Epic quest to the world down under

You guys don't know it yet, but I'm back in Canada!

2006-07-03T22:44:57Z

Hey all!
I'm in Vancouver!
got in yesterday morning. Really, really strange.
I left Hong kong at 3pm on the 29th of June. I arrived in Vancouver 11am, 29 of June! I arrived before I actually left! that day that dissapeared when I flew to Austalia found it's way back. I couldn't sleep on the airplane, so by the time I fillanlly went to bed at 1am canada time, I had been awake for about 48 hours and was literall going completely insane. I slept for about 9 hours in a hostel on granville, woke up at about 10 and I feel much better today!
It was really strange... I was definetly ready to leave hong kong... I had very intense, wonderful experiances... and It was meant to be that breif. I wasn';t there long enough for anyhitng bad to happen (which, where I was staying, inevitably would have) and the intensity of it never wore off. I was awstrewck every minute of it.
It didn't really clue into to me that I was aout to go home to Canada until I was sitting on the airplane (747-400) taxiing to the runway and the piolet announced that "your cabin crew today is from Canada" I don't know exactly why, but I nearly broke down, right then and there! hearing those words and seeing their smiles caused tears to roll down my cheeks and my heart to fill right uip to the very top. I'm going back to Canada! Canada is my home! Canada is my home. I am the luckiest human being there ever was. (tears are welling up in my eyes even writing about this) I have never considered myself to be patriotic, but this trip has really changed somehting in me. Instead of taking it for granted, I relaize how bloody lucky I am to call Canada my home. EVERY single person I met had absloutelyt nothing bad to say about Canada! they spoke of every Canadian they had ever met warmly and had ewither been there or spoke highly of someone they know who hd been there. Canada and it's people are much repects and revered in the world eye. I thought about seeing everybody, I thought about being around people who spoke elglish again, about being able to drink the water right from the tap, about how nice every one is... about how we're all equals... about our rocky mountains and our forests, and the tears kept coming... I wrote a big rant in my notebook about patriotism and how my partiotism has aboslutely nothing to do with politics. I couldn't possibly give a shit about the old guys with sticks up thier ass who use big words and diplomacy. I just care that my country is open and free, that we try our best to get along and that we welcome others to come join us. that we try our very best to keep our country clean and that there is so much of it that is unsettled....
ok.ok.
enough of the patriotism rant... I always knew canada was a good place to live... but now I really know, in a whole new way...
Airplane ride went really quickly. 12 hours. read my book, "a million little pieces" by James Frey, tried to sleep - unsuccessful, watched a discovery channel doco on training chimps to commucate their emotions (which proved to be possible!), tryed to sleep - unsucessful, listened to lots of blues and hindi music, tried to sleep, again unsuccessfully. wrote. still no sleep...darkness came, lasted only a couple of hours, then it was morning again and soon enough, Vancouver islkand came into view. The sights of the white caps on our rockies, again prompted tears. almost too beautiful for me to look at, really. I started to get really excited! I wanted off the plane right now! cooommmeooon Vancouver! Comeing into Van I could see the whole lower mainland on one page - it's so tiny! I remeber seeing downtown vancouver from their air when I left - thinking, yep. that's pretty cool. When I saw it this time, the buldings of downtown looked like stubble compared to the towering plethora of highrises that make up Hong Kong's skyline...we landed soon enough.
As soon as I got into the aiport... I could sense somehting was different about this place... wandering through the irport, everything was so tiny, everyhitg so quiet! sooooo quiet! like being in an accoustically padded room! noone around, I could turn around with out checking over my shoulder so as not to cause a pile up of people! I made my way to immigration and heard my first Canadians speak! hahahahahh. hahahah,hahahaha. I loved it! everybody sosunded like Bob and Doug Mackenzie! "Hoser, eh?" my god. I didn't think it would be that noticable. I was brimming smiles the entire time! everyone talks like that here! all of the ladies I talked to too, they all had that warm, welcoming Canadian accent! Customs went ok. I got random pasport check. I always do in airports because I make eye contact with the random check officials. they know they've got my attention and that they have to fill a quota, so they choose me. I don't mind.
They didn't even go through my stuff... so I got in a couple of things I figured they would seize at customs.. which is cool.
I stored my big bag at the tiny little vancouver airport and hopped on a bus into the city. Checked in to the Samesun on granville and dropped my bags. Granville is different than I remmber it... lots has changed here! I wandered about the city. Everything different than I remember it! The trees all looked like crazy forgein vegetation, there was soooo much space beween the shopfronts.. onlty a few stores per building.. .the crosswalk lights and sounds were funny to me. the Cars drive on the wrong side of the road! (everywhere I've been has been on the left, except for Lao - but there were very few cars and only one road, so it doesn;t really count, and I was only there for 8 or 9 days)
Vancouver, the city that was, before I left, so crazy and chaotic to me is now calming and relaxing. nice and airy, clean and well spaced out! It's nice here.... and I don't know if it was just my happiness and gratitude of being home, but I had people aroundf me all day. I met heaps of people!
The sun was nice and bright, temperatures in the 25deg rage. (a little chilly in the shade for me...) and it was a beautiful day, so I did the natural thing and headed down to Wreck beach. Got som nice naked sun with a few hundered sun loving naturalists! had a great time! Met a guy from Nova Scotia walking through UBC campus afterward and we got to talking. great convos. afterward I decided to use my transfer (every mass tranisit system I have used has operated differently.. van's way of using 1.5 hour tickets seem really funny to me) to get out to Commercial drive, where again, I met some really cool people. One guy I knew from Nelson, who knew Roland and Autumn and such... we had really cool talks and ended up with a group of people, all of us jiving onn eatch other.. the most memorable of which was this guy who walked up and said, "you want to talk about philosophy?" and then opened up into this mesmerizing rant - this rant on how he knows what every letter of the alphebet means - and how they don't what you to know, and that if you knew, if you only knew, you'd get it. you'd know why the trees are made of ice cream, why green day is green, dogs fall from the sky when it rains. You'd understand hip hop. then went on to explain it, going deeper and deeper, going furhter and further out. This guy was the most intense hman being I have met. He was fully off his nut, but somehow coherent and very poetic. his whole rant flowed very smoothly and was filled with intellectual information and factual truth known only by acedemics... and was extreamly profoundly orchestrated. My guess is that he is either an ecedemic who has learned too much and his feet have left the gound, or he had a head chock full of L.S.D. either way, the experiance was one of a kind and lasted only as long as he stayed. I tried to record it, but was unable to, as he became highly offended that I wasn't listening as closely as he wanted, if I was able to use my hands while he was speaking, surely I couldn't be listening with 1000% of my mind. In all reality, I think I would have gone completely nuts with him if he had kept speaking, so it happened the way it was suposed to happen.
The toehr people I met were just really nice, intereting and open minded. not nuts. had a great time and watched the sunset form the park on commercial.
By the time I made it back to GRanville I was litereally insane form sleep deprivation... hallucinating a bit, even. nooding off nto dremlets on the train. I stopped to buy a couple 1$ slices of pizza (god how I've missed them, I ate 7 slices yesterday!), talking to some really nice girtls at the pizza place, while completely insane and coming by it hinestly. they were fully amused by my insanity and welcomed me back to Canada. I really like Vancouverites! went back to my $27. night hostel and hit the sack. Bloody amazing day. suuuch a good day. Very nice way to come home.
I fly back to Alberta with Westjet at 5pm (the last of 15 flights I have taken on this trip!) Darcy is picking me up at the airport. I haven't decided if I going to drop in and surprise everyone at the re-union tonight, or if I will wait until Canada day and do a fireworks entrance. suppose it depends on what Darcy has on the go...
alright. That's it from me!
Thanks for reading!

You guys don't know it yet, but I'm back in Canada! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Koh Tao to Bangkok

2006-07-03T22:45:20Z

quick entry here!
I boated it from Koh Toa to Chumphon than then VIP bussed it to Bangkok, and got screwed again. I was wandering around Chumphon getting medication for me ear infection from this old thai ladt with black teeth... she didn't speak english, so we communicated in signs and gestures only. really intereting experiance... she gave me some aerdrops, which on the bottle it dayt the are a super steroid, 30x more powerful than Cortizone!? and some Amoxycillin tablets, to be taken twice a day. and I found internet in Chumphon for 20Baht and hour, half of the price of the cheapest place I found in Thailand and 1/6 the price of internet on Koh Tao. The place was out a ways from the bus saion and apparently didn't practice the dual pricing system most buisnesses do. (there are tow prices for everyhting. the price tags on things are for Farang - westerners, like me. and the Thai people pay significantly les for everyhitng)
Like I was saying, beofre I wanfdered off on some tangent, I got screwed on my bus ticket again. I showed up and the bus was absolutely packed. every seat. the only place open was a bench seat in the top level. there were 4 people already sitting on it. I sat between two guys. one guy and his wife to my right - they were borderline furious, so I dind't talk to them and a german fellow named Frank on my left, who was eager to talk, very well travelled, fairly well off and completly alone in the world. no family. no friends. no job. nothing. he was amazing to talk to, was very curious and wanted to sharpen his english. we talked a good part of the way, which definetly helped take the edge off of being sqeezed into full body contact with him and the fellow next to me for 10 hours. Somehere in there,. I managed to sleep, somehow...
When we got to Bangkok the bus dropped us off on Khoasan Road at 4:30am. Frank informed me that he knew of a place that we could stay for 140 baht/ night just off Khoasan road and asked if I was interested. Brandon and I payed 6 or 7 hundered baht when we stayed there, so yes, I was interested. We ended up sharing a twin room with two beds for 100baht each! bloody incdredble for Bangkok, especially Khoasan road! less than $3!
stayed there for a couple nights, shopped my brains out all day, bought hhhhheaps of stuff. heaps. bought more luggage to store it all. bought a whole new wardrobe. got some really good deals and batered really well. broke lots of merchants hearts and made some very angry - but it always happens in the markets, if you get a decent deal. they want to screw ytou and they'll use everyhitng from anger to guilt to get a better price. I have learned how to play the game and aI play ruthlessly.
Bangkok this time was quite enjoyable.
Loads good experiances and Frank and I had a chace to bond well. I enjoyed our talks and he did muchly aswell, he had quite an iteresting story.. .was an engineer. had renounce the only two living memeber of his very wealthy family. it is just him in the world. he made lots of money in a short time in his youth and invested it properly. he now spends his time travelling the world. Looks like I'm going to have to go to Germany! my list of german contacts is quite long now! I could probably se most of the country with my accomidations covered by fellow backpacker I have met!
The airport shittel was 1/2 hour late, doddled around trying to find something or someoone, realize dit was stupidly behind schedual and then drove as wrecklessly as a crazed bull running through the streets in attempt to make up for lost time. HONK HONG! weaving between lanes, blowing lights! driving 140km hour speeding past police (no speeding laws there??) and managed to make it to the irport reasonable on time. my tickets worked out just fine and I had even had some time to kill before boarding a short and uneventful flight (I had a island seat with a broken tv because I changed my flight - shittiest seat on the plane) and arrived in hong kong, where my next entry resumes!
That about sums that little gap up...
shitty bus ride, good times and heaps of shopping in Bangkok, crazy shuttle and uneventful flight... then hits Hong Kong Kaos!
read on...

Koh Tao to Bangkok remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Everything and Nothing like I expected...

