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Updated: May 10, 2004 8:30am The Colony, Texas, United States
Last Update

And so it is that I am back in Dallas, "safe and sound," and returned to the daily grind pretty much. I'm a bit poorer than I left, but only monetarily. The pack rests serenely under the articles on my coat tree, waiting for next. And it shall swing over my shoulder again, guaranteed.

But my next trip will probably be a bit shorter, and perhaps requiring bicycle panniers rather than my backpack; I'm thinking about a 2-week trip from Vienna to Budapest by bicycle. Never travelled with the 2-wheeled old booger, after all, and seems an ideal way to see the countryside.

But you really came here for photos, right? Here you go; enjoy!


Around the World in 64 Days
Or click here and click on the Travel album.

-tk (signing off) Updated: Apr. 26, 2004 6:15am Jackson, New Jersey, United States

Just a note that with family shinanigans, I haven't had a chance to upload a bunch of photos. That said, I have less than two megs of space left here anyway, so I'm going to have to wait to get home to do the uploads; my first full day in Dallas will probably be this Wednesday.

Better yet, it's gonna be raining through Ohio today, so you know what? I'm not in my 20's anymore, and not as brash and foolish. I'll wait until tomorrow to drive home, when less of the trip will be miserable and more dangerous with rain. So have my first full day be Thursday. Hmpf! :-) -tk


Updated: Apr. 21, 2004 8:00am Jackson, New Jersey, United States

I have now been home for a bit over a day, after a 36-hour Monday. China Airways changed their flight plan, and I never actually flew around the world. Instead, my travel doubled back, stopping Taipei, then Anchorage, and then soaring over Canada to finally end in JFK in New York. It added three hours to my trip, but allowed additional smoking breaks. Still, Jules Verne's characters have trumped me in the travel department. Oh well; mine wasn't fictional. :-)

On my final day in Thailand I took a boat up and down the main river in Bangkok, then stopped in for a 140-baht Thai massage (a good deal in the City of Angels), which was downright excellent if a little painful once in a while. At one point she had me leaning back against her, then played contortionist to twist me to the right, then the left, a series of pops from my vertibrae crackling into the air conditioned room. Felt good! I had a special trick, though, after she massaged and twisted one arm and hand, I popped my wrist and got a giggle out of her. LOL. Thais are fun.

Thailand is a great place to visit, and I highly recommend it. I have a good bit of respect for these tolerant people, because they have a quiet pride and a lot of patience. They seem to embrace the idea that just because someone is a jerk to them doesn't mean they have to sink that level (though if you are a jerk, you've just completely lost their respect whether they show it or not), and so many of them have I come across that genuinely treat foreigners (and customers) as their guests and will bend over backwards to help even after you've paid. Especially if you make any effort at all to speak their language; hello and thanks in Thai score major points with these people because you're being respectful in return. In guesthouses especially, they just want you to enjoy your stay and be comfortable, and if that means their running into town while you wait for a sterilized razor so you can dig out a splinter in your thumb or hopping on their moped to go pick you up from the ferry so you don't have to walk, or giving you free reign of their stereo equipment in the restaurant, helping you determine what to see in the area, steering you towards the transport that won't overcharge you or even treating the bug bites on your arm with their balm, they'll do what they can to please you with a smile on their lips and a laugh in their eyes. In fact, the only rudeness I ever encountered in this country came from the tourists, from countries like mine. Makes you think, doesn't it?

They have so much less than we do, especially in the realm of conveniences, but they are patient and fun-loving with a good sense of humor -- in general. This removes a lot of the "challenge" in travel throughout the country, as being so well catered to will, but you have to love the people once you've been there long enough to get to understand them. If you're into travel abroad, it's usually a good idea to take off first to a place that's easy, and progressively find more difficult destinations; I recommend this as an initial stop if you've traveled before, and/or a nice place to end your trip as well.

Photos are still coming! -tk

Updated: Apr. 18, 2004 9:00am Bangkok, Thailand

Alas, it is my final day in Thailand today. Quite a pity, as I've just gotten to really enjoy Bangkok and Kao San Road, partially because I've finally finished acclimating to the place, and I really like this country.

Today I plan to take a boat ride up the river (and then back down), and perhaps swing by the royal palace to have seen it, then by nine it's time for bed so I can get up at four and begin the final stage of my trip. (sigh) Do I gotta?

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day, primarily because short of lunch I picked up my laundry, went back to my room to shower and change, and ended up falling asleep on the bed. I woke up at nine, to the sound of noisy people on my floor, and eventually got myself up and taxi'd to the Night Bazaar, which was really pretty nifty. I failed to locate Thai boxing and was a bit ... not quite right anyway, so I grabbed another cab back to the guesthouse and slept the night. The bus ride followed by staying up the night after it (night before last night) must have worn me out and messed with my internal clock.

The bus ride ... heh heh. The trip back from Ko Phangan was much better than the one to. The air on the bus worked, so well I would have frozen if I hadn't lucked into two blankets. The route this time was different, not ferrying past Ko Samui but Ko Tao and then landing further north in a town whose name I forget but starts with a 'Ch'. Anyway, if there were ever an opportunity to experience the proverbial slow boat to China, I'm now thus aquainted with five hours on the ocean under my belt from the last one.

I arrived around five in the morning, snagged a tuk-tuk, and headed back to Kao San Road's area, once again checking into the guesthouse I now stay in with alarming frequency. It's nice; brand new.

That day I did some shopping when the sandman refused to visit in the wee hours of my check-in, and eventually took a tuk-tuk around eight to Patpong road, which is where there's a night market ... and Bangkok's most booming sex industry...

I'd been told by numerous men (and women!) that it's just something you have to see, these 'shows' in which a certain portion of the female anatomy is so incredibly versatile and dexterous. Having done so, I can't say it was a 'must see' so much as a 'can't go to Bangkok and not see' that I wouldn't have particularly missed anyway but am glad I went to check out, if that makes any sense, because it balanced my understanding of Bangkok and Thais. But that's me; I once played solitaire on my palmtop in a topless bar in Dallas, bored.

Also fun when I walked into a girlie bar and suddely found three smiling attractive Thai women in my face, all talking so fast over each other in broken English that my head threatened to start spinning. A fourth slipped by them, plopped down next to me, put and arm around me and a hand on my chest and said something in more understandable English, such that the other three, crestfallen, left when I answered their more fluent friend. It was kinda fun, spending 60-70 baht for two ounces of Pepsi on ice to "buy her a drink" a couple times and talking about her visits in Germany and getting sight-seeing advice from her while I drank my beer. Thais haven't quite gotten the point of 'pole dancing', after all, so conversation was nice. She was a little disappointed though, that I didn't pay 500 baht to the bar, 400 to the hotel across the street and then 2,000 to her for two hours of fun, but hey, in life we must get used to disappointment, right? Besides, a few doors down it was only 2,000 total for the entire night, lol. According to her, it was nice to have an excuse not to be dancing up there, as the stage was apparently kinda chilly, particularly if you're only wearing lingerie. I put my arm around her and drank slow. I'm nothing if not a a gentleman, after all... ;-)

I went into two 'bikini bars' first, the second looking for a bathroom, and then started looking into the ones "behind closed doors", where bikinis weren't necessarily worn, because I had to track down one of these shows to say I'd done it. There were touts with cards listing all the things their girls could do, but they also wanted cover charges et al, and that gets kinda pricey when you add the inevitable girl that insists on being on your arm (not that mine or anyone else's I noticed around me needed any twisting) and her drinks, so the need for investigation arose. No worries, you were allowed to run up the stairs, peek in, and then turn around and come back out without buying a beer if you weren't interested. Second one struck gold, but the first one, heh heh ... I made my way up the stairs, neared the top, saw no stage and just loads of scantily clad Thai girls who took one look at me and let loose a cacophony of jubilant and welcoming expressions that hit a pitch like when you're at McDonalds and they have 2.5 billion kids in there instead of hamburgers served and you just want to either get out fast or rip your head off so you can stop hearing the annoying general chaos of sound they emit when combined. I went down the stairs two at a time, much to the astonishment of the tout outside.

And that's Patpong road. Picked up a nice knock-off Rolex for cheap, and two very nice silk painting that, once framed, look nice on wall. And CD's and DVD's, of course. They rip the suckers while you wait, and package them very professionally, with good quality laser copies of the covers the DVD's come with, etc, all in a resealable clear plastic bag. 100 baht per CD, 150 baht for DVD, so very, very cheap. (39 baht/1 USD)

And on that note, you'll hear from me next when I get home! Y'all come back now, 'cause when I get to Jersey I'll have access to all my photos. -tk

Updated: Apr. 14, 2004 2:00pm Thon Sala, Ko Phangan, Thailand

I haveseen paradise. Swam in its waters. Stood in the shade of its coconut trees. Eaten its meals. Drank its drink. Casually glanced out at moored Thai long-tail boats as a break from my musing, swinging back and forth in its blue tie-dyed hammock. Which is the one non-ethereal piece of paradise that shall return to the States with me.

Bottle Beach is quite beautiful and, like much of over-touristed Thailand, nicely packed with bungalows. Accessible only by long-tail boats, at 50 baht if you arrive with a crowd or 200 if you go it alone, it's also a bit more off the beaten track than some other places like Hat Rin, where the Full Moon Party and now half-moon party, no-moon party, ad nauseum.

But I am way out of chronological order. Last update, I was leaving Sukhothai...

And leave it I did, the following morning, after breakfast and "good-bye's" with Clare. I hopped in a handy tuk-tuk (which by this time I had come to thoroughly enjoy) and, face into the artificial wind, took off towards the bus station. There, I was very efficiently booked into the next air conditioned bus and shown to my seat, the only farang I'd see until I reached Bangkok. It was a long ride, broken in the middle by a stop at a roadside marketplace (at this point I was grateful for the pit stop), where I took an excellent photo of a woman fanning flies away from fresh-caught fish. Seven hours after we left, I discovered the bus to be entering the main bus station in Bangkok.z

Of course, being a smoker, I had one thing in mind: Nicotine. And you know what? Nothing makes for a pissy Tibor like trying to get it lit while three taxi drivers kept trying to sell me their service.

"I'll think about it; I smoke first."
"Okay, you pay 300 baht?"
"I smoke first."
"Cannot do 250 baht."

At this point I started glaring at them and letting in tones. "I smoke, we talk when done. Five minutes!" Five minutes later I was taking the easiest cab to grab just to leave, cigarette not even halfway done, when they decided to glare back. Did I mention I was the only Westerner there? Yikes...

This guy started to worry me when he kept asking questions that effectively determined whether anyone would miss me should I dissappear, like if I had girlfriend in Thailand, and if I meet friends ... "Yeah, I'm meeting my friends at the train station. We get there by seven?" Sometimes its prudent to lie.

