Part 44 : Bournemouth Block Party

Part 43 : Tar Barrels

Part 42 : Welsh Students

Part 41 : Manchester City

Part 40 : York

Part 39 : Driving Wars

Despite being out of sync with the rest of the Blog this predates back a while to when I was working on Driving Wars. On the show I was working as DIT ensuring that the data for the shoot was backup and safe on 2 copies.

The show has contestants driving a car which controls another car via remote control on a course challenge out in the field. The car is hooked up with heaps of cameras which live feed back to massive monitors. Its the modern equivalent of a real life computer racing game. I sooo want to do it, even going out and buying a crappy car just to smash up on the jump. 

The shoots were long days and I spent a lot of time transferring not that much data because I had limitations based off the transfer speeds of the media peripherals / cards and the amount of cards that I had to transfer. The difference between this shoot and say a red shoot is that the red shoot has one or maybe 2 large storage devices. So you transfer it as fast as you can with only one transfer setup. This shoot had up to 40 transfer setups for each piece of data. The best part of the shoot as always was working with the people and being able to stay at the hotel and hit up the driving range on our day off. 

Song: Not original music of my creation.

"Go with the Flow" by Queens of the Stone Age

please purchase if you enjoy it.

cheers

Part 38 : The Lion King

Part 37 : Shaka Zulu Camden

The previous few weeks were a mish-mash of long nights conforming and a few outings here and there to the movies and a few nice dinners. This weekend was set to be a big one because Faye and Lucy were coming down to see The Lion King with us and also for a catchup and drinks out on the town.

Thommy Paton had started crashing at my place for a few weeks and a friend of his was having a party at a place called Shaka Zulu right in the heart of Camden. We actually started off in Camden during the day checking out the markets and stalls that are scattered around the side streets. I picked up a few street arty shirts and we all grabbed some mexican food for lunch. One of the best things was a shop there that made ice cream in front of you from liquid nitrogen. I remember seeing this as a kid on children's Tv shows and thinking its was an awesome idea. I suppose that its taken the world or someone about 20 odd years to cover all the insurance red tape and prove it was safe enough for consumption for a franchise to be born out of it. Overall I think the actual flavour of the ice cream wasn't too crash hot but the process and the novelty of it was quite interesting.

We eventually got ready and made our way out into the town. The girls really got dressed up and me and Thommy were quite happy to chaperone them through to the party. Shaka Zulu was actually quite nice inside. Its a all african themed club with a restaurant downstairs. Its fairly boutique and elitist and you have to book in advanced if you even want a chance to get in. I was told later that the food downstairs wasn't actually that good and you go there more for a seat and the experience then the quality of flavour. The handles and walls are all adorned with carved wooded african motifs while statues of Zulu warriors lit up by purple and blue lights watch over you as you drink and dance away. Dancers dressed up as Zebras come and entertain you around the drinking area upstairs while doing laps of the small escalators to the downstairs club section.

It was quite packed on the dance floor and the friends of Thom said that you have to book a table and pre spend at least £150 to get it reserved. You may think that that sounds like a lot of money but its actually not, not in this place. A bottle of Greygoose (a personal fav of mine) cost about £170 while a bottle of Dom Perignon costs a whopping £300. I know for a fact that Greygoose at the off-license is a minuscule £32 which I was told by friends is still way too much to pay for Vodka. each to their own.

In between the tables however were the most fit/hot dancing girls dressed in a loincloth re Tarzan and jane. Other then this we all kind of decided that paying for the incredibly overpriced experience of looking at hot dancing girls could be saved for another time and decided on heading to another club. Next time however Im sneaking in a bottle of my own :). £170 saved!!!

That sadly was the last club we went to as we slowly down geared from partying to eating to waiting for a cab to heading home to drink to eventually just going to sleep :( In the end it was a really fun night and we did have a big day of sightseeing and Lion King the next day.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Shaka Zulu" by Margaret Singana
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 36 : Too Much Work

After a short time of no blogging… apologies to everyone following but I found that they're really isn't much to blog about if the only thing that you are doing is working way too many hours and then sleeping. And on the of night / weekend you end up drunk at a bar then blogging isn't the most interesting thing to do.

I have set my self up in London and a place in Tufnel Park, a good 5 mins bus journey form Camden and gotten back into that rut of working to pay rent to continue to be able to afford to be able to work. After 2 months of not seeing anyone or being able to enjoy going out and meeting new people and doing new thing without feeling like I was about to pass out and fall asleep I found myself in a position where I had to make a choice about the work I was doing in London.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"We Gotta get out of this Place" by The Animals
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 35 : Edinburgh Fringe Festival

I was a bit relieved to be heading up north to get away and to go out and party with the boys. I had only met Troy once before but I was keen to have some fun. The weight of trying to get my life back in order regarding work and somewhere to live was getting to me and I felt like a carefree weekend away, see some comedians, live music and have a few pints with some scots would be pretty cool.

I took the friday off work because I thought we were leaving in the morning but it was actually 11pm at night. Oops. oh well it was good to have the day off. My first week of Tech support manager and it involved Jess being sick for every day other then the first 3 hours of monday. Apparently if he is sick I become the Operations manager which resulted in my first week at a new company and I'm acting Operations manager. lol.

So we get the bus and the 8 hr but trip up north wasn't the best of trips. I hate getting isle seats because I love just sleeping my way through travel. That didn't happen and so we ended up in Edinburgh on a few hours sleep. Hit up some mcd's for breakfast and moved onto our hostel in the rain. We got there early but couldn't check in till 12 midday. We got some complementary breakfast and had a game of chess. :) I lost. damn. first time in ages. Then checked in and finally caught up with Troy.

Edinburgh is such a pretty town. All the streets and building are all old and stone, cobbled streets and ageless. It seems like a place that hasn't changed from 200 years ago except for all the cars and take away shops about. We cruised around the town, through the main street and the hundreds of people spruiking to sell their shows. Got a nice baguette like thing even though mine got burnt to a crisp, and then eventually made our way to a performance of Oedipus. Overall the show was quite good but I do think that there was a significant section in the middle which I found to be quite non-eventful and so I had a slight nap and caught up on some sleep. Apparently… this is when the best bit happened. doh

We made our way back to the hostel and decided to head to the bar there and have a few drinks. Troy the ever so socialite that he is struck up a conversation with 4 american girls and before you know it were all sitting around a table playing cards. This game was similar to Uno but every time it changed suit you have to drink. This result in all of us getting really drunk really quick. A memorable moment of the night was me spilling my beer all over the cards hence ending the first game and tequila shots.

We eventually moved on to a bar called Lebowski because we wanted to se the dude, before heading to a night club. This place had so many levels that it felt that the further down you went into the club the more hard cord the dance floors became. This was probably true and so we ended up on the 5th I floor down and danced to what seemed like music from the crapital and hence my uni days. 80's rock and 90's pop. I was quite happy that the last song they played was don't stop me now by queen which I danced to horribly in my tired and drunken state :)

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Edward" by Old Blind Dogs
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 34 : Work Week 1

2 months and a bit of living in London and partying up with Iax, Phil and Rohan and now I'm starting to run low on cash. I've also run out of free liberty time of staying at Iax's. I managed to crash at my cousin Loraines place for a week or 2 but then she and her house mates were also moving out so I desperately need to get a place of my own. With work starting on Driving Wars in the next few week or 2 and time at my cousins running out I managed to sneak in a few viewings here and there and found a fairly cheap place in Islington where I could stay.

The guy who ran the place was Emmanuel from Kenya. I don't have any kinds of problems against African people at all since my two nephews and my niece, my brother in law and a few friends of mine are all from Africa, I however should have known better to get involved in business with this Kenyan guy, and by business I really meant he being my landlord and there being some sort of money involved.

I had moved all my stuff in via two trips across the city from Acton to islington and also through the tube which wasn't too nice but it got the job done in the end. The room was literally a room and the place had 8 or so rooms with a large share kitchen but no living space. This just meant that everyone kept in their rooms resulting in a very unsocial experience. When I checked the place the only thing that I really asked for was a internet connection which several times he stated that "yes of course there is the internet, they are all professional people how can you be professional and not have the internet"…there was not internet. :( massively disappointed.

Once I had gotten back from the first block of shooting he called to tell me that he was in breach of his mortgage agreement with the local council and that he couldn't have multiple leases for the one property and had to lease to 1 lease holder. In the end I was simply quite happy to leave and be rid of him and his constant everyday calling and shitty rental property.

