Beginnings and endings...

HOME!!!!

2007-05-02T00:26:32Z

nough said. Can't wait to see everyone in the next couple of days and weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

circumnavigation completed

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Home Stretch

2007-04-24T09:47:25Z

Well I got 7 days till I'm home and its pretty crazy. I'm definitely ready to be there but looking back it doesn't feel like I've been away for 7 months. I'm still in London now fixin some of Tom's parents house, plumming and painting really. The other day we went to see a football match, West Ham vs Everton. Everton is 5th right now and fighting for a place in Europe but West Ham is fighting premiership relegation so it was a great game. West Ham beat em 1 nil which was sketchy cause we were with some friends that supported West Ham on the West Ham end, but Tom's best mate suports Everton and we were meeting up for drinks after the game. It was all ok and stuff but its rididulous the amount of riot police and stuff sepperating the supporters (especially at a London club like West Ham). They aren't allowed to sit together, not that you'd want to be cheering for the away side in the home section. I'm not taking as many pictures and stuff now so these last Blogs are pretty boring, plus we're just kinda living here, not really being a tourist at the moment which is pretty cool. London is a cool city. Anyway, I see everyone pretty soon! Its wierd having such good friends in too places. I keep thinking that I'll get to see everyone when I get home but I only see half my friends and wait another three months to see the rest.

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London

2007-04-16T13:55:19Z

Ok, the rest of the African photos are gonna have to wait. We've managed to recover most of them but there on CD and a pain to upload most places. After getting back to London on the 7th we headed to Brighton to see off Tom's parents and store some stuff at his grandparents. We've been staying in London after that with some of Tom's friends and in his old house which has a room empty now. Tried to organize a bit of an African reunion in north London at School Disco and it was pretty cool. Basically everyone dresses up like school kids and goes to this massive club. Mel and Sarah came in from outside of London but we havn't heard from the rest of the Africa group yet. Tomorrow we're heading up to Birmingham to visit Chris and Wendy who we met in Thailand and then on to Worster to see Bianca from australia. NOt to lonf til I'm back, tis pretty crazy. Cant' wait to see everyone!!!

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Finally an up to date trip map

2007-04-07T14:07:01Z

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

You can scroll all over it for close ups or point to different cities and get close ups of the area, see the pictures from there see where i was off to next and occasionaly read about the spot.

Finally an up to date trip map remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Part III

2007-04-06T22:05:19Z

Hey hey, all sorts of updtes flying at you now huh? I'm back in Brighton at Tom's grandmas house and i'll be in the London area for a week or so. Good News, we managed to recover all of Tom and my pictures so I'll be able to update the pics all the way to right now. I'm not sure what you guys see when you log onto this sight and stuff but on the main page of the site they feature pictures that people update. Nick and I from the beginning of the trip have wanted them to feature one of ours and today they did. The one of the dead tree in the namibian desert was up so woo hoo! Anyway I bet you want to see the Safari animal pics from Etosha so we'll jump right into that.

I can't remember if I put this one up or not but this is the lit water hole from the camp site. Tom's got some better pictures of the animals here my camera didn't get any to well.

These are Springbok. Its easy to understand why there the namesake of the South African National Rugby Team cause there a billion of them. I almost got tired of em

Gemsbok I think but it might be one of the other antilope species.

hmm

and of course elephants. The're the coolest I think... Until the lions but thats not until Kruger national park back in South Africa so you'll have to wait for those till we get there. There's still Zambia and the rest of Botswana to do. Unfortunatly I don't have those pictures with me right now so I gotta take another break.
I got to talk to my cousins today who are out enjoying the fine Florida weather right now I would guesse. Its been such a great trip and I'm still having fun and have another couple of weeks in me I think but I'll be ready to come home soon I think. I even have a new cousin to see when I get back! And also I'm not happy at all with Ohio State and can't wait to have a few choice words with a certain Beach.

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Part II

2007-04-06T09:39:10Z

hey hey, back in London in Tom's house in Crystal Palace. Headed out to Brighton to stay at his Grandmahs again in just a bit but one of his old flatmates has a computer so...
When we left that rocky bit of the Namibian mountains we headed down towards the capital of Namibia, Whindhoek. We spent a night in the city and went to a really great game resturaunt and brewery. The game resturaunts (we went to a lot) have all sorts of the wild game cooked up for you to eat. That night in Windhoek (don't get mad) I had Zebra and it was awesome. Even some of the others at the resturaunt thought that we shouldn't eat the animals we came to see but I couldn't resist and I'm glad I didn't cause it was great. Anyway otherwise the city was pretty much a city, not a whole lot to see although the spot that we parked to go in for the internet and stuff was the parking lot of the Namibian Supreme Court which I thought was pretty funny. Alright so after that it was on to Botswana.

The first night in Botswana we stayed in a little secluded camp that had Bushman huts that you could upgrade to for 2 dollars a night.

Basically the Bushmen are these small African people that were dislocated from there lands by the migration of the bantu people and moved into the desert and lived in small groups. Some people still try to live that way but they're dying out because their children don't want to live like that anymore when they see their other options. Anyway a couple of these people came to show us different ways they find food and use plants for medicine and it was realy cool. Most of the other "cultural" stuff that we've done so far felt a little bit fake and designed for tourists. This didn't feel like that as much although we were all skeptical in the beginning.