2006-07-03T22:45:20Z

I get goosebumps al over my body every time I hink of the insight I had today.
I was wanderring around a particularly busy computer shopping district this evening, right at dusk. flowing wth the masses of people and I, for a moment, was able to see this city as a living, breathing, inteligent organism! with subway tunnels for circulation system, people as bloodcells, carrying with them goods from one place to another.. in full communication through a cellular central nervous system1 there go those goosebumps again!
This place is impossible to describe... that is as close as I can come.
I did make it up to the peak last night. I picked a perfect evening and masde it right at sunset! incredible! I sayed up there for hours.. taking photos, pondering... and I met a half a dozen irish and scottish dentistry students...they had just begun their trip.
they asked me a million and one questions and I had all the answers, tips and reccomendations right at the tip of my tounge... made me feel very well travelled...
Over the last couple of nights I have been spending time with some Napalese fellows I met in the park one evening. It's like a ghetto park.. all kinds of seedy activity, me the only caucasion person in sight, only caucasion person out on the street there after 10pm... so people are curious. conversations start. We got to talking, when I said that I was from Canada they wanted to know everything. after a while of talking I realized that these people are very genuine, very generous, very curious and very honest. Conveerrsations went far into the night, by the end of the night we had to take photos together and they gave me gifts and walked me home. next night we met again, as arranged and they brough the rest of their frineds. probably about 10-12 napalese guys. One of the guys brought a guitar and they took turns playing their native music. Napalese mountain music. abslutely beautiful to the ears. so full of love. I had Sujan translate some of the lyrics, which roughly translate to an expression of the love the the mountains and the trees inspire in their hearts! amazing poeple. a couple of the guys were university gradutates. uni in Kathmandu, so they were really quite intelligent and really apprecitated the oppourtunity to use their, and learn more, english skills. They tell me that all of the white people they meet in Hong Kong are rich assholes. I don't doubt it. Most of my experiance holds true to that statement. rich people don't talk to other people who are not rich. especiually in a place like hong kong, where the rich are verry rich and the poop are very poor. I really enjoyed the times I spent with these fellows, their generosity, curiosity and geniunity will not soon leave me. I have the gifts they have to me, and the photos we took. one of the guys has invited me to KAthmandu in the fall. He wants to show me his country and show me mount everest. He is willing to vouch for me, to show me into the communities he grew up in and to pay my way. He isnsisted that all I do is buy a plane ticket there, nothing else. he says, "bring no money. no money. you are my friend, I will take care of you". and he means it. these poeple. my god. I really do want to experiance their way of life, f they can live in a part of Kowloon like that and maintain their faith in fellow man. Meeting them was proanly the most enjoyable part of my visit to Hong Kong.
I am actually back in Canada right now, writing this..and much has happened already so I'm in recall mode, struggling to recall all happenings in their vibrant intensity...
THings that I remember of most of Hong Kong.. was the mass transit system with it's octopus cards. reads it right through your wallet and you can use it inm stores like 7eleven to buy stuff...all you have to do is pass your wallet over the sensor and walk out. brilliant! no pins or waiting! And the multitude of exits at each station... exits A-K out to the streets, some of them up to 4 sub exits... like J1,J2,J3,J4, etc. If you know exactly where you are trying to get to, a quick look at a map and you know exactly which exit you need to go out. I understand why they call this the the octopus now... verrry easy to sue too. and it carries 2.5 milion poeple every day (not sure if I wrote that alreaddy, but the numbers are staggering.. that is almost the entire populationd of the province of Alberta using the same train system every day! and I NEVER waited longer than 2 minutes for a train. never. even if I just missed a train 20 cars long. another one was there in 2 minutes or less. uhh what else... the seas of short black haired people, all with going high tech cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, video players, computers and hybrids of all of the above, either strapped to ther heads, running at theirs sides or strpped by their necks.. people playing PSP's on the trains. high tech. the'se poeple like their gadgets.
Walking down the streets. bamboo scaffolding at the construction sites. hardware stores no bigger than a bedroom, scantly clad pretty chinese girls standing out side of stip clubs who grab your arm, "mister! come see" and literally forcefully attempt to drag you inside "It's happy hour. mister! come see!" The cold dry air spilling out onto the streets from designer shops, hotels and convieniece stores, chilling your feet and legs, a very welcome chill against the 90 some percent humdity and costant 32degrees C.
Hong kong also has the many, many different bank notes. Each type of note is issued by a different bank... I has 20Hk$ notes from 4 or 5 different banks in my wallet at the same time. each one is completely different but they are equal in value. The coins aswell. there are almost 20 different coins of different shapes and sizes. they are all issued by the same national bank, but thet are in a riddiculous number of denominations, making for very complicated cash registers...
I ate hardly a thing all the while I was there. It was very, very, difficlut to find a restaurant that: I could afford, had english menu, served things I considered edible (I went to a place that served things like pickled goose intestine and boiled frog) and looked descently clean. Walking down the street, I found it very difficult to tell what some of the stores even were... I couldn't tell if they were restaurants, hardware stores, tailors, brothels bathhouses, private clubs, or what. Everyhting is so strange and everyhting is in Chinese symbols. you just have to look into the store, see what items are there and what kind of people are running it and even then sometimes it's hard. My western catogorization stystems didn't work very well... I spent hald a day trying to find a bloody tailor. looking in all of the shops for something that resembled a sewing machine. really strange experiance.
When it rains in Hong kong, IT RAINS. my god. the sky literally falls on you. you might drown if you don't tip your mouth down. it's incredible. the steets flood and boats of garbage voyage toward the nearest drain... really crazy. luckily, It didn't last long when it did rain...
My experinace in Hong Kong will not be leaving me any time soon. Though it was short, it was the most forgein place I have ever been, it was one of the most trialsome, and also one of the most fascinating to me. their way of life is veeeeery, very different that anyhting I have known personally. Combined with the Wonderful Napalese people and ther kindness, generosity and friendship... and the crazy brothel/hotel place I stayed at.. with all the craziness it insued... combined with the huuge scale and absolute beaty of Hong Kong city center. high rises going high, sub-tunnels going low, Peasants on ground level, operating filthy little shops. The glitz, glamour and money of the rich upper class juxdeposed with the poverty, dillapidation and the filth of the poor lower class...
all of these elements and experiances fused together have left a wonderful impression on me and a wealth of memories and experiances, some of which, put me in a state of awe, some revolt me, some give me goosebumps, some fill my heart to it's very brim.
what a place. what a place.
that is my entry on hong kong.

Everything and Nothing like I expected... remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Hong Kong Kaos

2006-07-03T22:45:20Z

Holy shit.
This place is everything it claims to be. Craziest city I have ever been to, that much is for sure...
I've been here since yesterday afternoon (about 24 hours now) and have just now managed to find an internet cafe... the must be around but they're probably all labeled in chinese... this place is like a sardine can, I have to retract my keyboard, roll in my chair and hold my breath to let someoone by... can't really complain, because for some reason the place is packed full of really pretty little asian girls sharing seats and pretting themselves up in the mirrors covering the walls...
anyhow, to it:

The very first things I noticed were really intriging to me... how efficeint and clean everyhitng is, how my customs official kept all of his stamps neatly layed out infron of him, all of his papers straight... he even unfurled my passport and squared it with the counter's edge before neatly and carefully stamping it... myabe he was just OCD or something.. but it was the first thing I noticed that was a little weird...
The train ride from the airport (biggest airport in the world) was really cool. more like an airplane than a train! and it's a dedicated express line so it flies! not exactly a bullet train, but it's close.
The city is really a prime example of organized chaos.
Hygenics are big here.. signs saying not to spit on the ground, to wrap up spit before putting it in the garbage, not to feed the birds, etc. and the MTR (subway) is phenomonal! I bought an octopus card, it's good for a round trip on the express train and 3 days unlimited use in the city... 300 HKD, about $45 CAD. One thing that really, really tripped me out... actually made my laugh out loud, was the fact that in the subway walking tunnels, all you can hear is "clack click clack" of dressshoes and heels! it fills the tunnels! loooots of suits and really well dessed, very pretty asian women. Caucasian people seem to ring in at about 1% or so. not many.
All of the buildings here are tall. even in the shithole slumps of Kowloon penninula (not even part of hong kong island, it's on the mainland) where I am staying the dillapidated apartment buildings are taller than the tallest buildings in downtown edmonton. The city layout is very much different than Bangkok.. which has not definable CBC, it's just sprawling and spread out.. few sky scrapers here and there... here they are everywhere and all over. the whole bloody place is a CBD!
The place I am staying imn... I belive, is almost a bordello or something... the rooms rent by the hour, but I got a cheap rate by the night.. I'm paying 240HKD/night which is $35CAD. the room is really nice.. first hot shower, first flushing toilet first airconditioning unit I have had in a long while! the only thing about the room it's self is the padding on the walls around the bed.. hahah The building the rooms are in is the most dillapidated I have stayed in! it's about 50 stories tall and has a hollow right through the core, right to the top and I'm on the 3rd floor. water and other liquids drip all the way down... air conditioner units protrude into the tunnel, causing a waning drone throught. the staff speak absolutely no english. absolutely none. not even words like money or night... so no wonder they didn't tell me the nature of the activities going on there... I get strange looks from passers by when I walk in and out.. and the girls on the side walk are verry smily and friendly, and when people leave their rooms, they leave really fast, go separate directions and have no luggage! hahah. I checked out the markets last night! holy shit! some things are unbelivably cheap here! food and accomidations are understandably expensive, being as property values are at a premium and it that it must take nothing short of a organizational mirical to bring enough food into this tiny area to feed over 7 million people every day... but pructs that have been manufactured here are dirt cheap! jet torch lighters for $1, all sorts of blinking and light up LED junk for verrry cheap! chinese goods of all sorts, some things I saw in thailand were obviously bought in china and resond there for 3 times the price, which is still a hell of a bargain for westerners... so yes, I am doing some more shopping here! I'll probably have to buy another bag befre I go home! haha
ok. I'm not really sure where I am going or what I am doing.. so I'm just going to ride the trains all over...maybe try to get to "the peak" this evening, a tram to the top of one of the strange chinese mountains surrounding this city... watch the sunset from up there, maybe? I don't know... everyhting is cool here... if I could just find a decent meal for under 80HKD...
This is probably the weirdest place I have ever been...

Hong Kong Kaos remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Got my certs!

2006-06-24T13:25:38Z

You are now reading the words of a newly certified Advanced Open Water Diver and the holder of a EANitrox ticket!
I did my specialties in Navigation and deep diving (required), night diving, underwater photography and multilevel diving. I passed my nitrox exam with a 96% and blew my teacher away with my grasp on the theory... Physics class payed off.. that course is the bane of some divers, but it was a piece of piss for me. I did two dives today, the first down to 30 meters and the second a multilevel, 18, 14 and finishing it up at 10. Both dives were using Enriched Air Nitrox. Dive one on 32% oxygen, dive 2 on 36% oxygen (normal air has about 21% oxygen) Allows you more bottom time, so long as you dont go to deep with it (another 5 meters or so deeper on the first dive and it could kill you via Central Nervous System toxicity...)
anyyway... the dives were fun. Turns out I'm not super sensitive to Nitrogen Narcosis... just a little bit of delyed reaction that you're not aware of.. similar to having a couple of beers. Some people get really "narked" and try to take off their scuba gear and things like that at 30 meters... I did alright. 40 meters (the recreational limit even for a dive master) might be a little different... I'll find out whenever I decide to work toward my dive master... other than that, the 30M dive was very much like any other dive. No sharks... little bit diffrent bottom dwellers... including a huge crab, in one of those giant conch shells people use as horns, motoring by one the ocean floor. that was kind of cool. The dive site was pretty barron. Shitty dive site choice on my instructors behalf, IMHO.
Second dive was lovely. Had plenty of time to leisurely swim about, saw some a couple huuuuge triggerfish (very deadly and very beautiful - it's really territorial and stings) and lots of nice corals and things... in a site I've dived a number of times, every time is something new though...
so yeah. That is that. I think I'm done diving. My right ear is really bothering me. My glands in my neck are a bit swollen. been wearing myself down studying, going out for beers, not sleeping much... so my ear canals are plugged up a bit... that means no diving for me, today was really pushiing it.. but I it kept quiet and descended slowly... I really wanted to do my deep dive. but I'm paying for it now. it's quite uncomfortable, really.
It is presently raining fairly steadily. I have not seen rain in almost 2 weeks. I have been blessed in that regaurd. when it rains here it rains hard, quenching and flooding the pavement. I got goosebumps all over and a tear welled up in the corner of my eye as I waded through the hot puddles... the puddles aren't hot back home... it doesn't smell like motor cycle engine lubricant when it rains back home... I really am going to miss this place, it has earned it's place in my heart.
my time to go is coming very soon! I leave Koh Tao day after tomarrow in the evening, boat and bus it up to Bangkok (almost a full day just for that because of a wait in Chumpon between the bus and the boat), stay a couple of days in Bangkok before flying to Hong Kong stay for 4 full days with partial days on either side and then fly home on the 5th. On the way home I actually arrive before I leave... which will be wierd.. I leave Hong Kong at 4:30 in the afternoon and arrive in Vancouver at 1:45pm, THE SAME DAY! that is going to be strange! I have not bought my wesjet link to edmonton yet... I may want to stay a day or two in Vancouver, have yet to decide...
I will let you know my exact plans as they transpire. I may fly right on through to Edmonton from Van, putting me home by the evening of the 5th or I might hang out for a day or two later...
ok. enought borning logisitcs and ramblings..
I'm tired and my ear is making me uncomfortable... time to track down a feed. sleep will come soon and fast tonight.
I love you guys lots... you are all in my mind and I'm anxiously awaiting seeing you all again!
much love!

