Here are a few things that I'll never forget: -touching a kangaroo for the first time -the prickly legs of a huntsman spider on my cheek -my first day of surfing in Byron Bay, catching every wave -seeing a snapping turtle just off of the Great Barrier Reef -The talc-like sand on Whitehaven beach -the freezing water in the Shotover river -walking the volcanoes of North Island, New Zealand -Following dolphin pods at the Bay of Islands -the Kiwi shakes in Little India, Singapore -Being scared for my life in Malaysia -watching an amazing sunset on Perhentian Island, Malaysia -Eating delicious [View Full Entry]

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Kyoto is in a fantastic struggle between past and present. After taking the bullet train through the rice paddy-checkerboard countryside I arrived at Kyoto station, a controversial block-like building cutting through the Kyoto skyline. Across from the station is Kyoto tower. I didn't go up to the viewing deck because of the low-lying fog and smog which hung to the skyline the whole time I was in Kyoto. Once I had found my dorm with the help of several passers-by I headed out on the town. Kyoto is renowned for it's tea house district crawling with geishas and weary business men. [View Full Entry]

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I love Japan, and always will. It's a perfect marriage of past, present, and future. There're meikos, geikos and geishas entertaining tired businessmen in tiekwood teahouses, shinto shrines rising up between office buildings, women walking down the street in traditional kimonos and dolce and gabbana bags, and well-dressed school-children checking out the futuristic sony inventions. The best part of all is that it's all genuine. The Japanese don't put on a show because the tourists are there to watch. Sumo doesn't exist as an over done attraction, along with teiko drumming, pachinko, flower arranging, and tea ceremonies. Japan would still hold [View Full Entry]

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Once in a while you meet a person and everything just clicks like you're two halves of a whole that's just waiting to happen. I met Kieran in Bangkok. To my surprise I met Kierans dad at the airport (later referred to as my baptismal fire). He spent the morning showing me around Melbourne, giving a little history lesson of the architecture and origins over a warm latte and a walk around the CBD. Once I was given a map and instructions of the best tourist-type stuff to see I was on my way through the vast and beautiful botanical gardens. [View Full Entry]

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My last day/night in Bangkok will definitely never be forgotten. After a long ride on a night bus with a squeaky chair, and a good conversation about American politics with a British guy with an Australian accent I was back on Koh San road. We arrived just after 5 am and all was quiet on the little street. The vendors had all been cleared away and construction was underway to set up stages for the Songkran festival. I managed to convince three of the guys off of the night bus to share a hotel room with me (they were only staying [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Chiang Mai a sleepy mess. Our overnight bus had a squeaky chair that didn't let up for the entire ten hours and once we arrived Laura (the British girl I met on the bus) and I collapsed into our hotel. Chiang Mai is a beautiful little city built on a deep history of pagodas and crumbling city walls complete with a moat around the old city center. In the heat of the day (up to 39 some days) the moat was always full of children just out of school. Chiang Mai offers up a more educational side of [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Kanchanaburi in the late afternoon after a very long local bus ride where I relied on a nice old lady who could not speak English to tell me where my stop was (don't ask me how I managed that). Kanchanaburi is a beautiful little town built as a kind of strip along the major highway to Burma. I decided to walk across town to find a hostel instead of taking a tuk tuk. This turned out to be not such a great idea since it was boiling hot and I managed to get lost on one of the [View Full Entry]

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My time in Koh Tao seems like a dream, everything went by so quickly. I started my diving course 20 minutes after I got off of the ferry and spent my evenings reading books and going to supper with my dive group. The first day of diving was spectacular. I've always been afraid of the deep dark ocean, and it was exhiarating facing my fears under water (things like taking out the regulator under 18 meters of salty water). I was able to swim next to sharks, beautiful schools of multi-colored fish, trigger fish, angel fish, and fantastic forests of coral. [View Full Entry]

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After stubbing my toes too many times to count, spliting open my small toe, ramming my head into a rock and ripping off half of my toenail on a bamboo bridge I've learned the importance of slowing down. A safe journey is paramount to enjoying the destination. My crossover into Thailand went off without a hitch. I collected afew stamps and then hopped on a five hour train to Hat Yai. The trainride was a great way to see the countryside and I had a nice chat about muslim women of Britan with a Saudi-arabian woman. She thought I was on [View Full Entry]

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The difference between travelling alone and travelling in a pair is like night and day. In Terengganu I ended up at the same hostel as Remco, the guy from Holland who had booked me a hotel in Kuantan. He was kind enough to stick with me for two days and I was finally able to see Malaysia the way it was meant to be seen. There is quite a bit of beauty in this country, with it's gleaming white mosques and fantastically dyed fabrics. Terengganu has a well developed riverside walkway, unfortunately many of the facilities were under construction so we [View Full Entry]

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