what has happened since Christmas Day ?

Right now I am sitting on a small island on the Andaman seaside of Thailand called Ko Phi Phi, nice and burnt from a beautiful day of cruising around to several small islands around Phi Phi. I know alot of you are probably swearing at me through your teeth right now, and I don't blame you, however it looks as if the weather around Calgary has warmed up a bit, so hopefully everyone is feeling a little less angered with the cold weather.

Anyways, I have exactly 25 minutes until we have to go meet some Israeli girls we met on our boat for supper, so I will do my best to give the update on what has happened since Christmas Day. It's going to be difficult as it has been non-stop moving and non-stop action!!

Christmas Day for Greg and I, as most of you know, was spent riding around Chang Mai (northern Thailand) on some super-motard styled motorcycles. For two motorcycle junkies like Greg and I, it was a brilliant way to spend Christmas Day, despite the fact that it didn't really "feel" like Christmas being away from our family and friends. However, 30 degree weather was a nice substitute. We even found a bar that served a turkey dinner!! The following morning I had completely rid myself of the sickness I was suffering from for the past 4 days, and Greg and I hopped into a minibus to take us further north to a place called Chang Ria. From here we would cross the border into Laos. It was about a 6 hour drive north to Chang Rai, and we arrived at a pretty nasty looking guest house. As Greg and I stood in a line up of about 12 other guests waiting to check in, for some reason we were chosen to be relocated to another guest house ... apparently they had run out of room. We were told that our new place was 5 minutes down the road and that we would have no problem making it back to the original guest house for the dinner that was included in our pre-purchased package. So we hopped into a van with our luggage and were literally dropped off on the other side of town - about a 20 minute walk away from the first guest house, and dinner was in exactly 10 minutes haha! The driver points down a dark, muddy lane to where our guest house is. And when I say muddy, I mean REALLY muddy lane. Before we could as the driver to actually drive us down the lane so we didn't have to trudge through the mud, he was gone lol. So we made our way down the muddy lane to a newly built guest house which, from the outside, appeared to be really nice. Everything was new, we had a T.V. (which no one else got). Seems great, right. Well, it would have been if we would have had running water haha! Needless to say, we didn't make it back for dinner that night, and we were not smelling to fresh the next morning.

Early rise the next morning 6:30am to head back to the guest house and cross the river into Laos. After being checked out of Thailand, you throw all your baggage and yourselves onto a boat that will take you across the river into Laos. After a slow border check-in, you are separated into "fast boat group" or "slow boat group". Lonely planet recommends against the fast boat because of it's danger, however we didn't read lonely planet until after our trip from the border into Luang Prabang. So, fast boat it is!! The fast boat is packed with 6 people (plus the driver), and I mean PACKED!! Luggage on the front of the boat, then 3 rows of 2 people sitting with their knees crammed into their chest - for 6 hours!!! And that boat was fast. 5 of the 6 of us were given helmets, all of us had life jackets. There were 3 fast boats in total literally ripping down the Mekong river. Every now and than we would stop to solve a small engine problem, than right back it it. About 4 hours into the journey we stopped at a restaurant along the river to eat lunch. As I sat down, I was quickly offered (by my server) marijuana or opium - apparently drugs are very easy to get in Laos haha. I kindly refused, and ordered a nice large beer to get me through the rest of the trip. Greg and I also made sure to take lots of videos of that boat trip, so once I get home I will make sure to share those with everyone.

At about 5:30pm we arrived in Luang Prabang! As enjoyable as that boat ride was paralleled with a beautiful sunset, we were SO happy to be off that boat. A shared tuk-tuk took us to the center of Luang Prabang and we quickly secured a guest house. We were under the impression that Laos would be quite cheap, but it sure isn't! It's actually quite similar to Thailand, but it's honestly one of the most beautiful places I have visited on the trip so far! Beautiful mountains everywhere, lots of temples, and great people!

Okay I'm running out of time, I will speed up the rest from there and fill in details later ...

