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
Sunday, October 28, 2007
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
Monday, October 8, 2007
From Tibet to Nepal...
Dear Friends and Fam,
I am having trouble coming up with something catchy to start this entry so I'll keep it dry and say "Hello" in English because we've made it to Nepal and people finally speak English, YAY! I left off as I remember at a road block for construction in a little village close to the Tibet Nepal border so I began there...
I now know why the road was closed off, which we didn't at first, major major construction along the "friendly HWY rd" that connects China and Nepal. This drive was insane both from the landscape and the blisters I acquired on my hands from grabbing so tightly to the "oh shit" handle bars above the doors! This drive was on a dirt road with pot holes galore alongside a mountain range about 2000 ft. up at times overlooking the river below. What a ride as we crossed sections of partially finished bridges, narrow gaps where I could look out and see no road on one side meaning our tires where grazzing the edge and over waterfalls that flowed over the roads! In fact, at one point I made a smart ass remark about our car being so dirty and "why don't we just wash it off by driver under a water fall" and literally 10 minuets later we did just that, absolutely an incredible experience. As Di, my auzzie mum, kept repeating I don't know out of fear or just shear amazement, "far out!" It's hard to describe such a tense and exhilerating moment as our adrenaline rushed like crazy and we all definately thought about death at one point I am sure. Making it to the Chinese border we were releaved that it didn't rain and we had good weather still, but our journey wasn't quite finished.
The transition into Nepal from China was both vividly apparent culturally and scenically ( not sure if that's a word haha). The people ironically enough look exactly like Indian people except I think dress maybe a little differently with their color schemas. The landscape transversed to sub-tropic and became immediately warmer. Arriving after a half days drive to our hotel, we all were super anxious to settle into out luxurious hotel compared to the guest houses with lacking ammenities we had been during our Everest journey. What an awesome hotel, set on high hillside overlooking the Nepal grasslands and houses in the valley and when the clouds ceased you could get a glimpse at the Himalayans. I feel like I say the scenery and landscape gets better evertime and this is no exception! After eating a club sandwhich I began to feel the same stomach pain that had followed me all the way off and on from Beijing. My stomach acted up and like so many times this trip came out the back end as a chocolate shake that smelled like what else, heaven! I decided to fast yet again, except this time for two days only drinking water and hydration packets that had been given to me by our adopted family I am so grateful to have had. During these two days i became super fatigued and warn down and definately lost some weight. I remember walking down the stairs with my pack on when we were leaving the hotel and being so dissy and nautious because of starving myself that I thought at times I was going to just collaspe. Thinking it was bacteria and this would starve the bastard in my stomach I ate again as soon as we got to Kathmandu and yet again, deja vu an hour later. So yesterday I went to the hospital here and saw a doctor finally, which I was unable to do as the hospitals are crap in China. It turns out I have gardia, which is a parasite you get from the water, and I've had it since Beijing. I got some anti-biotics and it should hopefully be out of my system by tomorrow we're hoping. I found out at the doctors I have lost close to 20 pounds!
Kathmandu is a very lively hippie city with close to a million people jammed tightly into the narrow streets. We've met the owners of a cool reggae bar and have been going there at nights and listening to live music and chilaxing. The food is excellent here as I can finally eat and we went to a monkey temple on the top of the hill today that was spectacular. The monkeys greated us on the way up the long stairs and picked a fight with Jay, kind of like the goat in Tibet! The monkey got the best of Jay and took his water bottle to compile it with his collection of about 5 others! These monkeys were hilarious and a bit scary showing their fangs occasionally to let know who was boss. The temple itself was very different than those in Tibet, more colorful on the outside and much more cluttle of stupas and other items devoted to buddah. Our cab right back was pretty hilarious, picture a minature slug bug VW bus, with five of us crammed into it and it puts a smile on your smile I promise! Anyway, as always i have to get going, we met some girls from Vancouver BC and are going to meet up with them as it's their last night in Nepal as well. We leave for Thailand tomorrow and can't wait! White sand beach and a cold beer sounds freaking amazing! It's hot and muggy here so we're ready to jump in the ocean!
Prunos,
Grant
I am having trouble coming up with something catchy to start this entry so I'll keep it dry and say "Hello" in English because we've made it to Nepal and people finally speak English, YAY! I left off as I remember at a road block for construction in a little village close to the Tibet Nepal border so I began there...
I now know why the road was closed off, which we didn't at first, major major construction along the "friendly HWY rd" that connects China and Nepal. This drive was insane both from the landscape and the blisters I acquired on my hands from grabbing so tightly to the "oh shit" handle bars above the doors! This drive was on a dirt road with pot holes galore alongside a mountain range about 2000 ft. up at times overlooking the river below. What a ride as we crossed sections of partially finished bridges, narrow gaps where I could look out and see no road on one side meaning our tires where grazzing the edge and over waterfalls that flowed over the roads! In fact, at one point I made a smart ass remark about our car being so dirty and "why don't we just wash it off by driver under a water fall" and literally 10 minuets later we did just that, absolutely an incredible experience. As Di, my auzzie mum, kept repeating I don't know out of fear or just shear amazement, "far out!" It's hard to describe such a tense and exhilerating moment as our adrenaline rushed like crazy and we all definately thought about death at one point I am sure. Making it to the Chinese border we were releaved that it didn't rain and we had good weather still, but our journey wasn't quite finished.