They started a fire with sticks, that was cool, I've never been able to do that

they get water from digging up this root and scraping it into little filings and then crushing the water out of it

they told us about their desserting teenagers and we could only wonder whether the littlest ones would decide to live like their parents and grandparents or go off to join the modern society

they really are pretty tiny people

oops, iv'e gotten ahead of myself, I know you'll forgive me. Before heading down to the capital of Namibia I forgot to tell you about Etosha National Park. Dividing Angola from Namibia Etosha is one of the least visited game parks in southern africa and we saw tons of stuff there. The camp site that we stayed at within the park itself was on the edge of this massive watering hole that they lit up at night with floodlights and all sorts of stuff came there. Unfortunately the pictures at night are pretty bad but we saw rinos and jackals and Zebras and that sort of thing come down to drink.
Alright I have a ton of Animal pictures from the safaris through Etosha but we have to leave again so I'll update again when I can (which should be soon)

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Long Expected Update; Part 1

2007-04-04T09:21:49Z

Hey everyone, so sorry that its taken so long for this. I've managed to sort out the pictures from the first half of the trip until about the Kalahari Desert in the heart of Botswana. The other half is mostly on Tom's camera (mine started to give me trouble again) but unfortunatly he's done something to the disk and we might need to try to use that recovery software when we get home pops. Right now we're just south of Birmingham and are headed to Oxford today to see the old universities and hang out around town for a bit. We didn't get as far north as we expected but Tom and I are planning on jutting up to Scotland when his parents head back to Canada still I think. Anyway I figure that I should go in order so I can try to remember as much as I can and to do that unfortunatly I have to take you back to the 25th of February, the day we left Capetown headed North on the tour.
The last day we toured Robben Island and Capetown largest township. The Townships were the massive fields that the Africans ejected from the cities set up their makedshitf cities in. The oldest one is ALexadra in Johanasburg but Cape Town has some of the most famous and most visited.

looking back at capetown and table mountain from the prison island of Robben island

one of the comunal cells of the island. Nelson Mendella had one to himself

Two of the girls from the Trip (Alex and Hannah, both English) playing with the kids from the Township. The houses are a lot like the scraped together houses of that we see in the DR. Most are differest sheets of scrap metal and wood nailed or glued together. The Townships are an odd place though, generally the people that live there (especially the younger generation) dress quite nicely and all habe mobile phones and often enough you see pretty nice cars (all decked out in rims and lights and that) driving through or parked in front of the houses. I asked out guide about that and he said that the way of living in the houses has become so much a culture thing that the people would rather buy nice things that a real house. He said generally speaking the people (with the aid of the government) could afford real housing but would rather spend their money on clothes and cars than on a house.

One of the first Township churches, one of the nicest as well

the children are the same everywhere, they love to climb on you and play with you and pose for the camera.
That night we stayed in a camp just to the south of the Orange River, the border between South Africa and Namibia. I actually went to Namibia 2 because we all thought it would be cool to swim across the river into Namibia. I didnt tell the border guards the next morning though.

looking into the vast sand dunes of the Namib Desert from South Africa over the Orange River. The Namib Desert boasts the worlds tallest sand dunes that tower from the coast to a couple of miles inland where the give way to the mountains.

That night we played ibble dibble (one of the many drinking games I've learned over the trip and I can't wait to bring home) Tom and Hannah aren't doing very well.
The next morning we passed the Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world, although I was told that niether the grand canyon nor the fish river canyons are actually canyons and that the third largest canyon (also in South Africa) is actually the largest "real" canyon in the world.

we watched the sunset over it the night before I think. Next we wen't on to the Namibian Border and crossed into the Namib Desert. Hiking is always hard, Hiking up sand Dunes is ridiculous. For every step you take up you slide about half a step down in the think snow like powder of the dune. The good part is its really good to go down, you can run or slid or summersault cusioned by the soft mobile sand.

looking back towards the mountains with my back to the dunes

we hiked up over the dunes into the middle that is an ancient oasis and the mouth of a river (there is not water). It flows underground still and when the rains come every year the water remains long enough for the plants to release there seeds. Its wierd, all the plants you see (well most) are dead. They've been able to grow fast enough to have there seeds ready for when the next rain comes. When the moisture does come the dead tissue of the plants release the seeds and the new plant has a couple weeks to mature and produce seeds of its own while it dies and waits for the next rain. Those are some dedicated parents huh?

the trees are old pertified trees, thousands of years old. They are hard as stone to touch but still can give you nasty splinters and cuts. Apparently a part of the movie The Cell was filmed here but I never saw it.

hiking back out over the dunes, I got burried by everyone.

between the dunes and the mountains is a vast plane of little shrubs and rocks.

That night we camped out in the Bush (which is what I thought the tour would be more like from the beggining) but usually we stayed in actually camp cites with bars and showers and pools and stuff. The bush camping was better

I wish I could have taken pictures of the stars. Theres not a whole lot of light polution in the deserts of Namibia, its Africas least populated country per square mile.
On the way up to Swakupmund we stopped at a seal colony which smelt worse than anything I've smelt before. But there were thousands and thousands of seals

We got to Swakupmund ( a namibian coastal town) on March 1st and the next day (my birthday) we went sand boarding and Quadbiking and then out for dinner to a famous game resturaunt. It was a pretty great birthday, missed you guys of course.

ITs a lot like snowboarding but slower and it doesn't hurt as bad to fall
The real fun part was the sledding

I nice progression I think. I did a bit of a face plant on that one.

our group that went boarding
The next day we left the coast and the desert and went into the mountains. It ws so beautiful, not like any mountains I've seen before check these out

Tom and Mel in the mountians...
I have to stop here cause We are leaving, there is still more Part 1 and a whole nother half after Botswana. Sorry it takes a long time to upload and format the pictures but I'm workin on it. Love and miss everyone.

Long Expected Update; Part 1 remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hey Hey

2007-04-01T10:19:31Z

sorry guys, internet is as scarce up here as it was in Africa. In the Lake District right now back to London on the 7th. Promise big update then. We're having some technical difficulties with the photos but I think they'll be sorted by then. Sorry guys love and miss the lot of you!!!

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London

2007-03-22T12:05:16Z

Hey everyone!!!! Sorry its been so long. I arrived this morning in London and its snowing. Pretty big difference from the last month or so. I've got lots of Afican pictures and stories comin your way but have to go meet Tom's family and sort stuff out right now. Expect major major updates in the net few days though and I miss you all! Talk to you soon!

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Hiya

2007-03-07T08:10:28Z

so, sorry about the lack of updates, email is pretty scarce north of the South African Border. I'm in Whindhook Namibia right now which is the capital and heading to Botswana in a couple of hours. The trip is great so far and I promise a long and picture full update when I get to London. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm ok and thanks you for the birthday thoughts and wishes. Miss you guys and talk to you soon. Allie has informed me its less than 60 days till I'm back in the states.

