Dear Fam and Friends,
Our last day in Rarotonga today and we are nice and tan and ready for Fiji!
The day after Meadow left we definately had a little flashback on the insanely great time we've had with Meadow from Australia on forward and all the fun that kid brings to the table! That day we decided that we were next off the island and it was time to carpe diem (seize the day)!
We rented some snorkel gear and took off a little south to a good spot where we both concluded we saw some of the most abundant amounts of fish ever in such a small territory. From puffer fish to angel fish to territorial trigger fish we saw more fish in the shallow reef than we did our time scuba diving in Koh Tao, Thailand. The trigger fish are always funny because they look like minature parrot fish and really cute but if you get in their territory they swim right up to you and as Jay found out later, they even bite!
Another day passed going about our normal routine of lying by the pool or beach and reading for watching movies. The next day we took off on our mopeds for the southern tip of the island and brought with us our football and our books, all you need in life as far as we've been concerned. On the south side where we went there's four or five other smaller islands that during low tide you can walk out too or swim also because of the sharp coral. After walking to a couple of the surrounding islands we through around the football and chased some crabs before retiring back to the main island. On the way back we encountered heaps more trigger fish and Jay even got bit and a big one drew blood on his leg, scary little buggers!
The next day was Christmas Eve and I decided we needed something festive in our lounge area so I grabbed the fake Christmas tree from reception and brought it in and set it up on the pool table. A lady I met from Portland also, small world, bought some candy caines that we put up on the tree and it felt a bit more festive at least!
Merry Christmas! We lounged around a bit, made our usuall egg, toast and beans breakfast and than Jay and I exchanged our failed attemp at our rapt gifts! We both said we would spend 20 bucks so it evened out and we both got each other the same tank tops but different colors, I guess it's true good minds do think alike! It started to downpour from the night before as a Christmas stormed had rolled in making it feel a little more like Christmas so that afternoon we sat around and talked story about our travels and really everyone left in the hostel got a lot closer. After some discussions I hounded guard by the phone waiting for my family to call as we had pre arranged a phone call, to be honest the fifth or sixth one in the last four months! It was so good to hear all their voices as it made me really home sick afterwards but right before I could shed a tear we decided we should watch Borat and all was forgotten! What a great Christmas movie haha. That night we had a pig roast dinner with the owner of our hostel and all the workers who we've all become real close with. The pig roast took forever to cook so we all waited around and did what else, booze! By the time the pig was ready and everything else was prepared we had a beautiful Christmas dinner with a lot of drunk strangers and had a blast!
The next day the storm still lingered around as we said by to some people and watched more movies and read our books while eating our tune pasta, P and J's, and eggs and beans in between.
Today was our last full day and finally the storm dwindled away so we caught some rays and got our tans back and took our mopeds to a waterfall and got some cliff jumps in. Today Jay and I were so bored at one point in the day we started making food even though we weren't hungry! This island has been so relaxing and needed as we've been on the move for the last four months and needed a break but we both agreed today that we're ready to take on Fiji full on and party one last time before our epic journey closes to an end. I told myself I wasn't going to look at my pictures I saved on my iPod until I got home but I peaked at our China pictures today and we look so different with our haircuts and it sadens me to think how long ago that really was and what an incredible journey we've had. Anyway though I'll save my heart felt email where I'll probably cry for another couple weeks because Fiji is just a day and a half away, layover in Auckland tomorrow than we'll touch down... Miss you all!
Cheers,
Grant
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Rarotonga, we've been on island time...
Dear Friends and Family,
Long days, fear of falling coconuts, running out of gas on my moped, getting pulled over without a local license, getting bit by mosquitos, cutting myself on the reef, sunburns and eating; beans, eggs peanut butter and jelly, pasta and finding my towel are my biggest worries lately, it's tough but as they say, someones gotta do it! As i am typing our cat that lives here, Marmalade, is walking over the keyboard trying to get my attention and she just fell off the desk, so add that to another one of my worries! Internent is super expensive here, go figure, so I'll keep this entry relatively short...
Island life has been so nice, going from packing and repacking and moving from one place to the next for the past almost four months now has been getting a little exhausting so to end our trip on islands and relaxing was the best idea we could have come up with. It was a little odd at first when we got here and realized there was about 10 or so other people and it felt like maybe a couple hundred on the entire island, which can be drove around in a half hour! The first day was Meadows birthday but I'll backtrack a little bit to our journey here from Auckaland. We were suppose to get picked up by Tom, our friend there, and stay at his place but there was some miscommunication and we ended up staying out by the airport which was a nice little 60 dollar detour. These detours are what has my bank account down to triple digits and closing in fast! Anyway it turned out to be nice to be in a hotel and so we made the most of it and took off the next morning to get to our little paradise we're at now, Rarotonga which is the main island amongst the Cook Islands.
As I was saying, the first day we celebrated Meadows birthday lounging around and than drank of course at night. We recruited a cute Kiwi chick and played what the college kids know as beer pong (you throw a ping pong ball into cups of the opposing team and when you sink a cup they drink it), not rocket science which I learned from a English kid in Thailand who studyied rocket science isn't all that difficult! Really fun night and glad we got to a least get a little drunk for Meadow's birthday as tradition dictates.
Next day we didn't do much but get mopeds and meander around town where we ended up hanging out in a sports store watching old Michael Jordan videos for like a couple hours! That night I met some local kids next to our hotel/hostel and grabbed one of their boards and some fins and got a surf in for a couple hours. There is a super shallow reef that surrounds the entire island but if you walk out about a hundred yards there's a fairly decent break but it's a short 4 second ride and than you gotta barrow out or else you'll get scrapped up from the reef, I know trust me!
Next day we went on a hike through the mountains in the center of the island and it was reminiscent of Hawaii and some of the inner island hikes I did there but I would say the mountains here are a little more dramatic and beautiful. The hike was super good as at one point we found ourselves scaling vertical up a cliffside with ropes and little bars cut into the rock.
The other days we have gone out a couple times with a South African girl, a Swiss kid we call Swiss and an English fella. Here's my normal routine, wake up and eat eggs and beans, jump in the pool, moped around to the store or somewhere, eat a sandwhich, read or listen to music, chat with the people here, watch a movie, play with Marmalade or the puppy that wonders in and out, play cards and eat dinner usually pasta or something cheap and filling, and than chill out have a beer and go to bed.
The peolple here are super nice and friendly, last night I was in a bar and this really good world renown rugby player who was in town happened to be at the dive bar we were at and bought us all shots, it should be noted that this is a huge Samoan dude that could break me in half if he wanted but he was really a big puppy dog! It's really easy to hitch hike and get around here, Meadow has been doing it the most since Jay and I have mopeds now but everyone really is so homely and chilled out here.
Meadow and Swiss left us today and then there were two! Meadow and I over the last three years have logged in quite a big amount of miles together and it's always sad parting with him and all his games but we both talked and we'll probably see each other within a month or two anyway so no worries! I do love that kid, and Swiss will be missed too with his Arnold accent and hilarious sense of humor.
We are having a pig roast Christmas dinnner which should be really good and fun with the other people here and the locals and their families that own this place. Anyway, I h ave to run, short on time on my internet card, miss you all and love you lots. I have to go get some rest as Jay and I have a big day tomorrow, actually I think tomorrow might be our day off? I love you all and I'm sorry if it feels like I've ingored a lot of people but communication out of everywhere is just so expensive and plus it'll give us more to talk about when I get back, that's if I still have friends haha! Love you all! Merry Christmas!
Cheers,
Grant
The weather has
Long days, fear of falling coconuts, running out of gas on my moped, getting pulled over without a local license, getting bit by mosquitos, cutting myself on the reef, sunburns and eating; beans, eggs peanut butter and jelly, pasta and finding my towel are my biggest worries lately, it's tough but as they say, someones gotta do it! As i am typing our cat that lives here, Marmalade, is walking over the keyboard trying to get my attention and she just fell off the desk, so add that to another one of my worries! Internent is super expensive here, go figure, so I'll keep this entry relatively short...
Island life has been so nice, going from packing and repacking and moving from one place to the next for the past almost four months now has been getting a little exhausting so to end our trip on islands and relaxing was the best idea we could have come up with. It was a little odd at first when we got here and realized there was about 10 or so other people and it felt like maybe a couple hundred on the entire island, which can be drove around in a half hour! The first day was Meadows birthday but I'll backtrack a little bit to our journey here from Auckaland. We were suppose to get picked up by Tom, our friend there, and stay at his place but there was some miscommunication and we ended up staying out by the airport which was a nice little 60 dollar detour. These detours are what has my bank account down to triple digits and closing in fast! Anyway it turned out to be nice to be in a hotel and so we made the most of it and took off the next morning to get to our little paradise we're at now, Rarotonga which is the main island amongst the Cook Islands.
As I was saying, the first day we celebrated Meadows birthday lounging around and than drank of course at night. We recruited a cute Kiwi chick and played what the college kids know as beer pong (you throw a ping pong ball into cups of the opposing team and when you sink a cup they drink it), not rocket science which I learned from a English kid in Thailand who studyied rocket science isn't all that difficult! Really fun night and glad we got to a least get a little drunk for Meadow's birthday as tradition dictates.
Next day we didn't do much but get mopeds and meander around town where we ended up hanging out in a sports store watching old Michael Jordan videos for like a couple hours! That night I met some local kids next to our hotel/hostel and grabbed one of their boards and some fins and got a surf in for a couple hours. There is a super shallow reef that surrounds the entire island but if you walk out about a hundred yards there's a fairly decent break but it's a short 4 second ride and than you gotta barrow out or else you'll get scrapped up from the reef, I know trust me!
Next day we went on a hike through the mountains in the center of the island and it was reminiscent of Hawaii and some of the inner island hikes I did there but I would say the mountains here are a little more dramatic and beautiful. The hike was super good as at one point we found ourselves scaling vertical up a cliffside with ropes and little bars cut into the rock.
The other days we have gone out a couple times with a South African girl, a Swiss kid we call Swiss and an English fella. Here's my normal routine, wake up and eat eggs and beans, jump in the pool, moped around to the store or somewhere, eat a sandwhich, read or listen to music, chat with the people here, watch a movie, play with Marmalade or the puppy that wonders in and out, play cards and eat dinner usually pasta or something cheap and filling, and than chill out have a beer and go to bed.
The peolple here are super nice and friendly, last night I was in a bar and this really good world renown rugby player who was in town happened to be at the dive bar we were at and bought us all shots, it should be noted that this is a huge Samoan dude that could break me in half if he wanted but he was really a big puppy dog! It's really easy to hitch hike and get around here, Meadow has been doing it the most since Jay and I have mopeds now but everyone really is so homely and chilled out here.
Meadow and Swiss left us today and then there were two! Meadow and I over the last three years have logged in quite a big amount of miles together and it's always sad parting with him and all his games but we both talked and we'll probably see each other within a month or two anyway so no worries! I do love that kid, and Swiss will be missed too with his Arnold accent and hilarious sense of humor.
We are having a pig roast Christmas dinnner which should be really good and fun with the other people here and the locals and their families that own this place. Anyway, I h ave to run, short on time on my internet card, miss you all and love you lots. I have to go get some rest as Jay and I have a big day tomorrow, actually I think tomorrow might be our day off? I love you all and I'm sorry if it feels like I've ingored a lot of people but communication out of everywhere is just so expensive and plus it'll give us more to talk about when I get back, that's if I still have friends haha! Love you all! Merry Christmas!
Cheers,
Grant
The weather has
Friday, December 14, 2007
Queenstown!
Dear Fam and Friends,
Birds the word, what? Haha couldn't think of anything catchy but I'm writting now from by far the coolest city/village/town we've been to in New Zealand, Queenstown! Allthough it's a bit touristy it definately has the most travelers, best scenic backdrop and best pubs!
Our last night in Wanaka we opted to not stay again at the same hostel as the management sucked and it was quite pricey the remain in our little cottage. We checked out some camp spots around town but they were super expensive too so we decided just to go with the wind, have some beers with our German friends back at the hostel and see what happened. Meadow and Jay went mountain biking while I had quite a relaxing day drinking some of the best coffee I've ever had while sitting on the edge of the lake gazing out at the incredible mountains surrounding. After a mellow day we ran into Jared, one of the hitchhikers we'd met at Franz Glacier and hung out with him for awhile sharring stories but more so listening to his. He definately takes the cake on truley defining what a backpacker is or in his case, a nomad! We grabbed some beers and headed back to the hostel that had kicked us out previously (because we used their showers and we didn't pay, cheep bastards) and with our to German guy friends and three German girls we'd met along with Jared we introduced to everyone our infamous game of: One Frog, Yee Ha, Ship Rolled into the Harbor, Gneiss, 21, Last Person and Hands! For pretty much anyone reading this that doesn't know, those are the drinking games we've carried with us all the way from Corfu, Greece last year that we've slowly added to fr om other travelers along the way, best and funniest games ever! Anyway after a long night of drinking we forgot that we still hadn't had a place to sleep, so we drove the car around the corner to a huge field, parked, and set up our tent. It wasn't raining has it had been shortly earlier so we were in good shape but than somewhere around the early hours the sprinklers went off and since they were on Jay's side well lets just say he moved to the car!
Next day we said bye to Jared hoping to run into him again, which we didn't and drove about an hour south to where we are now, Queenstown! The first day we caught up on some lost sleep and just explored the town.
The next day we said bye to our beautiful 5 door hatchback Ford Fiesta named Maria and dropped her off at the airport. After a little inspiration from Jared and looking at bus prices we decided it was best to hitchhike back to townn from the airport. Damn, if I'd had known it was that easy, catching a ride after the third car, we'd have hitch hiked the entire way through New Zealand! The couple that picked us up were locals and told us about how good the Cook Islands where and that's it really easy to hitch hike there because it's so small so we'll definately be doing that! After getting back to the hostel we went river surfing, which is body boarding on waves down rapids on a river! The water level was up pretty high so we didn't get to surf any waves for that long but there was other stuff that got your adrenaline going as we pumped through class 3 rapids on our boards. One of the tricks was called squirting where you find where two currents came together and duck dive with your board underwater while the current rushes you downstream for anywhere from 2 to 8 seconds! We also did a little cliff jumping and spun around in a couple whirl pools before we were done. It was definately cool but since the water level was high and we couldn't truly surf any waves we were a little bummed out but no worries.
The next day we all kind of had a lounge day and did our own thing which is always nice. I got a new book and took down to the lakeside with a coffee and read for a couple hours and shopped for gifts the rest of the day mostly. We went out that night with our two girls, one from Holand named Lora and the other from Germany named Gloria whom were both super cute and really kick ass! It was funny because all three nights we went out here I ran into this girl from Swedan that I'd met in Thailand and since I was kind of trying to hit on the girls we were with it made it pretty akward but in the end I found a solution, haha.
The next day, since Jay had already been in Switzerland, Meadow and I went canyoning which was the ultimate adrenaline rush and so wicked! Canyoning in a nut shell is going down waterfalls either by abseiling (repelling), jumping or sliding! The first water we went down was insane because we slid down the waterfall backwards, what a start to an incredible day! We jumped from about 5-6 waterfalls ranging from 8ft to about 20 ft landing in specific spots between rocks and out of the way of the suction circle under the water fall that pulls you underwater if you land in it, which I did once and got pretty jazzed! We had to scale around cliff edges overlooking falls while strapped to ropes by our carrabeaners which was pretty exhilerating in itself but then at the end we had to repel down a 30 ft. cliff side along a waterfall that was super narly and such a good rush! After an exhausting 2 hours in the fridged mountain spring water we hiked out and found a fallen tree to relax on for a few minutes. It must have been God because what happened next I'll never forget. As we all stopped and sat down to soak in everyone we'd just experience and truly embrace the massive surrounding landscape of overhanging cliffs and mountains the fog began to dissapear from the high peaks. For about 3 minutes the fog was split upon by a gust of wind as it revealed a window revealing a massive waterfall that seemed to drop from the clouds above. Just as our instructor began to say how he'd sat for hours the day before waiting to see the falls the gap in the clouds closed and we continued our hike through a couple rivers back to the van. What an amazing day that I'll never forget and I'm definately going to look into starting up a canyoning business when I get home as I talked about setting it up with our lead guide, who also happened to be a partial owner in the company.
