I've been in Thailand for quite awhile already. So long in fact that my 30-day tourist visa ran out the other day. Thankfully Alan mentioned it to me the day before it was due, so I made last minute plans to leave the country and come back with a fresh stamp in my passport. After visiting a travel office, the cheapest and fastest way to do this was to simply pay 600 baht, take a 6 hour bus ride to the Cambodian border, then cross back into Thailand and sit on another 6 hour bus ride back to Bangkok. But I [View Full Entry]

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Borneo was not a place I planned on going. No particular reason, but originally we just figured that after we got to Singapore we'd wind up heading back up through Malaysia on the way to Thailand. There were a few things we could have checked out - Melaka, the Cameron Highlands, Penang.... but the reviews we got from other travellers didn't have us itching to go there. Not that they sounded bad, but we decided that we should be going to places that we were really excited about. So the idea of Borneo was proposed. What's in Borneo? Truthfully I had [View Full Entry]

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Well well, Malaysia. What the balls is going on, I have no idea, but it's really cool. If you've been to Asia you have an idea what I'm talking about, but if not then no amount of writing can properly explain it. I'll try anyway. [View Full Entry]

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Ahh, Australia, the land down under. Here are some fun facts: The toilets flush clockwise, just like the US. Nobody, and I mean nobody, drinks Foster's beer. And I haven't seen a single person throw a shrimp on a barbie. Or wrestle with a crocodile. Or get eaten by a shark. Needless to say, I was quite disillusioned. I'm starting to think you can't believe everything you see on TV. We did, however, see the 2nd most poisonous spider in the world. I double-dared Alan to touch it but he wouldn't. We've seen lots of people playing didgerdoos. Got to see [View Full Entry]

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Yeah, that's me doing the biggest bungee jump in New Zealand - the Nevis bungee, 440 feet. All 3 of us came back to Queenstown yesterday so we could jump together, and at 8am this morning we found ourselves on a 40 minute, off-road bus ride up a mountain to the bungee site. It's hard to explain how utterly terrifying the jump was. The trick is to just forget every bit of common sense and human survival instinct you've ever had. If you can do that, it's no problem. I found it to be much scarier than skydiving, mainly because you [View Full Entry]

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A couple days after I posted my last blog entry, I left the orchard. I wish I had some funny story to tell you, like I got fired for throwing apples or something, but unfortunately I don't. I left because my allergies were killing me on the farm, and after a week of sneezing 24 hours a day I just had to get out of there. I honestly wouldn't have left otherwise, apple picking is garbage but we met some cool people. Actually come to think of it, it was only the 2 Irish guys that were cool. Other than them, [View Full Entry]

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Is this really possible? Do I really have a job picking apples on a farm in New Zealand? Do I really know how to operate not one, but several different types of tractors? Am I really working for a guy who regularly takes his dogs on pig hunts and told me that "living in the country is about being able to wake up in the morning and take a piss on your front lawn with nobody around for more than a kilometer in any direction"? Apparently, it is really happening. I am now the New Zealand equivalent of cheap Mexican labor [View Full Entry]

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Well we made it to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand and our last stop before we go to the South Island. I just left the bar where we watched the Super Bowl and it was surprisingly good. There were lots of people that came out. For some reason, most were Steelers fans. Which was fine, because East Coast unity takes precedence. We happened to run into our friend Randy who we met in Auckland. He managed to reserve a table at the sports bar featuring our own beer tap. Literally, there was a personal tap at our table and [View Full Entry]

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Hello all. Right now we're in the city of Taupo. We just got back from a 3 day hike in Tongariro National Park which was amazing. And hard. To lighten our packs, we left our tents at the hostel and stayed in the huts along the way that are maintained by the DOC. They are pretty well maintained and clean, but the facilities are minimal. For example, they have a couple gas burners but no pots or pans or anything. There are no showers, but 2 toilets, but no toilet paper. There is running water, but it comes from a big [View Full Entry]

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It's been awhile since my last update but we've pretty much been in the middle of nowhere. Auckland was so much fun. Our hostel rocked. It was called the Fat Camel and the setup was great - each room was like a suite. It had a living room, kitchen, and bathroom with 3 dorm rooms around the living area. We were there for a total of 6 nights and became friends with almost everyone in our suite. It was a really cool feeling to be able to just to go up to the room and see who was hanging out. New [View Full Entry]

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