Last Day In Australia

The final day has come. I’m officially moving on from Australia onward to Columbia. I will pass through Hawaii on the way and sleep there for the night and then have another long journey through California, then Texas, to finally Bogota, Columbia. I was first planning on working for a few more weeks to save up enough cash for two months to visit Columbia and then Costa Rica, but the type of work offered to me ran out unfortunately and there was no way I was going to do another shitty backpacker job in Australia. Plus on top of that, my road worthy inspection for my vehicle ended up being horrible and the car need about 3000$ of fixing plus 800$ for registration and then another 400$ for insurance. I bought the car for 2750$ and the thing ran sketchy and overheated so I was like fuck it I’m not driving it until I have to sell it. I was lucky enough to have this job in the middle of nowhere for a month and free accommodation at the place I was working so no need of driving anywhere.

I literally lived where I worked. The guy I worked for was a bipolar dick (just my luck). He was some millionaire that made is fortune in Papa New Guinea off gold mines and the people that I had to hang around with constantly told me the stories of the horrible things he would make these Papa New Guineas do in order to make him extra cash and save. For instance, instead of buying sand from a supplier he would have each worker swim across a crocodile infested river in order to retrieve a bag full a sand and would have to somehow swim and carry this full bag of sand back over without being eaten. Other things they told me on the day of the arrival was that he treats backpackers like shit and the guy that has worked for him for a long time accounts days where he would literally fired people and take all their bags and things and leave them outside to hitchhike. Hearing all this shit I was like okay what the fuck. Why is my fucking luck so shit most of the times and fuck this guy who I’m about to work for. On top of that it was a carpentry/builders job with people that have experience, and the only experience I had was helping the dude nailing shit in by holding shit up. The first couple weeks were great. This madman guy that I was working for was super chill and founded alright if I didn’t know what to do as long as I somewhat got the concept and then figure it out by myself. Then after a two week mark, the man snapped on me one time for not handed him cord for the TV fast enough. I just stared at the man and all these stories flushed into my mind about the guy everyone called a madman tyrant. These episodes with the crew happened about once a day for the next three weeks and the only thing holding me back from snapping on was one, the money I needed bad and two, I had free accommodation and couldn’t drive my car anywhere. The saddest part to all this is the man knew this was both me and this German situation and knew we couldn’t even speak back or else we be thrown out of the job site like the last few backpackers. Within this month I worked there, his loyal right hand man and a good man couldn’t take his shit anymore and just let. Like literally took all his tools from the site on a Sunday and left on Monday with his camper. The next day Mike my bosses name is, just asked me where did he go? since I was the only one working and I just shook my head and played dumb and said I don’t know Mike. The good man never answered any of Mike’s calls that day or week and never heard from him again. Mike eventually found two highly skilled builders with 20-50s experience and the week they were hired was amazing and disappointing at the same time. They were amazing Australian people with wonderful stories and wisdom. The guy that had 50 years experience taught me a lot about building just in a couple days of work and opened my mind on different ways to approach certain things to build. I truly did like what I was doing this last month even know I have never done any of things he asked me to do. I was learning what exactly I wanted to learn though. How to basically build a house from roofing to flooring to timber, electrical, pluming, irrigation, cold rooms, cabinets, and etc. The only bad thing was the dick boss, but I could handle that for sure because everyday I was mind blown on how you actually built this and that. Well the week when the guys got hired was the week where there was no more work for me. The type of work that was being done was required by one individual and really two working on the project would be a waste of money so I saw that side on that. During that week Mike did try to keep me busy and gain me money till the end of the week but Friday after I built my last cooler room for the beer storage Mike unfortunately told me that he has skilled workers now and wished he could keep me but there are no projects in the near weeks that could make him profit and keep me busy. Was Mike a bad guy in the end though. I still think yes. Maybe he had a bit of bipolarness to him and when these ticks came the would go just as fast and he would be smiling again. It was very bizarre to say the least. The man once bought me a smoothie for building a concrete slab for him all by myself in under three hours which was brutal and would say very good to a lot of my shit because it was very good (I had to prove myself to this guy). One thing that made me believe that he’s just a dark man was this. When he said there was no more work for me I was just like Mike I completely understand but can I stay in the hotel till Sunday to figure out what to do with my car and my options. His reply was of course you can but just after tonight you have to pay 70$ a night for this room. The room by the way was a dorm room with four beds in it with mice and cockroaches all in it. Bad guy for sure.

Anyways I’m always looking on the bright side of things and the bright side is the man gave me work and a place to stay for a month and let me work for him even though I didn’t have any skill in the profession. I’m a damn Engineer man not a builder I’ll admit that. Unfortunately Karma’s coming for the middle-aged greedy man because both builders that came in experienced the Wrath of Mike that week and when he walked away they both decided that this job isn’t worth it and won’t be showing up at work on Monday. Even the German I worked with didn’t tell Mike he was leaving on Tuesday which is today back to Germany. I can only imagine how this week is going for him. Don’t yell a people like their worthless ya cunt. With some money saved up I have decided to go to Columbia. While I’m up with cash get out of Australia and go enjoy yourself for your last hoorah of my 8 month journey. The day after I left my old job I posted my camper van online for 700$ and headed back to Cairns to sell. I told myself I would give myself till Monday to sell it or she’s going to the dump. Lucky me, that day I put it on I got 10 messages from people and one guy in particular was in the small town Mareeba that I stopped at for some McDonalds. I told the guy all the problems that wrong with it and etc and he tried to talk me down to 400$. I said to the man my bro I got 10 other people calling and I’m a nice dude practically giving away this car at 700 and the price will not go up or down. The man made a deal and said if he buys the car for 650$ and take me to Cairns a 1.5hr drive would we have a deal. I said deal. So boom now I have an extra bit of cash for this trip and stay in Cairns till today and now I’m at the airport.

For Columbia I don’t know what to expect I hear it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people and a lively culture. My plan is just to meet people in Bogota and then head to Medellin for a week and then for the rest of my trip chill in a bungalow by the beach with a pine colada in my hand reflecting on my travels. A true vacation after a long vacation. Three weeks no more no less and then back to the greatest country in the world and unarguably one of the best states, Florida.

