, Volcano

A lot has happened since the last time i wrote on here. This will have to be a pictureless post until next time, i am getting stuff done because I leave for Australia today. I delayed my ticket after much persuading by my friends Ilse(dutch girl), Jason(british guy), and Polly(aussie girl). so to catch up...

That night I went to Echo beach to meet Polly and some other yoga friends and ran into Ilse and Jason and drinks ensued! We had a blast, a great dinner and a good amount of Bintang's. Bintang is the local beer here. It actually means Star in Bahasa whichis what they called it after Heineken had to pull out of Bali, who originally brewed it. Polly runs a resort here and invited all of us back to her ridiculous pad. Oh my god you can own a freakin personal resort here for absolutely chump change compared to america. You need to have a nominee who puts their name on some documents, but then you get a mansion and land for cheap. It was then that the salesmanship ensued and I was coerced into moving my flight to monday, haha. It was well worth it.

I ended up hanging out with Ilse all the next couple days going to the beach, surfing, eating awesome food and actually having some ridiculous Indian food at this place my friends suggested called Queens Tandoor. Her parents own two houses here and are really cool. They suggested we go see the volcano at Toya Bungkah the next day and got us a driver.

On the way to Toya Bungkah we grabbed lunch in Ubud and shopped our faces off to get presents for folks back home for me. Mom, three male friends and Leslie are checked off the present list now, haha. Then we went to a temple where I got to actually where a sarong and belt and get in the holy water and cleanse my spirit in the fountains and pray to the Balinese gods which was very soothing. I love respecting local traditions and religions and hope they do it when they visit us as well. Just so happened that I got to go swimming to respect this one, haha, awesome! Got some snacks and off to the biggest Lake in Bali, Lake Batur.

We arrived in Toya Bungkay around 5:15 and met Gede who is the nominee for Ilse's parents houses and company here. He treated me like a son and got us into the hot springs and got us massages and his wife, Yoman, made us amazing fish! So i will not do this justice, but when you arrive at his place, you are at lake level and across this amazing lake there is a mountain Jutting out of the other side of the lake making it look like a movie filmed in Interlaken, Switzerland or something only warmer. We caught up with Gede and his family and ate and had some Bintangs and then caught some sleep because we had to get up at 4am to climb the volcano the next morning.

Got up and our guide started walking us throught he dark. About an hour and 20 minutes, which is apparently really fast, we reached a little warung(food hut) at the top of the volcano and had eggs, roasted banana sandwiches and Bali coffee. was truly picturesque. We were above the clouds and looking across the lake at the other mountain...amazing. and the volcano was smoking...it had erupted in 1997 and spewed lava flattening a village or three in 1973! not today though thankfully! We took a ton of pictures and just took in the scenery which was other worldly. Finally climbed to the absolute top and literally took pictures inside of a cloud! I felt like i was in a plane, haha. We watched the sun rise over the mountain and quietly gazed at the amazing scene that is NOT the regular thought of Bali. This Bali is somewhere I could send my mom or family and have them fall in love with the scenery, people, food and pace for sure. No party but lots of amazing other things that Bali affords. After climbing the mountain, Yoman made us traditional bali style pancakes and taught me more Balinese over Bali coffee, haha. I grabbed a nap and then we went swimming in Lake Batur.

After swimming we went to the hot springs and went back to hang out with Gede(pronounced Kah-day) until our driver got there to drive us back to Canggu.

Got back to Canggu and showered up and met Mirko at Echo beach for a goodbye dinner and drinks. This place has its hooks in me for sure and there are pictures to come. I leave today for Australia and am excited, but am sad to leave this wonderland of waves, views, and nice people.

surfing, yoga, Canggu

Moved over to Canggu to stay at Surfers Paradise/Andy's Surf Villa and loving the change of pace. Andy is an great Aussie who runs an awesome group of villas here. WE have beers every night and he has his wife make me food all the time, it is awesome. Met up with my friend Mirco and a dutch girl named Ilsa at Echo beach for dinner and a beer then strummed a few bad songs on the guitar before reading a little and getting some much needed sleep. Got up to eggs, vegemite, toast, mushrooms/onions, coffee, orange juice, and jam. Surfed today at Tugu Beach and kinda pulled something in my leg so i got a massage which was ok, then I went to yoga at Desa Seni, which is a retreat my friend Lexie had suggested I try out. It was awesome, much better for the leg than the massage. I met some friends in class and we are grabbing drinks later after dinner with some other friends.

tomorrow I might dive this shipwreck or a number of different things. I leave Bali in two days and am really just now starting to plug into the social circle which sucks because I can see how you could live here easily. cheap, fun, surf, beautiful everything, and everybody is nice.