Last night we went out with our crew an English guy named Charlie who was quite the character. We went to our usuall spot Buffalo Wilds where it is two for one drinks until midnight before we headed to the World Club to dance for hours until we just flat out where warn out and tired! While I was heading out to leave I ran into the Swedish girl again and hung out with her for a bit before giving her a kiss and saying goodbye. After trying to leave again I rain into the German girl who'd I'd been flirting with for the last couple of days and ended up getting convinced to go back in for a couple more songs and dance, what can I say I'm a sucker for those accents! A couple sounds later I told her I was just to hot and tired so she agreed and we walked back and hung out for a while before getting some good night smoochies and getting to bed.
Today we are heading to Auckland where we fly out to Rarotonga, Cook Islands! I am so stoked as we've not been able to stay in one spot for more than 5 days and we'll be spending 12 days on this island! It's like a vacation within a vacation I love it! It will also be good to see Tom again in Auckland tonight before we head out tomorrow because I could be saying my last goodbye to him, been a really good mate to me and we've had heaps of fun! My time on the net is running short and we've got to get to the airport and yes we're hitch hiking!
Sweet as,
Grant
Birds the word, what? Haha couldn't think of anything catchy but I'm writting now from by far the coolest city/village/town we've been to in New Zealand, Queenstown! Allthough it's a bit touristy it definately has the most travelers, best scenic backdrop and best pubs!
Our last night in Wanaka we opted to not stay again at the same hostel as the management sucked and it was quite pricey the remain in our little cottage. We checked out some camp spots around town but they were super expensive too so we decided just to go with the wind, have some beers with our German friends back at the hostel and see what happened. Meadow and Jay went mountain biking while I had quite a relaxing day drinking some of the best coffee I've ever had while sitting on the edge of the lake gazing out at the incredible mountains surrounding. After a mellow day we ran into Jared, one of the hitchhikers we'd met at Franz Glacier and hung out with him for awhile sharring stories but more so listening to his. He definately takes the cake on truley defining what a backpacker is or in his case, a nomad! We grabbed some beers and headed back to the hostel that had kicked us out previously (because we used their showers and we didn't pay, cheep bastards) and with our to German guy friends and three German girls we'd met along with Jared we introduced to everyone our infamous game of: One Frog, Yee Ha, Ship Rolled into the Harbor, Gneiss, 21, Last Person and Hands! For pretty much anyone reading this that doesn't know, those are the drinking games we've carried with us all the way from Corfu, Greece last year that we've slowly added to fr om other travelers along the way, best and funniest games ever! Anyway after a long night of drinking we forgot that we still hadn't had a place to sleep, so we drove the car around the corner to a huge field, parked, and set up our tent. It wasn't raining has it had been shortly earlier so we were in good shape but than somewhere around the early hours the sprinklers went off and since they were on Jay's side well lets just say he moved to the car!
Next day we said bye to Jared hoping to run into him again, which we didn't and drove about an hour south to where we are now, Queenstown! The first day we caught up on some lost sleep and just explored the town.
The next day we said bye to our beautiful 5 door hatchback Ford Fiesta named Maria and dropped her off at the airport. After a little inspiration from Jared and looking at bus prices we decided it was best to hitchhike back to townn from the airport. Damn, if I'd had known it was that easy, catching a ride after the third car, we'd have hitch hiked the entire way through New Zealand! The couple that picked us up were locals and told us about how good the Cook Islands where and that's it really easy to hitch hike there because it's so small so we'll definately be doing that! After getting back to the hostel we went river surfing, which is body boarding on waves down rapids on a river! The water level was up pretty high so we didn't get to surf any waves for that long but there was other stuff that got your adrenaline going as we pumped through class 3 rapids on our boards. One of the tricks was called squirting where you find where two currents came together and duck dive with your board underwater while the current rushes you downstream for anywhere from 2 to 8 seconds! We also did a little cliff jumping and spun around in a couple whirl pools before we were done. It was definately cool but since the water level was high and we couldn't truly surf any waves we were a little bummed out but no worries.
The next day we all kind of had a lounge day and did our own thing which is always nice. I got a new book and took down to the lakeside with a coffee and read for a couple hours and shopped for gifts the rest of the day mostly. We went out that night with our two girls, one from Holand named Lora and the other from Germany named Gloria whom were both super cute and really kick ass! It was funny because all three nights we went out here I ran into this girl from Swedan that I'd met in Thailand and since I was kind of trying to hit on the girls we were with it made it pretty akward but in the end I found a solution, haha.
The next day, since Jay had already been in Switzerland, Meadow and I went canyoning which was the ultimate adrenaline rush and so wicked! Canyoning in a nut shell is going down waterfalls either by abseiling (repelling), jumping or sliding! The first water we went down was insane because we slid down the waterfall backwards, what a start to an incredible day! We jumped from about 5-6 waterfalls ranging from 8ft to about 20 ft landing in specific spots between rocks and out of the way of the suction circle under the water fall that pulls you underwater if you land in it, which I did once and got pretty jazzed! We had to scale around cliff edges overlooking falls while strapped to ropes by our carrabeaners which was pretty exhilerating in itself but then at the end we had to repel down a 30 ft. cliff side along a waterfall that was super narly and such a good rush! After an exhausting 2 hours in the fridged mountain spring water we hiked out and found a fallen tree to relax on for a few minutes. It must have been God because what happened next I'll never forget. As we all stopped and sat down to soak in everyone we'd just experience and truly embrace the massive surrounding landscape of overhanging cliffs and mountains the fog began to dissapear from the high peaks. For about 3 minutes the fog was split upon by a gust of wind as it revealed a window revealing a massive waterfall that seemed to drop from the clouds above. Just as our instructor began to say how he'd sat for hours the day before waiting to see the falls the gap in the clouds closed and we continued our hike through a couple rivers back to the van. What an amazing day that I'll never forget and I'm definately going to look into starting up a canyoning business when I get home as I talked about setting it up with our lead guide, who also happened to be a partial owner in the company.
Last night we went out with our crew an English guy named Charlie who was quite the character. We went to our usuall spot Buffalo Wilds where it is two for one drinks until midnight before we headed to the World Club to dance for hours until we just flat out where warn out and tired! While I was heading out to leave I ran into the Swedish girl again and hung out with her for a bit before giving her a kiss and saying goodbye. After trying to leave again I rain into the German girl who'd I'd been flirting with for the last couple of days and ended up getting convinced to go back in for a couple more songs and dance, what can I say I'm a sucker for those accents! A couple sounds later I told her I was just to hot and tired so she agreed and we walked back and hung out for a while before getting some good night smoochies and getting to bed.
Today we are heading to Auckland where we fly out to Rarotonga, Cook Islands! I am so stoked as we've not been able to stay in one spot for more than 5 days and we'll be spending 12 days on this island! It's like a vacation within a vacation I love it! It will also be good to see Tom again in Auckland tonight before we head out tomorrow because I could be saying my last goodbye to him, been a really good mate to me and we've had heaps of fun! My time on the net is running short and we've got to get to the airport and yes we're hitch hiking!
Sweet as,
Grant
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Serenity Through Nature
Dear Friends and Fam,
Cheers all the way from Wanaka on the south island of New Zealand! We've logged some driving hours over the last week and a half but it's all been worth it as we've been blessed by the weather God's with ridiculously beautiful weather that has paved the path for some amazing scenic driving.
I'll start off where I left off on the north island in the cultural Maori town of Rotorua. We woke up and Meadow and I drove to one of the national parks that was a volcanic reserve. The tramp (hike) was very easy as it was paved the entire way and we first came to a lake that had steam rising up from the water and all around on the surrounding hills as the water rose to temperatures close to 60 Celsius. Walking along the stream there were hot spots everywhere and of course Meadow and I had to touch the water to see just how hot it was and to give you an idea it would be like taking a hot tub in very uncomfortably warm water! We hiked to the crater which was the bluest sky blue water I've ever seen as a result from the sulfur and other chemicals that also dictate the temperature, rising and flooding of the crater along with the active magma below the surface. The park was overall pretty good so after about a two hour tramp we called if off and headed back to town. The rest of the day was relatively mellow, drinking coffee and doing some shopping and than that night we went rock climbing at an indoor gym. The wall was by far the most intricate and massive I've ever seen and it was great to get some climbing in and get a much needed adrenaline rush that I've been without for awhile.
The next morning, despite being soar, I'd heard the mtn. biking was super good in Rotorua so I woke up before the boys and took to town and rented a really nice Mongoose front suspensional mtn. bike and cruised about 20 minutes out of town to some nationally renown tracks. The trails were just what I was looking for and super challenging as I found out. The grading system goes up to 6 being the most difficult so I road mostly 3's, 4's and I road a five. I found a really sick course I liked a lot that I had run earlier so I headed back there and halfway down the backside of the trail I rounded a curve and flew off a 3 ft. drop off landing on balance but catching a rock which through me off balance and I grazed a tree with my right arm before my handle bar dug into my thigh and I bailed off pretty hard. Lying there after counting my sheep I realized it wasn't a bad spill at all and I got pretty lucky so with a nice shiner on my thigh I decided to call it a day and head back. I definitely am going to get back into mtn. biking when I get back home, I miss it so much! We took off that day and headed for the south island and a long road trip. Getting to the ferry about 2 hours ahead of schedule we slept in the car and then boarded the ferry at 2am again sleeping on the ferry on the ground in our sleeping bags until about 5am when we arrived at Picton, south island. I slept pretty well so I volunteered to keep driving and an hour and a half later we were in Nelson where we met up with Meadow's parents long time friend, coincidentally enough named Jay as well! Jay was super homely to us and got us situated beautifully despite it still being early in the morning and we crashed for about 6 hours catching up on lost sleep. Later that day we cruised town for a bit, ate some really good sushi and then bought some local fish for that night to cook. Jay prepared the entire meal that night; two local types of fish, garlic bread, fresh salad and some local red wine! I am not lying when I say it was the best meal I've had my entire trip, I just got hungry just thinking about it! That night Jay helped us map out where we should go and would want to go on south island because of course we hadn't given much thought and were just going with the flow. Our trip has been very indicative of going with the flow and we're so fortunate to have had the cards fall as they may and end up working out every time.
The next day we took off for a 3 hour road trip to Abel Tasman National Park to do a tramp that is meant to be very popular and really good which is proved to be and so much more! We took a 20 minute boat ride to the end of the trail where we were going to hike back to our car about 4 hours or so. The tramp was really good as the tide was low and all the bays we cut across and made out own paths. The hike was along the ocean the entire time with the surrounding islands lingering adrift within sight. Towards the last bit of the hike we trekked across the beach which as a result of the low tide we found ourselves on what seemed like a desert by the ocean as the path was about 500 yards away and the ocean was about 500 yards away as well in either direction. It was truly a peaceful moment in my life where everything except your feet seemed to stop in time. That moment was much like another I experienced yesterday that I'll get to shortly.
After the hike at Abel Tasman we drove another 3 hours to Westport, a sleepy little town by the beach where we just crashed at a deserted hostel and took off the next day. We did meet an elderly couple from Baltimore that was traveling for about the same amount of time as us and it was really interesting to hear their story and exchange our travel stories. I truly hope that when I retire some day I'll have the strength and passion that they exhibited to continue my travels and do it the right way, not in expensive resorts where you stay on the ocean and swim in the pool the entire time!
Leaving town we stopped at a seal colony along the way which was always cool to see before we took back off for another 4 hour road trip to Punakaiki. There we saw the "flat rocks" or called pancake rocks as they looked like there were layers of rock on top one another which was quite cool to see. After chomping down some meat pies we drove down a gravel trail along a river to do the punakaiki river track, about a 2-3 hour hike. The hike was incredible as we only saw two people the entire way and saw the beautiful tropical hillside that secluded the river beneath it. After the hike we took off for the rest of our drive to Franz Glacier. Getting to the town, that lived off the tourism from the glacier, we settled in at a hostel where we quickly made friends with these three hitchhikers from the northeast part of the states. The three of them had sailed for a year to get to New Zealand and the night prior had camped behind the local town church, they put our stories to shame quite simply! After teaching them our travel games they all opened up pretty quick and we went out for drinks that night and had a blast. That is until they got Meadow and I to take the local shot to prove our manhood, which of course we undoubtedly agreed to. To give you an idea of how disguesting that shot was I'll simply tell you the ingredients: Rum, Tequila, Whiskey, Absenth and Chili Powder! After that little guy I decided to call it a night and after not drinking for about a week and a half now I soon remembered the all so familiar feeling of the hangover.
The next morning we lounged about and watched a Maori movie with our buddies before taking off south to Fox Glacier. The hike was not much of one at all to get to Fow Glacier, about 20 minutes was all and we decided to cut off the trail once we saw the glacier to get as close as possible. Oh ya side story, I spoke in a classic traditional English accent to every tourist I saw and I think Meadow and Jay about died laughing as we caught some people pretty off guard! Anyway, walking over the rocks and getting closer to the glacier you began to feel the sheer girth of the beast in front of us. It wasn't as big as the glacier I've seen in Alaska or the one I ice climbed in Switzerland but I've never been this close to the face of a glacier which gives you an entirely better respect. We got within 10 feet of the glacier and than after seeing rocks crashing down alongside us decided to back up quite a bit. We found some rocks to sit on and listened to our ipods as we enojoyed some of the rarest weather I'm sure the glacier has seen. I lied on a rock in some where around 80 degree weather with my shades on staring at a massive glacier! The other cool thing about this huge block of ice is that the surrounding vegetation is all tropical which I don't think you'll find anywhere else in the world. If you want to live vicariously and feel the ecstasy I felt download a song by Orbital called (Halcyon) or just search for CKY Icelandic theme song and than go plant yourself 50 ft from a glacier, truly an unforgettable feeling. Leaving the glacier we drove for another couple hours to where we are now which is Wanaka. The drive was incredible alongside numerous lakes surrounded by the massive southern alps and the tropical trees on the ground along the road. We slept in a little cottage last night, watched a movie and had a beer before crashing early. Today, Meadow and Jay are out riding mtn. bikes which I unfortunately can't take a part of because Meadow through a block of ice at me at the glacier which landed on my foot and since then has swollen up a bit. It's no worries though because I am going to go grab a coffee here in a bit and listen to some music and soak in exactly where I am which is a little village town on a lake surrounded by the souther alps, truly beautiful.
It's really funny that the places we expected the weather to be hot have been cloudy and raining at times and everywhere we expected it to be bad weather has turned out to be sunny and amazing! New Zealand has been everything people have made it out to be and so much more and hopefully in the coming days I can get some more adventure sports in my belt, it's only a matter of days before we jump off the second tallest bungee jump in the world! I'm off for now.
Sweet as,
Grant
New Zealand has been nothing short off all the beautiful things people have praised about her and I can't wait to continue south where peole rave that it gets even more beautiful.
Cheers all the way from Wanaka on the south island of New Zealand! We've logged some driving hours over the last week and a half but it's all been worth it as we've been blessed by the weather God's with ridiculously beautiful weather that has paved the path for some amazing scenic driving.