On the other hand I had started work and was doing data on a cool TV series called Driving Wars and finally earning some pounds.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"I need a Dollar" by Aloe Blacc
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 33 : Kings of Leon with Nina

Nina finally came back to Good ole England and after she had come to London we had planned to meet up. She was here to visit Shaun but he was at work. The original plan was to out for drinks and a catch up but it soon became apparent that Kings of Leon were a more then likely option. It all came down to ticket prices. Online they were advertised at being around £30 but after we arrived we soon saw they were more like £50. Then our luck turned for the better and we ran into a guy selling 2 for 1 and we ended up with 3 tickets for £100 :)

The overall day and atmosphere was quite nice even though there were small periods of rain. Once it got dark the place hummed into the similar rock concert niceties, people pushing rudely, long waits for both beer and toilets and the inevitable band playing. Once they had actually played I realised that I actually didn't know any of the words except for the chorus to sex on fire and the two words 'use somebody', this made sing along fun beyond all means but other then that a nice day out in the park drinking cider with friends and listening to some good music.

The best part I have to say was by far two bands before Kings of Leon who played a cover of The Devil Came Down to George. I loved it even though I'm sure most of the young kids there wouldn't have ever heard of it before unless they'd played a significant amount of Guitar Hero.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 32 : Fathers Day Bike Ride

So after a 2 weeks of being a hermit I was a little over Iax''s apartment (really nice place fyi) and my computer and watching movies. I really needed to do stuff. I was stuck in the middle of not having work but having some stuff organised and locked in and kind of just waiting for it to happen.

Being poor (i hate being poor, mainly because I work hard and sacrifice on certain things in my life knowing that the money I earn allows me more freedom during other times when I can freely choose to indulge of embellish as I see fit. A good balance. being poor in this case is more to do with the fact I couldn't get my money rather then me not having money and missing out on stuff knowing I can afford it but not being able to access it pretty much sucks) and then finally getting access to my money again I really wanted to go buy something. I am extremely sick of all my clothes from traveling. I haven't felt the freedom to be able to just go out and spend a lot of cash on new clothes, and most of my clothes are summer stuff like singles and shorts etc. So I went out and after going to the bank I bought a jacket (FCUK). A nice overcoat thats really similar to my Politix jacket back home, not as good but still quite nice. Need to find a tailor to amend the arms and a few other things but quite nice.

Then I called around and eventually met up with ash (Phil's friend from work) and we caught up for a beer and a pizza in SOHO :) then the funny thing is Phil called. He had to go into work and so he decided to stop by and the 3 of us had a few beers around the corner at a place called 2nd floor ???. After a beer Iax called and he was passing by so he came in and had a beer to. Four boys all drinking some Brooklyn Lager in Soho on a friday. The funniest thing is I really started the day thinking I'm just going to the bank. So when I left in the morning I was wearing a singlet and my hoodie. Pretty bumish if you think about it but hey, I only have about 10 articles of clothing so bite me. :P Then eventually as it does it turned into a drinking session into the night till midnight, and there I was out in Soho in a single top :( shame on me. at the same time it didn' t really bother me, and I managed to sweet talk myself a free tequila shot from the bar chick. ching ching!

The next day however as seedy as we were, me and Iax both headed over to Beth and Allan's place for what was to be the monstrous "Casual" ride to Windsor a whopping 36miles!!! I have literally not ridden for a long time, not since I was teenager. A few minor occasions like in Laos and Laos and with Iax to Camden but nothing of the 36miles proportions. In the end it wasn't that bad. I do wish that my bike was a offroad bike because it was a bit rocky and my bum was a bit sore at the end but otherwise it was quite nice.

We stopped halfway after feeling ravenous and we got a hearty pub meal and a few pints. The service here was quite crappy and the food pretty average so if I had to I wouldnt recommend this place, somewhere in Shepperton. And it was quite expensive.

After the food and pints we were all pretty much nackered and the thought of riding the extra 15 miles was only really evident in the obsessed and keen. ie Iax and Beth. lol. Alan and myself were keen to get the fk back home and crashing on a couch watching movies or something. It was however Iax's 1st Fathers Day and his bubba is a long way away in Australia waiting on a visa back into the country so it was in the end quite a nice day to get out, go for a ride and check out more of the beautiful London landscapes while its still nice and sunny.

cheshmonkey

Part 31 : Dinner with Sissel and Iax

After a big weekend out drinking with Duncan and Iax a pub along the canal around Notting Hill and a night out at Fabric I soon came to the age old problem us Aussie travellers have and that is how the hell do I easily get money from my Aussie account (St George FYI). Now it is really easy to get money out of your account as long as you have a valid visa debit card / credit card and then you can simply go to any old ATM and get money out. This of course is quite costly because you pay the worst exchange rate and you also get fined on top of your fee and most likely from both banks.

There were a few that were suggested to me (1st contact, Paypal, western Union) the first I tried was Paypal because hey I already had a paypal account. So I checked to see that my HCBC account was active which it was, then I tried to send money to myself from my Paypal account, ie move money from my Aussie account to Paypal then move it to my English HSBC account.

Im sure as I interrupt myself that you must be thinking why in bloody hell doesn't he just net xfer his own money to himself. This would be possible if I had pre setup my account to be allowed to xfer to foreign bank accounts but I didn't, and then to change it all I need is to get the site to sms/txt me a code to my secure mobile phone number I have stored in my account settings. This is the same number of the same phone I lost in a taxi in Saigon on my first day in Vietnam. See previous blog entry :) and then to change my own account details to my new UK number I need to get a sms/txt me a code to my secure mobile phone number :( starting to not be a happy chappy at this point.

Fine ok back to Paypal. The upload/xfer to Paypal worked a treat, almost instantly my money was online. The problem here was getting that money to my account in the UK. You cannot add a UK bank account to a Australian Paypal account. So I setup a new Paypal acount, then I transferred money from my Aussie Payal account to my UK Paypal account. Hmm sounds simple right, this took 4 days. Then I wasnted to send it to my Uk account. What Paypal does is pre sends you 2 small amounts, something like 0.13c and 0.07c which you use to verify your account and that your a human and that money can arrive and all that. I do all that and it takes 7 days for the 2 transactions to work and another day to verify then once I had actually been able to send it took the standard 4 days for my money to arrive. This is a long time without cash.

Enter option 2. Western Union. Hmm do not believe the spin of advertisements because its all a load of crap. First thing is I try to send myself money online. Its easy they say, yeah its easy to sign up and hand over registration and personal details but there are a couple of things that they don't tell you.

1. you cannot easily go online and send money to someone instantly, you actually need to go into a office and see someone to verify that your not doing anything illegal like sending money to someone. This is a lie and it will not let you do it until you do see someone.

2. You cannot send money to yourself, I could actually send money to my cousin, she could then pick it up and then give me my own money but you cannot send money to yourself. :( what a fing stupid idea. Is this not a world without borders now. Whats the point of having online money xfer internationally if you cant send money to yourself!.

3. If you call Western Union from the Uk, say because your travelling and to send money to yourself, and you have a mobile but dont wanna fork out a million quid on phone calls calling Western Union because you know that the shitty ass answering machine is set to the slowest speed highest call cost mode, and decide to use something like Skype to call, as any modern day traveller with a computer does, they will not accept your request. Actually you cant even call from a mobile phone, To use the Western Union phone support service you need to have a registered phone line and then need to call on that phone line. WTF?

Ok so maybe im doing it the hard way. Why haven't I done something really simple like just go into Western Union here in the Uk and see a rep, because thats what they said I need to do on the phone but back in Aus. Hell that surely would be easier right. Wrong! If you go into a Western Union reputable agent here in the Uk they can do nothing for you. It seems like the agents are all 3rd party businesses that have and agreement with Western Union but are not actual agents. One place I went into was a carpet shop. You can hand over your money to these people quite easily. Funny that the whole giving money to Western Union is quite easy but the receiving is a bit harder. You cannot go to a WU agent in the Uk and send money from Aust, at all. I do feel a little hesitant to give money to a shop simple because they have a WU sticker on their window.

theres something else I'm forgetting about why WU are so sh!te but I cant remember right now

Enter the last option. 1st Contact. These guys have a website that seems extremely dodgy, and the system sounds really dodgy too. I simply !!! send money from my account (st george) to their account (ANZ) then they send money to me and only charge me $5. They offer a better exchange rate then the banks do and they also offer special deals where you can lock in a rate for x time if you like it. ??? I get that they make money because they trade the money at a better rate and hence make a certain profit off every transaction but in the end they were quite good. It sounds dodge to dump money in their account because then your just kinda hoping they actually send it, but eventually it took 3 days from me to them, and then 1 day from them to me(UK) and walla. I have money in my account.