Got my certs! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Wow!

2006-06-22T14:37:35Z

I just got back from my first night dive! and Wow! is all I can really say! The ocean is a totally different place in the black of night! Watched the sunset from the boat, jumped into the water juuuust as the sun was dissapearing, the first twenty minutes of the dive, darker, darker. By the end it was pitch black... follwing our dive master in a line of pairs... we perused around white riock dive site... a few of the animals that came to check us out included a couple of sting rays, just youngins... really cute.. a sea turtle (!!my god!!) and a barracuda, a good half meter long one at that... all of the fish are different.... they must partol the bottom in shifts... day fish sleep at night, and vice versa... because I've dived that sight before and this was totally different... the dive eventuially ended when another group got all confused and a few people started following us. messed everyhting all up. have to be reeeealy carful about saftey stuff in the dark. that is for sure. it was reeeally challenging navigating and keeping track of your buddy, your dive master, the bottom of the ocean, triggerfish (which can kill you), corals which are really fragile (mind you, they'll tear your skin open before they snap...)
Yeah. That was one of 3 dives I did today. oh yeah, I'm a certified open water diver now! and I'm working on my advanced course! as well as obtaining my Nitrox (entiched air) ticket. I've done 7 dives now (about 6 hours underwater) and am getting really good at it... my assistant dive master today didn't belive that I had just started a couple days ago! I'm a pisces, what can I say? First dive today was part of the navigation unit, second dive was a photography unit (I took a 7MP camera down with me and shot some pics and video) the photo dive was fun... but a little frustrating.. the camera was kind of shit and I spent half of the time just learning how that particular camera worked best... and the couple I was diving with had camera problems, which slowed us up, etc. etc. I'll see how the pics came out... I'm not expecting anything too great but we'll see....
tomarrow is all theory for my nitrox ticket... lots of charts and tables and calculations. enriched air bringfs in a whole bunch more things you can screw up.. as if nitrogen narcosis, the squeeze and decompression sickness weren't enought... now I could get poisoned by oxygen... lovely. It has lots of benifits... I'll beablt to stay down significantly longer on a dive (yay!) and my ticket will allow me to obtain and safely use nitrox. nioce. so yeah. after a day of theory on that, I do a couple of dives on nitrox, including my first deep dive! down to 30meters! almost 10 stories under water! so far I have only been down to 18... and I'm also going to learn multilevel diving with a dive computer. that should be cool aswell. then I'm Advanced open water certified and Nitrox certified and hva e areally huge credit card bill...diving is cheap here... but I have taken alot of training. I could have done 30 or 40 leisure dives for the same price...
We'll see after that. there are are a bunch more levels. I'm about half way to dive master now!
alright. so as you can tell, my life consists of diving these days. diving and diving theory. and eating. and shooting off fireworks at night. Went out with Mike last night to the beach bars here. bloody amazing. I dind;'t even know that prt of town was here! bean bags and funky music, right on the beach... a whole row of them. we we're both completely stunned when we found them. stunned is the word... neither of us imagined such places to be of this world. I want to bring people back here. bring them to the bottom of the ocean and come and hang out in comfy, loungy, beanbag filled beach bars in the evening. llife is great. good meals for $2 canadain, my private bungalow with ensuite at the dive resort is $5/night. Doesn't get beeter than this... if it does... prove it. I want to see it. and I want to dive and lounge there because it must be heaven! It there scuba diving in heaven? of corse there is! there has to be...
ok. life is good.
life is really good.
somehow, I am still really excited to go home. really excited! I ordered a bunch of components from a company in hongkong to get started on some projects when I get home... so Dad, if a package arrives... either sign for me or... you can probably leave it till I get home. it will be soon enough, I reckon.
ok.
that's it for now. I've spilled the contents of my mind to my satisfaction for this evening...
talk to you in person soon... and chrysi, I sent you an email, it sent without coming back with an error message this time, but I still don't know if you got it?
ok.
I love you all heaps.

Wow! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

On my own again...

2006-06-18T05:14:53Z

Ok. got to make this quick. internet is really pricey here!

alright. lots has changed...
after spending 8 or 9 lazy days on Koh Pah Ngan... hanging out, snorkelling, eating and hammocking... we have finally moved! we both agreed that we could live at the seaflower indefinetly.(our costs worked out to be about $15 a day CAN for all the food we could eat and our accomidation, ech)
Brandon had to go back home. unfortunately... we parted ways yesterday on Koh Pah Ngan. He got on a boat to Surat Thani and I got on a boat to Koh Tao. He had to catch a bus back to Bangkok to fly out this afternoon. Was loads of fun Travelling with Brandon... feels kind of weird to be wandering around Thailand with out him. Oh well... back to solo travel mode.
Koh Tao is a beautiful little island. only 22sq km! My very first impressions were really good. coming around on tyhe boat, the rocks were different than the other islands... little coves of bungalows on the beaches and coming off the boat, I looked down into the water and I couldsee right to the bottom of the crystal blue bay... layers of neon blue fish swimming about. bloody beautiful waters. I can't wait to get in them. might go for a little snorkel in Mae Hadd before my class begins at 1:30... oh - I signed up for my PADI dive course today. I'm going with Crystal. My skyive instructor reccomened them and worked for them for a number of years... they all remember him well cand cracked me a deal. 9000baht for the course, including 4 nights accomidation at the resort. that's $265 for 4 days of training to get my open water dive certificate, incuding 4 dives, I belive... and 4 nights accomadation. Pretty decent, I reckon....
so yeah... I will probably spend most of my remaining time here on Koh Tao. I can't be botered to do much more exploring. it's beautiful here and I can spend my free time walking the island.. as it is only 3km across! and there are lots of beaches and forest trails and things...
oh. and my plkane tickets are messed up. I wriote that when I called to change the dates, they were all booked up... I guess that's how it's got to be... and the nearest date they could get me a seat is the 5th. figures... I shoulod have thought that there would be alot of people flying from Hong Kong to Vancouver for Canadada day... they don't call it Hong-couver for nothing...
annnyhow. just thought I'd drop a little line...
and Chrysi, if you're reading this, your email addy is messed up... your hotmail account keeps tossing messages back as "undeliverable" check on that, because I can't send you anyhting by email, hey?
oh - and if anybody has any shopping requests... like any items they would like from Thailand/HongKong while I'm here, I can pick them up for you. This goes for anybody, don't be shy... if it's expensive, I've got credit... there are loads of cool things to buy here... even general requests.. like a nice silk throw for a couch or a nice brass buddha... let me know by dropping a comment on here or drop me an email.
cool. I'll probably write again soon. surely I'll have some ranting to do after this scuba course...
alright. love you lots.
sorry I'm not going to be home for the reunion... you'll have to Party it up hard on my behalf.. but I'll see you all later that week.
love you lots!

On my own again... remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Ko Pah Ngan

2006-06-15T12:16:01Z

life has been grand this last week.
We have been staying at the Seaflower, a beautiful patch of bungalows growing on a nice beach on the west coast of the island of Ko Pah Ngan.
The only thing really momentus we have done in the past 8 days or so is attend this month's full-moon party, which are kind of the original huge full moon parties. biggest beach party in the world, apparently. It was big alright. big rave/dance/club/house kind of party. More of Brandopn's thing than mine, but hey... had to see what t was like. either way, lots of beautiful women and mad did everybody ever get messed up.
So yeah... basically, life has consited of laying in a hammock, eating food, snorkelling, lightng off HEAPs of cheap thai (and chinese) fireworks... hanging around the beaches. life has been great. the Bungalow we found at the seaflower is 100Baht each per night (less than $3 CAN) and is the best place we have found yet. beautiful grounds, outdoor showers, old style bungalow with a hammock on the deck. perfect. The beaches are nice. the water is hot when it's shallow, and comfortably warm when it's deep. We're right on the reef, so a guy can walk out to the drop off point and jump right between huge reef structures for a little dip. and I bought my own snorkel, so I can go whenever I want.
Only shit thing is that almost a week ago I biffed on a motor scooter and messed up my ankle a bit. It's fine to walk on but it was pretty bloody and swollen for the first few days. The doc fixed me up with steroids, antibiotics and what have you. no biggie. I think my travel insurance covers it.
Brandon is headed home this weekend.
As for me... I may not be making it home for the family reunion... I called about my tickets, after leaving them wayyy too long. I actually didn't even notice I had missed my flight by 2 days already! but the guy let me change the dates, no problem.... strange, but I didn't say anyhting... end of story, flights are booked up until the 5th of July. Which is kind of shit. but if that's the way it has to be, that's the way it's gonna be. I can stand staying here and extra few days... I'm wayy over budget, but life isn't going to get any cheaper going back in Canada... I might get a chance to go to Ko Chang or Even Angor Wat with those 5 days...
and so far I am planning on jumping on to Koh Tao to do my PADI open water dive certificate, as it is the cheapest place in the world to do it. 4days of scuba diving for 8000 baht ($235CAN) which leaves me with my world wide open water dive certificate... that is the plan, thus far. All is going according to plan... But Im'm going to be really poor by the time I get home...
alright. I've been dreaming lots about all of you back home. Love you lots and I'll see you all soon.

Ko Pah Ngan remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Back In Thailand!

