http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/JJfromNJ/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from JJfromNJ en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:12:17 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:12:17 +0000 At 7 per hour Iceland definitely has the most expensive internet Ive 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 600 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-413077.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-410524.html 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 offNicole 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 nor http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Jersey/Princeton/blog-365788.html 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 s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-354676.html 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 drivertour 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Taupo/blog-352290.html 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 peopl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Franz-Josef/blog-349542.html 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 turt http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Khao-Phanom-Bencha-NP/blog-347660.html 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 ri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Surat-Thani/blog-345748.html 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 m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-343473.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-342845.html On what I thought was my last night in Vang Vieng I went out for dinner with Sara Mike Sinc and Allistair the latter two are Scots from the slow boat. We had a great time that night so they convinced me to stay an extra day and go tubing with them. So I went for my third time but I took it easy because of the ribs. I was completely exhausted at the end of the day so I went to sleep relati http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-340700.html I didn't realize the two day Mekong boat trip involved one full day of bussing it from Chiang Mai to the river town of Chiang Khong. So my itinerary was pushed back a day. The bus ride was about eight hours and it wasn't bad. I checked into a guesthouse right on the river and could see Laos on the other side. I ate and set off to check out Chiang Khong which consisted of one main road about http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-338468.html The train up to Chiang Mai was okay. The bed was about 4 inches shorter than me and it was ridiculously hot in there after the sun came up in the morning. But any sleeper train is better than any overnight bus so I won't complain.I met a Dutch couple at the train station and split a tuktuk with them to the city center. A tuktuk is a threewheeled open air taxi somewhat resembling a golf car http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-335731.html On my last day in Bangkok I walked around all day in the scorching heat to check out the must see sights. Most of them were about within an hour's walk from my hotel. I walked all the way to the Grand Palace only to find out shorts were prohibited. On my way back I took care of some things like burning my pictures to DVD haircut all that kind of good stuff. I also had another terrific me http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-333952.html It seems like it took forever but I'm finally here in Bangkok. I've wanted to go here for years so it was great to step on the plane. The plane itself sucked but what can you do Air Berlin most definitely falls short to Lufthansa for German airline of choice.I got in on Tuesday at 1000 in the morning but I got almost no sleep on the flight so the only thing I wanted to do was find a hotel an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-332479.html For my last day in Istanbul I headed over to the Asian side via ferry. I had no idea how to get to the stadium for the Fenerbahce match nor did I have a ticket. After stepping off the ferry I asked two guys in Fenerbahce jerseys about the whereabouts of the stadium and they took me under their wing. First the took me to a reliable place to get a ticket at close to face value. Then we got so http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-331112.html I had m305xed feel305ngs about the treehouse v305llage 305n Olympos. It was a really 305nterest305ng place to stay but 305t was k305nd've dead there. They told me that they get 85 Turk305sh tour305sts wh305ch 305s d305fferent than what the travel agent 305n Istanbul told me. Due to Ramazon Turk305sh for Ramadan I was there on an off week and 30 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-329287.html I dec305ded not to stay 305n Istanbul for the rest of my t305me 305n Turkey. For two days stra305ght I went all out and spent 12 hours each day s305ghtsee305ng 305n Istanbul and wander305ng around try305ng to absorb 305t. A German dude and a Canad305an dude from my hostel jo305ned me for the second day. We went to the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art that ha http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/Olympos/blog-327063.html It's your lucky day people. I've been walk305ng around all day so I stopped 305n th305s 305nternet cafe for a break. It's by far the best USB connect305on I've seen s305nce leav305ng home so I dec305ded to catch up w305th all the good p305cs back to Afr305ca. I st305ll have a bunch from pr305or to the Serenget305 305nclud305ng qu305te a few l http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-326248.html Steve left for Poland and I had to sw305tch to another hostel for my second n305ght 305n K305ev. It was w305th305n walk305ng d305stance from the f305rst hostel wh305ch dubbed 305tself as K305ev's only centrally located hostel. You cant trust any of the Ukra305n305an hostel descr305pt305ons. At the new place I shared a room w305th an Auss3 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-325881.html