We spent 2 nights in Luang Prabang, than purchased a minibus down to Vang Vieng where we planned to spend New Years floating down the river in a tube from bar to bar. On the way down we met 2 Belgiums (Thomas and Aurora) and 1 German fellow (Flo) that we immediately became friends with. We ended up spending our entire time in Vang Vieng partying with these guys and had a blast! New Years was absolutely amazing!! There was about 500 people floating down this river, and each bar you stop at has either a huge swing (about 30 feet high), a zip-line, or a swing to launch off and drop into the water! One also had 2 mud wrestling pools for everyone ... that was obviously positioned further down the river when everyone is much too drunk to think twice about jumping in. Needless to say, we all ruined a pair of board shorts, but had a hell of a time doing it!! We started tubing (and drinking) at 12:00pm, were off the river by 7:00pm, quick shower, quick dinner, and met up with everyone at the bar for 9:30pm, partied till about 2:00am. WOW!

From there we parted ways with our friends and headed down to Vien Tien where we had booked a flight that night at 10:00pm to fly back to Bangkok. We spent the day extremely relaxed in Vien Tien with a girl from Finland we met on our bus ride down. We took a tuk-tuk to the airport for about 8:00pm, and as we walked to the front counter to check in, we were greeted with a very pleasant surprise! Flo, our German friend, had so much fun with us that he decided to change his plans entirely and travel with us into Thailand! Originally he was supposed to go into Vientnam and fly home on the 10th of January, but he is now with us in the southern islands of Thailand!! We are having a blast!

Okay, I must get going to supper now! Love and miss you all!!!

The Graphics of Purity

I would rather be a poor man and see. I would rather the world open up to me, parting oceans, dawns over continents, dolphins off the bows of ancient fleets. From space the planet painting silence across my face, in awe, small, and floating weightless breathe.

It is not such a difficult thing to imagine. Out the door and into the graphics of purity like a newborn into the lights of a hospital room. There it is, standing still and yet spinning at one thousand miles an hour, carrying you cradled, its bruises and scars invisible from so high. And in that moment you are not such a difficult thing to imagine.

I would rather be a poor man and see than a rich man come by villainy. I would rather float and see you whole than only the shell of some diamond turtle, escape being far too easy. For it is not you that you’ve become, only a weight pinned to the ground, like a statue of what wasn’t should be.

It is not such a difficult thing to imagine, nor for a poor man to see.

--Haven't Found the Author yet, but I think it's by "Explosions in the Sky". I enjoyed it, thought I would share it with you all

Chang Mai

I went to the pharmacist again today as last night was pretty restless. Greg thinks I've got food poisoning, but the pharmacist believes I've got some sort of stomach infection! YAY! She gave me some more medication and an antiobiotic to try and settle things down and informed me that if after 3 days things haven't improved I am to get to a doctor as soon as possible. So basically I can't stray to far away from my porcelain friend for a little while, so I've spent a few hours battling the slow computers and uploading some pictures!!

So, we are going to spend the next few days in Chang Mai while I recover. To get into Laos, our only option is a boat, and it wouldn't be the smartest thing to take a small boat trip in my current state for 2 days! Once I am feeling better, we will book the boat trip to Luang Prabang, Laos, then catch a bus into Vang Vien, Laos (hopefully for New Years) where we can hop on to the "River Pub Crawl" - Basically a bunch of tourists will be floating down a river from bar to bar - a bamboo stick will be tossed out at each location, pull us in, and we go have a drink with whoever is in there. Should be a great time. Then down to southern Thailand (Phi Phi islands) to finish up the trip in Thailand.

Can't believe the weather back home and around there! Sure hope everyone is doing okay and driving safe. Even VEGAS got a foot of snow I heard!! Crazy!!

Anyways, Merry Christmas (again) to everyone!

Angkor Wat, and the long treck back into Thailand

Hello everyone! Right now I am writing this entry at an extremely slow internet in Chang Mai, which is north Thailand. Greg and I caught a late night sleeper train up here last night - it was a 14 hour journey, but the sleeper train provides everyone with a bed so the trip went really fast! It has been a hell of a time finding any type of internet connection - everything is extremely slow around here, so basically uploading pictures is out of the question unless I really luck out at a good internet place :-( sorry guys. As soon as I can put a few pics up, I WILL!