Having a relaxing great time here

pics

Surfing

i left my camera charger/uploader chord in Jakarta and will have to buy another one so I can upload pics, but ive got some good ones as soon as I do.

Funny story, i was gonna go out Friday night and all my friends from my hostel were cool but...I took a nap. Was supposed to be for an hour but i went to bed and 8:30pm and woke up at 2am. so i didnt go out, haha. Got u early and went exploring around Seminyak and Kuta, two neighboring towns which actually just run together. I tried to get lost so I would have to learn the roads a little better...mission accoplished, haha, i definitely got lost.

Got back, grabbed breakfast and got a little more acquainted with Bali by reading and then hopped on my scooter and rolled to Canggu to met Mirko at Tugu Beach. Mirko is a friend of a friend who teaches surf lessons here and was really cool and a great teacher. I was really rusty since 7 years ago in Costa Rica, but i shook it off pretty quickly and was up and surfing in no time. The water here is absolutely perfect and the waves were beautiful. Definitely got a good workout and a solid sunburn as well. I feel like i will try to turn this trip into a surf based deal now after talking with Mirko after surfing. He is 33 and has been surfing since he was 19. The guy literally has followed the waves around the world and just lives wherever is best for surfing and he can get a visa, haha. I was inspired and definitely made me doubt my ideas of a regular life. We talked about a lot of things and mainly really hit on the rest of my trip. I had been planning to just fly from Cairns to New Zealand as soon as I got there, but after talking to Mirko and hearing all he had to say about Australia and surfing and lifestyle, I think I will just go from Cairns all the way down the coast to Sydney. I am going to try(operative word) and turn this into a trip to make me a good surfer, which i am far from at the moment.

I feel like after talking to him and my buddy Oleg, this will make the trip focused around a hobby that Ive always loved but never been great at. A worthy endeavor I think.

After surfing I went to a place that Mirko suggested called Mojo's Burritos for a shrimp burrito to get refueled. I also bought the coolest damn blow dart gun i have ever seen! It looks like I should be living in an African tribe or something. It has a build in dart holder and is camouflaged because it is made of wood and stuff. Very solid purchase for 9 bucks. Then I road my scooter around Seminyak to get more in tune with the local digs and grabbed a beer at a ritzy bar on the beach called, Ku De Ta. It was a beautiful location and I will probably go back there.

I grabbed another massage when I finally got back to my neck of the woods in Legian. This massage wasnt so great though. The one the day before was actually better but both were cheap as dirt. In Thailand i could get an hour long massage for 5-8 bucks and these were 8 bucks each. Sweet prices and worth it after surfing.

When I got back to The Island, my hostel, I hung out and listened to stories from all of my bunk mates and made some great friends over a poolside beer. Chris and his group are from England, Two dutch guys, a Canadian guy,an asian swedish girl, british girl, aussie girl, and Oleg who was from New Zealand. We all got showered up and went to dinner at Blue Ocean. I had and amazing seafood dinner! I am still on NYC prices instead of traveling prices, so when I saw a seafood basket with swordfish, mahi mahi, snapper, calimari, shrimp and rice for 11 bucks I knew exactly what to get. It was amazing and really filled me up. We had great conversation over great food and drinks and I got to know my fellow Islanders much better. Then we paired down and went out. Oleg became a good buddy because he has worked in finance as well and was a cool dude doing kind of the same trip i was doing through thailand and everything. the girls and us went out to a couple of bars and then we ended up at the tourist hotsot...Sky Garden, haha. This is a 5 story party, untz untz, dance, drink, extravaganza filled with tourists. It was great actually although extremely trite and obvious. Had a great night and here I am today alive and well.

About to go try to get my camera chord, a day pack, a shirt and a snack. I love this place. After errands Im going to a surfing market at Deus Ex Machina to try to buy a used board and hang out with Mirko. I think they put a movie together and are throwing a party too, should be fun.

Jakarta with Sung Je, Now in Bali

So I arrived in Jakarta and got through customs and my buddy Sung Je was there to pick me up. We went back to his parents place via their personal driver, which was pretty cool. It is very commonplace in Jakarta to have a driver but I felt pretty cool. I got cleaned up knocked out for a couple of hours and then we went to dinner at a place in this enormous mall where I ate Nasi Goreng. It is like fried rice with a bunch of stuff in it essentially. we just caught up and chilled out at dinner over a Bintang Beer. Went to a cool bar and had some drinks and shared old war stories from college and selling books and all that. Was a great night. Even managed to get a little sleep.

