ec
Will Scott Joined: February 10th 2006
Logged in: May 20th 2008
Logged in: May 20th 2008
Travel Blog Posts
You don't really need telling what this is, do you?
…I’m leaving today!!' That’s right, it really is all over! But don’t get too emotional yet, there still is one final instalment of my adventures to go… Whilst I took my last Greyhound ride of the trip, I realised that I was still suffering from the post-Vegas illness. Hoping it would be my last ailment of the trip and would leave soon, I took what proved to be my first and last yellow cab to get to my last hostel of the trip. I was staying at the Chelsea International Hostel, crammed into a 6-bed dorm room which I also had to share with cockroaches - nice! The Chelsea district happens to be the gay epicentre of NY, and also the chief gallery district of Manhattan. I was interested in neither of these, so spent my ... read more
September 25th 2006
Viva Las Vegas!
Vegas baby!! After a few too many Greyhound trips, and not fancying a 20-hour bus journey, I decided to travel in style and get a cheap flight from San Fran to Sin City. In an ideal world I would have stayed at one of the mega resorts on the strip. However, my budget had other ideas and I had to settle for a dorm bed at Sin City Hostel. It advertised itself as being ‘on the strip’; however they failed to mention that it was still around three miles to get to most of the huge hotel-casinos. It was time to get myself acquainted with ‘the Deuce’, the bus that transports people up and down the strip 24 hours a day. Sounds good? Not really, seeing as most of the drivers were arrogant idiots who need ... read more
Santa Barbara
What a silly question. Of course I am, I've just told you I've been there. ho ho holy crap, this is poor. Like all good Will Scott plans, the visit to Santa Cruz went all Pete Tong and didn’t happen. I blame the jokers who run the only hostel there, which throws everyone out from 11am ‘til 5:30pm or something crazy like that. Meaning I would be locked out when I got there, I decided to bomb further up the coast to Santa Barbara instead. Met an Italian guy Damiano on the Greyhound who was also booked into the hostel in Santa Barbara, so I had some welcome company for another tiresome journey. Once we got to the hostel (a little but lively place with a cracking atmosphere), we dumped our bags and decided to check ... read more
Hollywood...?
So, it was off to the States. And time to get back some of those hours that I magically lost crossing time zones. In fact, I reckon that September 5 actually lasted 42 hours for me. I’m Will Scott, and this is the longest day of my life. When we finally arrived at LAX airport, I set about trying to get into a hostel along with 2 girls called Lina who I met in Fiji. Turned out that the ‘Help Desk’ was anything but helpful, as the woman’s response to any question seemed to be ‘geez, I don’t really know’. So it was up to us, and, despite all the advice I received from my good friend and former travel companion Chris, we ended up staying at Venice Beach Hostel. It was basically a house with ... read more
The Magic 'Cool' Bus! Yo!
Bula! (That's hello/hey/how's it goin' and lots of other stuff in Fijian in case you weren't aware!) After waiting around in Nadi for another few days, getting sick and tired of hearing stories of some geezers from Guilford, Surrey, who had a great time staying at a local village (all a devious little ruse to get us to go into their shops and buy loads of crappy souvenirs), we managed to get ourselves onto the Feejee Experience bus for a tour of the main island Viti Levu. There are similar buses for Australia and NZ, where you spend your time travelling with other backpackers and getting to experience certain things you may otherwise miss out on if travelling on your lonesome. The brochure had the itinerary set out for us. First up on Day one: 'Visit ... read more
Sunrise
'Fiji time'. A phrase that you can't escape the moment you touch down in Nadi, a town on the west coast of Fiji's main island Viti Levu. It's nothing like 'Hammer Time', and has little to do with 'Chico Time' thankfully. From what I've gathered, it means they do what they want, when they want. So far it's been thrown at us numerous times walking down the main, and practically only, street of Nadi. In this context it has been used by locals to try and get us to slow down and buy some souvenirs or drugs from them. Don't worry mum, we didn't buy the souvenirs, just the drugs. Kidding, of course. As you may have gathered, Nadi town itself isn't exactly the Fiji experience myself and Mikey were looking for. Unfortunately we did have ... read more
Bungy!!
Here it is guys, the final instalment of my adventures in NZ. After my birthday celebrations, we woke up slightly bleary-eyed and said our goodbyes to Rotorua. We then took the short journey to Taupo, which lies on the northeastern corner of Lake Taupo, NZ's largest lake at 606 sq km. The main purpose of our time here was to let Mike and Jonny experience the joy of skydiving. Unfortunately the Gods had other ideas, and our time there was very cloudy and very very wet! Even indoor rock climbing at the Sports Centre was a write-off due to some tool taking a day off or something. In my time here I did manage to take a walk alongside the Waikato River, whilst Mike and Jonny took a limo ride to a cancelled skydive! On my ... read more
Wellington
Kia Ora and Welcome! Yes, that's right, ec has turned the ripe old age of 22. Before I go on I'd like to thank the rents plus sis, the Browns, and the D-Man for their birthday messages on my previous blog. Much appreciated guys! And another big thank you to all the other peeps who managed to get in touch in whatever way, shape or form - you know who you are! We'll get to the topic of my Birthday shennanigans later, for now let's have a bit of a catch up on the North Island. First port of call was the capital city, Wellington, situated on the Southeastern tip of the North Island. One of the first things that strikes you about the place is just how damn windy it is, hence the clever little ... read more
Road Block
(yeah, I'm gonna stop these poor blog titles soon. This one's just cos I went whale watching you see?!) Ok guys, it's time for a bit of a catch-up. Been racing around the South Island for the past 10 days or so, and now that it's all come to an end with us heading to the North, I begin to reminisce... Heading off from Queenstown was a bit sad for me. We'd just said our goodbyes to Dan and Chris, and now we had to say goodbye to one of the coolest places we've stayed at yet. A perfect place to have said our farewells I guess, but I should stop reminiscing! It was time for a pretty darn scenic trip to Milford Sound; we had to go inland just to go back up the west ... read more
extreme!
(aka. 'Queenstown and the 3 most exhilerating (sic) days of my life'). That's right, a sophisticated jibe aimed at you Danzil! Here we are in Queenstown, the outdoor adventure capital of NZ. Throw in some pretty mental nightlife, and stunning lakes and mountain views, and it's not too hard to see why people rave about this place. As we approached the town itself, our path crossed Kawarau Bridge, the original site of bungy jumping. Watching the people jump I thought 'hey, that's not too bad. Forty odd metres looks about right' Except the other guys had bigger plans, aka. a bungy jump of a hundred and silly metres. So I imagined the jump ahead of me trebled, and thought '...nah'. For an introduction to bungy jumping it didn't really appeal. But stay tuned, maybe when I ... read more