Here some pictures though Australia was amazing with nature and stuff:

Australia In Words

Hello good people of the world it has been awhile. I have been in Australia for almost two months now and I have been grinding for the past month. When I got over here I needed a job asap. I found a job just outside of Sydney for a company that seemed promising and I bought a campervan to live in while working. Well the company was shit in the end and bit me in the ass, and I worked one day for that company and quit. The reason? Well they lied about day shifts on the interview and put me on a night shift. The night shift was from 5pm at night to 7am in the morning with no dinner break. Straight 14 hours of work and it was all bullshit. No one knew what to do. They tried to get me to drive an 18 wheeler that was manual and I was like I can’t do that shit I have never driven an 18 wheeler and just started to learn stick. Everyone was just standing around and a 6 hour day turned into a 14 hour day. So when that happened and I quit, I freaked out. I was down money and had this damn campervan. Luckily enough I landed a job with this other construction company out in Parramatta, a 30 minute drive from Sydney.

The company was small and focused on structural construction of condos. When I heard about this I was like perfect. I am an engineer that wants to learn about the construction side of things and be hands on with the process. They said I would be helping the foreman in anything he needs, and the job site that I will be on has just started last month. I said to myself finally a job that I can do for a couple months and learn what I need to learn. Well so I thought. I worked for this company for a little over three weeks, six days a week. I did hardcore labor, and I mean hardcore. I was lifting 200 lbs of steel every day for hours on end, and digging massive trenches to expose the capping beam. Digging these trenches was extra hard because the soil in Australia is all clay. Every day for three weeks my arms and legs would bleed from rubbing rebar and my back would be sore from moving massive amounts of dirt. I cleaned everyone’s trash on site and was basically the bitch. I learned nothing about building and that was a problem. All I saw was how things were being built like as I saw when I was an engineer. The only difference is I was doing bitch work while watching and being an engineer you just watch. I had to leave this joint but was forced to stay because of money issues so hints the three weeks of work. I have made no friends for these past few weeks because I have been working constantly and I have no time since I can only shower at the gym because I live in a camper van. Good news though is that I have saved a couple grand and plan on traveling up the east coast of Australia from Sydney to the Gold Coast. Sydney is just not the place for me. Too much like New York and not laid back at all. No hospitality and the beaches are just alright. I want the true Australian experience and I think Gold Coast is that place.

My campervan is a little bitch. She was running pretty the first week I bought her and started growling at me after. Me learning stick shift didn’t help and her having 340000km on her didn’t help either. The van is a 1998 toyota townace. I picked it up from a surfer bro in Sydney leaving for Germany. I told him my situation and asked to please not fuck me on this deal and tell me she drives good and she won’t break down. He said she drives good and you should have no worries. Well for a week she did and then I had to change the oil and fix the clutch. That set me back about 800 dollars and now the battery light is on the day before I head on my adventure up north. The engine also overheats a lot and the coolant runs out quick. The mechanic tells me it’s just because it’s old. What the fuck kind of mechanic answer is that. Anyways hopefully she makes it up there tomorrow I might buy a new battery in the next town.

So now I am currently at a hostel. I have finally found power to charge my Mac and type this shit out. You’d be surprised what you don’t have when you live in a campervan. The biggest thing is a toilet. Every morning I wake up at 6am at some soccer field park and the restroom facilities are locked till 8am. So I have to hold in my shit and piss till work at 7am. You have no idea how hard that can be some days and some nights. The second thing is electricity. For some reason there are no outlets anywhere in parks in Sydney. I don’t know why. When I get home from work there is literally no place to charge my shit other than my car. Well you might say, why don’t you just go to the library or go to some fast food place to charge your shit for an hour or so. I’ll tell you why. It is because I work 8-10 hours a day doing hardcore lifting. Then I have to drive 10 km to my gym to shower and workout, if I have enough strength. Then I have to go to the grocery store every two days to restock up on ice and food and then cook the food and then finally its 9pm at night I have to be asleep by 10pm to get 8 hours rest for work. Time is the bitch in this case and I cannot go a day without showering because I’m filthy after work. To solve this electricity problem I have bought a marine battery and a solar power set up system costing me 350 dollars. Unfortunately solar sucks ass and it takes 72 hours to charge the battery I have so on 4 hours of direct sunlight I get 30 percent battery charge out of my phone from this battery. Sydney is clouded as fuck too and parking under direct sunlight is near impossible with all the trees. 350 dollars I think is wasted with that. The last thing with a campervan is uncontrolled temperatures. It gets down to 50 degrees at night now and I am freezing my butt off. I have to get some extra blankets or something else to control the temperature.

Nature I have not seen that much and hopefully I will see some more on my journey up to the Gold Coast. I have been to the beaches here in Sydney and they are not as good as Florida beaches. Everything I have taken advantage of in Florida I have started to realize coming here to Australia. Everything that you hear about a country I am starting to understand is over exaggerated. I will tell you one thing though. The views at the national parks I have been to are stunning.

The Big Drive:

I have made my way up to Coff’s Harbor from Sydney. My engine sounded fucked the next day after I left the hostel plus I had a massive hangover on top of that for the first stretch. Can you blame me for the hangover though? I made first contact with people my age and like me traveling, and they were all drinking! Plus, I was trying to find a candidate that would travel with me on this voyage but no luck with that. Anyways, the first day was rough. My google maps was not working properly and took me on a scary route into the heart of Sydney. I was driving stick on a messed up high revving engine in the middle of skyscrapers and taxis on a hangover. I was freaking out! Plus, I had to look down at my phone every five seconds to see the blue lined route of roads I had to turn on because google maps couldn’t find me for some reason in the world. Luckily after 30 minutes I escaped the city and was onto this place called Cave Beach. It was a small town that looked like a good resting point for me. In agony for two hours on this drive from my headache I finally made it, but when I started to slow my speed down off the Pacific Highway my engine was screaming with high revs like I was flooring it. It did this all the way to Cave Beach parking lot and then I turned it off and the thing kept rumbling and going, trying to get all the gas out. I middle age man came up concerned and tried to check to see what the problem was. I told him it could be my battery causing it because the same day I took it into the auto store seeing why my battery light was on and they said it was all good, just needs a recharge (meaning your alternator isn’t working right). The dude said no it’s probably your timing belt and took a look at it and said I don’t know take it in to a mechanic and see what they say tomorrow. So with all this bad news I decided to relax on the beach all night and wait for the morning, bring out the ukulele and chill my mind.

