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.

Last of India and Now Sydney

Good afternoon people that read this blog. It has been a while since I last posted an update on my journeys across the Atlantic Ocean from the lovely United States. Truthfully I have been busy and also tired. India worn me out with it’s freakish ways. I had to go back on my last post to see where I even left off and looks like just the start of the journey through India in the city of Jaipur. Well a lot of shit happened and to write it all would be a bear but I will sum it up for you.

The experience I had in India was an experience. India is a country that is very poor as we all know, but to actually be submerse in their life style can change how you think about the world that you came from and how lucky you are. When I was India everyday I had homeless children come up to me and beg over an over for money. Mucus seeming from their nose and t-shirts that seemed to be formed from handkerchiefs. Dirt cover their arms and legs and their hair was knotted up like spanish moss. They were just trying to survive and get what they can by hustling. Crowds of people were everywhere yelling and laughing and talking, it was like overload for the mind walking into the city. Traffic seemed to have no rules and no hospitality. People were screaming and beeping to get out of the way and what not. You would see cows shitting in the middle of the road and monkeys hoping from the overhead buildings and wires. Hecklers would grab you and draw your attention to the stuff you couldn’t care less about and you constantly had to say no no no. Your nose would fill up with countless amount of smells from the spices on the corners of the road to static piss that’s been heated from the sun and brewed. Very tiring this all was when you experienced it everyday for three weeks. But with all this traumatic events going on at light speed, there is a certain energy and flow that makes India unique and I can see how that draws people to it.

The Route I took in India was from Jaipur to Udaipur to Jodhpur to Jaislamer to Agra and then to Delhi. My favorite place that I went to was Udaipur. It was very laid back on the water looking over a fancy castle/hotel built in the middle of this lake. The only problem that I had was the prayer call was loud as fuck and started at 5am in the morning everyday. There was also the blue city of Jodhpur that ironically is turning less blue every year. There was Jaislamer which was on the border of Pakistan where I went to ride camels and spend the night on the sand out in the desert. Agra of course to see the Taj Mahal, other than that wonder there is not much to do there. Last was Delhi for Holliday and that was pretty fun in itself. So with all that my experience in each city was the same. I saw cool shit and I saw weird shit. I met trippy people in the hostels that seem like again they were trying to find themselves and open up their third eye and India seemed like the place to do that. I met regulars like me that would just look at stuff and say thats odd or neat. Food was excellent but the same everywhere. It was just really excellent curry with some bread that looked kind of like tortillas but fucking amazing tasting. That was my diet for three weeks, that’s pretty much all I ate. There was other stuff like fried spice balls and potato based foods. India is the place to be for vegans, 80 percent of population is probably a vegetarian. One thing I miss deeply about India was waking up to 65 degree weather with a nice glass of chai tea. My god this stuff was good. It was like I was drinking ginger spice milk tea that tasted like it had a hint of the best fruity pebbles ever. That’s the best way I can describe the taste. The region that I went to was all desert so it would be pretty cold in the morning and then by 12 o clock it would be 90 degrees outside.

I’ve been to a lot of places for the past three months and seen countless of different cultures. I’ve learned a long time ago (okay two years ago) that no matter where you go people are people. Meaning everyone is like everyone from back home. Mostly nice and willing to help people with warm hearts that love. People that stay in one spot are so sheltered and have misperceptions of the outside world and believe everyone is hostel and out to get you. I’ll tell you what that is not the case at all. I recommend anyone to travel because then it not only opens up your mind but opens up your heart as well. It will make you cast away from prejudice and look inside of people that are from a completely different world than you. Because in the end were not different, we are all human beings with a passion to love, to care, and to be kind. I honestly don’t know what else to say about India. Just if you go there it’s an experience that you probably will enjoy.

I am now in Australia. After Holliday, which is where they spray colors everywhere in the streets in India, I was just dead. I laid in bed for two days basically and just binged Netflix. I flew to Thailand and then again Binged Netflix for a day. I flew to Australia and then for a day again Binged Netflix. I was pooped and didn’t want to think about anything. I just wanted to relax and watch Lost all day. In Australia I am trying to get a job and go exploring at the same time. For the past two weeks I have been trying to get a job in Laboring but so far I haven’t got any offers. I will most likely buy a camper van when I do get a job and live a life on the edge of the woods sleeping in my car for a few months. Saving up money for the next big trip. South America.

