Momma I'm coming Homeeee
Well this hopefully will be my last whiny blog about traveling but when your done reading this you'll understand why I have to do it. First off I was wrong about the minibus leaving at 4:45am that one wasn't running yesterday so I left at 8am from Batu Ferringhi and it took 5 hours to get to Hat Yai in southern thailand. From there we took another bus up to Surat Thani that took 5 more hours but I had a fellow Canadian on board so we chatted for a few hours and it made the time pass a bit quicker. When we finally arrived in Surat Thani we had to catch a public bus to the train station and there we met up with one of her friends from Vancouver. We had 4 hours to kill before the train so we went and played some cards in a restuarant near the train station. They were going to Bangkok and I decided to come just to Hua Hin, 4 hours south of Bangkok to relax on some beaches before heading back home. The train left Surat Thani at 9:23pm and arrived at 4:40am in Hua Hin. Before buying my ticket I asked the guy working there if any hotels would be open when I arrived and he assured me that they all would be so when I arrived in Hua Hin I went and got on a moto taxi to go to the guest house I wanted to stay at. Sure enough it was closed and he took me to 5 or 6 other places all closed so I told him to just take me back to the train station and I'll wait there and come back in a few hours. When we got back to the train station he tried to get more money out of me for driving me back there but I just walked away b/c I was too tired to deal with that crap. I went and found a bench in the train station which was really just a log with the sides slightly shaved down and feel asleep for a few hours. When I woke up at 10 to 7 I had a swarm of mosquitos around my head, which is definatly the last thing I want to see in the morning. I quickly jumped up and started brushing them away and I bet I looking like a manic to everyone in the station. At that point I couldn't go back to sleep so I got another moto taxi to take me back to the guest house but it was still closed so I just decided to sit out front and wait for it to open. Then I saw a sign that pointed down this back alley for a 24 hr guest house so I went and checked it out. When I saw the bed I decided that it was stupid to wait any longer for the other place and I just got a room there and crashed for a few hours. I woke up after 4 hours of glorious sleep and started watching news of the Iraqi election and then decided I need a real meal b/c I didn't have one all day yesterday so I headed out. I ended up with one of the best Phad See ews I've had on this whole trip and now I'm sitting here relaxing. I have to go hunt for a new book and then its off to the beach to sit in the shade and read. Hopefully the next four days will be extremly uneventful and just nice and relaxing, I could really go for that now.
The bus will pick me up when?
Well today I spent the day relaxing on the beach right by my guest house. Its not one of the nicer beaches I've been to and the water was crappy so I couldn't go swimming but it was nice and hot out and not a cloud in the sky so I'll take it! Im just slowly recovering from yesterdays travels and preparing for tomorrows marathon starting at 4:45, yeh thats right 4:45am I'm being picked up so that means waking up at 4am to get my bag packed. Then its about 4 hours to Hat Yai from there I take another bus to Surat Thani, which is 4 or 5 hours depending on who you ask. Then from Surat Thani I have to take a bus to the docks and then a boat to Ko PhaNgan which is another 3 hours I beleive. So hopefully I'll be arriving in Ko Pha Ngan before the sun sets and then I'll be spending a few days relaxing there before heading back up to Bangkok (another 12 hrs by bus) to head home! I don't know how many more exciting adventures I'll be having I think the rest of the trip I'm going to try and sit on the beach as often as possible but I'll keep posting to let you know how nice the weather is here!
I'll need a vacation after this
Well I'm now in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia as I'm sure you all know exactly where that is. Yesterday I spent the day around KL just relaxing and seeing more of the city and then this morning I checked out of my hotel and got on a bus to Penang. When I bought the ticket the lady told me that it would take 4 hrs to get here and that I would be dropped of at the bus station two minutes away from where I wanted to stay. Well first off the bus stopped when it got to Penang and it was defiantly not the right place and they made me switch buses and kept saying something to me but I had no idea what it was. Luckily there was a really nice guy on the bus who told me to sit beside him and explained what they were saying. I told him where I was supposed to be going and he told me to stay on this bus until it got to the main Georgetown bus stop and then I could catch another bus from there to Batu Ferringhi. I did and when I got to the bus stop it took me a few minutes to find the bus and when I did I got on and I talked to the driver. I showed him my map and pointed out where the place I wanted to stay was and he said no problem he'll tell me when to get out. Then we waited 30 mins before leaving the bus station and did I mention it was the crappiest bus and was sooo hot. Oh I almost forgot about the first bus that was supposed to take 4 hrs, it ended up being 6. So anyways the next bus took about an hour and half and the driver told me get out way to early. I had to walk another 20 mins with all my stuff to get to the place. So today was just a long crap day of stress. But once I got into my place I went out for dinner and had some nice Malaysian food and tomorrow I'm going to sit on the beach and not move inch, until I start to get burned and then I'll flip over! The plan is to head back into Thailand in the next few days and relax on a beach there before coming home. If the beach is nice here I might stay here a few days but the place has lots of mosquito's so I doubt I'll be staying long.
