Contest Details: As some of you may or may not know, random signs have brought me a great deal of pleasure. I have taken great joy in making up what someone, not speaking the language, or familiar locations might come up with as to their meanings. I have provided an example image with interpretation. Your job is to locate the other sign in this blog and interpret it accordingly. (Your prize: the last overseas postcard I will send) Note to Self: Lesson Learned As a trio we have been getting along swimmingly, but there has been some strife, which, without providing [View Full Entry]

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Flying into Japan I found myself on a nearly empty flight - I felt a little bit bad about it to tell the truth, knowing just how many trees I'd have to plant to make up for this global offense, but I was soon over it and excited about the surprise that awaited my good friend Camille at the airport. I managed to watch three movies and did a little bit of reading, but the latter activity was complicated by the fact that the lights were misaligned. Mine actually used most of its luminosity to brighten up the corridor, and the [View Full Entry]

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First of all to beg forgiveness: 1. The keyboard I am using is a bit finicky and so there are many a spelling error in this owing not to carelessness, but to the keyboard and I can't be bothered cleaning it all up with a bunch of extra intenet time. 2. A mild deception stated in a previous blog about our timeline. We were rushed not because of Mel (though she does fly to Perth soon) but to me. I have left to Japan, but I could not give this away as it was a surprise for my Best Friend Camille's [View Full Entry]

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Before leaving Surfers Paradise, we decided that since the sun had finally decided to bless us with its presence it wasn't worth wasting and we headed for the beach, where we went for a dip, showered (which we and our highly chemical composition demanded), and went in search of a few items of importance for Melanie to collect some sand from the beach that Discovery Channel (mistaken though it is) called the best in the world. I suspect that it was the best beach within an hour's drive of a city they wanted to visit. But perhaps I'm splitting hairs, and [View Full Entry]

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Mel and I left Byron Bay a little reluctantly, but found we had little choice given that our time was already under pressure. It helped that it was threatening to rain and made good of that threat little more than 5 minutes after we piled into the G-Force van, sporting on the back: Remove G-String Locate G-Spot Apply G-Force A van after my own heart, and my wallet. I have decided that the van must be a woman ;) Just kidding, that's a little cynical, there are some women out there that aren't out for money, and those that are are [View Full Entry]

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My thirtieth year started off with a bang. Well crash may be more appropriate, but we'll come back to that in a moment. Fortunately it was not of the plane variety. I boarded my plane at just after midnight, my first activity of the day, and I proceeded to fall quickly to sleep. I asked for an upgrade, eager that my birthday would hold some sway, but the pretty girl at the counter replied with a bat of her eyelashes: "I'm sorry, but we're chock-a-block full tonight." That's alright, I had butter on my bread - that may sound nonsequitor, but [View Full Entry]

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End of the West Cory Maley Preamble: I couldn't help as I began to shift my thinking away from Denham north to the Ningaloo of Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up." I was ready to move on up and so here is the end of one adventure and the beginning of another. Last Days in Denham After a good number of days, perhaps even spiraling into weeks, the people of my world were anything but constant. In a backpacker's life, [View Full Entry]

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Before I begin in earnest, I just want to say of Scotty's comment on my previous blog regarding the Chuck Norris Van: Hells Nah! Oh no you di'n't! You di'n't just say that! That being said, we can move on to stories that will hopefully prove entertaining for you at my expense. This blog begins on a dark a dusty road in a truck with Pommie Pete and another girl I did not know, but Pete did, presumably. Pete's a good guy. He works on the pearl farm, which I've not yet gone out to, but will shortly. We were driving [View Full Entry]

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It only took a day, really, to get here from Dongara. I got picked up late, after I had been misinformed of my pickup spot in Dongara, and fortunately was found by a very experienced driver just before he was ready to give up. We arrived in Kalbarri and had a great seafood meal, but I found myself betwixt two groups, and quite separated from both. Leave it to me to pick an anti-social seat. But it was amusing to find that the mostly Irish group decided to mummify the driver's apprentice. Good times. Arriving in Shark Bay on the tail [View Full Entry]

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I got up at the butt crack of dawn to catch my very late bus at 7:00 am. In real life, this is not a bad time. This is the time I normally left for work, for instance. But in the world of the backpacker, this is the equivalent of getting up at 3:00am to complete a term paper due that later morning. I was in a mood to meet people, and ended up chatting with most everybody on the bus. It was a good group, and I was a bit rueful of my decision to get off at Dongara (pr. [View Full Entry]

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