In the morning, I decided to clear my mind on top of the night before, and woke up for the sunset and did some yoga on the beach. That shit helped a lot and I was like alright fantastic let’s go to the mechanic. I called one mechanic that said he would check it out and went there and we looked and I told him everything that was going wrong and in the end he told me I had a blown gasket! My heart sunk and I thought my journey was over but I told the mechanic there’s no way I checked the oil and it looks good and check the gaskets yesterday and looked for stuff in the coolant. Everything was clean. The guy even did a chemical test on the radiator to make sure and the blue stuff didn’t change color meaning no blown gasket. I decided to take a chance and try to make it up to Port Macquarie, a two hour drive up north. I thought well if it’s fucked it’s fucked and I can’t fix nor sell her so what the hell. The whole time driving the engine was revving and I pulled over once to cool the engine down, fill her back up, and keep on going. I then stopped for gas on a quarter tank left and started to get going again and the engine didn’t turn on. Like the auto store guy said, the alternator isn’t charging the battery. I was literally in the middle of nowhere and fucked with no jumper cables. I saw this dude next to me pumping and I said, “hey man you mind rolling me down that little hill so I can jump start it in second?” The good man said yes and boom she was back running again. I made a decision that I had to get the alternator fixed that day or at least recharge my battery so I stopped in this boon dock town by a river and took it to an electrician mechanic. Guy took out my battery and charged it and then took out my alternator to see that the brushes were completely wore down. The mate gave me new brushes in the alternator and tada I was driving again and my engine finally sounded normal like she did the first day I got her.

I have made it now to Coffs Harbor and slept by the beaches on my way up. Each time the beaches have been getting better and today the beach I went to was aweing. This was what I was looking for in Australia and hope has been restored. Money is a little down more than I like obviously with these fixes but I am determined to make it up to Gold Coast and surf the waves and wakeboard the rivers and meet some awesome people. There I will find something sweet and true. I know it. More pictures will be added to the next blog and it will be more soon I promise. Again this blog is just a reflection of my travels in the most general ways and sorry this shit’s 2100 words. Till next time.

Much Further Down The Road:

Holy shit, I have jumped on my computer reading this old shit that I have typed out and never posted on WordPress. I am deeply sorry for the readers of this blog but shit man this journey has been no other than a fucking journey. Alright let me tell you the rest of my story till the point of now. I went up the east coast all right, all the way up to Byron Bay. I was worn down from my journey from Sydney and thought I’d found home. I landed at a hostel named The Arts Factory Lounge. It was a hippie oasis for the stoners and the wanderlust minds of individuals to live in the present and not live in the future. I could dig it but I couldn’t do it. This place was unique with hundreds of tents and individuals my age, older and younger just living life day by day and slowing it down. The average individual at this camp I would rather call it, would wake up and bake. Sit for hours on end and maybe, just maybe head out of the hostel to the beach and relax. Come back to the hostel, cook some dinner, smoke some more or do shrooms and await the same day. This life style wasn’t me. Especially every day. I want to do something with my time and some days, yes, some days I will do absolutely nothing like this but not every day. The hostel was booked full every night with nowhere to park. I was that sketchy guy that walked in like he lived in the place well in fact just parked down the road behind a dumpster and slept in my van. Hey it beat 20 dollars a night for just parking, and in Byron Bay you get a ticket sleeping in your van on the side of the road, but not this guy. I stayed in Byron Bay for two weeks and heard the words of the stoners that Gold Coast was no good and a waste of time to live. I couldn’t find a job in Byron Bay though nor did I like the lifestyle living there knowing it would only affect me badly, so I decided to drive again 2 hours north to the Gold Coast.

Gold Coast was indeed crap. I am sorry whoever lives there and probably could argue there are some sweet spots that only the locals know but again I am a Florida boy. I put my ad on gumtree on about how I was an engineer and I have worked in construction and etc. and then I thought to myself what the fuck am I doing. This whole time I have been surviving and struggling in Australia and I am settling down in a crappy town trying again to find a crappy job. Scared as fuck about my shitty van I sat quietly in a park mid-day on my bed, weighing out my options. I was seriously scared shitless about heading up north to Cairns and the 24 hour journey ahead of me because I’m only going 80km/hr in this van and the consequences I will suffer if I break down. It took two hours for me to decide and I said fuck and decided to go the route, go big or go home. I went fucking big. I drove those 24 hours and the van purred the whole way up. I drove 6 hours a day for four days straight and finally made it up to Cairns with 2000 of aus dollars that I still had in the bank. Filled with euphoria and goodwill I set on a journey to find a job within a week or else my time is done in this country and I have done the best I could making my time in Australia. I luckily landed a job in a small town named Dimbulah 100 plus kilometers west from Cairns in the start of the Outback. City population of 500 people. The town is small and relaxed and I am working on a job as a carpenter renovating an old hotel into a hostel for a millionaire. My boss acts like a tyrant making his riches from Papa New Guinea on gold mines run by aboriginals. He still acts like he did back when he ran a gold mine and treats people as peasants and only is there for his own self gain. It is very fascinating for me to watch this man and hear some of the words that come out of his mouth when the project isn’t running smoothly. The way he treats people is off putting and he himself has raised questionable words with me but retreats most of his anguish knowing I am more than a weary traveler eager for pay. The work however is pleasing to me because I am learning and relearning the ways of building a house. Something I’ve always dreamed of knowing how to build and what goes into it. Also, I am staying in one of the rooms of the hotel and using the kitchen anytime that I please which is a big step up from what I was doing.

Living out here has been relaxing and nice. The people out here live simple lives and enjoy good company. I have heard great stories from the locals at the bar and feel like I’m living amongst true Aussies. I will continue doing this work for a month or two, and then head to Columbia in South America. Australia has not been what I hoped for. I pictured myself with a great paying job and cool aussie friends hanging out after 7 hour work day on the beach with a beer after a nice surf sesh. Instead I have gotten 10 hour work days with very few friends and 100 km from the beach. In life you have to try things to see the true meaning behind it or else you never know. I am glad I have came here and I have tried, but Australia is no place for me and in a couple months from now I will try my luck elsewhere. What I have learned from this experience? that I am great at surviving and believe in myself in the worst times. I know that I am a great person, that is nice and kind and tries to be the best person that I can be no matter the influence. You are who you are and can be what you want to be because you are everything that you think, control, act, know, and want to become. I have faith in myself because I know myself and I know no matter what happens I will always find a way. Take the road unknown from that of a highway you might find something you never known and might find more that you have known about yourself. Till next time.