I'll start off where I left off on the north island in the cultural Maori town of Rotorua. We woke up and Meadow and I drove to one of the national parks that was a volcanic reserve. The tramp (hike) was very easy as it was paved the entire way and we first came to a lake that had steam rising up from the water and all around on the surrounding hills as the water rose to temperatures close to 60 Celsius. Walking along the stream there were hot spots everywhere and of course Meadow and I had to touch the water to see just how hot it was and to give you an idea it would be like taking a hot tub in very uncomfortably warm water! We hiked to the crater which was the bluest sky blue water I've ever seen as a result from the sulfur and other chemicals that also dictate the temperature, rising and flooding of the crater along with the active magma below the surface. The park was overall pretty good so after about a two hour tramp we called if off and headed back to town. The rest of the day was relatively mellow, drinking coffee and doing some shopping and than that night we went rock climbing at an indoor gym. The wall was by far the most intricate and massive I've ever seen and it was great to get some climbing in and get a much needed adrenaline rush that I've been without for awhile.
The next morning, despite being soar, I'd heard the mtn. biking was super good in Rotorua so I woke up before the boys and took to town and rented a really nice Mongoose front suspensional mtn. bike and cruised about 20 minutes out of town to some nationally renown tracks. The trails were just what I was looking for and super challenging as I found out. The grading system goes up to 6 being the most difficult so I road mostly 3's, 4's and I road a five. I found a really sick course I liked a lot that I had run earlier so I headed back there and halfway down the backside of the trail I rounded a curve and flew off a 3 ft. drop off landing on balance but catching a rock which through me off balance and I grazed a tree with my right arm before my handle bar dug into my thigh and I bailed off pretty hard. Lying there after counting my sheep I realized it wasn't a bad spill at all and I got pretty lucky so with a nice shiner on my thigh I decided to call it a day and head back. I definitely am going to get back into mtn. biking when I get back home, I miss it so much! We took off that day and headed for the south island and a long road trip. Getting to the ferry about 2 hours ahead of schedule we slept in the car and then boarded the ferry at 2am again sleeping on the ferry on the ground in our sleeping bags until about 5am when we arrived at Picton, south island. I slept pretty well so I volunteered to keep driving and an hour and a half later we were in Nelson where we met up with Meadow's parents long time friend, coincidentally enough named Jay as well! Jay was super homely to us and got us situated beautifully despite it still being early in the morning and we crashed for about 6 hours catching up on lost sleep. Later that day we cruised town for a bit, ate some really good sushi and then bought some local fish for that night to cook. Jay prepared the entire meal that night; two local types of fish, garlic bread, fresh salad and some local red wine! I am not lying when I say it was the best meal I've had my entire trip, I just got hungry just thinking about it! That night Jay helped us map out where we should go and would want to go on south island because of course we hadn't given much thought and were just going with the flow. Our trip has been very indicative of going with the flow and we're so fortunate to have had the cards fall as they may and end up working out every time.
The next day we took off for a 3 hour road trip to Abel Tasman National Park to do a tramp that is meant to be very popular and really good which is proved to be and so much more! We took a 20 minute boat ride to the end of the trail where we were going to hike back to our car about 4 hours or so. The tramp was really good as the tide was low and all the bays we cut across and made out own paths. The hike was along the ocean the entire time with the surrounding islands lingering adrift within sight. Towards the last bit of the hike we trekked across the beach which as a result of the low tide we found ourselves on what seemed like a desert by the ocean as the path was about 500 yards away and the ocean was about 500 yards away as well in either direction. It was truly a peaceful moment in my life where everything except your feet seemed to stop in time. That moment was much like another I experienced yesterday that I'll get to shortly.
After the hike at Abel Tasman we drove another 3 hours to Westport, a sleepy little town by the beach where we just crashed at a deserted hostel and took off the next day. We did meet an elderly couple from Baltimore that was traveling for about the same amount of time as us and it was really interesting to hear their story and exchange our travel stories. I truly hope that when I retire some day I'll have the strength and passion that they exhibited to continue my travels and do it the right way, not in expensive resorts where you stay on the ocean and swim in the pool the entire time!
Leaving town we stopped at a seal colony along the way which was always cool to see before we took back off for another 4 hour road trip to Punakaiki. There we saw the "flat rocks" or called pancake rocks as they looked like there were layers of rock on top one another which was quite cool to see. After chomping down some meat pies we drove down a gravel trail along a river to do the punakaiki river track, about a 2-3 hour hike. The hike was incredible as we only saw two people the entire way and saw the beautiful tropical hillside that secluded the river beneath it. After the hike we took off for the rest of our drive to Franz Glacier. Getting to the town, that lived off the tourism from the glacier, we settled in at a hostel where we quickly made friends with these three hitchhikers from the northeast part of the states. The three of them had sailed for a year to get to New Zealand and the night prior had camped behind the local town church, they put our stories to shame quite simply! After teaching them our travel games they all opened up pretty quick and we went out for drinks that night and had a blast. That is until they got Meadow and I to take the local shot to prove our manhood, which of course we undoubtedly agreed to. To give you an idea of how disguesting that shot was I'll simply tell you the ingredients: Rum, Tequila, Whiskey, Absenth and Chili Powder! After that little guy I decided to call it a night and after not drinking for about a week and a half now I soon remembered the all so familiar feeling of the hangover.
The next morning we lounged about and watched a Maori movie with our buddies before taking off south to Fox Glacier. The hike was not much of one at all to get to Fow Glacier, about 20 minutes was all and we decided to cut off the trail once we saw the glacier to get as close as possible. Oh ya side story, I spoke in a classic traditional English accent to every tourist I saw and I think Meadow and Jay about died laughing as we caught some people pretty off guard! Anyway, walking over the rocks and getting closer to the glacier you began to feel the sheer girth of the beast in front of us. It wasn't as big as the glacier I've seen in Alaska or the one I ice climbed in Switzerland but I've never been this close to the face of a glacier which gives you an entirely better respect. We got within 10 feet of the glacier and than after seeing rocks crashing down alongside us decided to back up quite a bit. We found some rocks to sit on and listened to our ipods as we enojoyed some of the rarest weather I'm sure the glacier has seen. I lied on a rock in some where around 80 degree weather with my shades on staring at a massive glacier! The other cool thing about this huge block of ice is that the surrounding vegetation is all tropical which I don't think you'll find anywhere else in the world. If you want to live vicariously and feel the ecstasy I felt download a song by Orbital called (Halcyon) or just search for CKY Icelandic theme song and than go plant yourself 50 ft from a glacier, truly an unforgettable feeling. Leaving the glacier we drove for another couple hours to where we are now which is Wanaka. The drive was incredible alongside numerous lakes surrounded by the massive southern alps and the tropical trees on the ground along the road. We slept in a little cottage last night, watched a movie and had a beer before crashing early. Today, Meadow and Jay are out riding mtn. bikes which I unfortunately can't take a part of because Meadow through a block of ice at me at the glacier which landed on my foot and since then has swollen up a bit. It's no worries though because I am going to go grab a coffee here in a bit and listen to some music and soak in exactly where I am which is a little village town on a lake surrounded by the souther alps, truly beautiful.
It's really funny that the places we expected the weather to be hot have been cloudy and raining at times and everywhere we expected it to be bad weather has turned out to be sunny and amazing! New Zealand has been everything people have made it out to be and so much more and hopefully in the coming days I can get some more adventure sports in my belt, it's only a matter of days before we jump off the second tallest bungee jump in the world! I'm off for now.
Sweet as,
Grant
New Zealand has been nothing short off all the beautiful things people have praised about her and I can't wait to continue south where peole rave that it gets even more beautiful.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sweet as, I'm 24 and still kicken!
Dear Friends and Fam,
How's it all the way from Rotorua, New Zealand! I'll work my way back up to this point as always as I've been in transit for a week or so and have a little catching up to do. This blog might be a little choppy with less detail as I don't have the time or drive really at the moment to be super specific so I appologize up front. Anyway, I'll take off back from thanksgiving in Wollongong, Australia.
Pele drove down from Sydney with her friend Sarah whom we also met traveling through Europe to join us for our Thanksgiving feast. We couldn't track down a turkey so we got two stuffed chickens, heaps of mashed potatoes and some other yummies like cranberries and green bean cassarole, god bless the internet for helping us with that one! We all said what we were thankful for and it turned out to be a great thanksgiving!
The next day Mandy May toured us around the beautiful town on the beach and all the surrounding scenic points like the lighthouse and what not. We got some super good icecream and grinded some burgers before heading back to the house as the weather began to turn sour. We went out that night to a cool bar/club and than called it a night after a couple drinks.
Waking up the next day I started to catch what Meadow's had for quite awhile now, a cold and conjested sinus's with a cough, but we headed to the ocean for a quick surf anyway. The ocean cures all I definately believe or at least revives and relieves for a short time and I felt slightly better after a morning dip and surf. The weather cleared up considerably but than turned cloudy and overcast shortly after so we headed home for a lounge day with some TV continuing our series we started called "hero's" which is super corny but really easy to get hooked on as none of us have been around TV for quite awhile now! As night approached we thought we could sneak out on a Sunday without having to go out but as it turns out Sunday's are huge in Australia! Ahhhhh, so of course we went out for a few drinks and after my self proclaimed no drink night, Meadow bought me a tequila shot and away we went! We didn't have many and actually had a fun night with all the girls we met through Zoe and Jazinta (Di's daughter and friend). That night we went back to Mandy's and Meadow and Jay had a revlation that somehow of course I got conned into. We all decided it'd be a good idea to dye my chest hair black and shave a sun into it!? So, one dye job leads to another and the next thing I know my hair is black as well as my beard! It was a pretty hilarious night as we couldn't stop laughing and I thought Meadow and Jay were going to die at one point! So long story short that's why my hair is black now haha, but it's growing on me and I actually kinda like it haha.
The last day in Wollongong we went out on Di's golf course that her and her husband own and golfed 9 holes and drove carts for free and had an absolute blast despite all the flies that pestured you during your back swing. Jay and Amanda had never golfed before so it was pretty entertaining but they definately held their own and did pretty good considering. Meadow and myself whom had golfed still played pretty poorly but we all had a blast so it was well worth it.
Saying bye to Mandy the next day was tough as she'd taken really good care of us and she'll definately be missed, Di got caught up with work most the time so unfortunately we only got to see her for Thanksgiving night but it's no worries things happen of course.
The plane ride from Sydney to Auckland (New Zealand) was fine but going through security I've never felt so profiled in my entire life as I had to go through numerous screening with my backpack while getting questioned over and over if I did drugs or hung out with people that did. This was all because I had a recent Thailand visit on my passport so they grilled the hell out of me, it was really frusterating as they took out everything in my pack and clean my shoes for bacteria all while continuing to ask me rediculous questions but it's over now so I'm washing it away! We called Tom (my buddy whom I met in Greece and traveled with for 3 weeks in Europe) who came and picked us up. What a classic Kiwi Tom was at first sight with his sweet handle bars and mustache and his wannabee mullet hair cut! That first night we began to map out our next 4 days with Tom over the weekend and what we were going to do the rest of our short almost 3 week stay in New Zealand. The next day we took a bus from Tom's house to downtown to find a hostel and cruise the city for a day. Getting into the hostel the boys got in line to book the room while I went to the travelers booth to try and book a car for our journey. A super cute girl got in line behind me so of course I chatted it up with her and found out she was a Yank from Iowa at of all places. Caught me off guard because I don't think I've met anyone from the states in awhile, little alone from a none coastal state. We hit it off pretty well and she ended up hanging out with us later that night which turned out good because we went out to a club and after getting denied because we didn't have proper ID we ended up hanging out together back at the hostel. Backtracking a bit, that day we just wondered around downtown Auckland and met up with Jay's parents who are in New Zealand for awhile as well. We went to an island off mainland which boosted a little sleepy colonial style town. We hiked to the top of the hill on the island and caught a great view of downtown Auckland and the surrounding islands and of course got a killer jumpshot, Jay even got one with his parents who were stoked to finally find out what a jump shot is! Jay's parents were adorable as I found out they've been keeping up with my blog and asked my questions frequently about this and that and things I totally forgot about so it was very fun to talk with them. We ate a killer mexican meal that night at a place Jay discovered and the guys working there were from Bend, Oregon so go figure! To eat a good burrito was heaven I have to say!
The next day we hopped in Jay's parents car and took off north to the Bay of Islands. The first day we got there and ate some delicious food (thanks again to Jay's parents for treating us so many times, it really means a lot to a bunch of broke backpackers!) and settled into our hostel. by this time the weather had turned cloudy so we decided to hold off on kayaking until the next day and entertain ourselves in far better ways! So, don't think we're retarded but when you're backpacking and there's nothing to do you can become quite a bit rediculous with ideas to entertain your bordom. We first all got mustaches for the last remaining days of Movember (What they call November here to help promote prostate cancer awareness, which is why all the younger males grow mustaches) and than decided to play century club with our English housemates but playing with water! Century club is normally a college drinking game played with beer in which you drink a shot of beer a minute for 100 minutes! Well, it was my brilliant idea to switch is up with water and after 100 shots and not being able to pee, another rule enforced, we all began really sick and went to bed really early that night!
The next day we rented some sea kayaks and paddled up a river to a massive water fall which was absolutely amazing. We paddled back with the current to the ocean and around the islands. There were waves going into the island so we surfed some of the waves for a bit while also stopping on the shore to explore the islands for a little bit. After 4 hours of paddling my arms began to sting with pain and we headed back to shore. Jay's parents were going to stay another night so we hopped on a bus back to Auckland and met back up with Tom and crashed at his house for the night.
We all pilled into Tom's shaggen wagen van, fully equitted with a bed in the back and took off for the Coramandel Cove. We hiked down to Cathedral cover which was this spectacula beach with cliffs that had been eroded underneath so you could walk under them and they resembled thos cliffs of Thailand. The two beaches were connected by a massive cave in the hillside and will go down as one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in my life. The drive along the Coromandal cove was incredible with turqoise water as far as the eye can see, massive rolling hills with diverse trees that crawled all the way up to the waters edge and a beautiful array of huvering puffy clouds amongst a royal blue sky. After our drive through Coromandel we took off for the Witoma Caves. We go into Witoma at about midnight so we pulled into a hostel with a camping area, pitched the tent where Jay and I slept and Meadow and Tom crashed in the camper van.
We woke up the next morning after a rough cold night of in and out sleep, used the bathroom facilities and took off before anyone noticed us for another free nights accomadation! I also woke up to Meadow screaming happy birthday to me followed by Tom and Jay which was so good to hear being away from home and kind of forgetting it was in fact my birthday! We drove across the street to where we booked our caving adventure for what would turn out to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We all got our gear, full 5.0 wet suit and boots, and I wore a one peice womans swim suit over my wet suit that was to be my birthday suit! It was pretty disturbing but I had a lot of fun with it! Getting to the spot we first abseiled (repelling straight down) roughly 100 feet down a dark hole with the only light coming from our head lamps. Getting to the bottom we all turned off our lights and you could see hundreds of glow worms that acted like constilations of stars scattered across the massive cave ceilings above. We than zip linned over a waterfall below to get to the other side where we tubed down an underground river! After getting to the end our guide pulled us together on our tubes back as we turned off our lights and soaked in just what we were looking at and where we were, starring at thousands of glow warms about 50 ft up while floating on a river some 100 ft below the surface. Next, we slid down a waterfall on our stomaches and walked through some narrow passages to get to another waterfall that was a dead end. So, of course naturally we climbed the waterfall to the top and continued tunneling and at some points crawling through narrow underground passages as we followed the rushing water upstream. We got to another point where we did a bit of rock climbing and then continued crawling once we reached the top through mud and incredibly narrow spaces. I thought I was closterphobic but I never once felt confined or at harm it was incredible. Reaching the top and seeing light definately was relieving but we all came to the same conclusion that we could have spent hours more exploring the underground tunnel system of only one cave out of hundreds in the area! Caving is a life changing experience that honestly has opened up my eyes to just how incredible planet earth is and along with sky diving and underwater diving as changed the way I look at life. We got back in our car after running into Jay's parents and leaving Jay with them back at the caves before we headed to Raglan on the west coast. Raglan was a little surf town with some of the best known surf breaks in the world. We got to our cozy little hostel and rented some body boards right away and took off for the break. After a good surf we headed back to the hostel, made some delicious spaghetti and started the birthday festivites off. We enforced our games we played in Europe and got a good crew of English to join in with us. Meadow came up with another great idea so after a short while I had 24 birthday dots on my face from everyone to go along with my kick ass pirate bandana! Anyway, turned out to be an amazing birthday thanks to my buddies and one surely not to forget.
