Waking up from a hyper-realistic Larium dream…the now reoccurring one about a hatchet wielding Bratwurst ….I am covered in sweat and aching in 7 different spots covering roughly 90% of my body. As I try to get up, I realize that my body is not going to let that happen. Hazy memories of being launched into a rushing river drift by and I look over and see Tania on the same sinking ship… neither of us have the will to get up. We have both been badly beaten by the secret fun police, who are most adept at dolling out [View Full Entry]

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Covered in sweat….exhausted, backpacks weighing on us like a bad conversationalist…we hear the rush of water in the distance. It has only been two hours of hiking through the jungle and we are already beginning to stop enjoying the scenery in favour of wishing for cool. Then, as always…a waterfall appears. And not just any waterfall…adventure waterfall number 3. This time, a rock slide adds excitement to the otherwise refreshing coolness of the water. Besides a three inch bruise on my bum owing to an errant submerged rock, once again we are in paradise. Typical of [View Full Entry]

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High-heeled knee high boots with a skirt just below her waist, she patiently explained that the next airport train would be leaving in 20 minutes and would take me to just near my final destination in Shinjuku. As I walked away from my first service encounter in Tokyo towards the officially mandated “meeting spot” to meet up with my travelling companion Emily, I could help but wonder how China and Japan ended up on the same tectonic plate. As different as Australia is from China, Japan is almost as big of a culture shock. From ordered chaos to ordered everything. [View Full Entry]

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Nanjing was the capital of China during both the Ming Dynasty (we think, need to check in Baxter and McGuire’s Big Book of Chinese Dynasties) and again for a short time during the republic. For the past 600 years it was surrounded by the largest city wall in the world (which is now only partially intact), which looked a good bit like the Great Wall looks in pictures. Man…those Chinese and their freckin walls….they love em! As far as massive cities in China go, Nanjing was a pretty place, with a large mountain to the east towering above the city, and [View Full Entry]

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In Chinese there is a proverb that there is heaven in the sky which you reach through enlightenment, and there is heaven on earth that you reach from visiting Hangzhou and Suzhou (or something like that). Both cities have long histories of being centres of culture and beauty, with the beauty mostly related to a number of immense gardens and parks. With air that doesn’t make your eyes bleed and water that doesn’t taste as if someone has recently cleaned their pool with it, we found the first city a nice change from Shangers (as the local ex-pats call it). Our [View Full Entry]

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The cab ride from the airport is probably a good general example of life in Shanghai, and how we have chosen to live it. Neither Tania nor myself arrived in the city with our hotel name written in Chinese despite clear indications from all travel guides that this was HIGHLY recommended. In fact, Tania was much better prepared than me, as I had no map, didn’t even have my hotel name written down in English and was really only vaguely sure I knew what the name was. So we hopped in our respective cabs (Tans arrived 2 days before me but [View Full Entry]

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Day 2: A little scenery from the top of the mountain Nathan taking it to the limit...FIRST JUMP Day 3: Ski school…followed by a close call Some time wasting fun-enhancing Nazzy Tricks Some more time wasting fun-enhancing Nazzy Tricks The jumping begins in earnest…back country BABY! [url=http://www [View Full Entry]

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What can you really say about a city whose residents pack the streets at 5am on a Wednesday to enjoy the subtle flavours of a large, cylindrical salty donut dipped in dark chocolate. Well, subtly may not be the highlight of Spanish culture, but the level of fun-lovingness I witness on each of my stops by locals and wanders alike was….uplifting. My general impression of Spain can be summed up as follows: beautiful…but really bad for you in and kind of high dosage. This goes for the food, the drink, and most certainly the women. Actually, the women are just beautiful. [View Full Entry]

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I know that in a previous entry I suggested that domestic travel did not warrant a travel log, but I feel that several loopholes may exist with regard to the current trip. First, US travel can’t actually be legitimately called domestic for me…and second, even if it were domestic, New Orleans now more closely resembles Guatemala (post mudslides) than anywhere else in the States. Actually, I have to immediately contradict the last statement. PARTS of New Orleans make the mountain villages in northwest Vietnam look like 5 star resorts, but other parts are so untouched that you [View Full Entry]

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Given my somewhat limited time, I decided to maximize my time in Hanoi by flying from Hoi An (actually Da Nang, but whatever). In theory, this made a lot of sense, except that I was so beat when I arrived, that after a few hours of walking around I promptly fell asleep at 8PM for the rest of the night. My plan was to spend two days in Hanoi, followed by a two day trip to Halong Bay, and then a final night in Hanoi. This plan was thrown into doubt when I was informed by the guy sitting next to [View Full Entry]

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