As I woke up i still had not gotten a confirmation email from my flight so we called them up. No email because i was not on a flight, whoops! So we had an amazing breakfast for his moms birthday full with kimchee, rice, bulgogi type meat, soup, vegetables. It was a feast! Then his parents advised we just go to the airport and ask ticket prices. I actually got a better flight at a cheaper flight by doing this and boom here i am in Bali.

Jakarta has over 10 million people during the day which is ridiculous and Obama was there for a speech before the G20 summit in Seoul so there was even more ruckus.

Now in Bali, I found my driver and we found my place, The Island, which was recomended to me be a friend of a friend, Lexie. Very cool place and beautiful landscaping. I just got a scooter and am about to grab a beer and some food. It is friday night in Bali...what should I do?

Flights: NYC-Anchorage-Taipai-Jakarta

Been flying since 10pm Eastern time and i think it is somehting like 645am in Indonesia right now? not sure what that amounts to but im still in the Taipai airport and ive already done some cool stuff.

Ate King Salmon Jerky bought in the Anchorage airport, surprisingly less crappy than I would have though. They had salmon everything there. This little Chinese lady bought 300 bucks worth of salmon in front of me in line.

Finished a book i had started the day I left Thailand, kind of a cool bookend to my vacation from traveling. Book was "Three Cups of Tea" Greg Mortenson and is great. Man builds schools in Pakistan and does much more. Was given to me by Henry who had read it while he was traveling. Il try to pass it on.

Finally got my flights from bali to cairns and Sydney back to USA booked, haha. Flying by the seat of my pants here but it all seemed towork out. I actually got my replacement credit card, stolen on Halloween, about 12 hours before I left. Bought a new camera and watch and even had time to buy a guidebook for New Zealand.

I flew China Air and am always amazed as soon as I get on a non-US airline that they give you free wine/beer/whatever/headphones.

About to hop myflight to Jakarta where Sung Je Lee, a great friend from Texas, Southwestern, and Wranglers has just finished his Indonesian Military service and is about to head back to Law school inAmerica. He is gonna pick me up at the airport. good start to the trip.

Notes about Thailand

1. Thai Spicy is spicy, but I think that if you grew up in Texas it really isnt a big deal. I asked them to do as spicy as they could everytime i ate anything and was never overspiced. However, my friend Byrd was a wuss with even mellow yellow curry. She is not from the south though. Cant blame her. haha

2. The best food you can find is ALWAYS about 5 minutes walk from all the tourist traps. It is always about half the price. Ex. Song's Pad Thai on Ko Phi Phi, wouldnt have found it if i hadnt asked a dude where the best pad thai is. But we were looking at 150 baht for crappy tourist food then we found heaven on a plate for 70 baht.

3. Thais live on very little. So sometimes realizing that this mans entire source of income is his motorbike taxi or tuk tuk rides really puts your exorbitant life in America into perspective, ie expensive handbags, luxury cars, expensive food, and bitching about things these people couldnt even imagine.

4. Unlike some other third world countries, Thailand people really do put forth effort to make a living. They havent exactly been taught an effective or efficient way to do it but they are always willing to learn and are so happy to be taught anything.

5. Old white men and little Thai girls is disgusting and there is nothing else to add to that.

6. A house on one of the most amazing island in the world costs $30,000. Now you wasnt to glitz it up you can own a mansion for 3,000,000 baht, that is under $100,000. So who wants to split a vacation home here with me?

7. COdy and I did a cost analysis on living here for a year and we did it considering pretty nice accomodations and food. here it is:

Room: 200*12 2400

Food: 15*356 5340

Travel:
Weekly Trip 1300(400B*2*52)
Trip to States 1500 2800

Drinking etc: avg 3 changs/day 1335
this takes into account you
dont drink every damn day

Activities:
Diving 1* per month
climbing 2* per month 1540

Miscellaneous: 200


Total Living Exp or 1 YR: $13,615


8. If you smile, or even better, smile, clasp your hands and bow a little bit, the Thais love you and treat you like family. Just assimilating a little goes a long way.

9. Thais are very nice people, although you must understand that there are punks and thieves in any nation. They sometimes get touristed out, but usually wil do anything to help you with whatever whim you have.

10. You will always be "Phalang" which just means white westerner, so you might as well own it and refer to yourself as the good looking phalang and know how to say "Sawatdee Krop, Pom Chue John" which means hello, My name is John.

LIfe is good here, people are nice and the landscape is beautiful. Hard to leave when the waves are crashing and the sun is setting.

Last day in Thailand for a while...What to do?

So i have decided that i need to be in the States to trade the market at least until the volatility slows down. So what to do with my last day in Thailand, wait Phuket, wait isnt there a beach nearby...here I come.