Thaipusam
Wow, what a crazy experience. I'm trying to find the number of people that were there last night but I can't seem to find anything. It turns out the festival runs for three days so I didn't have to rush here but I'm glad I was there for the opening night. The owner of the hostel I was staying at had a meeting at 8 and told us all about the festival and had a q&a session then he showed us how to get to the Batu caves. There were 4 main sections of the festival, 1) the washing/piercing area 2) The main gates to the cave 3) the 260+ stairs up to the cave 4) Inside the cave where the piercings were removed. We headed over there at around 9 and spent 3 hours at the first section watching people go into trances dancing around to rhythmic Indian music. Each group of three or four devotees had a little band with them and they were banging out some really good Indian music. Seeing these guys go into the trance was something else, the looks in their eyes and the way they acted was just creepy and out of this world. Most of them looked possessed and they made some unhuman noises, a few looked like majestic kings and they would bless all the people around them. It was really something else, unlike anything I've ever seen. Some people just carried metal containers of milk on their heads and a lot of people shaved their heads. After 12 we decided to go up to the cave and see them take the piercing out before we left. Unfortunately there were soo many people that it got really backed up at it took us an hour to move about 100m to the gates. I was still with one of the guys from the hostel at this point but when we got close the gates people went nuts and started pushing, I'm surprised there was no one trampled to death. It was so hot and there were people pressed right up against you for a good hour, I'm amazed no one around me passed out. When they really started pushing there was a little girl beside me and me and this other guy had to hold people back from squashing her. In the big rush through the gates I lost my friend but I figured it wouldn't be hard to find him considering there weren't many Indian people with blond hair. It took me another hour to get up the stairs to the cave and I was pushed and prodded the whole way up. Not the most pleasant experience but it was defiantly worth it to see this craziness. When I got to the top I found my friend and we went and watched them take the piercings out. Just watching the guys still in the trance was so freaky, I really can't even explain it. When they came out of the trance most of them passed out and them seemed really out of it when they finaly came too. After that we had to go through another huge crowd to get back down the stairs and out to the buses. We finally arrived back at the bus station at 4 am and walked back to the hostel, stopping to take a picture of the Kenny Rogers Roasters. I didn't think those were still around and especially not in Kuala Lumpur. There are also a lot of Nandos around which surprised me, I thought there was just that little one in Richmondhill. Today I got up and changed hotels to a place with a nice hot shower and then met up with James from Kenya to go see the Twin towers. They were big towers. Not really that exciting, we went to go for a tour of the skybridge that links them 150 m up on the 41 and 42 floor but when we got there they said they had no more tickets for today. I went up to the lady and asked her anyways and she asked us to come back tomorrow. I told her we were leaving and then she gave us two tickets, someone had canceled so we now became part of the group from S. Arabia (Mr. Sadik Gari). They gave us all of 5 mins to shoot some pics from the bridge and then we came back down. After that we got some Cinnabuns and then took the subway back to chinatown where we are staying. I came to get my pics taken off my camera and I posted a bunch on my site. Tonight we are going to go see Meet the Fockers and then to a bar.
Lumpur of the Kuala
I'm boiling here, I don't know what the temp is but its rediculous, I can't wait to get home! hehe Well this morning was pretty uneventful, got propositioned by a shemale prostitute over breakfast and then almost wasn't let on to my flight b/c I didn't have enough cash on me. When I got here I went to the Backpackers Travellers Inn and got the second crappiest room of the trip and its about 500 degrees in there so I have no idea how I'm going to sleep tonight. I also found out the festival I came here to see starts tonight and they march in the streets until 4 am to get to the caves 16 km away where the main part happens. Theres some meeting at my hostel at 8 tonight for more info about it. After checking in I went to find a better place to stay tomorrow and found one right down the street, its twice the price but I think its worth it, it just means I wont stay here for as long and just head back up to the beaches in thailand, what a big loss! heh I wish I could send home some of this heat, I'm sure you'd all love it. So Kuala Lumpur, I was just sitting in McDs having dinner and it hit me where I am. Its crazy, this is definalty the most modern city I've visited, the airport was beautiful and the train into the city was nicer then anything in TO, it had nice little LCD tvs with the news and was very comfortable and fast. I haven't seen much of the city yet just the main street of China town where you can get any fake thing you'd like, I'm sure you could find a place like this in any major city in the world. After the festival tomorrow I'm going to check out downtown and then hopefully I'll do the main business area, where the have the huge towers, the next day. And then the day after that I can go check out this huge park and just relax and get out of here. I'm debating stopping at one or two more towns on the way back, I'll decide in a few days. Well I'm sure at some point tomorrow I'll be back online to write a huge blog about the festival and possibly posting some amazing pictures.
My camera takes videos with sound and I have a belly button
Well I'm finally back in Thailand, I can't tell you how nice it felt to cross that border. Let me tell you about my day yesterday, woke up nice and early at 5:45 to pack and catch the minibus at 7. When I checked out the lady who I thought didn't speak english the whole time I was there became so nice and friendly and could speak fine. She gave me a traditional Cambodian scarf as a souvenir, which was a huge surprise b/c I really didn't like the place at all, they weren't friendly the whole time I was there. I guess they were happy to have my money and see me off. So when he minibus came there were only two other people in it and I asked to sit in the front b/c I knew it would be a long uncomfortable ride. It took us an hour to pick everyone up and then we were on the road, and it was nice and paved. I had a nice nap for the first 30 mins until we made a sharp turn off the paved road onto a unpaved side road. At first I was wondering what was going on and then I realized that this was the way it was going to be all the way to the Thai border. It was like a vibrating massage chair on crack, stuck on the highest setting for 7 hours straight. Oh and the best part was the river crossings, the um 'ferries' were just three long tail boats with a deck built across them. It was amazing that they held 4 minivans plus all the people, they even had a small shop on them selling snacks. When we finally got to the border we had two last tastes of Cambodia to leave that sour taste in my mouth. First this guy was nice enough to come collect all our bags in a cart and push them across the border so we don't have to carry them. The whole time we were worried where he was with them and everything but someone watched or stayed with him the whole time. Then when we were going to get our buses to leave the border he tries to get us to pay him for his service. This is the second time someone has tried to pull this crap with me, the first time I gave the guy 1000 riel (25 cents) even though he was asking for 6000 just so he'd piss off and I could eat my breakfast (It was on the boat from SR to PP). They don't get that you have to ask before for someone to pay for the service, or they know that we will just say no if they ask so they hope they can trick us into paying afterwards b/c they already performed the service. If the guy wasn't such an ass about it and didn't get into everyones faces over it I would have given him something but he was just a huge pain and didn't leave us alone until I shut the bus door in his face. After saying no 5 times you think they'd stop but nope. The second thing was walking from the Cambodian check point to the Thai you have 10 street children crying to you for money and one or two land mine victims who are missing limbs. I always give to the land mine victims but the children don't get the money so I only gave them food when I had it. The day before on the beach when I was done my meals they would come over and ask for the left overs. Its really something else there. Anyways back into Thailand and I really felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders, even though I still 6 hours more on the buses I was so happy, plus the roads were paved! I got into Bangkok around 9 and shared a taxi with a few people I met on the buses during the day. I also met two guys from Orillia and wanted to write a nice long blog about how proud I am to be Canadian but I'll have to save that for another time. You can just take the time to reflect about why your proud to be Canadian. When I got to Khao San road I decided that money shouldn't be an issue for the rest of the trip and to just enjoy it so I went to a nice place that has a pool and air con. This morning I woke up early with a mission, the reason I came back to Bangkok instead of going to Ko Chang (an island I was planning on spending my last 2 weeks on) is b/c I'm trying to get to Kuala Lumpur for the 25th. 2 Nights ago I was laying in bed trying to decided if I should stay at Ko Chang for the whole 2 weeks or maybe spend one week there and a week somewhere else and then I decided that as nice as it would be to sit around and bake for two weeks I would probably get bored and go crazy. I looked at the other countries around and for some reason Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia seemed interesting and I decided that that was my next stop. Then I found out that there is holiday called Thaipusam that takes place on the 25th so I need to fly there on the 24th to see it. I'm sure you've all seen video from Thaipusam on Ripley's or one of those tv shows. Its the hindu holiday where they stab themselves with all kinds of weird things and dance around with Kevadis and hanging oranges from hooks. Don't worry I'm not planning on participating but I think it will be amazing to see in person. So thats why I had to rush back to Bangkok to see if I could get a flight out tomorrow morning and I did! So tomorrow morning I'm flying out there and then I'll spend a few days in the capitol and make my way back up to Thailand along the west coast, I know of one place to stop but I just got a Malaysia guidebook so I'm going to see if I can find some other things to see and do while I'm there. I'm thinking of going over to Borneo or down to Singapore for 3 or 4 days but I don't think thats enough time to do Borneo and I don't know if I want to see Singapore. So thats my update for now, about my title, I finally got to watch the videos that I made with sound and they are too cool, I'm going to try to post some more pictures now while I look for a place to stay in Kuala Lumpur. Oh yeh and if you've never heard of Thaipusam check it out on google, there are some very interesting pictures!