So after going through 2 weeks with no cash and bumming it a little, the last couple of days were quite nice. Sissel who I met in Nha Trang Vietnam and also caught up with in Don Det (4000 islands) was stopping through to London on her way back home to Copenhagen. We had a nice day grabbing a coffee in Earling and picking up some groceries. I cooked some nice hearty Filo chicken and vegies soup, one of my favs that my mum always cooked for me (also very good if you are sick). We then proceeded to have a great night when Iax joined us after work and together we finished off a bottle of Vodka, the one I got from Istabul. Unfortunately Sissel had a early flight on RyanAir which left at 7am so she had to spend the night at the airport. Thanks Sissel for the great day. I will def have to come visit you in Copenhagen. Maybe before it gets too cold, -20 something for me just seems ridiculous. I've never been below 0. :)
peace

cheshmonkey

Part 30 : Cha Cha Moon

Since arriving here in London there has been 2 things that I seem to do a lot of. Drink pints because everyone drinks a lot of beer, as in way too much beer and do a Thursday dinner with the boys (Iax, Duncan and myself of course). Usually at Duncan's place and usually of very high quality food. Between the three of us we prepare a very nice meal.

The day after always ends up being drinks in Soho some where and this time we met up with Allan (of the Beth and Allan fame) and a few of there associated from the cafe. After a few drinks out in the street (because in the summer you drink is the basking rays of sunlight) we all needed some food to fill our bellies. The place to go apparently was Cha Cha moons asian fusion food. Funny eating highly priced asian food after spending soo much time in asia eating really cheap asian food. 1 meal here can feed you for a week in Vietnam. Curry was really nice and good after a pint.

What was meant to be a relatively quiet night of beer in Soho ended up being quite later then we though and we rushed to catch the last train back.

ooh mental note it I got lost trying to get to the pub :) was actually quite nice walking around Soho when its hot and bustling.

The Next day after this we met up with Darius and his Gf who were down from Manchester. We had a beer in the city then headed out to the famous Fabric. The four of us partied until 3am and I had a really good time while we were all together, but after a few hours dancing Darius and his chick headed back to their hotel and me and Iax partied on. Now I have heard a lot of good things about Fabric and I did enjoy myself alot but there were waaay too many guys there and the music was just a bit too repetitive a drum sound. After a while I was craving some tweaks and effects from the minimalist electro sounds of Sydney and thats saying something.

Good times and a great night. Stupidly got to the station after walking 6 blocks and then realised I left my camera in the cloak room (which is why there was no blog from Fabric). also had a go at the station while waiting for the train and I must have hit the record touch button on the lcd flip screen and hence turned the record off. Oops. sensitive little thing and such a shame because it was a nice record. oh well.

Part 29 : Camden Bike Ride

The friday before this beautiful sunny day biking along the canal from hanger lane to Camden was spent drinking at the pub with a few of Iax's close mates. It was the football final between Manchester United and Barcelona. One of the girls yelled at me because I cheered when Barcelona scored the winning goal. She looked at me and said "What! why are you cheering, who are you going for?" I replied with "Barcelona! of course". She then looked back at me with a shocked dirty look on her face and said "Thats not very English of you", "no sh!t sherlock I replied. I'm Aussie". Ahh English people and their love of football. A button to push every time. Later we all moved along to a new club of some sort called The Supper Club.

The day was spent biking around and checking out the Camden markets, eating dodgy food from a stall, all that kind of jazz. We decided to get a quick beer at the local pub there. The one near the little archway thing if you know Camden. While sitting down having a quiet beer (English people also drink alot of beer!!!!) we meet to rocker guys from the north who have moved down to London. I convince them that they should team up with Iax and do a track together/have a massive party night, which ever turns out the best. That 1 beer turned into a few with the boys and then later a few more with some lovely polish and scandinavian chicks. By midnight we were staggering back to where we had locked the bikes up.

During the day we had locked the bikes up at a close facility in Regents park, a close walk to Camden and near to the canal entrance. This location however at midnight isnt really that convenient. We ended up starting out wrong to begin with. The bikes just werent that far away. And then by the time our drunken souls had orientated ourselves via the revolutionary iphone/google maps and we knew where we had to go, the battery on the phone died. Not only were we really drunk but we were semi lost in regents park ad with no phone or lights. One thing I'm guessing alot of people dont know is that the park locks up all these little gates at night time and there are not that many lights in the park. The park is also massive.

We eventually found the bikes and had a drunken ride home getting there a good 2 hours after we left. heheheh great times.

Part 28 : Iax at Red vs Blue

After Iax had arrived back home safely in ole London town, we literally had a bit less then a week and bam! straight in to a DJ gig. No rest for that boy. I went along for support and because I hadn't seen one of his sets live before. Well not for a very long time anyhow. (go subscribe to his Podcast btw)

I trekked over to Shepherd bush and made my way to the pub to meet Iax, Raj and Beth. Free blue shots of something to start off and into the beers. It was a nice pub and I was already 3 Dj's into the 6 playing Iax being the 5th (and easily the best) so it wasn't too much of a wait. The gig went well and we proceeded to get drunk with the rest of the crew till close.

The most interesting part of the night came at the end when we were getting on the bus to go home and unluckily Iax's oyster card had run out. We tried to smuggle ourselves on further down into he crest of the overcrowded bus until the pesky driver consistently annoyed everyone till he stopped the bus until we paid our fare. ???why cant you pay 2 fares on the same card. We stormed off the bus , Iax assuring me that the walk wasn't soo bad and that we cant go to some red pub around there.

We found the pub closed and ended up indulging in some late night KFC. Its weird but they serve you baked beans instead of potato and gravy. hmmm. Bake beans at 3am after a big night out. Not my kind of idea of awesome, but hey what ever does it for you really. Afterwards we proceeded to walk a fing long way into what I would describe the middle of but fuk nowhere. I consistently asked Iax where we were going and said we should get a taxi.

After a while he kept stopping and falling asleep (still jetlagged in reality) then after going back the way we came I finally asked "dude are you sure were going int he right direction????". He looked around and straight up said "I dont know man, im drunk!!!!". Silly of me to be following the drunk one. So we got a taxi and it was all fine. Funny night followed by lots of walking.

The next day ended up being beautiful and sunny and we went all around regent park and the city. 2 points. Should have bought bikes should have bought my camera. Sorry no blog from there yet.

Part 27 : Roast Dinner

I head out to Ministry of Sound and yes I did already mention that but I will track back a bit. After having a long night out with Rohan and listening and dancing to some great tunes, I get back home at roughly 8:30am. We both had to wait for the early train at 7am and that is an experience for yourself. Kind of like walking home from kings cross to the station after a big night out on stuff and seeing people walking their dogs and going for morning runs. That kind of bad. Hence breaking my number one rule to be back in bed before the sun comes up.

I finally jump into bed and think to myself OMFG!!!!! soo good to be in bed when I hear keys at the front door. A minute later Iax is shouting out "Hey, wake up stop sleeping in you lazy ****". I get up and straight away I say " sleeping in??? what no, I just went to bed. I was out at Ministry of Sound all night" he cracks up laughing calling me a crazy bastard and all that. This was the start of a lot of drunken party nights soon to come.

But without divulging into the partying side of my London lifestyle there is a more dominant side at the moment which is the domestication side. We (both Iax and myself) are quite domesticated, cooking really nice dinners during the week from Roast turkey and pork, spaghetti and chicken katsu-don curry. Hmm :D so I thought I would add this vid to show you all the softer kinder most awesomeness cooking side of us both. Cheers

(FYI this roast was delicious!!!)

Song: Not original music of my creation

"Judas (R3HAB Remix)" by Lady GaGa :P yep

please purchase if you enjoy it

cheers

Part 26 : Iaxs Place

I ended up back in Sultanamhet while I waited 1 day for my flight. I thought id have a quiet night in and then while editing my blog for your viewing pleasure in walks Drew!! "Hey your back, come join us were having beers outside" big smile wipes across my grin. "well certainly sir, I have to finish up this bit of editing im doing for all my gracious fans out there first though"…(see how I so easily put the love and devotion of my fans out there before random strangers and beer, but of course). And so I finished up my editing and relocated to the table of lots of beer.

I wake up early, because my flight at lunch time is a international flight, and it takes 2 hours to get to the airport (the asian side one) and lo and behold I experience my first day of rain since leaving Australia (first rain since those 3 days straight at Kakadu). I meet on the way some cool british people who also enjoy travelling.