Yesterday we left Raglan and Tom took Meadow and I back up to Auckland to get our rental car and we took right back off south to where we are now, Rotorua. Our car is a little Ford manual hatchback and is pretty lame so we called it Dale. But the weather has been spectacular and there is so much to do here so I have to be off, I know there's plenty of stories I'm missing but oh well what can you do? Time to go get lost in the moment!
Cheers,
Grant
How's it all the way from Rotorua, New Zealand! I'll work my way back up to this point as always as I've been in transit for a week or so and have a little catching up to do. This blog might be a little choppy with less detail as I don't have the time or drive really at the moment to be super specific so I appologize up front. Anyway, I'll take off back from thanksgiving in Wollongong, Australia.
Pele drove down from Sydney with her friend Sarah whom we also met traveling through Europe to join us for our Thanksgiving feast. We couldn't track down a turkey so we got two stuffed chickens, heaps of mashed potatoes and some other yummies like cranberries and green bean cassarole, god bless the internet for helping us with that one! We all said what we were thankful for and it turned out to be a great thanksgiving!
The next day Mandy May toured us around the beautiful town on the beach and all the surrounding scenic points like the lighthouse and what not. We got some super good icecream and grinded some burgers before heading back to the house as the weather began to turn sour. We went out that night to a cool bar/club and than called it a night after a couple drinks.
Waking up the next day I started to catch what Meadow's had for quite awhile now, a cold and conjested sinus's with a cough, but we headed to the ocean for a quick surf anyway. The ocean cures all I definately believe or at least revives and relieves for a short time and I felt slightly better after a morning dip and surf. The weather cleared up considerably but than turned cloudy and overcast shortly after so we headed home for a lounge day with some TV continuing our series we started called "hero's" which is super corny but really easy to get hooked on as none of us have been around TV for quite awhile now! As night approached we thought we could sneak out on a Sunday without having to go out but as it turns out Sunday's are huge in Australia! Ahhhhh, so of course we went out for a few drinks and after my self proclaimed no drink night, Meadow bought me a tequila shot and away we went! We didn't have many and actually had a fun night with all the girls we met through Zoe and Jazinta (Di's daughter and friend). That night we went back to Mandy's and Meadow and Jay had a revlation that somehow of course I got conned into. We all decided it'd be a good idea to dye my chest hair black and shave a sun into it!? So, one dye job leads to another and the next thing I know my hair is black as well as my beard! It was a pretty hilarious night as we couldn't stop laughing and I thought Meadow and Jay were going to die at one point! So long story short that's why my hair is black now haha, but it's growing on me and I actually kinda like it haha.
The last day in Wollongong we went out on Di's golf course that her and her husband own and golfed 9 holes and drove carts for free and had an absolute blast despite all the flies that pestured you during your back swing. Jay and Amanda had never golfed before so it was pretty entertaining but they definately held their own and did pretty good considering. Meadow and myself whom had golfed still played pretty poorly but we all had a blast so it was well worth it.
Saying bye to Mandy the next day was tough as she'd taken really good care of us and she'll definately be missed, Di got caught up with work most the time so unfortunately we only got to see her for Thanksgiving night but it's no worries things happen of course.
The plane ride from Sydney to Auckland (New Zealand) was fine but going through security I've never felt so profiled in my entire life as I had to go through numerous screening with my backpack while getting questioned over and over if I did drugs or hung out with people that did. This was all because I had a recent Thailand visit on my passport so they grilled the hell out of me, it was really frusterating as they took out everything in my pack and clean my shoes for bacteria all while continuing to ask me rediculous questions but it's over now so I'm washing it away! We called Tom (my buddy whom I met in Greece and traveled with for 3 weeks in Europe) who came and picked us up. What a classic Kiwi Tom was at first sight with his sweet handle bars and mustache and his wannabee mullet hair cut! That first night we began to map out our next 4 days with Tom over the weekend and what we were going to do the rest of our short almost 3 week stay in New Zealand. The next day we took a bus from Tom's house to downtown to find a hostel and cruise the city for a day. Getting into the hostel the boys got in line to book the room while I went to the travelers booth to try and book a car for our journey. A super cute girl got in line behind me so of course I chatted it up with her and found out she was a Yank from Iowa at of all places. Caught me off guard because I don't think I've met anyone from the states in awhile, little alone from a none coastal state. We hit it off pretty well and she ended up hanging out with us later that night which turned out good because we went out to a club and after getting denied because we didn't have proper ID we ended up hanging out together back at the hostel. Backtracking a bit, that day we just wondered around downtown Auckland and met up with Jay's parents who are in New Zealand for awhile as well. We went to an island off mainland which boosted a little sleepy colonial style town. We hiked to the top of the hill on the island and caught a great view of downtown Auckland and the surrounding islands and of course got a killer jumpshot, Jay even got one with his parents who were stoked to finally find out what a jump shot is! Jay's parents were adorable as I found out they've been keeping up with my blog and asked my questions frequently about this and that and things I totally forgot about so it was very fun to talk with them. We ate a killer mexican meal that night at a place Jay discovered and the guys working there were from Bend, Oregon so go figure! To eat a good burrito was heaven I have to say!
The next day we hopped in Jay's parents car and took off north to the Bay of Islands. The first day we got there and ate some delicious food (thanks again to Jay's parents for treating us so many times, it really means a lot to a bunch of broke backpackers!) and settled into our hostel. by this time the weather had turned cloudy so we decided to hold off on kayaking until the next day and entertain ourselves in far better ways! So, don't think we're retarded but when you're backpacking and there's nothing to do you can become quite a bit rediculous with ideas to entertain your bordom. We first all got mustaches for the last remaining days of Movember (What they call November here to help promote prostate cancer awareness, which is why all the younger males grow mustaches) and than decided to play century club with our English housemates but playing with water! Century club is normally a college drinking game played with beer in which you drink a shot of beer a minute for 100 minutes! Well, it was my brilliant idea to switch is up with water and after 100 shots and not being able to pee, another rule enforced, we all began really sick and went to bed really early that night!
The next day we rented some sea kayaks and paddled up a river to a massive water fall which was absolutely amazing. We paddled back with the current to the ocean and around the islands. There were waves going into the island so we surfed some of the waves for a bit while also stopping on the shore to explore the islands for a little bit. After 4 hours of paddling my arms began to sting with pain and we headed back to shore. Jay's parents were going to stay another night so we hopped on a bus back to Auckland and met back up with Tom and crashed at his house for the night.
We all pilled into Tom's shaggen wagen van, fully equitted with a bed in the back and took off for the Coramandel Cove. We hiked down to Cathedral cover which was this spectacula beach with cliffs that had been eroded underneath so you could walk under them and they resembled thos cliffs of Thailand. The two beaches were connected by a massive cave in the hillside and will go down as one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in my life. The drive along the Coromandal cove was incredible with turqoise water as far as the eye can see, massive rolling hills with diverse trees that crawled all the way up to the waters edge and a beautiful array of huvering puffy clouds amongst a royal blue sky. After our drive through Coromandel we took off for the Witoma Caves. We go into Witoma at about midnight so we pulled into a hostel with a camping area, pitched the tent where Jay and I slept and Meadow and Tom crashed in the camper van.
We woke up the next morning after a rough cold night of in and out sleep, used the bathroom facilities and took off before anyone noticed us for another free nights accomadation! I also woke up to Meadow screaming happy birthday to me followed by Tom and Jay which was so good to hear being away from home and kind of forgetting it was in fact my birthday! We drove across the street to where we booked our caving adventure for what would turn out to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We all got our gear, full 5.0 wet suit and boots, and I wore a one peice womans swim suit over my wet suit that was to be my birthday suit! It was pretty disturbing but I had a lot of fun with it! Getting to the spot we first abseiled (repelling straight down) roughly 100 feet down a dark hole with the only light coming from our head lamps. Getting to the bottom we all turned off our lights and you could see hundreds of glow worms that acted like constilations of stars scattered across the massive cave ceilings above. We than zip linned over a waterfall below to get to the other side where we tubed down an underground river! After getting to the end our guide pulled us together on our tubes back as we turned off our lights and soaked in just what we were looking at and where we were, starring at thousands of glow warms about 50 ft up while floating on a river some 100 ft below the surface. Next, we slid down a waterfall on our stomaches and walked through some narrow passages to get to another waterfall that was a dead end. So, of course naturally we climbed the waterfall to the top and continued tunneling and at some points crawling through narrow underground passages as we followed the rushing water upstream. We got to another point where we did a bit of rock climbing and then continued crawling once we reached the top through mud and incredibly narrow spaces. I thought I was closterphobic but I never once felt confined or at harm it was incredible. Reaching the top and seeing light definately was relieving but we all came to the same conclusion that we could have spent hours more exploring the underground tunnel system of only one cave out of hundreds in the area! Caving is a life changing experience that honestly has opened up my eyes to just how incredible planet earth is and along with sky diving and underwater diving as changed the way I look at life. We got back in our car after running into Jay's parents and leaving Jay with them back at the caves before we headed to Raglan on the west coast. Raglan was a little surf town with some of the best known surf breaks in the world. We got to our cozy little hostel and rented some body boards right away and took off for the break. After a good surf we headed back to the hostel, made some delicious spaghetti and started the birthday festivites off. We enforced our games we played in Europe and got a good crew of English to join in with us. Meadow came up with another great idea so after a short while I had 24 birthday dots on my face from everyone to go along with my kick ass pirate bandana! Anyway, turned out to be an amazing birthday thanks to my buddies and one surely not to forget.
Yesterday we left Raglan and Tom took Meadow and I back up to Auckland to get our rental car and we took right back off south to where we are now, Rotorua. Our car is a little Ford manual hatchback and is pretty lame so we called it Dale. But the weather has been spectacular and there is so much to do here so I have to be off, I know there's plenty of stories I'm missing but oh well what can you do? Time to go get lost in the moment!
Cheers,
Grant
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello Mates!
How's it everyone from Wollongong, Australia, about an hour south of Sydney?! We just arrived today from Tasmania so I'll backtrack and run you through our Tassie road tripp'n adventure.
We ended up waiting until the last minute as usuall to book a car so that we could cruise up the east coast of Tassie but it ended up working out. We found a place called "cut price rental" and when Jimmy gave us a lift there we soon realized we were renting a car from a gas station repair shap, no joke! The joke was that our car was someone elses that they were working on and they were renting it for the time being while the owner thought they were "working on it!" The front end was smashed in but she ran beautifully and we decided to call this shela car what else but "Sally!" After a thorough (complete sarcasm) check of Sally we were off to use and abuse her up the coast of Tasmania. We took off some two and a half hours to Coles Bay on the northeastern peninsula where we set up camp on Richmonds Beach, a beautiful long sandy beach with great shells and chunky light sand. We were greated by an adolescent Wallaby who of course we named "Gary Jr." who chilled with us for a couple hours as we ate dinner, letting us feed him ucolyptis leaves and pet him! A Wallaby is just like a kangaroo if you don't know. We just chilled that day once we got to the beach and played volleyball, dug a sand castle and caught an amazing sunset as the sun set over the west coast which was the mainaland Tassie as we were looking from the Peninsula. I know it sounds like we have drank a lot but we have taken nights off and thank God this was going to be one of those nights which would follow the rest of our Tassie trip, we are calling it detox, haha just kidding!
We awoke the next morning by the ranger saying we couldn't camp on the beach so we packed up and took off before having to pay and drove towards Wine Glass Bay to hike down to it. We hiked to the beach, some hour walk over boulders and moderate terrain, making friends with a Walloby and catching an amazing view over the bay as you could see the fog roll over. By the time we reached the beach the fog broke off and made for a little windy but otherwise beautifully sunny beach day on one of the top ten beaches in the entire world! The sand was super big as it really consisted of tiny pebbles that felt so amazing on your feet as they felt like stepping on a cushion. We hiked alongside the ocean over some rocks that were discouldered orange in spots because of the algey and saw a dead massive seal that reaked of rotteness. It was sad but I think I got a pretty killer photo alongside the big guy as he probably when alive outweighed me by a couple hundred pounds. We mostly just sat in the sun and enjoyed the day and then took back up the trail which proved to be a bit harder as obviously is was more uphill! We got back in the car and headed back to a beach called friendly beach where there was free camping. We stumbled across a spot passed the seemingly endless beach by accident that was completely secluded so we set up camp there. There was a beautiful break off the rocks so Jay and I climbed out to the end of them and watched the break for quite awhile soaking it all in; on a desolate beach on the peninsula off Tasmania completely isolated away from all living organisms while we chatted about how we wish we had boards and could wedge between the rocks of this sureal surf break. We camped alongside the cliffs edge of the beach and fell asleep early on the soft sand as the sun set behind us over the mainland.
We woke to rain the next morning early around 7am or so and as soon as we caught a break in the rain we packed up and headed south in hopes of better weather to the southern peninsula. The weather turned around slowly as we headed south and proved to be a great day for all the cool scenery we saw. We first went to Tasmanian Peninsula which was a massive cave that you could look through to the ocean that had origionally formed by the land atop the cliff collasping. We then did a quick hike to Devils Peak which looked over a towering cliffside down into the water some thousand feet up. It sucks that the pictures will never do this spot justice but I have the mental imagery so I guess that's all one can ask, you just gotta get out and see it for yourselves! We got these amazing fish and chips at this little trailer next to our next spot we visited, which was a blow hole that spewed water pretty high up. The swells weren't really kicking at the time so it wasn't that impressive but it was still cool to check out. Next we went to a cave that you had to hike down to that was pretty cool. The cliffs in the distance were absolutlely massive and some of them looked like giant totem poles that shot out of the water. We wanted to check out Port Arthur, which was the first Australian prision spread across multiple acres and a beautifully maintaned garden with other bulidings in rubble, but we opted not to because it cost $25! So instead we went to a pub close by and had some beers while we sat and talked story in the sun. We soon realised that we could just walk around the fence from the pub and we were at Port Arthur so guess what we did? Blending in with all the old people we walked around for about an hour checking out two of the most visited landmarks in Tasmania, the church and the prision, both which were incredible to see. We got some sweet jump shots as usuall and decided to call it a day and head back to Hobart (downtown). We didn't want to impose on Jimmy's family because we had told them we would be back a day later so we decided to crash in a hostel which was pretty nice. Got some beers but soon realised that's the last thing we wanted to do so we made up random games to motivate us, like through bottle caps at the ceiling and than trying to rikashade them onto empty beer bottles, before passing out early again and catching up on lost sleep from the previous month!
The next day we took a brewery tour of the first beer to be produced and sold in Australia, Cascade Brewery. It was an old brewery set amongst the forefront of Mt. Wellington, intwined in Spanish chestnut trees and a beautiful garden. The tour was lovely as our guide was a big sweat heart and took warmly to a bunch of Yanks asking stupid questions about how beer is made and how we can make it stronger! Four ingrediants to make beer; barely, hops, water and yeast! We took off back to Jimmy's that night and had a light barby while I had noodles because I've been feeling a bit sick with a head cold, and went to bed early .
