Forums > Introductions > What I Did On My Holiday, By Domino. Age 19 3/4 (Class 4C)

Posted: 23rd Sep 2005
The trip was South Africa -> Australia -> New Zealand -> Bali -> Thailand



All the emails I've sent home in one large one. Stuff between two lines of "---" is the subject of the email.



Here goes...



---

Story so far

---

Hullo everyone. Everything's lekker and I'm finally chilling out. No

problems in Jo'burg apart from the usual newage BS from Niva

godblessher. Just spent 4 days in the Kruger National Park. Utterly

awesome, saw so many lions, some of them within 6 feet of the car.

malarial pills havent caused any problems yet happily. Currently smell

of paraffin as I've been doing some poi and got some really good

pictures of that as well as the animals. I'm in The Old Vic in

Nelspruit for the next couple of days and then off to Swarziland. The

weather is damn nice (around 30C i think) which gets too hot during

the day but is really nice in the evenings.



Right cheers all, I'm off. Swimming to be done.



---

Swaziland Backpackers

---

Well I'm in Swaziland at the moment staying in a really nice place

doing the occational piece of poi for the guests but feeling

outclassed by the people that live here. Not really been up to much,

just chilling out really. Beer cost about 8 rand a bottle, go check

out the exchange, that's about 80p. Woo. This place is really

comfortable so I'm staying a few more days and then heading back to SA

and to St Lucia (however you spell it, on the coast) Spending more

money than I should as I'm too lazy to try and cook so I'm buying

meals. Not that it matters, the meals are huge and dont actually cost

that much. This country is big. Damn big. it takes ages to get

anywhere, getting to Durban is going to be a trek. Later I'm going to

a club or something called House on Fire. Sound kinda cool. Went on a

minibus taxi. This would get you killed in SA (possibly) but are

apparently safe enough here.



I realise I havent got in contact in a while but, hey, third world

country. Or maybe i have, I dont know. Time is a lot slower here.



Right, off to a hard day's chilling out.

Cheers all



---

St Lucia

---

I've left Swaziland now and I'm in St Lucia for the next two nights.

It's a bit of a dump to be honest. Very touristy and the backpacker

lodge isn't a scratch on the Swaziland one. On the up side I've *just*

stepped off a boat that took me around the estertery and I saw about

50 hippos. Those thing are big. Really big. There's also a family of

mongooses (mongeese?) that live next to the lodge which is really

cool.



House of Fire was awesome. It's made on about 95% recycled/reclaimed

material and is a big open air venue thing. We where there for Bob

Marley's 60th birthday so every rasta in Swaziland was in there.



The plan is to get down to Durban and stay in Hippo Hide for a while

then stay with Hunter for a couple of nights. Not sure on the details

yet.



---

Durban

---

This email may look a little odd as I'm typing half of it in St Lucia

and half of it in Durban.



Spent yesterday at the beach, all good until a couple of hours later

and I get delayed sun burn or something. I've gone a charming shade of

pinkish orange. Other than that the beach was really cool. Swimming in

waves about 7,8 or 9 foot high, utterly knackering. You can dive

through the bottom of them or try and ride on top of them. Do it wrong

and you get tossed around like a rag doll.



Went on a night drive, only saw a grazing hippo (but hey, it was free)

.They look weird on land, like a cross between a cow and a pig that

can bite a croc in half.



---Well that's it for St Lucia---



Yebo.

Spent a couple of days in Hippo Hide. Not many hippos in the Durban

suburbs. Hippo Hide is really nice, quite small and cosy, really

friendly people. Durban was not so nice, really busy in the market.

Almost got pickpocketed. Four guys walked into me and penned me up

against a maket stall. At first I thought they had just walked into me

then I realise that none of them are actually trying to get past and

the guy behind me is getting really close. I push past them and slam

my hands into my pocket. Happily they didnt get anything and my card

was in the safe back at Hippo Hide. I'm staying with Hunter for the

next couple of days and then heading out of Durban to Warner Beach to

sign up for a diving course, over the next couple of weeks I'll work

my way down the coast to Cape Town.



Sunburn is fading and leaving me nice and brown which is good. And I'm

getting decidedly beardy -- think I'll let it grow for a little while

longet yet.



---

Warner Beach

---

Feel like an all-you-can-eat-buffet, bloody mozis. Amazing I've got

any blood left.



I've been staying at Angle Rock in Warner Beach for the last 6 or so

days. Very cool place, run but a pair of nutters. I'm now a qualifyed

diver, allowed to go to a depth of 18 meters. Diving is very cool but

really weird. Moving in 3 dimentions is a lot of fun and there's some

great stuff to see down there. Saw turtles and sharks, also saw

dolphins from the surface but missed them underwater. Also ended up

with a jelly fish mostashe which wasnt fun.



Sunday I'm off to Buckeneers which is in Cintas or something, quite a trek.



This email is looking a little short which is odd concidering

everything I've experienced in the last 4 days...



---

Cintsa

---

I've now left Angle Rock, crazy place but loads of fun, more or less

on the beach. I'm now at Bucceneers in Cintsa. This place kicks the

proverbial donkey. It's the size of a small village, I'm meeting so

many people and have made a couple of contacts to meet up with in Oz.

It's next to a lagoon, the veiws are great, the people are friendly,

the beer is cheap. I could quite happily spend the next three weeks

here, Cape Town had better be worth leaving.



I've been talking to a lot of people about Thailand and as far as I

can tell, all the storys are true...



Most people seem to think I'm about 22 or 23, I get odd looks when I

mention that this is my gap year. Apparently it's the beard. There

dont actually seem to be that many people on gap years here, most seem

to be around 25, have finished going to Uni and have come out here to

avoid getting a job. Not a bad idea, who knows, maybe I'll be in South

America in 4 years time... It's an interesting mix of people, the age

range is from 18 to 60. There arnt many Americans but loads of

Canadains. In all the places I've stayed at so far it's been about 90%

English speakers and the rest tend to be Europians, at Angle Rock it

was about 90% German speakers.



I was going to learn how to surf today but everyone (me too) was too

hungover to bother. I was meant to teach them to poi and they where

going to teach me to surf. We carried on drinking instead. 8 Rand for

a beer!! Problem is that there is litterally ONE can company in SA so

all cans are identicle, beer cans are the same size as Coke cans, but

for 8 rand who cares...



---

Knysna

---

The last night at Bucceneers was very cool, there was a full moon

party. Basicly there were three of us firespinning on this tiny bit of

decking (feeling outclassed again but there are some VERY cool

pictures on the way), then sat and watched lighning light up the sky

over the hill next to the lagoon, later I completely lost contact with

planet Earth.



Very long and dull bus trip down to Port Elizabeth, got in very late

and left very early. Had about 5 hours sleep over two days.



Now staying Wild Side Backpackers in Knysna. Very nice place. Used to

be a public toilet but it's been converted into a surf shack, there's

cartoons and charactures painted on the walls and a great atomosphere.

Later I'm going wreck diving. This place is right on the beach, "Mind

the sharks, there's loads of them round here" -- made me feel good.



I'm not sure whether to go straight on to Cape Town and meet up with

the Plantings or stop just before and meet up with someone I met on

the Baz Bus. Time-wise I'll probably just keep moving.



Cheers all, how's the snow?



---

Oudtshoorn / Cape Town

---

can't believe I've only got 10 days left in SA!



Left Wide Side. Forgot to mention that there are literally thousands

of these little blue jellyfish on the tide line on the beach. I hate

jellyfish with a passion but these ones make a wonderful popping noise

when you tread on them. Satisfying. Just make sure you're wearing

shoes.Spent yesterday lying in a hamock watching the sun go down over

the Idian Ocean, lying on a dune watching the stars (saw a shooting

star) and listening to the sea and finally lying on the roof watching

the sun rise.



Heard one of my new favourite quotes at Wild Side, "Are Eskimos

human?" -- yes, she was blond.



The other I heard on my diving course, "If a shark is after you, what

you do is take your diving knife and put a small hole in your diving

buddy - just enough to make him bleed - then swim like crazy" The

wreck diving didn't happen in the end because [something nautical that

I didn't understand]



Currently I'm staying in Backpacker's Paradise in Oudtshoorn, which I

can't pronounce but is universally known as "the ostrich place".

That's because they farm the things around the courner, you get

scambled ostrich egg for breakfast and there's ostrich steack and

sausage on the braai (BBQ) tonight.



It's nice to be away from sand, that stuff gets everywhere.



Starting to play with devilsticks, interesting but I'll stick with the

poi for now. Did some fire spinning on top of a sand dune, pretty

cool, got a free beer.



---That's all I can think to add at the moment, I'll stick in more

when I get to Cape Town ---



Ostrich egg is over rated, it tastes really floury. Ostrich steak is

really nice though.



Fun Ostrich Fact 1: An ostrich eye is bigger than it's brain, beening

dumb creatures they peck at thing because they can't figure out what

something is just by looking at it.



Fun Ostrich Fact 2: The lastest thing to be found in an ostrich

stomach was a 330ml coke can.



I've been to an ostrich farm, you may have guessed, bloody weird

creatures. Rode one too. Not a good way to travel, they're impossible

to steer and you have to chuck a bag over its head to catch it.



Went to Cango Caves. When Hunter suggested that I go there I can

honestly say that I was not expecting to go potholing in 95% humidity.

Fun but climbing up 4 metres through a tunnel 30cm wide was unusual to

say the least. The most inetersting thing is this weird rock formation

called the "Drum of Africa". It's a pillar of rock that was put under

huge pressure after an earthquake, since then when you whack it it

makes a noise like a drum. It sounds hollow but it's solid limestone.



Got to Cape Town and there was no room at the inn. I've finally caught

up with the famous SA organaitional skills. The guy in BBP booked me

in for two nights in Ashanti in Cape Town. He did it in front on me. I

saw him do it. He did it. 'Course I get to Cape Town and they have no

record of the booking and they're full. As is everywhere else in Cape

Town. I was halfway though organising sleeping on the floor when I

thought "What the hell am I doing? I know people in Cape Town" So I'm

staying with the Plantings a couple of days ahead of schedual. Cape

Town is gorgoeus, particularly at night, but bloody windy.