Life So Far In Australia

The company was small and focused on structural construction of condos. When I heard about this I was like perfect. I am an engineer that wants to learn about the construction side of things and be hands on with the process. They said I would be helping the foreman in anything he needs, and the job site that I will be on has just started last month. I said to myself finally a job that I can do for a couple months and learn what I need to learn. Well so I thought. I worked for this company for a little over three weeks, six days a week. I did hardcore labor, and I mean hardcore. I was lifting 200 lbs of steel every day for hours on end, and digging massive trenches to expose the capping beam. Digging these trenches were extra hard because the soil in Australia is all clay. Every day for three weeks my arms and legs would bleed from rubbing rebar and my back would be sore from moving massive amounts of dirt. I cleaned everyone’s trash on site and was basically the bitch. I learned nothing about building and that was a problem. All I saw was how things were being built like as I saw when I was an engineer. The only difference is I was doing bitch work while watching and being an engineer you just watch. I had to leave this joint but was forced to stay because of money issues so hints the three weeks of work. I have made no friends for these past few weeks because I have been working constantly and I have no time since I can only shower at the gym because I live in a camper van. Good news though is that I have saved a couple grand and plan on traveling up the east coast of Australia from Sydney to the Gold Coast. Sydney is just not the place for me. Too much like New York and not laid back at all. No hospitality and the beaches are just alright. I want the true Australian experience and I think Gold Coast is that place.

So now I am currently at a hostel. I have finally found power to charge my Mac and type this shit out. You’d be surprised what you don’t have when you live in a campervan. The biggest thing is a toilet. Every morning I wake up at 6am at some soccer field park and the restroom facilities are locked till 8am. So I have to hold in my shit and piss till work at 7am. You have no idea how hard that can be some days and some nights. The second thing is electricity. For some reason there are no outlets anywhere in parks in Sydney. I don’t know why. When I get home from work there is literally no place to charge my shit other than my car. Well you might say, why don’t you just go to the library or go to some fast food place to charge your shit for an hour or so. I’ll tell you why. It is because I work 8-10 hours a day doing hardcore lifting. Then I have to drive 10 km to my gym to shower and workout, if I have enough strength. Then I have to go to the grocery store every two days to restock up on ice and food and then cook the food and then finally its 9pm at night I have to be asleep by 10pm to get 8 hours rest for work. Time is the bitch in this case and I cannot go a day without showering because I’m filthy after work. To solve this electricity problem I have bought a marine battery and a solar power set up system costing me 350 dollars. Unfortunately solar sucks ass and it takes 72 hours to charge the battery I have so on 4 hours of direct sunlight I get 30 percent battery charge out of my phone from this battery. Sydney is clouded as fuck too and parking under direct sunlight is near impossible with all the trees. 350 dollars I think is wasted with that. The last thing with a campervan is controlled temperatures. It gets down to 50 degrees at night now and I am freezing my butt off. I have to get some extra blankets or something else to control the tempature.

The Big Drive:

I have made my way up to Coff’s Harbor from Sydney. My engine sounded fucked the next day after I left the hostel plus I had a massive hangover on top of that for the first stretch. Can you blame me for the hangover though? I made first contact with people my age and like me traveling, and they were all drinking! Plus, I was trying to find a candidate that would travel with me on this voyage but no luck with that. Anyways, the first day was rough. My google maps was not working properly and took me on a scary route into the heart of Sydney. I was driving stick on a messed up, high revving engine in the middle of skyscrapers and taxis on a hangover. I was freaking out! Plus, I had to look down at my phone every five seconds to see the blue lined route of roads I had to turn on because google maps couldn’t find me for some reason in the world. Luckily after 30 minutes I escaped the city and was onto this place called Cave Beach. It was a small town that looked like a good resting point for me. In agony for two hours on this drive from my headache I finally made it, but when I started to slow my speed down off the Pacific Highway my engine was screaming with high revs like I was flooring it. It did this all the way to Cave Beach parking lot and then I turned it off and the thing kept rumbling and going, trying to get all the gas out. I middle age man came up concerned and tried to check to see what the problem was. I told him it could be my battery causing it because the same day I took it into the auto store seeing why my battery light was on and they said it was all good, just needs a recharge (meaning your alternator isn’t working right). The dude said no it’s probably your timing belt and took a look at it and said I don’t know take it in to a mechanic and see what they say tomorrow. So with all this bad news I decided to relax on the beach all night and wait for the morning, bring out the ukulele and chill my mind.

Malaysia and India

It has been well over two months and pushing three in another part of the world besides the United States. I am happy to find out that my visa has been approved and I will start my job searching in Australia in the beginning of March. My journey has been an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. I have two weeks left till my flight leaves out of Bangkok and I have decided to spend those two weeks in North India. I will see the Taj Mahal and be there for Holli day. Before this trip I was in Malaysia for five days to check out the city Kuala Lumpur.

I’ll be honest with you we didn’t really check out any of Malaysia. We basically just saw the Petronas Towers and went to shopping markets. Why is this? Because honestly we were tired of always being on the move and just wanted to relax, lay back, and have some brews. A vacation in a vacation. It amazes me how when you travel for a while and are on vacation, shit starts to get real tiring real quick. Someone’s reading this and is probably like, give me a fucking break, I’m working 40 plus hours a week and your complaining about traveling. Trust me I know, and I try to tell myself that every day. Take in the moment because soon you will be working again wishing that you were traveling. But man I’ve been to a lot of places in less than three months. I’ve been 9 cities in Thailand, 3 cities in Laos, 10 cities in Vietnam, 1 city in Singapore, and 1 city in Malaysia. That’s a lot of shit in 2 and half months man. So like I was saying, we decided to do nothing for five days in Kuala Lumpur, rent an air bnb, and just drink. We deserved it.

I liked Kuala Lumpur from what I saw. The city felt like it was a mix of Thailand’s craziness with Singapore’s infrastructure. Had the same kind of mix culture vibe with people from every corner of the world. Felt like a real melting pot. The bars were really cool. Very modern like the U.S. with a little bit of a middle east vibe. People were friendly and outgoing, and everyone knew how to speak english. The food was the bomb, and if you don’t like SE Asian food they had really good western food. I ate a lot of western food here to fatten me up for India. Plus you get really sick of Asian food after months. At least I think so. Again I’m just an average american traveling Asia for a good bit. Opening up my mind and seeing what these places are really like and trying new things like the food (but it gets old). Getting out of my comfort zone and exploring the unknown. But I’m not a hippie. Probably a bad term to say and I have no problem with hippies, but I didn’t come to Asia for enlightenment. I didn’t think this trip was going to change me to a spiritual being that sees a whole new way of life. Fuck that would have been great but I know myself, and I am not like that. I looked at this trip as time to clear my mind and figure out what I want to do, and do a path that most people don’t usually take in the U.S. I read some people’s blogs about traveling and I’m just like fucking hell they thought everything was magical as hell and life’s never been so perfect and there’s fairy dust everywhere. For some parts of this trip I feel them and I have wrote some blogs about certain magical times in my trip like biking through Vietnam through these amazing mountain ranges. The whole adventure though I’m just saying isn’t so magical. It gets to a point where your just like oh that’s pretty cool. Or that’s neat. Or even like this is shitty. However every 3 or so days you see something that just stimulates the fuck out of your mind and you’re like hell yeah! that’s so cool! It sucks to think this way, but I am just telling you it is the truth. Thing’s just start becoming the norm when everything is not normal. It’s a weird concept but I’m just letting the mind flow. People hype shit up. Sorry for going on a tangent. I was just talking about food and went completely another way with that. Oh well.