We boarded a flight early this morning at like 6:20am and go into Sydney about 8:00am. We got picked up by Di's daughter Zoe (Di was one of our mums from China we traveled with) and settled into another house which is Mandy's house, (the other mum). Today it is the 23rd but techinically back home it's the 22 which is Thanksgiving so we went and got a feast! We also met up with Sarah, who is Pele's friend we traveled with in Europe, and are all grinding tons of food tonight which we are about to start preparing. I am really hungry so I best be off, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks! Missiing everyone heaps and if there's one thing I'm thankful for it's the incredible upbringing from my family that has allowed me to have the ability to travel the world which fuels my passion to keep breathing!
Cheers and good on ya!
Grant
How's it everyone from Wollongong, Australia, about an hour south of Sydney?! We just arrived today from Tasmania so I'll backtrack and run you through our Tassie road tripp'n adventure.
We ended up waiting until the last minute as usuall to book a car so that we could cruise up the east coast of Tassie but it ended up working out. We found a place called "cut price rental" and when Jimmy gave us a lift there we soon realized we were renting a car from a gas station repair shap, no joke! The joke was that our car was someone elses that they were working on and they were renting it for the time being while the owner thought they were "working on it!" The front end was smashed in but she ran beautifully and we decided to call this shela car what else but "Sally!" After a thorough (complete sarcasm) check of Sally we were off to use and abuse her up the coast of Tasmania. We took off some two and a half hours to Coles Bay on the northeastern peninsula where we set up camp on Richmonds Beach, a beautiful long sandy beach with great shells and chunky light sand. We were greated by an adolescent Wallaby who of course we named "Gary Jr." who chilled with us for a couple hours as we ate dinner, letting us feed him ucolyptis leaves and pet him! A Wallaby is just like a kangaroo if you don't know. We just chilled that day once we got to the beach and played volleyball, dug a sand castle and caught an amazing sunset as the sun set over the west coast which was the mainaland Tassie as we were looking from the Peninsula. I know it sounds like we have drank a lot but we have taken nights off and thank God this was going to be one of those nights which would follow the rest of our Tassie trip, we are calling it detox, haha just kidding!
We awoke the next morning by the ranger saying we couldn't camp on the beach so we packed up and took off before having to pay and drove towards Wine Glass Bay to hike down to it. We hiked to the beach, some hour walk over boulders and moderate terrain, making friends with a Walloby and catching an amazing view over the bay as you could see the fog roll over. By the time we reached the beach the fog broke off and made for a little windy but otherwise beautifully sunny beach day on one of the top ten beaches in the entire world! The sand was super big as it really consisted of tiny pebbles that felt so amazing on your feet as they felt like stepping on a cushion. We hiked alongside the ocean over some rocks that were discouldered orange in spots because of the algey and saw a dead massive seal that reaked of rotteness. It was sad but I think I got a pretty killer photo alongside the big guy as he probably when alive outweighed me by a couple hundred pounds. We mostly just sat in the sun and enjoyed the day and then took back up the trail which proved to be a bit harder as obviously is was more uphill! We got back in the car and headed back to a beach called friendly beach where there was free camping. We stumbled across a spot passed the seemingly endless beach by accident that was completely secluded so we set up camp there. There was a beautiful break off the rocks so Jay and I climbed out to the end of them and watched the break for quite awhile soaking it all in; on a desolate beach on the peninsula off Tasmania completely isolated away from all living organisms while we chatted about how we wish we had boards and could wedge between the rocks of this sureal surf break. We camped alongside the cliffs edge of the beach and fell asleep early on the soft sand as the sun set behind us over the mainland.
We woke to rain the next morning early around 7am or so and as soon as we caught a break in the rain we packed up and headed south in hopes of better weather to the southern peninsula. The weather turned around slowly as we headed south and proved to be a great day for all the cool scenery we saw. We first went to Tasmanian Peninsula which was a massive cave that you could look through to the ocean that had origionally formed by the land atop the cliff collasping. We then did a quick hike to Devils Peak which looked over a towering cliffside down into the water some thousand feet up. It sucks that the pictures will never do this spot justice but I have the mental imagery so I guess that's all one can ask, you just gotta get out and see it for yourselves! We got these amazing fish and chips at this little trailer next to our next spot we visited, which was a blow hole that spewed water pretty high up. The swells weren't really kicking at the time so it wasn't that impressive but it was still cool to check out. Next we went to a cave that you had to hike down to that was pretty cool. The cliffs in the distance were absolutlely massive and some of them looked like giant totem poles that shot out of the water. We wanted to check out Port Arthur, which was the first Australian prision spread across multiple acres and a beautifully maintaned garden with other bulidings in rubble, but we opted not to because it cost $25! So instead we went to a pub close by and had some beers while we sat and talked story in the sun. We soon realised that we could just walk around the fence from the pub and we were at Port Arthur so guess what we did? Blending in with all the old people we walked around for about an hour checking out two of the most visited landmarks in Tasmania, the church and the prision, both which were incredible to see. We got some sweet jump shots as usuall and decided to call it a day and head back to Hobart (downtown). We didn't want to impose on Jimmy's family because we had told them we would be back a day later so we decided to crash in a hostel which was pretty nice. Got some beers but soon realised that's the last thing we wanted to do so we made up random games to motivate us, like through bottle caps at the ceiling and than trying to rikashade them onto empty beer bottles, before passing out early again and catching up on lost sleep from the previous month!
The next day we took a brewery tour of the first beer to be produced and sold in Australia, Cascade Brewery. It was an old brewery set amongst the forefront of Mt. Wellington, intwined in Spanish chestnut trees and a beautiful garden. The tour was lovely as our guide was a big sweat heart and took warmly to a bunch of Yanks asking stupid questions about how beer is made and how we can make it stronger! Four ingrediants to make beer; barely, hops, water and yeast! We took off back to Jimmy's that night and had a light barby while I had noodles because I've been feeling a bit sick with a head cold, and went to bed early .
We boarded a flight early this morning at like 6:20am and go into Sydney about 8:00am. We got picked up by Di's daughter Zoe (Di was one of our mums from China we traveled with) and settled into another house which is Mandy's house, (the other mum). Today it is the 23rd but techinically back home it's the 22 which is Thanksgiving so we went and got a feast! We also met up with Sarah, who is Pele's friend we traveled with in Europe, and are all grinding tons of food tonight which we are about to start preparing. I am really hungry so I best be off, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks! Missiing everyone heaps and if there's one thing I'm thankful for it's the incredible upbringing from my family that has allowed me to have the ability to travel the world which fuels my passion to keep breathing!
Cheers and good on ya!
Grant
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Byron Bay, Nimbin, Surfers Paradise, Frasier Island, Austraila Zoo, Maloolooba and Tasmania, wahoooo!
Dear mates, (upon request from Pele)
What an epic journey ever since I performed the rain song on the last entry it has been nice almost every day! That day I last wrote we saw a little rain during the day but by time nightfall it cleared up and we had an awesome night filled with a wet T-shirt contest and lots of dancing and good house music. The funny thing about wet T-shirt contests is that it always ends up one girl taking off her shirt and the other girls getting jealous and then they aren't suddenly shy anymore and they take their shirts off and it's a big cat fight until obviously the girl with the biggest boobs wins, every time it's the same outcome so why do we still go to these stupid contests? Haha we go because everyone is a winner in the end! The next day we hung out with our newly acquired Scottish campaignen Jo and went to the beach to body board for a couple hours before getrting our trip iternary planned out for the next week or so.
We also decided to abolish the rule that you can’t say “fuck” because despite the fact that it is a terrible word, we all realised that we definitely enjoy saying it. We therefore decided to re-implement a previous rule from our Eurotrip last year that was you can’t say the word “mine” or you have to do “5” star jumps, which are like doing jumping jacks but yelling out at the top of your lungs “I’m a star!” Believe me it may sound like nothing on paper but in person it’s the real deal and it embarrasses the crap out of you, trust me! During the day we became bored so we shopped around town for some surf gear and quickly learned that shopping wasn’t the best thing for us as everything was so expensive we just cried. We made it to a chemist/pharmacy where we tried on sweet ass sun glasses for about an hour and I flirted with the counter girl pretty hard until she gave me a tourist discount and turned me down for dinner that night, but I still think she liked me for the record. We ventured out again that night to a club called the Cheeky Monkey and along the way we broke Scottish in (Jo) with the “mine” game and she quickly became known for her amazing ability to do star jumps and not give a hoot what anything thinks about her, it was good fun to see her joining the gang with such good spirit! The bar/club was filled with picnic tables that everyone danced on and after about a half hour of dancing I locked eyes with a gorgeous Swedish girl and she quickly became my entertainment for the night as we danced the night away with her and her friends as well as our gang joining in. Elina and I decided to call it a night after getting sweaty dancing and head back to the hostel. The walk back was actually pretty hilarious because we were both pissed and walked the complete wrong way until after about a half hour of walking we found our way back amongst a town the size of probably a thousand people, haha. I said bye to Elina the next day, hoping I’d met her sooner, but glad I met her anyway and we loaded up the car and realised our car was dead again (this would be a reoccurring thing the rest of the time with our car which we named “Lucy”). We swooped up some jumper cables and head them across the street until someone stopped to give us a jump, it was actually quite amusing and embarrassing all at the same time. Off to Surfers Paradise and the continuation of our endless Aussie summer…
What an epic journey ever since I performed the rain song on the last entry it has been nice almost every day! That day I last wrote we saw a little rain during the day but by time nightfall it cleared up and we had an awesome night filled with a wet T-shirt contest and lots of dancing and good house music. The funny thing about wet T-shirt contests is that it always ends up one girl taking off her shirt and the other girls getting jealous and then they aren't suddenly shy anymore and they take their shirts off and it's a big cat fight until obviously the girl with the biggest boobs wins, every time it's the same outcome so why do we still go to these stupid contests? Haha we go because everyone is a winner in the end! The next day we hung out with our newly acquired Scottish campaignen Jo and went to the beach to body board for a couple hours before getrting our trip iternary planned out for the next week or so.
We also decided to abolish the rule that you can’t say “fuck” because despite the fact that it is a terrible word, we all realised that we definitely enjoy saying it. We therefore decided to re-implement a previous rule from our Eurotrip last year that was you can’t say the word “mine” or you have to do “5” star jumps, which are like doing jumping jacks but yelling out at the top of your lungs “I’m a star!” Believe me it may sound like nothing on paper but in person it’s the real deal and it embarrasses the crap out of you, trust me! During the day we became bored so we shopped around town for some surf gear and quickly learned that shopping wasn’t the best thing for us as everything was so expensive we just cried. We made it to a chemist/pharmacy where we tried on sweet ass sun glasses for about an hour and I flirted with the counter girl pretty hard until she gave me a tourist discount and turned me down for dinner that night, but I still think she liked me for the record. We ventured out again that night to a club called the Cheeky Monkey and along the way we broke Scottish in (Jo) with the “mine” game and she quickly became known for her amazing ability to do star jumps and not give a hoot what anything thinks about her, it was good fun to see her joining the gang with such good spirit! The bar/club was filled with picnic tables that everyone danced on and after about a half hour of dancing I locked eyes with a gorgeous Swedish girl and she quickly became my entertainment for the night as we danced the night away with her and her friends as well as our gang joining in. Elina and I decided to call it a night after getting sweaty dancing and head back to the hostel. The walk back was actually pretty hilarious because we were both pissed and walked the complete wrong way until after about a half hour of walking we found our way back amongst a town the size of probably a thousand people, haha. I said bye to Elina the next day, hoping I’d met her sooner, but glad I met her anyway and we loaded up the car and realised our car was dead again (this would be a reoccurring thing the rest of the time with our car which we named “Lucy”). We swooped up some jumper cables and head them across the street until someone stopped to give us a jump, it was actually quite amusing and embarrassing all at the same time. Off to Surfers Paradise and the continuation of our endless Aussie summer…
Cheers,
Grant
Monday, November 5, 2007
Rain rain go away, come back another day...
Dear Friends and Fam,
How's it everyone from Byron Bay, Australia! We just got here about an hour ago after driving for another 5 hours from Scotts Head, a campsite next to one of the best surf breaks I've seen. But lets backtrack a bit, even though Tom's Dad told us not too but I think for this purpose it's all right.
The first night in Terrigal, Central Coast I went out after dinner with Tom's Dad Trevor to the bay and took a dingy out and dropped some fish in his trap to catch some craw fish for the next morning. The bay was really chilled out and no one was there so it was a nice paddle out and we saw a really cool specie of Pelican I'd never seen before that was white with these huge black feathers and massive long beak. Tom's parents prior to this cooked us one of the many beautiful meals while we were there and we ate our hearts out as we haven't had a proper home cooked meal in quite some time, two months now to the exact! Being at Tom's place was just nice to relax and feel like you're home away from home and I'll say it again, Tom's parents took amazing care of us and we owe them our lives! That first night we went to the local pub to get some drinks with Tom and a couple of his buddies and it was a pretty lively environment for a small little beach town. There were heaps of beautiful girls but we all found it a little intimidating at first but after feeling comfortable we met a couple cool girls and I'm sure the other guys will back me up when I say that the Aussie accent is super sexy! We ended up going to another club which Jay couldn't get into because he had shorts, super lame, so we he went back with Josh and me and Meadow and Tom tore up the dance seen for a bit before heading next door. I am not kidding when I say this, I spit outside while talking with the guys and a bouncer saw me and wouldn't let me back into the club, how weak is that?
Anyway, the next morning we took some boards out and caught a couple waves before a storm rolled in and it got choppy. The storm lingered around for the next couple days so we watched movies and talked story with Tom's parents as it was the weekend and they were off. We tried some vegimite (Australian yeast sauce they put on toast) which actually wasn't too shabby. That afternoon Tom took us out for a local legend, the Whopper Wonder which didn't dissapoint! It was a massive steak burger with pinneaple, egg, onion, tomatoe, lettuce and other veggies, ohhhh was it magical! That night we met up with Tom's buddies and took off for another night out. We went to a dance place after waiting for a cabi for like an hour and a half and danced to some good vibe music, lots of techno and old school songs which was fun. The next day the rain continued and we were supposed to leave but were reluctant with the weather and Tom's parents mentioned we could stay another night and though we didn't want to impose, we also didn't wanna camp in the rain! So we stayed another night and Trevor helped us map our where we were tentatively going for the next two weeks as we road tripped up the east coast.
The next morning we said our heart felt goodbyes and made Tom promise he would come live out in Oregon with us. We took off five hours north to Scotts Head and got to the campground in the middle of the night but found a spot under a spotlight and set up our tent. The weather stayed good through the night but the ground definately made for a rough nights sleep. Getting up the next morning we walked through the trail that led to the beach about a minute away and checked out the break and what a site it was. The break started at the point and slowly broke for about 200 feet, absolutely the perfect longboarding wave! We cruised to town and to the only surf shop next to the only market and restaurant and rented the two boards they had. We surfed the point break for about 4 hours switching off with the boards and I can't tell you how good it is to finally catch up where you left off (Hawaii) and cruise a wave for a good while, it's such a free feeling experience. After our bellies were red and our shoulders ached we called it and got some lunch. Meadow and I went back to the beach for an hour or so and just chilled out reading and listening to music along the roughly mile long stretch of desolate sand. What a good day, the next would turn out to be not so good...
I am now writting a day latter than when I started...
