At $7 per hour, Iceland definitely has the most expensive internet I´ve seen anywhere in the world. For that matter, pretty much everything else is most expensive here too, except for heat, which is free. So we landed on time at 6:00 am and immediately met Bryce and Diu, two Canadians. The Blue Lagoon is right near the airport, so the four of us went there just after landing. It was awesome! And furthermore, I kept thinking that everyone at home who thinks it´s odd why anyone would want to travel to Iceland would LOVE it! It´s a huge naturally heated [View Full Entry]

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Well it's finally time to dust off the backpack and hiking boots. Greg and I are leaving Thursday for a short two week stint in Iceland. It's not the most convenient timing because we're also in the process of buying a house. Needless to say, it's been a little hectic trying to balance our time calling home inspectors and researching the logistics of Icelandic camping. Anyway, we're psyched for the trip and excited to get our minds off the house, which isn't exactly the most stress free experience of our lives. On Thursday, we're actually planning on meeting up with Tim [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the delay. I've been busy hitchhiking across the country and sleeping in unlocked cars. Actually, I've been busy catching up with the peeps in Jersey, and... gasp... settling back into the office. But for now, where we left off: Nicole, Roxy, and I checked out the Coit Tower on our way out of San Fran. It's nothing more than a round, dull looking scenic tower on top of a hill just north of downtown. The old elevator was slightly cool, but the rest was a letdown, although I think the girls disagreed with me. They had windows up at [View Full Entry]

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I finished off New Zealand -- and all international travel -- in Auckland. Around New Zealand, it has a bad reputation and it gets unanimous negative reviews. But I didn't mind it at all. It had a lot more to do than Christchurch and the weather was a lot better. I hung out with Kirsten, a Dutch girl from one of my Stray buses. Then I took a free city tour, run by Stray. We stopped at the sky tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. We also checked out some volcanoes and scenic outlooks. All in all, Auckland was [View Full Entry]

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Next after the Franz Josef stop was Wanaka, some really small, random town further south. We signed up for a skydive but it got cancelled two consecutive days due to the winds. But I did a jetboat ride with five of my tourmates and Gump (our driver/tour guide). The jetboat was easily the most maneuverable boat I've ever seen. I was quite sure on several occasions we were going to crash into a boulder or a huge tree stump or something, but the driver managed to steer around all the obstacles. We also did a few 180 degree hairpin turns. The [View Full Entry]

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My last night in Koh Phangan -- and last real night in Thailand and Asia -- was unbelievable, but in an unexpected way. I ended up going to the pool party with a Swedish girl from my guesthouse. But neither of us really felt like it was our type of crowd or music, so we left early with the vague plan of just going to sleep. On the walk back though, we passed a raggae bar with one group of people around a table so we went in, got a drink, and joined them. It was a group of about twelve [View Full Entry]

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I ended up on a two day liveaboard trip in the Similan Islands. But the two days were so good I added a third day. So in total, I did 12 dives, including two night dives. We saw a leapard shark, sting rays, a bunch of cool fish that change colors, a bunch of scorpion fish (don't know if it's true but I heard if they sting you, you die within minutes), and quite a few huge sea turtles. The turtles are surprisingly friendly and swim relatively close to you. We heard reports of another boat seeing killer whales but we [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus down to Saigon was spectacular. I ended up with the entire back row of five seats all to myself, so I lounged out and pretended it was a bed. Definitely one of the more pleasant overnight trips yet. I ended up in a really nice guesthouse in Saigon, centrally located, complete with a huge bed, air conditioning, and a refrigerator, all for $8 per night. And a Bia Hoi stand was right next door. I spent the first day catching up on some sleep and then went to the War Remnants museum, previously known as the American War [View Full Entry]

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I somehow managed to find the one super fast internet cafe in all of Vietnam, so I took advantage and caught up with the picture uploading back to the Halong Bay trip. By the way, I wasn't able to do the cave dive due to strong currents. But the regular dives were cool. I held a puffer fish. You tickle its sides and it puffs up right in your hands. I also put this weird starfish like thing in my palm. You rub the top of it and it suctions itself onto you, so you can turn it upside down and [View Full Entry]

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I ended up spending two full days in Hanoi. I went all out and bought a total of 86 DVDs. I shipped them home via sea and they'll take longer to arrive than I will. It rained very heavily on and off during the two days. People were saying it's been the worst rains in 25 years here. It hasn't really affected me as much as you'd think though. I went to Hanoi Hilton, as it's affectionately known as, the place were McCain was held POW. Being election day eve back in the states, I suppose it was an interesting time [View Full Entry]

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