Anyways so back to Malaysia. We had a super sick condo right on drinking street. Basically drank almost every night, met amazing people with the same idea, and had a break from seeing the world. Pictures below are the Petronas Towers:

Now I’m chilling in India. I’ve been here for about five days now. I remember being in college and one of my friends wanted to go to India and teach kids how to speak english. I told the man that he’s fucking crazy and India seems just like a shit hole with too many people running around and acting weird and shit. I said I would never go to India and I have no desire. Well traveling has opened my mind a little bit and now I’m eating crow. My buddies have convince to come to India to explore the cities Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and New Delhi for holli day. I said, “you know what why the fuck not?” If I don’t like it I’ll never come back but I won’t know unless I go, so here I am.

India I kind of like. It’s a weird chaotic place that kind of is a shit hole with uncleanliness, but there’s something about it. Everywhere you look there’s something that interest you. Like a cow blocking a 3 lane highway and everyone is waiting for this cow to move because it’s sacred. Traffic is chaotic, and outside the traffic there’s hecklers doing business and people performing weird tasks like crushing up weird shit that you don’t know why he’s crushing it up, putting some liquid on it, and then throwing it into a fire, then thinking why the fuck did he do all that just to throw it in the fire? Buildings are pretty and old. Never seen building like these. They look like what I would see in Aladdin and that’s probably a horrible reference because I’m thinking Aladdin is probably somewhere completely different than India. The people for the most part are nice if they aren’t trying to get money out of you. The colors are vivid here. I see these women in the most gorgeous colors that make them full of light and they glow. Maybe that’s what I like the most so far? The colors. They all express themselves through colors that captures the eye. Foods great here too. I thought I was going to starve because everyone said Indian food is worse than Thai food but boy are they wrong.

The craziest thing I have done so far in India is met a gypsy that was my tuk tuk driver and go to his house in the slums to met his family after his shift at night. This was in Jaipur in the poorest slums. There was barely a roof that they lived under and there was 15 people living in this building that had to be less than 20 foot by 20 foot upstairs and downstairs. I was mind blown. However he told me it’s not about the money it is about if you are happy, and that is the most important part. I told him you hit it right on the nail bubba. He and his family played music to me all night and his little boys were singing and dancing with the biggest smiles on their face. It does amaze me how people can be so happy in the worst places, but they were and are truly happy.

I am now in Jodhpur. I took a 8 hour bus from Udaipur that was cramped and had no A/C. This city is called the blue city and it’s all blue. Other than that I don’t know what to do here then see the blue city. What I am looking forward to is riding a camel in the desert and camping out, seeing the Taj Mahal, and celebrating the end of my Asia trip with Holli day. These experiences are what I am looking forward to, and hopefully they will be amazing. Down here is some of the pictures I have taken so far while being here:

Thailand and Singapore

Southeast Thailand In the Islands:

It’s been awhile since I last wrote. I have made it back down to Thailand to visit the islands in the south. I decided to get my open water license in scuba diving in Koh Tao. I figured when I visit Austrialia I will eventually see the great barrier reef and will need to scuba to see it. So being in Koh Tao, the worlds cheapest place to get a diver’s license, might as well. Diving was fun. You went through a lot of training and learning. Learning the diving tables and when decompression sickness starts, and also the techniques you need to know in case of emergencies. The fish in Koh Tao were pretty neat. I have to say though that there’s something far better when diving in Florida. I feel like Florida’s underwater life is more vibrant and energetic. Bigger fish to see at 60 feet than over here. The only good thing about over here though is once in a while you will see a whale shark. Never saw one though. The place where I got certified was called big blue diving school. The instructors where great and the school you stayed at was right on the water. Everyone that I dove with was in their 20’s just backpacking through Asia. After I got certified in open water scuba I stayed back for a little bit on the island to chill out, waiting to hear back about my visa. My visa is unfortunately still processing and has not yet been approved. Therefore, I plan on continuing my travels through Asia. Right now I am heading to Krabi to see a couple islands on the west side of southern Thailand and then I am heading down to Singapore. After few days in Singapore I will make it up to Malaysia, then fly to India. Hopefully by the time I make it to India my visa will be approved and then I’m off to Australia.

A series of unfortunate events has happened this last week. After 2 months of being abroad I finally came down with food poisoning and also a fever. I have now recovered but it has been hell this last week and a half. I had to get my diver’s license when this was happening and my god I was dying. Another unfortunate thing that happened was when I went to the full moon party in Koh Phang. I lady boy came out of nowhere and snatched my family crest right from my neck. This guy was real slick about it. He came out of the crowed grabbed my privates as hard as he can. I leaned down obviously to grab myself and screamed, “what the fuck!” showed him away and he disappeared. Pissed off at the guy I walked off and five minutes later realized my necklace was gone. If you go to that party stay away from the lady boys and do not bring any values. On top of all this my visa has not been approved which is also unfortunate.

I’m a positive person though. Shit happens. Sometimes when you on a string of badluck you just got to smile and push through. Things will eventually get better. I’m breathing and that’s all that matters and I could be stuck behind a desk hating life everyday so I really have nothing to complain about. Today however I feel fucking fanatastic. Sickness is gone, the sun is shining and I feel like dancing. The fact that I am officially wandering with no general plan has put me into a state a peace. I’m going to ride this mysterious wave and see which unknown lands it takes me.