Arriving there 300 baht lighter, I attempted to book a train for that night to Surat Thani, but that was a no-go for quite some time owing to the Water Festival/Thai New Year. That's today, BTW. So, I ended up booking a bus for the following night, and snatched a tuk-tuk ride down to Kao San Road. After all, I know of a guesthouse there.

Important Note About Tuk-Tuks: The tuk-tuk, a fairly modern 3-wheeled machine with a basic roof, windsheild, and miniscule bench seat in back for passengers, is impressively adept to travelling through large city rush-hour traffic in Asia. It's smaller size, Thai roadway ettiquette and ballsy drivers mean getting to point B more rapidly than in a traffic-jammed taxi car. However, their very virtue can also result in death if the driver is a bit too ballsy. For each increase in efficiently, there is an equal increase in danger. Use at your own risk.

Yeah, it was a pretty wild ride! Even got to checkout some cute nude Thais in a little brochure he gave me to look over just in case I didn't want to turn in just yet. :-)

Anyway, I spent the night in Bangkok, mostly lazing around the cafes the following day, then grabbed another tuk-tuk to the train station to meet my new bus. It was packed to the gills with Westerners; I think there was a single Thai passenger. There I met a German couple and their 14-year-old son. The plan was to leave at seven, and arrive in Surat Thani at six the following morning. Things went awry from there, however...

First, we broke down just outside of Bangkok. I had noticed that the air con was doing a really crumby job, and now it had died completely. In the humid unhappiness that passes for Bangkok climate, the windows took exactly 20 seconds to fog, and were all out of the bus, at theside of the motorway, in no time flat. From that point forward, we stopped about every 30-60 minutes, the rest of the time driving along with both bus doors open to provide some ventilation. The modern coach's windows don't open.

We hit the mid-point around midnight, and after a half hour break discovered in glee that they'd brought us a new bus, whose air conditioning actually worked! The seats were comfy, too! Champagne rained from the heavens, velvet bus window curtains parted, and I almost got a few winks of sleep.

Arriving in Surat Thani, we waited a bit over an hour to be squeezed into another bus headed for the ferry, and that was interesting. The door almost wouldn't close from the luggage falling down thestairs towards it. Yeah, it was a mess. But the air worked! Why you'd integrate a half hour stop into a 2-hour ride I don't know, but we had one of those too, and I gazed upon rubber trees for the first time ever. That was sorta nifty...

Then we hopped a ferry (these ferries are impressively sluggish), and three hours later we were at Thon Salan on the SW side of Ko Phangon island. My bungalows reservation was up the west coast, and I was unceremoniously dumped there by the pickup-truck taxi at the head of a long dirt road upon which my feet took me the rest of the way. I ate a nice meal, and was in bed by seven.

This is getting too long, so fast forward to the Full Moon Party. I elected to take a cab there with others around 11:30pm just so I'd be there when it was really cranked. It was. Allow me to describe it...

You walk through the hot summer night air past the bathrooms that cost 10 baht per use into a complete cacophony of partying chaos. As you step onto the sand, you pass through a wall of dance clubs and outdoor bars. The sand is white and beautiful -- and randomly dotting it are beer bottles, green plastic pales (that were originally housing vodka and red bull), and assorted male and female bodies that have simply passed out on the sand. But you only see them when you have tostep over them because that's just how packed the place is with dancing people. Mingling people. Walking around in awe people (like me), Okay, and a few fire jugglers, which was entertaining to see. I stayed for four hours, taking it in. I was hit on by three prostitutes, the first one very pretty (and tempting!). When I walked in the door of my bungalow, it was already dawn.

And that was the full moon party. A few days later I checked out of my bungalow in the West, and took a taxi back to Thon Sala, where I grabbed some more cash and hailed a new cab for Chaluk Lam. That's at the far north of the island. From there I hopped on a long-tail boat and headed off by water to Bottle Beach.

Longtail boats are pretty neat. They have an efficient hull design and are made of teak, but it's the drivetrain that really impressed me. It's a single engine, mounted right behind the driver on the stern, on a swivelling and pivotting platform. Without so much as a clutch, the engine is directly tied to a driveshaft about 10-20 feet long (the "long tail"), with a propeller on the end. The driver, through a handle, controls the boat's direction by simply pivotting the entire driveline. They should earn some sort of design away for simplicity.

Anyway, I've described Bottle Beach already. I meant to stay three or four days, then move on to a fishing village, but I ended up staying seven. Oops! Laziness is addicting, but I eventually ran out of reading material and that kick-started me back into gear. That said, I can't bus out of here today, so I have to wait until noon tomorrow. Damn. Oh well. That means that at tomorrow, noon, I'll be catching the ferry that will stop at Ko Samui, then go on to Surat Thani, and will take a shuttle to the bus station and finally another bus. Another bus ... Well, barring what's still not statistically likely, I'll be sleeping in Bangkok night after next. There I'll have a couple days to dabble in the nightlife that only Bangkok could offer (heh heh...) and then I'm back to the States the19th.

I've been asked if I want to go home, and the answer is "yes." This has been a great trip, lots of new experiences, wacky stories, and even a couple spicy items that you'll never find here, (wink), but the trip has run its course and I'm not lamenting that my next great destination is none other than the U. S. of A. One cannot be a vagabond forever, after all, and two months has proven to be pretty much perfect timing for a wayward Tibor. -tk




Updated: Apr. 5, 2004 2:00pm Ko Phangan, Thailand

Here's some photos:


Train to Chiang Mai


Not the fastest transport...


Kinda smokey in Chiang Mai.


My elephant was in the lead. :-)


Part of your standard hilltribe village.


Your standard older hilltribe villager.


Wat Mahathat, was it? My fav in Sukhothai.


Again...


Yeah, I'm fond of it alright. ;-)

I'll add captions later. Currently in my first island destination, saw the Full Moon Party last night, planning on going out of touch for a few days to check out a cool beach. Beautiful here! -tk


Updated: Mar. 30, 2004 4:45am Sukhothai, Thailand

I wasn't kidding when I said I was heading out of Chiang Mai yesterday; not two hours later I was on a bus, meeting a friendly English traveller named Clare, and rapidly discovering that the woman at the TAT who'd said it took 3 hours of bus was two hours shy of the real number. And wishing I had a Coke on me, therefore!

Otherwise, uneventful. I didn't book a place to stay here, so at Clare's suggestion (who had) I shared a cab with her back to where she booked and, sure enough they had a spare bungalow, right next to hers. The cab, meanwhile, was yet another new Thai mode of transport to yours truly. We both looked on with wide eyes as the older Thai man walked us to his steed, a contraption with a bench seat on either side of a small cart, just enough extra room to shoe-horn our combined packs into, and a the rear end of a motorcycle, with seat and engine, hanging out the back! It afforded a good view of the road ahead to passengers and lots of airflow, so no complaints here. The guesthouses aren't bad, and the people there are fantastic. Going to Sukhothai anytime soon? Stay in the Ban Thai Guesthouse. You like very much! lol Actually, it was founded by a Belgian, who married a Thai and has a little boy, and he wrote pages and pages for his visitor's information about the area, Buddism, etc, all longhand in a notebook in almost fantastic English. Great staff there.

Anyway, last night after dinner we walked around Sukhothai in the dark a bit. Boy, is it small! Nightlife? That was sitting at a rooftop bar near the (my God, are they everywhere???) 7-11.

This morning I struck out on my own to the Historical Park. 10 baht fetches a ride there on the "bus" (really another pickup, like they had in Chiang Mai, only a little different and more purpose-built), and it was an incredible sight to behold. Or at least Wat Mahathan or something to that nature was. Ruins. Loads and loads of ruins. Amazing. You could damned near get lost in them, and I snapped over 70 photos today, probably 40 of them in that one wat. And just as well, because after that, nothing else compared. It's really too bad the place is fenced in and the last bus back to the new city leaves at six, because it would be an eerie, fantastic, downright magical place basking in the moonlight. If ever the creative juices got a shot in the arm, this sucker's gonna be in a story soon.

I wasn't as impressed with the museum, and had the worst service at a nearby restaurant that I've had to date in Thailand. I think she was having a bad day, as would explain the scowling. But at any rate, come 1:30 I was fed and swapping memory cards, snapping more of my favorite wat, almost stopping to draft out the "floorplan'. Yeah, I'm pretty fond of it, you could say. :-)

At three o'clock I was sucking down a heavily iced 7-11 Big Gulp (in Thailand!) full of Sprite. The heat of the sun is one thing, but when you're walking around dense ruins the stone puts out almost as much heat in the afternoon, the stone walkways, stone statues, stone ... everything! I know when to say when, though, and I called for the check (figuratively) when it occurred to me that my skull had turned into a crock pot within which my brain was slow roasting in its own juices. Fast forward 30-40 minutes and you have me pumping ice cold fluid into my stomach -- which helped a bit.

At that point I ran across Clare again, or she ran across me. Poor thing. She was taking massage classes (real Thai stuff, pretty neat) in Chiang Mai, and one of the students was less than good with her neck, so she lay in bed most of the day. Not fun. We walked towards town a little bit until I bowed out to get my memory card burned and she took off looking for new sunglasses. And so it is a less than 36 hours later and everything has changed. Gotta love it! Next stop? Ko Phan Yan (sp), leaving either tomorrow or the next day. Apparently there's a nifty place where a monk had a dream and made statues about it that I'd kinda like to check out tomorrow. But anyway, Ko Phan Yan. Where the Full Moon Party is. Which reminds me ... I need to book a place there, and quickly, 'cause that place fills up in a big way. But, even if I end up sleeping a half hour away by taxi (" you pay 200 baht, I drive home"), it promises to be yet another adventure!

Oh, and I lied about the photos. I burned them, but have not uploaded as promised. Primarily because the only computer here with a CD ROM drive is a real piece of ...-tk

Updated: Mar. 29, 2004 10:15am Chiang Mai, Thailand

The train ride to Chiang Mai was an overnight affair that, in the morning, reaped a couple good photos. The trains here, or perhaps the tracks, are not quite up to Western standards. The sleeper cars have fold-out bunks, the top ones with, once curtain is drawn, absolutely zero ventilation while the bottom has an entire massive window. The cacophony of cars clanking in their connections is ever present. And eating and drinking on them can be a slight challenge, as the train pitches a tad and off your spoon falls the piece of chicken or half your spoonful of soup.

But the real catch I found was the toilet. Yes, I walked back a car or two to find it, and opened the door and, sure enough, mostly a hole in the ground. Well, I'd seen a few in Bangkok and needed standing accomodation only, so I unzipped and noted that the toilet really is a hole, that leads directly down onto the tracks. Interesting. I began the process and then saw lights outside. The windows are open enough that you can see the countryside as you're doing your business, and in this case it rapidly became a station full of Thais as the train pulled to a stop, looking in at me (above the waist, barely) from the platform! So much for the "express train."