Here’s some pictures of the rest of my journey, enjoy:

The City of Udaipur:

Indian Convenience Store:

Sunrise in Jodhpur:

Castle In Jodhpur:

Blue City of Jodhpur

Lady In A Door Way:

Beetle In Jaislamer:

Taj Mahal:

Australia:

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.

Biking Through Vietnam

I just got a motor bike in Hanoi five days ago and it was worth it. After taking a little break from New Years me and couple of my friends all decided to rent bikes instead of buying it on January 4th, 2018 and here is why. First from what we have heard, all the bikes that people sell you have problems along the way. The always have a tendency to break down setting back you back a day or two, and we don’t have that kind of time. Second is selling the damn thing after you finish your journey, which is not always guaranteed. So you might loose in the end 500 dollars rather than 200 dollars when selling it for 300 dollars. The last thing is all the bikes are now fake. I was thinking about getting a Honda Wind I think its called? (might be wrong) but they are all knock offs made from China and cheap as hell! The last Wind ever made was in 2006 by Honda. All these decisions lead to renting a motor bike/scooter from this one place in Hanoi. Our scooters are all 2017s and badass so the chance of breaking down is minimal. Also if they do, everything gets completely paid for through the company. The total cost was 225 for renting the bike and then 1000 dollars for a security deposit, in case you fuck shit up. Drive the bikes from Hanoi to Ho Ming Chi City and return the bikes. That’s it. The total length of the trip is 2300km north to south and we have officially made it half way to the city of Hue 1150km into our trip in five days.

Here’s the set up:

Nothing too fancy just some railings to hold the bags in place and some bungie cords, and trust me that’s all you need. The first day setting off was pretty hectic. We got our bikes right out of the old quarters square in Hanoi and had to take off through the city. Hanoi has some of the worst traffic in the world and we we’re surrounded by thousands of motor bikes and huge semi’s, touching mirror to mirror. We had an hour of super intense driving and then it settled down after the city. We drove all day and all night until we stopped in the middle of nowhere to make camp. We did at least 9 hours of driving and it was brutal on our bodies from not being used to that position on the bike. There wasn’t anything too spectacular to see on the first day but oh well made it to the first stop. Now this blog is very general so certain cities we stopped at, I’m not going to mention because honestly I don’t know where the fuck we stopped. Most of them were small hick towns that are not on the map and have shitty hotels for you to sleep in. The humidity is registered at 150% and when you wake up you’re drenched with the dew from outside coming in. Anyways day two we were off again, bright and early around 8am in the morning. This part of the drive was spectacular. We went through a whole bunch of rice paddy fields that were endless to the eye. Then went through jungle mountains that were so high up we were literally in the clouds getting soaked to the brim. Then through some more mountains with steep over hanging cliffs and a bunch of palm trees covering that sucker. It was a hell of a day and a hell of a drive again lasting about 7 hours. Here’s a couple of pictures from that day:

During the day we can’t make so many stops because we are on a time frame so there’s only a limited amount of pictures per day.

Day three was just an average day. Nothing really special, just went through some real rural cities where people hardly see white people and scream with joy and say hello every time you past them. The amount of hellos that I have said in these five days are crazy. Day four was absolutely amazing. We took an old highway through some national parks and it is supposed to be the best part of the drive and I can now be a happy man the rest of this trip because that shit was amazing. here’s some pictures from that. The road was great and curved like a snake. So many waterfalls were passed and rivers. It was absolutely gorgeous.

And today we had to stop in Hue to get our oil changed. It is the half way point in our journey and we will be here just for the night and then our next stop is Hoi An. We’ll rest up for a bit and stay there for two days. The journey was shitty. Took the highway to get here as quick as possible. Took us about three hours total and it was 60 degrees and raining. Thank the lord for my poncho.

I also went to Ha Long Bay which is a must if you are up in Hanoi. It is a three hour bus ride from there and then you hop on a 90 dollar cruise that takes you to the magical place. Food and drink are all included in the package and you go to a cave during the first day and then a view point and that’s it. Then the second day they take you to a pearl factory farm in the bay and then you Kayak around. Is it worth it? The view for sure is worth it, but the activities are just average and boring to someone kind of adventurous as me. Here is some pictures from that trip:

Well that is it so far on the motor bike journey. I am really exhausted from these last five days driving for 7 plus hours and then getting to the city just in time for dinner and bed. It’s honestly so worth it though. Best decision I made on this trip so far. Yeah there is times where it is sketchy as shit, but as long as you have your wits about you, you should be fine. Honk a lot and drive defensively. Until next time, so long.