Koh Phi Phi and Singapore

Koh Phi Phi is a pretty island. It’s located on the West side of southern Thailand and it is one of the places that made me choose to travel Thailand. There is this place called Mayan Bay which is this beach wrapped around by massive mountains in the middle of the ocean. It is truly paradise. This is the main reason I came to this island. All I did is arrive at the port, check in my baggage at this shit hostel that partied till 2am with loud music, and hike to see the sunset at a view point. Coming back from this I saw a fire show on the beach at night and drank a couple beers and then got ready for bed because the next day I had to be up at 6am to go to Mayan Bay. Why so early? Well if you go to Mayan Bay at lets say 11am, there is so many people on the beach you are practically touching shoulder to shoulder. So on that note I wanted the whole beach to myself. I woke up early the next day, took a private boat with some friends and landed on the beach. We had to pay a 400 baht national park fee but honestly I think it is not real. They guy kept yelling at us to pay or the police will come but when we gave him the money he just smiled and walked away. There was no police. So if you ever go there ask where to pay and just walked toward the boat he tells you to pay at and then when you are far enough away turn towards the beach and walk right in. Anyways the beach was beautiful. There was about 20 other people on the beach but that’s it. It’s definitely worth going to but like most pictures on the posters in Asia. Assume it’s not going to be as good as that, but it was good enough. I took a couple pictures on the island but the sun wasn’t fully up so most of the crystal-clear water was in the shade. I’m a Florida boy though and the water looked as clear as the keys so it was very nice.

My short travels to Koh Phi Phi were done like that. I took the pictures, saw the honey hole and went off to see Singapore next. I was in Singapore for three days and god I loved it. Everyone says Singapore is so clean and nice when I’ve been traveling around Asia and I just thought to myself, “yeah that’s because shit is dirty over here it’s probably like the states.” When I got there however they were right. The city was virtually spotless of trash and everything looked new and organized. The architecture and infrastructure was amazing and so beautiful. I was getting a little engineer hard on looking at it all. Transportation everywhere was easy and efficient and Singapore seemed like a big melting pot with people from all over the world working there. On the first night, the people I have been traveling with and I went out to the nicest place in town in our nicest clothes and shared a few drinks on the 57^th floor of this tower looking over all of the city. The view was stunning, the drinks were good and I burned a little hole in my wallet. All worth it to celebrate our travels together for two months. The next day we toured the city. We went to see the Gardens by The Bay landmark and other major sites. The whole time again during this day I just was appreciating the infrastructure. At night, we again went to Gardens by The Bay and after saw a water fountain light show. Gardens by The Bay was amazing. Whoever designed and made that place my hats off to you. It’s a must see when you go to Singapore.

I am off to Malaysia now for five days. I hear they have good food and drinks are cheap. After those five days, I make my way to India for a couple of weeks. I still feel fantastic. I’m at one hundred percent right now and have been really happy traveling every day. It just hit me after my sickness and just thinking to myself what you’ve been doing has truly been an amazing experience and the journey gets to continue for a little bit more. I’ll post some pictures below again like one of my previous blogs. Yeah I know most of my blogs are sloppy and the details are not very define but that just happens when you’ve seen so much man. It is really hard to write a less than two-thousand-word blog when you start adding details. I’m just a simple man that decided to travel a little bit and give my thoughts on the matter. Plus taking so pictures while I’m on my way.

Koh Tao:

Krabi:

Koh Phi Phi:

Singapore:

I Survived Vietnam Traffic

A few days ago I officially finished driving through the whole country of Vietnam, starting from Hanoi to Saigon. The total amount of kilometers we did in the end was a whopping 2400km through mostly the mountains of this beautiful country. The total time it took us to do it was 15 days. It was exciting, nerve wracking, and challenging on the body and mind. I will have to admit there were some days where I was like fuck this shit. But the other days when I couldn’t believe my eyes made it all worth while. I really wished I would of stopped and took pictures at the places that truly made my heart gasp. there were four full days throughout the trip where I was just an awe about the wild and beauty of this country. It reminded me of Jurassic Park or the movie Avatar. I think I said omg probably about a good solid two hours straight for each of these four days of going through amazing landscape. I will however always have these places in the back of my mind. Worlds of paradise and tranquility.

Driving through Vietnam is dangerous. In my group there were three accidents. Not severe, but definitely accidents. One of the accidents was a guy not looking both ways and getting hit by our fellow crew member at 40km/h, making him do a flip in the air from the force. Another was a girl that decided to tag along with us one day and try to go around this car and instead went right through it and destroyed the poor mans bumper and part of her motorcycle, luckily she came out alright. The last was a huge semi throwing another of our crew members off to the side of the road in a big pile of mud and manure. Now all of this was just in our crew but everyday we saw some kind of scooter accident on the road and also heard stories from fellow travelers about their accidents they were involved in. It happens all the time. My outlook however on this for someone that wants to do the same thing I did is don’t be an idiot, don’t be too cocky, and drive defensive. If you do this and act this way you should be A okay. People are going to cut you off and rub the back of your tires. You just have to be defensive and let the man or woman take the advantage (they know what they are doing). The biggest trucks are the fastest things on the road remarkably. They will pass other Semi’s on a upward mountain and don’t care whats on the other side of the hill. They will honk though and if you hear that you better move over. Never try to overtake these bad boys, they’ll always catch back up to you in the end. There is a system in Vietnam, a very chaotic system but nonetheless it works. Everyone drives defensively on a scooter and all of traffic will stop if you stop. They completely understand that were assholes that don’t know how to drive and for some reason they show respect for that, or they just don’t want to get hit or involved in an incident. I am not going to explain it further. You’ll figure it out the first day when you get on the bike. Just honk a lot when you pass someone and pass them on the right.

There were some fuck this shit days. Quite a few to be honest. I think there was four or five where it was 60 degrees fahrenheit and raining on top of you going 70 km/hr on a bike. That makes it cold as shit and miserable, thank god for my poncho. We drove 4 hours sometimes on days like this and at the end of it you felt like you definitely had hyperthermia. On top of that staying at crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere that didn’t have a heater did not help to warm you up. For three days I felt as though I couldn’t warm up my body properly because even the showers were cold. The scootering thing is definitely a challenge if you’re trying to bike in a 15 day period. You don’t have much time to spend in each city and again you have to constantly bike and not stop if you want to make it to the next town before dark. 5 days and 7 hours each day consistently, really puts a ding on you. I suggest if you do this make sure it’s for about three weeks. That way you can spend the extra time in cities to rest and relax before doing an epic journey. There are highs and lows in anything that you do. The highs in this trip though for sure beats the lows and is worth every penny and agony you spend.