Chiang Mai is a bit different from Bangkok. Things are more spread out, including scents of sewer, but this makes moving around the city more of a pain. Traffic is bad, and you end up going lane by lane across the road -- wait for traffic to clear and people will be driving around in flying cars by the time you cross the street. The trouble with this time of year is all the smoke in the air. The hill tribes do some burning as part of their crop rotation, and this is the dry season, hence burning, hence no blue sky but rather smoke all over the place. Which of course has returned me to the state of coughing. And it's getting old (so I'm getting out!)

When I arrived a driver and his companion were at the train station and they picked myself and two others up and took us to the TAT office, where we showed our passports, etc, and were finished in the booking of the trek. From there were were transported to our hotel, and then briefed around six that night on how the trek would go, what we should bring, etc. Interesting note - the most common and affordable transport here comes in the form of pick up trucks, compacts, with partial camper shells over the beds. A long padded bench runs down both bed sides, and there are poles under the roof of the camper for grabbing onto. Not bad; most rides through Chiang Mai are 40 baht or less.

That evening I went to town packing and preparing for the trek, and found my daypack both much roomier than it appears at first glance, and just a tiny bit inadequate for off-road roughing it. This is because they assume you'll take the main pack and, realistically, that may have been a better idea, but oh well. When I get home, I have a list of modifications to do to my pack, including a bungee mesh to hold stuff on the back of it and installing a couple handles there to which I can tie shoes, etc. Only minor things; Eagle Creek makes awesome packs.

The following morning we were picked up and taken to a market a little north of Chiang Mai, where I procured a broad hat to keep the sun off me and some water - we carry our own water, enough for a day at a time. We then were taken to an elephant park/ranch of sorts, and proceeded to hop on our large living transports and head into the hills for about an hour's ride.

Elephants, in the heat of the day, are slow creatures. They plod on a few elephant lengths, then stop and contemplate their surroundings. Then the "driver", who sits on their head, finally gets fed up and gets them moving again. I quietly prayed he wouldn't piss ours off and be launched into the woods, because the last thing I wanted was to be on a runaway elephant. Even if they do have a rather twisted sense of humour. See, they delight in spewing a combination of snot and water at their riders, randomly, usually with no more than a minute between spew. This gets on your clothes, your face, and even on your camera. Removing dried elephant snot from a camera lense is a lesson in cleansing that took me a few minutes to learn on the drive to lunch after our rides. However, it was pretty neat to be up on that big lumbering thing, and I even dropped the 20 baht for bananas to feed one of the big oafs. And 50 baht for my photo on the thing, along with a fellow trekker and the rider himself. It comes in a little frame...

Aaaaaaaaanyway, from there we hit lunch along side the road, and then drove the remainder of the distance to where we'd start trekking. There were eight of us. I was the only American, and usually paired up with Barry from Australia - the only other person not there with a companion. Then there was Chris, an Irishman, and his Kiwi girlfriend Kirsty. They're working in the Hunter Valley near Sydney, Australia, and he's thinking about opening up a bar fairly near to Phuket. Markus and Tina hailed from Germany, the former used to hiking and mountain climbing but not sure of the latter. Boy, were they white! And then there was a French couple, Fred and .... never got her name down; kinda difficult. Anyway, we were the eight intrepid souls of this one, and we sweated like pigs on Mercury. Most of the trek was forest of sorts, jungle almost, and the first day was nearly all up hill in 100+ degree weather. We stopped at one point to jump in a water fall, and man did that ever feel good!

At times we walked right next to the fires the hill tribes set and control, and that was a little unnerving (especially the smoke, which was really starting to annoy my lungs). In fact, my legs were game 90% of the time, but at times I was low on O2, panting, and sweltering in the hot.

We spent that night at the first hill tribe village, and it was pretty neat. Well, except that lying on my side without a mattress made me sore as hell on both sides. And that the dogs went nuts in the middle of the night. And the roosters crow well before sunrise, the nasty little blighters. Everyone was a little peeved at that revelation, lol. But we were well fed, had mosquito nets, and all had some good laughs and conversation. It was good fun!

After that we headed off to the next village, which involved a couple more waterfalls but mostly trekking. Wasn't as steep this time, though, and offered better scenery. We stopped in such a village for lunch, where I procured a sling shot from a villager and competed with Fred trying to slay a Coke can several feet away with it. He won, but I ran one stone in one side and out the other; who's the man?

The 2nd night was nice, and we all did riddles and played cards. Darkness fell, and there on a tiny spec of planet Earth were an American, Australian, Irishman, Kiwi, two Germans and two French, all from different backgrounds with different histories and memories, all chatting, laughing, playing cards, eating curry, drinking beer in a hill tribe village of remote Thailand overlooking a bunch of banana trees. It was something I don't suppose I'll soon forget.

The last day of the trek we, of course, trekked, but only for a couple hours before we stopped for lunch, then piled into the bed of a small pickup for the short drive to the bamboo rafts. There were four per raft, in my case Barry, Chris and Kirsty. We had a blast, trying to knock our guide (a young guy at the front of the raft, steering with his pole while we took turns powering it from behind with a 2nd pole) into the water. Then we started feuding with locals, and other rafters, splashing and laughing and, all in all, it was a good laugh to quote British. It was also the end of the trip, though, as after our rides we piled back into the camper-shell-pickup-truck and rode the hour or so back to Chiang Mai. We all met up in town for dinner to hang out one last time, then went our separate ways.

And that's about it. Took the following day as a break, mostly looking around Chiang Mai. Yesterday I hired a car and checked out several wats, and today, well, today I am off to the TAT to book travel to Sukumthai and beyond. There I'll find ruins of the old capital city before heading further south to Ko Phan Yan for the Full Moon Party (oh boy!), and then Ko Samui just because everyone goes there so it must be neat, and then a little village with few tourists and beautiful beaches, where I plan to do a bit of writing for a week before heading back to Bangkok for a nice Thai massage, some kick boxing, and a few other things before heading home on the 19th and 20th. I'll post photos when I have them burned. -tk

Updated: Mar. 22, 2004 10:15am Bangkok, Thailand

Okay, change of plans. I was going to spend a week here prior to flying home, but I think I'll reduce that to a couple days.

Woke up this morning sniffling. In fact, woke up several times last night thus. Feared that sleeping underneath a fan going at warp nine might be earning me a cold, but after sniffling through breakfast and almost sneezing several times seeking an ATM (which was successful), I stopped in here to check my email and after a couple minutes, it's gone. Definitely the air here.

Little wonder, though. Walking down the busy streets your nose reports more or less the following at a steady pace:

sewer
sewer
something cooking
something strange
sewer
mothballs
sewer
something cooking
inside of a shop wafting out
sewer

That's about the pattern, only not quite as random. Occassionally construction smells too, since they're fixing Khao San Road (which is where the ATMs are). There's also a "Thailand smell", I've dubbed it, which permeats many shops, people and even the root beer I'm drinking. I wonder if in America we have an "American smell" that we just don't notice? Wasn't struck by an "Australian smell" that I recall...

Last night I got brave and had beef in chili sauce. It was hot. Very hot. Inferno-in-your-mouth-this-would-eat-through-a-space-shuttle-heat-tile hot. I got halfway through it and ordered a second beer with dinner to finally put the fire in my mouth out. That was enough for me. Tired, I headed back to the guesthouse for a cold shower and sleep. -tk

Updated: Mar. 21, 2004 7:00am Bangkok, Thailand

Wow, what a day! And it's not even over yet... :-O

Where to begin? How about here... Breakfast. I ordered the American breakfast, and it was a bit small, but the best eggs and bacon I've had since travelling - primarily because they're not usually this good in Australia. Wait. At Qpoint cafe in King's Cross I had the best breakfast ever. Anyway, this one was 102 baht, which puts it at about 2-3 bucks.

I walked around a good bit thereafter, checking out the 2.5 million little shops and street vendors around here. The place is littered with them, you know.

Eventually, I grew hungry again and, after taking a little time to carefully review my plans, I stopped at the same place for lunch as well. The waitress there suggested a dish other than I'd picked, and that plus a beer added up to 135 baht. Eating is cheap in the backpacker central of Bangkok! Her recommendation was brilliant; what a great meal! But then, I think she likes me because I'm awfully nice to her. :-)

Whilst eating, I noticed a fellow independent traveller working on her own lunch, having arrived and picked a table next to mine. We got to talking and hit it off pretty well for strangers from different lands (Italy in her case). And man, those eyes... She told me about Cambodia, and didn't care much for Bangkok for all the noise and chaos (not a fan of that myself) and was indeed leaving that afternoon for Chaing Mai, and then on to Pai. Hey, fancy that! I'm going tomorrow!

At the end of our chat we discussed the remainder of the day. She told me around where she was staying per my query, and that she was hitting a cybercafe and then taxi'ing to the airport to sit and read for a while before catching her train at seven (this was around 1 or 2). I had spotted a place to burn my card to CD, so I was headed there, then a cybercafe to upload, and then not sure about the rest of the afternoon.

"Well," I said, my bill paid, "Very nice to meet you." and she returned it, and off I went.

Huh????? I have officially decided that I am just plain THICK!

Of course, that didn't hit me until after I'd had the CD burned, and I then took off towards the whereabouts of her guesthouse, glancing to and fro, peering into places, looking for her so I could maybe rectify the situation. Defeated, I returned here.

And uploaded photos and put them in here. And then, completing it, I realized just how much of a doorknob I really was. It's not that expensive to flag a taxi and head out to the train station, so why the hell hadn't I done so yet? "Fool!" I thought. And apparently shut down so fast the page didn't update, which is why I just retold all of the above...

On the corner I met a Thai bloke, as I was finishing my cigarette, and he and I chatted a bit on Bangkok et al, and turned out he drives a tuk-tuk. (of course, lol). Well he took to the road with me, off to the railway station, and I experienced my first tuk-tuk ride. Holy cow is that ever fun! I must find a way to drive one; wonder if he'd let me try it out? Anyway, we shot out to the railway station, after he dropped me by a suit store to discuss a suit (he let me in on the ruse; he gets 2 litres of petro for it; he asked if he could stop me by another place that was huge, ten stories, and he'd get a full tank. It was great that he was honest.), and I went in while he waited. I searched and searched. There musta been hundreds of people there, though Westerners stand out fairly well amongst the Thais, but I couldn't find her. The place is just too darned big.