Getting through Luton was a breeze with some assistance from some new friends and then I finally make the trek to Iax's place over in Hanger Lane.

I cant really get into too much details because not much really happened. I caught up on a lot of rest, watched some TV and some movies. Participated in the post move ritual I call whaling, which involves me sitting at home resting and putting on weight. I did lose light 15 kg since travelling and am roughly around 71kg atm so I wanna get a little bit more weight put on and be close to that magical 75kg mark.

I began the whole process of looking for work :(boo): and trying to figure out where the hell I wanna live. Still trying to do both FYI, and overall get a feel of the place and see if I want to stay here for a extended period of time.

A few highlights were going out to have lunch with Rohan and Phil and heading out to Ministry of Sound. I know that sounds like a perfect blog video moment, and yes it probably was. Not that I could have said much about it because the noise was so loud and I was in no shape to do a blog, but also because I idiotically forgot to bring my camera. *Cheshmonkey now proceeds to forehead slaps himself.

But as I get into the groove of the whole place I think I am starting to like it. It certainly has become more lively now that Iax is here and we mix the week up between partying and cooking dinners. :)

Song: Not original music of my creation

"London Calling" by The Clash

please purchase if you enjoy it

cheers

Part 25 : Boat Cruise

After Gallipoli it was a long sleepy bus ride back to Sultanamhet. We got back in and after a quick unpack decided on a late beer then a good nights rest. We all deserved it. Actually the best part was the warm shower. Sooo good after that cold night out on the beach. I met up with Rosco and Ritchie and a few of the boys and last I saw Rosco he was ready for a night out in Taksim and a Yager Bomb. When I woke up in the morning my good friend at the hostel started telling me how my friend who I was drinking with last night had broken both of his arms. It could only be Rosco I though.

What had happened was they had a few Yager bombs and a few drinks. and he climbed up some ruined building, grabbed a bit of wood sticking out which then broke and he fell 3 floors and used his hands to stop him from hitting the ground. Hence two broken arms. He and Ritchie had to head back to Australia to get operated on.etc

I spent that day walking around and sleeping, catching up on some much needed rest. I eventually made my way over to Red Apple where Tom was staying and found him upstairs playing cards. "Asshole" was the game, very much the same as Big2 or 13 but with a interesting 7 forcing you to play a lower card. Good Game.

We drank there with Kimmy and Teddy ??? and Zara and her girls. Her friend Bronwyn I found was from canberra and friends with my cousin Amy. Wtf. small world. We played asshole al night while drinking a lot of Efes while smoking shish-a. We had such a great night. Jimmy came eventually and joined in the fun. The bar staff who they had nicknamed as beer god, told us he'd take us out to Taksim so as it was nearing midnight we all got into cars and cabs and made our way down to the party central of Istanbul.

From here on out it gets a little messy and all that I can say is that we ended up in 3 or maybe 4 different clubs, one of which I almost lost everyone because it had like 10 levels all of which were empty. Like Groundhog day. We ended up at this one club and a cute little brunette girl kept coming up and dancing with me. I though Awesome, and danced back, then from out of no where her friend would just in between us with her arms out wailing STOP!!! Just as if you were trying to stop a car on the road from running someone over, and then her male friend (who was just staring at us while dancing like studying) would pul the cute girl away. HAHAHAHA awesome.

I partied in Sultanamhet then ventured down south on a Boat Cruise. The people I travelled down with, Xavier, Chris and Meaghan were also doing something similar to me and Kimmy from the previous night was to but she was on a different bus. The plan was to go to Olympus and head to the Treehouse Village for the night before going and partying on the boats. On the way down I found out there was apparently a singles cruise and a couples cruise. The tree houses were cool but not really tree houses more just wooden cabins stacked on each other, and when I got on a different minivan to the other 3 I soon realised I was on the couples boat. :(

It was ok actually in the end. Being on the couples boat meant that I literally didn't have to worry about trying to pick up or get really drunk and it ended up being a good time to relax and enjoy travelling the south coast of Turkey. The one thing that I am proud about was that I wasn't sea sick the whole time. Well I had moments of dizziness but I wasn't sick. The 2nd night I went to bed early because I ate too much food. soo good. Then when I woke up 3 people had been sick because of the rocking of the boat. Lucky me I thought as 1 couple (who were really nice) had to get off because it was too bad.

I had a lot of fun just diving off the boat into 20m water but it was just a little cold. I managed to swim with Matty to the beach one day which was about 300 meters. I thought back to my scuba diving initiative and how I struggled soo much with swimming the 200 meters in the pool. This was the ocean though and I was freezing, the water was so crystal clear and the buoyancy was unbelievable. But the 300m to the beach and back again was easily the furthest I have ever swum. But it felt really good to do.

The most notable thing is that I learnt how to play backgammon on this boat cruise. great game.

Song: Not original music of my creation

"Im on a Boat", The Lonely Island

please purchase if you enjoy it

cheers

Part 24 : ANZAC Day

I woke up the next day feeling pretty relaxed and really just wanted to chill out a bit. My body was still climatising to the weather as it was easily 15 degrees cooler here then in Thailand. So I awoke around 11am and looked around and saw that my entire dorm. all 36 beds were empty. All the guys I hung out with last night all were leaving at midday and I was all of a sudden hit with a realisation that maybe, just maybe I had read the email wrong on my tour booking. I knew that the time said 12:00 but I wasn't sure if it was midday or midnight.

I got my lappie out, went up to reception and checked my booking email. Yep I had misread it completely. It clearly stated picked up 12:00, then followed by 14:00 stop in for quick meal break.!!!!! doh FML. it was now 11:25 and I had less then an hour to pack all my stuff back into my bag and get my self ready for Gallipoli. I went back to my room and OMFG all my stuff was everywhere. To this day that is the quickest I have ever packed my bag.

After a quick rush and dropping my bigger bag off in the storage at the Orient and another reorganising of things that I need I ran across the road to New Backpackers where I had to wait for my pickup. Here I ran into Maxine and Paul again from last night and while we waited Tom showed up. Another Aussie that would continue partying with me for the next couple of days. Tom had just finished a Top Deck tour of europe. Once on the bus we met Drew, another Aussie who had literally just came over from a few months in South America. (Mental Note: do South America trip :D)

We kept each other company over the 5 hour trip to Gallipoli and ended up at Eceabat for a few hours and waited at The Crowded House hotel who were the company who we booked the tour with. There was a time in which they let all the buses in so we cruised around Eceabat and got some local food and stocked up on supplies. At this point in time, because I hadn't prepared myself for a night out on the hill, and I was expecting to rock up at some stupid hour like 4 see the service and leave, I didnt really bring adequate clothing of materials to keep me warm. Neither did drew since he came from SA and so I didnt feel that bad but no I had to invest into something that will save my life.

After eating and seeing the miniature model of the beach and war sites we invested in some local blankets. Some of the girls from our bus also bought some and we haggled in a deal a 4 for 60 TL, 15TL each. ooh yeah. Note that this blanket surely was the best buy of the night as meat pies were 10TL. I thought I had enough as I couldnt see sleeping bags anywhere and later wish I didnt get the blanket and got a sleeping bag for 20TL, but we eventually got back on the bus and made our way to our resting place for the night. On the bus came the final member of our possie, Jimmy. A army chef who unlike the rest of us stayed in Taksim the night before rather then Sultanamhat.

Once I got to Anzac cove I was surprised over a few thing.
1. The massive stadium seating and entertainment screens/podium.lighting rigs.etc etc. It really felt like I had just come to a big day out. There were the obvious police checks for drugs and weapons and in the back of my head a memory about alcohol being banned from the celebration. fair enough too because Aussies would take it waay to far but it really was very very tame.

2. No Alcohol

3. The Fanatics / Top deck people. To say anything about Aussie pride would be sacrilegious on ANZAC day but the fanatics IMHO were all wankers.

4. How fricken cold it was

Once we were in the core of the hub of people between the two big screens and surrounded by a mass of people we soon realised that all the good spots (on the ground) were all taken. We had been let in too late and now we had to take a seat in the stands. We based ourselves to the back left of the middle sections and allocated ourselves sufficient seating for ourselves and our gear. We would have arrived around 8pm and got comfortable, then checked out the food options and toilets as you do. As the night went on the presenter would play some clips and movies all ANZAC related of course and go through some of the major events that happened during the 8 months they were camped there. Around 11pm it was time to get some rest and the cold was becoming relentless.

