ah, San fran... Alcatraz has actually always freaked me out a bit. It's a bit morbid, you know, touring such a brutal place, albeit historically fascinating. The gift shop is slightly in bad taste, though...there's lots of "faux" prison gear.
"Green buds," eh? I confess I've never had an experience of that caliber in Golden Gate Park, though Berkeley, across the bay, is apparently a mecca for such indulgences (it was supposedly the first city to disallow police for arresting solely due to possession -- I think they make up for it by oppressing parking meter violations).
Did you happen to pass the sfraffle.com "dream home" while you were there? It's the latest in a series of luxurious home raffles around the bay, and probably the only chance I'll ever get at moving back up there. Anyhow, supposedly it's near golden gate park, so I was curious if the "green buds" extended that far out.
Good to see your back on the blogging and quiet a restrained blog seeing that civilization as we knew it has collapsed! I am surprised you just dont have 'i told you so' in different fonts and sizes ala The Shining. Saw Daves book reviewed in the sunday times recently.Pretty impressive. Talk soon
My favourite response was always just to forget to turn on the phone in the first place and then sit around thinking how lucky I was no one was calling.
And I was the best receptionist that place ever had.
Except, of course, for yours truly.
Wellington sounds and looks divine. A million times better than the rainy wintery part of Japan we're currently in. And you should look out for a church called Old St. Paul's cathedral--I've just learned it was designed by my great great great grandfather in 1866. Who knew? It's part of a dark family secret that may bore you to death but I promise to tell you some day.
And I will be first in line in Northern part of the Eastern hemisphere to buy Mr Lynch's book--sounds fascinating!
Keep having fun!
real life ahhhh all that job looking and flat hunting sounds wayyyyyyyyyyyy tooooooooo much like real life after the few cool months you have just experienced :( still it's nice to be doing all that in New Z rather than in damp and economically depressed Ireland :( best of luck with jobs and flats and stuff guys.....
Pointy Ears! Who ever thought that getting maimed by "Paddy the (butcher) Barber" would come in handy? Don't worry though - If you do get locked up I watched "Midnight express" again the other week.
u smell (paul that is) love the photos esp the precious poo! u both look so tanned. triona i never saw u with a colour before! missing u both, we've nominated suzi to take over from paul for the secret santa this year... reckon she might do a better job of it anyhow! xxx
email hi chick i sent you an email to smellywagon with the website www.wwoof.com.au. If you finding it difficult to find a place to stay this website is targeted at people who want to work in oz basically you volunteer to work with animals on the farm and in return receive free bord and food... may get you out of a hole. Anyway keep up the bloggs i'm loving them. Miss you millions. Sinead xxx
twistedblower Hi. Saw Triona yesterday, she was in the telly.Her name was 2nd in the credits. I missed sunday as went to electric picnic for a few hours. I had a black wristband with Crew 07 on it but it worked. I was told that 8 people had bands made of Tayto packs and that worked too. The big news that might interest you is that there is a creme egg bar called twisted on the market a few months. Sickly sweet fondant is no longer just for easter ( or cheaper after easter)
Was just watching the box...... Just saw u on TV Triona :) excellent (if very very bloody:() drama. Liveline was talking all about it today......he still walks the streets of Louth apparently...that is so mind blowing to think that! :( anyway glad yous are still enjoying your travels....will send yous a longer email later- Dave.
English language? Um, not sure what you guys are thinking - must be the heat! But Irish folk giving English lessons - no, no, no. You might think you speak English, but you're wrong!
toilets Ooh interesting piece of information. It's always good to know the difference between men and women, even if in the end all you get in either case is a hole in the ground. Yay squat toilets!
The Chinese characters for man and woman are 7 s respectively, by the way. That one took me a while to figure out ...
From the exotic land of Canadiana Hey guys, I love your photos! Angkor looked amazing.
We're back in the homeland for a few weeks sweating out the hottest August ever (but at least it's a dry heat?), eating extreme amounts of brilliant western cheese and hiding from the redneck oil monkeys that are slowly infesting the entire province. Oh Canada.
Very interesting stuff guys-
I read Philip Short's ‘Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare’ last year - and it was an excellent and scary read.
The thing about Pol Pot was that he got his third level education in cultured France! And at one stage he seemed to have some progressive views about what should happen in his country- and then that changed BIG TIME and the nightmare of S21 and everything else happened.
Also you said in earlier comment that in Laos some of the stuff in the museums was blaming the Cambodians for things- in that book it comes across that the Cambodians in turn blame and resent the Vietnamese who in turn blame and resent the Chinese!
But I suppose we know a thing or two about blaming and resenting a larger neighbour for and about everything :)
You are missing nothing but the wettest summer in Dublin since Noah sailed the ocean blue- but you sound like you are having a terrific time.
Stay safe and enjoy rest of your adventure.
Dave
amazing I love that you guys are just winging it. It sounds completely perfect--especially the part about people just putting menus outside their houses. What's the best meal you've had so far?
getting brave. Your getting into the swing of things by the sound of it. From not eating from the street vendors in Bangkok to eating leafy fish entrails. Good going. Did you have any cakes in Vientiane? i remember them as particularly nice. What did you do In Vang Vieng when it rained? Hmmm. What was there to do....?
Elephants When I was on Koh Chang (I think it was) we just happened on a group of elephants near the road with their keepers. You could ride them but we actually didn't - I think I considered it too expensive, especially since I wasn't keen on the idea of riding one anyway. The size of the animal is quite intimidating but I guess I told myself it was unnecessary and possibly dangerous (also doubts about how well kept they were though they seemed not to be ill-treated). I saw something about a rampaging bull elephant on 'When Animals Attack' or something once and it wasn't pretty. But you could buy some nuts and let the baby rob them from your pockets with her trunk. Baby elephants are cute and playful (and weigh as much as a hatchback). It didn't cost anything apart from that and there was no long trek to a remote village involved!
The Parkes have just left for the States by the way so we're expecting more blogs and fantastic adventures to brighten our gloomy Irish summer!
Fecking Trecking Do the trek, we did ours from Pai which meant there was only Me Caoimhe our guide and his wife. Highly recommended. We expected something from an anthropology documenary but they all have Nike clothes and electricity (they were big fans of Shinawatra because he sorted power to the villages). Defo worth a look and a big part of there economy. And we got to eat insects. hurry up and get the photos up!!
Paul & Triona are 2 people. They both have heads and a shared interest in Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Paul is the taller one. Triona is not the taller one. ... full info
Terrell Barrett
non-member comment
ah, San fran...
Alcatraz has actually always freaked me out a bit. It's a bit morbid, you know, touring such a brutal place, albeit historically fascinating. The gift shop is slightly in bad taste, though...there's lots of "faux" prison gear. "Green buds," eh? I confess I've never had an experience of that caliber in Golden Gate Park, though Berkeley, across the bay, is apparently a mecca for such indulgences (it was supposedly the first city to disallow police for arresting solely due to possession -- I think they make up for it by oppressing parking meter violations). Did you happen to pass the sfraffle.com "dream home" while you were there? It's the latest in a series of luxurious home raffles around the bay, and probably the only chance I'll ever get at moving back up there. Anyhow, supposedly it's near golden gate park, so I was curious if the "green buds" extended that far out.