Plan for the next couple of days is to meet up with a couple of

Aussies before they leave SA, climb Table Mountain (it's probably law

that I have too) and check out Long Street which is meant to be loads

of fun. I'll probably stay with the Plantings a couple of nights,

spend a couple in a backpaclers and then spend the remaining couple of

days with the Plantings again.



The beard's gone. I'm now modeling a goatee - I think I like it more

than the beard but I'm not sure if it suits me.



That's about all. Missing home and everyone there (expect you, Raj),

would like to be home but don't want to leave - all the usual stuff.



Only 8 days in SA left!



---

Yet More Capetown

---

I leave for Austrilia on Monday. SA's been really cool (well, +/- 30

degrees isn't exactly cool) but I actually want to leave and see

something new now. Then again I don't want to leave (I guess that's

normal). I know the rules here, Oz is a different place with different

people and different rules. But hey, new experiences and all that

jazz.



I've not really done much in the last couple of days. Mosty it's been

looking around Cape Town (gorgeous, particularly today with the mist

coming off the sea and flowing around the mountains) and playing with

Paula's cat (vicious little ).



Actually the other day I had a djembe lesson - that's an African drum.

It's really fun and I think I'm going to have to get one - that and

find a group of people who also play it. Much much better in a group.



Went for a drive along Chapman's Peak, another spectactor view

[[Lawrence, this is where they filmed/based the "Beats the Benz"

advert]] Basicly there was a cliff face next to the ocean and someone

decided to cut a road into it. It's not comforting to see all the

"WARNING! FALLING ROCKS! Use road at own risk" signs every 50 metres,

but once again, the view the of the mountains, cliffs, ocean and bay

is stunning.



That's really about it for Cape Town, chances are then next email will

come from down under.



---

Cape Town (still)

---

I'm still in Cape Town and will be till the 21st. Got my flight

changed - too much to do.



The Plantings took me to the Waterfront (a massive mall thing) which

surprisingly enough, is on the water front. It's pretty cool that you

can wander out of the shops on to a peir and watch the seals in the

water. Later I was taken to Simons Town which has a colony of

penguins. Very cute but look out of place on land. Couple of days

later I met up with a couple of Aussies I met in Cintsa and went for a

meal, got served Kudo, Springbok and Ostrich. Kudo is really good but

Springbok is thick, grainy and tough - much like the rugby team.



Went on a wine tour and lost most of the night. Yes - my head bloody

well hurt in the morning, I'm never drinking again. The wine tour was

loads of fun, the guide was really cool and funny and decapitated a

bottle of chamanage with a sword, definately a trick I'm going to have

to learn. I'm currently staying with Paula, she's been really nice and

took me up Table Mountain - I'll admit, I chickened out of walking up

it and took the cable car. It was damn hot and I was hungover. Any

questions? The view up there is spectacular, you can see the city, the

bays and watch the clouds roll past. Yesterday(ish) we went to Cape

Point which is almost the most South-Westerly point of Africa and is

where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. When the wind is right you

can see exactly where they meet as there is a line in the water where

the colour changes.



I've dicided I look sinister with a goatee, it's gone now and I forgot

to take a picture. However I'm both hairy and lazy so it might return

some time in the next couple of months.



SA tv is bad. Really bad.



One of the things that's struck me out here is that you don't have a

core group of friends. You meet people that you get on well with (some

of them really well) but it's like the "single-serving friends" idea

in Fightclub - you don't know them for too long. What sucks more is

meeting people that you really like and then never seeing them again.



Did the pope die or something? I heard something but you don't get

much news out hear, particularly in the hostles.



---

Sydney

---

Greetings from the future. It's 11 hours in the future as I type this

and the concluestion is this: Go back to bed, today sucks.



Right, now to complain properly. I got to Sydney and things are

decidedly not awesome so far. Not the sunny welcome I was expecting,

it's pissing it down. I get to the airport and my card doesnt work, I

sit in the rain waiting for the shuttle bus to find it can't take me

and I finally get to the hostel to be told that they want paying

upfront. I had a little money from changing a couple of travelers

cheques at the airport but basicly unless I change another I've now

got very little money. I'm staying in Kingscross which is apparently

"the arse end of Sydney"



On the upside I got through Sydney airport's quarntine with no

problems. I thought they would be pulling my sleepingbag apart looking

for banned substances - ie feathers. They're big on the bio-invation

thing here.



And I'm jetlagged. Big style. It was a 12 hour flight, not sure how

much I slept. There's a +9 hour difference between SA and here. These

two things together basicly mean I have no idea what timeline my

body's working to but it's not Sydney or SA. Felt bad this mourning

and lay down in bed, passed into a coma for the rest of the day. Now

I'm going to be paceing around like a zombie all night.



Enough. The next email should have a better mood.



---

Sydney

---

G'day.



Things are slowly sorting themselves out. I found a place that's open

over the Easter weekend and cashed a travelers cheque so I'm not broke

any more.



I'm in Sydney for another week at least, Dad cant get my card out here

till Friday at least (possibly even Monday) so it seemed to make

sence. To be honest I haven't got a clue where the hell to go next. I'm

wondering about going down to Melbourne and then up to Cairns or just

to skip Melbourne.



Finally out and about and doing things. Had a wander around Sydney,

saw the Oprea House and the Harbour Bridge then met up with a poier I

met online and went for a drink and a meal. Hopefully I'll see them

again tomorrow and meet some more firespinners.



Met them again and went to the park and saw some more of Sydney.

Apparently there's a gathering in another park on Thursday so

hopefully I'll meet some more people.



My sleep is really messed up at the moment. Got most of the jetlag under

control but I tend to fall asleep for a couple of hours around mid

afternoon. Last night was worse. Kept up by a lovers' tiff till 2am

and then woken by a snoring yank at 3am. Since the clocks went back

here at 3am I lost my hour of sleep to the mists of time. Got so

annoyed with the noise I left the room. Apparently other people

were throwing juggling balls and water at him to no avail. Think I got

about 4 hours in the end.



Lawrence: That whole meat pie floater thing is not entirely a joke.

There's a place here called Harry's Cafe d'Wheels. Yes. It's a pie

van. Apparently it's world famous. They're actually damn good pies but

they come with a scoop of mushy peas and mash potatoe on top, a little

odd to look at but tastes fine. --- I've since found that a meat pie

floater isn't actually a joke at all. They really do serve meat pies

floating in pea soup.



The subsurb I'm staying in is called Woolloomooloo. What a cool name!



Found my new favourate piece of slang. A "Cadbury" is a lightweight --

a glass and a half.



Ok, I'm off to try more of the delites of Harrys famous pie van and

get to immigration so I'm no longer here illegaly...



---

Yes, more Sydney

---

Riiiiight. What have I done in the last couple of days that's worth mentioning?



Got taken to a juggling club and met interesting people and,

interestingly enough, almost learnt to juggle. By "almost" I mean that

I get about 5 catchs and then have to dive for the last one as it flys

off in some weird angle. Watched a game of combat juggling which is

kinda funny. Whole group of guys juggling clubs, trying to bat other

people's away and make everyone else drop their clubs. More

interesting to watch than it sounds.



Went firespinning in Glebe park, generally chatted with people. My

room now smells of paraffin, a little anti social...



Saw Robots, very cool film.



One step closer to sorting out my finances. My card is now in Sydney

so I'm a weekend or so away from getting it. Hoorah for international

financial sodding around!



I'm (soonish) going to get a flight up to Cairns (which you need an

Australian accent to pronounce - it sounds stupid said by a pom) and

get a bus ticket back down the coast to Sydney. Not sure whether to go

for a normal bus ticket (cheap) or a backpacker bus ticket (twice the

price, usuful information, meet people).



I'll be wondering around Sydney tomorrow doing the tourist thing and

taking pictures. I've kind of gathered from emails that unless I've

got documented proof of everywhere I've been I'll get skinned when I

get home. Well, I confess. I'm not in Australia, I'm in fact in

Dorset, pretending to be globe trotting. Sorry no pictures.



Went around Glebe market but spent most of the day talking to this

cool guy in a hat. Ended up going on this night tour of the musuems

and stuff in Sydney called "Discovery After Dark" - spent a fair bit

of time looking at these weird and disturbing photos by a guy called

Bill Henson (not the muppet guy)



Found out something interesting about the Sydney Opera house.

Apparently the guy that desgined it had no idea how to build it so

stuck the contract up as a competion. By the time it was finished it

was so late and over budget that the desginer was forced to leave in

discrace, so never implementing his plans for the inside of the

building. This basicly means that the Ozzies have this wonderful

building that's as dull as a village hall on the inside.



---

Wahroonga (yes, Sydney)

---

Staying with the Coopers for a while in a different suburb of Sydney.

They're really cool and have been really nice and it's great to stay

in a place with a full fridge, I'm going through Timtams (like

Penguins but better) at a rate of knots. I've got my card now by I've

not tried it out. Currently I'm waiting for my tax number to come

through. Or at least some information about my tax number, because if

it's just a number I can move on and have it emailed to be when it

arrives here but if it's a whole booklet of stuff I might have to

actually wait for it. I'm waiting for the company that sorted my visa

to get to me about what I'm actually expecting.



Yes, the suburb really is called Wahroonga.



Took a ferry and went around Darling Harbour, it's like a little slice

of Brighton beach, cute. Met up with the firespinner and went around

Rocks Market (loads of cool stuff I can't possibly afford) and went

for a meal.



Finally got the email through, apparently all I'm waiting for is a

number rather than a book of forms that need to be filled out in

triplicate so I'll be moving on soon. Booked a flight up to Cairns

for the unsavoury hours of Thursday morning.



---

Cairns / Cape Tribulation

---

Welcome to North Queensland, where everything is trying to kill you. No worries!



That was actually said to me. Made sence in context with crocadiles,

box jellyfish, poisonous vines etc.



Went around Darling Harbour, all fairly tacky. Also when to the

aquarium and saw a platapus, they're a lot smaller than they look on

TV.