The blanket I had bought, along with the 2 singlets (lol) shirt, hoodie and rain coat, (only had jeans and sockets doh!) were no where near sufficient to keep me warm. The blanket was inferior to a sleeping bag because no matter how you had it wrapped around you there was always a little gap that the wind could sneak in and your body would then drop in temperature quickly. Around 11:15pm I got some sleep, laying down on the wooden boards below where our seats were. Jimmy and Tom had found some isolated place up the back to rest as me and Drew stayed and looked after the gear.

Then at 11:30pm some crazy woman start yelling from directly above my head, yelling at the whole course of people because everyone was trying to sleep and that we were taking up all the room. There was actually sufficient room she just wanted to sit in our section. It wasn't even a nice complaint, or asking anyone if they could make some room, she just started yelling in a sarcastic bitchy tone about "well if all the people here weren't taking up and the room, sleeping on the ground then maybe we can get a seat somewhere". I know that it sounds a little selfish and that sure we could have made some room for her, but at the same time she was such a bitch about it, and I was woken up by this (we all know how pissed you get when someone wakes you up, especially when its 0 degrees) but the reality is that we had to face that same problem a few hours ago. It;s not a ticketed system its a first in best dressed system. We missed out on the premium grass seats and she now misses out on the premium stadium seats. She could easily have gone and sat on the many seats to the left or right.

After that Jimmy and Thom came back and me and drew sat up. A guy behind us started arguing with her and I was relieved because I would have told her to fk'off which wouldn't have done any good other then start her arguing. Then she cam back with one of the festival guys and he had to ask us to all sit up. lol. Someone yelled out "Theres actually alot of seats at the back" and so she went up about 8 rows and well whadda know. there were alot of seats up the back. soo annoying. We ended up freezing our asses off for till around 4am when I finally just kind of collapsed on the floor and passes out for a bit. Then after half and hour the speaker told everyone to wake up for the ceremony.

Even though I was cold and freezing and ill prepared. I think that its probably the greatest respect that you can give to your fallen ancestors. They had to come out here at the same time of year with equipment that was even more inferior to our Gortex jackets and sleeping bags, under the rain of fire from Turkish machine guns nested high in the hills surrounding the beach and for them to still fight on through 8 months of hardship is amazing. One night for me to spend out there wasn't going to kill me and it would be my honor to do it again. Next time I think I will take my kids when they are like 15 or 16 and with a super duper warm sleeping bag. :D

It brought a tear to my eye being able to sing there with the many other Aussies and Kiwis the National Anthem and take pride in being Aussie. Mental note. need to learn the second half of the Anthem. oops

Song: Not original music of my creation.
"Lest We Forget"
please purchase if you enjoy it.
cheers

Part 23 : Galatasaray vs Kayserispor

Koh Phangan > Surat Thani > Bangkok > Kuala Lumpur > Istanbul = 30 Hours

Getting through customs in Turkey I would have to say is the easiest so far. Literally give passport and pay 15 Euros, stamp and your through. The line was massive but I ended up chatting to some Aussie girls which made the time pass and ended up sharing a driver into Sultanamhet saving me a good 50 euro.

I arrived in Sultanamhet literally with no place to stay. Silly me should have realised that it was ANZAC day and that the place would be booked out with Aussies and kiwis, I had checked a few days ago and there were still places so I thought I would be fine. I get in at 8am and start with a few of the places I read in the lonely planet I borrowed from the girls at the airport. Bahaus and Big Red Apple were all solidly booked out, then I moved on to Sultans and New Backpackers but still nothing. Next I headed into The Orient. No the said but they did offer me a bed on the floor if I didnt manage to find accomodation anywhere else. I thought that this had been the best offer I had so far so I chilled out there for an hour or 2 chatting away to paul and getting info on the blue cruise down south.

After 2 hours the manager offered me either a bed in the 30 dorm room or a mattress on the floor of the 24 bed dorm. I cashed in my 30 dorm bed and within a few hours I had been upgraded from homeless to having a rood above my head. nb. I highly recommend the hot apple teas you get around this area. soo good.

I decided to get breakfast and started chatting to 2 Aussie guys, Ritchie and Rosco. Both you guys on a 1 year travel trip around europe. They had also just come from Bangkok but had a extra day on me in Istanbul. The boys I planned on meeting later and after a few hours of sleep I found they had teamed up with paul who I had met earlier, damo his friend and Max the chick Paul was waiting for coming from England.

We had all set our sites on checking out the local Football match playing that night Galatasaray vs Kayserispor. Galatasaray being the local team but also the team with Aussie players Kewell and Neill playing for them. We ventured out into the night and embarked on a journey through the Istanbul tram and train system that eventually after 4 trains led us to the Telekom Stadium. You could hear the crowd so very loud outside the stadium while we walked towards the game.

We eventually got in the game and found our seats, and despite the fact that Galatasaray was coming 14th in the league, they were the local team and the fans were out. After the trains and a delay at one station we actually ended up being 25 mins late and missing the first 2 goals. Guess what the final score was 1:1. Yeah missed em.

By the time we got back to Sultanamhet it was time for one last beer and then bed. Everyone was up early the next day to go to Gallipoli.

Song: Not original music of my creation.
Some FIFA song "Ole ole ole ole"
please purchase if you enjoy it.
cheers

Part 22 : Full Moon Party

Full Moon Party

Dont Det > Bangkok
well where to start. Travelling from 4000 islands on Lao new year to Thailand for the Full Moon Party is just insane and intense. Nina and Sissel were staying and heading up to Vang Vieng for tubing because Nina hadn't dont it yet. So it was Richard, Cally, Alex and myself all heading to Ubon in Thailand and only Richard not heading to Bangkok.

I had prebooked my flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani and it was leaving @ 9:50am on the morning of the 17th so I needed to be there by then. When I had booked my ticket to Dont Det I asked if there wouldbe any issues going to Bangkok on this day and the guy assured me it would be fine. Dont listen prebook. The bus from Don Det was 2 hours late and so instead of arriving in Pakse at around 1:30pm we arrive there @ 3:15pm and the bus from Pakse to Bangkok was leaving @ 3:30pm. We had no money because there are no atms on the island and so we had to Tuk Tuk it to an ATM. The guy literally didnt understand what we are in a fucking hurry means and drove us miles away from an atm and dropped other people off too. We got back in time to see the full bus leave and us miss out on a ticket.

After some arguing we asked if we can hire a mini van and so the four of us and some locals all took the mini van to the border. Actually the mini van was quite nice and I was thinking at this point in time this is a good way to travel if you dont wanna be one of the masses and that I actually got to Bangkok to catch my flight. We got to the border and the Lao Kip we had taken out to pay for travel wasnt what he want and so we had to pay in Baht. :( no I had 300,000 (30AUD) worth of useless money. The Visa stamp was easy, 15 free days travel for Australians when you enter via land crossing and 30 via airports.

Then we Minivan'd it again to Ubon and minivan to ourselves this time. After we got to the Bus station we soon learnt how dismal our chances were of getting any kind of bus to Bangkok. As richard looked after our packs we found that every single bus was booked out. All the Thai people were heading back to the city after Songkram and Lao new year. Thing were not looking up. I thought hey maybe we will do the minivan thing again. There was a really nice thai girl that helped translate for us and soon we heard those magical words. "Special Seats" hmmmmm…… I thought wondered what they could be.

Special seats as they turned out were seats in the aisle. We all sat in between the other seats but they had nice fluro coloured plastic chairs for us to sit on. Other then the high premium that we were paying and the fact that we had to sit like this for 10+ hours I was quite relieved that we were on the bus and that I was going to make my flight. We left richard and Cally, Alex and myself headed on to Bangkok, laying down in the aile and going to sleep. Me and Cally decide to go halves in some Lao Valium and 8 hours later woke up in Bangkok. ooh yeah. travelling in style.

Bangkok airport > Koh Phangan
I finally made it to the airport in Bangkok and found I was 3 hours early. The first thing I did was kick back into westerner mode and found myself buying a burger from Burger King. Silly mistake. It ended up being the biggest fattiest burger ive ever eaten and in the end I had about a 1/4 of the whole thing and at 6am in the morning after 2 months of Pad Thai and noodle soups it made me feel a little ill. It was also more expensive then m last 10 meals combined. Afterwards I slept in the airport across 4 chairs while I waited for my flight, waking up finding people surrounding me and my flight ready to board.

The flight was easy enough, then a bus to the ferry dock which took an hr but was ridiculously hot, lucky I brought my fan :D and then the 2 hour boat ride across to the island. This is where I met Vadim, An american russian guy who ended up teaming up with me as we ventured into the great unknown of Koh Phangan.