2006-06-06T05:26:30Z

OK.
there is no way that I can do any of this last week justice by writing about it now. so much has happened!
I am presently back in Bangkok, Thailand. took a 12h overnight bus from the Laos/Thailand border last night. Arrived at 6am this morning. spent the last 5 hours taking the sky train about the city and arguing and haggling with drivers and travel agents and various "helpful people" all trying to divert us to this or that TAT or tourism place to book tickets so they get commission. I hate this city. it is a disgusting scumhole full of conartists. it is loud, obnoxious, and smoggy. A person can't even walk down the street with a backpack without being swarmed by drivers and tourism people, all fighting over your money. f*ck them. Sorry. I have to rant. I am sick of it and am not even staying a night here. I'm headed to Ko Samui tonight by another night bus. 10 hours on the bus and 2.5 hours by boat. I managed to find a guy who will sell us tickets on a VIP overnight bus for 450Baht... down from the 750B the travel agents wanted. hopefully he's not a con artist.. although I interrogated the shit out of him and am not giving him any money until the bus is there...
ok. back to the paradise that was life before returing to Bangkok!
The last time I wrote was form Luang Prabang. Beautiful little place. We did get that massage and god was it ever good. Went a 1st class spa. you walk into the moodlit stone building, and sit at a nice table.... crickets chirping and such... they hand you a menu and you choose whatever you want, then shower up in their stone showers and get robed up in the clothes they give you. and hour of traditional massage was 50,000kip. that sounds like alot... but it's less than $6 Canadian! and man what a massage. Just the kind I needed... nice deep tissue accupressure type massage. Leaves you feeling like a noodle afterward. Al dente!
what else did we do there...? climbed a big hill with a tmple on top and the 4 of us (Brandon and I and our Canadian friends Amber and Sean) had a little photo jam session and come out with some really innovative shots. lots of fun. geeze, what else? night markets. caves and waterfall. the caves were so so. the waterfall was bloody incredible. the most beautiful set I have ever seen! tropical blue, many leveles, the basins of each level you can swim in (which we did). beautiful spot. I'd go back. for sure.
After all that we headed down to Vang Vien. Strange little place it was... I has itr reccomended by a fellow in Australia for it's tube riding, which we did, of course. The tube ride involves renting a tube and getting driven a few miles upstream by a tuk tuk. You get into the river and float slowly down. along the way there are vendors who will gladly send you out a bamboo pole or harpoon and bring you in to buy a beer or climb up to one of the riverside pubs or up to a cliff jump or diving apparatus of some sort.... or you can lazily float down the river at your own pace for a few hours. beautiful mountain scenery too.... lots of fun.
Other than that, Vang Vien is a town full of T.V. bars and "Happy Food" restautants... with comfy seating so people can recline with pillows and veg out watching re-runs of Friends. Not too much going on there. everybodys is just relaxing... from there we headed to to Vietiane, the capital. Stayed for only an afternoon and missed our only chance to use and ATM... just weren't thinking...and hopped on a bus to the south of Laos to Pak Se... all in all about 30 or 40 hours of bussing in a few short days on the one paved road in the country. We didn't stay in Pak se. headed right down to Si Phan Don (4000 islands) stayed the fist night on Don Kong before taking a little 1.5h boat trip down to Don Det. also known as paradise. stayed in a little bungalow on the enge of the river for 15000 kip, split two ways that is about 80 cents canadian each! rented cycles for the day for the same price and explored around the island and the next island, Don Kone. Waterfalls and such.
ok.
this is getting rushed. this internet place is a total rip off. this entery has cost me over $5 to write. bloody hell.
end of story, we ran our of money in Si Phan Don and had to cut cambodia out of the trip (that was partly a time factor as well) and we barely had enough money to make it out of the coutry and still eat! as soon as we did cross the border though, we gained acess to our bank accounts and filled our wallets...
the last leg of our Lao journey, the multiple hours by Tuk Tuk to the border were very memorable... the locals were very lively... in amongst us people were bags and bags of fish (alive and dead) a giant lizzard (he was alive) a baby pig (agasin alive) and a variety of butterflies and things. the local childern we adorable... including one little girl who shared with us her snack of some very biaazre local plant that had pea-like fruits that must be peeled after being freed of their honeycomb-ese casings... interesting one. we also ate hard boiled eggs of some kind of small bird? and at one point there were 33 of is in the back of one truck....
good times.
anyway. I've got to pay this guy his riddululous fare, over 170 baht now... I could get a hotel room for that! ahh
alright. headed down to Ko Samui tonight. 10 hour bustrip coming up and a day to kill in bangkok.
full moon party coming up! I'm excited.
ok. much love to you all. This last week has been filled with a lifetime of memories. this attemped scribing is again, only a pale shadow of happenings. I wish I could sit down with each of you and share, or better yet - take you with me!
ok. that's it all for now.
next \wrting will be freom the islands!!

Back In Thailand! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Laos

2006-05-28T09:12:12Z

Bloody hot here!
that is the first thing I have to say... no, it's beautiful here. lovely as a matter of fact.
Getting across the border was really easy. got out exit stamps from thailand, hopped into a tiny little motor boat for a 2 minute ride and we were over. Payed our fees and waited about half an hour for our stamps and we were in. made our way down to the slowboat dock after buying some snacks, and bought our tickets at the pier. In organizing this outr selves we payed 1/3 of the asking price from Chang mai. All of the travel people tod us it wasn't possible but we found out via other peoples experiances and from talking to the locals that we could infact do it ourselves and it worked very well...
anyhow. the boat we got on was a two slow boat from Huay Xai, down the Mekong river to Luang Prahbang with a stop in Pakbeng for one night. The journey was 14 hours total, 6h the first day and the remaining 8 the next. Luckily we are in the low tourism season, so the boat was not too packed, as it was a really long narrow boat crammed full of wooden bench seats, open right to the air. the ride went suprisingly fast with a good book, a deck of cards and some fellow canadians we met on the boat. one close call we had.... the river was one of those swirly types... with lots of conflicting currents and an alarming number of rocks and shallow bits (there is a fast boat that only takes 6 hours total, but it is ear peircingly loud, ttakes only 6 people and you are required to wear a crashhelmet because many of the boats hit the rocks...) and yeah, anyhow... our boat got into a sticky stituation, a current that took it right toward some rocks. our navigator managed to avoid the rock face and stteered us into a some calmer swirling waters before we gently beached ourselves... with some bamboo poles and a number of attempts to get back into the flow without hitting the rocks, we were back on our way. everyone who was nodding off was now quite awake... on the banks of the river all the way, tribes people could be seen with various nets and bamboo rods set up to catch fish. little naked kids paying in the shallows and small, shallow pan boats shuttling along the shorelines... very beaufiful scenery between the rugged treed hills and the jagged rock formations with multilayered beds of sand deposited my by the river during a former course...
Pakbeng was nice enough for a little town without electric power... well, they had generators running into the evening and when people were done buying drinks for the evening and such, candellight prevailed. Brandon and I payed 100 baht for a room, $50 baht each ($1CAN = 34 baht, do the math!) but it didn't have electricity at all and the shower was pretty shit... but hey, it's less than 2 dollars. cannot complain.
Oh and my last post mentioned wanting to get away from people trying to sell you shit all the time... no luck on that one. it's just the same here... they speak a different language and drive on the right side of the road, (where there are roads... there is a reason we too a two day boat, it would have taken 3 or 4 days by bus, as there are only dirt roads (one paved road) and very unreliable busses in this country) here is not so bad. everyone harrasses you when you get off the boat, then it's ok.
Checked out the night market here in Luang Prahbang after checking into our room, which cost us 40,000 kip, which is 150 baht, which is $4.50 Canadian, for both of us... $2.25 each a night and it's realy nice. hardwood floors, revolving fans, dimmable lights, a good shower, nice beds, screened windows, toilet paper. luxury... and it's one of the more expensive budget places!
Checked out the night market last night.. beautiful goods, stupid low prices. cheap silks and woodcafts... clothing is very cheap. you can get a pair of pants and a shirt - locally made, local style for less than $5 canadian.
Went to visit a few Wats today (a wat is a temple) Wat Xieng Thong, build in 1560 was a verry nice one... first ones in Laos we have seen.
ok. time is running out. I put up some photos! in the photos section. they are of the last week or so, I ave already burned a couple of CD's from thailand so there will be a chunk missing, but you can see a bit of what is going on in this part of the world.
ok. plans for ytomarrow, check out a local cave filled with buddhas and a giant waterfall... maybe get a nice Laos massage, as they are about half the price of Thailand! life is tough. hahah
alright. will be in touch. planning on heading down tro Vang Vien day after tomarrow. should get a chance to write from there.
much love and I'll be in touch.

Laos remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Leaving Thailand for Laos in the morning!

2006-05-25T14:07:57Z

Hello from Chiang Kong. Laos is a few hundered metres from where I am seated. I could see it across the river bank if the blinds were not closed. we cross the border in the morning.
We spent the day on the bus. two busses with a short stop in Chang Rai. 6.5 hours. Thailand is a breeze to get around... only complaint is the heaps of people trying to sell you shit like swarms of flies. All the time. when you're wearing a backpack it's like flys buzzing around you if you were smeared with shit and left in the sun. it's horrible. a little over dramatic, but it's really quite annoying. it's low season so they are really desparate for a sale... even to the point of wipping up tears, in the case of chang mai markets. we hope to escape the severity of this a bit by going to laos. perhaps it is better there? This is not our only reason for going though. it would be lovely to see.
20 baht for a two minute ferry ride in the morning to Huay Xai, Laos. 1500 baht ($45CAD) there for our visas, and we're into the country. Takes only an hour or two. This border crossing just recently opened up to forgeiners and we have avoided all packages offered... as they charge you 3 or 4 times this much and but you on a crowded boat for two days... we figure we beat the system... we'll see how it goes. and hopefully money is not too much of a problem, as the ATM machines there do not accept forgein cards, only in one city do they work... should be alright to get there with the cash I have, about 8000 baht...
alright. I've got a couple things to take care of and a good nights sleep to catch. wish me luck and I'll write again from Laos

Leaving Thailand for Laos in the morning! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Spiders, Scorpians, Snakes, Elephants...