I went to Karon Beach because i had never been to that particular beach before and it is supposed to be a mix between Patong party and Kata clean so i took a motorbike taxi over there. I finally shopped a little bit and got 3 Lacoste polos, 2 Thailand shirts, some yoga pants, and of course a thailand plate thing all for a whopping 40 bucks. Was a stretch and i didnt really bargain mainly because i had to get rid of a lot of baht. When Cody's card got eaten the night before i had to spot him a little and i was left with a bunch when he left. Ergo a spendthrift last day. I went to a cool spot close to the beach and grabbed some amazing non-tourist pad thai and spiced the hell out of it. After food i decided that the only proper thing to do would be to get a massage on the beach, duh. So i met Moon, my massage lady, and i put my new yoga pants on. She actually gave me an oil massage which is much less painful but much less cool than a real thai massage. I loved it either way because I was laying about 30 feet from the beach and the wind was blowing and the waves were crashing and the palm trees swaying. Pretty ideal for a relaxing massage. Moon had a son my age and had been doing massage for 22 yrs.

So I strolled over and grabbed a pineapple/orange shake and hopped onthe local bus to Phuket town after walking the whole beach and taking in the sights and sounds. I chilled out in the AC at my hotel(i use the term AC loosely here) in order to use the internet and set up a place to stay for my temporary visit to Austin as well as talk to friends. then i went to the bus station.

When i got to the airport at 6pm i found out that the Korean Air terminal didnt even open till 9:45pm and my flight was at 12:45am so i decided to go see another adventure. Grabbed a taxi to Hat Nai Yang, a beach right near the airport. I grabbed a delicious crab dinner on the beach at sunset for 8 bucks, which is really splurging here, then just watched the sun go down. I wasnt full so i hit up the Royal Indian Cuisine which beat the hell out of the crab and...the owner spoke ENGLISH! I finally had the spiciest dish in thailand which wasnt even thai food. I think Thai spice isnt a big deal if you grew up in texas because we eat a lot of spicy food all the time.

I grabbed a chang and rolled to Orange bar where i hung out with the locals and beat a girl named Pim in pool and connect four and played some card game i didnt even understand. Needless to say i was the one taking shots the most during the card game, haha. One of the dudes from the bar gave me a ride to the airport and I just made my flight on time. Here I am in Seoul, South Korea and I have a 9 hour layover so i am going to go tour the city here. the next post has some cool info on Thailand.

Diving and Rock Climbing

the next morning we got up at 6am and headed to Adventure dive shop where we grabbed a quick breakfast and Cody, Katherine, and I met up with our fellow divers for the day. We were the first dive group to the pier and we headed out to bin dai or something like that which was about a 20 minute boat ride. Basically they just gave Cody a personal instructor which was clutch, and Katherine and I were with these two other guys lead buy another divemaster. We hopped in and immediately i could see that the Andaman Sea was tons better than diving up by Ko Pha Ngan! I saw and followed a huge sea turtle for about 10 minutes. this thing was big, and he just didnt mind me at all, that was really cool. Saw a sea horse which was yellow and had a buddy. Saw some weird crab thing that was supposed to be important but i didnt understand the handsign, haha. real student of the game here. I even got so see a shark, but only for a second as it swooped away. I think scuba is a great recharge and it is so awesome just being that far underwater and exploring all the coral and fish and anemones. As for Cody, who had never done any scuba in his life, they had him watch a 20 minute video and they just tossed him in, hahaha. His instructor was really cool and they had a blast. We all saw this jellyfish get torn apart by some fish which was nuts. All in all, scuba diving is addictive as hell and the folks that take you do it everyday of their lives so they obviously love it.

We grabbed some food and chilled out on the beach and discussed our next move over a chang and a sunset. Decided to head to Railay beach for climbing the next day and that was a good call. WE just zonked out when we got to our hotel. I actually used the recomendations that i had gotten about the area this time which was much smarter. we stayed in Ao Nang at a place called Andaman and it was nice, plush, and cheap as hell. there was a sauna(like you need that, just step outside), full weight room and workout area and the lady who ran it was really nice and quite small even for a thai gal.