Its alive MUHHAHAHA
I'm backkkkk, I've been stuck in my room the last few days ill as can be but now I'm back to 98% and ready to have some fun, or at least sit on the beach and do nothing for a while. I took the bus down to Sihanoukville on Monday I think and I was so tired the whole way and had some nasty Cambodian dude sitting next to me. He kept falling asleep on my shoulder so I had to push him off more times then I care to remember. When I got here I just went with the first mototaxi to whatever place he suggested and got a room b/c I just needed a place to crash. I slept all afternoon and then got up for dinner and then went back to sleep. Then I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like hell, actually I think hell would have been nice compared to this. The next day was spent mostly sleeping and fasting in bed and then the day after that I actually dragged myself out to the beach (2 mins away) and had some food. I was feeling a bit better yesterday but not 100% so I stayed out of the sun and just took it easy. Today I woke up feeling much better so I went straight down to the beach for some breakfast in the sun. Now I just took a mototaxi into town to see some more of the city and tomorrow I might go on a tour of the national park thats 30 mins away. Its basically a 30 min bus ride followed by a 30 min boat ride followed by a 30 min hike through the jungle to a private beach for lunch and 2 hours of relaxing. Sounds pretty good! Then I think I'll be heading back to thailand the next day or the day after that.
Look ma, I'm on Cambodian TV
Last night we went for dinner at a place called Friends and the food was amazing! They donate part of the profit to the street children here, which is also very nice. After that we went to Sharky bar, which was very intimidating to walk into. There were 3 Cambodian bar girls to every guy in there and they all stare at you as soon as you walk in the door. Seb and I walked out to the balcony and had a beer watching the old western guys pick up the young cambodian girls. After one beer I had seen more then enough and we left and just went back to our place to hang out and watch some tv. Just as a warning this morning was very difficult so some of this might be hard to read. So this morning we went for breakfast at the rising sun but half way through a mentally challenged boy came in selling newspapers and he was no more then 12 years old. This just completely messed me up and I lost my appetite, to think that he has to be out there working on the streets, I don't want to get into it right now. After that we went to Tuol Sleng aka S21, the genocide museum, but it was more then just a museum, it was were it actually took place. The best part of going there was that I was with Seb who is German and we spent a lot of time talking about what we call the holocaust but it is unfortunately just one of many. Seeing how it effected him really showed me that we are not the only people affected by it. Seeing that this could happen again in 1975-1979 really scares me and the worst part is that I never knew about it. I know that there are other horrific genocides that have occurred in the past century but also couldn't name any of them or anything about them. I have a lot of information about this if any of you are interested and there are some books on it to if you want me to bring them home for you. Its really not an easy topic to learn about but I feel it is very important to study and be aware of. I was inside the cells where hundreds of people were held and tortured, there was still blood on the floor in some of the cells. The worst part was building filled with pictures, I can't tell you how much it reminded me of Yad Vashem. After that we went to Choeung Ek Memorial (The killing fields) were we saw the mass graves. There is a memorial in the middle that is a few stories high stacked with skulls and bits of clothing. The people here were beated to death and thrown right into the pits to save money on bullets. As I walked around the pics I found pieces of bone sticking out of the walkway, it was really horrible and incredible hard to see. The whole place was surrounded with barb wire and on the otherside of the wire was a group of street kids all under 8 years old beggin for some money. They are every where here and its so hard to see and there is nothing you can do about it. After that we went for lunch and when I got out of the tuk tuk two children under 10 came flying up to us pushing two other complety disfigured children in wheel chairs. I wasn't sure if they were birth defects or land mine victims but either way it took my breath away and my heart just sunk a foot or two. So then we had a very quite lunch and I was just exhausted from everything. We stopped at a market before lunch but I really didn't like it so I just hung out with the tuk tuk drive while Seb shopped. The people in the markets in Thailand are so friendly and its fun bargaining with them there but here the people just try to rip you off and then give you dirty looks when you bargain with them. Anyways Seb wanted to go check out the Kings Palace but the road was blocked off by police so we couldn't go and our tuk tuk drive suggested some Cambodian Kick boxing, which he claimed was better then Thai Muay Thai so we went. The tickets were just 50 cents and it was sooo much better. The place was packed with Cambodian people and it was being broadcast live on tv here. I tried my best to enjoy the kickboxing, it was good but I still had the morning on my mind. After that we went back to our room to relax and unwind and now we are going out for dinner.