2006-05-24T11:08:32Z

What a trek!
Got back into Chang Mai this afternoon after 3 days in the jungle!
This walk was a breeze, speaking from a cardiovascular viewpoint, compared to the 4 day treck I did in New Zealand, with only 900M vertical and between 20-30km walking distance spread out over 3 days... but there is no use comparing, this trek was off the charts in catagories the other treks didn't even register in...
The trek was done in a group... at first I didn't want to go with a guide and a group... but by the middle it was quite apparent that this was very nessesary.. and besides, the group was fun. two really funny irish couples, a couple of Malasian guys and a couple Argentianian girls (who only stayed for a day and then went separate ways) and our tour guide was a really lively tibes guy who learned english recently. really fun charectar...
Day one was pretty lax.. just alot of walking... I had my douts to be honest... eventually we got a a little waterfall... I was thinking in my head..... "Wow. that's nothing compared to..." but when we climbed up the rest of the hill to the top of the falls and found ourselves in a hill tribe community, I changed my mind a bit... what is going on here? we kept walking and stayed with the next hill tribe in a hut. Really amazing how these people live! The grow all of their own food, including the chickens, pigs and cows wandering about the site... interesting how they are adjusting their way of life while trying to keep their traditions as intact as possible... Really hard to type all of it out... anyhow, stayed there one night... Brandon found a scorpian in our bedding when we first got there... he thought it was a leaf, picked it up and threw it a ways away... it proceeded then to run back under the bedding... I captured the thing in a plastic bag and asked one of the english speaking tribes people if it was poisonus. She said "this very bad. it hrt you" and killed it immediately. Apparently if it stings you it is unbearably painful for about ten hours. She says "you cry for 10 hours". No sweat.
We left in the morning and trekked most of the next day, every so often passing through another hill tribe community... various states of development... some of them just thatch shacks, some of them with some stucco buildings and water reseviour tanks and such... stopped at little community surrounded by rice paddies for lunch cooked over a fire in a hut and continued on... arrived at our bungalows that evening in time for a swim, in the basin of the huge waterfall we were staying next to! nice big cave back behind the waterfall... lots of rocks to climb around... a volleyball made an appearence and noone got seriously injured, what more could you ask for?
At this place we found a spider that was bigger than my hand... made those big spiders in Australia look like toy bugs. this thing was scary... luckily it wasn't in our bed.... altough I did find a spider with a body the size of a marble on my chest inside my shirt after a little solo trek earlier today.. he would have been in my shirt for at least 10 minutes without me noticing.. but didn't bite, thank god... and Brandon and I found a little snake yesterday too. not sure if it was poisonus or not... just a baby. anyhow... the place was bloody beautiful... right in the bamboo jungle. stayed the night in an ant filled bungalow after playing lots of strange games around the fire... which ended up all of our faces covered in kettle black and sides half split from laughing... fell asleep to the sound of the crashing waterfall.
that takes us up to this morning... se off early for a short day of trekking (saw an even bigger spider... one that can kill a cobra and live in the ground in a tunnel thing. big and furry and scary. biggest arachnid I've seen in the wild...) ened up in a small village and went bamboo rafting. I loved it. When I was a kid we had a little raft in the slue hole back home... this was a glorified version of that... made of about 6 or 7 twelve foot or so long bamboo poles bound together. 5 of us on each raft, including the guy who knows what we're doing... with me steering our boat, standing, on the rear. At first the water was nice and calm... didn't stay that way... every here and there we went through some light rapids with rocks. few little bumps, everybody still on board... we got to a part where the front of the boat made it but the back (where I was) contacted the rocky shore really hard, tossing me off the boat onto a large rock. very smooth, I didn't even trip... but the boat kept going. the other guy slowed the boat. I noticed the boat behind them was coming quick so I scrambled up and along the rocks to make it back to my boat before impact... I had to make a bit of a leap back onto the boat and slipped in the process.... hhahah. went overboard into the river! got onto my boat real quick, but still got soaked up to my chin in the river... and got a good laugh out of everyone... I can imagine the whole situation woulkd have appeared very comical... it all happened so fast noone even knew how I got off of the boat in the first place... good fun.
After bamboo rafting, we travelled collectivo-style to an elephant colony.. and rode elephants for an hour or so. Amazing animals they are! 3 of us on each (two people and, again, someone who knows what they are doing) bought a heap of banannas for 20Baht to feed them while riding... really funny animals. I figured we'd just ride them around on a flat trial in the forest or something.... but the trail was really up and down and muddy as hell. I don't think I could have climbed it aif I tried... so the ride definetly wasn't boriong... it was actually difficult to stay on this massive animal as it was slipping down the muddly slopes. Brandon was really bloody happy. That was his one goal in coming to thailand. he told me this months ago. seriously. that was his only goal. ride and elephant, everything else is open.
rode elephant.
check.
after that... back to town. shower and wash clothes in the sink. our hotel room sucks. bloody unbearbaly hot and the shower is nothing more than a half dozen pinstreams of water. I took off the shower head. get a better flow from just a pipe coming out of the wall. Best of all, this one takes the cake, our room is not only situated on the sunned side of the building, and has no airconditioning, but it also has a chicken processing plant that only operates during the night, when we are trying to sleep. the view out of our window is into the top of the plant, where you can see heaps of dead chickens dropping into a swirling bin being mixed with water and stirred by a thai man with a stick. There are other basins and conveyor belts... and muffled sounds of alarmed chickens may be heard in waves. much sound then none at all, much and then none. The smells wafting in the room follow this same pattern... all of them unpleasant. We will be gone soon.
it's now pouring rain... at least it's cooled off a bit. We saw the bare sun for the first time in this country today... after being here for 7 or 8 days. the back of my neck is a bit pink, as it has not seen sun in years... because of a cetain mass of hair that has been shading it...
one more night at this shitty hotel and then our pre-booked arrangement we made is up. thank god. never booking anyhting again. bunch of con artisits they are... oh well. we paid our dues and understand how things work now. We're runnning our own show from here on.
Thinking of heading to Laos and Cambodia in a day or two.... but it's really difficult to get into Laos by just arriving at the border... and we don't want to travel back to Bangkok to get a visa... if I can find a way to get to Udon Thani we can enter at friendship bridge... but that is a long ways from here. see if things come together on that one. would be nice to see a couple of thailands neighbors, and that way we can extend our thailand visas....
ok. the rain has slowed up a bit. a couple of blocks to sprint back to the hotel and settle into my new book. I'm reading "Mr. Nice" by Howard marks... an autobiography of a matermind criminal genious. nice read.
alright. I send my love. send some good vibes my way... help me manifest a way into Laos!

Spiders, Scorpians, Snakes, Elephants... remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Geckos and things...

2006-05-19T15:38:23Z

Beautiful country I'm in...
I'd put up some postcard shots but this computer has got a version of windows too old to reognize my card reader... so I can't even dump my card to make a backup!
Bugs and lizzards all over here!
A cricket was just jumping all over me, as I am typing.. and my mouse wasn't working properly.. there was a hard shelled beetle between it and the pad...Brandon and I have observed that there is a particular type of flying inscet that comes out just after dark is fairly large, likes buzzing around flourescent lights and looks kind of like a dragon fly beetle of some sort... it appears to be gecko food, as all of them are gone very shoertly (within an hour) once the geckos emerge and catch them all... then the geckos can be heard "geck-ing" contentendly..
Spent the day checking out 700 some-odd-year-old temples today... all of the sights around the old city of Sukhothai. Rainy and kind of miserable today... so we spent an extra few buckls and got a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around for 3 hours... I think he ripped us off... but hey, it only cost about $8 for a 3 hour private escort... can't complain too loudly...
We bought a deck of cards today... after much shopping about and searching... we were astounded when the first deck cost 350 baht (over $10 cnadian) we found some at 7eleven (there are 7eleven's bloody well everywhere here! and heaps of KFC and Mcdonalds too... too bad... guess those fat homesick ameriacans have to eat somewhere, hey? (I'm sorry, that wasn't very PC, or nice for that matter... but I'll leave it in)) annnyway... the cards there cost 470baht, bloody well $14CAD! we managed to barter a small shop keep down to 130 baht, more like $4CAD... which is more doable... guess they don't play cards in this town?! annyhow
we figure our TAT "travel agent" ripped us off... not soo bad, still much heaper than Austraila or somerthing, we figure, so far, could have arranged everything ourselves much cheaper... hard to tell how much things are worth and what is a good deal and what is not when you first get someplace new, into a stange culture... We will make our own arrangements in the future, now that we're getting the swing of things and can see how things work around here...
ohhh! and we got A thai masssage. my god! these epople know massage! 300 baht/hour (less than $10 CAD) for the best type... aromatherapy oil, accupressure massage... they work every part of your body... wash and scrub your feet, use their hands, elbows and knees to hit every point... you feel like a nice smelling, well oiled, very relaxed noodle afterward! beauty. $10 very well spent! in australia that gets you a fast foosd meal... here $10 gets you an hour of premium massage or a night's accomidation, a meal and a 2 hour train ride!
This town is nice, but it is very small, very remote and we've seen all of the temples, and eaten almost every type of dish at the local restaurants (our favorite leisure activity, eat some kind of new thai food...) so we are headed off tomarrow morning for Chang Mai in the morn (feels like we've been in Sukhothai for ages... but's this is only our second evening) 4 more hours by bus, I think.. and we will be in the "wonderful" city of Chang mai. The locals here speak of it very highly... so we will check it out and do our rainforest trek. and see from there. thinking we might go back south and check out Cambodia for a short while before heading down to the islands... but yeah. we will see.
I am exhausted. been sleeping very soundly... and I have found help for my knee. I've been giving it intensive tiger balm applications, followed by a very tight specialized knee compress/brace. It is healing very quickly and gives me almost no pain from the second day of giving it this treatment... wish I knew that 2 weeks ago! hahah it's all good. hopefully it holds up alright for this 30-40km trek to come...
ok... this place is great.. another nice thing, we have seen almost NO other tourists here... very seldom do we see anyone with white skin, usually it's just me... and everybody thinks Brandon is thai... or Japanese... he does look Thai, I think... but he's actually Chinese.
cricket on the keybourd... I've shoo-ed him onto the "Alt" key.. where he seems to be making hinmself comfortable while type around him....
ok... on that note, I'm off back to my accomidation, the "Vitoon guest house" clean, nice staff (who speak about 4 words of english), hot showers, no A/C.. lots of geckos all over the place oh and it's got a bed... lovely bed.
alright. love you all! I'll try to write again before we embark on our trek!

Geckos and things... remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Thailand!

2006-05-17T10:55:18Z

Hello again! This time I'm typing from a little compuer in our host's home in the city of Ayutthaya in the wonderful kingdom of Thailand!
We spent the first couple of nights in Bangkok. incredibly bstling city with pollution so thick you don't need sunscreen... when peole see you with a backpack they swarm around you trying to see you things and take you places...
The "tuk tuk" drivers are wonderful... you can take a little 3 wheel vehical big enough to carry two passengers all round the downtown all afternoon for about 60 baht (about $1.75CAD) and they wait for you while you are going into temples and seeing Buddhas... sitting Buddha, standing Buddha, lucky Buddha, reclining Buddha, and the list goes on. Beautiul city, heaps to see and do... Brandon and I were payng about 400 baht for a night ($12CAD) for a twin room... so split that two ways.... very nice
Decided to go up to Chang Mai and do a trek. We booked with the TAT, the ourism agency here.. Not entirely sure if the deal is as sweet as it could be... but all of our travel and acomidation is included, we climb into the thai rainforest... mountains, ride elephants and bamboo rafts for part of it... stay with the locals and what have you... and it's all very much within our budget. We arrive in Chang Mai in a few days.
Thailand is amazing. The people we have met are very friendly, and genuinely helpful (or in the case of some, the polar opposite) the food is excellent (I just finished a plate of octopus and squid with rice and an amzazing chili sauce for less than $5) We spent the day ridinga train in the morning and the afternoon visitng beautiful old temples and I saw the hugest gold buddha I have ever seen today. The climate is nice. humid and very warm. we are staying at a high class place tonight... thinking of getting an aromatic oil accupressure massage tonight (the best is $12/h!) and going out to see the temples with their night lighting. off by bus (long ride) tomarrow to our next stop in Sukhothai for a couple of nights.
this keyboard is crap. seriously. it's in thai and english and it's in my host's house.. kids computer. I should go. Their mom gave them the boot so I could go on... I feel bad.
ok. all is well. we're healthy, exploring lots... saw elephants, geckos, thai squirrels and a striped centipeed half a foot long today hahah. and we're out of bangkok so things are much more relaxed. our accomidations are really booked and really upper class for the next few days.. so we're good.
Alright. love you all and e're having the time of our lives!

Thailand! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Sea Kyaking and Skydiving