Woke up around 7 the next morning and rolled over to Railay by longtail boat. Definitely think we did railay better this time. we got a rec for a good climbing company and headed directly over to the cliff. So basically this is how it works. You get your equipment and get to the climb site. then you look up and are like which of these do you think i can do, crazy thai nutcase. the dudes are little pros and they teach you how to tie the knots and everything and you proceed to chalk up and get ready. As they belay you you just grapple your way up this ridiculous cliff. there were like 6 climbs you could do there and we did the 4 hardest. The hardest one we did was a 6a or b, whatever that means, and it consisted of us climbing 30 meters, like 90 ft, up the limestone until there is this one part where there are basically no holds at all. you just kind of jump and use your feet a lot. it was hard, but definitely nothing upside down or anything. When you get to the top and look back over your shoulder you see so far across the see and the other islands that you are like, damn i am really really high right now! Then you are glad that a little thai guy about half your weight is waiting to have you come on down. Rock climbing was great for so many reasons. First off you get an amazing work out and you use muscles you dont usually use. You get to hang out with people who are in ridiculous shape and jave been tons of cool places. And you get so look down on the area you are hanging out in to see the lay of the land. It was a great experience and I will definitely do it again. I will say though that after 4 hours of climbing we were dead tired.

Checked out Tonsai beach and had some Tom Yam Kung there, which is spicy prawn soup with vegetables etc, and chilled out there for a bit. While waiting for our longtail boat to have enough people to go back to Ao Nang, I played the Thai version of hacky sack. They use a really hard wooden ball that is a little bigger than a softball but thatched with wood or bamboo or something, definitely not as comfortable as a hackysack. I had a blast and held my own with the locals. We got back to Ao Nang and we took showers and headed out.

So i had told Cody how good the indian food here was so we found an indian place and sat down. Holy hell this butter chicken was amazing. We were both just eating like wild animals after having climbed so much. We had garlic naan, cucumber yogurt, i had Butter chicken, and Cody had Chicken Vindaloo. Great food. We went out to an irish pub wehre the guy couldnt finish a damn song so we switched to chang bar and played pool with other travelers.

Next day took the bus to Phuket and grabbed indian food again and went out and then this morning Cody left on his flight. Apparently the market is picking up so I have to kind of decide if I am going to ignore it, buy a computer here, or fly back to trade. Full moon party is in 7 days...

railay beach, Phuket town, Kata Beach, CODY arrives, Ko phi phi

have a lot of catching up to do i think. so the whole crew went to Ko Phi Phi and had a great time. We partied on the beach a couple of nights. Then we booked an island tour that took us to monkey island where, as you can imagine, there were tons of monkeys. Then we went to Maya Bay which is the beach where the movie "The Beach" was filmed and it was absolutely gorgeous. WE took some great pics which are all on the other folks cameras and just enjoyed the scenery. Went snorkeling in the bluest of blue waters and even saw some really cool fish. The underwater stuff here is really much better than on the ko pha ngan side. WE even got taken to a place where we were surrounded by cliffs on almost all sides and we could stand in the five foot water while just hanging out and talking about how pretty everything was.

There is so much to talk about but i will just post a ton of pics once i can steal them from everyone else. WE left ko phi phi and went to railay beach where we met up with another friend and just chilled out. Had a great time with Colin, Henry, Whit, Josephine, and Isabelle while they were here. I feel a little bad because i think i subjected them to the worst living conditions ive seen yet... Truly roughing it.

so I decided to get some nice accomodations as i went back to phuket to pick up cody. Split a room for 8 bucks a person in Phuket town and it was freakin luxury! Air conditioning, an actual Hotel named Daeng Plaza Hotel, i mean there were even sheets on the bed and a real bathroom! I was pretty excited.

Then i picked up Cody as he arrived in Phuket and took him directly to Kata Beach where I should have taken Colin and everyone else because it is ten times better than Patong Beach. Clean, cheap, nice, beautiful and everything. We stayed in a place called The Kata Phuket Palace! Air conditioning, murals on the walls, tiled everything, just extremely luxurious and all for another 8 bucks! I may be upping my tab here but it is definitely worth it. Cody and I surfed and hit up the After Beach Bar where we watched the sunset with all the thai friends we made at the bar. Definitely beat chick in connect four! Had a blast up on the terrace overlooking the beach and mountains. Heading home and slept for 11 hours. Needed Recovery.

WE came to Ko phi phi yesterday and met some a cool Irish girl and British guy to travel with for a bit. Definitely not staying at the Rock backpacker hostel this time, haha. We went out last night and today we just chilled on the beach, read, all got a massage(best yet by the way), and signed up for diving tomorow morning.

Probably gonna see some sharks tomorow, check that stuff out! Need pictures

Diving pictures

COLIN, WHIT, JO, HENRY visit!

so my last day in ko pha ngan i dived like a rockstar and absolutely fell in love with it. I can even describe how much amazing sights i saw while 20 meters under water! it was gorgeous and i love diving and the people who dive.

My last night there i decided i deserved to finally go out in the party capital of the Thailand Gulf and it was great. Danced till 5am and got up just in time to catch a taxi, boat, and bus to phuket.