After spending 1 week in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, with Greg and his two buddies (Adam and Ryan), Greg and I left to head up to Siem Reap to check out the Angkor Wat temples. Greg had already seen them, but he was happy to come along again since it's such a remarkable place!! It was a 10 hour busride up to Siem Reap, and probably one of the longest busrides yet simply because the entire way there was Cambodian karaoke being played on the TV. It's tough to describe exactly what this sounds like, but it is honestly the WORST sounding music paired with the WORST dancing I have ever seen haha! THANK YOU iPod!!! And they were just blaring it ... even with my volume way up on the iPod I could still hear the shreaks of Cambodian tunes. Oh well, part of the experience. The busses in Cambodia are probably built for people who are 5 foot nothin', so when someone my size is having a hard time fitting in the seats, you know its not going to be the most comfortable ride lol. I felt sorry for Greg - he's about 5"11.

Regardless, we made it up to Siem Reap, quickly found a spot, then went out for supper. We stumbled across an Indian Food restaurant and it was some of the best food we had eaten all trip! Butter Chicken and Naan bread & 3 draft beers ran us just about $5.00!! Pretty amazing. After that we walked down the street and bartered our way into a 1 hour long massage for $8, then we hit the hay as we had a big day ahead of us.

We grabbed a tuk-tuk at about 10:00am to head to the Angkor Wat temples! Some people will ride bicycles to and around the temples, but becasue we were only going to spend one day here, we hired a tuk-tuk for the full day for $14 (Cambodia works off US$ by the way). As soon as you pull up at the temples there are kids EVERYWHERE trying to sell you stuff. Post cards, guide books, coke, water, random memorabilia, etc. Some of the kids have a great sense of humor, some are a real pain in the ass ... just gotta laugh at them. We have to accept that this is what those kids to EVERY DAY!! Tough life for many of them.

So the first temple we visited was Angkor Wat - the largest one. Without asking, we had a nice Cambodian guy take us around the entire temple and explain many of the stories that were delicately carved into the walls around the entire place. It was truly fascinating to see how much planning and history went into the construction of the temples, as well as to hear about the incredible stories and beleifs the Cambodians share. We gladly tipped our Cambodian guide, then it was off to the next temple. All in all we visited 5 or 6 temples throughout the day, then climbed to the top of one to watch the sunset! Fantastic day. We tipped our tuk-tuk driver with a beer before we left the temples, and he shared the favor by offering us some of is pappaya fruit (which was delicious!). The pictures from this day were absolutely amazing!! This was our last night in Cambodia, so what better way to spend it than getting another cheap massage? Greg somehow managed to barter our way into a 2 hour massge for $10 ... it wasn't the best massage ever, but it was only $10!! Can't really complain about that.

The next day we were set to depart at 7:30am from Siem Reap to head back to Bangkok. Originally we wanted to travel straight up into Laos, but we soon figured out that this was not exactly advisable - supposed to be a very long, bumpy, dusty trip. 20 of us plus all our baggage were packed into the smallest bus I have seen on the trip so far, and we didn't leave Siem Reap until 8:30am ... definitely have to get used to "Cambodian time" over here haha. It was about a 6 hour drive to the border on almost all dirt roads. Bumps everywhere, detours around new bridges being built, and as you can imagine, it was extremely dusty. We tried our best to sleep, but as soon as you do fall asleep you turn into a bobble-head - I think my head hit the window at least a couple times while I was "sleeping". Once we got to the border, same as when I entered Cambodia, we had to grab all our baggage and walk through customs. The line up was HUGE this time through, so I think it took about 2 hours standing in the line ups to get through. We were also made aware of a brutal new rule in Thailand - those entering by land are now issued only a 15 day visa (used to be 30 day visa). Only those who fly into Thailand will be issued a 30 day visa. Kindof a pain in the ass!! Basically we will have to continually hop in and out of Thailand every 15 days unless we want to pay a $30/day fine!!! Anyways, we walked across the border, waited another hour, then loaded onto the bus that would take us to Bangkok (4 hour journey).