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South Africa Pictures and Movies

2007-02-21T13:28:44Z

Alrighty! So, I've managed to get to a computer to upload some pictures, and inspired by Nick's recent addition of a rather funny and stupid video on his blog I have some videos for you as well!
These are just some pics from earlier in Durban and East London.
Durban Beach

The Hostel in durban

Which, although was under construction, had a pretty cool pool

Then onto east London where I stayed at the sugar shack on the beach which was really nice

we went sand boarding which was pretty cool, but since you have to walk back up the dune each time you ride down gets pretty old after a few goes.

Now, 2 days ago we hiked up Table Mountain. The Mountain overlooks Capetown from the south and the cape of good hope and false bay from the north and the view from the top is incredible. The hike up was a lot harder than I thought it would be, there's not really a trail as much as 1000 meters of carved out stone steps. It sucked, but like I said worth the view. This is from about halfway up.

Looking out over the Cape of Good Hope and False Bay

Yeah it was hot and we were tired, other people had their shirts off too

Just some more views of the city, bellow though is Robben Island. Its where the prison that housed Madella is.

the clouds come over the flat topped mountain and water fall over the edge

we didn't stay up for the sunset (it was too far away still) but the sky was still awesome looking west across the Atlantic.

Yesterday we woke up at 5:30 and went shark diving about 2 hours east of Capetown, fittingly enough off Danger Point. We did a little research and I figure that yes the diving has an effect on the sharks but after talking to a lot of locals here (even surfers) they don't think that it increases attacks or conditions them in any way. In fact once we were out on the boat it wasn't at all like the anti-dive people describe the shark activity. Where you have to practically beat the sharks away from the boat before you even chum because they live there and are used to the feeding. In fact they don't feed them at all and do as much as possible to keep the sharks from getting the bait. Legally they are only allowed to go through 10 fishheads in a day anyway so I think that it was ok. They said that the White Sharks are nomadic and very rarely would they get the same shark twice in a given period (they track em and stuff). Anyway we had to wait about 2 hours for any to come but when they did, oh man. We saw about 6 sharks the whole day. The first ones were pretty small, about 2-3 meters, but the last one that came and stayed with the boat for a while was at least 4.5 meters I thought. Really really really big fish, pretty scary really.

just before the first shark came, thinking how boring shark diving was and what a waste of money it is... wrong!
The first little baby one (yeah the others were way bigger)

once we got down into the cage i found that pictures weren't working that good so i started videoing and man are they cool

here's just a quick look at the cage (and the thinck wet suit, it was really cold)

the big momma checking out the food, pretty scary. How it works is there's a guy holding the rope to the bait and he keeps trying to get the shark as close to the boat and the cage as possible which is good. Every now and then the shark really goes hard at the bait and when its coming right at the cage (like this time) it can ram the cage pretty hard. Also after the shark get the bait in its mouth (if it can) it shakes its head all around and slashes in the water (I assume to kill it or something, maybe just to look scary and mean) anyway. This time it got a bit close to the cage and managed to get the bait which meant a wild ride for the people in it, which I happened to be one of.

Anyway, we're leaving for Namibia in a couple of days but I'll try to post again before that. Hope everything is great at home, miss ya.

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World Map

2007-02-19T18:09:54Z

Ya so it was cool and then I messed it all up, I'll have to redo the map later, sorry

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Table Mountain

2007-02-19T17:55:20Z

Well I lied to you again, the cape of good hope is not the southern most tip of Africa which anyone who can look at a map would now right away (again call me dumb). It is on the other hand an increadably beautiful spot especially from the top of table mountain which nests nicly between the cape and cape town itself. The hike up was way harder than I thought it'd be, its not actually a trail but carved out steps that goes on for about 2 hours (kinda like the sentence). Once your at the top you can take a cable car down in about 30 seconds (a lot of people cheat and take it up too, buggers). I've planned out the rest of my time here in Cape Town. Tomorrow I'm going shark cage diving, its about 2 hours from here. They take you a mile or so offshore in a tiny little boat and drop you down 2 meters in a cage and then proceed to dump blood and guts into the water to attract as many Great White sharks as they can, most of which get over 5 meters long. Apparently they bait the cage as well so the sharks hit the cage while your in it. Tom has a water proof camera so I should have some awesome pictures for you after that. The day after that we're booked for a wine tour of the cape area. There's some really good wineries around here and apparently its a bit of a boozefest. And lastly on our last day before we leave for the Safari, we're going to Robben Island which is the prison island that Nelson Mendela and his collegues were kept for all those years of the Aparthied Regime. Its supposed to be pretty awesome you get to see his cell and stuff and the tours are given by ex-inmates so that should be good. Anyway, still no pictures but I'll get em too you before I leave for Namibia I promise. Miss everyone and I'll see you in May.