Got up during the unholy hours of Thursay morning to catch a plane up

to Cairns. It was 2 and a half hours delayed. Yay. Cairns has got a

really nice vibe, wondering around the livelier/nightlifey area at

about 7 in the evening, very cool. Music playing, warm night, people

doing BBQs. There were a couple of guys playing djembe drums so I

listened for a bit and talked to them when they finished. Sorted my

self out to join a workshop on Wednesday.



Cairns is bloody hot, to be honest I think the best think might be to

sleep through the day and be active at night, like the animals do,

see, they're smater than us.



I'm staying at Caravella's 149 in Cairns, slightly grotty rooms but

the rest is all pretty cool, they organise a lot of tours and are very

helpful. They give out vouchers to get a free evening meal at a

backpacker's bar around the courner. The portions are about enough for

Ghandi but for $4-6 (2-3 pounds) you can get them upgraded to a very

decent sized meal.



Pretty much as soon as I got to Cairns I booked into doing a tour up

to a backapckers called Crocadylus Village up in Cape Tribulation. On

the way we stopped at a wildlife centre. Loads of really colourful

birds and a really weird large bird called a cassowary. It's got

really fine feathers (looks like fur), an ugly blue dangly thing

hanging off it's chin and a 'crest' on it's head made from the same

stuff as fingernails - apparently it uses it like a

plough/battering-ram when running through the rainforest. Got to

pet/feed various kangaroos and wallabys. Very cute, and the fur ranges

from soft to what you imagine a camel should feel like. I think the

first wallaby I came to was drunk, one of the wardens was talking to

someone about it eating fermented fruit or sap or something - it was

really docile. There was this stupid german woman pushing it around to

try and make it eat and look cute. Also saw koalas. It would be mean

to say "pointless balls of fluff" but they are.



Later went to a river in the rainforest. Good views/pictures. Also

went on a river boat trip with a really funny guide. Saw crocs ranging

from 3 metres size to 30cm.



Got to Crocodylus Village. Very cool, you stay in these tent-like

cabins in the rainforest. Took a self guilded tour of the rain forests

and saw feral pigs having a fight and the arse end of a dingo. Later

went on a guided night walk with this mad little goatee man named

Possum. Didn't really see much except really big spiders.



When for a half day sea kayaking trip. Very cool, it's a nice way to

get around and the sceanery was great. It involved getting up at 6am

and paddling till about 10am, basicly it was great fun but utterly

knackering



Recipe for a rainforest:

Start with loads of plants

Now, where ever there's space (even if it's 30 feet in the air,

attached to another plant) cram in more plants.

Throw vines and creepers everywhere and at everything

Randomly cover things with spikes

Simmer for 20 minutes



Met up with a slightly odd family (very friendly just... slightly...

odd...) and when for a swim in a water hole. Slightly sureal,

splashing around in this deep blue pool with the rainforst around you.



I'm back in Cairns now and hopefully I'll be able to organise to go

diving. There's also a fullmoon night bungy party (!?) on Saturday but

i don't know where I'll be around for that. The plan is to spend the

next month getting down to Byron Bay (a big hippy/traveller commune)

in time for a big party or something and then quickly back up to fly

out of Brisbane



---

Cairns / Magnetic Island / Airlie Beach

---

They're rather too fond of beatroot out here.



Well things have been a little surreal recently.



Went diving on the Great Barrier Reef, it was in a small group too (4

divers plus a divemaster) which makes things better. Brilliant, it's

gorgeous down there. Found Nemo! Saw a giant clam - weird things -

about the size of small dog (an actual dog, not one of those stupid

chiwowaas - don't know how you spell it but you know the rat-like

things I mean) and they twitch when you go close. Swimming through a

school of tiny REALLY colourful fish is fantastic. One of the coolest

moments came near the end when I was waiting to get back in the boat

and bobbing around just under the water. There was this school of

envelope sized, black and white striped fish with yellow tails

swimming around me. There was also one big flat grey fish the size of

a computer screen (but this thing was only about 5 inches thick) that

would swim so close you could reach out and brush your hand along it.

I think they were used/attracted to the boat as they were there on the

second dive too.



On Friday night I went firspinning on what is laughably called the

beach. Cairns doesn't have a beach, it has a mangrove swamp in

training - not that you would want to swim there anyway with the box

jelly fish, crocodiles etc. They've actually build what they call the

Lagoon, which is a big outdoor swimming pool, really nice area.

Anyway, there is one area of actual sand and that's what we were

spinning on. It's a weekly event and a DJ comes down and sets up decks

and massive speakers, an area is marked off and there's free fuel and

a thing to light your fire toys. It was fantastic, some of the people

there were jaw dropping. I spoke to one of them, he looked like an elf

but moved like some kind of spider demon... There were usually about 5

people spinning at once but when the DJ announced the last track

everyone went up so there were about 17 people spinning where ever

there was space. I think the audience like that, we got a decent cheer

at the end.



Saturday night Ant (who's a spinner that I met up here over the

internet) convinced me that I don't actually need sleep, to go a full

moon party in the rainforest and to sleep it off on the bus I had to

catch the next morning. I ended up doing a 50m bungy jump. At night.

In the rainforest. In the light of the full moon. I want to do

another, it was great. I didn't actually feel too bad on the edge but

once I was off I have 2 seconds of panic (no going back now...) once

that was gone I actually really enjoyed the freefall. You slow quite a

lot then bounce back up, once I bounced I had no sence of up, down,

where I was or where I was going ("Didn't I just fall off that? Wait,

which way up am I?") Ant got a video of me diving off (he was up the

top) but not me going all the way down as it was too dark. If you look

closely at the video you can see me rebounding and reaching the top

again ("....oooooOOOH SSHiiii....")



--- I've since discovered that Cairns isn't actually all that great,

it's just a gateway to get everywhere else ---



Got back to the hostel and stayed awake long enough to catch the Oz

bus (a backpacker bus - which'll take me to Bryron Bay eventually,

Sydney side of Brisbane - but it also does side tours and things) Took

me to a crocodile farm. Some of those things are big, really big. I

actually got to try crocodile meat, wouldn't bother trying it again.

Somewhere between chicken and fish and really tough.



I'm now on Magnetic Island and will be for the next couple of hours.

Very pretty. I was going to go diving again today but the weather's

been bad in the last couple of days meaning that visibility in the

water is down to a couple of meters.



Diving didn't happen, visability was so bad it would have been a waste of money.



---



I'm now in Airlie (No) Beach, which doesn't even have a mangrove swap

in training. I've just come back from 3 days sailing in the

Whitsundays. Wow.



First thing that happened was we had details taken and showed the boat

by a guy that really did look like a pirate. Long hair, gold ear ring

everything. Apparently went he's in a bad mood (which is only a

relative thing, he doesn't really get bad moods) he'll say "Yes it is

an eye patch and yes it is real" As the boat was moving off he even

told a joke from the pier. How do you know when you're a pirate? You

just Arrrrr!



Weather was variable but a hell of a lot better than it has been over

the last 3 weeks apparently. Basicly it was sun with the occational 10

minutes downpour. We were sailing in an old piratey type boat,

Arrrrrr. First day we went to Whithaven Beach. It has the finest,

whitest sand anywhere in the world. Second day we went to this sand

bar and island, the sand bar dissapears at high tide - and this isn't

just a small area of sand, it's a lot of land to just vanish. Went

snokelling in a couple of places too. The first one was like swimming

in an aquaium, even right next to the beach in one foot of water

you'll see fish. A couple small dingys were chucking fish food out, if

yoiu went near one of thoses you got swamped. It was like that movie

"The Birds", you couldn't see any fish beacuse they were smacking

against your mask! On the first night I (along with quite a few other

people) slept on the deck. Or tried to. Slept for a couple of hours

and then was woken up by couple of raindrops on my face, figured I

ought to get inside so picked up my sleeping mat and went below deck.

10 minutes later it was pouring down. Think I timed that one well. The

trip back was cool too. We got all the sails out and got up to quite a

speed, we had waves crashing over the side onto the deck big style.



I leave for a place called Dingo tomorrow where we'll do country farm

things like bullwhip cracking, linedancing and having my hat

shotgunned...



---

Brisbane / Byron Bay

---

Currently I'm in Brisbane, though I'm only here for one night - since

I fly out of here I'm going to skip it and do it at the end. Tomorrow

I head to (the) Byron Bay. I plan to stay there about two weeks which

is a small gamble (it might turn out to be crap but probably wont),

even if it is bad I'll either head further down, go to Nimbin or head

back to Brisbane early. The hostel here is pretty good but the room

ain't great. I've not met them but I'd guess it's 4 guys in there that

have been here for a while. It looks like someone collected together

cloathes, comic books and copys of FHM then hit the room with an

airstrike.



Right, onwards. On the bus to Dingo I got talking to a group of 4 guys

who I spent most of the time in Dingo with. Dingo was a slice of the

American West out here in Oz. It's a working cattle station the size of

Belgium, run by 4 guys. There was a tour of the place, saw some cows

(woo) and 'roos. At one point everyone gave in an item or two of

cloathing, the guy put then on a log and hit them with a shotgun. It's

a nice story piece but basicly it looks like moths have got to you.

Later we played with almost-Indiana-Jones-style whips, basicly they

have a foot long handle at the start and he has a bull whip which is

flexible from the start. They make an awesome noise when you crack

them right (the noise comes from the fact that the end is actually

going faster than sound). I think poi helped a lot with the wrist

movements as I got the hang of it pretty quick but to really master it

takes about two weeks. There was linedancing later... Dingo is meant

to be the only place in the world where linedancing is cool, though I

think "cool" is probably a relative term, when all's said and done,

it's still bloody linedancing. I'm no good at it either which I'm

happy about. They got the Northbound and the Southbound (us) buses to

compete. There was a tug of war and a drinking boatrace. We won both

which is unusual as Northbound usually win as they've been together

for longer.



On the way to Bagara to Scottish lads got talking to the 5 of us and

we decided to share a dorm in Bagara. An odd moment came in the dorm

later. We were all playing drinking games when a girl taps on the

window...



"Hi, can we crash your party?"