2006-05-14T02:42:13Z

I get to check off another thing from my "thing's I've always wanted to do" list.
I jumped out of a turboprop plane at 13,000ft (4km) yesterday! bloody amazing experiance! impossible to decribe the sensation of it... But my timing was perfect, watched the sun set while falling from the sky!
I jumped Tandem (you can't go alone unless you have training and 16-25 dives or so) my jump instructor had about 11000 jumps under his belt, so I wasn't worried about saftey. I trusted the gear because he trusted the gear and he's strapped to me... there were 2 other tandem jumpers and two singles, so 8 jumpers in our plane. I watched the two singles go and I was the first tandem to go. you're on the front, so in the dicve you can't even see the person you're strapped to unless he reached around to give you signals.
Jumping out of the plane and the first 10 seconds or so are the freakiest... We jumped quick, right after the two singles. you hang out of the plane, not holding onto anything, only secured by your connection to your partner, smile for the camera and it's go time. You drop out of the plane, the first 5 seconds are really unstable, you can barely tell which way is up, two taps on the shoulder means you can uncross your arms and move your head. The first 10 seconds you're accelerating to 200km/h. the feeling of falling like that will never leave me. when I think of it, I feel it all over again! I bloody love it! once you hit terminal velocity it's just falling. the feeling in your stomach settles out...and you experiance the strongest wind you've ever felt, blowing right through your bones, the skin on your face practically rippling as it is being flash frozen by the windchill (it's -15c up there) and a the violent roar of the wind part your ears, which are covered by your dive cap, thank god.
We dropped from above the clouds at, so we fell through layers of them... it was almost totally clear in our area just a few light wispy bits on the way down, but there were lots of cool clouds in the near horizon, all 360 dgrees of it. You could see everything from Nelson to golden bay and the farewell spit! and we were over Moteka! When you're falling, looking straight down is kind of boring (as boring as it could be) because the ground below appears to be stationary, even when you're falling that fast... it's much more interesting to observed your periphery, the layers of clouds going by, what you can see on your horizons... the fact that you can see everything all around you and there is nothing between you and it as you're hurtling towards the earth, etc.
We did about 10 horizontal rotations near the end... like a propeller spinning horizontal. that was really cool. interesting g-forces when you do that!
at about 5000-4500 feet, after 50 seconds of freefall, your dive partner pulls the chute. you hear it pop, it's like a mini explosion from above, you get a good yank on your many, many pointed harness (the decelleration is not as jarring as I had imagined) and then everything is silent. dead silent. you realize that your ears are "popped" really far past... like when you scuba dive, but not painful. I did my ear clearing excersizes (lot's of airplane rides to practice on on this trip) and my hearing came back... I took off my goggles, my instructor loosened some of the harnesses for comfort and I kicked back for a nice floating around. that part was really pleasant. Incredible view (beautiful sunset) and you get to tell your partner what you want to look at and he points out what and where everyhting is, etc.
That part lasts about 5 minutes or so.
On the way down we visited one of the other dive pairs in the sky... flying close enough that we could almost shake hands and then dived into a really tight spin. that was really intense. you fall very quick and almost blackout as the blood gets sucked out of your brain and fills your legs. A nice corkscrew spin and a swoop and then came in for a nice soft landing. beautiful experiance. I would have hopped back in the plane right off the landing pad, had I been able to justify it finacially.. (the plane was already on the ground when we landed so I literally could have hopped right back in)
All in all, best $260nz I have ever spent! and something that a person really has to experiance to beable to understand..
aside from that experiance, in which everything else pales in comparison... hahah I had a really cool last couple of days.
I took a shuttlebus out of Nelson to Marahau at the end of the road, beginning of the trails in Abel Tasman national park. Really different there than I imagined... it's renound for it's golden beaches. The tides go out an incredible distance.. it's two different places, at high tide and at low tide as the low tide receeds 200-300m to reveal a scaping sand plane. I stayed at a backpackers called "The Barn" which was really cool. I reccomend it. 8 bunks in a sort of giant bunkbed arrangement (and twin and double rooms upstairs) Stained glass windows, skylights and fireplace, all in a log cabin style structure. really cool. Met some really nice people there, and learned an Israeli card game... I know how to say the name, but not spell it. fun game though.
In the morning I hastily booked a last minute Kayak trip.. which I found out was a guided tour in two person kayaks, which turned out to be alright. 4 of us including the guide, who was actually a really cool Kiwi dude. kyaked down a river inlet to the sea, which was cool because the bottom of the river was salt water with a skim of fresh water on top. you could see the level by leaves floating on the salt water below the fresh layer (I actually taught the guide that) then out into the calm waters of the bay. Explored the coastline, saw some geological features... broken apple, Elvis's head, etc, kyaked around an island and into a cave (the cave bit was really cool) stopped for lunch on a beach and what have you. Was pretty cool.. but I would have rather got myself a single kayak and wandered about on my own...that, and not pay $75 for a 5 hour excursion.
The skydive outfit piced me up in Marahau and dropped me in Nelson, saving me $17 on a shuttle bus fair (hitchin is not an option when you have to catch a flight in the morning) so was convienient.. but yeah between $260 for the skydive, $75 for kyaking, $20 for a hostel bed back at the Palace and $16 for a case of beer to celebrate... it made for an expensive day. Luckily free food found it's way to me. everywhere along the way.
Shipped home my camping gear, and warm weather gear, and everything else I didn't need in Thailand (13kg, $170nz to send, yikes!) it's great to have a nice light pack for a change!
Flew from Nelson to Christchurch today. It's miserably rainy here right now. I fly out in the morning to Thailand via Auckland and Hong Kong.I'm stupidly excited about that! I can't wait to see Asia!
ok. I'm going to go and give Jamie from Vipassana a ring and find some food. think there is a 5 dollar thai place nearby... but I'll be eating lots of thai soon!
I can tell already I'm going to miss the kiwi accent. I love the way they talk. I'll be back. for sure.
ok. love you all and next update will be from thailand!

Sea Kyaking and Skydiving remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

A series of small miracles...

2006-05-12T02:08:01Z

man.
this last few days has been reallllly eventful. I figured I should write an entry before I forget everything that has happened...
The last entry I wrote from Wanaka, down south... I'm on the opposite end of the south island of New Zealand now... up north!
From Wanaka I walked a few km out of town, after booking a doctors appointment for my leg, figuring out that my insurance policy wouldn't cover it and deciding it wasn't worth the wait (it is healing now... much less painful most of the time)
anyhow... I walked to "Puzzling world" I'd love to take the kids there... it was really fun. payed $10 entry to do a 3D walk around maze... the best I have ever seen, and to go through the illusion rooms...I haven't done anythign like that in a long time. so it was really fun. definetly worth while.
from there I proceeded to hitch toward the west coast... first ride was really quick. electrical van drove me to the next town over then hooked a ride with a guy that claimed he was Bill clinton's and John Travolta's chef... no doubt in my mind that he was... he forgot some files at a restaurant about 80km up the road... drove like hell to get there and dropped me off near a little hamlet right near dark as the rain was beggining to come down. I hitched for over an hour, right into the darkness. there were all of 4 cars. I was just scoping out a place to camp after the last car went by as a vehical teavelling in the opposite direction passed, slowed, turned around and pulled up. In the car was a young couple... They said they saw me, knew that there was no traffic and that it was raining and stopped a ways up the road to make room. they also asked if I didn't mind sitting in the back with their pet rats! I threw my stuff in the hatch and hopped in. they were headed to fox glacier... a good ways up the west coast.. they were also running a buisness very similar to the one I want to set up when I get home... making a product and marketing it. They were actually making their rounds with their customers... and yeah.. so we drove into the night, talking buisness, me hanging out with the rats in the back seat...
When we got to Fox glacier we put ourselves up at a backpackers and grabbed some beers... talked half the night way about everyhting under the sun. really wonderful people. I wish them all the best in their buisness ventures and in their lives together. beautiful souls, both of them...
We travelled together the next day aswell... all the way up to Nelson, at the top of the south island, stopping along the way for them to check up with thier customers and to their marketing thing. great adventures...
found this really cool hostel in Nelson... some guy chased us down as we were backing out the car.. promised us free breakfast and a fgood deal... so we figured we'd check it out. The guy was Dave.. the runs "the Palace" if you ever find yourself in Nelson, check this place out.. stay a while. it's a group of buildings over 100 years old... wood paneled ceilings, chandeliers... vines and palms all grown together in the yrds.. spa and really rad decor. And the type of people than hang out there are definetly on my page... really odd people... spiritual seekers and such. great times...
I'm flying down to christchurch day after tomarrow... really dumb of me but I booked a ticket to Auckland from christchurch and now I'm in Nelson... I can't cancel the ticket so I have to fly to christchurch now and then back up to Auckland.... cheap flight, only $93NZ, a bus is $70 and takes 8.5 hours.. so I figured just take a 45 minute plane ride... ahaha and besides I'm already spending way too much money, so what's another $100.
anyhow... making some plans.. go out to Able tasman maybe? jump out of an airplane maybe?
I'll figure it out...
Happy mothers day mom!
and I love you all.
things are well and I should get a chance to write one more entry here in N.Z. before flying to Thailand on the 15th!

A series of small miracles... remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

South African creationists and sandflies

2006-05-08T07:36:40Z

I have had the most bizzare experiances in the last few days..
The ride that picked me up after a couple of hours wait coming out of Te Anau was a crazy kiwi couple that drove 170km/h til the highway split and we went separate ways. good fun. next ride was a cool kiwi guy, lives in Denmark and NZ. follows the good weather. a musician. hooked up right to the nose. buddies with AJ hackett and all them. yeah. he drove me back to Queeenstown, where I waited for the rest of the bloody day.
I've got to tell you something...
I am back on track.
you know how I can tell? the universe is responding to my requests again... now that I am finished resisting it. resisting what is.
I've known for a long time what I was supposed to do... I was supposed to cut off my hair. every ounce of my being told me to do it... but I resisted. (oh and Dad - uncle Ernie did get through to me. he came to me in a dream and told me to cut off my hair. I did the next morning)
things are back on.
where I was going with thaat all... is that by the evening of that day hitching I was desparate for a ride as it was getting dark... I requested for some nice christians to see my limping down the road and pick me up.... within 10 minutes a guy with two kids on bicycles rides by... stops to talk, offers a place to stay... the conversation is open. I say I want to try to hitch until dark, he says he'll meet me at the bridge later... yaddah yadda... dark comes, I'm at the bridge, he's back and picks me up with his friend and daughter. we go into town and buy a stupid amount of food. they're nice people.
we go back to their place and barbecue enough meat to feed an army, get drunk and hang out. two south african couples (white but born and raised there) 3 kids the same ages of my niece and nephews. I put together that they were christians because they mention curch once within the first 5 minutes of meeting them all, we held hands and said grace at dinner... but it wasn' until we had a few drinks did the bible/creationist convo really begin. my god. these poeple were intense. Creationism is very much like scientology.... we talked the night way and I spent the better half of Today talking to Lea, the mom of the kids... holy shit. I could never buy into it... but it is very fascinating to me... to observe the poeple that do... yeah...
Great meal, wonderful huuuuge home with a spectacular view... biiig bed (sooo nice!) and they bandaged up my knee (my knee is f*%&ed right up) and dropped me off at the highway this afternoon, where I got picked up by the most georgeous chilean girls... my god were they beautiful. sat me between them all cozy like in their campervan and listened to their cultural music. my god. I have to learn the language. good ride, but only going to Cromwell. next ride was an irish couple and a dutch guy. dropped me in Wanaka. I'm staying at the Purple Cow hostel. nice place.
Really amazing how different people react to me without my dreads. cute (normal) girls smiling at me and saying hi. I can talk easily with the kind of people I normally despise because they wont look me in the eye...
mainly... people aren't afraid of me... or intimidated or whatever it was.... really interesting to me.
that an it's great to feel my head. I still haven't shaved my head... just wearing the fuzzy shag that is my noraml hair... all different length. I like it.
So yeah. plan is... headed up the west coast and then toward christchurch... might take the train from greymouth or somthing. see what transpires. have about a week to do it. and I am planning on shipping most of my shit home before heading to thailand. far too much to carry needlessly in asia. gonn cost me a small fortune to do so though. send it by sea or something.
ok. I'm alive... been bitten right up by sandflies and can barely walk without my walking stick... but I'm still kickin!