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Cape of Good Hope

2007-02-18T08:16:17Z

Well we've made it to Africa, crazy I know. In Cape Town right now after flying into Johanasburg and then to Durbin. Stopped at East London for a couple of days before heading on down to the East Cape. We've got some time to kill here but lots of things to do so its good. Sorry no pictures yet, I can't do them on this computer and honestly there hasn't been a whole lot to take pictures of so far except cities that are pretty much exactly like any other big city you could go to. Its kinda wierd really, not exactly what I was expecting, call me an uneducated American but when I think Africa I think deserts and animals and that sort of thing you see on postcards and travel books and national geographics and skyscrapers and subways don't really make the list, but thats what we've been seeing. Its not to bad really though, the cities are really cool. Durban was really nice and East London relaxed and Cape Town is supposed to be amazing but I've only arrived this morning so we'll just have to see about that won't we.
Kranston, I never ended up hearing about your guy, but We weren't around the boxing scene all that much. We tried to go to the main stadium for a fight one night in Bangkok but it was 2000 baht to sit ringside and the other seats were standing in these cage type things up over the ring where the Thais go to gamble.
The flight from Bangkok was awesome, we flew over Sri Lanka and then the south bit of the persian gulf. It was a clear night so th stars were amazing and the moon a little sliver reflected in the black ocean. Every now and then a city of lights would become visable through the window and I'd look at the little map to see what we were flying over, and with the exception of the seachelle Islands I'd realize that it was these massive groups of Oil rigs all lit up. There would be a cluster of about 30 of em together and at first they serisouly looked like cities on there own. It took a bit to figure out what there were the first time.
There are lots of stuff I want to do in Cape Town. Its prime South African wine country and they offer lots of tours and tastings. I'm gonna climb Table Mountain which is the dominate feature of the cape of good hope, a giant flat topped mountain that overlooks the city and marks the southern most tip of Africa. I still want to do a Sharkdive but I'm learning more about it and there is an ethicl issue. Not all the companies are being irrisponsible but some aren't really going out far enough and instead are drawing the sharks close to the shore with chum. As a result sharks are starting to associate divers and boats with food and shark attack rates are climbing as shark diving is expanding. They've already outlawed it in Australia and its looking like its going that way here too so I'm not sure if I want to do it or not. I'll try to get the pictures I've got so far up onto the web in the next couple of days cause I'm not sure how much internet access I'll be having once we get up out of SA. Heading to Namibia first for a week and a half or so. Namibia has got the largest percentage of nature reserves of anu country in the world and is the least populated per area of any country in Africa. Hopefully that means we'll be seeing very few people and lots and lots of Lions and tigers and bears. Well maybe not bears, switch that with giraffes or hippos or something. After Namibia its on to Botswana and then Zambia and down through to SA through Krugar and back to Jo-burg. It should be really great, you'll have to bear with me for updates, I'll do as much as I can but I think part of the deal is there's not a lot of internet and things like that.
The food here is amazing, lots of curries and things like that. My favorite thing so far is Bunny chow or bunnies. Witty chefs invented it during the Aparthied government at white only gold clubs where black caddies were not allowed to use the cuttlery in the kitchens. So what they did is hollow out a half loaf of bread and fill it with curry and then you scoop it out with the hollowed out bit, sorta like our bread bowls. Ok so I'm off to explore Cape Town, I hope everything is great at home.

By the way, check this out, I'm figureing it out bit by bit

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

I've got one for Thailand too, you can navigate around the map and view the trips if you play with it for a bit, This computer is fast so I;m gonan try to get the rest done while I'm here. See you guys.

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Last Night in Thailand

2007-02-11T13:17:26Z

oh and it seems like I just got here. The travelling has really picked up since we left Australia and I'm sure the rest is going to go just as fast. I lied to you in my last blog, I'm coming home May 1st not April 1st so yah...
OK so before I post any pictures I have to own up to some stuff, I may have shaven my eyebrows off, or rather had them shaved off. This sort of thing happens over here I'll have you know although just not to anyone else it seems. The Thais all think I look like a monk (who, unbeknowst to me, shave there eyebrows off) who woulda thunk it? I also may or may not have had my eyebrow pierced in Australia, although I think that some of you know that already (Katy) . And lastly I may or may not have gotten another tattoo by a Thai guy whos not named Haun in a city not called Bangkok. ha ha, yah just kidding about that last one... but not really. No serisouly I'm just kidding. um... yah ok so.
Whence we last spoke I was just getting to a lovely little Island called Koh Pah-Ngan with a lovely little drug and drinking problem. Fortunatly for us we stayed literally as far away from the giant party beach as possible which was great for relaxing and not so great for our night out at the fool moon party with a 40 minute taxi ride. we'll get to that. The resort we stayed at was called Haad Gruad, run by this cool ex dutchman named Jaco.

that's the main bit of it, the bungalos are all over the place, the coolest ones over the water.

we didnt get these ones but they were all really nice and the beach was beautiful. I could never figure it out exactly but somewhere on this island and Koh Samui and a couple other really small Islands is where the movie the beach was filmed to thats pretty cool.

these last ones are some of the poeple at our resort. The top one is El (who was one of the girls from Perth that we flew over with from Perth) and Liz whose from gurnsey, a tiny little island thats part of the UK but is basically in France. (you all probably knew this, I didn't ... stupid forieng servicers and their map of the modern world class. Anyway, we stayed here for 8 nights at just relaxed really. Met some Australian guys that were pretty cool and some Americans that were here doing 4 months trainging for Muih Thai kickboxing and an english couple (chris and Wendy) who we ened up travelling with to Koh Toa and now here in Bangkok. I'd love to tell you all about the full moon party but unfortunatly I remember very little of it. I think that that perhaps is a reather common condition on the partying on Ko Pah-ngan.
ON to ko toa a much quieter smaller island devoted (tourism wise) almost entirely to diving. It was really cool the diving as well, its got really deep but really clear massive rock formations with caves and swim throughs and whale sharks. (didnt see any of those though, bummer huh?)

this is chris and wendy and alex, a swiss girl we hung out with there for a bit who was pretty cool.

here's some of the dive trip, laugh it up about the eyebrows, I know it looks ridiculous. We went to 115 feet on the first dive. It really was amazing, it was my favorite dive so far. We'll see if it stays that way after the great white shark cage diving in South Africa.

the sunsets speak for themselves but the twirly business is a fire dancer who amazingly manage not to burn the hell out of themselves while they spin sticks and chains covered in flaming oil about their heads.
After Koh Toa it was back to bangkok to do some touring around here and handle some logistical stuff for the next bit of travelling. Today we went to the floating markets, a cobra show and the tiger temple which were all increadble.

the markets were really cool and pretty but I think they are just a tourist thing, the Thais come really early in the morning to do their trading.

at the cobra show some crazy Thai dude are mean to Cobras and then let them out of thier cages and sacs. Seriously after shaking it around and hitting it as stuff they just dump it out and play with it really, one guy got bit today, he didnt seem all that worried. Either they have the anti-venom on site or else the snake "charmers" are pretty expendable. That one up there though is a python that they did similar nasty things to to make it try to eat them. They were pretty nuts.

hmm holding a cobra, what fun
the best bit was easily the tiger temple where you get to go sit with and touch and walk with the massive massive cats.

crazy cool huh?
then we came back here and since I'm hanging out with brittsh people were going to the pub to watch some football (that would be soccer
miss everyone and I'll see you all soon. Hope everything is great back home.