The next day we woke to our tent half blown over from the winds of the storm that was slowly rolling its way in. The surf was real choppy as the consistant break we'd come to know and love dissapeared and the temperature dropped considerably. We decided it was best not take any chances, since we had been camping for free the last two nights, and take off early that morning. The drive was about 5 hours to Byron Bay and rained most the way. Getting to Byron Bay was a relief to be back in a hostel with a matress under our backs instead of the hard ground from the two previous nights. We were roomed with a super cute Scottish girl and an Aussie chick who got our spirits back up as they'd been drinking all day because of Melbourn Cup (The race that shuts the country down). It is simply a horse race that everyone dresses up for and drinks the entire day, we got the end of the celebrations and just had a couple beers to get aquanted with our new crew.
Today has been pretty lame with the storm lingering around and I haven't even seen the beach yet which is really depressing but we just checked the forecast and it looks like it's getting better by the end of the week, cross your fingers! I am just at an internet cafe here in Byron, a small hippie community of surfers and liberals, waiting for the rain to stop. Better be off as my internet is about to run out. Paigemon or anyone who was on the Europe trip, we have enforced three new rules; can't say the word "fuck" or you get flicked in the forhead, can't say the word "5" or you have to do ten pushups and can't say "right" or you have to do cats and dogs! Traveling is funny because you can get so bored sometimes that little games like those are what keeps your spirits high and your motors turning! Traveling is for the nomadic at heart that want to escape what lies ahead temporarly and embrace what is just around the corner...
Cheers,
Grant
How's it everyone from Byron Bay, Australia! We just got here about an hour ago after driving for another 5 hours from Scotts Head, a campsite next to one of the best surf breaks I've seen. But lets backtrack a bit, even though Tom's Dad told us not too but I think for this purpose it's all right.
The first night in Terrigal, Central Coast I went out after dinner with Tom's Dad Trevor to the bay and took a dingy out and dropped some fish in his trap to catch some craw fish for the next morning. The bay was really chilled out and no one was there so it was a nice paddle out and we saw a really cool specie of Pelican I'd never seen before that was white with these huge black feathers and massive long beak. Tom's parents prior to this cooked us one of the many beautiful meals while we were there and we ate our hearts out as we haven't had a proper home cooked meal in quite some time, two months now to the exact! Being at Tom's place was just nice to relax and feel like you're home away from home and I'll say it again, Tom's parents took amazing care of us and we owe them our lives! That first night we went to the local pub to get some drinks with Tom and a couple of his buddies and it was a pretty lively environment for a small little beach town. There were heaps of beautiful girls but we all found it a little intimidating at first but after feeling comfortable we met a couple cool girls and I'm sure the other guys will back me up when I say that the Aussie accent is super sexy! We ended up going to another club which Jay couldn't get into because he had shorts, super lame, so we he went back with Josh and me and Meadow and Tom tore up the dance seen for a bit before heading next door. I am not kidding when I say this, I spit outside while talking with the guys and a bouncer saw me and wouldn't let me back into the club, how weak is that?
Anyway, the next morning we took some boards out and caught a couple waves before a storm rolled in and it got choppy. The storm lingered around for the next couple days so we watched movies and talked story with Tom's parents as it was the weekend and they were off. We tried some vegimite (Australian yeast sauce they put on toast) which actually wasn't too shabby. That afternoon Tom took us out for a local legend, the Whopper Wonder which didn't dissapoint! It was a massive steak burger with pinneaple, egg, onion, tomatoe, lettuce and other veggies, ohhhh was it magical! That night we met up with Tom's buddies and took off for another night out. We went to a dance place after waiting for a cabi for like an hour and a half and danced to some good vibe music, lots of techno and old school songs which was fun. The next day the rain continued and we were supposed to leave but were reluctant with the weather and Tom's parents mentioned we could stay another night and though we didn't want to impose, we also didn't wanna camp in the rain! So we stayed another night and Trevor helped us map our where we were tentatively going for the next two weeks as we road tripped up the east coast.
The next morning we said our heart felt goodbyes and made Tom promise he would come live out in Oregon with us. We took off five hours north to Scotts Head and got to the campground in the middle of the night but found a spot under a spotlight and set up our tent. The weather stayed good through the night but the ground definately made for a rough nights sleep. Getting up the next morning we walked through the trail that led to the beach about a minute away and checked out the break and what a site it was. The break started at the point and slowly broke for about 200 feet, absolutely the perfect longboarding wave! We cruised to town and to the only surf shop next to the only market and restaurant and rented the two boards they had. We surfed the point break for about 4 hours switching off with the boards and I can't tell you how good it is to finally catch up where you left off (Hawaii) and cruise a wave for a good while, it's such a free feeling experience. After our bellies were red and our shoulders ached we called it and got some lunch. Meadow and I went back to the beach for an hour or so and just chilled out reading and listening to music along the roughly mile long stretch of desolate sand. What a good day, the next would turn out to be not so good...
I am now writting a day latter than when I started...
The next day we woke to our tent half blown over from the winds of the storm that was slowly rolling its way in. The surf was real choppy as the consistant break we'd come to know and love dissapeared and the temperature dropped considerably. We decided it was best not take any chances, since we had been camping for free the last two nights, and take off early that morning. The drive was about 5 hours to Byron Bay and rained most the way. Getting to Byron Bay was a relief to be back in a hostel with a matress under our backs instead of the hard ground from the two previous nights. We were roomed with a super cute Scottish girl and an Aussie chick who got our spirits back up as they'd been drinking all day because of Melbourn Cup (The race that shuts the country down). It is simply a horse race that everyone dresses up for and drinks the entire day, we got the end of the celebrations and just had a couple beers to get aquanted with our new crew.
Today has been pretty lame with the storm lingering around and I haven't even seen the beach yet which is really depressing but we just checked the forecast and it looks like it's getting better by the end of the week, cross your fingers! I am just at an internet cafe here in Byron, a small hippie community of surfers and liberals, waiting for the rain to stop. Better be off as my internet is about to run out. Paigemon or anyone who was on the Europe trip, we have enforced three new rules; can't say the word "fuck" or you get flicked in the forhead, can't say the word "5" or you have to do ten pushups and can't say "right" or you have to do cats and dogs! Traveling is funny because you can get so bored sometimes that little games like those are what keeps your spirits high and your motors turning! Traveling is for the nomadic at heart that want to escape what lies ahead temporarly and embrace what is just around the corner...
Cheers,
Grant
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Gday Mates!
Dear Fam and Friends,
Cheers from the land down under, we've made it alive all the way from Thailand about an 8 hour flight overnight. The flight was good and we didn't get the best sleep but Thai airways took care of us very nice and it was a smooth flight compared to our other sketchy inner island Thailand flights. We flew into Sydney and got a cabi to our hotel on Coogee Beach about 15 minutes from downtown Sydney. After checking in we caught up with Meadow and exchanged some much anticipated hugs, releaved to see another good buddy. We also shortly after met up with our mate Tom whom we're staying with now in Central Coast. I met Tom in Belgium and we traveled with he and his buddy Josh, whom we just caught up with as well, through Amsterdam and Berlin last year during our Europe treck.
The first day we just chilled at the beach and body surfed as it was a super nice day with some great shore breaks that reminded me of a beach in Hawaii. There's heaps of beautiful topless girls on the beaches so in between body surfing you can guess what we were doing haha. That night we went out for a couple beers and soon realized it was Monday night and the bars were dead so we called it an early night. The second day we walked across the street to the beach again and chilaxed for most the day and did a bit of Halloween shopping which turned out not very successful but we got to see a little of Coogee Beach town which was cool. That night we went downtown early to catch the sunset at Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House but ended up getting to Darling Harbor and getting lost trying to find them. We ended up finding the landmarks after a couple hours and seeing them for the first time was pretty cool because it's one of those country symbols that you always see that you've never seen, so it was good. The Opera House is bigger than I expected and the entire harbor is breath taking with the cityscape in the backdrop. We went to an Irish bar that night but again it was an early week day night and nothing was happening so we called it pretty early.
The next day we went to Coogee Beach for a bit and then hopped on a bus and landed downtown by where the bridge and opera house were. We went to the Opera house first and got some pretty sick jump shots and walked around inside for a bit. We then walked towards the Harbor Bridge and got lost and ended up seeing another cool spot called "The Rocks" which was part of the city built into the rocks and supposedly according to Tom used to be a really hard part of town in the late 1800's. Reaching the bridge we decided to walk across it which was pretty chill because it gave us an insanely good view of the Harbor Bridge and the cityscape. All in all, after meandering around the city for some hours we decided it was just another big city and weren't super impressed although the harbor was pretty spectacular. That night we got back relatively early so that we could throw some costumes together and take off into the night for Halloween! Aussies don't celebrate so we knew we had to impress them with our costumes. I'm sad to say they weren't our best but we worked with what we had and ended up dressing in really high gym shorts, short tank tops, moh hawks and wild hair, head bands and our hacky sac to become Team Hack! We were a professional hacky sac team from the 80's and definately played the part! We also found beer holders that were giant condoms which got some good laughs as well. The night all in all was pretty weak but we went to two decent parties with most people dressed in costume so all in all it wasn't that bad and we made the most of it of course and had a blast! I of course woke up the next morning with a giant elephant and it's penis on my back tattooe'd, really funny guys haha.
Today we did as we always do and waited last minute to wing what we were going to do as far as traveling up the east coast for the next two weeks. We found a company that rented these camper vans painted in hippie colors so we thought, what better? We got there today to find that they were all rented out so we ended up renting a toyota camery for even cheaper and the four of us traveled an hour an a half to Terrigal, Central Coast where we are now. We're at Tom's house and his mom is cooking us an amazing fish dinner that I can't wait for as she just made us tiger prawns and cheese bread! We're planning on surfing if it's good tomorrow and doing some fishing and snorkeling the rest of the day so it should be good fun.
The next couple weeks we are planning on camping along the east coast all the way up to Harvery Bay and surfing along the way, should be heaps of fun. We bought some camping gear today so we're hoping to save a little cash doing this versus buying a bus ticket and staying in hostels. It's super expensive here so we really are trying to watch our budget but we'll see, usually in the past this plan never works! Tom's parents are lovely and we just met up with our other mate whom I met in Belgium, his buddy Josh, so we might stay a couple more nights. I'm super stoked about the road trip and I hope we make it alive as we've had a little trouble driving on the left side of the road, haha! I'm sure I've missed stuff but whatever, it'll give us all more to talk about when I get home, which I hope never comes! Anyway, as always off for now...
Cheers,
Grant
Cheers from the land down under, we've made it alive all the way from Thailand about an 8 hour flight overnight. The flight was good and we didn't get the best sleep but Thai airways took care of us very nice and it was a smooth flight compared to our other sketchy inner island Thailand flights. We flew into Sydney and got a cabi to our hotel on Coogee Beach about 15 minutes from downtown Sydney. After checking in we caught up with Meadow and exchanged some much anticipated hugs, releaved to see another good buddy. We also shortly after met up with our mate Tom whom we're staying with now in Central Coast. I met Tom in Belgium and we traveled with he and his buddy Josh, whom we just caught up with as well, through Amsterdam and Berlin last year during our Europe treck.
The first day we just chilled at the beach and body surfed as it was a super nice day with some great shore breaks that reminded me of a beach in Hawaii. There's heaps of beautiful topless girls on the beaches so in between body surfing you can guess what we were doing haha. That night we went out for a couple beers and soon realized it was Monday night and the bars were dead so we called it an early night. The second day we walked across the street to the beach again and chilaxed for most the day and did a bit of Halloween shopping which turned out not very successful but we got to see a little of Coogee Beach town which was cool. That night we went downtown early to catch the sunset at Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House but ended up getting to Darling Harbor and getting lost trying to find them. We ended up finding the landmarks after a couple hours and seeing them for the first time was pretty cool because it's one of those country symbols that you always see that you've never seen, so it was good. The Opera House is bigger than I expected and the entire harbor is breath taking with the cityscape in the backdrop. We went to an Irish bar that night but again it was an early week day night and nothing was happening so we called it pretty early.
The next day we went to Coogee Beach for a bit and then hopped on a bus and landed downtown by where the bridge and opera house were. We went to the Opera house first and got some pretty sick jump shots and walked around inside for a bit. We then walked towards the Harbor Bridge and got lost and ended up seeing another cool spot called "The Rocks" which was part of the city built into the rocks and supposedly according to Tom used to be a really hard part of town in the late 1800's. Reaching the bridge we decided to walk across it which was pretty chill because it gave us an insanely good view of the Harbor Bridge and the cityscape. All in all, after meandering around the city for some hours we decided it was just another big city and weren't super impressed although the harbor was pretty spectacular. That night we got back relatively early so that we could throw some costumes together and take off into the night for Halloween! Aussies don't celebrate so we knew we had to impress them with our costumes. I'm sad to say they weren't our best but we worked with what we had and ended up dressing in really high gym shorts, short tank tops, moh hawks and wild hair, head bands and our hacky sac to become Team Hack! We were a professional hacky sac team from the 80's and definately played the part! We also found beer holders that were giant condoms which got some good laughs as well. The night all in all was pretty weak but we went to two decent parties with most people dressed in costume so all in all it wasn't that bad and we made the most of it of course and had a blast! I of course woke up the next morning with a giant elephant and it's penis on my back tattooe'd, really funny guys haha.
Today we did as we always do and waited last minute to wing what we were going to do as far as traveling up the east coast for the next two weeks. We found a company that rented these camper vans painted in hippie colors so we thought, what better? We got there today to find that they were all rented out so we ended up renting a toyota camery for even cheaper and the four of us traveled an hour an a half to Terrigal, Central Coast where we are now. We're at Tom's house and his mom is cooking us an amazing fish dinner that I can't wait for as she just made us tiger prawns and cheese bread! We're planning on surfing if it's good tomorrow and doing some fishing and snorkeling the rest of the day so it should be good fun.
The next couple weeks we are planning on camping along the east coast all the way up to Harvery Bay and surfing along the way, should be heaps of fun. We bought some camping gear today so we're hoping to save a little cash doing this versus buying a bus ticket and staying in hostels. It's super expensive here so we really are trying to watch our budget but we'll see, usually in the past this plan never works! Tom's parents are lovely and we just met up with our other mate whom I met in Belgium, his buddy Josh, so we might stay a couple more nights. I'm super stoked about the road trip and I hope we make it alive as we've had a little trouble driving on the left side of the road, haha! I'm sure I've missed stuff but whatever, it'll give us all more to talk about when I get home, which I hope never comes! Anyway, as always off for now...
Cheers,
Grant
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Full Moon Party!
Dear Friends and Fam,
I forget where I left off but I think it was after Joe's birthday party and went something like us telling everyone about his birthday and than celebrating at an insane pool party bash. Any, the next day we all needed a bucket break so we decided to rent a DVD player and watch movies and be lazy. We played with our adopted dog named Gary, which is what we named every dog coincidentally, and for a quick swim in between the rains. Will conned be into getting a beer that night while everyone else called it early so we ventured out to the beach but definately had a beer, felt sick, and went home to sleep and prepare for the next day.
The full moon party started at our place with a good group of about 8 of us and about 8 buckets to ensure our tradition of bucket thirty. As we walked to the beach for the Full Moon party the sky cleared up and lit up the entire town. Arriving there we started out at the bar on the beach called the Cactus Bar and than ventured to the beach. We all had crazy neon head bands and rave paint on and really looked like a solid crew! The beach was completely consumed with traveling backpackers and all the bars played super loud music and there was fire dancing everywhere. There was no ring of fire for us to kill ourselves with but better yet there was a gigantic jump rope on fire that you could jump through. Don't worry we opted to pass this time after Will's valuable life lesson, "Don't jump through rings of fire!" I stuck with Will most the night and ran into a wandering Joe and Jay every 15 minutes it seemed which was always fun to have happen. Lucy and Zoe were off looking for Swedish guys most the night and coincidentally I met a Swedish girl named Anna who was super cool and hung with her for awhile towards the end of the night. I remember the sun coming up and going, ya it's probably nap time! It was an insanely good night but we all agreed that the nights leading up to the Full Moon party were better because there were less people and it was a little more comfortable and easy to meet people. All in all though it was an experience for the books and I had it with the best group of people we could have asked for!