Crestfallen, my sudden damned-near romatic idea foundering on the rocks of population density, I went back out and he suggested I book my train through the TAT, or Tourist Agency of Thailand (I assume) before we even got to the station, as the travel shops charge a profit. He was right. Drove me there, whipping in and out of traffic in an exhilerating way (I have video now of the initialization of the drive, but not the really fun parts -- I was attentive and he was doing just fine; never feared for my life.).

Anyway, stopped there and they set me up not only with train, but also with a 3-day trekking tour and guesthouse when I arrive there -- all for under 3,000 baht. My friends at home probably cannot guess this, but believe me, it's a very good deal. All expenses paid, I might add, minus booze and bottled water he explained. Okay. Includes a 160km drive away from Chaing Mai, then elephant riding, spending time with hill tribes, bamboo boats down the river portion, and sleeping by a waterfall one night. Too cool! Even picking me up from the station the day before and taking me to my guesthouse. I have most of a day to check out Chaing Mai prior to it, and however long as I care to stay afterwards, of course.

My friendly tuk-tuk driver then brought me back and asked what I figured it was worth to me for the trip. I paid 200 baht; the much shorter cab ride back from the airport was 400. Nice guy. We chatted for a while, he pointed out his Toyota pickup (he's dropped it and put a cool stereo in it), etc. Tomorrow at 10:30 he's picking me up to go tour the city for a couple hours, and maybe find a new travel watch.

And that's the day thus far! Have to admit that Bangkok is growing on me already, though my throat is getting sore from the crap in the air. Post nasal drip; yuck.

And now, the photos:


View out my guesthouse window. Poverty at its worst.


The recommended street, a bit tamer by day.


Street vendors everywhere.


An old tuk-tuk. My driver's is much nicer.


Temporary home base; the guesthouse's
guts are brand new; opened yesterday.

From Australia:


Back patio on the last winery we visited; had
my first sparkling red here.


A view of the vineyards in foreground, mountains
in the background. This is the Yarra Valley.


I'll have to glean my records for the town name, but it's on the border
of NSW and Victoria - a train station.


This is why I had to get rid of some stuff...


In Victoria ... Victoria ... ack! Rikki,
what's the place called again?

And I'm spent. :-) -tk

Updated: Mar. 21, 2004 9:30am Bangkok, Thailand

Then again, being Bangkok, a cybercafe presented itself to me within 1.5 minutes of walking out my guest house's front door for a morning smoke.

"Shoes remove, please." I did, and note that the dog laying on the floor a couple PC's away has it made - no shoes. I'm going to have to keep my feet washed religiously, I see.

I awoke this morning on a barely covered mattress, stripped, in my blue silk sleep sheet, under the ceiling fan running at top speed. The night's sleep was mostly 2-4 hour sessions with brief wakefulness, and a gentle and random transition from slightly sweating to slightly freezing. I was going to splurge on an air conditioned single room for my first night here, but they were all booked.

Again, I've just resisted the subcouscious urge to cross one leg over the other; this would point my feet somewhere, and nowhere is a good place to point one's feet in this country.

I got up, stretched, and looked out the open (but screened) window at the back yard of the place I'd missed in the dark last night. It's poverous housing, tin roofs in disrepair, tired old apartment flats and locals bathing, standing outside a square cement pool of green water. Reminded me of footage of Iraq.

Stepping into the shower, which is just a shower head in the drain-equipped bathroom en suite, I noted that there's no hot water -- or even contemplation to make hot water an option, with a single knob. The cool was refreshing.

Welcome to Bangkok! I arrived at the airport and received zero hassle from customs, who stamped me through the 18th of next month. My flight's the morning of the 19th, so I'll be fined 100-200 Baht upon my exiting the country in addition to the 500 baht exit fee. Damn. That's something like five bucks! I'll email Kristina and see if she can move me out a day early, just to avoid any run-ins, though I hear it's not usually a problem.

Khosan Road (sp) was the place recommended to me by the guy at the YHA in Sydney, who informed me 48 hours prior to needing a place that they cannot be booked that short. Eh? "Just get a taxi to the road, and it's littered with guest houses."

Stepping out of the air conditioned airport, my lungs craving tobacco, they first found a miasma that passes for air. Really, it's not that bad; not much worse than Mexico City really, and already I no longer smell it. I'll be leaving soon for Chaing Mai anyway. The taxi driver delighted in upping my fee. I noticed, but he was using the slow driving to aquaint me with things around the city in severely broken English, though I did protest when he begged a couple minutes just blocks shy of my destination to stop for gas. Ha! They're paid by the time as well as mileage, and he was getting a little more money out of me. But what's 10-15 baht, anyway? I remained "vigilant", looking about with a stoic face, examining the activity outside the car, my doors locked, to ensure I would know when I was going to be robbed were that the case. It wasn't.

Khosan Road is an interesting place. At the end I entered from at half past midnight, there were metered taxis and tuk-tuk's pulled to the side, motorcycles, mopeds, all manner of vehicular transport. Walking down the road was a 2/3rds mix of oriental and Western people in the 18-25 range mostly, and street vendors camped on either side of the walkway hocking either food in carts or jewelery or all fashion of other things I didn't feel any desire to procure. Towering on either side are run-down buildings with looming neon signs, buzzing in the night presume though the vocal noise was far too great to hear them over. Some were intact. Some were not. But the road definitely wasn't. To one side sits a bulldozer, and the pavement goes from pavement to chopped up asphalt to bare riebar (sp) to boards (watch for nails, though they were all flattened by some strange benevolent force). I spied the annoying 7-11, McDonalds and Burger King. So far from home, yet so close to slurpees, quarter pounds and onion rings.

Along the street I ended up booking accomodation in are numerous tuk-tuks and Toyota cars and trucks, trailers, street vendors. And wherever you go you find dogs. Not large ones so far, but just medium-size could-live-in-a-trashcan specimins, mellow and lazing about here or there, under vehicles, looking for scraps.

It all sounds shocking, doesn't it? Wasn't, really. Maybe it was the hour (3am Sydney time) or the joy of again sucking nicotine into my body (the taxi driver even let me smoke, in exchange for one of my cigarettes, lol!) Marlboros at the airport exchange back to $2.05/pack. Groovy. Paid 60 baht for a beer last night, after I grabbed my room, and sat in a bamboo chair near the edge of the open-air cafe to enjoy it and watch the street, overhearing with interest some English tourists talking about smoking mushrooms and how it brings out more bad stuff when you're older because you're more jaded. Evidently someone in the news did that and killed some people, then didn't remember it the next day.

I have no idea what brand beer it was, but it was reminiscent of Fosters.

Yeah, it's like that. I think I have a week here before departing home, so I'll leave most exploration until then. For now, well, after a quick visit to the US Embassy's site (thanks for speeding me up with the link, Darren) I'm going to reclaim my shoes and leg it the other five feet to the cafe for breakfast. Tibor hungry.

So anyway, greetings from Bangkok! -tk

Updated: Mar. 19, 2004 10:00pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The feet say the water's okay; time to dive in...

Australia is a great place for a holiday. Also a good place to "acclimate" to being away from home. But it's not really travel. For the record, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here and, looking back on who I was as I departed La Guardia airport en route to parts unknown, I'm glad this was on the agenda. But now it's time for the good stuff, the real stuff, the to-the-bones travel.

Thailand is ideally designed for tourists. Resorts, English speaking areas ... I'll be avoiding most of them. My sights are set on the places the guidebook specifically says are not common tourist areas. Rural areas. Places where there are more Thais than Westerners. But I'm starting in Bangkok, primarily because my flight arrives there and also because a couple days in the craziness of this chaotic city are exactly what I need to get into the swing of things -- and appreciate the simple non-English-speaking country folk.

First, my itinerary (courtesy of the Zaurus, who has been a faithful companion the duration of my trip so far):

20th - arrive in Bangkok
23rd - train to Chaing Mae
24th - bus over unpaved roads to Pai
30th - travel (yet undetermined route) to Sukothai
3rd - (april) - travel to Ko Pha Ngan for full moon party
7th - travel to Prachuap Khiri Khan
13th - travel to Bangkok
19th - fly home, connecting in Taipei

In case anyone caught this from the agenda, yes, I'm skipping the more popular tourist resorts of Pattaya, Chain Mai, Bangkok (mostly), Phuket, and circumventing the massage parlors and cinemas and transvestite shows and drinks with cute little pink umbrellas, instead heading out into the country to meet some Thais and see real Thailand, what's left of it after the invasion of Western tourists.

Somewhere along the way, I'm sure I'll be complaining to management that there's a boa constrictor in my bungalow's roof and recording stories of killer ... whatevers ... but for the most part, barring weather fluctuations and derailment, that's more-or-less the itinerary subject to change, lol!

I did a serious culling of goods from my backpack today, pitching (to charity, that is, since shipping is expensive) unnecessary-in-90-degree-weather things like jeans, a turtle-neck t-shirt, jacket, beach towel, etc. Very pleased to announce that my pack is infinitely lighter, barely as heavy with daypack as the daypack has, at times, been by itself. Good thing; I'm planning on riding a bicycle wearing it at some points, and trekking several kilometers with it on my back.

Anyway, if I lose touch for, oh, say, 20-25 days, don't fret. I'm probably (more like certainly) okay, and just enjoying places where memory cards aren't burned to CD's and cybercafes aren't on every corner. Where you don't have YHA's with pools on the roof, Holiday Inn around the corner, and 7-11's nearby. Yeah, you know, stuff like that. :-)

See y'all in a month, and cheers for the emails! -tk

Updated: Mar. 18, 2004 9:00pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Tonight I have arrived once more in Sydney after a very brief stay in Melbourne; this Sydney Central YHA is starting to feel like home for all my visits here.

Day after tomorrow, I'll be heading off to Thailand. I can't believe I've been here a month! But then, so much has happened since then, it may as well have been half a year.

The photos below are edited down to size and have captions! And lastly, the wine tour was pretty good; I have some gorgeous photos in the camera too. :-) -tk


Updated: Mar. 15, 2004 3:00pm Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Photos; I'll add descriptions when I get to a better computer, and scale them down when I get to a better one still. Went on my Great Ocean Road tour, and it was a blast! Saw kangaroos (at a golf course), koalas (that were all against the bright sky, so none of them came out well, unfortunately), saw the 12 Apostles from inside a helicopter, and was doused in water dashing around the sea trying to make it into a cave before the tide hit. Which amazed me; my camera was briefly submerged in water and unscathed somehow. Think it's really just good pants ('twas in my pocket, zippered). More later. -tk


A view of Sydney returning from the zoo.


I found these in a fish store in Melbourne, right
across the street from the Victoria Markets. They're
the absolute largest Discus fish I've ever seen!


A coral reef display in the Melbourne Aquarium.


A young kangaroo.
A

Where do you go to find these animals? The golf course!?