So the last week or two of our trip it rained unfortunately since my last blog post. It is supposed to be dry season but for most of the days it was wet. The plan was to go down south Vietnam along the beaches but it was supposed to rain for weeks in the areas we wanted to go, so instead we headed west into the mountains. Through the mountains we found sun again, so ultimately it was the best decision. The three of us that started out on the trip and ended up joining other people making it seven of us throughout most of the trip. The more the merrier baby. Great group of people and we finally parted ways a couple days ago.

I did take some more pictures but I will just put it at the end of the blog. The last weeks of the bike trip was basically a repeat of getting up at 6:30am starting to drive at 8am and finish at 5pm with a meal, a beer, and a guitar (dude we were with was a hell of singer and player). A simple time but a fun time. In the major cities like Saigon we just relaxed. Went to a museum and went to nice cafes. We all needed a break from the end of our scooter journey. I ended up treating myself to a private room over looking Ho Chi Ming. A little present for my accomplishment.

Now I am sitting in a random hostel waiting for the night ferry to head to the island of Koh Tao. The ferry leaves at 10pm and I paid 1.50$ to store my bag here and have free wifi. Tomorrow I will start my open water course which is going to cost me 280$ for four days of learning how to dive. I am really excited but scared I will be exhausted from this night ferry and won’t be fully myself when learning how to dive. We shall see though tomorrow. Till next time.

I feel like I should at least describe where these pictures are since there are only so many. I don’t know if you have seen the show Top Gear, but on one of the finale episodes, they did exactly what I did and bought motor bikes and biked throughout the whole country. These two pictures are the iconic scene in this episodes below on the way to Hoi An from Hue.

These pictures below are from a Chinese Temple on top of a mountain in the city of Hoi An. A place where you can buy a three piece suit for 60 bucks.

These pictures of flowers below are in a botanical garden I found.

The pictures are deep in the south jungle of Vietnam in a national park about 130km away from Saigon. Coming out of this jungle we were all covered in leaches and bleeding everywhere from them. So pretty gnarly stuff.

Reflection

I am now in Ha Noi, Vietnam and it is January 1st, 2018. I am almost half way through my journey, about to attempt to drive through the whole country of Vietnam by scooter. As I sit in my bed I start to reflect on the past few weeks of my life and the experiences I have gained throughout my travels. I am truly blessed to be able to do the things that most people aren’t able to do and have been honored to meet amazing people along the way. The world is beautiful, not only in the places that are known to you but the whole world itself. It amazes me the kindness and hospitality that people in the farthest reaches of earth have. So many times I have been drilled with the idea of the world being a bad place in countries that are undeveloped but that is far from the truth. I have seen more kindness and thoughtfulness in these three beautiful countries than I have seen in a long time. People will literally go out of their way and stop, in this fast moving world to make sure they fully help you which ever thing that acquire.

Traveling you are always going to meet people that have similar interests as you. They all want to experience new things and take everything in. Being in a hostel is electric. Everyone is very open and welcoming. Whenever someone is going to explore you can always ask if you can come along and 99 percent of the time they will say yes. I always say the more the merrier when asked this question. There is nothing like sharing first time experiences with someone and the more people that you share it with, the better that experience will come. I have met some fantastic people. I started in Bangkok alone and now I have been traveling with the same four people ever since. One Kiwi and two people from Mexico. The journey traveled has made a tight bond and we will be friends for a long time. It amazes me that I have met these people only a few weeks back but it seems like I have known them for years. Each one of us feeds off of each others energy and good vibes. All of us are accepting to each of our differences and are accepting of other people joining the squad. We all have completely different backgrounds but we share the same values and show the same amount of respect. When I have been traveling that’s what I realize. No matter how foreign the world you travel in, you will always find that people are the same as everywhere else. Kind, good hearted, and giving people. Of course in every society there will be some bad people or ignorant people, but for the most part humans will be humans, loving and caring after one another. This is the beauty of us beings and it gives me great hope to our future.

In life we are all about direction. It makes us feel stable, comfortable, and a sense of balance. Direction is not a bad thing. It is good to have some sort of plan of what you want to do and who you want to be in this world. Certain direction however can be bad. The typical direction everyone thinks everyone should take is go to school, get a degree, get a job, and retire early. We are stuck in this one lane road that everyone takes and we see this finish line that will come eventually. The money is good, but the job is bad, everyday we are praying when the clock hits five, and then going to sleep worrying about the same job the next day. You only get two days to enjoy yourself on the weekend and a few holidays off. For the most part though this is not enough. This is how I felt about my old job, constantly dreading to wake up and go pop open some man holes as a civil engineer and not a laborer. My mind was always fixed on one thought and I never really enjoy living in that moment throughout my work week days. In this state of mind, time would fly by and days would turn into weeks, into months, and then into a year. I finally took a moment to think that I couldn’t keep this up and I would have to change, hence where I am now. Going through my journey I no longer have a solid asphalt road to the finish line that was set up for me. Like I said in my first post I have wandered into the forest next to it and I am lost. This lostness is not a bad thing. It has expanded my mind and my heart and thoughtfulness to the things that surround me. I feel alive and more connected to this world. The fear of instability is not there. I realize it is okay not to know but to live in the moment because that is the one true thing. Sometimes you have to be lost to be found and I am slowly starting to understand that and myself. It is okay not to know, just let things develop and become. Follow your heart and beauty will eventually sprout in this forest that you are lost in and time will start to slow down, making a day feel like day and not a couple of hours. I know I have been traveling for only three weeks but living in this state makes it feel more than that and I am blessed with this feeling.

You are your own person. Your own body and flesh. The only thing that can make you change is yourself. You just have to do it. Stop thinking about what if and just do. I pursued this dream and now I am living it, and you bet your ass it was the best decision I have made in a long time. This scooter trip that I am going on is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and my thoughts of what if I get injured or worse killed pop into my mind. The maturity of myself will always keep this in the back of my head and I will be as careful and aware as possible. But with risk there is reward, and I feel like this will be a journey that I will tell to my children and grandchildren. I am looking forward to start this amazing journey on January 4th and will share my experiences on this 15 day adventure. For now I am off to Ha long Bay on a cruise for two days and a night. I will write a simple blog about the cruise and what is was all about. Till then here are some pictures from Vang Vieng and Vientiane.

Pai To Laos

I’ve been lazy with my blogging. I thought coming into this I would be blogging just about every day but it has not happened. My thoughts and experiences about this trip are therefore very general so that the viewer does not read 10,000 words of certain times of my trip. However I will try to tell you guys what I have been doing the past week or two leaving off from where I was before, Chiang Mai.