Met Henry at about 12:45 and got to hear about his awesome Muay Thai boxing camp and while waiting we just laughed and laughed. then i had a surprise happen... Josephine was supposed to show up around 1am and she did, but along with her she brought Colin who wasready to rock and roll and I didnt know he was coming. Talk about a badass surprise! So we definitely went out and had a blast but one bad thing did happen. The bartender at the bar said "hey, you are american?" i said yes and then she told me to take my shirt off, of course i did. Seconds later i had a guy put a light on my face and say put my shirt on so i did, but as i was doing so i got jumped by like 8 thai bouncers. I definitely got roughed up a little bit and Colin, Jo, Henry and some other friends and I might have gotten taken to thai prison for a little bit... Well, we got let out and evrything was alright but i definitely have a shiner on my right eye from one of the many punches i took to the face, Henry got his shirt torn off and thrown down some stairs, and Josephine got hit in the head which really pissed us all off. All in all, lesson: dont go to Patong beach unless you want to be overcharged, see tons of ladyboys and old men, and get your ass beat by many thai dudes. lesson learned, haha.

Got on a boat to Ko Phi Phi, and everything was already better. Metsome awesome Isreali dudes and we had the best pad thai i have ever experienced at Song's pad thai shop. Went to the beach, and definitely got an hour long thai massage alongside colin, Jo, and Whit. MMmmmmmmm, i lovede it. Oh, by the way, here is my official shout to Todd Perzel, TP, son of Sharon and Bill! You should be here with us right now! Ko phi phi is absolute paradise, whit and jo took it easy after whit and colin won a rope jumping contest to earn a free bucket! Damn Thomas brothers always winning stuff! COlin and I definitely partied our balls off till 5 or so inthe morning and had the blast of a lifetime with the most amazing friends i could ever ask for. We definitely took a swim, with swimsuit on, many times betwixt and between whiskey buckets and dancing on the stage.

can safely say i love ko phi phi and this island rocks in every way! so glad to have my friends here with me. amazing time, amazing people, and it is just freaking gorgeous here!

Grenade Launcher

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=653473691335&ref=mf

First Day of Open Water Diving

Today was my first day of diving in the open sea, get down! Thon and I were gonna tear it up.

Got up at 6am, got ready and went to get picked up. Got there, grabbed a coffee and got all my gear, got on the boat with everyone diving that day. boat ride of around 40 mins we went over all the info i had learned the day before. got to Sail Rock and jumped on in!

My first dive was 46 minutes at 12 meters and i had to do some skills and stuff before we got to stroll around this awesome rock formation. I saw some amazing fish and coral which i will list in a sec. Thon was really cool and i just wanted to keep going but i guess decompression sickness is a bad deal? Took an hour break and jumped back in, the second time i got to do some skills deeper and was down for 54 minutes. I was glad that I got to stay down there for so long because there was just so many amazing, colorful things to see. And it is very comfortable under da sea. i actually had a little stomach ache before getting in, but once i was in the water everything felt better. I actually was told that diving is a good hangover cure????

Here is a list of the fish i saw:
skunk clownfish, moonish idol, yellowback fusilier, yellow boxfish, pacific lionfish(scary looking), like 6 barracudas overall which were cool and big, krempfs wart slug, sea urchins, mushroom coral, Anemones, surgeonfish, blue damselfish etc. Also saw some triggerfish that attack you if you come too close because they are protecting their eggs and mate, i didnt go to close

There is just so much color that i wasnt expecting and the whole feeling of being that far down and just hanging out without being attached to anything and being able to explore underwater is an amazing feeling. I feel like scuba is definitely a relaxing activity that you can do forever. And everyone who dives seems like they are just cool folks.

Tomorrow I go on my third and fourth open water dives and get my PADI certification. Should be cool because now i get to go to 18 meters and I actually know what im looking at, haha.

After i got back, i zonked out in my hammock and had all sorts of damn weird dreams. The malaria medication i am taking makes me have the most jacked up dreams in the world! I had heard about it but in Siem Reap and now i have been really going crazy in my dreams, i really wish i had a video camera in my head because this stuff is nuts!

woke up and turned over to see the water and went right back to sleep, haha. gonna take it easy again tonight but this island is like a party animal all the time! last night they had a huge foam party and it just goes on and on. Hard to deny it but im gonna rest for a couple of nights, lame.