Got wet on my way to PP
Well this morning I was up nice and early again for the third time this week, 5am is such a wonderful time of the day, to sleep! Anyways I decided last minute to take the boat with Seb instead of taking the bus and trying to meet up with him in Phenom Pehn b/c I knew it would just be a pain to do. By the way the bus was 4 dollars and the boat was 23 dollars and the bus only took an extra hour. So we got to the boat around 7 and had to sit up on top of the boat with everyone else who bought a ticket from a guest house, all the people from the hotels had seats inside. So I got comfortable and it was a beautiful sunrise over the lake but once we got out to open water we started getting soaked. And it was freezing up there with the wind and the cold water, my pants were completely soaked through and I was wearing a sweater and my winter hat and was still cold. After about 5 mins of this I went inside and just sat on the floor at the front of the ship to dry off. It wasn't very comfortable and I was still freezing but I just shut my eyes for a while and the time passed pretty easily. After a few hours my pants were dry and I wasn't as cold so I started reading a book. When we got on to the river it was a lot calmer so I went back out and sat on top again. The landscape was beautiful but it was really overcast so I'm sure it would have been nicer on a sunny day. When we got here I got us a tuk tuk driver and we wanted to go to this one guest house from our guide book. When we asked him to take us there he said it was closed but hé could take us to another one around the same price. I obviously didn't believe him and so I made him take us there and show us that it was closed. After a bit of driving in circles I found the place and it was actually closed but a new place had opened there so I went in to check it out even though he still wanted to take us to another place. The place was really nice, one of the nicer places I've stayed in and since I'm sharing a room with Seb its only 6 bucks a night. They didn't have a room available until 4 so we left our bags there and went to the national museum which is on the same street and about a two minute walk away. It was one of the nicest museums I've been to here and it was really cool to see all of the statues from the temples I had just visited. Picturing them inside the temples when they were first built is just mind blowing. Its so hard to find the words to explain how amazing this stuff is, you just have to come here and see it for yourself! After that we got our room and I had a nice HOT shower and relaxed while watching some TV, oh how I missed you my old friend! Now I feel like myself again even after the little sleep I got last night and the 'fun' boat ride this morning! Soon we are going to go for dinner and then out to one of the infamous Phenom Pehn night clubs.
Bigggg Update
Okay so I have a few minutes finlly to update you all with what I've been up to the last few days. I've been crazy busy everyday and having an awsome time here, there are a bunch of downsides but I'm making the best of it and loving it. So Seb and I wrote down a pointform list of what we have done the last few days and I'm feeling pretty lazy so I'm not going to write it all out in detail.
Mon Jan 10th - Arrive Siem Reap @ 12:30 / meet Seb & Peiter while departing the plane / go Guest House hunting, ending up at New Millenum sharing a room with Peiter / Went for a walk through the market / Went for a hot air balloon ride @ 5:30 to see Angkor Wat for the first time (WOW) / Had a drink with the Tuk Tuk driver listening to Cambodian history and his personal experences (lost an eye & best friend to a bomb / lost his father and counsins) / Went for dinner at the Ivy bar and ate some Khemar food / Feed the children begging for money our left overs
Tues Jan 11th - Thon LeSup Lake for boat tour to Floating Village (So many poor children begging from little boats) / Lunch @ a Cambodian Restaurant / Swimming @ Khemara Hotel (sooo nice but cost more then my room) / Sunset over Angkor Wat from hill 1 km away / Dinner at tourist restaurant / Foot Massage (ohhh yeah) / Red Piano restaurant/bar for Coffee and Tea / Dirty Cambodia Disco
Wed Jan 12th - Temple tour with Seb / Hair cut & shave & massage Cambodian Style / Dinner with the boys at a new thai restaurant (better phad thai then I had in Thailand) / Back to the Red Piano
Thurs Jan 13th - Sunrise @ Angkor Wat (up at 5am) / Continued temple tour with Seb / Met Peiter at Khemara Hotel for some more swimming/relaxing / Dinner / Picture swaping / Last night at the Red Piano with Peiter / Jogging through Siem Reap @ 12:30 looking for Peiters bag
Fri Jan 14th - Slept in! wooo hooo / Spent the afternoon at Angkor Wat relaxing with Seb and two monks / Watched the Sunset over Angkor Wat from inside / Now I'm here / Going for dinner with Seb / Maybe go back to the Red Piano / Packing my bags
Well thats that, tomorrow I'm off to Phenom Pehn for two days I think and then I'll be making my way down to Sinoukville for the beaches! I think I'll be really busy in Phenom Pehn because there are a bunch of things I'd like to see but I don't really want to stay in the city for too long b/c of the pollution.
So as you can see I wasn't lying when I said I've been really busy and I think it will be that way in Phenom Pehn too but its so much fun and I've been doing/seeing so many amazing things. Part of me wants to write more about the poverty and corruption here but maybe I'll save that for a whole new blog when I'm down in the south.
I just want to write about one of the things I mentioned up there, jogging around last night. When we got back to our room last night I was exhausted since I had been up since 5am so I was going to go to bed but Peiter was leaving this morning so he had to pack his stuff. He wanted to get my email address before I went to be so he went to get his address book out of him backpack but he couldn't find it. He thought he left it at the restaurant where we had dinner so I went with him b/c the streets are the safest by yourself here. As we left one of the motorcycle taxi drivers who worked for our guesthouse and sleeps in the restuarant asked us whats wrong. He came with us to speak to the people and we ran all the way to the restuarant. When we go there the lady couldn't see anything b/c it was dark but didn't think she had it and then Peiter remembered he had it at the internet place where we swapped pictures. So we ran there and luckily there were people still there repainting the walls and they had it. He was so lucky because all of his stuff was in it (passport, plane ticket, visa, etc) I kept telling him to just leave it in the safe at the guest house but he liked to carry it on his person, almost ruined his whole trip.
Well before I go for dinner I'll post a little list of the temples I visited incase you want to look some of them up. I'll put a star beside the ones you must look up first.
Wed Jan 12th
1) Prasat Kravan
2) Banteay Kdei
3) Sras Srang
4) Ta Prohm
5) Ta Keo
6) Thommanon
7) The Bayon ******* (Agkor Thom)
8) Terrace of Elephants (Agkor Thom)
9) Terrace of Leper King (Agkor Thom)
10) Preah Khan
11) Angkor Wat **
Thurs Jan 13th
1) Angkor Wat
2) Neak Pean
3) Ta Som
4) East Mebon
5) Pre Rup
Missing Thailand
Well I've been extremly busy the last two days, going none stop and having an amazing time. This is a whole different experence from Thailand, the sights around here are amazing unlike anything I've ever seen but the people are so poor and have suffered so much over the last 25 years. Anyways since I'm so busy and have done soo much I don't have time to write it all down now but when I head south I will have plenty of time and I will write a bunch of very detailed blogs.
Cambodia? Siem Reap?