A blurry photo of the rain forest I
walked through on the tour.


The 12 Apostles, seen from inside a helicopter!


Amazingly strong surf along the coast.


The 12 Apostles from the lookout post-chopper.


London Bridge. That's what it's called! And when
the portion that would connect it to mainland collapsed,
the locals were thrilled to note that London Bridge was falling down.
The married businessman caught on media stuck there with
his secretary, with whom he was having an affair when
they were suddenly stuck on the rock formation, was less pleased...


More rock formations along the Great Ocean Road.


And some more.


More still...


Salt spray.


Again...


A brush fire in the distance.



Updated: Mar. 12, 2004 7:00pm Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Whew, what a day! It is full of sight seeing. First, I stopped by the Old Melbourne Gaol. By the way, a "gaol" is a jail, and pronounced thus...

The Melbourne Gaol costs something like $22 to enter; I flashed my snazzy backpacker card and his reply was thus: "Sorry, we don't give discounts for those. But, for our records, where are you from?"

Me: "For no discount? Far as you're concerned, I'm from Melbourne then."

Okay, okay, I didn't say that. I told him where I was from and was polite about it.

Worth $22 it really wasn't, but I'm pleased to have seen it. It's cool, nice in the summer but frigid in the winter. Apparently many of the stone blocks used were from the ballast of ships for some strange reason, straight of of Yorkshire, England, and retain the cold. Who knew? The prisoners on straw mats did! The tour guide (who did a massive 5-minute vocal tour and little more) also explained that during the 2nd World War, many Aussie soldiers ended up here briefly for raising a ruckus with American soldiers. Why, you ask? Because our boys came to Australia with nicer uniforms, more money, and of course nylons and chocolates. So in the eyes of the Australian soldiers, the U.S. ones were "Overdressed, overpaid and oversexed." You heard it here first!

Chocolates ... Knew I forgot something at home... ;-)

Also interesting were the plaster busts (really just the head) of former inmates who were hung from the gallows. See, they were experimenting in ... phrenology, was it? Can't remember exactly, but it had to do with skull bone structure and it's implications for what kinda person you are. Feel any lumps in your skull behind either ear? You're a psychopath! Anyway, they poured hot wax on their heads (after the hanging, thankfully), waited for them to solidify, cut them in half to remove, reconnected, filled with plaster, et viola! If you wanna see some of the guys they hung a hundred years ago, stop on by and look 'em in the face.

Next up was the Melbourne Aquarium. I'd already seen the Sydney version, and it had a lot to show for itself. The Melbourne version did give a 10% concession for backpackers, and was, in my opinion, superior to the Sydney version. It had fewer exhibits, and no seals or salt water crocadiles, but what it did have it showed magnificently. The displays were spot-on bobs-your-uncle fantastic. Or even brilliant. (Sorry - the English are rubbing off on me.) Extremely attractive to say the least; worth every penny (and 500 fewer than the Sydney one). Highly recommended to anyone who's at all interested in fish and happens to find themself in Melbourne.

Next up was the Polly Woodside Maritime Museum. There I discovered, amongst many other things, two large models of the clipper ship Cutty Sark. Someday I will get to Greenwich to see the real thing, in dry dock. Until then, I'm content to have walked upon the purty Polly Woodside, a misnomer since her sides are of either steel or iron. Either way, got to walk through the old gal, and chatted with an elderly volunteer about accomodations, etc. I'll go into her more when I have photos up, but what a nice ship, and the best tour I've ever had of one. She crossed the Cape 16 times, believe it or not, making her one impressive ship as well. I was smitten.

On the way out, I coughed whilst chatting with the friendly senior woman who manned the ticketing ("and we have some really good coffee here too if you like." I partook.) She commented that it sounded bad. Hmm... It's gotten better. "Have you seen a doctor about it?" No... I guess when I get back from my tour the next couple days, if it's not gone I'll go chat with one. I feel just fine, really, but it has been with me since my last day in Bondi.

I then proceeded to the Royal Botanical Gardens, only didn't get that far. I stopped at the king's instead, kicked back, and did a little writing. Then it cooled off a bit, and I headed back to the YHA.

Which is where I am now.

Okay, time for the good news. I've dabbled in writing for the past year or so, and nothing came out. I'd get an idea, but in a page I was toast. Dunno why, could have just been a bad year (could have been??) or any number of other reasons, but by george I've spent hours writing over the past few days. I mean really writing. Working on a new story. The words flowing. The fingers churning over the Zaurus's keyboard. A gleam in my eye. The noise of others drowned out by the words coming out of my head. The real deal here. I'm thrilled! Thrilled!!

And so, I end the day's update. Not too shabby for a single day. Tomorrow I depart on a 2-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. I'm sure to see kangaroos, koalas and of course The 12 Apostles, water-worn rocks standing in the middle of the beach somewhere or other. I may have opportunity to take a $33 1.5-hour training session in surfing! Monday I'll finish my independent sightseeing, and Tuesday I'm heading out for the day on a wine tasting tour, checking out how vinyards are managed, etc. Neat stuff. I'm packing it in! 'Cause late next week ... I'm off to Thailand already. -tk

Updated: Mar. 11, 2004 5:00pm Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Guess who took a 12-hour bus from Sydney's Central Station to Melbourne?

I travelled to Taronga (sp) Zoo on my final day in Sydney (excepting the planned night there in a little over a week so I can catch my flight to Bangkok), and was a little melencholy when I paused in a gift shop and noticed that all the sights on a souvenir mug had been seen by yours truly. It hit me that I was leaving, and it had me pensive for a few minutes there.

Independent travel is a funny thing. You get to know yourself better and change more rapidly when you're on the go, constantly hit with new challenges, opportunities and experiences. Because you're leaving in a couple days, no matter where you are, you don't have time for none that there lolligagging and thinking too long on what to do. So you make good decisions and bad decisions, have good times and not-so-good times, and get to spot patterns in how you handle life because you're doing stuff left and right. One night you're blitzed walking across Bondi Beach in the dark with a new buddy, another you're sitting alone in the pub, looking around and feeling out of place. Another you're in a pub alone and perfectly content, while a different night you're with a friend in a huge crowd and just want to get the hell out of all that noise. Suddenly one night you're on a bus and not sure if you're awake or not, but certain you'd rather be in a bed instead. One night I slept like a baby for hours on end in an airplane of all places. Most mornings you awaken to the rather common men's dorm room aroma of old socks. This rarely changes, but you get used to it in three days tops. :-)

Three things can be said of this. One is that travelling men, on the whole, neglect cleansing their socks. Another is that travel's a constant roller coaster of (hopefully mostly good) experiences. As such, lastly, it's fundamentally no different from the rest of life.

Only faster. Today I'm in Melbourne. Saw hog's heads hanging in Victoria Market today. And the largest specimins of Discus fish I've ever laid eyes upon in a pet store with a basement aquarium. Yesterday I was in Sydney and got to walk around some kangaroos. A few weeks ago I was chatting with some really witty travellers in Waiheke Island, New Zealand, where a really good-cooking French traveller made up a killer dinner and one from Switzerland? Belgium? Can't remember, but she'd scored black liquorice tea on the mainland and it was pretty damned good.

Not to mention whatever I'll remember of tomorrow! -tk


Updated: Mar. 9, 2004 7:30pm Sydney Central, Australia

Well! Been a while since I've had any uploads, so a brief recounting of what I've been doing with myself.

I spent longer than expected at Bondi. I took one day and legged it down to Cogee, about an hour's walk or so, and was pleased to find lots to look at an snap photos of on the way there and back (though only a very few are here).


Memorial for the Bali bombing.


Lawn bowling, field bowling ... something like that.
Rikki: "What old people do, drinking cheap drinks."
So, probably me in about ... 40 years. ;-)


Cogee Beach


Lotsa rocks nearby; I took tons of photos
of flora in the area, so strong but beautiful.


Doug saw Cogee ... and almost flew into the water
when a breeze came threw and sent him tumbling.


Purty water, eh? Green is sand, black is weeds.


Just the area leading to Cogee.


Don't want waves? Nearer Bondi.


Shrug...

Well, on Saturday I learned that hostel rooms really should be booked in advance. It flies in the face of a free spirit, but when the gay/lesbian Mardi Gras rolls into Sydney, accommodations can be a bit of a pain to grab without prior reservation.

Enter Matt and Rikki, who I met abseiling in the Blue Mountains. They were more than happy to not only put me up for the night, but drive up the coast in the rain so I could see a bit more of the shore, introduce me to an Aussie shopping mall, and even feed me that evening. Wow! Thanks, you two!

I skipped the Mardi Gras and was all too happy to do so. I'd developed a bit of a cough, one of my knees was starting to complain annoyingly with every step, and I guess I was just plain pooped from staying out late, getting up early (usually to simply re-book a new night before checkout time came) and baking in the sun. Which yielded less than optimal results, but let's ignore that I now brush my hair and bits of burnt skin come off in the brush... :-/

Aaaaaaaanyway, finally dragged my sun-drenched butt away from Bondi, with every intention of going sailing last weekend. I was going to learn to sail -- whoohoo!! Turned out the website lied; they cancelled that trip. Weeeeeeeell, crumb.

So I relocated back to Sydney Central, where I'd slept my virgin night in the country, and after a rainy day took the next one to leg it up to Circular Quay and head off to Manly by jet boat...


Manly Beach.


See beach in distance? That's Shelly Beach.
Protected from the surf. Had a great swim there.

I took the ferry home...


Cruise ships are ginormous!!


Sydney at sunset.


Similar but differn't.


Nice sailing route, eh?


View of the Opera House as you cannot find from land.


Sydney at night (walking back to the YHA).


Today I went up the Sydney Tower:


Can you see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge?


Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens from high above.


And last but not least, I forgot to post this one of the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains:




All for now. -tk

Updated: Mar. 4, 2004 12:00pm Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh... This is the life! I extended my stay here a day because I simply couldn't leave, though realistically I cannot lie on the beach anymore; sun block must be applied frequently, I've learned -- not just once. Ouch...

Got up yesterday morning, checked mail, and then walked down to the promenade for a nice eggs and bacon breakfast at an outdoor cafe. Yawned, relaxed, and took a slow, leisurely stroll back up to the YHA to see if my mate Simon was up. Met up with him on the roof, and his friends from the UK had come in, met a guy from Uraguay who's been living in Hawaii a while and just arrived yesterday for a long stint through Oz, and we all grabbed our beach towels and ran down to Bondi Beach. Laid out, ran down to the shore and body surfed in the large waves that come in, laid about some more. Yesterday I just laid there for hours, looking up from time to time to take in the changes of sunbathers, watch the surfers and read a book. There's no better feeling in the world than lying on your back on a towel, sun warming you, breeze cooling you, looking up at the book you're holding, in a field of impossibly perfect blue... Aaaaahhhh. :-)

Simon and I ran up to the shops, taking our time to walk very, very slowly through the sand past the topless sunbathers. Many of these women, they're feasts for the eyes, slow broiling in the sun. Yum!

