Brad of the Jungle

Wordup my friends, I have recently returned from a 1 week Cargo Ship Cruise of the southern Okinawa islands of Japan. By cargo ship, I mean a giant slow-moving metal boat whose primary function is to provide outlying islands with supplies and　haul away trash. You might be wondering　what the appeal of such a journey is (or how I convinced Kristi to get on board with this plan)...well, a flight is pricey and would only allow access to 1 specific island. The cargo cruise option significantly　reduces cost and allows a whirlwind tour of potentially 6 different islands. Our port of departure,　Kagoshima, was filled with forklifts, hardhats and warehouses. How romantic! Most of the other passengers seemed to be locals going back to their home island, boat crew, school children or business men. Yet again, Kristi and I ... read more

Konnichiha mis amigos! So another year has passed since my wanderings in Indonesia and Thailand and the unquenchable travel bug has struck again. I have returned to Asia but this time aimed my travelquest in a northernly direction for the quirky and well-polished Japan. But Brad (of the Jungle), you might ask, are there really enough sharks, cliffs, rapids, caves and Jungles for you to keep your jungle-name? Maybe. Won't people be wearing 3-piece suits instead of hand-made local clothes? Yeah, kinda...but I am hoping the incomprehensible language, vastly different cultural traditions and puny amount of tourism will be an assault of my assumptions about humanity. A Jungle of the Mind, if you will. And besides, it is only a matter of time before I stumble upon some ancient buddha cave or zen-blessed river to fulfill ... read more

So after 1 month of finding my own way through Indonesia, I was getting a bit weary of making new friends all the time and sometimes eating alone. And then Poof! Kristi got a new job and had some time to spare before her 1st day. So we decided Thailand would be a fun switch-a-roo. My 1st night in Bangkok was in the Very Backpacker Khao San Road. I thought this would be a fun place to meet like-minded travelers but I found it to be a dirty and average white person slum. Determined not to subject Kristi to this drab introduction to our trip, I did some serious Bangkok research and planned a rather decent hotel near a cool part of town. We ate dinner at a High Concept restaurant called the Bed Supper Club. ... read more

Hello friends, I hope all is well with all of you. It appears that the blog emails are not automatically sending to you folks. That is a shame. I will try to fix but I am sorta clueless as to where to begin. Anyway, let it be known that this blog post will not be full of extreme adventures and cultural shocks. So if you are only reading this to see pictures of me wading through piles of bat poop or dipping my head into whales mouths, you will have to wait for a future edition. I DID finally sucessfully kite-surf though! It took a week of the daily ritual of waiting for corrrect tide and wind conditions and then patiently repeating the same mistakes over and over, but it all resulted in a pretty wonderful ... read more

So one day I received an email from a good friend that suggested I enter a contest on an Australian website advertising the self-proclaimed "Best Job in the World". I thought it looked cool but it seemed a bit far-fetched. Besides, I pretty much already have that job making video games near the beach. :) Then I received 2 MORE emails sent from different friends suggesting the same thing. OK, maybe I will look into this a bit more. The job will award the winner a 6 month well paid "job" as the caretaker of an australian island on the Great Barrier Reef. Not bad. The method for application was creating a 1-minute video describing why you are the best candidate for the job. That sounded fun but I was in the middle of finishing a ... read more