"Sure, bring beer"

"Can I ask you a question?" (pointing at me)

"Um, yeah..."

"Were you in South Africa?"

"...Yeah"

"How long ago?"

"...About a month ago"

"Did you have a meal in a hostel with a really low table?"

"Swaziland, your boyfriend's going into the police!"

"I knew it was you!"



I've not seen these two for two months and now here they are in

Bagara. We continued the drinking game and at some point it was

suggested that all nine of us go to Frazier Island together.



Frazier Island was pretty cool, eventually. It's the world's largest

sand island and you hire a 4WD car in groups of ten and go camping. It

utterly pissed it down on the first day, we had maybe half an hour of

sunshine. We did manage to get some sun for Lake McKenzie which has

white sand and pure clear water. Then it rained, lots. We set up camp

in the dark and the rain and didnt have any ropes. Bascily it was a

shambles. One of the tents colapsed and two of the rain covers

colapsed. Added to this was that someone snuck in and stole all the

beer but left all the crap cheap wine. We were told to look out for

dingos stealing the food, not pissed up campers. The second and third

day were fantastic. On the second day we went swiming in a couple of

lakes then headed fro the coast of the island. We stopped at (I think

it was called) Ellai's Creek, basicly it's very sceanic you wander

along it and then you can float back down it. After I'd done that and

I was heading back to get changed I bumped into Becky Geary and Hannah

Willcox (they were travelling together). Both went to my prep school,

I've not seen Becky for about 6 years and I've not seen Hannah for

about 2 years since she when to my secondary school as well. That was

a bit weird, we looked at each other for a couple of seconds then

burst out laughing. Strange that I should bump into two people I met

in Swaziland and then 3 days later I met people I knew from home.



Bit later we drove further up to coast to check out a shipwreck and a

placed called Champage Pools. These are rock pools and when the froth

from the waves on the sea crash on to the pools it's meant to look

like Champage, it doesn't. It's very impressive flooking down from up

on the hill but nothing special up close. We set up camp really early

to avoid the same problems of the night before and made a damn good

job of it.



Next day we did what was probably the best thing on the trip to

Frazier Island and that was to visit Lake Wabby. It was a bit of a

trek to get there but definately worth it, you (eventually) climb up

this long golden sand dune and then you see a large area of golden

sand dunes, the forest and the blue green water of Lake Wabby. There

were really steep sand banks next to the lake so we were all

running/rolling/falling down the sand bank and jumping into the water.

Basicly it was a lot of fun, we even saw a dingo.



--



The two Scottish guys stayed in Brisbane but the rest of us moved on

to Byron Bay. On the way we stopped off at a water fall and the town

of Nimbin



Nimbin. Oh my god.



We got to Byron and arranged a surf lesson. The surfing was great but

knackering, I'm so sore this morning - it didnt really help that I

spent a fair few hours this morning in a staff spinning workshop

giving my shoulders even more of a workout/tourture.



I'm staying in The Arts Factory. Crazy place. It has everything from a

cinema to a spa. It's also nice that for a while I had the cheapest

accomodatiuon in Byron. Basicly the guy that I met in the Whitsundays

that was going to book me a bed didn't so when I finally got there he

set me up with loads of discounts. Good to be connected.



The other guys have passed Byron now so I'm on my own again. *sigh*



In the next week or so I'm hoping to go diving, take a massage course,

surf a bit more, meet up with someone I met in Sydney and take a tour

of Nimbin.



---

Byron Bay

---

I've found that I've picked up an irritating habit off these Australians? I catch my self raising my voice at the end of a sentance? So it sounds like I'm asking a question the whole time? Got

to get control of myself...



Stayed with that friend from Sydney for a couple of days, they were on

holiday and were renting a flat up here. We went of one of "Jim's

alternative tours of Nimbin". Nimbin's not nearly as cool in the rain

but the tour was still very cool. Jim's really cool and was giving

comentary and storys during the trip. In fact the entire trip was

syncronised to music. Very cool and some good music. The trip also

involved visiting this crazy hippy. This guy had bought 17 acres of

cattle graizing land and had been collecting plants obsessively for 20

years. So much so that this guy now lives in a rainforest. The pure

volume and variation of plants was eyepopping.



Now that's sunny I gave Nimbin another go with anouther tour company

called The Happy Coach run by a crazy dreadlocked dude named Fred.

Music wasnt as good but it was a smaller group which was nice and

Nimbin is better without rain.



I've signed up for a massage course. Um, yeah. It's pretty hippy.

There's a fair amount to do with energys, auras and reflexology which

isn't really where my personal view of the universe lies. It finishes

tomorrow and then I'm qualified or certified or something.



---

Byron Bay / Brisbane

---

Ok, more on the massage course. The first two days were a bit on the

energies side of things and then how to actually do a massage. The

second two days (which was meant to be an advance course) was all

about aromatherapy, reflexology and diagnosing people -- that was

mainly talking to people and particular emotions mean particular

areas. Example:



"Ouch, my shoulder really hurts, some guy walked into me really hard"

"And how did that make you feel"

"Er... well, angry obviously - he didn't even apologise."

"Ah, anger, that means that your liver is unhealthy as that's where

anger is stored."

"Um, ok"

"And that will manifest itself as tension in your lower spine at L4

vertebra, so I'll massage that"

"But my shoulder still hurts."

"Shut up"



She actually told that I had a bone gone sideways in my neck and if I

had a chiropractor crack that back in, my eyes would get better. From

the way she was talking we are now almost qualified to set up a

practice and treat people, yay for quack doctoriness. What's more,

apparently I'm a natural energy healer. We were doing meridian massage

- you run your fingers (above the body, not touching it) along

particular paths that relate to organs of the body. If you feel an

energy pulse you stop and press, if it hurts you got the right spot

and it needed to be pressed to reline the energy (or something). I was

quite good at it. Though anyone with a brother knows that if you poke

anywhere hard enough it will hurt and certain spots like wrists, ribs

and temples are really going to hurt.



So... Raj, you'll spend the next 6 years at uni doing medicine. I'll

go home, set up a clinic, poke people for a living, make loads of

money for 5 years, get a law suit, go to jail.



Also learn 8 different ways to cause someone to have a stoke and cause

brain damage. And how to massage a pregnant woman - basically, really

really carefully.



Met loads of really nice people through poi in the last couple of

days, including two that have been travelling about 3 years and had

been through South Africa. Apparently all the people that were working

there when they where there 3 years ago are still there. I even got

offered a job teaching poi. Wish they'd done that about a week ago.

You get free accommodation and the occasional free trip, could have

saved me a fair bit of money. As it is I was offered the job 3 hours

before I was due to leave the backpackers. Still, it's a great place

and hopefully I'll go back sometime in the next 5 years.



Took a didj' lesson. You spend the first 5 minutes blowing a raspberry

down a wooden tube, then you start to get the romba-romba-romba noise.

Got the hang of circular breathing but not very well. The idea is to

breath in through your nose (really quickly) while keeping the noise

going. My problem is that my sniff in is only just enough air to carry

on, if I try to make any different sound I can't breathe in enough to

fill my lungs up again so run out of breath. I'll have to get some

plastic piping and practice.



I'm now in Brisbane. It's a city. It has a city vibe. Decided I prefer

the hippy vibe of the place I just left. There's meant to be a

firespinning scene here so hopefully I'll get myself to a meet and

catch up with someone I met in Byron.



That's pretty much everything, next email will probably come from

Auckland on the north island of New Zealand, I leave Thursday.



---

Brisbane / Auckland

---

Actually been meeting loads of really fantastic people here in

Brisbane though they've all been though poi rather than at the hostel.

Was kind of lucky in that a poier I met in Byron came up to Brisbane

at the same time and knew what was happening and when. At those meets

I met other people and got invited to other meets. Went to something

called Moonfest last night, lots of drummers and lots of fire

spinners, and more fantastic people. Actually if it wasn't for poi the

only Aussies I'd have met would only have said, "That will be 6

dollars please."



Went to someone's house and span more, heaps of fun, a whole family of

fire spinners, mad.



Now in New Zealand in Auckland. It's another city. On the upside I've

met some very pleasant people. It's cold here. That's not entirely

true, it's like being back in England but after Australia it's a bit

of a surprise. Met another spinner in the hostel, this one's from San

Fan Cisco (these people get everywhere) hopefully we'll crash into one

another again somewhere in NZ.



Took a bus trip up to Cape Reinga and went dolphin watching. This

involves hanging off the end of the boat (and it was bloody freezing

out there) watching dolphins swim around under the boat, about a meter

and a half away. Sadly didn't get to swim with them - the first group

we found were in "rest mode," (dolphins don't sleep) and when we found

the second group the sea was too rough. Took another bus further up

and went to the northern most point of the north island. Here's a

rocky bit that goes into the sea with a lone tree on it. The native

people (the Maori) believe that when you die your soul walks up NZ to

this rocky bit, sits under the tree for a bit and then jumps into the

water to be carried to the equivalent of heaven. On a less cultural

note I also went sand boarding:



1 - Get hold of a smooth body board (like a short surf board that you

lie down on)

2 - Climb a bloody massive sand dune

3 - Rest

4 - Rest

5 - Rest - it's a BLOODY massive sand dune

6 - Hold aforementioned body board in correct position

7 - Hurl yourself down the sand dune head first

8 - Spit out sand, gather broken limbs and limp off



Lots of fun.



We stopped on the beach to look at a blue penguin (worlds smallest

penguin - about the size of a milk bottle and is in fact sort of

blueish) but stopped on watery sand. We sunk! A bit. Need a tow to get

out and when we got back the driver bought everyone a drink.

Apparently a couple of months ago another bus got stuck, sunk up to

the WINDOWS and when they came back for it, it was on it's side being

knocked to pieces by the sea.



Plan for the next week or so is to return to Auckland then get to

Taupo and do a skydive...



---

Rotorua / Taupo / couple of other places

---

Kia ora.



These place names all have too many vowels and too many 'h's and 'k's.



Went back to Auckland and met some poiers, couple of English uni

students studying out here. Very friendly as usual, I like this hobby,

good way of meeting fantastic people.