And then later in the evening, ran out for some dinner, then made our way through a few pubs. Interesting mixture. Our dorm rooms became co-ed when a couple young Canadian girls moved in. They told us everyone was going to the Bondi Hotel that night for drinks, so we went through a few pubs here and there, looking around, changing the scenery and the such. Finally ended up there, and I wasn't staying past a beer. YUCK!! Loads of people, music so loud you're yelling at each other, sheep walking around. You can read their minds: "I am here to meet people. Where's a pretty girl, and what should I say to her?" or "Here I am. Now when's a guy gonna pick up on me? I know I shouldn't be sleeping alone tonight." Disgusting. All pretending to be having a good time, putting on fronts, meeting people, talking nonsense. Sized it all up in about 30 seconds and was ready to leave.

So we left there, hit one more pub for one more drink, then walked back up to the hostel. And that's my holiday the past couple days; just soaking in the sun, playing in the water, praising my dark glasses, taking in the amazing scenery - living and inanimate ;-) - and then having a couple beers at the end of the day before turning in.

Don't get no better than this, mates! -tk


Updated: Mar. 3, 2004 12:00pm Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

Guess who has photos? They go well with my sunburn...


Tibor was here... :-)


An easy practice one; about 8-12 metres (camera looking doooooown)


Yup, went down this one too. Scary as hell from the top!!


Top of the waterfall, inside the cave.


Slidin' down the falls.


This what we went down last!


Abseiling mates, Matthew & Rikki


Yikes! :-O

Several of the Blue Mountains, mostly from our bush walking:











Bondi Beach (much brighter; camera needs sunglasses):







Miscelleneous:


Sigh ... this one's for Mom... Meet Doug.


Doug saw the Blue Mountains!


Man, I hate it when that happens!br>

In spite of it all, a reminder that even King's Cross isn't enough; He'll stay his hand on the floodgates.


Rushcutter's Bay. I want one of these!

-tk

Updated: Feb. 29, 2004 9:00am Katoomba, Blue Mountains region, New South Wales, Australia

25 metres below was a small valley with a stream, either side covered with lush vegetation. About my head and most everywhere else were biting flies, in appearance a cross between flies and bees, constantly requiring a swat. In one hand I controlled the slippage of a rope while the other, already slick with sweat, I grabbed at one of the links attached to the harness.

A breeze blew past threateningly, as if to say "Are you sure you'll keep your footing on the sheer rock face? Or will I take you away, and send you smashing into textured and sharp rock outcropping?"

I took another breath. Swatted away more flies. Grimaced. And then looked at the guide.

"Once you get over this one part, it's easy."

I looked down at my cheering party below, already descended. I was the last of the group to go. I looked down at my hiking shoes, toes perched at the edge of the cliff, nothing more of rock visible.

"Put your right foot out a little further. There you go. Waist down. More. More. Perpendicular to the rock."

'Screw it,' I thought quietly. 'Can't go back, not going to fall, gotta do this.' My self-preservation instinct, always so strong, sighed in resignation. Overide. Step down.

Boy, what a day! First, we rode out through the woods by paths in a Land Cruiser 4x4, four of us plus our guide. Then we abseiled on a small cliff of sorts, then a taller one, then we gobbled down lunch and shot out by vehicle to the real deal.

"The Lost World," Collin called it. He'd only recently discovered this portion of the Blue Mountains, still boasting countless areas Europeans and maybe not even Aborigonies (sp) had seen before. There's just so much of it.

"They made the greatest every discovery of Aboriginie art, a few hikers, 10 years ago. A year or so ago, someone with GPS found it again, and this time someone was able to go out and study it."

That's the Blue Mountains for you. In a word, huge. In another, lush. In a third, dangerous. Perhaps "unforgiving" would fit in there as well.

We bush walked a decent ways, climbing down a pagoda (rock formations that look like the Japanese temples), careful not to break any of the fragile ledges that were warned not to put our weight on.

"How am I doing through this bush, keeping up with you?" I asked Collin at one point. "Not bad, haven't heard you fall yet." Uh huh.

The first abseil in The Lost World was as I described, and as it had been described to me - get over the ledge, and it's suddenly easier. The last 10 metres or so were simply dangling there. From there we trekked on through a creek, under some rocks, into an alcove with a deeper pool at one end. There we waited and chatted while our guide worked up one heck of an elaborate system of ropes so that we could abseil down the waterfall. "It's slippery. Expect to lose your footing once or twice."

I brought up the rear once more on this one. Stepping into the almost waist-high pool of impressively cold water. Slowly working my way in my water-logged waterproof shoes to the edge. Boy, was I ever impressed with these shoes! Walked through a stream and my feet kept dry. Walking through the brush, they clung to the terrain quite impressively. At the moment, each footwell could sustain a goldfish indefinitely.

I stepped out and Collin and I did our slow dance of me getting behind him, towards the edge. He'd watch, instruct and, more importantly, run the safety rope. Never once had a worry that I'd fall to the ground below.

And the shoes showed their one weakness. Wham! Right out from underneath me only five feet from the opening. A contortionist's act ensued as I wrestled myself, over the course of minute (waiting for instructions, disseminating instruction, nono, rope goes on the other side, okay, wait, need to push on that branch there, okay, get your hand off that rope!, okay...)

Finally I was standing again, starting out towards the most slippery part, the center of the falls, water blowing over my already waterlogged shoes, a step down, wham! Back on my stomach.

"I can just lower you down if you need."

I need. These shoes won't hold to save my life -- and I'd rather get the falling into the cliff done now rather than later when it can really hurt. Suddenly I realized that when you're on rocks, the big treads of hikers just won't do - you want tennis shoes for that stuff, mate!

And down I went, hanging from a rope, sliding across the wet rock, dangling in a place or two, to the edge of the pool below. What fun! What a mess my clothes were afterwards! What a relief to hear someone else had slipped as well at one point. :-)

From there, it being after six already, we began our trek back to the 4x4. This one was uneventful, simply having to be careful of some spots, loose rocks, crawling "commando" through a couple places, getting the pack on my back stuck once. "Don't hold onto these grass plants; they're razor-sharp and will slice right through your hand." At one point we were walking through the brush, a co-explorer bringing up the back, and it was nearly complete. He whistled a theme song, the going was a little rough but fast, and we could watch the sun starting to set over the Blue Mountains. Our guide pointed out an bush, a type of tea plant used for medicinal properties (I recognized the scent - it's in the Melafix I use to treat scrapes on my tropical fish), and I rubbed its needle-like leaves across a couple scrapes the rock had passed on to me. Sure enough, they look to be healing this morning.

And that was the Blue Mountains. Tomorrow I head back to Sydney, not today as I originally had planned. Need to take some time to go over my travel money, do a bit of planning, and most importantly...

Wash my clothes... -tk


Updated: Feb. 27, 2004 9:30am Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (King's Cross)

Unzip, and it shall grow larger...

Found that out about my daypack yesterday - wondered what a zipper was and upon unzipping it, found that my pack was expandable! Also discovered two clips - so that is how it supposedly attaches to the front of the wearer instead of always being piggy-back. The instructions failed to mention how that worked. And here you probably thought I was referring to something else! ;-)

Anyway, I'm off! Off, that is, to the Blue Mountains! First I'll be catching a train to the central station, then a 2-hour trip to the Katoomba, in the range. There I have a YHA hostel booked for a couple days and plenty of exploration to do. Which is fantastic. I finished packing (a 2-minute task now; I've streamlined beautifully) and slung the pack over my now more adapted shoulders, snapped the suspension and all seemed right with the world. This is the life; get sick of a place and leave. King's Cross, though interesting for 30 seconds at night walking down the street, simply doesn't cater to me, especially since my idea of travel is legging it all over the place taking in interesting sights and monuments - as opposed to sex shows. Who knew?

And one grows bored with reading in the rain. But the weather has broken, the pack is nicely hung, and I'm off! Freedom, sweet freedom, "backpacking" is thy name! -tk


Updated: Feb. 26, 2004 2:00pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (King's Cross)

Interesting place, this King's Cross. Last night, bored per the rain, I went out in search of a Victoria's Bitter (beer - my new favorite), and en route turned down several offers:

"Come inside, mate! Only sex show with alcohol!"

Something I don't recall from another...

"Hey, would you like to have sex with my wife?"
"Hi..." (his wife)

Finally found a fairly quiet bar where I whipped out my guidebook and Zaurus and, over a couple beers, assessed my situation from a must-see perspective.

This morning there have been periods of sunshine, so I trekked the very short distance from my hostel to Rushcutter's Bay after a very good breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. (The orange juice was clearly fresh squeezed and composed of several oranges, thick with pulp - best I've ever tasted and I told her so.)

Note: Should you find yourself on Orwell street in King's Cross, Sydney, I highly recommend stopping by Q Point, a cafe and restauraunt. I've yet to eat a single thing there that didn't please the food gods.

The sheer number of sailboats in the harbour at Rushcutter's Bay is staggering. Staggering, I tell you. There are quite a few. I stopped at the cafe there and noted that bores water is used on the park. Whazzat? I nearly asked, but had already ordered an apple and guava juice and gotten a very elaborate and descriptive answer to question of guava's definition, which is enough education for one day.

At any rate, I then walked along the bay, taking photos of some truly stunning houses (esp. against the blue sky), and found myself at a sailing school. "Enquiries welcome." Hmm... okay. So in I trotted...

Do you know how to jibe from starboard to port with a 5-knot headwind and 2-metre waves? Can you moor a boat w/o the assistance of a motor? How do you tie a woolly winch-shank knot? What do you do when you look up and see the boom swinging towards you at neckbreak speed? Heh ... I don't know either, but $545 can enlighten to me all but the fictional knot I just mentioned. I suspect the answer to last one is: Duck.

On the way back through the park, I heard "Sir! Sir!" called from behind and found the cafe's waiter walking briskly in my direction. I'd left my pack of cigs on the table about 20 minutes previous, and he had just walked a quarter the way across the park to return them to me. Guava lesson and couriered lost cigarettes? Nice place!

Finally, leggin' it up some hill or other that composes part of Roslynn street, I spied a note taped to the side of a bus stop:

LOST:
1 bag of cocaine
clear bag, with a ripped corner
if found please contact
042421868308

(I made up the number)

I started laughing, naturally, and stopped to take a photo. About to walk off, I heard a knocking at the window of the shop I was in front of and spied there a guy with an afro the size of Waiheke Island laughing and pointing to the sidewalk. I'd walked right by a (presumably) mock bag of coke when I spied the sign. -tk


Updated: Feb. 25, 2004 2:00pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (King's Cross)

It's stopped raining! But meanwhile, I figured I'd take advantage of the bad weather to upload some photos:

The urban walking landscape:







My first visit was to Darling Harbour.