So much to write about and so exhausted. Well I am in Siam Reap right now, yeh thats right Cambodia. I've never even thought about coming here but everyone that I met in Thailand raved about it and said you can't come to southeast asia without seeing it. For those of you who don't know what it is heres a link (
http://www.angkorwat.org/), I didn't check it out so don't blame me if its crap. Just check out google for yourself! Anyways I really want to write about my day but I'll try to do a quick recap of the last few days, which will be really hard. I've spent 31 hrs in the last 5 days on trains so I've seen so much of the country and covered a lot of ground. So I left of in Khorat after my nasty meal, which still makes me sick to my stomach everytime I think about it. So the train ride to Ubon Ratchathani was a couple hours and I had the pleasure of sitting next to a monk who enjoyed plucking his nose hairs with his fingers and then examining his catches. I ended up in second class but they served us breakfast, this was the first time I've had this. They served us a big thing of rice with green curry chicken and some nasty fish patty thing. It was around 8 or 9 in the morning and spicy green curry isn't something I really enjoy first thing in the mornign but at least it was good curry. I arrived at Ubon around 1 and wondered around in the blazing hot sun to find the guest house. When I finally found it there was no one there and these little children from the restaurant next door kept running up and yelling "farang, farang" and running away. They were so cute and I was surprised that they weren't used to seeing foriegners there, I know its really not a common place for tourists to visit, infact when I mention thats where I'm coming from no one knows where it is. Anways eventually the lady comes and shows me a single room, which was just a bed and 4 walls and a shared bathroom, which put the last one to shame. It was so nasty and later on I found out it was full of mosquitos so I couldn't even shower in there. The sink was outside in the common room and also covered with mosqutios, something I wish I noticed before taking the room. After I got the room I decided to head out to Ubon b/c I was actually staying in a smaller city called Warin Chamrap so I had to take a pick up taxi into the town. I got out at what seemed to be a huge market / fair. It turned out it was the end of the new years celebrations plus students day so it was packed with kids and lots of smiling faces. I walked around for a few hours and was so exhausted from the heat and walking that I couldn't think straight. I went to an internet place but didn't have the energy to type up a blog so I just took a pick up taxi back to my room. When the taxi pulled up I saw the inside was full but there were also about 5 guys hanging off the back. Its hard to describe what they look like but imagine a pick up with seats and then an extra foot or two attached to the back with handles. I couldn't beleive how many people were on this thing but after I got on we stopped to pick up at least 5 more people. By the time we got back to Warin there was around 35 people and at least 12 where on this little attachment on the back. I stopped by the soccer stadium on my way back and there was a tourniment and some folk music and dancing on this big stage. Not my style of music but really cool to see. Anyways I went to bed pretty early but the bed was harder then anything I've ever felt and I felt like I was being molested by mostquitos all night so I didn't get a good sleep at all. At 7 I got up to head out to Wat Pah Nanachat, its a forest monistary with mostly farang (foreign) monks. I walked out to the market to catch a bus heading for Si-Saket and it took me a while to find out where I was going. I just asked one lady and see took me to this other guy who led me across the street. Everyone there was so nice and friendly and went out of their way to make sure I got to where I wanted to go. I got on this "bus", it was a converted delevery van and about 20 mins later it just stopped at the side of the highway and they told me to get out and pointed down this random street. There were no signs or anything so I got out and paid and thanked the driver before heading down. At the end of the street I came to a paved path leading into the forest, there was a sign but not in English so I went in anyways and as soon as I walked in the temperature dropped a few degrees. It was so beautiful in there and quite and peaceful, I can see why they'd want to practice meditation there. After a minute walk I saw some thai people and thought I was just in a park but then I found the Sala (main hall) and saw about 20 western monks coming out. They lined up and there was a huge (maybe 20 feet long) table with tonnes of thai dishes all over it and they went along filling their bowls with food. They went back into the Sala and I went and sat at the back. It was sunday so there were lots of locals from Bung Wai village and the Ajhan (head monk) gave a dhissana (like a serman) but it was all in thai so I have no idea what he said. I sat in the back in polite thai seating position, which killed my knees and I would regret later in the day. After they finished all their buddhist stuff the local people left the monks to eat and they lined up to eat what was left of the huge feast. I didn't feel right eating it so I went and walked around the place and then an old lady came up to me with a plate and shoved it in my hands with a smile and gestured for me to eat. I went over to the line and tried to go to the back but they wouldn't let me, one lady took my small plate and got me a bigger bowl and spoon and made me go to the front of the line. There were so many amazing things and I have no idea what half of them where. I filled up my bowl and went back to the kitchen area where they were all eating and got out a mat and sat by myself. Another lady brought me a glass of milk and then this nice boy, Bee came to sit with me b/c I was by myself. He was a local from the Bung Wai village and he goes into Warin Chamrap to teach younger kids english every Sunday and he invited me to come with. I obviously accepted the offer and when he went home to change I went and spoke to one of the monks. It was really nice talking to a monk in english b/c I could really have a good converstaion with him, its always difficult with the thai monks b/c their english isn't the best. After that Bee and I went to teach his class but three of the kids were sick so I just checked one guys homework. Then we decided to go into Ubon to see the festival that I went to the day before but it was too hot to walk around so we went into the Ubon museum, which was really small but cooler then being outside! After that we wondered around looking for an internet place and he took me to meet his Aunt in the market. It was one of the most hardcore markets I've been to, there was food everywhere and hardly anyroom to walk. After that I went to go wait for my train and he bought me two pomelos for good luck. I could only get a 3rd class ticket on the overnight train, which was a very umm interesting experence. Not to go into too much detail but there were 10 people crammed into where I would think 6 would sit comfortably. I didn't really get too much sleep if any at all and about 6 hours in my butt was killing. At around 10 hours my whole body wasn't too happy with my and when I got off at 5:30 am this morning at the airport I couldn't have been happier. I went into the airport and straight to the food court for a whopper meal, *drool*, the breakfast of champions. Then I went and picked up my ticket and killed a few hours. At one point I was sitting watching the news, and a whole troop of chinese muslims pulled up with about 30 carts beside me. They took up all the seats in the section I was sitting in. I was also working on updating my journal and the two guys sitting beside me were leaning over trying to read what I was writing. Then right behind me another guy leaned over my shoulder to see, it was really odd. I looked up at them a few times and they just smiled and kept trying to read it. So I started writing about them even though I doubt they could read my writing. Then after they stopped a differnt one from their group came right up in my face and bent over and tried to read it upside down, I just started laughing at that point. So after 6 hours of sitting around at the airport I finally got on to my plane to Siem Reap and slept halfway here. When we landed I met two other guys who were back packing and we shared a taxi to the guest house. After relaxing and finalyl showering and shaving we set out at 4:30 to go for a hot air balloon ride to see the ruins at sunset. We got there aorund 5 and they made us go up then b/c the sunset flight was already booked up but it was still very nice. It wasn't a real hotair balloon like I expected it was teathered to the ground so we just went up and then got wetched back down but it was still really cool and a great way to see the ruins for the first time. After that we stopped for a drink and watched the sunset and chatted with the tuk tuk driver about the history of Cambodia. There is so much and I'm out of time now so I'll write about it tomorrow. There are tonnes of internet places here and its pretty cheap.