Got back on the bus and went up Mt Eden - a dormant volcano that

Auckland is built on - meant to be great views from up there but it

was foggy/rainy.



On to Whitianga ('wh' pronounced 'f') where I did some bone carving -

sort of. You choose a design and are handed a pre cut chunk of beef

bone that you then spend a couple of hours sanding into shape. I chose

a fish hook thing (look on 'tinternet a Maori creation myth and you

see where it comes from and probably what it means) so now I have a

bone fish hook pendent that I really like.



Watched some people Zorb but didn't fancy shelling out the money for

it myself. Zorb: Giant inflatable hamster ball with some soap and warm

water in it. Enter. Roll down hill. Meant to be great fun but figured

I'd save the money.



Rotorua next. It smells. Bad. Lots of geothermal activity here so lots

of bad egg smell goodness. They have geysers and bubbling mud pools

and stuff here, all rather cool (well, hot) but well... it stinks.

There's a Maori show village attached so I went and got cultured. The

guys learnt to do the haka (war dance that The All Blacks do at the

start of rugby matches - more frightening when done by 2000odd Maori

rather than 5 pasty England guys) and the girls learnt to do

traditional poi to the tune of My Guy sung in Maori.



Stopped off briefly in Matamata, featured in some or other New Zealand

film. Guess which.



Went to a Maori evening. Good food, good culture, good show. Food was

cooked in a traditional underground oven. My thoughts: The Maori

didn't have any large mammals - only dogs. Sources of food: possibly

dogs, fish, birds and well, the Maori were cannibals. What was cooked

in these underground ovens was skipped over as "Meat and vegetables"



Rotorua is currently under invasion by the Barmy Army because of these

British Lions rugby tour. The Barmy Army are fairly easy to spot....

Plus the fact that they've tripled the population of Rotorua.



Left Rotorua and went ... somewhere. Where ever it was they had glow

worms, fffffousands of 'em. You take a tour of a cave (usual boring

"that rocks looks like [noun]" tour so that the tour guide isn't

reduced to "That's a rock, there's another") then get in a boat.

Lights/torches off and paddle for a bit. Then your in a cavern looking

up you see thousands of stars - except they ain't starts, them be glow

worms. Great site.



On to Taupo and on to the sky dive. I shelled out to go up to 15,000

feet, the highest legal tandem sky dive and you get an entire 60

seconds of free fall. That 60 seconds feels somewhere between 30

seconds and 10 minutes, not decide which yet. In those 60 seconds you

fall roughly 10,000 feet. I didn't actually feel all that nervous till

the door open at 12,000 feet and the first person fell out - that's

when it started to sink in what I was about to do. You're strapped to

an instructor so you actually have no control over the jump. When it

was my turn I though he might sit on the edge for a bit. No. Straight

out.



Oh. My. God.



Two seconds of pure panic (much like the bungee jump but more

intense). You're tumbling at that point. Once you level out all the

panic leaves, as it gets really abstract. You don't really feel like

you're falling because there's no reference, just wind. Eventually you

hit the ground - actually you fall right through it as it's the clouds

but it's an odd feeling. You pass through the cloud and I could see

the sun beginning to set over Lake Taupo. Awesome. The landing was

really graceful. Basically fell and had the instructor fall on top of

me.



It's freezing falling through the air at 15,000 feet.



One instructor did the entire thing (including landing) blind folded.

Wouldn't have been all that happy being strapped to him. One of the

jumpers was utterly bricking himself but still managed to jump. He

loved it. It was a great feeling being on the ground, massive

adrenaline high.



Today I did the Tongario Crossing, apparently one of the best one day

hikes in New Zealand. Awesome views and I saw the volcano that they

used in a small New Zealand film, think it was called Lord of the

Rings. You might not have heard of it. Matamata (mentioned earlier)

was also in it, fields around it were used to make a place called

Hobbiton. Favourite part was sliding down the ice/snow on my chest -

sledging without the sledge. I was wearing a really smooth wind proof

jacket so I went for miles. Problem with the hiking (tramping as the

call it here) is pain. I'm currently in lots of it. Got up at 5am, and

walked for 6 and a half hours. Pain.



Well that's every thing from Taupo. Tomorrow i leave to go on a

section called 'East As'. Yeah, you go round the east bit.



---

East Cape / Taupo

---

East As was a trip around the East Cape and really chilled out. First

night was in some little surf chalet and not all that interesting.

Second night was at some farm stay, which was pleasant enough. Got up

pretty early to wonder up a hill and watch the sun rise. Since New

Zealand is pretty much as far "east" as you can get before you end up

being officially "west" (with only Fiji and s few more of those island

between it and the international date line) we were on more or less

the most easterly point we were amongst the first people in the world

to see the sun. Groovy huh?



Later in the day I did some more bone carving. This time it was a

(triple) Kuro, which is basically a glorified spiral.



Third night was a some nice home stay thing. Ended up spending a few

days there and chilling out. They a hot tub right next to the sea,

sitting in there at night with a completely clear sky above you,

watching the stars and the shooting stars, was more than slightly

surreal. Spent a couple of hours fishing and caught a couple of

Snappers. Sun setting over the sea. Nice place, see?



Back in Taupo and not a happy bunny. The backpackers that I bought my

bus ticket with all the way back in Auckland have gone bankrupt or

something. Basically they paid the deposit to the bus company and then

folded. Bus company haven't been paid = I don't have a ticket. Bus

company's policy is not to take me unless they get paid the NZ$900

because otherwise they stand to loose about NZ$14000 from all the

unpaid tickets put together.



This is quite a downer.



Not entirely sure what's going to happen as I only found out about

this all an hour ago. The bus company don't really know either, I

think they found out yesterday evening. It looks like I might have to

head back to Auckland (bus company will do that for free) to talk to

the main office of the bus company and to fire-bo... er... I mean talk

to whatever's left of the backpackers. It's not too bad I suppose,

I've got plenty of time left and I'm only in Taupo which isn't toooooo

far from Auckland. Could have been worse, I could have been on the

south island.



Make the best of a bad situation. You know what they say:



When Life gives you lemons...







...punch Life in the gut and squeeze the lemons in his eye.



Well, whatever the hell happens it'll sort itself out. Possibly with a

little help from Mr Crowbar.



---



An update for you. The bus company have decided to honour my ticket

and so all that's happened is that I had to stay an extra day in

Taupo, I'll be off south on the bus tomorrow. I got an apology too

which is nice. It's going to cost them loads of money as far as I can

tell, but I guess it would have hurt them more if we went and hammered

their reputaion into the ground. That or they've worked out some other

way of getting their money.



Whatever, it's all good. Problem sorted.



---

Taupo / Wellington / Franz Joseph / Wanaka

---

Well after that messing around with the bus tickets all that happened

was that I had to spend an extra night here in Taupo. No worries.



Went looking for a friend of a friend named "Barbary" Bill. He sails a

boat on Lake Taupo called the Barbary, which apparently used to belong

to Errol Flynn. He took me for free (ace!) out on the lake and out to

see what are advertised in some places as "ancient" Maori rock

carvings on the cliffs. Apparently they were actually carved about 60

years ago by a bored artist.



Stayed the extra night in Taupo and got on the bus the next morning.

That was a little odd. The bus ahead of us (the one I had to get off)

is quite packed, so apparently is the one behind us. The one I'm on...

well.. There's four people including me. And one of them's the driver.

We're not exactly stretched for space as the bus can fit around 40

people.



Went to River Valley. There's white water rafting and horse trekking

and stuff there but no one was really interested in that so me and the

two other passengers ended up just playing golf. Or rather whacking a

ball around with no real skill or aim.



Wellington now. Nothing really to add other than it's got the cheapest

internet and most expensive beer that I've seen for a while.



Er... I've now got dreadlocks. Doing that hurt, lots. Currently they

look a bit crap, a lot like I've been playing with plug sockets

(they're sticking up all over the place) but that's only because

they're new, in a couple of days they'll calm down and look better.

I'm wearing a hat till then.



They now look slightly better but it's only been a day, and they

really itch under the hat. I'll give them a couple of days and if I

don't like how they're turning out I'll unpick them.



Now on the south island. Not too cold yet but I'm sure it will be.



Dreadlocks gone, they lasted a mighty three days. My hair's not really

long enough for them so they continued to look a little crap. Also I

didn't have any wax for them so they were fraying anyway. Spent a

little while teasing them out and the barnet is back to normal.



Went quad biking, that was loads of fun, reeeeeeally muddy.



Stayed in a pub in the middle of no where last night, there was a "P"

party. Some of the more interesting costumes where Pond, Panto Cow and

Plane (two guys built a plane out of cardboard, they actually got a

round of applause when they came in. They also won and got a bungy

jump or something)



I've eaten a possum pie. It ain't great, like a cross between rabbit

and every other pie in every other roadside cafe.



Entered a raffle at the bar in the backpackers by buying a pizza.

Turns out I won a bungy jump, therefore that was the best pizza I've

ever bought. Unfortunately it's from about 45m and I want to do the

Nevis (143m) so I might end up selling it to fund the big jump. Or I

might do it as a warm up...



Did the trek up the Franz Joseph glacier yesterday, it was about 7

hours of walking and I'm hurting a lot less that I thought I would be.

I must be getting fit. Blimey. It was fantastic and the most bizarre

scenery I've ever been in, all curves, spikes, tunnels and crevices

but utterly, utterly beautiful. The ice is actually blue in some

areas.



I've been learning new drinking games, some of you guys are in real

trouble when I get home...



Currently in Wanaka, about a weeks travel from Christchurch (where I

fly out of) and I've got about a month left here. It looks like I'll

stay here for a bit, hit Queenstown for a while (meant to be really

fun) and maybe go to Christchurch and get a job/hitch-hike further

north - either way Christchurch is apparently not worth spending 3

weeks in.