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Oh my Buddah!

2007-02-10T04:24:00Z

It took me a bit to get that one, pehaps I'm just a little slow. All the Thai people who speak good english say it. It makes us laugh (once we get it). I'm so verry sorry that I have fallen back into a once a week or more update phase. The internet was hard to come by in the Islands and when you could find it it was dialup and hardly conducive to picture uploading. I'm sorry to say that this blog will be likewise dissapointing as I'm finding myself hardpressed in Bangkok for time to get everything done before departing for South Africa. I still have the problem of one reissued ticket (stemming form the theft in Auckland) and I have to go back for my forth and final fitting for the suits I'm having Tailor made. I won't tell you how much they cost, those of you who wear and like suits would kill me . Anyway, I promise promise to get the island and Bankok pictures up as soon as I can! I am coming home April 1st and will see everybody soon! Ha ha wait thats April fools day, perhaps April 2nd.

Oh my Buddah! remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Island Relaxation

2007-01-29T06:15:01Z

Well, we've made it down to the famouse Islands of South East Thailand. You may have seen the movie The Beach, most of that was shot on Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Somui and other smaller islands right around them. We're on Ko Pha-Ngan right now in a small little beach resort up in the North, pretty much as far away from the famous full moon parties as possible which is both good and bad. The distance means better security of our stuff as thousands of people flock here for the monthly event but also means a long cab ride in for the nights out.
Anyway, back to whats been goin on in the last little while. After I posted last time in Bangkok we did a little exploring by Tuk Tuk, a crazy looking half motcycle half taxi cab that Thailand is famous for. You have to wade through drivers trying to offer you "yours" of the city for 10 baht and by "tours" they mean one temple and 3 tailor shops. They get coupons for gasoline if they bring people to the tailor shops so they always do it even when you tell them not to, which is a little worrisome if you had to get to somewhere right away. It also works to your advantage as you get to understand the system. We havn't paid for a tuk tuk since the first day cause if you tell them your ok with stopping at a shp and pretending to be interested then they'll take you for really cheap to where you want to go (after you stop at the shop and mess around) and we've been able to get them to do it for free. I did actually end up getting some stuff made which was really fun and out Tuk Tuk policy let us shop around quite a bit before we found the place we liked best.
Anyway, yah, they're lots of temples and stuff like that in Bangkok but the weather was pretty bad that first day so the pictures aren't awesome.

This is the golden mountain, one of the big temples in the city

they're little buddah shrines everywhere, I think its rude to take pictures of one that people are praying at so the ones I've taken are the ones outside the temples and are less ornate. The ones inside are so intracate and golden and jeweled and stuff

this is the actual golden mountain part of the temple, the view of the city from the top is pretty good

Like I said the weather was a bit bad
That night we took the night bus to Chaing Mai to go trecking. We are tring not only to budget but make the most of our time so we planned to leave for the treck the morning that we arrived on the bus which made for a pretty hard first days hike. The hills around Chaing Mai are beautiful though and the hill tribe people we got to stay with were great as well

on the way out from chaing mai to where the trail starts I got to ride on top of the truck with our Thai guide, Wee.

lots of cool waterfalls, some you can dive off

the jungle is dense and goes on forever
That night we stayed with one of teh hill tribs in their houses

a common toilet
they make the best food, noodles and rice and stuff
sunset at the vilage

there was a festival the night we were there and all the kids had firecrackers and sparklers to play with, even the really little ones

We had a fire and chilled out with the family that we were staying with

The next morning we were off again to the elephant camp where my camera died, but Tom has pictures that I'll post later
We ate lunch at another hill tribe village

they grew lots of things

Wee made me a slingshot

there dogs everywhere

after that second night it was back to Bangkok on the nightbus. In bangkok we had the day to kill cause the night of the morning we arrived it was another night bus down to the islands. (meaning that last night was my first night in a bed in 5 days) The busses aren't bad and they're easy to sleep in but the times are arbitrary, they say you get into the next city around 9 but we got to bangkok at 4:30 in the morning wich is hardly a full night. That would be fine if you were staying there, you'd just go to your hotel and sleep but we were leaving on another bus that night. Not a whole lot to do in Bangkok at 4:30 in the morning with your bags and stone cold sober so that sucked a bit.
we went to the royal palace that day though it that was pretty cool

And toured around the nicer part of the city. Its a wierd city cause some places look like those pictures from the top, and like this

but other parts look like home and are super trendy

its pretty wierd. A real channel purse costs about 200,000 Baht. A meal costs 20 baht. You do the math but this is a country of disparity I think.
yesterday night we bussed down to the islands and its been great here. Like I was saying before we're pretty distanced from the hussle bussle of Haad Rin and out little spot is nice. I'l;l haev more pictures of around here for you later cause my camera is now recharging but the boats and island culture is really cool. Lots of those long wooden ones liek you see in the movies and stuff and the colors are vivid and all over the place

We have access to the internet a lot here so I'll update again when we explore more of the Island. Miss everyone, hope everything is going good.