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.

The Start Of A New

I’m just going to let my mind flow for this first post and see what happens:

I am a very simple guy. I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, went to Florida Gulf Coast University to get a degree in Civil Engineering and now I am living in West Palm Beach for a job in civil engineering. This is the average route that every parent wants their young son to take growing up and oh were they proud of me…

Throughout college they were skeptical though. I was in a fraternity and every time I came home during the semester’s end I would get hammered and they would link that to me not doing well in college. Little did they know I studied my ass off all the damn time and barely had time to party like most fraternity men. The only time to party and not worry about my Structural Analysis or Fluid Mechanics test, was during holiday and oh fuck ya did I party. Well in the end I graduated and got my degree. The fam was very proud for a little bit until I went to Europe to celebrate with my buddy Junebug and backpack the whole damn place. The beautiful thing about Europe is there is absolutely no hangovers what so ever. You can be shit faced and wake up just tired in the morning it was glorious for someone like myself that feels like he’s gonna die for two days after a hard binder in the states.

At the end of the trip my tolerance for alcohol was insane. I could have 10 tall boys and feel slightly buzzed. We traveled everywhere. Started in Denmark and took a big ole loop around the continent. We went to Prague, Copenhagen, Budapest, Berlin, Osnabruck, Hamburg, Milan, Florence, Vienna, Bolzano, and honestly a lot of other places I don’t remember but you get it. Hell of a time. The ending of my trip though I had to make it back up to Sweden for my Farfar’s (grandpa) 80th birthday in Bastad. I was so excited to see the family. When I got up there I was reunited with everyone, I’m talking about sister’s, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, my god it was great. The festivities began and this was the best way to end my trip. During these festivities however, rumors started to spread saying, ” I think Devin has a problem with drinking” and the stereotypical response, “oh yeah he’s in a frat.” Fuck that noise. Mind you I was basically sober to all these parties downing eight 12oz beers at 5%. This lead to my family looking down on me and me having to be sober at my grandfather’s birthday party. It would make sense if I was being a retard in Sweden but I wasn’t. I found this crazy because this was my celebration to my one accomplishment I made so far in my life and people were raining on my parade. To put a cherry on top one of my family members called me out and said I would never get a job and no one would want to hire me. Solid ending to the trip.

The point is people have never really believed in me. The evidence was clear throughout college and at the end of Europe. Everyone was scared that I was going down the wrong path even know I just graduated in a pretty hard major that would challenge anybody. But the thing is I always believed in myself and I know I am destined for great fucking things. I am a nice guy, fun, jolly, entertaining, hardworking, loving, and fascinated about the world we live in. I’m a god damn social butterfly that opens up to any body and I’m honest about everything. I love nature and that’s what keeps high when I’m feeling low. I love animals and want to protect and preserve what the upper man has created that we have destroyed. That’s why I chose engineering so I can be the man that could make a little impact in the world to change shit.

Well the family member was wrong. My poor self showed up back in the United States with 100 dollars in my name (because I had to pay for everything in Sweden and I did not account that in traveling expenses) and quickly started to work for an old contractor’s company I worked for as a freshman. I made a quick 500 bones in a week and went off to West Palm Beach to find a job. I love the beach so West Palm seemed dope and that’s honestly the only reason I moved here. Within 5 days of being down here I landed a job at this water resourcing company and my job title would be field inspector/project engineer. I told the company I would love to be out in the field the first few years of my engineering life because I wanted to see how the process through construction works. And I wanted to maybe lean towards construction and see the feel of it. They said hell yes that’s exactly what we are looking for and got hired the next day. Well the company was great the first few months I was out in Belle Glade, Florida looking over projects and working with the foreman and superintendents. I was doing satisfying work installing water main for the people of Belle Glade and giving them clean water from their corroded cast iron pipes that weren’t even an inch thick in diameter for some of their 50 year water mains. Then things went down hill. They pulled me into the office and I had to stare at a screen for 8 hours plus a day, doing AutoCAD work. Imagine looking at fucking screen with no windows and doing repetitious and tedious redline work the senior engineers give you for four fucking months. My god! I was going insane. I chose engineering also because I wanted to be outside on site half the time and see the actual world. Not be stuck in a office every fucking day staring at a screen like most jobs. I complained to the company and the false expectations they gave me when I was hired and they said well see what we can do. So the next week they sat me down and said, “we have a very important job for you to do” and had me on project 16-1107. The fucking manhole assessment project. A project for no engineer, no man or woman for a degree in college, a hard labor job for someone that’s trying to make it back at life starting all the way at the bottom. These fucks. They said it would only last two months and it lasted for seven, and they paired me with my roommate which me and him had to see each other every day for 8 hours and back home. My god we were like a goddamn married couple but worse. This job was horrible, we started in April and ended in October. The hottest time of the year in Florida and had to pop open manholes everyday and inspect them and measure. Two thousand manholes we had to inspect. We would pop these suckers open, see shit flowing down the channel every day and also condoms and tampons and rats. If you can only imagine what you saw if you opened up a manhole where shit goes, it’s what you would imagine. It was unbearable, hot, and smelly. The worst part is I wasn’t learning anything as an engineer or anything that could help my career. I told myself if I don’t get what I want after this torture for seven months I’m fucking leaving. Sure enough they had me back in the office doing the redlines all over and I quit two weeks later. I never thought in my life sitting in those hard classes in school thinking I would be staring at shit all day with my major in the hot brutal sun of Florida.