Hope this finds everyone in health and happiness and all that hippy

goodness. Email me, I like reading them. Missing everyone and other

sentimental slush that just embarrasses people.
EDITED_BY: Domino (1127521095)

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 23rd Sep 2005
---
Wanaka / Queenstown
---
Thought I'd mention a little more about the glacier walk. It got a
little hairy in places. There were sections where you had to step over
narrow (and not so narrow) gaps, but looking down you'll see that
these cracks in the ice actually go down about 5 metres. In other
areas the guide would jump arose like a mountain-goat then put his
hand out and help the next person across (who would then turn around
and help the next...). At one point we went through a crevasse that
was about a foot wide, you be right up against the ice and shuffling
along because there isn't enough room to move one foot in front of the
other. The gap then pretty much went straight up which was a little
tricky, you have to go up steps knocked into the ice and would reach a
point where you cant actually move your legs anymore as there's no
space. You'd have to shuffle about an inch at a time till you had
enough room to move you leg up and around. One poor girl fell through
the ice into a pool of ice cold water up to her waist. Twice - not the
same one, she wasn't that unlucky/malco-ordinated. I actually got a
little paranoid that the same thing would happen to me and wreck my
camera. Anyways, it was till awesome.

I think there might be more than a little inbreeding here in Wanaka,
some of the people here have a particular look about them. Eyebrow
ridges, big furry knuckles dragging on the ground - their boyfriends
don't look much better either.

Went to a place called Puzzling World. Can you guess the theme? It's
actually kind of cool with lots of illusions like holograms, a tilted
room and a fake perspective room (actually called the "Ames False
Perspective Room"...) which uses the same kind of tricks used on Lord
of the Rings. You stand and look through a window and anyone walking
in the room seems to be really mini and then when they cross the room
they look like they double in size till they're stooped over with
their shoulders against the ceiling.

Did the bungy I won. It was about 43m and I got a really good photo of
it. The big one was booked up so I'll do it when I get back to
Queenstown in a couple of days. Bungy jumping is definitely harder
when sober...

Queenstown now and the temperature continues to hover around 300 below
zero. Spent the last couple of days wandering around town with a
couple of friends (who've sadly moves on) and trying not to drink as
much as everyone else. Wanted to do my big bungy jump today but there
wasn't any space left. Tomorrow I'm off one something called "The
Bottom Bus" which, surprisingly enough, goes around the bottom bit of
New Zealand. The temperature around there should get to 400 below zero
but it's meant to be utterly stunning down there.

I'm now in Dunedin on the south coast. It's the most Scottish town in
New Zealand and is home to he world's steepest street. Yes I walked up
it. It's got gradient of 1:2.46 or something, as only Ed will
understand that basically it means that it's bloody steep. Went to a
wildlife reserve today and saw some penguins and also saw some fur
seals from about a metre away, veeeeeerry cute.

Met someone here that I met in Byron Bay and have not seen for a month
and a half. Awesome.

Stayed in some great metropolis on the coast, population : 11. Not an
awful lot to do but was pretty cosy and they had yellow eyed penguins
(the rarest penguin in the world) on the beach. The bus stopped at a
couple of places to look at waterfalls, some of them were awesome but
there's no point trying to describe them and the picture don't really
do them justice.

Finished The Bottom Bus with a trip to Milford Sound - apparently a
"Sound" is more or less the same as a fjord. So there. We were on a
boat that when all the way down the sound to the sea and then back up.
Imagine a large river with damn near vertical cliffs at the side with
hundreds of waterfalls/vertical streams cascading down. What I'm not
saying very well is that it was stunning.

Back to Queenstown and back to skiers, drunken people and skiing
drunken people. Went to a more than slightly random bar last night.
They have old telephones and a giant moose head mounted on the walls
and the serve cocktails in teapots. They played good music and all in
all it was a good night.

I'm about to do the massive bungy. I must be out of my damn mind.

---
Queenstown - More bungyness
---
Thought it was only fair to let you know I survived the bungy jump. A
3 hour round trip, 8 seconds free fall and 134 metres of elastic cord
were all it took. You jump from a cable car with a glass bottom so you
can watch everyone else fling themselves out while you wait. They went
in weight order and I was the lightest so was last and had to watch 20
other people plummet towards the ground first. Not great for the
nerves but to be honest I started to get more bored than nervous, I
just wanted to get on with it. Standing on the edge it's a bit of a
fight to quieten down the primal part of your brain that's screaming
at you about what a monumentally moronic thing it is that you're about
to do. 134m is a looooong way down. Honestly for a fraction of a
second I wasn't sure I was going to do it but I jump and that primal
part went mental for a few seconds. After those initial seconds I went
into a zen like calm and have been ever since. After the first couple
of bounces you have to reach up and unhook your feet (no Ryan, not so
that you fall) so that you swing round from feet up to head up and
then they winch you back up. Going up was nice, fairly peaceful
considering what you've just done and it's an excellent view.

What's next? Any suggestions?

---
Christchurch
---
Small nightmare with the bus from Queentown to Christchurch. I meet
some people and go for a couple of drinks but they don't really kick
in as I got a stomach full of nachos. However they do kick in when I'm
asleep and I end up oversleeping by about an hour. I wake up in the
morning and look at my watch. I look again. I panic. It's 8.50 the bus
leaves at 8.55. I've got 5 minutes to pack, checkout and get round the
courner to the bus. I get to the info centre (where the bus is meant
to be) and there's no people and no bus. Much swearing. Inside the the
info place the guy tells me the bus actually picks up just round the
courner. Hooray! People with backpacks! I actually got there (more or
less) on time but the bus was late... Thank God it was as there is not
a single hostel bed available in Queenstown. Due to a "booking
confusion" I managed to fluke a bed for last night when I wasn't meant
to - I'm fairly sure the hostel wouldn't let me get away with it again
and stay another night. If I'd missed that bus I would have had to pay
NZ$50 to get my ticket reactivated (a real kick in the teeth
considering that it only had one stop left on it - I considered
hitch-hiking when I thought I'd missed the bus) and about NZ$85 for a
hotel room because all the hostels are booked up due to some winter
festival happening in Queenstown. All sorted in the end.

I'm now in Christchurch a fair bit earlier than expected or wanted.
This is mostly because rather than stay places I've got back on the
bus the next day because that's what people I'm getting on with are
doing. I've now got 16 or so days to spend in Christchurch. Not even
locals spend that long here. A couple of friends I made along the way
are renting a flat here so I'll spend some time with them and there's
another poi-person here that I really want to meet. Think I'll also
spend some time up in Kaikoura and do the dolphin thing and maybe
learn to ski/snowboard.

Now back from Kaikoura. Kaikoura itself is really really dull but it's
one of the best places in the world so see dolphins and whales. I
signed myself up to go swimming with wild dusky dolphins. Before you
start you're given a full wetsuit - that included a hood, gloves,
booties. Generally when they give you that much kit it's a bad sign.
It means really cold water. It was. About 10 degrees. There were a
hell of a lot of dolphins. Around 350-400 in the pod that we went
swimming with and around 1000-2000 in the area. Soon as I got in the
water there were at least 5 dolphins around me. They tend to circle
around you keeping eye contact, one of them just kept getting faster
and faster and faster. Others would suddenly change direction on you.
One or two swam straight at me and then curved off at the last second.
All the time you're encouraged to make noises and talk to them to get
there interest. It gets a little surreal with 15 people talking "Wale"
like in Finding Nemo
(Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllll
lllllllllllllllooooooo, myyyyyyyyyyyy
naaaaaaaaaaaaaaame iiiiiiiiiiiiis -- etc) Fantastic experience and
utterly exhausting, those things ran rings around me (that's not meant
to be some kind of bad pun) and they are damn fast.

It was probably from splashing around in that cold water but I've
caught a cold - though it's taken a couple of days to come on.
Basically I'm feeling a bit crap, been kind of light headed all day
and I think I'm getting high from the near fatal number of Lemsip
lozenges I've been eating. Gah.

That's all the news for now and probably will be till I get to Bali -
Christchurch isn't the most exciting place.

---
Sydney Airport
---
Gaaaaaaaaaah. Hullo all. Feeling more than slightly rough around the
edges. I'm using the free internet at Sydney Airport, I thoght you
ought to know that I'm alive and well but haven't slept in roughly
20hours and I've got another flight to go.

Well, that all the news I have for now - I'm alive but feel like crap.

Bali here I come

---
Bali - Kuta
---
Hey everyone. Made it to Bali and made it to bed. It got to about 36
hours with only 2 hours of sleep on the plane. I was going to take a
nap and then go out for the evening. Woke up the next morning.
Probably for the best.

Met someone in the hostel that was heading to Bali too and we worked
out we'd been there at the same time and that we should probably meet
up. She later checked her flights - found that they were a week
earlier than she thought and that we were actually on the same flight,
we're now sort of following eachother for the 3 days or so that she
has in Bali - a good thing or I'd be more than a little lost here

It's great to be in a hot country again. I'm wearing shorts! I've
missed them! Though I'm still acclimatised to cold so it's a little
uncomfortable at the moment.

Bali's a little nuts. They drive in a way that would put the shits up
The Red Arrows, it smells of blocked drains in places and people leave
these little baskets of offering to the spirits in the streets - I'm
doing my best to not to trip over them. It's also reeeeeeeeeeally
cheap here, it's great. Seems to be lots to see, do and buy but I've
not had the chance so far.

Ok, that's the main information. I'm alive, happy and rested. And in
Bali. Hope everyone's well. I'll email again when I've been up to
something.

---
Bali - Kuta / Gili Trawangan Island
---
To anyone that goes traveling. Free food boxes --- goooooood.

The food here is great and so cheap, a really good restuant meal will
cost you about a pound. It's actually more expensive to cook yourself.

There's loads of guys on the street trying to sell you stuff and they
can get quite pushy, some of them will follow you and even try to hold
on to you (though not hard enough to actually stop you). How they make
a sale I've got no idea.

"Sunglasses?"
"I'm wearing some"
"One dollar?"
"No"
"Sunglasses?"
"No"

One guy tried to tell us that we'd won around US$300, had scam written
all over it - we only stopped because he said, "I'm not selling
anything." We eventually shut him up and walked off.

I'm making it sound bad but it's pretty nice here. Good, cheap food.
I'm staying in a nice ish hotel for around 4 pound a night. Sunny
weather.