Half Moon Party and switch to Haad Rin

So i went to the Half Moon Party last night which has nothing to do with any lunar cycle, it just happens a week after and a week before the full moon party and is in the jungle instead of on Haad Rin Beach. OK, to summarize, everyone has flourescent body paint on and is dancing to rave music in the jungle drinking overpriced buckets of whiskey. I think the fact that the news is overblowing the hell out of the Bangkok protests and the volcano in Iceland stopped millions of flights caused a poor showing but it was still fun. I had TEXAS on my right arm and the Texas flag on my left. Duh. I was really tired from not sleeping the night before so i didnt go nuts but i would like to note that since i may have been the only person there not on drugs i feel like everyone else was going a hundred miles an hour and I was just chillin. Needless to say, there is much to be made up at the full moon party on the 29th. Today i got up and checked out of my guesthouse in Thong Sala and rolled over to Haad Rin Beach, the main spot on Ko Pha Ngan. TONS BETTER. I am paying 300 baht, under 10 bucks, for a bungalow literally spitting distance from the water. i walk out of it and am on the damn beach! I have a hammock and it has been put to use today. The water here is gorgeous, clear, and really warm. I went swimming today at the beach and it got me really excited for my open water dives tomorow. This place is absolutely paradise! Everyone is nice, calm, happy, slowed down and just having a good time. Nobody is mad and everyone wants to help you, and everything is still cheap, although a little more expensive than where ive been so far. Gonna go grab some noodle soup or curry or pad thai for now and chill out on the beach like everyone else, haha.

Paradise found

Ko Phan Ngan: Padi Diving Course

Guess who finally made it to the Thai islands? So i actually caught my flight yesterday, wierd?, from Siem Reap to Ko Samui(Ko means island in Thai). There was definitely a little bit of a freak out moment though. So when i was packing my stuff in the morning after going out till about 4 with some people from Siem Reap I noticed i couldnt find my camera! WTF? So i scoured the room and went through my bag over and over to no avail. So i must have lost it the night before, damnit! well i stopped by the police station and left my info and stuff about the camera, then made close friends with my driver and told him about a huge cash reward of 50 bucks and I definitely dont have my hopes up but...I actually made my flight! not with any time to spare though.

Moving on to more pleasant news, I met John and Sandy who live in Colorado, Ft. Collins and Steamboat respectively. John is VP of an environmental consulting firm which he has run for 30 yrs, yes we talked about his business most of the flight, and Sandy actually runs the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurand in Steamboat which Colin and I ate at while snowboarding there a couple of years ago! Talk about meeting cool friends. They want me and colin to come visit them in Steamboat this year so they can show us how the locals do it!

By the way, after getting off the plane I was so happy to have temps around 85 degrees and a breeze and the water everywhere! Amazing and so much less jacked up than what ive seen in mexico. Made some friends on the minibus ride, we grabbed a beer and waited for the ferry to Ko Phan Ngan, which is renowned for the Full Moon Parties, and off we went. I had to stay the night in Ko Phan Ngang so i decided to stay close to the pier so i could get to Ko Tao for diving early, but events changed my plans. I met some really cool people in the night market who live and work here. First dude, Steve who works for Lotus Diving, told me there was diving here on Phan Ngang and that it would save me an almost 2 hr ferry ride tomorow. Check, decision done. And i met a chick who taught at a muay thai boxing camp? cool folks.

Now here is where the Murray clan will be proud. I got up at 6 am and scheduled my first PADI dive course. Got picked up and rolled over to do my PADI Instructional training to become a licensed diver. I met Thon, my personal instructor, who is a Thai dude who is just all smiles and happiness. I proceeded to take all the classwork quickly in anticipation of the dives. Got in the water and everything was awesome. Diving is actually mainly just all common sense with a couple of precautions here and there to make sure you dont freak out. I loved every freakin bit of it. My instructor was very cool with my fast pace and ready to get rollin. He said "JOhn, you are fast learn dive, nice." The underwater parts of my learning were more interesting and much more intriguing than the surface but i only got to finish all the inclosed pool parts today. I will be going in the open water tomorow, wait, hahah, not tomorow because im going to the Half Moon Party tonight! Of which Thon is also attending and everyone else onthe island. I am extremely excited to be able to use my new skills in actual open water dives. I had done something called SNUBA before which is similar to scuba but I am ready for the real thing. happy with the competence and professionalism of the staff and I think they probably have the nicest restroom in Thailand!

After Diving i went back to my hostel, Why NOt Guesthouse, and upgraded rooms from 6 bucks to 10 bucks(splurge, i Know) and took a nap for 3 hours. Time for food and then off to the Half Moon Party in Ban Tai. Definitely glad i get to check out the half moon one first so i have a little idea of what Im doing at the FULL.

More to come and I will get a camera as soon as possible ...

why does everyone hate America?