The transition into Nepal from China was both vividly apparent culturally and scenically ( not sure if that's a word haha). The people ironically enough look exactly like Indian people except I think dress maybe a little differently with their color schemas. The landscape transversed to sub-tropic and became immediately warmer. Arriving after a half days drive to our hotel, we all were super anxious to settle into out luxurious hotel compared to the guest houses with lacking ammenities we had been during our Everest journey. What an awesome hotel, set on high hillside overlooking the Nepal grasslands and houses in the valley and when the clouds ceased you could get a glimpse at the Himalayans. I feel like I say the scenery and landscape gets better evertime and this is no exception! After eating a club sandwhich I began to feel the same stomach pain that had followed me all the way off and on from Beijing. My stomach acted up and like so many times this trip came out the back end as a chocolate shake that smelled like what else, heaven! I decided to fast yet again, except this time for two days only drinking water and hydration packets that had been given to me by our adopted family I am so grateful to have had. During these two days i became super fatigued and warn down and definately lost some weight. I remember walking down the stairs with my pack on when we were leaving the hotel and being so dissy and nautious because of starving myself that I thought at times I was going to just collaspe. Thinking it was bacteria and this would starve the bastard in my stomach I ate again as soon as we got to Kathmandu and yet again, deja vu an hour later. So yesterday I went to the hospital here and saw a doctor finally, which I was unable to do as the hospitals are crap in China. It turns out I have gardia, which is a parasite you get from the water, and I've had it since Beijing. I got some anti-biotics and it should hopefully be out of my system by tomorrow we're hoping. I found out at the doctors I have lost close to 20 pounds!
Kathmandu is a very lively hippie city with close to a million people jammed tightly into the narrow streets. We've met the owners of a cool reggae bar and have been going there at nights and listening to live music and chilaxing. The food is excellent here as I can finally eat and we went to a monkey temple on the top of the hill today that was spectacular. The monkeys greated us on the way up the long stairs and picked a fight with Jay, kind of like the goat in Tibet! The monkey got the best of Jay and took his water bottle to compile it with his collection of about 5 others! These monkeys were hilarious and a bit scary showing their fangs occasionally to let know who was boss. The temple itself was very different than those in Tibet, more colorful on the outside and much more cluttle of stupas and other items devoted to buddah. Our cab right back was pretty hilarious, picture a minature slug bug VW bus, with five of us crammed into it and it puts a smile on your smile I promise! Anyway, as always i have to get going, we met some girls from Vancouver BC and are going to meet up with them as it's their last night in Nepal as well. We leave for Thailand tomorrow and can't wait! White sand beach and a cold beer sounds freaking amazing! It's hot and muggy here so we're ready to jump in the ocean!
Prunos,
Grant
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
I'm on Top of the World!
Dear Fam and Friends,
I wasn't expecting to be writting again this soon but I'm currently stuck as the result of a road block for construction for 6 hours in the Himalayan Mountain range pass between Everest and the Nepal border. Luckily the little crap village I am in has internet, not fast but it works and the keyboards are a little whack!
I have to first appoligize for not throwing any pictures up but I have yet to find a fast enough internet connection to upload pictures. This entry will be short as the town after Lhasa and the town we stayed at last night after we left Mt. Everest were pretty crap and nothing really happened. So on to the most amazing two days of my life!
The scenery leading up to Everest was partly cloudy but mostly all blue sky and the mountains and plains were insanely vast and breath taking. When we reached the high pass, 16,500 ft., before the switchback roads to Everest we all got out to take pictures and you could definately feel the intense feeling of breathing the thinnest air in the world while standing on land mass. Walking up the short hill to snap a photo of the prayer flags with the mountains amidst in the backdrop I was completely out of breath and struggling to breath, pretty nuts. After leaving the pass we got to the first lookout of Everest, goosebumps definately struck me not from being cold but exactly the opposit, we were in pants and a t-shirt at 16,800 ft. looking at the tallest point in the entire world with only a couple clouds in the sky around the peak! The final drive to the mountain was a series of many switch backs up an insanely bumpy road surrounded by mountains that looked like recent lava erotion, yet is millions of years old! There was no snow except for the snow on Mt. Everest and the surrounding Himalayans, which I didn't expect to see. Arriving at the Monestary just 8 km's from base camp we all were completely blown away as there wasn't one cloud in the sky and the weather would continue until today! That night we all celebrated our amazing experience of seeing Everest, usually somewhat visible in the good season about 2 out of every 7 days, with some beer! We met a cool French girl living in Beijing and another guy from Scotland who'd been traveling for 3 years! We went on a walk that night and I've never seen so many stars and Mt. Everest had a glow to it that I'll never forget! We found a cave to hang out in and talked story for awhile until the wind started to pick up and we called it a night.