The next day we had a bit of a recovery at our English spot that served really good western food and lied around most the day. At night I met up with the Swedish girl I had met and got a really good coconut oil massge, I know it's a hard life but hey someones gotta do it! After our massage we all went out to dinner and as our luck would have it, it was shit but we got through it with laughter and good stories reflecting upon our two weeks together. That night after swearing we wouldn't drink, we ended up giving in for old times sake and having a bucket on the beach. A quick funny story, the pharmacies sell buckets which is where we bought ours, only in Thailand I swear!
The next morning we got breakfast at our spot and the crew walked Jay and I back to the pier to say goodbye. It was hard but life moves forward and now we have to meet another crew asap because Halloween is right around the corner! We gotta jet right now as we are on Koh Samui, the island south, and are catching a flight to Bangkok and than turning around and flying to Sydney where sunshine awaits us thank God! Oh and I caught the Ducks vs. USC game at a bar here and I've never been so happy in my life, GO DUCKS! Anyway I better be off as usuall, I am on cloud nine right now and am just gonna have to keep riding the wave!
Konpukup Thailand!
Cheers,
Grant
I forget where I left off but I think it was after Joe's birthday party and went something like us telling everyone about his birthday and than celebrating at an insane pool party bash. Any, the next day we all needed a bucket break so we decided to rent a DVD player and watch movies and be lazy. We played with our adopted dog named Gary, which is what we named every dog coincidentally, and for a quick swim in between the rains. Will conned be into getting a beer that night while everyone else called it early so we ventured out to the beach but definately had a beer, felt sick, and went home to sleep and prepare for the next day.
The full moon party started at our place with a good group of about 8 of us and about 8 buckets to ensure our tradition of bucket thirty. As we walked to the beach for the Full Moon party the sky cleared up and lit up the entire town. Arriving there we started out at the bar on the beach called the Cactus Bar and than ventured to the beach. We all had crazy neon head bands and rave paint on and really looked like a solid crew! The beach was completely consumed with traveling backpackers and all the bars played super loud music and there was fire dancing everywhere. There was no ring of fire for us to kill ourselves with but better yet there was a gigantic jump rope on fire that you could jump through. Don't worry we opted to pass this time after Will's valuable life lesson, "Don't jump through rings of fire!" I stuck with Will most the night and ran into a wandering Joe and Jay every 15 minutes it seemed which was always fun to have happen. Lucy and Zoe were off looking for Swedish guys most the night and coincidentally I met a Swedish girl named Anna who was super cool and hung with her for awhile towards the end of the night. I remember the sun coming up and going, ya it's probably nap time! It was an insanely good night but we all agreed that the nights leading up to the Full Moon party were better because there were less people and it was a little more comfortable and easy to meet people. All in all though it was an experience for the books and I had it with the best group of people we could have asked for!
The next day we had a bit of a recovery at our English spot that served really good western food and lied around most the day. At night I met up with the Swedish girl I had met and got a really good coconut oil massge, I know it's a hard life but hey someones gotta do it! After our massage we all went out to dinner and as our luck would have it, it was shit but we got through it with laughter and good stories reflecting upon our two weeks together. That night after swearing we wouldn't drink, we ended up giving in for old times sake and having a bucket on the beach. A quick funny story, the pharmacies sell buckets which is where we bought ours, only in Thailand I swear!
The next morning we got breakfast at our spot and the crew walked Jay and I back to the pier to say goodbye. It was hard but life moves forward and now we have to meet another crew asap because Halloween is right around the corner! We gotta jet right now as we are on Koh Samui, the island south, and are catching a flight to Bangkok and than turning around and flying to Sydney where sunshine awaits us thank God! Oh and I caught the Ducks vs. USC game at a bar here and I've never been so happy in my life, GO DUCKS! Anyway I better be off as usuall, I am on cloud nine right now and am just gonna have to keep riding the wave!
Konpukup Thailand!
Cheers,
Grant
Thursday, October 25, 2007
A breath of fresh air, underwater!
Dear Fam and Friends.
We've made it to the full moon party! We're currently on Koh Phan Ngan or also refered to as the full moon party island. I'll catch you up from the begginning and start off by saying that this is day nine I believe that it has rained off and on!
We left Koh Phi Phi which was by far the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life with the most beautiful people hands down! I also loved the island because it was on the Andamen coast side which was sheltered from the monsoon rains that have followed us from Surat Thani entering the gulf side. The bus ride to the ferry was quite quick from Surat Thani and I met a beautiful girl from Isreal who turned out to be quite sweet but a little ignorant about certain things. As soon as I told her I had a best friend from Jordan and Pakistan she definately winched which was really dissapointing and frusterating. The ferry ride to the island we were at prior to getting to Koh Phan Ngan took us to Koh Tao. The ferry ride was on an old school 1960 model boat and was by far the scariest boat ride I've ever been on as we thrashed through towering waves crammed into a sleeping room on the ferry. The storm got the best of us as it through us around making sleep difficult and during the middle of the night water seeped in through the windows which made it that much more real. Getting to the island in the morning after 8 hours of hell we arrived at Koh Tao which is world renowned for diving and diving is what we did!
We took a four day course that brought us to the class room the first day as Jay, Joe and a dutch girl reopened a chapter in our life reminding of us school that we didn't want to embark upon! It was good though in the sense that I haven't read anything educational in awhile and I do miss learning through literature so it wasn't that bad. The second day we had class in the morning and then took to the pool for our first breaths under water which opened up a whole new world to my life. We practiced breathing without our masks just through our respirators and also using our BCD's to control our buoyancy and float. The next day we went on two dives, both to 12 meters or roughly 30 feet! The storm surrounded the island and made the first dive a little blurry as the wind and current knocked the sand around a bit but the second dive was incredible. We saw blue spotted sting rays, massive trigger fish, angel fish and the coral was spectacular like nothing I've ever seen. The feeling of breathing underwater and being weightless I image is similar to being in space! We did some more training and got to master the art of meditating and floating underwater. The rush and sensation is indescribable so I'll just leave it at this, just like sky diving it has changed the way I look at life forever. The last day we dove to our maximum depth which was 18 meters or roughly 60 feet! As we descended through the erie dark shallows we finally reached an abyss of life filled with vibrant colors and heaps of life! On this dive we saw puffer fish, sting rays and tons of other fish! The community that is diving is filled with such warm hearted opened minded people and that's exactly what our instructor was like. Hannah was from England and such a beautiful person that it saddens me I might not ever see her again which I promised I wouldn't let happen. Not much happened the four nights because you can't drink while you are diving or you might get narcosis but I did manage to meet some super cool Irish girls and a really cute one that I bumped into last night and had a blast with.
Speaking of last night, I'll spare you the time and jump right to the island we are currently on. The crew (Will, Lucy, Joe, Zoe and Jay of course) took another terrifying ferry ride to where we are now, Koh Phan Ngan, three days ago. Since we hadn't drank in four days not to sound like and alcoholic cuz I assure you I'm not, but we went straight to the buckets for what we call "bucket thirty!" The buckets if you remember are a mixture of red bull (which has emphadamines in it) whiskey and coke! The nights have been rain free so of course everyone is kean on going out so to the beach we went. There was live music, lots of dancing and a really good time. I some how managed to meet and hang out the whole night with the only other American girl I've met on the island. Her name is Kendra and she is from Michigan and a really cute sweat heart who is here teaching English to little kids. She has some of the most beautiful eyes and an incredibly sexy voice which I am in love with! Anyway, had a fun night and the rest of the gang liked her a lot which was good too. Side story, I managed to burn my hand the first night while lighting a plastic bag on fire which is what happens when it doesn't stop raining and their's nothing to do! But that is nothing compared to my dear old chap Will who discloated his shoulder doing what else? Jumping through a giant ring of fire on the beach! We all about died and I think he did too from the pain but it was just too funny to let him get off the hook that easy so he's been taking alot of crap from all of us! The second night I managed to fall asleep at about seven o'clock and never made it out so I'll skip to last night. After dinner we went shopping to stay inside and avoid the rain so we bought some wicked glow in the dark neon colored head and wrist bands. We went out last night with them and drew a lot of attention and got some really good laughs. It was Joe's birthday yesterday so the entire day we told every person we saw so by the time the pool party came that night everyone probably knew it as Joe's birthday party instead of the obvious pool party. I ran into my American girl and managed to screw that up by accidently bumping into the Irish girl and hanging out with her the whole night, real smooth Grant! Anyway I better be off as I am a little distrought right now from bucket thirty and I'm sure my writing is compelet crap right now so I appologize. God, there's so much to say and I honestly can't remember a lot of it but we're having a blast despite the rain and the full moon party is in two days so we're taking tonight off and having a movie night. Traveling is the best rush in the world and I hope I never stop, I'm in a sereal mood right now and I don't want it to wear off so I best be off!
Cheers,
Grant
We've made it to the full moon party! We're currently on Koh Phan Ngan or also refered to as the full moon party island. I'll catch you up from the begginning and start off by saying that this is day nine I believe that it has rained off and on!
We left Koh Phi Phi which was by far the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life with the most beautiful people hands down! I also loved the island because it was on the Andamen coast side which was sheltered from the monsoon rains that have followed us from Surat Thani entering the gulf side. The bus ride to the ferry was quite quick from Surat Thani and I met a beautiful girl from Isreal who turned out to be quite sweet but a little ignorant about certain things. As soon as I told her I had a best friend from Jordan and Pakistan she definately winched which was really dissapointing and frusterating. The ferry ride to the island we were at prior to getting to Koh Phan Ngan took us to Koh Tao. The ferry ride was on an old school 1960 model boat and was by far the scariest boat ride I've ever been on as we thrashed through towering waves crammed into a sleeping room on the ferry. The storm got the best of us as it through us around making sleep difficult and during the middle of the night water seeped in through the windows which made it that much more real. Getting to the island in the morning after 8 hours of hell we arrived at Koh Tao which is world renowned for diving and diving is what we did!
We took a four day course that brought us to the class room the first day as Jay, Joe and a dutch girl reopened a chapter in our life reminding of us school that we didn't want to embark upon! It was good though in the sense that I haven't read anything educational in awhile and I do miss learning through literature so it wasn't that bad. The second day we had class in the morning and then took to the pool for our first breaths under water which opened up a whole new world to my life. We practiced breathing without our masks just through our respirators and also using our BCD's to control our buoyancy and float. The next day we went on two dives, both to 12 meters or roughly 30 feet! The storm surrounded the island and made the first dive a little blurry as the wind and current knocked the sand around a bit but the second dive was incredible. We saw blue spotted sting rays, massive trigger fish, angel fish and the coral was spectacular like nothing I've ever seen. The feeling of breathing underwater and being weightless I image is similar to being in space! We did some more training and got to master the art of meditating and floating underwater. The rush and sensation is indescribable so I'll just leave it at this, just like sky diving it has changed the way I look at life forever. The last day we dove to our maximum depth which was 18 meters or roughly 60 feet! As we descended through the erie dark shallows we finally reached an abyss of life filled with vibrant colors and heaps of life! On this dive we saw puffer fish, sting rays and tons of other fish! The community that is diving is filled with such warm hearted opened minded people and that's exactly what our instructor was like. Hannah was from England and such a beautiful person that it saddens me I might not ever see her again which I promised I wouldn't let happen. Not much happened the four nights because you can't drink while you are diving or you might get narcosis but I did manage to meet some super cool Irish girls and a really cute one that I bumped into last night and had a blast with.
Speaking of last night, I'll spare you the time and jump right to the island we are currently on. The crew (Will, Lucy, Joe, Zoe and Jay of course) took another terrifying ferry ride to where we are now, Koh Phan Ngan, three days ago. Since we hadn't drank in four days not to sound like and alcoholic cuz I assure you I'm not, but we went straight to the buckets for what we call "bucket thirty!" The buckets if you remember are a mixture of red bull (which has emphadamines in it) whiskey and coke! The nights have been rain free so of course everyone is kean on going out so to the beach we went. There was live music, lots of dancing and a really good time. I some how managed to meet and hang out the whole night with the only other American girl I've met on the island. Her name is Kendra and she is from Michigan and a really cute sweat heart who is here teaching English to little kids. She has some of the most beautiful eyes and an incredibly sexy voice which I am in love with! Anyway, had a fun night and the rest of the gang liked her a lot which was good too. Side story, I managed to burn my hand the first night while lighting a plastic bag on fire which is what happens when it doesn't stop raining and their's nothing to do! But that is nothing compared to my dear old chap Will who discloated his shoulder doing what else? Jumping through a giant ring of fire on the beach! We all about died and I think he did too from the pain but it was just too funny to let him get off the hook that easy so he's been taking alot of crap from all of us! The second night I managed to fall asleep at about seven o'clock and never made it out so I'll skip to last night. After dinner we went shopping to stay inside and avoid the rain so we bought some wicked glow in the dark neon colored head and wrist bands. We went out last night with them and drew a lot of attention and got some really good laughs. It was Joe's birthday yesterday so the entire day we told every person we saw so by the time the pool party came that night everyone probably knew it as Joe's birthday party instead of the obvious pool party. I ran into my American girl and managed to screw that up by accidently bumping into the Irish girl and hanging out with her the whole night, real smooth Grant! Anyway I better be off as I am a little distrought right now from bucket thirty and I'm sure my writing is compelet crap right now so I appologize. God, there's so much to say and I honestly can't remember a lot of it but we're having a blast despite the rain and the full moon party is in two days so we're taking tonight off and having a movie night. Traveling is the best rush in the world and I hope I never stop, I'm in a sereal mood right now and I don't want it to wear off so I best be off!
Cheers,
Grant
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Lost in Translation...
Dear Friends and Fam,
After Bangkok we counted our cards and decided it was time to get the hell out as it was so insane there! We hopped on a cheap flight down south to a little port town called Krabi. With Will, Jay and myself we got on a 2 hour ferry the next day and headed to Ko Phi Phi, the main island near the location island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We met three other Brits on the ferry, a super cute girl named Lucy, and two hilarious blokes Joe and Richard as well as a canadian girl named Zoey. We found some bungalows on the hillside and bargained to get a room for about 5 bucks a night, not bad. That day we went to the opposite side beach and chilled out for the day looking out at the massive lime stone cliffs and incredible surrounding. We got lunch at what would become "our spot" and met some gorgeous Spanish girls who we met up with later that night at a little bar on the beach called "ciao bella." Really fun night as we talked story and that's where we were introduced to our future captain, Ricky Ricardo or as he would be later known as, "captain ron!" Ricky was an Italian guy who just got up and moved to the island about ten years ago and bought a boat and runs day trips through the surrounding islands. So we arranged to go out with him two days later. He told us some pretty disturning stories of the Sunami as he was in the water when it happened and you canonly image how e found out, floating bodies. The next day we went back to our beach and found a volleyball net and played with some German guys who were super cool, but very terrible at volleyball but it's all good haha. That night we met up with some of Will's Irish mates who were an absolute riot, learned a wicked new pool game called killer and started off with a bucket of whiskey and red bull, the standard. We ventured to our new night spot called "apachee' where we caught the fire dancing show to start off the night than danced for ages to all various types of music. I met a Portoguese girl named Filiba who was out of this world beautiful and hung out with her for the night as I ventured home somewhere around sun rise,which would become a reaccuring theme the following 2 nights!