We stayed on the same street I stayed at the first time in Bangkok and spent most of our time checking out the shopping around Bangkok, which is INCREDIBLE by the way. Malls and street vendors everywhere. We also went to see a movie in the coolest movie theatre I have ever been too - reclining chairs and blankets for everyone!! Everywhere you go in Thailand all you hear about is the "Ping Pong" shows. After talking to a couple fellow tourists, we quickly new what to expect. Greg's two buddies, Ryan and Adam, are flying home on the 23rd, so to spend our last night together, we finally gave in and decided to go to a Ping Pong show. I'm not going to explain this show in detail until I get home, but I will say it was truly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. Lots of laughs of course, but you guys will not beleive what actually happens at these shows!!

Anyways, we are now in Chang Mai which is absolutely beautiful!! The sleeper train was absolutely FREEZING last night, plus I had a little bit of a fever, so it was not the most pleasant trip for me. Today I went to buy some medicine to calm my fever and stomach down - if symptoms persist into tomorrow I'm going to the clinic. It's not the worst place to be sick, however it is kinda shitty to be sick again on the trip. Oh well, to sooth my aching muscles we went to get another 2 hour massage today :-)

I want to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS as well!! I wish I could be at home with you all celebrating. I sure hope the weather has calmed down back home.

Love you all

Journey into Cambodia ... continued

Well I'm feeling a bit better today ... had a good sleep last night, fever has gone right down, and my stomach has settled as well!! Hopefully I will be back to 100% tomorrow.

So, I left off with my stay in Phnom Phen. The one night I stayed there was great! I sat down at the hotel for a bite and chatted with a couple of the Cambodians that worked there - what amazing people! Beers were only 50 cents, so I happily bought a couple for my new friends. We chatted alot about Cambodia, how poor it is, and how corrupt the government is here as well. It's really a shame, but the government of Cambodia literally spends NO money on its people. If you come from a poor family (which most are), there is no chance that your child will be educated, because each family is responsible for paying for education. Regardless of how terrible the governing system is here, the people we have met are extremely friendly and absolutely love to laugh with us.

One of the attractions around Phnom Phen is the "Killing Fields of Cheung Ek". It was here where the Khmer Rouge Regime conducted its genocide the Cambodian people. This was the biggest massacre attempt in history - worse than Hitler's time - as a total of 1.7 million lives were taken!! It was quite depressing to learn about this horrible occurrence and literally see the skulls and bones of the victims. Positioned around the killing fields are signs that explain the story (I will post pictures as soon as I can). It was a 30 minute scooter ride to get to the killing feilds (no helmets of course), and it was a great way to see a good chunk of Phnom Pen.

That afternoon I caught a bus from Phnom Pen into Sihanoukville to finally meet up with my friends! It has been great to catch up with an awesome group of guys, and we have very much enjoyed our time here. Sihanoukville is essentially THE place to be for backpackers, so we have spent lots of our time at the beach, in the bars, and sailing around to the many islands around here with fellow travellers.

The plan from here is as follows:
My buddy Greg and I are leaving Sihanoukville in 2 days time (17th) to head up to Siem Reap, Cambodia to check out the Angkor Wat temple. His other two friends, Ryan and Adam, are flying home shortly. 1 day at the temples is supposed to be plenty, so we will catch a bus from Siem Reap into Bangkok on the 19th. From here we will take a bus directly north into Loas and spend some time here - probably about 1 week. There are 2 main attractions in Laos, including floating down a river and stopping at several bars along the way, as well as a jungle treck. After that, we will be heading back into Thailand to spend new years, hopefully with Jarrett and Holly! Should be interesting ...

I will do my best to keep everyone updated as where we are and what we are up to.

Take care

Journey into Cambodia ...

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure you are all wondering where the heck I am!? I am in a place called Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The computer connection here is quite questionable, and power outages occur everyday, so it's been tricky to get any substantial writing down on the blog, nevermind uploading any pictures. Nevertheless, it has been quite a journey to get here ...