Island Relaxation remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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่นรืไำืส หสรนำ รน่อห้ฟรไย

2007-01-23T06:37:53Z

ya that doesn't say anything, but this keyboard is Thai capable and I couldn't resist a bit of key smashing in the Thai option. Looks pretty cool though, I know, sorry to disappoint everyone but I've not exactly picked up Thai yet. I'm Hoping it doesn't say something increadably offending cause there are lot of Thais around that can probably see it.
So I got to Bangkok around 11:00 pm 2 nights ago and it took us about 4 hours to get to the road with all the hostels on it Khao San road. We knew we were supposed to take the A2 bus into town and the first bus that pulled up had a lot of funky looking things like this ากสร หืรสแอำ on it so I asked the driver if it was the A2 and he nodded enthusiastically and waved us on. Unfortunately for us the bus was not the A2 it was the bus that took us about 30 minutes south (the opposite direction from the city) to the major souther bus depot from which luckily a bus still ran into the city. We got there around midnight and I asked a police officer when the bus to the city came and he said around 1. Thinking we might try a cap Tom and I walked across the road to a taxi rank and asked the fare into the city, its about 400 Baht (1 dollar is about 37 Baht) so that was more than we wanted to pay so we say and waited for the bus which arrived right on time and hour later at 1 o'clock and we got on. After sitting on the bus in the station for about 20 minutes (and noticing that the bus driver had fallen asleep) I asked the lady behind us if it was the right bus and she said yes, a couple minutes later I asked her when it left and she laughed and said not until 2. fed up with waiting we took the cab that ended up being 450 baht cause there is a toll road. We thought we'd be ok though now cause the taxi rank guy seemed to know exactly where we wanted to go, The Bella Bella guest house on Khao San Road and he told the taxi driver (in Thai) what seemed at the time like complicated but good directions. Khao San road is supposed to be the backpacker heart of Bangkok famous for its numerous open air markets, street food vendors, night clubs and guest houses. What we're learning is that the whole area around Khao San looks about the same and the many winding and confusing streets crossing Khao San could be easily confused to first time travelers as Khao San. And indeed the road that we were dropped on did have its share of street vendors and dreadlocked backpackers, but it was hardly the thumping heart of activity that we expected at 2:30 am on a sunday night. Obviously we had a pretty hard time finding the Bella Bella on the wrong road and settled for a shady as Guest House and leaving the figuring out where the hell we are part for the next morning. And we did figure it out, we were only a couple of streets over from Khao San and we stayed there the next nice in a nicer guest house and booked stuff to do until about the 4th of feb. We're headed to Chaing Mai tonight on an overnight bus to do some trecking in the north. Its about a 14 hour bus ride from bangkok and we're hopefully getting picked up at the bus station by our trecking guide. We get to ride elephants into the jungle and stay with one of Thailand's most famous hill tribe people the first night. The long neck people are all over the national geographic pages, you know the ones where the women where massive golden rings around their necks that stretches them and makes them frightfully long. Anway its back to bangkok after that to catch a bus down to Ko Pah-ngan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for some beach relaxation. Pah-ngan is famous for its full moon parties which we'll catch on the 2nd of february. After that we don't know but I think we'll head to Ko Toa for some diving and then back to bangkok for some market and temple tours, and a but of shopping at the open air markets. Sorry no pictures yet, first of all cause I havn't taken any yet (I'm not sure what the etiquette is for photos but I've not seen anyone taking many of the buildings and stuff so I want to check that out. Also we've stored more of out stuff so we don't have a lot on the busses up north, apparently they can be pretty sketchy and attendants sometimes take things out of the bags and repack them while there underneath at stops in the middle of the night. BUT, as soon as I'm back from Chaing Mai I will have lots of pictures to show you so that will only be 5 days or so. Until then I don't think I'll have much internet access to don't worry if I go a couple days from now without updating. Miss you guys. Thailand is awesome.

่นรืไำืส หสรนำ รน่อห้ฟรไย remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Travel Map

2007-01-19T05:25:57Z

so im trying to figure out this travel map thing, bear with me as I do. We got all out errands done today for Thailand, just one day left its crazy

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Travel Map remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Last days of summer

2007-01-19T05:12:18Z

Hello everyone. I am so terribly sorry to be so long in updates I can see from all of my homes I have been irritatingly slow on this for the last little while. It embarrases me to say that I actually have New Zealand pictures that I still need to put up on here and that is pretty bad (luckily for you they will be up on this one but all in good time, no peaking ) Tom and I have made it to Perth and are basking in the last days (that we'll have) of the beautiful Australian summer. It'll be back to the Northern Hemisphere and winter (well, for 3 weeks, and as much as Thailand can have a winter). As you may have seen there's been some bombings in Bangkok over New Years and although we have to fly through the capital we won't be in the city for very long and the rest of the country is pretty safe we think.
Ok, so what have I been doing this last month while I've been irrisponsibly out of contact and selfishly slow on updating? To tell the truth, until recently, not a whole lot which is largly the reason for the slow updates. We were in Sydney over the holidays for quite some time in a little cabin and I felt like i was turning from a traveller (that we so clearly were in the cars up the east coast) into a more perminent resident of the area. It was something that was fun for a little bit but started to drag on you as I felt like I was living here instead of travelling here. In short not a whole lot was happening that differed from each day so there wasn't a whole lot to update on the blog, mostly we sat around all day and read or played games and then partied a little in the cabin. But since I've been so bad about it I need to stop there for a second and take you back a month or so to my last days in New Zealand instead, which I think you'll agree produced much more interesting pictures that the christmas cabin did
After we drove up from milford Sound (which would be the last pictures that you've seen) we headed to Queenstown and spen the day driving three Deer Park which is a huge area of land above Queenstown. They have all these crazy animals up there like Tibetan Yaks and Bison that you could almost walk up too and touch. The Bison were behind a fence but the yaks lay all over the roads and nothing but there size and massive horns were keeping you away from them.

There were cool friendly goats all over the place, they were my favorite.
Up further you get to a bit of a crest where they did several scenes in the LOTR movies, mostly in Rohan.

I don't know if you remember but there is a bit in the movie when they fight the wargs on these rocks and these are these rocks.

It dawned on me around this time that Peter Jackson didn't choose his sets and scenery randomly and it started to become no surprise really that the spots he chose to film at are the most strickingly beautiful spots in New Zealand. This is the same spot but looking back out over the city and the lake it rests on.

