God thought with his sense of humor, "and it shall be... that on Thursday morning, Joni shall wake up and make plans to go to an unknown country where she doesnt know the language... HA! this should be funny..." and reinforced this by making England rainy and cold, making Joni cranky for lack of rock climbing. and so it was, that on Thursday, I woke up and said, "Hey! I'm going to go to Italy!" I started in Milan, and couchsurfed with two Bulgarian girls. They were also hosting an Ozzie, and I was so happy to catch up on my [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's been only 8 days since I landed in England, but it's seems like I've been traveling for ages. Let me give you a short recap, and then I'll begin by telling you about my travels, and my recent trip to the A & E (Accident and Emergency) where in America, we call it, "the ER." I started rock climbing in Thailand in Tonsai when some Kiwis took me rock climbing, and to cool off from the climb, we jumped into the ocean. I found it challenging and exciting. Once while climbing with my brother and Mark, Mathew climbed to [View Full Entry]

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With my Degree in hand (YAY!) I'm off to travel the world! This particular post is my dedication to Florida. If this seems too much like a "myspace" blog for which I'm not to fond of, then please, feel free to skip to the next one. However, if you have been part of my life here in Florida, you might want to read this. Now that I'm leaving, I can spill all your dirty secrets, and you won't know where I live! HAHA! (unless your name is Dorraine, and you don't have dirty secrets-you're just dirty!) What I love about Florida [View Full Entry]

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Venturing away from Mathew takes a little getting used to. Suddenly, being on my own, the onus was on me to make all the decisions. I decided to venture into Koh Phangnang, and on my van ride there, I met a gang of good folks. Three New Zealand girls (two were twins), one English bloke, one Swedish fellow and one Aussie. Well, all they were missing was an American! Here in Koh Phangang (pronounced 'koh-pen-yang') is where all the full moon parties are, and well, New Years was going to be fun - for those who drink and do drugs... but [View Full Entry]

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Traveling with Mathew is an experience to remember. He doesn't go by any books, but just follows his nose. He will talk to other travelers and use his instincts, and somehow always lands on his feet looking glorious. Where you will end up is like rolling dice. And where we ended up was Koh Lanta. "Koh" means "Island" and that is where we were. A small island with nothing to do. I so far cannot understand how people can go somewhere to do nothing. In Koh Lanta, this was a little sanctuary for people to wake up, eat, drink beer, smoke [View Full Entry]

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Unless you saw it, you would never know what goes into making coconut shreds. It takes hours (at least here, with no machinery and fancy equipment). First, the ladies take off the brown hair around the coconut, then they crack it. They will straddle a stool that has a blade at the very end. By sitting on this stool, they are keeping this round blade there. There is a metal bowl underneath that will catch the coconut shreds as she grinds the coconut against the blade, turns the coconut and then continues to use the blade to grind the coconuts. It [View Full Entry]

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On our way to Tonsai, Mathew and I picked up a friend. Andrew was a South African teaching English in Taiwan. He was vacationing at the moment, and we all stayed together to save money so accomodations would be "cheap cheap." There was a price to pay in Tonsai, and it's paid in blood. I was attacked by mosquitoes quicker than I could swat. One morning, from simply rolling out of bed to walking to breakfast, I got 16 mosquito bites on my right leg alone. Needless to say, I made a great investment in "OFF" spray. That and "Tiger Balm" [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Bangkok where Mathew - such a good brother - dutifully waited for me in the airport. Safe at last with my favorite traveling knight, I waited while Mathew negotiated rates with the cab drivers. "The place we're staying at is a real shit-hole" Mathew kept warning me. "But it has A/C." I told him it was fine, but as I arrived, I kept my mouth shut. There was a sign, "Don't flush condoms down the toilet" which Mathew said tipped him off that this was a whore-house. We found a new place the next day without A/C, and [View Full Entry]

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