mattylee
Matthew Lee Joined: May 10th 2006
Logged in: September 29th 2010
Logged in: September 29th 2010
Starting on January 11, 2007 I set out to do just that with my mate Jeff. Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, a six month sojourn in China, Mongolia, Nepal and India have happened already. Who knows where this new year will find me.
See the World.
Travel Blog Posts
Whoops!
What Am I? Un-Australian? I used to keep a small notebook in my backpack, between my “interesting” Greek playing cards and my current novel, where I would write down the names of every interesting person I met while travelling. This started out as a practicality, as I am downright awful at remembering names. Seriously, if I don’t write down your name the instant you tell it to me, and sometimes even if I do, the syllables will simply bounce across the empty space that I’m certain lines my skull until they eventually fall out the other side. I think the real reason for this is that I’m far more interested in knowing something about you - where you’re from, what you do for fun, which common household smell most reminds you of Bangkok - than I ... read more
A Sign of Things to Come
A Taste of Wine-country Jeff and I headed down out of the Blue Mountains via a slightly different path than usual. Thanks mainly to a GPS system with a passion for backroads, and a concept of exploring the most random niches wherever we go, we turned off the highway and went down a small road which splits two National Parks from each other. Essentially we were cleaving a path right between two pristine wildernesses; what better way to begin exploring Australia. Just getting down off the plateau was an adventure in itself as the road twisted and turned like a curled snake on its way downwards. Each turn afforded a view out over the valley below and for the first time on this trip I felt as though I was truly out in the middle of ... read more
The Sails
Beginning Where to begin this story. . . for once this is an easy question to answer. Usually I find that the end of one adventure is the beginning of the next, and the exact distinction between the two can often be a blurred line. For instance, when does a big trip begin? Is it when the plane lands? When the plane takes off? When you leave your house? When you first had the idea? All of these are legitimate places to begin a telling, however, starting the tale too soon leads to a boring beginning, but starting too late leaves key details missing, so you are left with a great mess. This story, however, starts precisely ten minutes before landing. The 747, which had been called upon to replace the much more alluring A380 that ... read more
A View To Die For
Pre-emptive Saffa It was ten o’clock in the evening, I was at home, I’d had a beer or two. I was just watching an old TV show with a friend when the phone rang, and I picked up to a very up-front South African man. After a few brief pleasantries he got straight to the business of my security briefing and proceeded to inform me of the myriad ways in which I was likely to get blackmailed, arrested, kidnapped, or shot on my upcoming “adventure” (including a warning to not get into any elevator with a woman… because she will strip naked, good, and accuse you of raping her, bad). I use the word adventure here as it puts a good spin on the concept, after all, being positive is much preferred over being a realist. ... read more
Jimmy Doesn't Stop for the Snow
Where Am I Now? All good things must come to an end, or so I’ve heard. Personally I think this is bunk as good things just meld into less good things when you’re too lazy to do anything about it. It’s all about making the best of where you are and what you’re doing, and, when it comes down to it, knowing when to say “hey, stop it, I’m changing things up”. To be fair, I have had a pretty good run of things, not very many people have the chance to travel the world for seventeen months, and all I can hope is that I made the most of that chance as now I find myself putting down the most tentatively small of roots. This is where I could bore you with statistics like everyone ... read more
Pretty Buildings
Prologue The international airport outside of Abu Dhabi is, in itself, the perfect metaphor for that city. When I first arrived and my travel weary self emerged into that sparkling edifice - a shimmering technicolour place that somehow resembles both a flowering lotus and a Turkish bath - I remember thinking that I would need to dedicate some serious time to explore the building upon my departure. After all, this was the United Arab Emirates; a country renowned for it’s dizzying excesses of architectural one-upmanship. However, as I now sit in the self same airport one week later, I am saddened to report that the airport has nothing left to offer; there is that one sparkling opening ceremony when you arrive, but there is scarcely even a second room to explore! Quite literally, this is a ... read more
Afternoon Light
A Pleasant Way to Wake Up at 5am I woke up feeling the only way you can after an overnight bus ride - with a crick in my back and a faint confusion over exactly how few hours I managed to sleep. Then I looked out of the window. A faint yellow light was just taking hold and everything still had that quiet and peaceful look that can only happen between the rise of the sun and the rise of all the people. The colour yellow appeared to be everywhere; no green or red, nor blue, just yellow everywhere. Immediately outside of the bus there was the yellow, dusty soil which led towards the fading yellow stone walls surrounding the yellow buildings which themselves clustered around minarets that were themselves tinted yellow by the morning sun, ... read more
Doing Our Bit
Sweeping Across Eastern Europe I really do hate rushing through places, but unfortunately that is what I had to do after leaving Budapest. My last day in Hungary was pretty much a blur: I took a train out to a small town in the countryside that is supposed to remain true to the traditional Hungarian way of life, and, to my delight it did actually seem very authentic apart from the plethora of naff stores lining the streets (akin to most tourist towns across the globe). After a couple of hours wandering up and down the cobbled lanes in the sunshine, and after what I must admit was a pretty oversized meal even for me, I then took the train back to Budapest, the subway to my friend’s house, picked up my stuff, took the subway ... read more
The Looks on Their Faces
Bedless in Bratislava A lot of things in life require very careful planning; without it you can often end up stuck out in the cold, so to speak. Some people take this issue very seriously, these are the people who won’t leave home without a retinue of translators, guides, organizers, and pack-mules, all prepared to follow a pre-defined itinerary between pre-booked hotels and pre-planned activities. Some people, including me, aren’t able to think this far ahead. What follows is a story of how my lack of foresight caught up with me in Eastern Europe. It all started when I chose to leave Vienna one morning. The decision may or may not have been clouded by a minorly massive hangover, but the prime force behind my leaving was that I had forgotten to reserve my bed in ... read more
Statue
Schnitzels and Museums I got off the train in the early hours of the morning, well, early for me. After leaving Valence it had been one long and boring train after another as I passed across France, Germany and finally down into Switzerland, the only highlight of which was the half hour I spent wandering the quiet streets in front of the Strasbourg train station. Strasbourg is probably a beautiful city, it certainly has an interesting history, but it really didn’t strike me as memorable from my viewpoint - a cold and nearly deserted street full of empty kebab shops and the odd Japanese tourist, just like many boring lower class suburbs around the world, only with a gigantic glass and very modernist train station dominating one end of the road. Vienna, on the other hand, ... read more