I told you about the American guy we picked up hitchiking who ended up staying with us for the last week or so. Here, finally, is a picture of him

Before we left the Queenstown area we went Jet Boating on the Shot Over river which was scary, they get really close to the walls and do 360 turns through the tight canyons. its pretty nuts

After that though we had to start getting to Christchurch pretty quickly cause I had to fly back to Auckland for my passport, on the way though we stopped at 2 really cool places (both LOTR spots)

This is the bit of river that they row boats through with those massive statues of kings along the canyons, I don't remember what there called, dave knew and told me but I don't remember now.
The second best spot in New Zealand (competing closely cause of the weather as well) was the secluded valley that they placed Edoras the Rohan main city thing. The valley was way out of thy way but so beautiful, you drove to it along a river and the walls of the valley got steeper and steeper untill you were wrapped in this massive bowl of green and brown and white (from the snow). In the center of the vally is the rocky hill that the set was on and its amazing.

It was hard to capture the scale of things for these pictures (not for the first time, but untill you go you'll just have to believe that the pictures don't do anything compared to the actual places, but then you all know about this sort of thing.
Now jump with me to Sydney, actually Wolongong (60 km to the south) for christmas

sausage and mash for christmas dinner and a tree decorated mostly with Tompons that the girls tried to pass off as icicles.

cozy huh? Unfortunatly the firework pictures turned out pretty aweful, the view you had on the TV is undoubtly much much better but here are my 2 best shots

it was enough to be there I think.
Sadly enough it wasn't much later than this that Tom sold his van and we split from the girls to head to Melbourne on the plane after staying in the Airport (I think I've told you this stuff already) but

here is the last taken picture of us and the van... so sad
Molbourne was a bit dissapointing, they say that if you love Sydney you hate Melbourne and vice a versa but I think mostly the uncomfortable stay was due to the ridiculously hot weather. You could't sleep it was so hot you had to wake up every hour or so and have a shower only to crawl back in your wet with swet bed, not fun. The drive out of Melbourne south on the Great Ocean Road was, however, really really cool.

The apostles are a famouse rock formation off the coast as well as the caves and just generally dramatic coastline.

On the other side of the Great Ocean road it was equally as pretty at Belinda's and her parents spots in Adelaide. She came through big time letting Tom and I shack up in her Unit just south of Adelaide but even better taking us for a couple nights out to her parents farm house in Ashbourne (about 30 minutes from the city)

The view from the house was unbelievable

and teh surounding land was so different and cool. The water is scarce there and the gum trees grow in a haphazard random way making the area look spookily beautiful

They really treated us like part of the family, I think that their hospitality and tours of the area is the reason that Adelaide is my favorite spot so far. Unfortunatly we wern't able to find the game on but I got live updates from dad on the phone, sounds like it was quite a beating. My favorite bit of the Denver family was this lil thing

I miss my puppy

Before we left to do the winery tours Belinda's dad took us to the cattle markets that he used to frequent when he owned his much bigger farm. I had mixed feelings about it all, its rare these days that you get a close look at the beggingings of the food production industry and I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the cows, its a crazy thing out modern world where were so dissociated from the means of our food production.

The farm they used to own was on an Island down close to the river that runs South of Adelaide. Thier old friends on the island have taken up wine making and before we went to d'Arenberg they took us to this small little spot to check out a much smaller production process.

She calls herself the crazy wine lady and she certainly was, making Angus Wines a small but funkily cool spot and I thought the wines were pretty nice.

really a much smaller enterprise when compared to d'Arenberg where we went next.

Clair, our guide, was awesome and so excited and enthusiastic about the wine and winemaking at d'Arenberg that she seemed almost giddy and giggley. We got to learn all the great stories behind the funky names of the d'Arenberg wines.

These are 60+ year old Sharaz vines that they use to make their Dead Arm Sharaz which I though was awesome. They call it Dead Arm cause these vines have been stricken with a virus that infects one of the "arms" of the vines making it branch in only one direction. Its a good thing cause it means that all the nutrients are still being produced but directed to only half of the crop hence the increadably heavey and intence flavor that these grapes give to the wine they become.

These are just big short term storage tanks for some of the White wines but I thought they were cool and the view from the top was great.
Another cool story is the LAzy Lizard one. Apparently the strung up vines are a favorite sun basking spot for the Australian Bearded dragon and often rimes in the harvesting process they end up in the extractors and stuff, this one

this one is gentle enough that the lizards can scamper out and don't add any of their flavor to the famouse wines
After a great week in Adelaide we headed west accross the continent. Its pretty cool having drivin accross a continent and I can tell you there really is nothing in the middle of this one. For miles and miles there's nothing taller than a 5 ft tree or bush and you might pass a car every hour or so. This is one of those spots that traslated to poorly on the camera, the scale is just to hard to translate.

but it was a fun experience, we're in Perth now and hanging with one of Tom's mates from back home and getting ready to pregress onto a new country Thaliand. We're bakc in hostles, which I'm not crazy about. After so long in your own space and stuff a hostle is no good plus they really are not that cheap when you think of the scale of this trip. Anyway, I'm updated and absolutly nakered, I'm dreading this internet bill but hey you know what? you guys are worth it and I promise I won't let it go this long again. Hope everything is going good! Talk to you soon

Last days of summer remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Rendeveuos

2007-01-19T05:13:13Z

Well Tom and I have made it to Adalaide via the great Ocean road from Melbourne. I've got some good pictures from the trip but you;ll have to wait just a touch longer as I've yet to find a compatable computer. We're staying with Belinda, and Australian that I met in Scotland and traveled with in Wales and it great. She's got a great little apartment just outside the city that she's trusted us with a key to. Its crazy the travelling thing, I feel like I know her quite well but if you think about it I've really only spent about 15 days in total with her ever. I love the travelling community so far. Friendships are made so fast and stick even across oceans and continents. We're all gonna watch the big game tomorrow, its at noon here on our 9th. Perhaps we'll see a surgence of college football followers after I get the whole pub into the game . Go gators

