Casey Armstrong

I wanted to do it differently. Write it differently and leave out the photos, but I didn't. Instead, I procrastinated, wrote, procrastinated more (and more and more and more), and finally wrote again. Lastly, I took a swig of beer, yawned, and held on to the Backspace key until I kept hearing that annoying beepbeepbeep sound. Everything was gone. Everything, except for my ranting at the end of it all that had nothing to do with Perú. Just some crap about suffering & striving & personalities & romanticism...as if I have any clue what the hell I am talking about. A good amount of time later, something happened. That tiny little white paperless typewriter I picked up down under crashed, blacked-out. We both just sat there motionless, staring at each other with nothing to say. Actually, ... read more

To somewhat steal an allegedly fictitious line from the revolutionary Paul Revere, “The Americans are Coming!” After almost four months in Australia, I could practically count the number of Americans I had met on one hand…and that includes Morgan, Jamie, and Stephanie! What is that all about? Well, in about a week span, that number almost doubled, but we will get to that later. Time to head south. Where the weather is cooler and the ocean is not littered with stingies & bities. About twenty hours on the road in less than thirty hours with only one stop to sleep in Bowen and Stephanie and I found ourselves back in Caloundra…fifteen minutes late for trivia night. I was bummed. After a nice couple of days enjoying the sun & sea, we went back to my relatives, ... read more

This place seems so familiar, yet it’s completely different. Most shops close by 5pm and cities seem to close completely by 8pm. They speak English, but I have never used some of these words in my entire life: reckon, keen, heaps, and bloke. We break down words and locations to their initials such as: USA, LA, the OC, the IE, PCH, ASAP, LOL, RSVP (yes, I know it is French), BLT, PB&J, FBI, CIA, USC, UCLA, every place at UCSB (FT, IV, DP, SB…), and MILF. Everything to them seems to end with an -ee or -eez sound such as: Aussie, brekky, sunnies, esky or eskies (a cooler), tinny or tinnies (small boat or beer can), boardies, mossies, bities, Brissy (for Brisbane), and Goldy (for the Gold Coast). Fries are chips. Chips are crisps. Pools are ... read more

Finally, the Latin (or Roman) Alphabet! Well, something similar at least. Unlike us back at home, they have dots apostrophes accents slashes bottomless triangles flying above and swimming below their letters. For instance, there are something like eighteen different ways to write 'A' and 'O' using the different accent marks. Anyways, who is counting? I don't speak Vietnamese and this is the first country I have been to in nearly four months that does not use those swirly looking squiggle thingies (no offense to those respective countries and yes, I understand that no offense is usually used when you want to apologize in advance or after you say or write something offensive). It all didn't matter. I was prematurely excited at the conclusion I naively jumped to that the people here would speak relatively good English. ... read more

While I typically set high goals for myself, I didn't think I would achieve this specific milestone while being an unemployed traveler in Laos. Who am I? Midas? Morgan? Maecenas? Well, actually none of them. The only reason it happened is because I was in Laos AND I was only a millionaire in their currency, the kip. Not so impressive as the exchange rate is about $1 for 8,700 kip so for $115 you get over 1,000,000 kip. So maybe I am not really a millionaire, but it is pretty funny to go into the bank or to the ATM and withdraw over 1,000,000 of some currency like it is no big deal...even if it is only worth $115. Anyways, entering Laos was unlike any way I have entered any other country. About five minutes after ... read more