Day 1 (Wednesday) - Par for the course, I slept most of the first half of the bus ride. Along the way we got some stunning views of the countryside. Thailand is a beautiful country with rolling prairies, sharp hills and dense forest. And what is amazing is how fast they all transition from one setting to the next and then back again. There were breathtaking views but perhaps most breathtaking was the thunderstorm that came up in the last 30 minutes of the trip. Light danced all around the windows as the bus jitterbugged with the wind as we climbed around the bends of the highway. We finally arrived and for once no one wanted to leave the bus. It was pouring outside and Chiang Khong was not large enough to support a large bus ... read more

Day 1 (Sunday) - I was exhausted and slept most of the way to Koh Mak sitting next to Rich. I woke up just for eating and at the occasional stop along the way. 5 and a half hours later we were at Laem Ngop, our first destination. Once there we exited the bus at the place to buy tickets to the boat that would take us to the island of Koh Mak. While there we also bought return tickets for our return boat two mornings earlier. Each boat ride was to be an hour long. Though the return bus we wanted was an 11am, we booked the 10am boat back, leaving us 0 minutes to get from the pier to the bus. The booking lady told us that she would hold the bus for us ... read more

Day 1 (Wednesday) - I decided to take the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur because it seemed more romantic for some reason than the cheaper, slightly faster bus trip. It turns out that I am not this generation’s Ernest Hemingway. I started off the trip buying a large bottle of water at the Singapore station. As the train was pulling off, I realized that the cap on the water was already open, meaning the vendor had reused the bottle with tap water. No big deal, just 6 hours without water for someone fighting to combat dehydration. Sometimes the fates do conspire with you. Not only because of that but the romance of the train ride was greatly diminished also by the film that covered the windows of the train, impeding my view of the Malaysian ... read more

Day 1 (Tuesday) - The flight to Jakarta would have been pretty unmemorable as I slept most of the first half. But then someone opened the overhead compartment above me and a bottle of gin rolled out and fell, breaking on my head and covering me with the alcoholic liquid. I used to be an aisle man but now call me ‘Mr. Window’. Showing up at the airport, I had one thing in mind, “I am showing up in an Islamic country smelling of booze. Call me anything, just not Indonesian prison inmate” other than how beautiful the airport was. They had planned lots of gardens and fountain courtyards that were visible from all points of the terminal. I ended up getting through customs without much ado, grabbed a bus and finally a taxi that took ... read more

Day 1 (Tuesday) - We got off a pretty uneventful 3 hour flight in Alice Springs. Everything was set up from there for the next four days, which felt pretty dang good. We were picked up by our hostel inside the airport. The outback is incredibly hot but doesn’t feel that hot because of how dry it is. When we got to the hostel, we immediately went into town to grab some food and supplies for the trip, including 2 x 1.5 liter bottles and some snacks for the trip. Upon arriving back at the hostel, we went to lay out by the pool but it was so hot that it was unenjoyable. I wrote a little on my blogs that afternoon, then we went into town to grab a pizza. We ordered one pizza but ... read more