Total travel time (Approximately 32 hours)

Koh Phangan
17th, After finding the Dancing elephant and going through the Initiation by david the french owner, me and Vadim headed out to meet up with his friend Kim who owned a bar called seaview sunrise and her friend Kelsie who were semi working the bar there. a few drinks later and a massive discussion on what was the best film to come out since the matrix and me and Vadim decided to head off to the pool party at coral bungalows. Good times, buckets, a girl named jenny which neither me nor Vadim will go into details about but the pool ended up being quite hilarious a night, Also ran into the british guys I met in Nha trang and Vang Vieng. its a small world in the south east asia backpackers world. After the pool party we ended up at the beach and then on to the mushroom mountain where joints were 250 Baht :P way too much and alot of people getting stoned. I hung out with 2 aussie girls and stayed up to watch the sunrise. quite beautiful in reality and quite sad that that beach was being so abused by so many tourists each month.

18th. Full Moon Party
Hmm well what to say. we started back down at the Seaview Sunrise and had a few drinks with the girls. I suppose we were going to hang out with them all night but Kelsie passed out around 10 and so we bailed and moved on to the bulk of the festivities. Im sure I snuck a bucket in here, and at some point I sat down and with some girls on the beach and got all painted up with gow in the dark paint. This I think went for an hour. Then Vadim convinced me to go on the fire rope at which I found really easy for the first 20 swings then thought id up the anti and start spinning ??? and ended up getting burnt on my leg. sucks balls. Then we partied for quite a while and it felt like it was getting late. Around 2-ish I think. I then thought I was really tired and left Vadim and went home, on the way home at which we called the Chicken Corner due to the chicken shop there I ran into my friends Lily, Ben and Emma from Vang Vieng. Omg finally I thought but was the worst time as I was all ready to pass out and sleep. I ended up heading back out and downing another bucket, probably the one I would regret later. Ended up shooting my blog around this time and after watching the video I realise how drunk I was. At the time I didnt think I was drunk at all and just though I was tired. hmmm, its amazing what the video camera truly reveals.

Sleep….well so I thought. the next thing I know after laying down peacefully in my dorm was me standing in the dark and spewing while holding myself up against the wall. At some point someone turned the light on and I saw the devastation I had caused. My bed was strategically located at the front of the dorm at the top of the stairs. I had somehow managed to cover the entire floor of the entrance, the top of the safety boxes (2), a small part of my bed, the bed below and some of the stairs. The worst thing is that I was still drunk and that I now had to clean up this monstrous mess. 2 hours later and with a little help from one of the girls in my dorm ??? (sorry I cant remember you very much but you were a great help) the mess was cleaned and I was ready to pass out. thanks FMP, great night, crappy morning.

19th. The surviving people managed to chill out all day watching mainly movies and catching up on the internet and FB. At night we all ventured back to mushroom mountain for a chill out session involving some pricey 500 baht mushroom shakes. I had half and pretty much just got a little happy and a little tired. me Shaunie and tom??? I think who reminded me alot of phil, headed back for food and ended up crashing out early after watching about 5 minutes of harry potter.

20th. As everyone started to some what recover we soon realised that most people were heading to Koh Tao for some kind of after party/diving and that myself and Shaunie had pre paid for 5 days at dancing elephant, a little scam to make money after the FMP, and that they're were no more boats available any how. In the end it was Shaunie and myself and about 3 other people that stayed on with a quiet eerie feeling coming through the dorm as it got quieter and quieter.

Mission: Shakes, Sunrise. very very cool start to day. Results: failed. lol. I had a great time but I think we definitely shouldnt have had that second whiskey bucket before the shakes.

22nd. Chill out day and rest, was a great day. Kinda like the calm before the storm. Little did I know that I was in for another 30hr epic travel adventure.

Part 21 : 4000 Islands

After deciding to leave I found that I was increasingly difficult to get tickets due to Lao new year :( I had finished work for the day and all the VIP buses were booked out to Pakse. I called Souly and she found me a palce that was going there but I couldnt book over the phone and had to drive out there, it being 10km outside the city. I managed to have a lengthy discussion with the manager of the benacams apartment and then convinced one of their workers who spoke english to drive me out there on my motorbike.

ok, so tickets booked. spent the entire next day wrapping up the final clips for SEDA and sorting out my backpack. FYI it sucks trying to repack your bag after youve had it open for 3 weeks. Then once all my stuff was done and packed I heading out to the bus stop leaving for good my fancy Vientiane apartment.

The bus ride to Pakse was quite simple. It was a VIP sleeper bus and I had to share the double bed with this old Lao guy. He was very kind and helpful when it actually came to stopping and getting off at the right stop. The bed was ok and I literally after editing for 4 days was so tired I fell asleep and woke up about 45 mins before I had to get out. The trip took 10 hours to Pakse and once I was there I booked straight away to Don Det. that took 2.5 hours and then a small river crossing to get to Don Det.

I really wasnt sure when I was travelling on the small river boat how in hell I was going to meet the girls. This was quickly solve when as the boat approached my smile lit up and I could see them waiting for me on the beach. Probably one of the most joyous occasions on my trip so far. So relieved to be reunited with friends, to be away from Vientiane and to be ready to chill out and party. The girls had already been there for a day and had found bungalows on the sunset side. We check and there was a spare and so we ended up with 3 bungalows in a row right along where the river goes by. Quite nice.

There I also me Cally who I had met previously in Nha Trang with sarah but sarah had headed home already and Alex. To my surprise richard was Richard was still with Nina but they had split apart and then reunited earlier in Siam Riep. I only had 2 nights here and so I was quite happy to chill out and hang out with the girls and enjoy the quiteness of the islands.

FYI
go bycling to the waterfalls
bring a Ipod and control the music at reggae bar
tubing and drinking in the water. very nice here nothing like vang vieng
chill out in hammocks on bungalos
bring money as there is no atm on the islands. you have to travel to Pakse just to get money out.

Part 20 : Vientiane Apartment

After a bit more then a week and hearing that the girls Nina and Sissel were going to be in 4000 islands I decided that it was time and that I was a little bit over Vinetiane. I managed to buy my self a copy of "Journey to the west" which is about the monkey king and the voyage of a Buddhist monk to retrieve the original Buddhist scriptures from India and to return them to China.

Anyhow I decided to go out on friday night and wasn't looking for a real big night but while I was eating my fish and chips with beerlao @ sticky fingers I was invited to join a group of westerns that had already begun a big night of drinking. I soon found out that those westerners were all volunteer people. OMFG I had found them, the long lost volunteers of Vientiane. Most of them I found all worked in the same place a renewable energy company and were doing internships for their university degrees! unbelievable. renewable energy. It sounded like they were doing the job I wanted to do. Oh well.

My dilemma was that I had already decided to meet the girls down south and had booked tickets and started wrapping things up with work and accommodation and the like. Unbelievable, that the same day I decide to leave I finally find the other volunteers.

I had a good time with those guys that night heading to a new bar just around the corner from my house that was not only full of locals and westerners but also stayed open much later then the standard 11:30. They also had a fooseball table :) but there was one guy who just keep smashing me. apparently he played there every night. Then we headed out to Don Chan Palace again. :(

Part 19 : Rice Farm

Finally getting into the bulk of the work here deciding to do a doco on the Rice Farmers with a broken water pump, + interview, mushroom farmers, + interview and the weavers of the 790 Camp, + interview.

I found that my time in Vientiane was pretty good. Its a completely different take on the travel thing that most people end up doing. ie tubing and partying a lot. Going into the whole thing I did expect to be associated with more volunteers and in the end it was jus a real close relationship with myself and Souly.

Going out and filming the farmer I thought was alot of fun, not only because I was out and about getting to meet the people and experiencing Lao culture but also because Souly is hilarious when she get on camera. I would say that she can get infront of the camera for about 5 minutes before she starts blocking up and starts losing track of what she was saying. It did make for a longer shoot but definitely a lot of more fun.

Part 18 : Mushroom Farm

So I came back to Vientiane and now I have this fk'd up coughing thing and its driving me insane. Im feeling down because hey I've just partied my last party for a month, am sick, and am on my lonesome again in Vientiane and I also have to go back to work on a saturday. Work wasn't too bad but I hadn't started shooting yet and theirs not much to edit if theirs not much shot.

Saturday ended up being a bit ridiculous and my body was literally not ready to even be awake let a lot at my computer processing thoughts into ideas. I did manage to do a bit of work, make plans to shoot on sunday early and then get out by 1pm and go home and pass out.