The next day we woke up at 7am and packed a light pack and began our hike of the 8 km to basecamp. The camp got moved I guess because about 2 weeks ago some American students stood up with a sign that said "Free Tibet" and posted it on youtube.com and you can only imagin how the Chinese government loved that! The hike was freezing bitter cold as the sun had not rissen yet and the terrain reminded me of walkin on the moon, pretty cool. Arriving after 2 hours of walking and breathing heavily from the thin air we were greated with a cloudless sleeping mountain that towered the rest of the world! As the sun began to creep over the westardly mountain pass the shadows became vast and we got some great pictures, I beleive there were two full moons at the mountain too! Actually right after snapping our last picture, the sun roared over the mountain as intense as ever and finally provided a little warmth as our fingers were nearly frost bitten! It was all worth it and to have such a rare two days of no clouds and a deep blue sky reflecting off the tallest peak in the world is quite an incredible experience. To give you an idea, we met some Irish guys in Lhasa two days earlier who had been two weeks ago and didn't see Mt. Everest the whole time! Anyway, sorry to make a short story long but what an amazing journey to reach Everest and one I'll surely not forget. Oh ya, I bargained with a local Tibetan and we got a donkey ride back from basecamp haha!
We are all really stoked to get down from high altitude and breath like normal human beings which should happen in a day! Right now I am in a littler village in the Himalays about a couple hours from the border of Tibet and Nepal. We are stuck at a road block until later tonight and then we're on our way to the border where we are crashing in yet another scummy guest house but no worries cuz I am on top of the world right now, literally, haha!
I wasn't expecting to be writting again this soon but I'm currently stuck as the result of a road block for construction for 6 hours in the Himalayan Mountain range pass between Everest and the Nepal border. Luckily the little crap village I am in has internet, not fast but it works and the keyboards are a little whack!
I have to first appoligize for not throwing any pictures up but I have yet to find a fast enough internet connection to upload pictures. This entry will be short as the town after Lhasa and the town we stayed at last night after we left Mt. Everest were pretty crap and nothing really happened. So on to the most amazing two days of my life!
The scenery leading up to Everest was partly cloudy but mostly all blue sky and the mountains and plains were insanely vast and breath taking. When we reached the high pass, 16,500 ft., before the switchback roads to Everest we all got out to take pictures and you could definately feel the intense feeling of breathing the thinnest air in the world while standing on land mass. Walking up the short hill to snap a photo of the prayer flags with the mountains amidst in the backdrop I was completely out of breath and struggling to breath, pretty nuts. After leaving the pass we got to the first lookout of Everest, goosebumps definately struck me not from being cold but exactly the opposit, we were in pants and a t-shirt at 16,800 ft. looking at the tallest point in the entire world with only a couple clouds in the sky around the peak! The final drive to the mountain was a series of many switch backs up an insanely bumpy road surrounded by mountains that looked like recent lava erotion, yet is millions of years old! There was no snow except for the snow on Mt. Everest and the surrounding Himalayans, which I didn't expect to see. Arriving at the Monestary just 8 km's from base camp we all were completely blown away as there wasn't one cloud in the sky and the weather would continue until today! That night we all celebrated our amazing experience of seeing Everest, usually somewhat visible in the good season about 2 out of every 7 days, with some beer! We met a cool French girl living in Beijing and another guy from Scotland who'd been traveling for 3 years! We went on a walk that night and I've never seen so many stars and Mt. Everest had a glow to it that I'll never forget! We found a cave to hang out in and talked story for awhile until the wind started to pick up and we called it a night.
The next day we woke up at 7am and packed a light pack and began our hike of the 8 km to basecamp. The camp got moved I guess because about 2 weeks ago some American students stood up with a sign that said "Free Tibet" and posted it on youtube.com and you can only imagin how the Chinese government loved that! The hike was freezing bitter cold as the sun had not rissen yet and the terrain reminded me of walkin on the moon, pretty cool. Arriving after 2 hours of walking and breathing heavily from the thin air we were greated with a cloudless sleeping mountain that towered the rest of the world! As the sun began to creep over the westardly mountain pass the shadows became vast and we got some great pictures, I beleive there were two full moons at the mountain too! Actually right after snapping our last picture, the sun roared over the mountain as intense as ever and finally provided a little warmth as our fingers were nearly frost bitten! It was all worth it and to have such a rare two days of no clouds and a deep blue sky reflecting off the tallest peak in the world is quite an incredible experience. To give you an idea, we met some Irish guys in Lhasa two days earlier who had been two weeks ago and didn't see Mt. Everest the whole time! Anyway, sorry to make a short story long but what an amazing journey to reach Everest and one I'll surely not forget. Oh ya, I bargained with a local Tibetan and we got a donkey ride back from basecamp haha!
We are all really stoked to get down from high altitude and breath like normal human beings which should happen in a day! Right now I am in a littler village in the Himalays about a couple hours from the border of Tibet and Nepal. We are stuck at a road block until later tonight and then we're on our way to the border where we are crashing in yet another scummy guest house but no worries cuz I am on top of the world right now, literally, haha!
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