I just defended America and capitalism at the bar for about 2 hours and got teamed up on. I feel like we just cant win and we all are George W. Bush. So i did my best to defend our principles and reasons we do what we do but honestly just got laughed at by australians and british. What was i to do but to challenge these obviously mistaken foreigners to a drinking contest...America fuck Ya! dont worry after the beers and shots we all agreed upon america being amazing. Apparently that is how foreign relations work. At the end of the day i will never apologize for being from America. I will never apologize for being from Texas. Bring on the doubters...via drinking contest...pleeeeeeeese

Grenade Launchers, AK-47s, and Angkor Wat

Well to start off with i think i need to finally put up some of the politically correct pics from Vang Vieng. I will leave off all of the shirtless rope swinging bucket drinking antics for the sake of making you all ask me HOW awesome Vang Vieng was. by the way that limbo was fire limbo, i wasnt just doing limbo with three dudes. OK, so we got left our brothers in buckets, David and Eero, sadly in Vientiane for the sweet green pastures of Siem Reap yesterday and basically just took care of business and rested. Henry bought a computer, i bought a memory stick because my 4gb memory card was full, we found food, napped, ate again, and went to sleep, haha. Much needed day of rest. Now for TODAY! We woke up at 10am and went to grab some breakfast after securing a personal tuk tuk driver named Red for the day. Over breakfast we revelled in the fact that we felt so recharged and rejuvenated and we had gotten over vang vieng, although we are both about a joke away from booking a ticket back. After breakfast we grabbed our tickets for Angkor Wat and the surrounding wats and headed toward no other than...THE SHOOTING RANGE! We bargained and hastled over prices after deciding on both of us shooting a grenade launcher and an AK-47. The AK-47 we would be using on helpless fluttering ducks. I have wanted to shoot these damn things ever since hearing my friends Jason and Calvin talk about guns all day every day and me being a novice. Hope this puts me on the map at least. OK, so we loaded up the grenade launcher and AK into the bosses New Lexus GX-470, which is a Landcruiser Lexus style, and I immediately questioned the means in which he paid for this vehicle. Then they spoke cambodian for a while as we trucked down the road honking at people on bikes and watching the countryside fly by. About 20 minutes into the ride i asked about how long we had left and the guy says two hours, one there and one back. I was like what the hell? are they gonna take us out in the middle of northern cambodia with guns, ducks and grenades and just shoot the living daylights out of us or throw us in a prison to torture us for being white or what? Both Henry and I were needless to say a little on edge for a while. Our tuk tuk driver sat in the far back with the ducks and guns and when we asked him where we were going he said he didnt know. hahahah, live and let whatever the hell happen right? Well, we actually arrived at the site and picked up a guy in full military fatigues with a big hat on who guided us into the property. The driver actually rolled the back windows down to show he had white men with him to one officer!
We got out of the truck and got our guns ready and walked into what definitely looked like a minefield. I went first per the video above and shot my first grenade ever! It was awesome and I definitely felt like Rambo from the newest, most badass, most perfect, Rambo movie! Exhilirating to shoot a grenade and watch it blow stuff up! so then henry went and his first grenade actually didnt blow up which meant we have a live grenade where we are about to walk... His second shot worked great though and blew tons of stuff up, check plus. the stupid video has taken an hour and a half to load so il try again tomorow, but it is well worth it Then we walked through the area people shoot grenades into everyday and looked out like crazy for anything metal so we didnt lose a leg. Then we shot AK-47s at ducks like rockstars and rambo burned the hell out of Duckhunt 2010! totally better in real life. The guys were actually really cool and just gearheads that liked to shoot guns, and Cambodian. on the way back, one guy showed me a video of a guy shooting a rocket launcher and blowing a car up and we both "OHHHHHHHed" Next we grabbed our tuk tuk driver, Red, and headed to Angkor Wat with precision timing. We got there at 5pm and toured the whole place and even payed a guy to let us go up in the highest part furthest back in the compound, which was closed off, in order to get the best pictures right at sunset as they were yelling people out. Angkor Wat at sunset was definitely one of the most breathtaking scenes of my whole life. This empire created and ruled ages ago had a ruler, Suryavarman II, who actually had the temple built. In the 12th century this King was built had an enormous temple built in his honor. It has a moat and three layers of walled defense. Inside each layer lies beautiful gardens and lakes. I cant do it justice in words so pictures will have to do. I think we got lucky about timing but after paying this security guard to go up in a condemned contructed tower we saw the most astounding views of a truly amazing feat of architecture. I was going to skip this stop originally, but now i am so glad I made it here. I will never forget the sun setting over the ancient Angkor Wat.