Right... I'm now on Gili Trawangan Island, quite touristy but a good
laugh, think it would be very easy to stay here for the rest of my
time in Bali. Intenet here is not very good so you might not get an
email in a while. Also I'm pretty much out of the loop news wise out
here so if anything major happens let me know.

Anyways, having fun. Good food, too much cheap beer, good weather.
Been snorkeling (saw turtles) and watched the sunset.

That's everything for now, have fun everyone

---
Bali - Kuta
---
Sooo, what's been happening in the world?

I'm now back from Gili Trawangan and had an utter blast. Made some
really really good friends and it was horrible leaving them though I
was so drained at the time that at that particular moment it wasn't
too hard.

Why was I drained?

At some point one of these Friends suggested that we go up Mount
Rinjani - a 3726m high volcano on Lombok. It was a three day trek, we
had a really good deal, I liked these people, it fits in pretty well
with my flights and it sounds like fun. Sure, why not?

I think it was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. By
the end we're all tired, grubby and smelling pretty antisocial. For
some reason I was by far the dirtiest. Someone actually mentioned that
it looked like I had just crawled out of the jungle or something. It
was crazy though when you think about how hard it was yet the
"porters" carry all the tents, food and cooking gear and climb up and
down that mountain faster than us - and they wear flipflops. Mental.

It was actually quite a lot of fun, though I cant quite believe that
we managed it, and the views were utterly awesome.

Right. I'm off for a well deserved beer.

Dom

PS
I fly to Thailand tomorrow. I promise not to go all "The Beach" on
you. I would actually be happy coming home now but pretty much
everyone I've met had said "You're going to Thailand next? Ah, you're
going to have so much fun - I'm jealous."

---
Bangkok
---
There's plenty more of them to come but I'm not going to miss
South-East Asian toilets. A hole in the floor and a bucket to flush,
it's not much of an engineering feat to be proud of it is really?

Ah right. Information. Something to justify this email. Er...

I left Bali about 2 days ago in an unpleasent physical state after
that mountain. Made me relise how badly I've been treating my feet.
Over the last 6 months they've been blistered, sunburnt, smashed into
rocks, attacked by squadrons of mosquitoes, sandflys and bedbugs, and
generally used too much. It's amazing they haven't left me, they look
like they belong to some old man.

Left behind some really good friends which really, really sucks.
That's not getting any easier. Hopefully I can work out some way of
seeing them again at some point in the future.

I'm in Bangkok on the (in)famous Khoa San Roan, apparently a notorious
backpacker ghetto. During the day there's loads of guesthouses, bars,
places to eat, the odd street vender and loads of market stalls
selling damn near anything. At night it's closed to traffic and turns
into some crazy openair market/party. Not really looked around it like
this, 6 hours traveling didn't have me in a mood to go exploring.

Bangkok. It's noisy and it smells. It's a fart of a city. Apparently
there's some interesting temples and thing here to see but I've only
been here one night and I'm buggering off else where tomorrow, maybe
I'll see some more of it on the way back.

Orginally I was aprehentious about Bangkok and feeling a little out of
my depth, I don't really know how to cope here and the fact that you
stay in guesthouses rather than hostels makes it a fair bit harder to
meet people. Not to worry. Finally got off my arse and got my self
organised. Sod shopping around and trying to save an entire 3 quid, I
made my mind up fairly soon how I'm going to get there so I'm off to
Chang Mai. Elephant trekking country dontchaknow.

7 weeks. That's all I've got left. Mad. Sounds like ages but it's not.
I'm going home.

---
Chang Mai
---
It's a common belief that cockerels crow at the sunrise. This is not
true. They *start* at sunrise and then go off more or less at random
during the day. The ones on Gili Trawangan all sounded like they had
bronchitis.

Took the night sleeper train from Bangkok to Chang Mai, that took
about 15 hours and was a particularly sweaty experience. You get an
almost-bed and a couple of fans for good measure. Pretty much had
water pouring off me but managed to catch a few uncomfortable hours
sleep. They obviously knew what I was trying to do and every so often
would jerk the train pretty hard (I have no idea how) and wake me up.
Still, least I got a bed and a fan. In third class it looked like
murder, just a horrendously uncomfortable looking chair.

Weather's looking tropical. Translation: It's raining.

Just got back from elephant trekking, fun but not really what I was
expecting. Spent about an hour on a back of an elephant, in a "chair"
with two to a chair, the "driver" sits on the elephant's head. Pretty
cool and elephants walk with an odd lurch but really not sure if Mr
Ethics would agree with the whole thing. As far as I can tell (I'm not
exactly an expert in elephant welfare) the elephants didn't really
look mistreated but occasionally one of the "drivers" would whack an
elephant pretty hard on the head with a stick thing. I guess elephants
have thick skin/skulls but it looked like a couple had bruises and one
or two looked like they had small wounds on their heads. Later swam
around a bit in a waterfall.

Walked to some remote looking village. Interesting to think that
people really do live like this. Ate and later we all chipped in
100baht each (about 1 pound 50) and the villagers slaughtered and
BBQed a pig for us. I watched them gut and prepare it to be cooked and
I weirdly wish I seen them kill it too so I could get a feeling for
the whole process, it seemed like a hell of a lot of work. I and a
couple of other of people were talking in really broken English with a
few drunk villagers and so we got to try parts of the pig your not
supposed to eat (they were cooked separately and cooked sooner).
There's a reason people don't eat pig intestines in the UK. Because
they're too chewy and taste like crap. Later came the main event of
the pig, as soon as it was ready it was a scrum of savages with people
jumping in with knives to hack off lumps. It managed to get a couple
of mouthfuls before being overpowered. The meat was pretty rare and
here I would make a joke about tapeworms if it wasn't for the fact
that I spent the next day feeling pretty rough and ended it with a
session if projectile vomiting. Great fun.

Another group joined us along with some local rice wine/whiskey and
pretty soon we had a fight/argument between a drunk obnoxious
Englishman and a drunk rude Frenchman. Spent a little while listening
to a drunk Thai guy speak in very broken English about eating to much
and ladyboy elephants. Or something. Slept on the floor in a bit hut.

Next day had a look around a village and plodded around a paddy field
for far too long, though it was pretty nice to watch the thousands of
large, orange drangonflys hovering about. Got to another hut and
stayed the night.

Third day. Walked for a bit more till we eventually got to a place to
eat and a car. Ate and got loaded on to the car to the place we
started for a bit of bamboo rafting. There's 3 people on each gondola
and a Thai at the front punting. At had a go with the other pole
punting at the back but it was mostly for show, it was too short to
actually use so all you could do was push away from rocks with the
hopes of stopping the back end crashing into them, still fairly
enjoyable.

The "elephant trekking" was a hell of a lot easier than I was
expecting (though after the volcano that's a good thing - and compared
to that volcano it was an absolute piss) and contained a lot less
elephant and trekking than I was expecting. I didn't enjoy it as much
as I did going up the volcano (though in all honesty I didn't hate it
as much either), which might have to do with the fact that this had
not much sense of achieve - it didn't actually feel like I was going
anywhere, just walking for the hell of it - but it was mostly to do
with having a much better group going up the volcano. I'm bitching
now, it was fun.

I chickened out of a 30 hour train journey down to Ko Pha Ngan so I'm
taking a flight. Intend to spend the next 3ish weeks there, evening
out my fairly mismatched tan and enjoying to full moon party.

---
Ko Pha Ngna
---
Have you seen my shoes?

This place apparently has a reputation for eating shoes. I lost my
sandals last night somewhere on the beach. They have a cocktail here
called a bucket. Literally - a toy bucket, bottle of whiskey, can of
coke, ice, straws and a bottle of amphetamine strength Red Bull. I'm
not joking. The Red Bull here is something like 4 times stronger than
the stuff at home and apparently illegal in every other country in the
world. Mix it with the whiskey and you loose your mind pretty quick.
And your shoes.

I liked those shoes.

---
Ko Pha Ngan
---
Another bucket, another pair of shoes. This is God damn silly. Shea,
you were absolutly right.

This time they were stolen. Took them off, jumped through a flaming
hoop like a preforming dog, came back and they were gone. I "obtained"
another pair but it wasn't a fair trade, these ones are broken.

The Full Moon Party my just kill me - I need a detox.

Oh, and 6 bottles of Red Bull in a night. Not really healthy

---
Ko Pha Ngan
---
Found myself dancing around like a nutter the other night, never
though the day would come. A moderate amount of alcohol, waaaaaaay too
much Red Bull, a hell of an atmosphere and lots of poi. That happens
much more and I'll turn into a raver, what a mess. That night was
actually meant to be a comparatively quiet one but some idiot (er...
me) introduced the people I'm friendly with to a drinking game and
some idiot (er... again, that might have been me, I don't remember)
thought that tonight would be a good night to play it again. Bucket
after bucket soon followed. Then the sun came up.

Next night was Full Moon Party. 12,000 people, very cool indeed though
I stayed relatively sober after the night before. Got to sleep around
8am.

So that's pretty much it. I'm sunning myself, drinking too much and
having a good time. This place is so chilled out it's actually really
hard to build up the energy to do anything else.

And I lost my shoes again but I 'found' some nice ones to replace
them. I actually finally found and bought the Full Moon Part t-shirt
with the legend "Has Anybody seen my shoes" - I think I'm on my forth
or fifth pair.

---
Ko Pha Ngan
---
Had a thai massage. I was going to take a course and learn how to do
it but after being stretched, cracked, popped, pummelled and generally
beaten up by a small thai girl I don't think that I could convince
anyone to let me do it to them. It did (eventually) feel good and all
the back popping was quite entertaining.

4 friends I'd been spending time with (read: getting horrifically
drunk with and teaching poi to) have now run off to Krabbi and Ko Tao.
Thinking about it now I probably would have followed them but I've got
friends from Bali arriving today so it's all good.

I miss my bed. I really, really miss my bed. I want to wake up in my
big, comfortable bed, pull the duvet over my head and go back to
sleep. Several hours later I want to wake up again, go downstairs and
watch TV with a cup of tea. I'm hungover - no that's not true, I'm
still drunk.