Ubonnnnn
Well I'm in Ubon and I'm with a friend, Bee, who I met this morning so I'm not going to write a huge detailed blog right now but I just wanted to check in and let all of you know I'm having the best day and am taking the overnight train to Bangkok tonight and hopefully catching the first flight into Cambodia in the morning. I'll try to get online asap when I hit Cambodia and write all about the last few days.
The Isan diet - not recommended by me!
Ten to six this morning, Beep Beep Beep, my lovely alarm clock is informing me that this was the ungodly hour I decided I should wake up last night. I still hadn't decided which train or route I was going to take today but I figured I'd get up and just go to the train station and decide there. Well after the third beep I was all over that alarm clock and decided it was unthinkable to get up now so I rolled back over. Not 30 minutes later when I was just getting into the nice deep sleep did the baby in the next room start screaming. And that wasn't even the worst part, the father was trying to cheer him up and was making these loud noises that I can't even begin to describe with any English words I know. So that was the first sign that my decision to stay in bed wasn't the right one, the second was the people in the room on my otherside. They must have been woke up by the baby so they started getting ready for their day and were making even more noise. That was it I had to get up and catch the next train, which was in 40 mins. I wasn't sure if I'd have a hot shower at the next place I stayed so it was mandatory that I took one there and it was soooo nice and HOT!! After that I quickly packed my bag up and walked over to the train station. I made it with enough time to get a small container of chicken fried rice for breakfast. Right before the train came one of the men working at the station came up to me and asked to see my ticket, I was in car 14 and usually there are only 8 cars so I was wondering what was up with that. He led me and a few other people down the tracks about 100m (I'm guessing here, I'm really bad with measurements) where we waited for the train. When it got there we had to climb up onto car 10, which wasn't an easy task with both of my bags and my rice and bottle of water, and then walk down 4 cars to our seats. Of course the person in the seat next to me is this old man wearing a full out winter jacket and winter hat, it must have been around 20 degrees by then. Anyways while I'm enjoying my breakfast he starts hacking up a lung right beside me. He was nice enough to try to spit his phlem out between the slots in the window instead of the floor right beside me. After that I went to the back of the car and sat in the doorway watching the fields fly by and the track appear from under the train. It was so nice with the warm sun on my face and the wind flying over me where my hair would be. I spent most of the 4 ½ hr ride out there until I arrived at Khorat aka Nakhon Ratchasima. Now there are a few reasons why I stopped here today, one was that I didn't feel like spending 13 hrs on the train. Another was that the guidebook said about the Sri Chompon hotel, Rooms are reminiscent of the Shawshank Redemption, which sounded really cool to me. And third was to go to Suan Sin restaurant for lunch b/c according to the guidebook again it had a very interesting menu. So when I got off the train I headed out to the hotel by food because it didn't look like that bad of a walk and I wanted to get a fell for the city. It was about 1 in the afternoon, hottest time of the day and carrying all that weight made me realize that this wasn't the best idea. After a good 20 minutes of walking and seeing that I was only 2/3 the way there I got in a bike rickshaw that took me the rest of the way. It was a good thing that I did too because the hotel didn't have a sign in English, infact nothing here does. So I go in and luckily one of the ladies there speaks a bit of English and she offers me a room with fan and if I want hot water its 20 baht more. Even though I was so hot I wanted to take a cold shower I took the hot one anyways and the guy took me up to show me the room. Now when I read in the guidebook about Shawshank, I thought it ment the room where Brooks kills himself but boy was I wrong. They ment the jail, the room was pretty large but very run down and the bathroom, well the bathroom deserves a whole paragraph on its own. But I wont bore you with that, basically I've got a squat toilet that at least flushes and a few inches to wash myself inbetween the door and sink. So the first order of business, get out my sandals so I could go take a shower, as soon as I started to get undressed to get in the shower someone knocks at my door. I throw back on my pants and shirt and it was the guy who showed me the room with a towel and soap and a bottle of water. Then I went and stripped and was walking into the bathroom and there was another knock at my door, so I just wrapped my towel around me and answered it but this time it was an old lady with a roll of toilet paper. She grinned from ear to ear and I thanked her for the toilet paper and finally got into the shower. After all that I finally headed out for lunch to Suan Sin, which took me a good hour to find. As I said before nothing has English signs here and most of the streets are missing the street signs. I stopped to ask for help a few times and used all of the Thai I've learnt. Now for those of you with weak stomachs you might want to jump down a few lines. So as I said before this place has an interesting menu, it recommends in the guidebook the bull penis salad and cow tails soup. So I had to order one of them and I'm starting to feel sick just writing about it. I'll just get it over with, the bull penis salad was hot and nasty, I almost lost it a few times and wanted to vomit all over myself. It was also really spicy and my lips swelled up and hurt. I also order beef and cows blood in soup, again disgusting and I think that their might have been cow brains and liver in there too, I'm not sure and frankly don't really need to know at this point. The waitress also suggested some beef with fat and sauce and it was really really good. I also had a plate of beef friend rice and I don't think I'll be eating anymore beef for a long time. Well I really wanted to try some weird food while I was here and I think this took the cake and then some. Anyways after lunch I was disgustingly full and decided to walk it off and head for an internet place to write all about it. It took me a good 45 mins to find the first internet place that wasn't even in my guidebook and it was completely full of Thai students so I went on to find the one from the gb. When I was right outside it a group of 4 school girls stopped and said hi to me. Then they asked their favorite question, Whats your name? I answered and they were as happy as could be and started to head off. I then saw the internet place and it was all boarded up, thanks guidebook. So I asked them where there was another one, they pointed to the one I just came from and I tried to tell them it was full but they had no idea what I was saying. It was really funny trying to explain it to them and I just said thank you and left. After that I wondered around look for another place on the way back to my hotel. Half way there I came across a sign in English saying Famous cave within City and also one saying something about Thai massage and herbal sauna. I headed in and first thing I noticed was it was a Temple and then a monk came up to me to say hi. He shoke my hand but didn't let go and just stood there talking to me while holding my hand. Finally he let go and led me into the cave while holding my arm. The cave was man made I believe but they had covered the whole thing with corals and it was amazing. So peaceful and quit inside, there was also a little pond in the corner with some fish in it. I sat there with the monk for a while talking to him, his English wasn't very good but he tried really hard. Then he gave me a bracelet for good luck and I headed out. Finally on my way back to my hotel I found another internet place and here I am now. I think this was the most detailed blog but thats b/c I've been waiting two hours to write it. Now I'm going ot head out to the night market and then off to bed early. Tomorrow I'm going to take a train over to Ubon, which is about 7 or 8 hours, woo hoo.