Sunday I was up early and was shooting mushrooms at the farm by 8am. wow, way too early for me but it did feel really good to finally get something in the can. It is why I'm here after all so progress is progress. Its interesting to see how the mushrooms were made. They use saw dust and then mix it with the fungus which they pack into a 1.25 litre coke bottle like plastic bag. They then stack them into rows and rows and have a little opening at the top. The fungus grows and after 3 months it starts shooting out mushrooms. (non hallucinogenic mushrooms that is)

They have 2 types. Oyster mushrooms which are brown and white mushrooms. The Oyster ones bloom more in the hotter rainy season and the white ones in the cool season. Both very popular with the market and hence yield a good return. They said that they can generate 100kg or mushrooms a day. Amazing.

We got some of the farmer which is had later in a soup Souly cooked up for me. I would say that it was nice which it was. very healthy and probably the healthiest thing I've eaten since I got to Asia but she dumped a million chillies into it and my mouth burnt like crazy with ever bite. Damn you mum for punishing me with chillies when I was a child. My chilli tolerance is considerably pathetic for an asian. Souly even said con, your asian, you should be able to handle chilli. Nope. I suck. and everytime I feel a little guilty.

At the end of the day I felt good I had actually done some work whilst sick at the same time. Jules came in that night and we ended up having dinner with 2 swedish guys we partied with in Vang Vieng but its was a much more quieter sombre occasion for a bunch of veteran backpackers all nursing their war wounds. No rest for the wicked as they say.

Part 17 : Tubing

After what I considered to be quite a nice sunday at the Buddha Park chillin out, going for a ride, being one with the city its streets and its people I get back to the core of Vientiane. I had to take my bike back and was also quite hungry after my 50km ride. After returning my bike which I hired @ $US10 a day. boo. I was returning home and in the near distance I saw what I knew was Julians bright orange backpack (same backpack as mine) in the group of about 10 young girls. Ha! thats so Julian I though and casually walked up and introduced myself to everyone. What was really going through my head was "ooooooh yeah, its tubing time baby!!!" and holy fuck I need to get out of work for the next week.

Julian and the girls had just gotten off the epic 24 hours bus ride from Hanoi over the mountains and were off to Vang Vieng tomorrow for some epic partying. We all went out and has a very very nice dinner, mine being a great pad thai, quiet drink and then and early night.

I managed to get work off, thanks Souly, Your a champ! and then raced back, booked my ticket and got my stuff ready for what I knew was to be a the last of my partying in South East Asia. Kinda like the storm before the calm. The trip wasn't too bad, it was pretty much the whole group and myself and two other people that were on the same bus from Hanoi. They had decided to swim in the Mekong River not knowing that it was the border with Thailand and when they came up to the beach were welcomed by National Guards and Ak-47's. They spent the night in Gaol and were released the next morning to go tubing. Good story to tell the kids hey. :D

Vang Vieng is what you have to consider the backpackers mecca in South East Asia. It supports a river with a lot of bars along it that gives you free shots of whisky (bad laos whisky), cheap buckets, a lot of drunk backpackers, swings into the river which at first look quite dangerous but after a few leaps you realise the river has been dug pretty deep and for what its most famous for tubing. You can actually hire a tube and go down the river but most people recommend that you don't on the first day and that you just go party. You end up finding that you tube about 50meters from Qbar (the first bar when you cross the bridge, and the little swing) all the way through to bar1, bar2, bar 3 and I think bar4. You forget how to count after bar 3.

I saw a lot of people with slings in their arms and 1 or 2 that were considerably dangerously passed out in the river, but other then that most of the injuries seemed to be cuts and bruises from falling, playing soccer or rocks on the river. I did hear that 1 person dies every year in Vang Vieng and that 2 died while I was there but I didn't know about any of that.

leaving PG area now!!!

Day 1/4 we got there pretty late and so we kinda missed the river party because it all ends around 6 when it gets dark. So we check into the hotel. about 2 bucks a night and found the nearest restaurant which by no coincidence happened to sell "Happy" foods. and by happy I mean it had a lot of weed in it. Cmon its Vang Vieng its what people do there, as well as buckets and Shrooms :P We all hooked ourselves into a Happy shake. mine being banana. It pretty much tasted like a blended banana and shredded ice, and I didn't really think it did anything at all. We all got food *insert blank food memory here* and then the owner. nice chap offered us a free joint because hey, we ordered a shipload of food from him.

The first hit of that joint was like holy crap the shake has just kicked in. I have not been that stoned since… well a while. maybe camping. It was also the bushiest weed I've ever had, no hydro here. At some point the Jules, Ben lily and Emma were heading off to the Irish bar for beer and pool. I was meant to go but the girls were keen for another joint (or 2) and I just could not resist. I was meant to join Jules for a beer later but 2 hours had passed and well.. still hadn't moved. Quite alot of fun in the end. The whole experience brought back so many mixed nostalgic memories. It made me think of being in high school for one when I used to smoke alot. But the weird thing was that it made me miss my girls. This group of girls, so young, happy to be travelling the world and partying, getting high in Asia somewhere :D good times!

Oh well, nothing last forever. So for the next three day we hit up the river. And to break it down into a shorter less detailed version of the events the went like this

Day 2 : River. Awesome day

Day 3 : River. chesh running @ 50%

Day 4 : River. last day of party. went to far. blacked out somewhere around the took took. came too and was wearing my jeans instead of my swimming shorts. was now at Qbar on the main street sick as a dog and Jules feeding me a Baguette. Spent the rest of it recovering with joints at the smoking restaurant and was in dire need of passing out.

Part 16 : Buddha Park

After the high life partying we were doing in Nha Trang it was about time to give my body a rest whether I knew it or not. The 10 hour bus ride to Saigon followed by the 3 hour (stop off in Cambodia for an hour) flight to Vientiane was enough for me to sleep for a day or 2. I pretty much spent 2 whole days just sleeping and recovering from the week long partying and travel.

I got sorted into Vientiane pretty nicely. setup my apartment which is fairly spacious and cool. Air con, stove and kitchenette area, hot water and western toilet. Pretty snazzy for asia. I started to venture out into the streets knowing I had time to spare and felt like a beer. I found several nice restaurants and have eaten quite a lovely array of delicious foods but when it comes so socialising, meeting new people and partying the town is the polar opposite to Nha Trang. In Nha trang it was easy, tourists everywhere which is a good and bad thing but bars specifically dedicated to catering to foreigners. Here the bars and clubs are small and quiet. There seems to be a neverending supply of couples and those that are travelling here are quite anti social at first.

Being on my own for the first time I think I am coming across some of those challenges of being lonely and not knowing a person in the world. Sure I know my boss but other then that I'm out here on my own. There are positives to this whole phenomenon too. I get time alone. Life out here it a lot slower and laid back then you think. People say Australians are laid back. hell no in comparison to here. This is the capital city and its more laid back then wagga is.

I did hire a bicycle. ie foot powered push bike, a freewheel one with no gears. NO GEARS!!!!.omfg. after one day to work I realised yep. I am that lazy and so I hired a scooter instead. I have to say I'm a fan. I love it. driving out to work. putting along at 60km/h. Sooo much fun. The fuel efficiency is amazing too.

So its sunday and I hired this scooter, 10 bucks a day for the weekend until I get my other bike from the hotel @ 5 bucks a day. I went out and got drunk with a japanese guy Yoh, a Spaniard Jose, and a french canadian guy Peter. I did plan on going out to the Buddha Park yesterday being saturday but I was being lazy that day. They told it was cool so I figured I've paid for the scooter I better used it and decided to drive out there. The park was 25km outside of the city. a massive 50km there and back. the longest I've ever driven a bike was 3km and that was to work on friday, and before that was about 100 meters on pats scooter in the future car park.

The road to the Buddha Park started by driving past the SEDA office. The road was quite and flat, luckily the spaniard told me that I should take the left at the roundabout which Im sure saved me an hour. Being of little experience bike riding wise, I didn't really take into account that i was about to ride 50+ kms. The last 20km was quite interesting considering that the pitchmen road all but disappeared and the was replaced with dirt, pot holes, and mud. Kind of fun on a scooter.