It's hard to actually do anything here, you're practically falling
over it's so laid back. I'll do it tomorrow, everything, I'll do it
tomorrow.

And then I found 5 dollars.

---
Ko Phi Phi
---
So what have I been up to?

Went on The Reggae Boat Cruise which was an enjoyable experience. It's a boat trip that takes you to some of the sights on Ko Pha Ngan, it's just too easy to stay in Haadrin and not see anything else of the island.

One hell of a storm last night, an Oh-God-Here-Come-The-Four-Hoursemen kind of storm, couldn't really see much other than the sky lighting up from where I was but apparently if you went down to the beach you could see the lightning hit the water.

Futons. Futons are a damn lie perpetuated by Chakra-munching lettuce-worshipers. I don't care how good they claim futons are for posture, I've slept on enough uncomfortable beds in the last 8 months to know that a thin hard mattress on the floor will never compare to a soft thick mattress enveloping you into a womb like state of bliss.

I've left Ko Pha Ngan and I'm now on Ko Phi Phi, actually a marine park that got hit by the tsunami - I'm thinking about doing some volunteer work. Took the night boat (bloody futons) to the mainland then a bus across it then a boat to the island of Ko Phi Phi. I was hoping to meet up with four people I met in Ko Pha Ngan but was expecting a few days of chasing each other around, trying to meet up. I was sitting on the boat to Phi Phi and thought I recognised a woman. I was wrong but reflected that I was about due to run into someone I know, possibly someone from home. Next second I hear, "Dom! Dom!" The four from Pha Ngan are getting on the boat. Groovy.

The fire spinning here is much more impressive than on Ko Pha Ngan but it's a challenge finding a place to stay at a reasonable price. And they do buckets at two-for-one. Oh God.

---
More of Ko Phi Phi
---
Sa wadii kap

Not in the greatest mood with the internet, gmail managed to swallow a long email that I'd been adding to for a couple of days. More than that it would show me that the email still existed but it wouldn't let me near it. It's taunting me damn it. Growl.

"Whoo -Ooh, I'm an alien, I'm an illegal alien, I'm an Englishman in ... Thailand" -- my visa's run out. Not sure whether to make the trip to the boarder or just to bite the bullet and pay the fine at the airport for overstaying by two weeks.

When to go see some thai boxing. Very cool to watch and pretty damn brutal. Afterwards they let people play around in the ring. After a few drinks me and Nick ended up challenging eachother, which ened by referee intervention which we both take a certain amount of pride in. We even got a small audience. There weren't any malfeeling or anything, we both had a great time and were so high on adrenalin by the end. Both feeling a little battered in the morning, not surprising really, but through the alcohol you somehow think you won't actually get hurt. Got some cool pictures.

Saw more thai boxing and found that it's fixed. Same fight, same people, same winner, same ending by "knockout", even the same moment when one guy flew over the ropes and out of the ring. I say fixed, they're still kicking the crap out of eachother - just occationally they look over at a guy on the side of the ring that's signalling "third round, go down". An English guy got in the ring - couldn't actually tell if he'd had any fighting training - and he'd obviously been put up by his mates. He didn't do baddly in the first round, even tripped the thai guy a few times (whether he let him though...) but he was obviously exhausted in the second round and got pulped.

Went to a Black Moon Party, not really as good as I was expecting but that's probably because on some level I'm comparing it to the Dull Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan - you're not going to get 12,000 outside one bar, obviously it's not going to compare.

Rented some kayaks and went exploring. Got in the water and headed for some cliffs that looked like they had a few interesting bays in them. They did. Played around with monkeys in the first one and found this cool open cave-ish thing at the second one. It was a pretty nice place to hang around but had a lot of rubbish in it, it looks like at high tide this place floods and all the plastic bottles float in with the sea. Shame. There was also some really random stuff there. An improvised oar. Two giant lightbulbs wedged in cracks in the rocks - these comfused me. Did some one find them already there and wedge them in? Did some one bring the speically? And why?

I'm in real, real need of a detox. I've drunk too much for too long. I've even built up a tolerence to Red Bull.

The four English people left today, getting really fed up of making friends and loosing them.

But hey, I'm having fun.

---
Still on Ko Phi Phi
---
I arrive back on the 12st of September, that's about a week away. 8 months nearly over. I'm going home. I've met a fair number of people really broken up about the fact they they're going home. Guess I will be too but at the moment I'm really looking forward to seeing family, friends, my dog, cups of tea, my bed, television that makes a small amount of sense, knowing people for more than a week, good beer, clean water -- you get the idea.

My detox lasted about 2 days.

Read The Beach, figured I probably ought to while I'm out here and I've seen the film too many times (it's always playing in the bars). It's good, much better than the film and much darker. I can recognise a lot from it - I don't mean running around with imaginary people, going insane and pretending I'm in a Vietnam movie - but the names of places and the way people act (You wan' ba-nana' pancak'?)

Making a run for the boarder, found someone that's doing a visa run so I'll go with them. Otherwise I'd probably not bother. At the moment I'm about a week over so I'll get a telling off and a fine.

Played around with luminescent plankton, it's rather cool. There's a type of plankton that when you disturb it, it glows. I found a few small clumps of it on the sand last night - I got in the water and trashed around a bit but it either wasn't there or there were too many lights to see the glow.

Now decided not to make a visa run as the cost of the trip plus the cost of the fine I've got already is actually slightly more than the fine for the 17 days I'll be over due.

Oh God I've got to stop drinking.

---
Back in Bangkok
---
Er... Sorry guys. Got the date of my flight home wrong. In the email I
said "12st" and I meant "21st". I wave my Dyslexia Association
membership card at this point.

Back in Bangkok. Going home.

Cups of tea...
Oh yes

Righto, back in Bangkok. My opinion of the place is changing, slowly.
Yes it's noisy, yes it stinks. But I'm not jet lagged and I've got a
few friends here.

Got on a boat and left Ko Phi Phi. Boat to minibus and minibus
(eventually) to night bus. Didn't get much sleep on the night bus but
must have got some because I remember being dazed and confused,
looking out of the window and thinking I was on a night boat. I could
feel it rocking on the water and everything.

Got off the bus slightly disorientated and eventually started walking
to Khao San Road. Looked behind me and saw someone with a fire-staff
(the type they tend to use on Ko Pha Ngan) and think, "Hey that's
cool, another fire spinner... wait... I know you." I'd met her and her
brother on Ko Pha Ngan and then again on Ko Phi Phi, made pretty good
friends with them. Spent the day with them and a couple of their
friends.

Met up with one of the people I climbed that volcano with. Didn't
actually know that she was going to be in Bangkok until about a day
before I left to go there. I also half randomly met one of her friends
the day I left Ko Phi Phi. Half random because we both knew that we'd
be on the island at the same time but only for one day. Wasn't
honestly convinced that we'd walk into each other but we did in a bar.

Today went to what is apparently the largest market in South-East
Asia. Bought a few things and ate a few weird things. On the way back
I took the Sky-train and padding around looking for change I had this
conversation:

"'Scuse me, have you got change?"
"'Fraid not mate"
"...Paul Zenon"
"Indeed"
"Nice to meet you"
"Thanks, 'fraid I've only got 5 baht spare anyway"
"Ah well, cheers"

Now, my bet is that only Lawrence will know what I'm talking about,
possibly Raj too. Who cares, *I* thought it was cool and I'm the only
one that matters on this planet.

Got woken up today by what I thought was the guesthouse exploding.
Soon realised it was just someone dragging a moose up the stairs.

I've converted to Pastafarianism, you can read about my new religion
here: https://www.venganza.org/

Well that's pretty much everything. I mean that in fairly total way, 8
months, over. If I send another email it'll most likely be from
Heathrow Airport and won't really go much further than "Well... I'm
back." It would be nice if it was full of musing of the last
three-quarter year chunk of my life but I know damn well from
experience that these thoughts will desert me as soon as I try and
type them.

Signing off. Probably see you all soon, I'll let you know if anything
interesting happens. And just because this might be the last email
don't think that you can not bother replying - I'll be upset.

---
Dorrington ... Bah
---

So.

I'm home. Didn't get a bollocking at the airport. Got a fine. Suits me. I was half convinced that I'd be taken into a small room and rubber-gloved. That wouldn't have been cool.

So.

Didn't get much sleep on the plane, small children running around their playground in the sky. And now I'm home. Uni in a few days. Crazy, at what point did I become an adult? Well, adult enough to get to uni?

Realised Thailand was a bit of a cultural void although I did manage to make it to the Grand Palace in Bangkok and see the Emerald Buddha. Yeah so I may be a cultureless farang but I had fun.

So that's totally everything now. All over.

It's been emotional.
Dom

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 23rd Sep 2005
Ok, so the ending a little downbeat. I had a great time and I'm glad to be home but at the same time i didn't want to leave and it's hard to think it's all over

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 25th Sep 2005
Thats a lot of traveling domino do you need a holiday to recover from all that ?.

that shrewd and knavish sprite

Called Robin Good Fellow ; are you not he that is frighten of the maidens of the villagery - fairy

I am the merry wander of the night -puk

Posted: 27th Sep 2005
Haha, maybe

Currently recovering from a month long hangover

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 27th Sep 2005
YEY DOM'S BACK!

Dude welcome home!

Come to see us sometime, I bet you have lots to show us now eh!

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 13th Oct 2005
Hi Dom,

Caught you on gravityvomit.co.uk

Thought i'd come in and say hi!

Gayle.....!

Posted: 17th Oct 2005
Hey hey - we'll have to introduce each other at the next meet :P

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 13th Nov 2005
Happy Birthday!

Live like there is no tomorrow,
dance like nobody is watching
and hula hoop like wiggling will save the world.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted: 13th Nov 2005
BARRY SMURFDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope you be smiling lots and having wonderful smurf-day fun!

Only when you close your eyes can you really see...

Posted: 15th Nov 2005

EDITED_BY: Domino (1132083770)

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 16th Nov 2005
Hey Dom when will we be seeing you again? I wanna see your new worldly travelled fire spinning skills!

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 13th Nov 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

THE hop Pyro.
(with parents)
Unowned