Time for a midday snack, it appears. :-)


A windjammer and replica of the Bounty.


I say there, ever so sensible and civilized, these Aussies!


A seal in the Sydney Aquarium; he was the life of the party.


Another photo.

Want more? Pick a movie: Short  Long


These photos are HORRIBLE!! One of the reef "tank" (more like reef "room!")


Quick little buggers; this shows the size of the tank. Take what you see, and multiply by four or six...

The Rocks and around:

This is Circle Quay, where the harbour ferries and tour boats dock.


This is Cadman's Cottage, the oldest standing private residence in either Sydney or Australia (I'd presume the latter).


This is the Harbour Bridge. Took 1,600 men to build it; 16 of them died. Back when, it was a popular suicide spot as well (courtesy of my ghost tour).


Upon which is the Sydney Observatory, this is from the hill.


The bridge viewed from said hill.


This is the Sydney Observatory, which is really a small astronomy museum.


This nasty little sucker was right by my head while I was examing a flower. I am not fond of spiders... :-/


No photo album is complete without the Opera House.


From a bit closer.


One of several pics I took of the harbour in general.


These black pouches are actually bats! Fruit bats, pretty large, hanging from the tree. We watch one scratch himself all over, upside down!


In the air.


Another.


Ack! Almost ran into this web looking at the bats.

King's Cross area:





Just thought this was interesting. It's a Ford Falcon, also available in wagon and sedan, and with a big ol' V8. This pic's from New Zealand, but they're all over the place here. Dump bed optional. :-)

All for now! -tk

Updated: Feb. 25, 2004 10:20am Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (King's Cross)

A few years ago, I and a friend were at a Bennigan's in Dallas, discussing possibly starting up a web design company on the side. As always when anything might need a note jotted, I had the Zaurus out, and over the course of the evening, my fingers moving from sweating beer to keyboard to sweating beer to keyboard, the Zaurus finally had enough moisture in its keyboard that it started typing as though possessed, and continued to do so for hours, such that I finally plugged it in at home so it wouldn't kill the batteries, because the "on" button was amongst those shorted.

I know how it feels to be wet and have your buttons pushed now. And might I add: Brrrrrrrrrr!!

Realistically, there is no reasonable way to remain dry when hoofing it down windy and rainy sidewalks and streets. Oh sure, you can have your umbrella, and with God as my witness I ducked into the first shop that might have one yesterday afternoon and procured said item with lightning speed. Granted you may have a water-resistant jacket, but it soon begins to soak too, and even a bona-fide poncho (which I decided against buying; hot enough in breathable fabric) will not go the full length to the ground.

I refuse to buy water-proof pants.

At any rate, yesterday morning I was up bright and early (by being on holiday standards) to check out from my hostel in central Sydney, walk the several paces to the train station, and take the train to King's Cross. King's Cross is a dicey area, where at night you can walk down one of the main streets to be offered all fashion of thing, especially an hour of sex for a price. Prepared to be hassled I am, but I suspect they'll all be keeping dry the next couple nights -- which suits me fine. This area is a little more eclectic or perhaps artsy than central; it tells in the more interesting buildings with older facades, etc. A little less perfectly laid out as well, which I also sorta like. "Has a bit more character to it" would be the summary.

My current hostel, The Jolly Swagman, is pretty decent. I've left the resort of hostels in Central, so of course it's a step down, but quite reasonable and over $10/night less than the YHA. It shows mainly in the bathrooms. Refurnished old building, still with interesting ceilings, and a cutie of a receptionist, which always helps a place along. :-)

Around one in the afternoon yesterday, after calling the business, I legged it from King's Cross to The Rocks way too soon, and within the first five minutes it was raining. It's a fairly long walk, cutting across Sydney a bit, then shooting north an equal bit, but I found it easily having gone a couple days ago with a companion from the YHA. Upon getting there, however, I was totally and utterly bored -- with four hours to kill. She'd been great company, so beating that stroll through the area alone was unlikely, much less in the constant showers that were assaulting all. So I ate, and drank, and ate, and sat on a wall for a while smoking, and ate, and walked about a bit, and drank, and stopped by several stores, where I got a decent wallet at last, made out of kangaroo hide no less. And walked around... Bored reading this? Stand out in the rain for five minutes now sans umbrella. Uh huh -- Now you know how I felt, bored and wet.

The purpose was to be there by a quarter to eight for a ghost tour. As most of you know, that's right up my alley. I met the guide in front of Cadman's Cottage, wearing all black (including a cape) and toting a rather large unmbrella. Three others had braved the rain, though he was most impressed with how far I'd walked for it in the rain (I'm nothing if not foolishly devoted to whatever I decide to do), and and we all hoisted umbrellas an trekked out about the Rocks in search of ghosts.

Well, not really. He told us where they were, showed us the area, gave the story behind them, and explained what The Rocks had once been, which was, admittedly, quite fascinating. In places, we could actually see the rocks, or the bedstone upon which most of the area was built, and he took us behind some shops where you could see the cutting and manipulating done, where houses had once been, a fireplace carved into still existing stone, etc. He swore up and down that all the stories he told were true, and his family had been there since the beginning pretty much, so he really knew his stuff. A few items sent chills down my spine, and a strange sensation of nasal pressure behind my eyes (weird, that -- don't recall ever feeling that before), and we finally ended in a hotel (similar to pubs here, usually) which was also quite old (or at least, as old as can be found a country not so old itself), where he bought us each a drink and sent us on our way.

At this point, I was toast. Dogs hurt, wet, felt like a half-drowned rat, so I flagged down a cab and was more than happy to pay the twelve dollars to be dropped off down the block from the hostel, whilst explaining to the man why it was that even though the rain we were experiencing was evaporated water from the ocean, there was no salt in it, and dismissing the myths that we all run around in 10-gallon hats in Texas. lol...

This morning I roused myself for a cigarette, then walked the several paces to breakfast and finally searched high and low for this place, which I'd found yesterday, this time in the rain. On the verge of just going back to my room when I spied it; this time I'll note the streets it's on. You know, in Sydney Central, and also off Queen in Auckland, a meteor shower could deposit hundreds of interstellar rocks without hitting a city block ungraced by a cybercafe. Here in King's Cross, better note street corners so you can find it again, hidden behind the main streets.

I have two more nights at this hostel, so I think I'm going to book the YHA in the Blue Mountains for the next day or two thereafter and procure transport there and back. Likely do it through the lovely YHA I left in Central, which is still only a half hour walk, once the rain has run its course.

As a side note, I also picked up new socks. They're wool on the inside, a cotton shell I believe on the outside, guaranteed not to develop holes, and supposedly made for hiking. Between this and foot powder, I'm hoping to avoid any additional blisters. If this sounds insufficient to anyone, please email me. -tk



Updated: Feb. 23, 2004 10:20pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I learned several things over the past day or two:

1. When starting a tab in Australia on a credit card, see what the minimum purchase is and how many drinks will be required to meet that, bearing in mind the double-the-alcohol-content of Australian beer.

2. Do not top off the tab so you can finally get your card back by tossing shots on there. They're more expensive than beer. Much more. And if you're going to toss the hard stuff down the hatch, best to do so before the beer anyway.

3. Impressively, longer-travelled individuals with shorter legs can outpace a long-legged bloke with only a week on the clock. Especially if they got an extra hour's sleep.

4. Should you find that there feels to be something in your shoe as you're putting countless kilometers on your legs, stop immediately to assess rather than waiting to get back to the hostel and greater privacy later. It will be too late at that point; the blister shall have manifested itself fully.

5. Australia has its share of spiders, and they're infinitely more scary in appearance than most in the States.


Some of these lessons I'll tell the story of. Yesterday, a tiny bit hung over, I ran into a fellow traveller and she and I headed off to The Rocks, which area has (of interest to me, at least), the Opera House, Circular Quay, the Sydney Observatory, MacQuarie's Chair (really a couch, and not especially worth the walk), and the Royal Botanical Gardens. As well as several nice places to stop for a cold drink and/or lunch.

It's a bit of a walk up George from the Sydney Central YHA.

The first place we arrived was Circular Quay, which was somewhat interesting. There were people on the sidewalk performing small acts and the such for a little change, some of which were entertaining in passing. From there, after a cold drink, it was off to the Sydney Observatory, which is really an astronomy museum, quite small. It's surrounded by a pretty garden, and caters a good bit to the passing of Venus across the face of the sun. The best item on display was a nice flat-panel TV showing a video of the Pathfinder mission. It's on top of a grassy hill with a few big and impressive trees (to someone from Dallas, at least), which makes for a great place to dump the pack, lie back on the lawn, and rest for a few moments. There aren't fire ants in Sydney.

There are spiders, though, and downright gruesome and mean looking ones to boot! I was examining a big orange flower of sorts that excretes a sap when I realized I was right next to the web of a fairly nasty one, spider in the middle, and took care from then on to look out for them. Which was beneficial later.

The Sydney Opera house is pretty nifty, particularly from a distance. Didn't go inside, but did examine the exterior. The big white panels seem to be tiled in what you'd put in your bathroom, but the design's impressive.

From there it was on to MacQuarie's chair (a good few hours into the hoofing about at this point), and that was where my only four hours' sleep began to tell. We stopped frequently, though, enjoying the view, etc. The harbour is downright breathtaking, numerous sailboats mingled with ferries and tour boats on a backdrop of Sydney. The Harbour bridge is impressive too, and I plan to walk it before I move on. Won't be climbing it though; lots of travellers do, but it's a bit steep monetarily.

Coming back from MacQuarie's sofa, we ran through the botanical gardens intent on finding these fruit bats we'd heard about. Ask and ye shall receive; we planned it perfectly to be there just at the right time to see them roosting in the trees (skads of them, mind you, and quite large), waking, and starting to fly off in search of breakfast (presumably fruit, not human blood, right?).

Not quite so innocent, I damned near walked into a spider web, this time with two spiders in it, very different, and decided that we were taking an alternate route to a tree we'd discovered that was just plain teeming with the flying rodents. I have photos, and even a video of the bats, though she got the best snapshots.