I do not know what the reader thinks of this but I’m sure everyone goes through some kind of struggle that can relate. My outlet through these rough times was going out in nature and finding moments in time where something magical happens. If you sit still out in nature long enough, you’ll see something. If you don’t hunt I’m sorry, but the best part of the hunt is just sitting invisible to the true world and seeing marvelous things in the four hours of sitting, it’s truly therapeutic. I feel so connected to nature and the woods, everything just makes sense. Out in the woods I always saw really cool shit and I would say damn I wish I would of captured that moment. A light bulb popped in my head and said buy a camera and start taking pictures of these moments. You have an eye (I think) and certain way you look at the world and share it with people. So I started doing this and it has become quite a hobby and a passion. I usually just go out on a nature trail and enjoy myself. Whenever I think is a moment of happeness, I like to call it, I get out the camera and start taking pictures. I do other things to keep my mind at ease like working out and socializing with people over a beer. I also have an obsession with free diving and would swim a quarter mile out off shore with some fins and just stare at all the sea life Palm Beach has to offer on the corals. It’s a whole other world down there and it keeps my mind wandering with amazement.

This blog is a cluster fuck of ideas that I just need to play with and make this slowly develop. The idea of making this blog was to give you guys a story of a simple guy like myself facing the world at age 24. One year out of college, just quit his job and now has some money to finally do wanted he wanted to do. Go traveling and experience new things. Find myself and find the true meaning of why I am here and take pictures of my adventure. Show the reader the beauty of the world and a little of my own outlook on it. After I left my job I started to plan. The plan is as of right now to go to Thailand for two months and then Australia to land a job. I leave for Thailand December 5th and land in Bangkok. I plan on backpacking the whole thing alone and showing you guys a day by day (or maybe every few days) of the journey. Pictures will definitely be included. Speaking about pictures, let me show you so of my nature pictures that I take from time to time.

Here’s a picture of a little blue heron out in wetlands of West Palm Beach mid way in chomping down a fish in a puddle.

woodpeck

Pileated Woodpecker on slash pine.

deer

Curious doe

westpalmsky

Fire Sky out in West Palm Beach intercoastal

plant

Plant in the light

These are just a couple and I have a lot more that I’ll post from time to time. The paragraphs before were just a scramble of my life in the past year. No real detail or precise story, just frames of memory in my head typed in this blog. A certain look into my recent life a somewhat of a feel of what I’ve been going through, so I’m sorry if it is sloppy.

The world is a beautiful place and too many times you have influences like your family and expectations that they want to see in you. They want you to take a path that has already been paved an easy route to a destination that you already know. They get concerned when you start walking a wobbly line. Veering side to side to slowly getting off that paved road. Pestering you to stay on track or else you’ll get lost. Sometimes though in life you need to get lost to be found and find something that you would have never known unless you strayed from the road. Go into the woods and explore a world that you only saw from the window of your car. There is fear and there is uncomfortableness in these woods, but with this lies opportunity and life lessons you will need in order to be successful. A new route that will be formed and a beaten path that people might respect and dare to take. Be yourself and follow your heart. Let know one tell you what to do. Listen to people and hear what they have to say, but in the end the world is yours and go find your destiny. Come with me on my journey and let me show you the world through my eyes. Starting now sitting in my apartment in West Palm Beach typing this, to going to Thailand to with an open mind. I have been a bird trapped in a cage with restraints and now I am free and will start to learn how to fly.