South African creationists and sandflies remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

New begginings

2006-05-06T10:09:34Z

I'm back and I'm alive!
just spent an hour in the hostel hottub!
I didn't do the milford track... there was torrential downpour in the forcast for my day of ascent... so I chose the keppler track. Total distance walked in the past 4 days, over 70km. 1200m vertical (3600 feet for all you feet and inches people)
Unbelivable trek. Only downside was that my knee was acting up.. I forget how I injured it but it was a long time ago... crops up every now and then.... It started half way through the first day, on my ascent and remained very painful throughout the entire trek. I toyed with the idea of turning back after the first night... but decided to proceed with determination. I didn't climb a mountian to go back down the same way I came.... so I walked back down to the treeline and cut myself a walking stick.. and ventured on. really glad I did. hobbled on like an old man for the remaining 55km.
Spent the second day above the treeline, in the snow, wind and rain. MY GOD. no person on earth could have chosen a better colour sceme for a landscape! (don't worry, I took shitloads of pictures) I took the side trips to two mountain summits along the way and decended on day two. spent the last couple of days in the bush. Stayed in the huts along the way. ($10 a night, down from $40 in the high season) There were very few other trampers... in one of the huts we moved the matresses into the kitchen and crowed around the woodstove telling stories half trhe night.... at the hut last night I met a german girl on a very similar spiritual path to myself... vipassana meditator/dreamer... conversation started with dreams... I asked what she does, she says primary school teacher, I resopond by telling her that I was a priomary school teacher in my dreams the night before... which I was... symbolic of new begginings... probably a result of my cutting off of my dreadlocks the day earlier! ahahha yeah. I have no hair. well almost no hair. it's about an inch long or so. really intense experiance. I cut them off naked in the forest (getting too personal here?) on an island where a river splits in two, (a loop in the lifeline of the handprint of god) I cut them off with a pocket knife. been cutting them off every now and then and leaving them in places that were special to me... top of mountains... on the north island... gave one to chrysi.... yeah...
I feel really good about it. soooo nice to beable to feel my head! and to shower and not feel like a drowned rat afterward!!! and people respond to me much differently. really bizzare how much changes when you change a hairsyle... altough it has been 4 or 5 years.... anyway...
ok. time is running out! check my pictures section if you haven't already... check the last message or the one before for the link. I'll post more pics when I find a place that isn't $1 for every 10minutes....
I've got to go.
off back to queenstown toamrrow... then north.,
fly out of christchurch on the 15th.
love you all. gtg

New begginings remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Queenstown

2006-05-01T23:55:26Z

Hangin out in queenstown. Bought a last minute flight. Queenstown is very beautiful but it's cold. 10-12 degrees here for a high today, near freezing at night and it's getting cooler in the next couple of days.
ok. this keyboard has a few buttons not working so well... so try to look past it.
Went out the other night and partied it up good and hard with a British fellow named Kieran (british backpackers everyhwere!) and a cute german girl, Karen. that was loads of fun... been a while since I've done that...
Still have not indulged in any Adrenaline sports... here is THE place to do it thought 4 or 5 bungee jumps here, sky dive, fly by wire, canyon swing, speed boats, white water rafting you name it, it's here and it's 3 times more expensive than you thought it would be.
My budget is dead broke right now. I have money enough to live modestly and travel by way of the thumb... anythng else is going to hve to go on my credit card.... That is alright as I am not in the jump-off-something-really-high kind of spirit right now... I would much rather be alone in pristine nature. soooo... I think I am going to head out to do the milford Track... one of the best in the world and I think I can get out there and back (couple of boats and t least 5 hours on the bus from Te Anau) for $150 or so. and the season is past by a few days so I wont have to book it a year in advance. just have to pick up some gear.... we'll see how it works out.
so... if you don't hear from me for more than one week - that is where I am... no wories, as I will surely have to register before I do the track, so the D.O.C. will know where I am.
a little more than 2 weeks and I'll be in thailand. warm. cheap.
ok. time is up. will write soon.
love you all.
NEW ZEALAND PHOTOS!http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/fenderson/

Queenstown remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Meditation on the north island

2006-04-27T02:37:21Z

Hey all.
Long time no write...
I've emailed most of you yesterday.... especially the ones that thought I was dead... I've been meditating and working for no wages. at Dhamma Medini near Kaukappakappa, N.Z. on the north island, north of Auckland.
What an adventure it has been... hitching out after visiting Anna at the mount could not have gone better...we hopped on a couple of busses to get us out of the Tauranga area and walked up a hill... layed in the grass for a while to collect ourselves and Nick stuck out his thumb while I juggled a few Fijaroes (a strange new zealand fruit I found on the side of the highway - I tasted it, was good...ate a few of them and then later found out the were safe to eat, don't condone doing this, but I figured it was alright...it's sort of cross between a pear or guava and a passionfruit or something...bizzare) and we hooked a ride straight to where we were headed.. about 4 hours from there...the fellow at first was pretty serious and stodgey... but after a while I started to get his bone-dry sense of humour... he's a was a sound engineer... likes his drink and was very well spoken... he took us around Auckland when we arrived there... to a bunch of the major radio staions... the rock, some talk station... to the major rebroadcasting hubs.... all of his workplaces...met some of the radio personalities and his cooworkers, saw the studios the were setting up and got to take photos of the Auckland skyline with the tower from a studio on the upper floor of a tall building with a view... interesting times... and he drove us right to Kaukappakappa, near to the vipassana center there. We ended up walking (after dark) from this tiny little town, 2km out in the country, down a little road and then through a pasture and up a huuuuge hill...set up our tents up there.. had a great sleep and woke up to the fog clearing out of a a beautiful panoramic valley. phenomenal. hiked down and got a ride before even setting up to hitch... to the turnoff and walked about 4 or 5 km to the center...
Origianlly planned on sitting for 5 days and then serving for 5 days... but at the last minute was asked to serve for the whole 10 days... I agreed and spent my sesion working 6-8 hours a day for the 10 days... had about 5-6 hours a day to meditate... great times...had 10 different nationalities working in the kitchen (columbia, canada, germany, uk, japan, china, france, kiwi, aussie, and burma)
Yeah.. this session was not like the others... I was serving this time... cooking meals and doing dishes... getting one hour meditation periods, like islands, between. Really had to go really deep when you're working like that. There is alot of benifit to working these sessions... very humbling experiance and you are genuinely helping other peoiple for the right reasons.. and allowing them the chance to plunge deep into the deths of their unconcious minds, purififying them of destructive mental conditioning... best charity I can think of... because I have lived the results of it and know how good it is... And at the end of the session there was a guy from portugal who had this really beautiful sweater he was trying to sell, hand made in chile, purchased there (so that he could donate the money to the vipassana foundation) I wanted it.. but couldn't afford to give much. decided I wanted it and by the time I got back, an italian guy had bought it. I was kind of let down, but accepted it... later that day, the Italian guy knocked on the kitchen door I came to the door and he gave me the sweater, insisting that I have it, he was giving it from the bottom of his heart - I accepted it... bloody well made my day. I have never had anything quite like that happen. I was very touched. and thanked him thourally. Very rarely do you get to see such pure volition. at these sessions it runs rampant... every body giving and loving for the right reasons! if the outside world ran that way.........
anyway... I now have a beautiful new sweater and a bunch of new friends all over the planet! This session was actually really good for me. I took charge and had really stong confidence in the kitchen... cooked alot of the main courses (in batches big enough to feed 80 people, mind you) and was incharge of managing cleanup duties and such. really empowering to know that I am capable of organizing a group of a dozen people or so and actually getting the task accomplished efficiently with that many minds...
The whole time I stayed, I slept in a big canvas tent, which on the last day partially collapsed and flooded in a crazy storm which left the whole area flooded, all of the rivers at high water level and some roads submerged, wetting all of my gear.. soaking my wallet, etc. lovely... if I hadn't been meditating for the previous ten days that really would have pissed me off... but I was fine. I spent my evenings with hundereds of glow works in the forest... wonderful experiance. Cudos to John and Viviane especially for their wonderful company and inspiration!
And now I am back in Auckland. Spent last night in A YHA hostel just up the street. There were 4 of us from Vipassana staying there... spent the evening talking of our travels and what have you... and I introduced a bunch of people to "trailer park boys" because it came on TV last night and I insited that they watch it. hahah! they were as disgusted with it as I thought they would be... as disgusted with it before I watched a few episodes and learned to love it for what it is. hahah
anyhow... I am thinking of flying to qeenstown tomarrow... it's 1700km, wayy down on the other end of newzealnd... the end close to the south pole. it's going to be cold down there (shit, I just looked at the weather forcast for down there... and it's 6 degrees celcius right now and it's almost noon! ahhh! high of 13 degrees at the warmest part o the week! ahhh!) it's gonna cost me $180Nz ($135 canadian) to fly down there.. but I think it's a good bet... because it's just going to get colder and I really want to just get down there, go exploring and make my way back up as far north as I can... just kind of stupid how I planned things... I'm in Auckland right now, I fly out of auckland in 3 weeks but want to go somewhere that is 1700km away and get back to heare in that time... I'm going to be travelling alot in the next few weeks here.... oh well. it's gonna be fun... and then it's off to Thailand! yeyyyyah am I ever excited about that! My mate brandon in Sydney has bought his ticket too... he's meeting me in Bangkok and we're trippin around for a few weeks. gonna be a great!
ok. I'm going to try to get some pics up now. I'll write again soon... probably from queenstown. gonna check on those tickets right now.. all. talk soon.
Ok... it's the next day and I'm in queenstown! it's 10deg C and it's midday! no more flip-flops for me! just a little note to let you know that I uploaded over 60 new pictures, all of New Zealand!

Meditation on the north island remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

NZ!

2006-04-12T23:28:10Z

Hey guys!
givin out a little shout from a place they call "The Mount" where Anna is working at the backpackers we've been staying at.
Actually quite a lovely place... lots of really pretty dutch and Danish girls... some Canadians (3 of us at least from Edmonton here!)
Things went really well qafter the last post I wrote from Taupo. we got picked up by a nice Maouri woman (the local native's here are called Mauoris) who took us around to see the geothermal powerplants here... I got a photo of part of it... but missed the huge valley of steaming pipes and turbines... amazing stuff.... and she told us of a series of earthquakes in the area about two weeks ago - Dad, perhaps you could look up "Rotorua" on USGS? it's on the north island. there are guisers in the middle of towns and things and hot pools everywhere... and then got picked up by the most wonderful lady right before dark... a really beautiful Irish woman with many stories to tell... wonderul energies there and she wants to visit Canada. I told her that I wuld put her and Leah into contact. I just know they would love eachothers company! anyhow... she drove us to Rotorua, where we camped out on the side of the highway where we could hear the mudpools bubbling and "blopping" all around us... had to get up nice and early because it was on privately owned land and there were construction crews moving in... so we got an early start. the whole place there smelled really stronglty of sulfer, it's nickname was "Rotopooa".. .wonder why? I actually like the smell there....
Next day all of our rides were Mauori people... first guy had a full mask of Mauori art tatooed on his face. cool guy. Next guy had a gun in the vehical... which he made us aware of from the start. He was a hunter and was very knowlegable of the area. I even got to ask him about the wallabies that we saw the night before... they are introduced... thought I was in tasmania when I saw them...
next ride was a huuuuge french-german-mauori guy... think he had a drug problem, which we later figured out... but he picked us up twice... took us around town to sell crystals and read our auras.... apparently I've got alot of green... alot of live! hahah
ok. weird time to leave off, but my time is up.
got to go. hitching to north of aukland! Vipassana time!

love you guys!

NZ! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Back on the road with my thumb out

2006-04-10T03:39:53Z

OK. my travel plans have taken an interesting twist.
I originally planed on spending most of my time on the south island of New Zealnd then doing a bit of the north. Nick and I decided one night at 2am to head to the norht island for a bit. We're headed to the vipassana center in just under a week. see some of the sights along the way. so we jumped a bus 4 hours later to Picton (5 hours), the ferry port on the S. island. took the boat ($45nz/3 hours) to Wellington. Spent a night in the backpackers there after our attemps to camp on private property were spoiled. good times with the germans in the hostel. set off in the morning. spent $9nz on an hour long train ride and a short bus out of the city to a nice hitching point, on the Kapi coast, near Kapi island. (This was Nick's first hithiking experiance, BTW) - Waited no longer than 10 minutes and got picked up. In the car was our german friend from the hostel, who had been waiting just down the road from us. The driver (dutch/cuban) had plenty of room and felt very good about filling his car full of travellers and gear. We drove for about 5 hours, to Turangi.. stoppping at a few sights along the way and pitching a few bucks on petrol (a mere fraction of the would-have-been $75nz bus ticket each)
While in the car I was communicating with Henning and Maki via text (I get free text messaging on my mobile phone on weekends here in Nz) and made arrangements to meet up with them in Turangi. met up, got some beer and headed out to the nearest country spot, set up near a river on a narrow path. Henning, his brother, Cort, and Maki and then Nick and I... we built a fire, drank our beers.. told stories and jokes, and then it started pouring rain and we had to move into the one big tent. continued to tell stories and more jokes, and then jokes that made us all sick... and eventually, at some point slept... not before wandering in the rain in the forest watching the many, many glowworms dotting the forest like stars in the sky.
good times... Went to the local thermal pools, just down the road after breakfast... stayed in until we were all woozy and then wandered about the hot sprigs and mudpools in the nature conserve. Henning, Maki and Cort had to continute on so we parted ways and
Nick and I checked into the backpackers in Turangi... as our gear was throurally soaked and the weather was not improving. Was a really nice backpackers... had a nice big climbing wall which we climbed on until we couldn't climb any more yesterday after the hot springs. we even got into free climbing... which was reall fun. Nick took a fall... about 5 metres before his rope pulled taught. just about shit himself... was weak as a kitten afterward from the surge of adrenaline. was bloody great. I can't wait until my rock climbing muscle groups are strong enough to do what I want to make them do! I'm definetly a lifer.
Hostel was really nice. Courtyard in the middle and rooms all open into the courtyard. Cheap, ($21 for 4bed dorm), immaculately clean and all the anemnities. Spent the evenning last night, being properly exahusted, playing chess and cards and talking with an ameriacan fellow, Matthew. really great day, all in all.. and I got a chance to dry my tent!
Hit the road again today... after a lazy late checkout. Walked about 1.5km out of town. got picked up by a civil engineer... he drove us to Taupo, where we presently sit at an internet cafe. Thinking of heading up north to Rotorua or bay of Plenty... lots of volcanoes, thermal pools and things.. and Anna, (my old roomate from Canada) is up in the bay of plenty. We don't really plan very far ahead.. so we'll just see where we end up!
ok... I'm spending too much time on here. got to go. will write again soon! life is great right now!
hey - was it easter this weekend just past? just occered to me... maybe it's next weekend?