Dunkin Donuts in Ayutthaya
Well nothing really exciting has happened since I last wrote, I'm back in Ayutthaya now after taking the overnight train from Chiang Mai. I actually got a fair bit of sleep on it but it was a weird feeling today, like yesterday never ended. When I got here I came back to the same place I stayed last time and got a room for the night. I decided to take the afternoon boat tour just so I had something to do today and it was pretty nice. We stopped at a few temples but I really just enjoyed sitting on the boat cruising around all afternoon. After that I went to get some dinner and now I'm here, as I said nothing to exciting but relaxing and nice either way. After this I'm going to head back to my room and spend some time with trusty guide book to figure out what I'm doing the next few days. I know I'm going to head out east through Isan but there are two places I want to see and need to figure out whats the best way to do it. Well I think I'll go get some Dunkin Donuts and head back to my room, some people were talking about them the other day and its been stuck in my head ever since.
Smashie Smashie
Well today was one of those days that made you rethink which side of the bed to get out of the next day. When I got up this morning I decided the first order of business was to ship home a few things including my bottle of Snake Whiskey. But incase it got lost or busted on the way home I wanted to get some pictures of it. I set it up on my night table and turned around to get my camera and all of the sudden I hear a crash and feel a sea of whiskey forming under my feet. I quickly threw all of my belongings up onto my bed before they all were soaked in whiskey and then started cleaning us the pieces of glass every where. I didn't mind cleaning it up but I didn't know what I was going to do with the two snakes laying there on the floor. Now I must admit even though I have kept a few different types of lizards over the past few years I still have never had the opportunity to touch a snake. I never thought that my first one would be a cobra but luckily it was dead and covered in Whiskey. I didn't really have any paper towels to clean up all the whiskey and I wasn't going to use my only towel so I looked around the room for something to use. Luckily I still had the news paper from the bus ride here so I used that to soak up as much of the whiskey as possible and then just left the rest to dry up. The good thing to come out of this is it saved me a lot of money to ship it home and probably a massive hang over when I ended up drinking it. But the best part is that I could get some really good pics of the snakes b/c when I was taking them through the bottle they came out really poorly. Well after that I still had some other things to ship so i set off for the post office. I managed to walk right by it b/c I thought it was on the otherside of the street so I ended up walking up a few extra blocks and then back down. When i got there I took a number and packed up a few books and some other things I didn't want to carry with me anymore and sent them home. They will probably arrive home the same time I do. After that I went back to the park b/c it was such a nice day out and sat in the sun and read all afternoon. Then I went for dinner and ran into my friend Jens from the cooking class and made plans to met him later to go to the night market. Now I'm here responding to some emails and posting up pictures from yesterday. Some of them are so cool I can't stop looking at them but I have to go met Jens now so good bye for now. Oh yeah and to add on to the good times, i locked my key in my room last night!
Cobra Whiskey anyone?
What a day! Well first off it was a long long day, got up at 6am and left for Mae Sai at 7 in the minbus. The drive was 3 1/2 hrs with a quick stop at some stinky hot springs, where little thai ladies were cooking up eggs. I didn't stick around long b/c the stench of sulfur at 7:30 in the morning isn't so pleasant, instead I went and had a tea to warm up. When we got to the golden triangle, where Thailand meets Laos and Myanmar (Burma), we got on a long tailed boat and went up the Mae Kong river to Burma to see a casino and then back down the river over to Laos where we were able to get off and go shopping in a little market. As soon as we entered the market we noticed a table of whiskey bottles but inside the bottles were snakes. No tequila worms here, there were cobras and scorpions in the bottles. They had a large container of this Snake Whiskey with a huge cobra inside and offered us a free shot. Of course I had to try it and it tasted like, well whiskey no hint of snake, at least not that I detected but the snake was defiantly in there. I walked around the market and decided I had to buy myself a souvenir already, I've been good for the last 2 months so I picked up a large bottle of snake whiskey with a cobra holding another snake in its mouth. It looks really cool and I'll be posting some pictures of it as soon as I can. I also got a can of Lao beer to have with lunch. After the market we flew back in this little boat and went out for lunch. We had a buffet lunch, which sucked except for the noodle soup, the guy was standing there making the noodles by hand for you. It was really cool to watch him whip it around and come out with these perfect noodles. Then it was back in the minibus to Mae Sai, the most northern part of Thailand and one of the crossing points into Burma. We were stopped at one point by the royal guards because the royal family was coming to visit that sight but we were too early and didn't get to see them. And once more we drove for another hour in the minibus to Tha Ton to see the Long Neck Karen, the Long Ear Karen and the Akha hill tribe people. We didn't actually visit the villages where they lived but more of a tourist amusement park to see these people. It was really cool to see the long neck women in person, since I've seen them for years on TV and in magazines. They were so shy and quite but a few of them spoke English and let us take pictures with them. The long ear women were also very nice but they all chewed betel nut and it made there teeth black and disgusting. It was hard to look at them without wanting to lose my lunch. On of the things I really wanted to get was a pair of their earrings but apparently this isn't a popular item for tourist to want so they didn't have any to sell. I talked to my tourist guide and she asked one of the ladies where they get them and she said Burma. The guide told here that I wanted a pair of their ear weights and then the lady offered to sell me hers. And for 150 baht, about 5 bucks so I took them. I have some pictures of her wearing them and I think this is the coolest souvenir I could possibly get. I know most of you think its gross but don't worry I'm not planning on wearing them. Also while I was there one of the long neck women's children were running around and her son had a small inflatable ball. I squatted down and put out my hands for him to throw it to me and he did. I played catch with this cute little boy for a few minutes until we had to leave, both of us had so much fun and I know every time I see those sponsor a child commercials I'll think of him. The children there were all so dirty they could get on those commercials but they were all well fed and taken care of. The Akha women were the opposite of the Karen, they were loud and annoying trying to get you to come buy stuff from them, they also chewed the betel nut and their teeth made me ill. Apparently they find it beautiful but when I get to post the pictures of them I think you'll agree with me. Then we packed back into the minibus for the 4 hour ride of a twisty and BuMpY back to Chiang Mai. Over all it was a great day, I can tick off a few more boxes of crazy and amazing things I've done. I also just want to thank all of you for your comments on my last post, I'm sorry about all the tears but I'm sure they were happy ones and if not then what were you reading?