I was one of the first flights back into Bangkok since the protests ended. I spent only one night in Bangkok, roamed the streets a little bit, then from the advice from a taxi driver friend that drove me to the hotel from the airport, he thought I should get out of Bangkok and go to the holiday spot "Pattaya". I will admit, I was happy to get out of Bangkok - just a little bit too big for my liking. I might spend 1 or 2 days checking out the temples and monuments around there before I fly home. Pattaya was about 2.5 hours Southeast of Bangkok. I spent only a couple nights here and did lots of wandering around. Streets are crammed with shops and food vendors, and one of the main selling items in Thailand that I noticed was custom made suits. Everywehre you go someone is offering to make you a Georgio Armani suit. The other main selling item, SEX! It was actually quite gross to see all the older men walking hand in hand with their little Thai girlfriends. There are also entire side streets packed full of "girls girls girsl"bards, "go-go bars", "boyz boyz boyz bars", etc. You name it, they had it! And just in case you are wondering - NO i did not go into any of them lol.

I was certain that my taxi driver was overcharging me, so I did not have him take me back to Bangkok. I took a shared bus back for half the price I paid to get to Pattaya, then booked a bus into Camobodia to meet some friends. The bus picked me up at 7:30am from my hotel in Bangkok (i made sure to spend a little extra $$ to get a nice bus), we battled Bangkok traffic for 2 hours to get out of the city, and we arrived at the Cambodian border around 12:00pm. All of us on the bus applied for our visa's - about $45cdn - while we ate lunch at a nice place just outside the border. We all had to walk across the border with our baggage and meet a different bus on the other side. I was fortunate to meet up with a nice english guy that informed me he had been pickpocketed twice here in the past. The worst part about that is that it is the small children that do most of the pickpocketing. I beleive we all made it through the border without any theft issues.

I was than separated from the group beecause I was going to a place called Phenom Phen while most others were going to see Angkor Wat temples. So, I was directed to a car, a Toyota Corrolla, that was to take me the rest of the way. The only problem was that there weas 5 passengers and it was a 7 hour journey to get to Phenom Phen. Although the journey was long, the people in car were great and we made the best of being in the small car for the long trip. The driver who spoke no english did his best to get us there as fast as possible, and I'm not sure his speed dropped below 80mph very often, unless he was slamming on the breaks to avoid hitting something, or someone. In all honesty, I am suprised we didn't his something along the way!

Phenom Phen was truly fascinating! Completely different from any place in Cambodia i'm told. It actually looks somewhat developed in some places, and some of the vehicles are pretty nice. We arrived in Phenom Phen at 9:30pm and I quickly hopped in a Tuk-Tuk to get to my hotel - The King Angkor. The room nice - again along nicer to be away from dorm room styles.

Computer connection is getting worse here, so I will have to resume this blog entry a little later. Just so you are all aware, I am in Sihanoukville, Cambodia and have met up with my friends. We are having a great time here and the experience of Cambodia thus far has been unforgettable. Unfortunately I am not feeling too well today - some flu like symptoms. If they persist into tomorrow or the next day, I will probably head to a clinic just to be safe.

Love and miss you all

Bangkok and Pattaya

Well, I was one of the first flights back into Bangkok. It came as quite a suprise when I went to the airport the morning of the 5th in Sydney thinking that I was just going to fly into Singapore and spend some time there and possibly in Malaysia. Instead, they told me that the airports in Thailand were back up and running, so, here I am.

Bangkok is absolutely huge! The taxi driver that took me to a hotel just outside of central Bangkok yesterday quickly tried to "be my friend" (clearly because he thought I had money). He took me to a hotel that was way more expensive than I was expecting, although it was nice to have a room to myself that had a tv, air conditioning, and even a full bathroom! Nice change from 10 person dorm rooms and shared bathrooms haha. Similar to Bali, majority of prices are up for negotiation. I bartered the hotel room down from $80 Canadian to $48, then finally agreed. My last night in Sydney was sleepless for two reasons, (1) I was worried that I would miss my airport shuttle at 5:40am and then miss my flight, and (2) the German girl sleeping above me was one of the WORST snorers I have ever had to listen to! It was ridiculous. I tried shaking the bed as violently as I could to wake her, but nothing worked. She would barely wake up, then drift off into her high-decibelle snoring again. Oh well, one of those things you've gotta put up with while backpacking I suppose.