The walk back to the hostel paused at a Vietnamese restauraunt. Yep, I found pho in Sydney! My beloved, tender, tasty favorite dish, less than a block from the hostel of all places. Quite good; the stomach gods were pleased. :-)

And that's about it. "Tramped" down the street a very short distance to see yesterday's fellow explorer off to Auckland, and have been puttering about since, wondering if it's going to rain or not. Not sure what I'm up for today, but I'm on holiday. If I want to, I'll just wander about aimlessly, stop for coffee, and update my journal. Or read a magazine. Catch a showing at IMAX? Good stuff, all of it! -tk



Updated: Feb. 21, 2004 4:35pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Fun day today, albeit with a bit of climatic adjustment. Ended up returning to the hostel twice; once to change out of hiking shoes and zip off my pant legs for shorts, and a second time to ditch the daypack. The Sydney Central YHA (a hostel) comes with lockers.

Today's trip (thrice) was to Darling Harbour, which had a few interesting items for me. I nearly stopped at the IMAX there, but money's been leaving my pockets left and right, so I decided against it. The Sydney Aquarium costs a whopping $24! The haircut I got earlier today added ten, so I'm trying to cut back on expenditures; cigarettes aren't cheap here either, and out in the sun, one must stop for a drink fairly regularly as well, and I donated four dollars to board a restored windjammer.

That said, I'll be looking for a pub tonight anyway. The thought of Guiness on draft is too good to pass up. :-)

The aquarium was very interesting. It had the standard array of freshwater fish, mostly Australian Rainbowfish, which are also readily available in your corner fish store for raising in your own tank most anywhere in the world. The saltwater crocodile was rather impressive. Large reptile, and downright mean looking. He was underwater much of the time I looked at him through the glass, then surfaced only his eyes and nostrils for a breath of air, all the while staring at all of the onlookers hungrily. Hope I don't run into one of those things!

The penguin attraction has me interested for all of five seconds, but the seals have an area all of their own. First I looked at them from above, a walkway around their pool, and it was amazing how graceful they are in the water. There was also one by the glass door to the pool, sleeping on the ramp. I got to look at him from about six inches away through the glass; what a cute creature!

Next I followed the path below the water, tunnels. Wow, quite impressive how effortlessly they swim (or at least so it appears), and the barrel rolls they can do; well, I have several photos and a couple movies from the camera. :-)

Also worth the visit were the sharks, also viewed from underwater via clear tunnels. They share space with rays and a few non-shark fish. I didn't get too many pics of the rays, and what I did get were all bad because they'll always flapping their bodies to swim, but got a couple almost decent pics of the sharks.

The coral reef part was my favorite, though. It was a large exhibit also, with people looking through the glass. I was incredible, but mostly outside the abilities of the camera. My memory has numerous snapshots, though, and if anyone who reads this goes to Sydney and likes this type of thing, go see it. I was so impressed that I almost want to go scuba diving on the reef. Almost.

The Windjammer's name I've forgotten, as I went without camera. It was something James, and for a donation one could board it and walk through the whole ship (mostly). The captain's quarters were nice, and you could also see where the crew slept, look down into the cargo hold, and walk around on deck. Quite impressive. A reproduction of the Bounty was docked there too, though it was closed off. Built in the '80's or '90's, it's already sailed every ocean for documentaries and the movie with Mel Gibson in it.

And that's about it for today. I did lots of walking, mostly just looking around, exploring, checking out the gorgeous women of Sydney, and breaking in my sandals, getting a tan. Yeah, that sorta stuff. Stopped at a food court for a turkey sandwich and "health mix" juice. They had such a station at the airport too -- specially mixed juices for different purposes, from stress relief to energy to curing bad breath! Apparently is a trend here in Oz. I wonder if they make one for stupidity? If so, I should buy one for the shuttle driver yesterday morning...

All for now! -tk


Updated: Feb. 20, 2004 8:35pm Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Whelp, Tibor is in da country! Got up at five this morning, no doubt to the annoyance of my dorm mates, put all my stuff together and then ran around in panic when there was nobody downstairs to check me out. Found the guy snoozing in the lounge, and fortunately had checked in late when I first arrived or else I wouldn't have know it was him I needed. Checked out and the airport shuttle I ordered came in and picked me up. Ended up with 2.5 hours to blow, so I ordered a egg and bacon bagel from a Mc Donalds in the airport. It also had some interesting sauce in it.

Side note: Stopped by Mc Donalds for lunch yesterday, too, and ordered a "Kiwi Burger," curious to see what that might be. It's a quarter pounder with lettuce and onion and a special sauce again. And a patty of fried egg under the beef pattie. And sliced pickled beats on top of the lettuce. It was downright delicious, if kinda hard to keep together, and as I see it, packed full of protein too. Good to have when the added activity of travel is "breaking in" (more like breaking down?) your leg muscles.

Side note number 2: Stopped by Kebab on Queen for dinner last night on recommendation. They sell Turkish food (including Kebabs), and are on Queen Street. Novel that, eh? Anyway, one of the best meals I ever had! It's like the Greek fare, numerous articles wrapped up into a pita-like wrap, complete even with "garlic yogurt sauce" - any visiting Greek would slap them on the hand and say "It's called tatziki, you Turkeys!" :-P - and was downright fantastic. I've got culinary Auckland going on over here; two fast food chains and a hungry Tibor - it's paradise in single-course meals. :-)

Back on track, flight was uneventful (and came with a second breakfast; bonus!), etc. The shuttle service here sucked, but I'm at the Sydney Central YHA, and think I'll head back this way whenever I need a break from "roughing it." It's a whopping $28-32/night, but chock full of everything a guy could ask for, from cafe to 'puters to laundry (with dryers! Dryers, I say! DRYERS!!! YAY!), and some other stuff. :-)

More when there's more to say. Today I'm in "housekeeping mode." -tk

PS - Did I mention they have dryers? Not just washers; no-siree! No hanging-my-boxers-out-on-a-line-on-the-balcony-next-to-someone-I'd-decidedly-like-to-meet's-bras for me over the next few days!!

Update - Laundry's done and I've been rather bored this afternoon, outside of chatting with a few fellow travelers. The travelling food critic has stricken again; I tried ox tongue for dinner having never eaten it before. It was more tender than I'd expected, but next time I'll pass. -tk


Updated: Feb. 19, 2004 5:45pm Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

Had my pictures burned to CD; here are a few of them:


Downtown Auckland


Looking up Victoria Street towards the Sky Tower from its end just past Queen.


A rocky coast of Waiheke island.


Beautiful, huh? This is where the ferry docks.


Along the shore, other side.


Some gnarly trees 'round here! The blue thing's my pack. ;-)


Just a pretty little bridge nearby.




Yep, I climbed those. 184 steps. One heavy pack. Did it five times; it's the way to the hostel.


Pretty island neighborhoods.


My final view of the beach this morning.


Returning to Auckland by ferry.

All for now; tomorrow I fly to Sydney. -tk



Updated: Feb. 18, 2004 10:00am Auckland, North Island, New Zealand

It was a looooooooooooooooooong plane ride here, well, three of them, but I arrived a couple nights ago around 11:30pm the day after I left courtesy of the international date line. Took shuttle and spent my first night in a hostel. They're really not bad; beds are sufficient, showers have always had hot water when I've wanted it, etc. Fairly comfy.

Yesterday was my first day, and as can be expected I took the morning to get over a bit of culture shock. Auckland is a great place to get over it, though, as it's a bustling city full of walkers (unlike Dallas!), yet isn't so large as to be intimidating. The only downside is the massive hills, which had me wincing at the end of the day. I'm not used to such walking; where's my truck?!

Nice city, though. Plenty of atmosphere, even if the party animals complain that it shuts down early and is "boring." I get a rush just walking through the crowds, looking at all the interesting shops, etc. Took several photos, but my link cable is, um ... left at home. Oops. :-/

If New Zealand is only 6% Asian, this is where they all live. Japanese cars abound (including, sigh, "ricers" with mufflers that make them sound like pissed off bumble-bees). It's definitely a melting pot like many large cities, and apparently the Asians bring a good portion of the wealth. Houses, I'm told, are incredibly expensive in some places, geared mostly towards what school district you're in. For example, someone I met here explained that the rent on her apartment is, weekly, only a hundred bucks shy of my prior rent was monthly! So ... about three times? Almost four. Wow.

The climate is amazing, or at least the weather yesterday was. The clouds blew in, dropped rain for a couple minutes, and blew right back out. Repeat every few hours. Welcome to Auckland! :-)

Today I'm off to Waihekie (spelling butchered - w-i-h-ee-k-ee) to spend the night, via ferry. I hear there are gorgeous beaches there, and I'm all about that at the moment. :-)

-tk



Updated: Feb. 12, 2004 9:00pm New Jersey, USA

Welcome to my first update from the road! The truck and I made the drive to Jersey from Texas. It was loooooong. I departed Tuesday morning at 5:15am and turned in around 10:15pm in West Virginia in a Motel 8. After 17 hours on the road, with only stops for refueling (both of us), I decided I was enough ahead of the curve to sleep in and watch a little TV, so I hit the road yesterday morning around 10am and got here around seven or eight after several slow downs, including waiting 20 minutes in line at a carwash in Maryland to wash off the salt that coated the roads a second time. I can't complain about the weather at all; the roads were all clear and not a drop of rain struck the windsheild. The second day, it was sunny the entire drive!

Stopping the first night proved to be a good idea, because the scenery running through West Virginia on ... 97 was it? ... was incredible. Up and down, threading through the hills (mountains?) and ascending and descending a couple. I spied old century churches and schoolhouses, and old barns and houses too, which was great except that there'd usually be, within a few hundred feet, somebody's rusty white trash double-wide marring an otherwise perfect scene. How unfortunate. But that aside, the roads were winding, the scenery stunning and the truck absolutely flying, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The truck did well with the new gears and mods; held 72 or 78 (eight over the limit even got me through speed traps unscathed) perfectly in 5th gear with the cruise control running the show. I finally stomped on it at one point and flew by a V8 Land Cruiser that was speeding up on the downhills (and passing me), then making me cancel the cruise on the uphills when he was in the way. Every now and then the cruise control would reach the bottom of a hill and push me back in my seat to ascend. I paid for the extra oompf at the pump, though; my highway mileage is now 20 to the previous 22. The new muffler the truck got a month or two ago, while a little noisy in town, was almost silent at cruising speed as I blazed through the states, so I didn't even have to crank the radio. Put a bit of wear and tear on the "scan" button, though, as stations came in and out through the mountains and none of my CD's appealled to me for some reason. The route took me through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. As a side note, the map I printed off from maps.yahoo.com was accurate as to which highways to take, exits, directions, etc, but underestimated the mileage on a few legs, sometimes by 50-100 miles. Anyway, I neglected to whip out the camera until I hit Maryland, which was a tad less impressive than West Virginia (esp. when I arrived at Baltimore right at rush hour - that downright blew), but here are a few photos from the early portions of the state. -Tibor









The following morning. Zaurusman is in the state!




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