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Victoria

2007-01-05T01:18:30Z

alright, so sorry that the posts have been so piss poor and sparatic over the holidays. Not only was the lack of internet access a big issue, it was sort of the same stuff over and over again and nothing really new happened to update. Christmas was spent at a camp site cabin in wologong, south of sydney and we pretty much stayed there the entire time just hanging out with eachother at the cabin and the camp site facilities the whole time, didn't really take any pictures even (although I'm starting to regret that more now that the whole group is split up.) For New years we moved a bit close to Sydney but still south of it in Rockdale which was close enough to train into the city for days and evenings. That was much more fun although the late night bus rides and public transportation (especially around New Years) got a bit interesting. You have no idea how smelly an underground train can get with thousands of drunks on it for 5 or so hours (perhaps some of you do). I actaully had a prety early New Years (compared to the rest of the city) although I woke up around 7 to claim us a spot for the fireworks show so... We ended up running into the girls agian before we left Syndey yesterday, turns out there's no work in Hunter Valley so they stuck around still looking and got to see "Muff" one last time before Tom sold it for $ 2800 which is awesome. He bought it for 2000 so its pretty nice I think. The day before I left Sydney I spent the day with one of my old camp counsilors from Arrowhead and he took me to the Sydney Olympic Whitewater Stadium out in Perinth (about an hour west of the city). I got to use one of his boats to paddle the short class three man made rapids and managed to get my roll down before heading in. Even so I wasn't quite up to par with the olympic course and spent most of the morning swimming the course trying not to drown as I dragged the boat to shore. IT amazing what they can get the water to do without the rocks and stuff. They pump it up from this massive lake that flows down around in a U shape so that you end up about where you started (just bellow it obvisouly) then you paddle onto this converbelt ramp thing that brings you up to the top again. If your not me you can run it about 4 tims in an hour without ever getting out of you boat, I managed to to complete it once and got out of my boat about 5 times. In the afternoon Jex got us an inflatable 2 man raft which turned out to be just as easy to flip but easier to get back into which is half the fun. He is quite a regular there (a damn good paddler) and knows the staff well so all the saftry precaustions and stuff that you would normally have to follow we didn't and we would chase the boat upstream into class 3 wholes (which, suprisingly enough, can still hold you down pretty good manmade or not.) Anway it is usually about 60 bucks and hour not including renting boats and stuff and Jex got me in for 25 for the day so it was soo cool. ON the way back to Rockdale he took me to the rest of the Sydney Olympic park which was really cool too. The aquatic facility was amazing.
Tom and I are in Melbourne now, flew here this morning on the 6 am flight after spending the night in the international terminal in Sydney. That makes the 4th Airport I've slept in on this trip and it was definatly the worst. (good ones are John Lennon international in Liverpool and Auckland International, you know, just in case you need the info at some point) The Greyhound busses which we looked into at first were about 80-90 bucks and wern't gonna leave Sydney till Sunday and the train was about 120 and the same for the dates. We got the flight online for 79 bucks and got a free night of accomodation with it, its good to know you got the best deal. We rented a car for the drive form here to Adalaid where we're staying with another mate from Scotland and seeing some vinyards and wineries. From adelaid we are relocating a camper van to Perth over a course of 5 days which puts us there on the 18th. Fly out to Bangkok on the 21st (hopefully) so we get to spend a couple days there. As I'm sure you heard there were some bombings in bangkok on New Years Eve that killed several tourists so I can tell you at least one person that is at least a bit timid about that next destination, but we're checking with the Embassies and stuff to make sure that its still ok to ga and plan on getting out of the capital pretty quickly. Sorry no pictures yet but soon we'll be drving the great Ovean road which is supposed to be some of the most beautiful coastlines in australia, hopefully New Zealand won't have ruined it for me, or for you. We may ahve gotten a bit picture spoiled

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Melbourne Bound

2007-01-19T05:13:49Z

It was a sad day today, except for Tom and I the group has broken up. Nick is off to New Zealand with a friend from Airlie beach and this was out actual goodbye as I won't see him till we're both back in the states. Brittany and Kelly headed North to Hunter Valley to try their hands again at some more fruit picking, this time grapes. Hunter Valley is pretty famous for its wine but not as famous as is South Australia and the Adelaid region which is where we are heading after Melbourne. We aren't sure how we're gonna get to Melbourne yet but exploring the options, we want to leave tonight if possible. As soon as I get to Melbourne I'll have a much better update.

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Warm Christmas

2007-01-19T05:14:43Z

Merry merry christmas and happy happy new years. Sorry I've been so long in updateing but I've been a bit cut off from society for the last little bit down south of Sydney at our christmas cabin. It was as good a christmas as could be had but certainly didn't feel like it. New Years will be much better as we're getting a spot on the Sydney Domain (which overlooks the harbor, you can see the view in one of my first pics with the huge beard with the opera house and bridge in the background). They shoot fireworks from the bridge and the Opera house and its supposed to be one of the best Display in the world. Ill be taking pictures so that should be cool. Its nice to be back with the guys, Nick and I are together again for the next couple of days till he heads out to NEw Zealand. Sorry no pictures this time, can't do it on this computer, but in the next couple of days I'll get the last of New Zealand and New Years up. Hope everyone's new years is great.

Warm Christmas remains copyright of the author gbrockmag, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Fjordland National Park

2007-07-28T22:29:16Z

By far the most beautiful place so far is the far south of the south island. Probably some of the most increadable things I've ever seen the scale of the massive rockwalls and water falls is undiscribable. the drive out from queenstown gets prettier and prettier along these river valleys.

that were fun to run around it

I don't knwo what type of flowers these are but they vocer the floors of the valleys making them all purple and pink until teh grey and white of teh mountains

like this

once you go under this massive tunnel to get to the actual sound you drive through these huge canyons to get to the ocean. It was raining and the snow melts make the water falls poor from everywhere.

then you get to the ocean and the fjord is unbelievable. It wasn't even a nice day and its so cool

I wish I had come down here for the whole time, would have avoided some less fun things and would have had more time to explore the other fjords and canyons. I'm glad I'm not around to stress you out Ellen, you know how I always hated doing that.

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