The flights with Singapore airlines were once again, awesome! They had new movies which kept me very much entertained. The food was a little gross, but the ice cream deserts we got made up for that :-) I spent no more than 1 hour in Singapore. As soon as I got off the plane, I had to run to board the next one. Before I knew it, I was in Bangkok.

If I hadn't have kept up with the news about the protests, I would not have known anything took place. The airport and it's surroundings were perfectly clean! However, I originally wanted to check out some temples around Banglamphu (Central Bangkok) today, but my taxi driver friend told me "no good idea - bad bad around there. Airport 2 day ago, Banglamphu now! You go to Pattaya". Well, okay! Pattaya is a smaller city 2 hours southeast of Bangkok right along the coast. I have only been here a couple hours, so far so good, except for the girl who showed me the room and then tried to get me to pay for sex. She didn't beleive me that I had no money haha. In reality, it's kinda true. I'm waiting for Mom and Dad to top up my account again!

Anyways, I haven't yet taken many pictures here ... I am still getting my bearings. I will make sure to take some soon and keep everyone posted as to where I am - it sounds as if I will be moving around alot here in Asia

Thailand Protests Coming to a Close!!

--December 2, 2008

"Anti-government demonstrators in Thailand say they will end their long-running protests tomorrow. The announcement comes in response to a verdict by the constitutional court that the ruling People Power Party is guilty of electoral fraud. The court has ordered the party to be dissolved and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to stand down. He has been banned from public office for the next five years"

Great news, although this does not meant the airport will be open right away. No one knows exactly when flights into Bangkok will commence as they want to ensure that it will be safe first!! One article I came across said that the airports will be clsoed until at least December 15. I don't think I'd want to land in Thailand so short after the protests anyways!!

So, if I want to travel to Vietnam, it will cost me $100 Canadian dollars. At the moment, this seems like the best choice. Malaysia would be good also, which is the direction Jarrett and Holly are heading, so I'm also considering that. I will make my decision once I land in Singapore.

Day 6 ...

Not too much new to add, still no progress in the Thailand protests...

"Almost 100,000 foreign tourists were still stranded in the Thai capital after the closure of the international airport, the Bangkok Post reported. This may rise to as many as 300,000 if the protests continue, the newspaper said, citing Tourism and Sport Minister Weerasak Kohsurat"

Despite the fact that tourists are stranded in Thailand, the good thing is that no violence is being show, at all, towards them. Tourists are being treated well, meaning that their accomodation is being paid for while they wait for the governments and airlines to come up with a plan to get them out of the area. The only demonstration of violence by the anti-government protesters is towards the police:

"Anti-government protests in Thailand attacked a police checkpoint near the nation’s main international airport, which remained paralyzed for a fifth day as negotiations failed to end a standoff. About 500 protesters armed with steel bars sped the wrong way down a major expressway leading to the airport and stormed a 150-strong police checkpoint. Police officers jumped into vans and sped away after demonstrators attacked the vehicles and threw firecrackers".

Luckily no one was injured in the attack!

Quick Update

--BANGKOK, November 29, 2008
"Hundreds of anti-government protesters forced several dozen Thai riot police to abandon a checkpoint on Saturday as they tightened their siege of the country's main airport, witnesses said. Around 2,000 People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters forced back about 150 police from a kilometre (0.6 mile) north of Suvarnabhumi Airport, although the incident passed off without violence"

As I'm sure everyone is aware, the issue in Thailand did not come any where near resolving today, unfortunately. I didn't attempt to call Singapore Airlines today, however I did check their website and found out that "Singapore Airlines will waive all cancellation and change fees for customers with tickets to Bangkok on Singapore Airlines flights issued prior to 26 November, for travel up to and including 7 December, 2008. Customers may change the routing of their journey, defer the date of travel or cancel, without penalty; Any change of date or routing will be charged at the new fare for that journey less the fare for the journey paid to Bangkok, with no amendment fee".

At the moment, Vietnam, most of Cambodia, and Laos are not experiencing too much difficulty, so I am considering attempting to reroute the flight into Vietnam and hopefully spend some time in Thailand in 2-3 months - hopefully the protests are long gone at that point.