The next day the 7 of us took off on Ricky's boat which was about 60 ft and an old fishing boat, great boat though had lots of class. We first went to Bamboo island and had the whole strip of vibrant white sand to ourselves. We did a bit of snorkeling and found many florecent fish. The next island we ventured to monkey island where we fed monkeys bananas as they came litteraly up to our feet! PS, monkeys have gigantic balls! We then headed for the island ko phi phi lea, or now universally known as "the Beach." It is actually seperated into differents parts and was filmed in different locations so it doesnt look exactly like the movie but the surrounding cliffs don't play tricks on you, they're incredible. We sat inside the bay completely surrounded by these enourmously tall limestone cliffs with viking rocks drooping off the side of them, the heigth of the surrounding cliffs would be somewhere around 1000 ft! A storm started to rush in so we had to call it a day and head back to the main island and go to the beach where it was actually filmed on the sand the following day. The rain came in very heavy so what better thing to do when it's cold and raining than to jump in the ocean off the boat which is what I did. Than I realized it probably wasn't the best idea as storms bring in jelly fish and I got stung quite a few times but nothing serious. It was still worth it! That night we ate our new spot, ciao bella and conversed with our Spanish girls, who once they found out how young we were didn't seem as interested anymore haha. That night we went to our thai boxing bar and started the night off with what else, a bucket! I met up with Feliba at the Appachee club and had another super fun night with her as she was an extremely sweet girl and loads of fun. Will hooked up with her other friend so it made for a fun night and Jay ended up meeting a beautiful Isreali girl. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've never been to such beautiful place with such beautiful people, every girl was out of this world. Note to self, go back to Ko Phi Phi before I die!
The last day hung out on "the beach" and watched a Tai boxing match that night and hung out with our girls for a bit. The next day we all had funny stories but I'll keep you to the best one. Joe, one of the english guys came stumbling back in the morning while we were eating breakfast and I said to him "how was the lady boy" completely joking and I think I sparked a bad memory that he had forgotten. He met an english girl and was with her most the night but prior to that we all think Joe might have accidently hooked up with a lady boy as he was content to keep it to himself but would laugh when we brought it up! A memory surely to not forget. We all were a bit lagging that morning and we had this horrid soung stuck in our heads by a guy named Akon called "beautiful girl!" We sang that bloody song all the way to where we are now, it won't leave us!
We hopped on a ferry back to the port town Krabi and then got a bus to Surat Thani which is the port town on the opposite side of the island which is where we caught a ferry to where we are now, Ko Tao. Sorry I think that might have been a run on sentance! I met a really cool girl from Isreal on the bus ride to Surat Thani and will definately keep in touch with her as she wants to come to America and I told her I'd show her around of course. She offered the same, but I don't think I'll be journing to Isreal any time soon. We had to wait at the port town Surat Thani for 7 hours before our ferry and ate some really good Italian food at a little hole in the wall restauranta. The ferry ride was the most misserable and narly ride of my life. There was just a room full of mattreses for people to sleep and the boat looked like it was built in 1960! I woke up from the rain pouring in the windows in the middle of the night as we trekked right into an intense storm as we towered over the most massive swells in the open ocean I've ever seen. We were told to keep life jackets next to us for obvious reasons which wasn't very assuring but we made it to Ko Tao alive! Definately thought about death once again but hey I'm still breathing!
The island we're on now is a divers paradise and I'm still a bit weiry of diving but I think I'm going to give it a go! We just found a mexican restaurant and I'm stinging to grind a burrito and they start surving any moment so I better be off! I'm sorry I've been MIA as I've been lost in translation and the last thing I've wanted is to get on the internet! Oh ya one more thing, my freakin camera broke when I took it under water and it's suppose to be water proof so I am super bummer still about that as it happened the first day on Ko Phi Phi but I'll get Lucy and Will's pictures so it should be all right I hope. Anyway off for now...
Cheers,
Grant
After Bangkok we counted our cards and decided it was time to get the hell out as it was so insane there! We hopped on a cheap flight down south to a little port town called Krabi. With Will, Jay and myself we got on a 2 hour ferry the next day and headed to Ko Phi Phi, the main island near the location island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We met three other Brits on the ferry, a super cute girl named Lucy, and two hilarious blokes Joe and Richard as well as a canadian girl named Zoey. We found some bungalows on the hillside and bargained to get a room for about 5 bucks a night, not bad. That day we went to the opposite side beach and chilled out for the day looking out at the massive lime stone cliffs and incredible surrounding. We got lunch at what would become "our spot" and met some gorgeous Spanish girls who we met up with later that night at a little bar on the beach called "ciao bella." Really fun night as we talked story and that's where we were introduced to our future captain, Ricky Ricardo or as he would be later known as, "captain ron!" Ricky was an Italian guy who just got up and moved to the island about ten years ago and bought a boat and runs day trips through the surrounding islands. So we arranged to go out with him two days later. He told us some pretty disturning stories of the Sunami as he was in the water when it happened and you canonly image how e found out, floating bodies. The next day we went back to our beach and found a volleyball net and played with some German guys who were super cool, but very terrible at volleyball but it's all good haha. That night we met up with some of Will's Irish mates who were an absolute riot, learned a wicked new pool game called killer and started off with a bucket of whiskey and red bull, the standard. We ventured to our new night spot called "apachee' where we caught the fire dancing show to start off the night than danced for ages to all various types of music. I met a Portoguese girl named Filiba who was out of this world beautiful and hung out with her for the night as I ventured home somewhere around sun rise,which would become a reaccuring theme the following 2 nights!
The next day the 7 of us took off on Ricky's boat which was about 60 ft and an old fishing boat, great boat though had lots of class. We first went to Bamboo island and had the whole strip of vibrant white sand to ourselves. We did a bit of snorkeling and found many florecent fish. The next island we ventured to monkey island where we fed monkeys bananas as they came litteraly up to our feet! PS, monkeys have gigantic balls! We then headed for the island ko phi phi lea, or now universally known as "the Beach." It is actually seperated into differents parts and was filmed in different locations so it doesnt look exactly like the movie but the surrounding cliffs don't play tricks on you, they're incredible. We sat inside the bay completely surrounded by these enourmously tall limestone cliffs with viking rocks drooping off the side of them, the heigth of the surrounding cliffs would be somewhere around 1000 ft! A storm started to rush in so we had to call it a day and head back to the main island and go to the beach where it was actually filmed on the sand the following day. The rain came in very heavy so what better thing to do when it's cold and raining than to jump in the ocean off the boat which is what I did. Than I realized it probably wasn't the best idea as storms bring in jelly fish and I got stung quite a few times but nothing serious. It was still worth it! That night we ate our new spot, ciao bella and conversed with our Spanish girls, who once they found out how young we were didn't seem as interested anymore haha. That night we went to our thai boxing bar and started the night off with what else, a bucket! I met up with Feliba at the Appachee club and had another super fun night with her as she was an extremely sweet girl and loads of fun. Will hooked up with her other friend so it made for a fun night and Jay ended up meeting a beautiful Isreali girl. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've never been to such beautiful place with such beautiful people, every girl was out of this world. Note to self, go back to Ko Phi Phi before I die!
The last day hung out on "the beach" and watched a Tai boxing match that night and hung out with our girls for a bit. The next day we all had funny stories but I'll keep you to the best one. Joe, one of the english guys came stumbling back in the morning while we were eating breakfast and I said to him "how was the lady boy" completely joking and I think I sparked a bad memory that he had forgotten. He met an english girl and was with her most the night but prior to that we all think Joe might have accidently hooked up with a lady boy as he was content to keep it to himself but would laugh when we brought it up! A memory surely to not forget. We all were a bit lagging that morning and we had this horrid soung stuck in our heads by a guy named Akon called "beautiful girl!" We sang that bloody song all the way to where we are now, it won't leave us!
We hopped on a ferry back to the port town Krabi and then got a bus to Surat Thani which is the port town on the opposite side of the island which is where we caught a ferry to where we are now, Ko Tao. Sorry I think that might have been a run on sentance! I met a really cool girl from Isreal on the bus ride to Surat Thani and will definately keep in touch with her as she wants to come to America and I told her I'd show her around of course. She offered the same, but I don't think I'll be journing to Isreal any time soon. We had to wait at the port town Surat Thani for 7 hours before our ferry and ate some really good Italian food at a little hole in the wall restauranta. The ferry ride was the most misserable and narly ride of my life. There was just a room full of mattreses for people to sleep and the boat looked like it was built in 1960! I woke up from the rain pouring in the windows in the middle of the night as we trekked right into an intense storm as we towered over the most massive swells in the open ocean I've ever seen. We were told to keep life jackets next to us for obvious reasons which wasn't very assuring but we made it to Ko Tao alive! Definately thought about death once again but hey I'm still breathing!
The island we're on now is a divers paradise and I'm still a bit weiry of diving but I think I'm going to give it a go! We just found a mexican restaurant and I'm stinging to grind a burrito and they start surving any moment so I better be off! I'm sorry I've been MIA as I've been lost in translation and the last thing I've wanted is to get on the internet! Oh ya one more thing, my freakin camera broke when I took it under water and it's suppose to be water proof so I am super bummer still about that as it happened the first day on Ko Phi Phi but I'll get Lucy and Will's pictures so it should be all right I hope. Anyway off for now...
Cheers,
Grant
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Paradise awaits...
Dear Friends and Fam,
We've made it to Thailand, wahooo! But as usual I'll start from the begginning. Our last day in Kathmandu we finally met some cute girls our age and went out to dinner and to a live reggae show which was really good. No one was apt to drink so we just chilled out and soaked in our last night talking story and having some laughs. I'm totally stoked because they're from Vancouver, BC and they invited me to come up and stay whenever and I definately will take them up on their offer as BC is a blast! The next day we said bye to our Auzzie mums which was super sad because we were like pees and carrots as Forest Gump would say haha. We really don't know what will do with out them but it won't be long until we reunite in Willagong Australia, ruenion with burritos and lots of wine!
Our flight to Bangkok was a little stressful at Kathmandu airport as it was a really poorly run airport and took a lot longer than expected to check in and we barely made our flight but we did so no worries! Arriving in Banngkok we were blown away by the airport as it was insanely massive, one of the 5 biggest in the world and all brand new, quite the contrast from Kathmandu. Getting to our hotel right on Koh San Rd., which is the hot spot for bars and chicks! The girls at our hotel were hot of this world gorgeous so we new right away it was going to be a good time. The first night we grabbed some drinks and met some Thai girls at a bar who took us out that night. Let me say, Thai girls are absouletly beautiful, good combo! We dance at a club and didn't buy them drinks cuz we're not like that and we think that's why they left later in the night, but Jay and I didn't let that stop us! We got back onto the main party street and ran into an English bloke who introduced us to the "bucket!" The bucket is genius, it's a bucket full of a concauction of whatever the hell you want, so we had Thai Whiskey, red bull and gatorade, haha absoletely brilliant as our friend Will would say who we're traveling with now. We met Will earlier that night briefly as he was entertained by our drunk antics hitting on the Thai girls at the restaurant prior. We met up earlier the next day after running into each other and told him of our plans to go to Krabi down south so he booked a ticket as well and off we went, which is where we currently are. But the next day in Bangkok was full of other adventures so I won't get too far ahead.
The next day we wanted to check out a tailor suit shop and went to the highest class one we found, James Taylors, might have mispelled that but get used to it! They picked us up from our hotel in shuttle and greeted us at the shop with beer and whatever we wanted, we were treated like freaking celebrities! And of course they saw, "where you from? ohhhh America you have all the money!" haha. Jay bought a kick ass suit and I got two dress coats for when I get home and began my journey in real estate, gotta look the part right? Well I hope because I chipped into the old bank account but not nearly as much as it would have costed in the states. So that night we met up with some of Will's English friends, two cute girls and got some drinks and than found our way back to the infamous "buckets!" We played some drinking games and than took off for a race in our tuk tuks (motorbike taxis with carrages on them) and headed for the ping pong show. I don't want to be crude and keep it clean but I'll leave it at this, what a night to remember and I haven't laughed that hard in ages, truly a one of a kind event that you'll find no where else but Bangkok!
So we got on a short 1 hour puddle jumper and now we're in Krabi, down south near the islands. We are leaving for a 2 hour ferry shorty and heading for Ko Phi Phi, or better known as the island where "the Beach" was filmed and the sun is finally shinning as we hit some rain in Bangkok so we're pretty stoked! Anyway speaking of which I'm back on the move as usual and I'll try and update the old journal again soon but no guarantess, I'm off to paradise where I plan on sitting under a palm tree, mai tai in hand and a Thai girl massaging my back, life is good my amigo!
Cheers (no Thai cheers they stole ours)
Grant
We've made it to Thailand, wahooo! But as usual I'll start from the begginning. Our last day in Kathmandu we finally met some cute girls our age and went out to dinner and to a live reggae show which was really good. No one was apt to drink so we just chilled out and soaked in our last night talking story and having some laughs. I'm totally stoked because they're from Vancouver, BC and they invited me to come up and stay whenever and I definately will take them up on their offer as BC is a blast! The next day we said bye to our Auzzie mums which was super sad because we were like pees and carrots as Forest Gump would say haha. We really don't know what will do with out them but it won't be long until we reunite in Willagong Australia, ruenion with burritos and lots of wine!
Our flight to Bangkok was a little stressful at Kathmandu airport as it was a really poorly run airport and took a lot longer than expected to check in and we barely made our flight but we did so no worries! Arriving in Banngkok we were blown away by the airport as it was insanely massive, one of the 5 biggest in the world and all brand new, quite the contrast from Kathmandu. Getting to our hotel right on Koh San Rd., which is the hot spot for bars and chicks! The girls at our hotel were hot of this world gorgeous so we new right away it was going to be a good time. The first night we grabbed some drinks and met some Thai girls at a bar who took us out that night. Let me say, Thai girls are absouletly beautiful, good combo! We dance at a club and didn't buy them drinks cuz we're not like that and we think that's why they left later in the night, but Jay and I didn't let that stop us! We got back onto the main party street and ran into an English bloke who introduced us to the "bucket!" The bucket is genius, it's a bucket full of a concauction of whatever the hell you want, so we had Thai Whiskey, red bull and gatorade, haha absoletely brilliant as our friend Will would say who we're traveling with now. We met Will earlier that night briefly as he was entertained by our drunk antics hitting on the Thai girls at the restaurant prior. We met up earlier the next day after running into each other and told him of our plans to go to Krabi down south so he booked a ticket as well and off we went, which is where we currently are. But the next day in Bangkok was full of other adventures so I won't get too far ahead.
The next day we wanted to check out a tailor suit shop and went to the highest class one we found, James Taylors, might have mispelled that but get used to it! They picked us up from our hotel in shuttle and greeted us at the shop with beer and whatever we wanted, we were treated like freaking celebrities! And of course they saw, "where you from? ohhhh America you have all the money!" haha. Jay bought a kick ass suit and I got two dress coats for when I get home and began my journey in real estate, gotta look the part right? Well I hope because I chipped into the old bank account but not nearly as much as it would have costed in the states. So that night we met up with some of Will's English friends, two cute girls and got some drinks and than found our way back to the infamous "buckets!" We played some drinking games and than took off for a race in our tuk tuks (motorbike taxis with carrages on them) and headed for the ping pong show. I don't want to be crude and keep it clean but I'll leave it at this, what a night to remember and I haven't laughed that hard in ages, truly a one of a kind event that you'll find no where else but Bangkok!
So we got on a short 1 hour puddle jumper and now we're in Krabi, down south near the islands. We are leaving for a 2 hour ferry shorty and heading for Ko Phi Phi, or better known as the island where "the Beach" was filmed and the sun is finally shinning as we hit some rain in Bangkok so we're pretty stoked! Anyway speaking of which I'm back on the move as usual and I'll try and update the old journal again soon but no guarantess, I'm off to paradise where I plan on sitting under a palm tree, mai tai in hand and a Thai girl massaging my back, life is good my amigo!
Cheers (no Thai cheers they stole ours)
Grant
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