2004
Last night as I was laying in bed thinking to myself about 2004 I realized that it was the best year of my life and I wanted to write a bit about that before I write about my exciting day. First off I know that everyone reading this had their own part in making 2004 such a great year and I wanted to say thank you, whatever your role was I want you to know it was greatly appreciated. I guess I'll talk about why it was the greatest year of my life, so far that is. I know I only have 21 short years to compare it to but I also know that I have so many years ahead of me to try and top it. In the past year I have learnt so much and accomplished even more, most of the things I accomplished I had never even dreamed of really doing. Starting off with working at Bell ExpressVu, an amazing opportunity that came in 2003 but was a large part of making this year what it was. Not only did I get to work at a great job and on some really cool projects that I could be proud of but for some reason they gave me a nice amount of money for my 'hard work'. With that money a lot of my dreams became reality. (Mom, please edit this line before printing it for Bubbie) One obviously is this trip I'm currently on but I'll talk more about that in a bit, the other was to pay for my last semester of college, which again I'll talk about in a second but also allowed me to expand on my personal canvas and complete my last two beautiful tattoos. Now back to school, two and a half years ago after high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life but had always loved my computer courses so I applied for computer programming at seneca just to try it out. I never thought that I'd be walking up on stage that November morning after hearing "Brandon Share High honors" and then hearing the president of the college tell the head of the department how hard I must have worked to achieve it. Don't tell them but I found it pretty easy but it was still nice to hear and I did put in a ton of hours working on those assignments this summer. Now I'm sitting here still not sure of what I want to do with my life but knowing that I have a piece of paper at home that says I completed that program with high honors and that I can do whatever I put my mind to. Seeing how proud my family and friends were made that special event even better. After finishing school I had a lot of time off before leaving for my trip and I spent a lot of that time sleeping, watching tv, reading and when my friends were free, hanging out with them. One beautiful Thursday, my father and I drove up to Pickering and went hang gliding, something that I've seen on TV but never thought I'd actually do. It was so nice being able to share that with my father and that made the experience so much more memorable. It was so nice and relaxing being up there soaring like a bird but the best part was doing something I'd never imagine Brandon Share actually doing. It opened up my eyes to endless possibilities and later that day when I got home I booked a hostel for the weekend in Ottawa. I dragged my best friend out there even though he had tones of homework, I drove the whole way so that he could work on his font. The purpose of the trip was to go bungy jumping, something that always excited me and terrified me at the exact same time. It ended up being an amazing weekend road trip with hours of and hours of fun and many interesting people and place. Doing the bungy jump was only one of many highlights of the trip but again the experience was enhanced greatly by sharing it all with Zach. I guess what I'm really getting at is that by doing things I never thought I could or would do I made this year the best. I took control of my own destiny and did what would make me happy. Even if happiness isn't the feeling I felt when I was standing out there 200+ feet above the water, knowing that the only way back down was to jump. And that was what I did when I boarded that plane bound for Japan on November 18th, it was the hardest jump of my life. Leaving everything I've ever known back home and going off by myself with no plans or idea of what I was doing. But it has turned out to be the most rewarding jump of them all. As anyone who is reading this now knows, I've done so many amazing things here and seen so much that it has made that jump so worth it. I now look back on the first night when I arrived in Bangkok and that scared feeling deep down inside me was bigger then ever and I know that over coming that feeling leads to the greatest gifts in life. So theres my advice to you, if you want to make 2005 the greatest year of your life go and do those things that scare you the most, go travel or back to school, tell that person your interested in that you are, don't let the scared feeling hiding in you win. These thigns I've just mentioned are just a small part of what made 2004 such a great year but there are a few more important things that I must include. One, the most important number, is family. I'm lucky enough to wake up every morning in a beautiful house with a group of amazing people I'm happy to call my mom, dad and brother. Although we might not all be smiling at the same time or at each other, we each have brough a spark of happiness into that home on countless occasions and have all been there for each other on those other unfortunate occasions. These are the people who have been there with me for the last 21 years and have helped to mold me into the person I am today and I thank them for that. Being here on the otherside of the world we all realized that we don't tell each other enough that we love them, although my mom and I try, except it might look like we are saying something else to everyone around us. Then there are my grandparents, the great people who raised and cared for my parents making them into the great parents they are. They are also on the front line of my cheering squad no matter what I'm doing and will always be there to support me, along with all of my extended family. Weither its sitting around watching jeopardy on Friday nights or trying to take me out with one bourbon, one scotch and one beer before dinner, they always have me there in their hearts and I thank them for that. And lastly but definalty not least are the amazing people who I call my friends, these are the people who are there for me no matter whats going on. If I need a someone to lean on when times are hard or someone to laugh with when times are good, they are always there. And Robbie, I am definitely lucky that you fit into both groups. I know this is pretty long already but there is one more special person that I have not mentioned yet. One more thing amazing that came out of 2003 but really bloomed right before I left. Unfortuantly many of you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her but the few of you who have could see right away what I saw when I first met her. And the rest of you who have been reading my blogs definatly noticed her name in the comments on basically every blog. Adeena, although we only had that one short month to count down the days before I left, you made each one better then the last. And while I've been away you've been a constant support and your emails have always brought me a smile when I needed it. I know that you will all have the pleasure of meeting her when I get back and will all love her as much as I do. You all have made this year special to me and the greatest one of my life and I know that as long as I have you all there with me and keep on scareing myself, 2005 will be even better. Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, Brandon
2005
For new years eve I went out with a bunch of people from my cooking class, we went to two bars. The first was a roof top bar but the music was too loud and the drinks too expensive so we left after an hour. We headed over to 'reggae street' and ended up in a bar with live reggae and an interesting mix of people. At midnight, the guys from the bar gave us little fire crackers to set off and people everywhere set off these mini hot air balloon lanterns. The sky was full of them, it looked like hundreds of red stars blowing across the sky. Today I took it really easy and spent the day in the park reading "The BFG" by Ronald Dohl, greatest author ever!