This whole trip I have just winged along the way. I feel like this second paragraph shouldn’t go here but oh well. Originally I thought I was going to go down to the Southern islands of Thailand and then to Cambodia to renew my visa and then up to the north. When you talk to people though and say I think I’m going to stay in Thailand for two months, most of them say why? There is so much more to see than this country itself. If you ever plan a visit to Thailand on a two month visit like me, go to countries around Thailand like Cambodia, Laos, and especially Vietnam. I am fortunate enough to have met people that have told me to do this instead and I have come along for the ride. So far this is how the journey is going and will continue to go. First I flew into Bangkok and stayed there for a few days to get my bearings. Then I took a 100 something dollar flight to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Then I took a bus to the hippie land of Pai in Thailand. After that, I took a bus back down to Chiang Mai and flew into the country of Laos to Luang Prabang and stayed there a couple days. And now I am finally here in Vang Vieng, Laos. Soon I will be in Vientiane and then fly over to Ha Noi, Vietnam for new years. I will buy a scooter or motor bike (sorry mom) and then drive through the whole country for two weeks and then off to Cambodia. From Cambodia I will then fly to Phuket and finish my journey in the islands of Thailand then off to Australia. That is the plan thus far.

Pai is a hippie city. There are a lot of Stoners and trippy people that are really nice but far out. The town is known for beautiful sites to see like caves and waterfalls and beautiful landscapes to drive through and also known for partying. I stayed in Pai for five days at a hostel named The Common Grounds.

The hostel was alright. It had a bar and a cool common area to chill out, but it was definitely a party scene always at night no matter the day. It was fun the first couple of days and then I got tired of hearing people party till 1 in the morning outside my dorm. However the staff were really nice and location was unreal, right on walking street. The things I got to do in Pai was go to a Jungle party, walk through the market on Walking Street for some food, and visit some cool nature sites. The Jungle party was pretty cool, they do one every Saturday so me and my buddies all went to that and got pretty tipsy. They send a Tuk Tuk to come pick you up and then you go off an hour to middle of the jungle where they set up this stage with electric house music and lights everywhere. It felt like a cheap small music festival but hey it was still fun. Walking Street Market is another thing you have to do here and it’s just a street that you walk, with some food to grab along the way. Everyone loves the food on this street but again I’m a pretty picky eater. One thing I recommend doing in Pai is immediately getting a scooter. I didn’t get a scooter until day four and it would of changed my whole experience if I would have had one day one. The thing that was holding me back is the number of moped crashing injuries I have seen. There are some people that go fucked up on a moped from sliding through gravel or falling off it, breaking legs and arms. I just bit the bullet and said yolo and got one and boy it is amazing. It’s seven dollars a day for this thing and you can go anywhere with it and it brings down the cost of hiring a Tuk Tuk everywhere. If you do get one be very careful. I never get too cocky and always slow down before my turns or if the going gets rough. One of the sites that is a must do is Sunset Canyon. It’s a canyon (obviously) that cuts through the land and you walk on a very narrow strip throughout the whole park.

Here is one of the many trails I did. It is scary if you are not used to hikes but definitely exciting with amazing views.

You pick a view point like the one above and then you just kick back and relax and wait for the sun to go down.

On the fourth day I got most of my nature stuff in. There were about eight of us that all rented scooters and went to key waterfalls that everyone says you have to go to. The waterfalls were truthfully alright. They were nothing too special.

Pretty dang average. If you want to see real waterfalls though Laos is the place to be. The view though going to these places on moped is stunning.

Views like this are all along the way and worth a couple seconds to pull over to the side and take a quick glance a this scenery. So that’s basically it for Pai, things I wished I would of done is go to the hot springs and the caves but oh well till next time. Mind you though if you’re going to Pai be warned about the ride up there. It is about four hours and has 760 turns. One person threw up on the way up and two people on the way down, it’s a hell of a drive.

So now I am in this country named Laos, never even heard of it. The waterfalls and the nature hikes are all god damn amazing. Like seriously way better than Thailand, if these are two things you like to do then go through this country. I landed in Luang Prabang five days ago from Chiang Mai by airplane. The things I did there is again go to the night market and find some cool shit like the snake and lizard whisky and weird shit in that nature. Then go to this mountain in the morning and see the city come alive. Also before going up to see the sun rise watch all the monks get handed out food in the morning, a tradition that happens every day for hundred of years here. Here is a picture of the sunrise I got on the mountain top.

It was pretty cool but over here in Asia everything is hazing a shit so the quality of the picture doesn’t come out too well. The sounds of the city coming to life though is the best part.

The best though is seeing waterfalls in this place. They were just stunning. Probably top ten waterfalls I will ever see in my life. There are two main places to see waterfalls. One of the places, and I am sorry I don’t know the name is called “small waterfalls” to the locals. The other is “big waterfalls” or Kuang Si Waterfall. Here is a couple pictures from the smaller waterfall site;

The nature hike is really cool and you see multiple waterfalls areas like this one above. The hike is about 2 miles long through the jungle and there is barely anyone there at the park. I felt like I was in an enchanted forest with magical blue pools and buddha was somewhere resting underneath a tree.

The bigger waterfall was pretty amazing as well. Probably the best waterfall I have seen in my life. However since it is so amazing there are a lot tourists that want to see the same thing. Still worth the time if you are in this city. Here is a shot I got of this beauty.

That’s a goddamn post card picture right there if I ever seen one. But in all seriousness definitely worth seeing.

Sunsets in Luang Prabang are just as good as the sunrises. A buddy and I had a couple beers to finish the day out by the river and started getting ready for the markets at night. It is really cool to see all the slow boaters come in for the night and local people roasting a fire and sharing the same experiences and moments as us foreigners.

I am now in Vang Vieng known as the party city of Laos but the nature again is breathtaking and the best I have seen so far. Huge mountains are around this city with beautiful clear water that you can tube or kayak down. I have rented a scooter and drove to a couple blue lagoons 30 km away yesterday and the lagoons weren’t worth it but the views were.

This trip has really been fun though man. The people and the culture and the places I have been, have made it a hell of a good time. Too many people are scared to get out of their comfort zone and go to a place that is completely foreign to them. You just got to do it. That is the only advice I have, and once you do, you’ll realize how easy it is to travel and slowly you will become addicted. You only live once so live it up the best that you can and grow from each experience that you gather. I am looking forward to Vietnam for News Years. From what I hear it is supposed to be the best country out the ones I listed.