The Buddha Park itself once I finally arrived was quite bizarre and cool. They architect mixed Buddhism, Hinduism and the local Serpent Deity worship together into some weird funland. There were angels mixed in with serpent bodied shivas. Buddhas sitting on coiled serpent bodies and5 headed serpents hovering above them. There is a massive pumpkin like concrete construction with 3 levels that you can crawl inside of and then on top of for a great view, while the belly is filled with small serpent offspring. I have to say and i do think I'm biased but i personally liked the armoured monkey the best. Now, where is my warsow. :D

Part 15 : Bad Scooter

As we continued on through what would to become a 7 day party week we thought that we should do a little more then get drunk and Nina wanted to go to the mud baths we kept hearing about and seeing pictures of and also because she had become burnt as red as a lobster of the last few days. So to make it more interesting we decided on hiring scooters and biking it there since we hadn't done that yet. So far so good.

Greg, damn you, said "yeah yeah yeah, all good I know where it is. I got directions, you all just follow me" famous last words. It was also the last day before jules and tim were to head off up to Hoi An so it ended up being the six of us. Greg, Jules, Tim, Nina, Amber and Myself all biking through Nha Trang to go to these mysterious Mud Baths.

At first it was awesome and I have no idea why we had not hired scooters up until this point but I was so glad we did. I teamed up with Nina because she wouldn't let me drive, tim and jules took turns and greg and amber. We were cruising for a good half hour and managed to lose each other twice before gathering together at a restaurant for directions. This we found out that greg had no ideas where to go and that we had actually driven a good 25 mins in the wrong direction. We then drive back and finally see a mud bath sign. I give directions to greg to turn right while were all stopped at a traffic light (which greg your meant to stop at FYI) and the the boys and my bike managed to turn ok but greg had disappeared. Apparently he thought I signalled that the mud baths were just there and pulled into some building, waited for 20 mins then came to find us when they realised we hadn't shown up.lol. that was the last we saw of them till we got back home.

Jules and Tim did manage to stick with us for a few more minutes hilariously turning the wrong way at the temple round about and then having to do a U-turn through a busy street which was hilarious for both teams. Kudos Nina for not killing me btw. Then we were cruising down a main street and our bike started to stutter and die. The boys were ahead of us and then we were alone. We travelled along the busy street before we need up pulling over and then bike wouldn't start anymore. I was busting to go to the loo and this nice lady came out from a shirt store which was also her home and see if we were ok. We were luckily across the road from a petrol station. I asked nina if she thought there would be a toilet at the station with a "nah I don't think so response" so I asked the lady and she offered me her toilet for 10.000 dong. Yep I paid to pee, the equivalent of 50cents. and it was good.

We got to the station and no one could speak english at all, fair enough, and the one guy hat did help only helped us conclude that the bike wasn't working. We were stuck for about 10 mins before we hired a bike driver who after 5 more mins we figured out would push us to the mud baths. I jumped on the back and Nina drove our broken scooter and he literally drove behind her and with his right foot gave her a little push every now and then. classic!

Instead of driving to the Mud Baths he drove us to someone he knew who spoke english. :( who then told him that we wanted to go to the Mud Baths. We thought to gave the bike another go and who'd a thunk it it worked. He escorted us to the temple, told us it was the Mud Baths. The same temple with the roundabout that we lost Jules and Tim at. boo. we were not happy. It was also a freaking hot day and we were both getting burnt. Luckily we got some really good directions from a temple guy and realised our earlier mistake. We shouldn't have stuck to the main road and taken a little sneaky left instead which you then followed for 15 minutes on a broken pot hole ridden dirt road and eventually, eventually …..bam! fing Mud Baths.

Yes. Mud Baths here we go. non of the other made it to the Mud Baths in the end. Just me and Nina. I have to say that after all the effort in trying to get there, there was no way I want going to go in. Mud Bath 1 hour. like a giant pool of brown cool exfoliating cream. with a leaf thrown in every now and then. Oh and you floated so well in there. Then 1 hour hot water bath. The water was the perfect temperature. sooo hot but not burning. 1 word. Amazing.

Part 14 : Nha Trang

Nha Trang. We basically came here because in Lonely Planet it said, beach, and party till 6am. How could I not. The plan was to come to Nha Trang and then up to Hoi Ann but after arriving here we started going out and drinking with the other backpackers in our dorm. yes found the backpacker experience. and ridiculously cheap and nasty beers and cocktails. Me and greg, because Jules decided to go to Mui Ni instead, then also signed up for our PADI open water certification.

The nights to come came like this. Dinner, Get drunk, crash in bed at 3am, wake up 7am for diving, dive 2 times, sleep, study. repeat for next 3 days. My body is actually punishing me right now for abusing it in such a way. I am really glad that I did sign up for the PADI but at the same time I kinda wished that I went party, party, party then dive dive dive. and not mixed it all together.

Diving. It was pretty cool. The hardest part was swimming the 200 meters to qualify fitness. Im not really that big on swimming 200 meters in one go. I can physically do it I just think I get bored or I stuff up the breathing. Oh and by the way the bottom of a swimming pool, well this one in particular is disgusting. :( no good

Diving in open water went pretty good and I got all my skills up. At the end of the course you do a 50 question test and I have never stressed out of a test for years. the drinking and diving just made my brain not work any more and I really struggled to hold and retain information. Its also really hard to study when theres this much partying going on. Peace

Part 13 : Ho Chi Minh City

The trip from Darwin to Ho Chi Minh was a simple 4 1/2 hours. Not too bad. At the airport we met Jules who funnily enough had the same backpack as me. But it wasn't until we had to wait in line for the Visa on arrival that we actually started chatting. Visa on arrival FYI sucks balls and makes you end up waiting at the airport for an extra hour of your time. I also forgot my passport photos and had to pay for new ones.

Me Greg and Jules ended up sharing a cab into the cities backpacker district. Pham Ngu Lao. We walked around checking out a for a backpackers dorm or share room where we can all get drunk meet new people and have a jolly good time. We didn't find it there, so we just ended up booking a 3 bedroom for about $10US a night each. not too bad considering the other hotels were around $15 a night each.

We then headed out into the town. Beer at the crazy bull face pub and its rival across the road meant a lot of backpackers, locals, prostitutes and drug dealer pimps on bikes swarmed to the place. We tried multiple shops selling Pho and many beers. The second day was a bit more interesting visiting the Previously named memorial for american war atrocities now named just the War Memorial and then headed out to get hammered on the town at a few nightclubs wed found online. The best way to explain the night would be messy. We started at dinner with 5 beers for 135.000 dong, which was a great price for the city, and then moved on to different clubs and cocktails. At some point we dropped greg off and went out to another dingy night club in-between there and the hotel spent about 2.000.000 dong and lost my iphone. :( boo hum bug.

It was clear that Ho Chi Minh was just like any other big city. just in asia with Pho. Not really the backpackers experience I was searching for but I knew it wasn't too far off. And cycle drivers and haggling with them over the price of a ride is a lot of fun.

Part 12 : Kakadu Day 3

The tour managed to push us around to some rock art at nlunga ??? not sure how its spelt exactly and then on to south alligator river. The group was getting along much better now and it was like we were all a small family. The basic make up was me, an older couple from england, 2 sisters from england, 2 sisters from netherlands, 2 friends from denmark and kathrin who was the only other person travelling alone.

The last day started a little more painful then the previous. The lack of sleep was catching up to me as i couldn't sleep the first night because I was terrified of spider. yes. im a woosie so sue me. and the 2nd night i was bitten by a combination of mosquitoes and bed bugs. :( left my inner liner at greg place. boo. The 2nd night was also the booze night where were needed to finish off the remaining case and a half of beer we bought. Interesting conversations came out of the evening but the most entertaining was an annoying british buy from brixton with a little scooby doo toy. He eventually left but it was awkward while he was there.

The last day however ended with a 3km trek through the bush. quite fun choosing to take the more exciting walk over log over river or jump over large patch of water options then the safer dryer creep around the edges route. We made it to the bridge and karl, the tour guide took us for a trek up to what they call 'Castle Rock'. The hike as fun, the group was fun, the view was amazing, It was all worth it. And even some of the group who were terrified made it to the top of the rock. It did take a few minutes to convince everyone to actually start the trek getting down but it was such a good climb. I think I actually like the idea of mountaineering even though i have seen 127 hours later and the thought of having to cut my own arm off still haunts me.

We slowly bused it back to Darwin and made our way home. We got cleaned up, did our washing because everything was wet and smelly by now and then went out for dinner and tis surf and turf and then for 1 beer. which became 3 beers. But in the end everyone was pretty tired and sleep was much needed. It could have been a bigger night but most of the girls were heading to alice springs the next day and needed to be up by 5am.

Cheers girls and i hope you all the best on your travels. Thank you for making my first tour group one to remember. :)