Back on the road with my thumb out remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

It's autumn here!

2006-04-06T08:36:00Z

Christchurch is probably the most beautiful city I have visited yet on this trip. The beauty is unparelled. I spent the day in the Botanical gardens with Nick today... clibing trees, and taking photos. Helped Nick buy a camera the other day - he's loving it. When you see some of the photos we've taken in the last couple of days, you'll shit. I swear. I've never seen anyhting like what I've seen today. The gardens had a really nice miniture bonsai section, fern and tropical greenhouse garderns, orchid terrarium with venus fly traps, pitcher plants and a whole variety of orchids (oh my god that was beautiful) Really beautiful duck ponds, giant gum and redwood trees... just all around wonderful place. I'd live here just to have gardens like that close to my home. Nick and I went to the rose gardens... spent over an hour meditating and literally "smelling the roses". I've never experianced anything quite like that... each type of rose smelled distinctly different.. we tried to find names for what each one reminded us of... we were running about, splitting up, shouting across the garden "come check out this one man -it smells like lemon-thai!" or hairgel, or old lady's perfume or sandalwood... or whatever it was... and we were giving out reccomendation of our favorites to the other garden patrons... we got alot of smiles today.. from random people. was really fun. Afterward we got some $5 thai food and helped Nick buy a tent...
Now yesterday was a bloody cool day.
I hooked up my celphone yesterday (BTW, my new phone number is +64 02102375175) got some sushi and hit up the local art gallery. I think my favorite artist would have to be Kees Bruin. If I could paint... I'd paint like that. He's a local and that link only brings you to a couple of his works. I have never seen that kind of realism in oils before... they looked like photos.. and we're a very intriging mix of fantasy and reality. stunning....
after the gallery wnr out and scope out some shops for a few things, grabbed a bite and hit the climing wall at the YMCA where Iam staying. 13 meter wall, $19NZ to rent a harness and shoes and climb all evening. I climbed until my hands could no longer hold onto anything. (they are starting to respond a little better today, I couldn't even open a beercan or dial a phone yesterday) I bloody loved every bit of it. Cimbed some crazy routes and pushed myself way past what I thought I was capable of. Where was I all of this time? I'm a lifer for now on. ordered a pizza with the guys at the center and climbed until it arrived. was a very welcome pizza by the time it got there.
Went back to Nicks hostel - watched "Almost Famous" I actually really like that movie and haven't seen it in a long time... and it sparked a really meaningful conversation about life beteen Nick and I afterward... not as spiritul as the one the evening before, but it very quickly turned that way when we met a lady named Joy. 66 years old, came out for some fresh air... overheard our talks and joined in with a very strong presence. She was a healer. very, very kind woman whom we talked to for the next 2 hours at least. Her an I resonated very strongly. We exchanged energies, she gifted me with healing energies.. Nick was following very cloesly on, loving every minute of it... I've got Joy's contacts in Cairns, Australia and we had a great hug before we parted ways. lovely lady... Nick has been so inspired by all that has happened to us in the last couple of days he has signed up for a vipassana retreat here in about a week... and we're goin hitchhiking for a bit, so it looks like. Very interesting to both of us how receptive he is to all of this. gets him very excited... people have been coming up to us and giving us hugs and all of the lot. things are getting interesting.. must be doing somehting right.
well besides all of that, planning my escape from the city for tomarrow or at the latest, the next day. not even sure where I am going yet... maybe Dunedin area? that direction, I think...
It gets pretty cool here at night. It's 13c outside right now and it's only 8:30pm... I'd say 18-20 degrees during the day, 10-12 degrees during the night is about accurate for where I am right now.
Money is going to be a bit of an issue here pretty quick unless I really restrain myself... either that or spend my super-special-savings I was keeping for a eurotrip... or just max out my credi card.... we'll see how it works out.
I'll write again soon and try to find a way to get some photos online... it's a matter of finding a comouter that has photo software and decent enough prices so that it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg... but belive me, I've got some gorgeous shots.. swamp cypress, gold leaved in a duck pond at sunset and the like. never seen this variety of beauty before... and again, you have to witness it for itself...photos are just shadows. albeit, pretty shadows.
ok. love you guys and I'll keep you all posted.
this trip is back on the go.

It's autumn here! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Kiwi land!

2006-04-04T14:09:06Z

(I wrote this first part yesterday, when I arrived)
I'm in christchurch!
got here at about 2 in the afternoon. I don't think they do the daylight savings time thing here... or maybe it's a different date.. I don't know.. so I'm still 18 hours ahead of Alberta time.. even though I crossed 3 timezones and DST set us two hours closer before I left Sydney.
I allllmost missed my flight to Nz. I must have turned off my alarm (had only slept 2.5 hours beforehand) woke up and it was 6:30. half hour past when I wanted to be up by... my wakup call (chrysi) had slept in too... I was only woken up by my roomie who thought I had already left because I had everyhing of mine in my room, set out ready to go.. so he was checkjing to see if I left. I snapped awake and was out of the door in less than 3 minutes. missed my bus, the next bus (20min later) had a mechanical problem and could go anyhwere, the next bus hit a car pulling out and got held up (another 20 minutes) I got to the airpot 1h20m before my flight departed. big check-in line (I was second last at final call for check-in) and then a huuuge line at customs. I got to the termianl and waited 5 minutes because the flight was a little late. Ironically enough, I was 3rd or 4th person to walk onto the plane... anyhow.. that worked out...
It's Bloody beautiful here... the leaves are changing colours, it's actually fairly warm (22c today) and the people are really friendly... people giving me directions.. already been invited out to dinner by an elderly lady I met outside of the airport and roadf on the bus with.. aschool teacher. has seen the world. was rich and lost her wealth when she married a young fijian boy after her husband left and he took her money and so forth. I found a wicked hostel in an old style building for cheap. Met a british guy and we've been hanging out, he's on the computer next to me.. Interesting experiances in transport too... got sniffed out by the canine unit (the dog was looking for veggies, not drugs), got a random passport check (had to wait in some little rooma and such) and had my tent cleaned by the ag-quarintine... you know...
but yeah. so far I love it. beautiful city, friendly people, good vibes. I'm gonna like it here! my hostel is right in between the art gallery, the art museum, a climbing wall and the botanical gardens. I think I'm set for a couple of days... and the hostel room has it's own balcony. and it's almost half the price of a Sydney hostel.
(ok - it's day two now, at night)
Went out last night with the boys... just hung out in the park.. with the british guy and a couple of germans. had some beers and talked it up. good times. Got woken up this moring by the guy from the hostel saying that I had to get up. I was like "I'm checking in again" he tells me that my bed is taken already and they're full... eugh. so I got up and checked into the YMCA, 1 block away. nice facility. really good showers, nice bunks, lockups and clean rooms. they've got a gym and a climbing wqall that are reasonably priced. Think I'm going to do the climbing wall tomarrow with Nick.
Spent the day today shopping for climbing gear. found a nice harness for less than $100, marked down from $160. Think I'm going to pick it up... even though I can tell I'm going to blow a few times that getting myself set to clim and abseil... but I really want to get into it here. met some good peope today.. climbers that gavbe me lots of reccomendations. got some gear books, business cards and reccomendations.
Wandered about a little bit of the botanical gardens today. beautiful here... all of the fall colours are coming out here really nice. some of the trees starting to drop their leaves and such. Looks very similar to mirror lake in camrose.. but a nicer city surrounding it and replace the lake with a nice shallow river swiming with ducks and some kind of weird birds that make me laugh when I see them. was a little cooler today, and a fair bit cooler tonight. got some nice fish and chips today... read about a lateral thinker, Edward de Bono and his 6 thinking hats (that one is actually a note for me...copied off my arm.. the felt tip marker I wrote it in is fading fast)
But yeah.. this place is much more similar to canada than it is to Australia.. so far as what I have seen... the tree life and most of the birds are more simalr to back home... the people are much different but are really nice. The pay phones here are really weird. the don't take money. they take smart cards and cost 70 cents per call. so I need two calling cards to dial home... and the dial tone is really weird... really high pitched actually makes my head hurt a little... very bizzare. Still don't have my celphone hooked up. have to find that shop that deals in sims. would be a good thing to have with me... but I'm not paying an arm and a leg for it because it's not 1000% neccesary at this point. would just be nice.
I like the archetecture in Christchurch. I am definetly looking forward to getting around this country... lots to see... lots of crazy extream sports here. the kiwis are crazy about it. lots of wool products.. sheep rugs, merino everyhting.... kiw-fruit chocolate (I'm sick off the half a bar that has left the package and made it's way into my mouth as I've been typing)
what else to say about my initial impressions? I like it. there is a distictly different energy about this place. it's definetly got a certain zing that australia didn't have... the people are aware but relaxed... and I can sense a certain technologial presence.. might just be the blue neon and high power LED lights and environmental awareness or somehting.. but I think these Kiwis are on to somehting.. I'll have to report my future findings.
shite.. that's abit of an entry. I'll leave you with that for now.. and I'll write again as things unravel (or reravel) here!
oh - and perfect timing. they close in 10 minutes... suppose it's just about time.. 2am!
ok. write again soon!

Kiwi land! remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Jumping the "ditch" in the morning

2006-04-02T16:01:30Z

ok guys. To whomever figured I was going to be stuck in Sydney forever: I'm leaving in the morning! in 6 hours or so, as a matter of fact.
Flying into Christchurch.
Been really enjoying myself here, much more than anticipated... kind of sad to go... but the journey must go on!
Life here has consisted of spending as much time with Chrysi as possible... She had her birthday party a couple of weeks ago.. we rented big hotel suite. 9 people crashed on almost every sleepable surface in the place... worked out really well. Good times with Chrysia and Laura. eating pizza in the rain and other such fun. Life has been very real lately. Have thourally enjoyed my time here.. and Chrysi.. I'm really gonna miss her... She is travelling to Greece for about a year, leaves on the 11th of April.
Been hanging out with Brandon and his housemates every day or every other day. Good times with Brandon. We're experts at doing nothing in particular. Quite fun, really. (We're planning on meeting up in Thailand!)
What else to say? been growing all the time... experiancing heaps of new things... eating really good food (really good kabab tonight!)
and I'm bloody exausted. I've got to finalize all of my packing here and touch my head to the pillow before I have to be up and going again!
Love you guys heaps... hope everyhitng is well.. and you'll be hearing from me plenty more with much more exciting news and photos and things..
oh and I've got a bunch of Sydney photos to post of here yet... soon!

Jumping the "ditch" in the morning remains copyright of the author fenderson, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs