Sweet As.

OK, I have finally found time and a place that doesn't charge me an arm and a leg to update. So here it goes....
I made it just fine to Raglan for the surfing. I stayed in what can be considered the coolest hostel ever. Free transport to the beach, plenty of hammocks and nightly BBQs. I treid my hand at surfing and didn't do half bad. I even managed to get up a few times. Hey, go me. I do believe I could have easily spent the rest of my time in NZ there, but alas there was so much more to see, so sadly I had to pull myself away from my sleepy little surf town.
I picked up my bus from Hamilton and made my way down to Rotorua next. It's strange really: in every other hostel/backpackers I have ever been in, the average age is maybe 30 with the occasional 40+ thrown in. IN NZ you literally get golden agers on the circuit and families staying in hostels! I know it is a bit ageist, but I'm not a fan. You feel like somehow they know your mom and are going to tattle on you. And they go to bed really early and aren't afraid to ask you to shut up at 9:50 on a Friday night. Not a fan. But that is beside the point.
Rotorua is a interesting little town. Good nightlife and a beautiful lake only diminished by the constant stink of geothermal activity and sulfur pools. The entire area sits right on top of huge underground hot springs and smells like rotten eggs. You get used to it pretty quick then go about your way. I allowed myself a bit of cheese while I was there and went to a Maori concert and dinner. If you just leave you sense of embarrassment at the door, it's a great time. You get to sing and eat and talk to maori "villagers" about their old ways then at the end of the evening you get to lad back on the bus and sing a song from your country and if you are the only American on the bus like I was, you get to do it all by yourself. It's cool though; you will never see these people again.
I had a couple of really cool kids from Toronto move into my room and coincidentally end up on the same bus as me plus two other Irish girls so we've been a snug little family from Rotorua on.
After Rotorua, it was on to Taupo and all the adrenaline I will ever need. As the driver put it, I was the adrenaline junkie on the bus. At 2pm, I threw myself off of a 42 meter bridge with only a bungy cord attached to my ankles (ok, not really. The guy had to push me else it was going to take longer to get me off that platform) then at 4pm I attached myself to some crazy fool who chucks himself out of planes for a living and put my life in his hands at 15,000 ft. SO FRICKIN COOL!! I can't wait to skydive again!!!! Much easier than bungy too as you don't really get a say when you go. They scoot you to the edge of the plane, whip open this door, hang out out feet first of this little tiny plane, have you smile for the camera and just when you are beginning to think, "oh holy crap, this is a bad idea" they let go and you freefall for a whole minute with a nice little parachute ride down. Awesome Awesome Awesome. After all of that excitement, I went to bed pretty early that night.
The next morning at 5:30 we loaded into a bus to go hike the Tongariro Crossing. "Oh, it's just a bit of uphill in the beginning", a friend said. Liar. Know in Lord of the Rings when Frodo and Sam get into Mordor and it's blisteringly hot and they make their way to Mount Doom? Yeah, they filmed that in Tongariro. A bit of uphill in the beginning was actually half the walk and gaining about 800 meters in altitude. However, you cross a long extinct volcano and several geothermal lakes and it is one of the most beautiful walks I have ever seen. It took the better part of 7 hours and almost 11 miles. We made it back to the van just as it started raining which was a nice capper to a great day. The next day, we were all walking around like old ladies as the last month of doing nothing has made us all soft and an 11 mile hike reminded our legs and backs of that one. My arms were even sore. Really? My arms? I figured it was from swinging them back and forth back and forth plodding down the mountain.
Then a bus on to Wellington, a night there and a ferry down to the South Island. This has the highest amount of days a year of sunshine, something like 320 days and the weather is great for a bit of recuperation. I wanted to spend a little more time with my "family" so decided to make Nelson my last stop south before heading back to Wellington for a couple days then to Auckland and back to Thailand. I have decided to extend my trip to the 27th and try to go into Laos or Vietnam (in the end, whichever is cheaper and easier to get in to).
I'll probably post one more time before leaving NZ, but if not when I get back to Bangkok.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Well, I have since left and returned to Auckalnd, but it has been a good few days. Auckland started out kinda slow, but I found some people tyo bum around with so it was good. for a city of 1.4 million, it shuts down kinda early: there are few bars and everything gets real quiet after 9. There is a bar in the hostel though. On that note, funny story: my last night in Auckland I was up there with a few people I'd met here. We'd been trying to wheddle free booze or at least cheap booze out of the bartender and he said that he'd give us $7 pitchers if someone could do 50 push ups. Now, no one stepped up and I was just buzzed enough to think it was possible so I volunteered. I got down in my skirt and set off towards 50. I got all the way to 43 and my arms just wouldn't flex anymore. He gave us $10 pitchers in stead and I got to drink all night for free so in the end I still win.
The next morning (of course) I hopped a bus to Paihia, a beach town on the northern tip of the north island. It was very relaxing there. I spent the majority of my time reading and sun bathing. It was some sort of city holiday in Auckland so there were tons on families in the hostel which should just never happen. Lots of disney and playing Guess Who until bedtime. I wasn;t around much. For a town of 4,00 they had a pretty good dance club there with a cool live cover band, so I spent most of my evenings there instead. On sunday, I took a sailboat cruise in search of dolphins. There's a chance to swim with them unless they have their babies with them, which of course they did, but they swim right up and under the boat so it was pretty damn cool even if I didn't have my flipper experience. I did however make the mistake of buying generic sun screen and even though I reapplied it religiously on the hour, I burned the hell out of myself. Like had to sleep naked becasue my pajamas hurt too much burned. First thing this morning I gingerly walked down to the chemists and got some Aloe to cool me down. It's getting better now and in a couple days, it's going to look like a sweet sweet tan, but until then, I hurt. Good thing I leave tomorrow for surfing on the West Coast, eh?

She emerges from the jungle...

Although I am currently in New Zealand, I realize I've been slacking...my bad.
After my time in Chiang Mai, I signed up for a three day trek in to the Thai jungle. Why not? I LOVE bugs and spiders and the overwhelming fear that grips me when they are near. It actually turned out to be quite fantastic. I got to ride on the neck of an elephant, go bamboo rafting, played in a waterfall and slept in an authentic mosquitonet which did a terrible job of keeping of aunthentic mosquitos. We had a pretty good group: it was me, a dutch group, 4 korean guys, a english boy and a german kid that was having a serious case of burger king withdrawal. Really, it was a good time. I did however find a spider the size of a coffee saucer in our bunk house. I was told not to freak out so much as it only eats insects and small birds. Oh, small birds, you say? Have they ever mistaken a hand or a face for such an animal?
I crawled out of the jungle in time to cathc an overnight train to Bangkok. Luckily, there was a group of jet-lagged French tourists who kept us all up all night talking about how great it is to be french or whatever it is they go on about.
I got back to BKK and basically spent the next few days hanging out at the hostel. There was a wide assortment of people meandering around so I was never lonely to say the least. I saw Cloverfield the first day I was back(A whole day before Alaska! Booyah International Date Line!) The weekend was spent bargaining in the Chatachuk market which is something like 15,000 stalls of literally whatever: household stuff, souvenirs, plants, food, exotic animals, I mean everything. I was pretty knackered to say the least, but I was happy with my haggling and that is the important part.
I left for NZ after a satisfactory going away party on Khao Sanand got here a few hours ago. They almost didn't let me into the country becasue of some weird issue with my return ticket (Who even HAS paper tickets anymore!?) but they let me slink in. I got to the hostel and took and shower and even blow dried my hair!!!! For the first time in a month, my hair doesn't look like a puff ball. I have a hair style again!!!! I'm off to look for a sports bra. Doing nothing all day and drinking at night is beginning to ruin all the hard work I put in before I left so I need to get it together. At least in NZ, it's not blistering hot so one can do physical activity here.

Monkey Counting and other Shenanigans

It's been a busy last few days. I made it well off of Koh Tao although it made me very sad to leave. I indeed took my fish some farewell sesame crackers was floating above them, enjoying their little frenzy when i hear this gnoshing sound. Suddenly, this giant school of tuna like fish sweep in and maw my crackers! That was unsuspected. So, good for me, bad for littler, weaker fish.
A 3 hour boat and a 7 hour bus later and I got to Bangkok. A friend had recommended this hostel, Soi 1, and it turned out great. I now consider it my home away from home. I went on a couple day excursion I will mention in a bit, but all I could think about when getting off the sky train was "Man, wonder who's at the hostel? It'll be swell....". but I get ahead of myself.
Nicolle and I spent the next day getting lost in Bangkok. Canal boats, touts, a few metro rides and a crazy amount of walking and I think we only managed to see one neighborhood. It's a really easy city to get insanely lost in. It all turned out ok though; I got my dimsum finally in china town AND converted Nicolle while I was at it. Few can resist the custard ball. Oh yeah and saw a wat or 10. We went to Wat Phra Kaew which is the primary wat in the city and connected to the Grand Palace. The latter was unfortunately closed for the next week or so as the King's sister had passed away and the whole city was in mourning. (They absolutely revere the king here. His image is literally everywhere: on walls, in train stations, in vehicles. You stand to his image before watching a movie and you stop what you are doing every day at 6pm for the national anthem. ) We also saw Wat Po with its 150 foot Reclining Buddah.
Got to see the infamous Khao San road and yes, it is like in The Beach. Went clubbing in a huge thai club called Dude and crawled out of bed the next day to go get glasses. $80 for new frames, lenses, and the exam. I love thailand.
Managed to scramble down to Ayutthaya and LopBuri with this guy I met in the hostel named Daniel. Ayutthaya is a the old khymer capital and is full on ruins. We rented bikes and rode around for a bit then killed the night in a jazz cafe (me? jazz?) where I did Eric Clapton a disservice on the karaoke machine. Sorry, sir.
Next day, we went up one stop to Lop Buri where the town is overrun with monkeys. You pay about $.30 and get a monkey whopping stick and a bag of seeds and you can walk around a feed them. Cheeky monkeys really. They'll climb up your damn stick to get at you. Can't hit the monkey with the stick when it's latched onto it. Yes, they are wild monkeys but they have been rather tamed but copious amounts of sunflower seeds and whacks with a stick.
I took an over night train up to Chinag Mai in the north, which turned out to be a great nights accommodation. I've found a room here and plan to spend the next 6 days or so. The big draw around here is trekking in the local mountains so I am off to pretend I'm in to that kind of thing. I am also going to do my laundry, maybe take a nap or two. I have a very busy life.

Som na na

Althoug it breaks me heart, I have decided to leave Koh Tao today. The rest of Thailand is calling my name and my empty wallet is feeling the island tourist prices so I am out. Not to say it won't be missed though. The last few days have been the epitome of lazy. I wake up around 8amish, sit in the hammock until Nicolle would get up, go get some breakefast, swim, porch, email, swim, porch, read, move to another porch, swim again. Real tough.
I bought some snorkling gear and have kept myself entertained with fish antics. I was out one day following this rainbow fish around when this cute little blue ones chases it away. "Awwwww...it's territorial. Hw cute....," I thought, suddenly two of the little creeps come swimming right at my mask! Jerks. So, yes, I freaked out at the 8 inch fish chargin me, choked on seawater and had to surface. You win this round, little blue fish. I'm taking them some seseame crackers today as a farewell present.
Nicolle and I went out a few nights ago for a nich bucket on the beach and we got talking to this guy. Now, I loves me an aussie so I was all into it. I put in ALLLLLL the effort, I even drank a Bacardi Breezer. Lychee, it was. Bright Pink. I didn't want a beer so I thought it would be a great alternative. So after he drops me off at the bungalow that night without so much as a high five, I figure I would have to hear no more about it. Right. I wake up the next morning, feeling like I got run over by the tropical fruit truck, tried to eat an english breakfast and spent the rest of the afternoon hugging the toilet. I will say one thing though: a hangover is a lot better in paradise. Nicolle however, won't let me forget it.
Although the weather has been cloudy, the san came out in all its glory a couple nights agao and I got to see the best sunset out at a place called Banana Rock which is ultimate zen even. The barkeep, Nung, has two extra fingers, each with the tiniest little nail. It's kinda wierd but he makes a mean smoothie.
OK, I am going to go say my goodbyes to fish and porch. Let me know how the weather in Alaska is. hahahahahaha!

Same Same but Different

I got to Thailand Sunday morning. I can say NOW that i love Thailand, but Sunday was just not my day. I get off the plane, get yelled at by an angry Thai immigration agent for not having an entry form (entry form? No one mentioned this to me.) got sent to the back of the really long line to wait to show her the form again, made it past that one barely because of a dumb glitch with my ticket and lost my debit card within half an hour of arriving in country. Took a bus to the main train station then decided that I didn't have near the energy to deal with the Bangkok traffic/heat/ touts so I stayed in the rain station for 9 hours waiting for my 11pm train. This actually turned into a good idea as there was plenty of fruit and fried pumpkin to eat, so I was set. Plus it allowed for excellent people watching...
My train arrived in Chumpon around 6am the next and I was whisked to the pier by a man driving like a bat out of hell down dirt roads. About 10 minutes after we get there, this group of people get on and the first words out of thehir mouth are a very haggard "PAAAAARRRRTTTYYYY!!!" Oh yeah, this is going to be great. I found out from the quieter one later they'd been partying for 5 days straight and only slept one neight in all of that. Awesom, glad to see you have all your wits about you. As we pull away from the pier, the serene quiet is broken by one of the girls screaming, "Alright, when we go past this boat, flash 'em!" Now, people are very modest in Thailand, VERY modest, so when these two chicks lean way over the boat and wooing, expose their boobies to Thai fisherman, there was not an oggle, not a cheer, nothing from them. The rest of us on the boat his our faces in farang shame. "Maybe they're not going to Koh Tao," I said later. "Maybe they fall over and drown," a german girl added.
Being on Koh Tao has been great though. Although the weather has been less than stellar and kinda cloudy, it's still well in the 80s and we havfe the bombest bungalow on the beach. My friend Nicolle and I have spent the majority of our days eating, sleeping, swimming, and staring out to the ocean, watching the people who pass by our beach.
We went to Koph Phangan for New Years which is its own craziness which I'll get to here soon once I decide to crawl off the porch.

Well, I made it to Hong Kong yesterday. It required four flights, two days, and one long bus ride into the city, but I made it. Apparently, nothing in this town really opens before 11am, so that left me looking kinda silly walking around with a backpack for several hours. What? Me a tourist? No, no, I'm just...moving across town....AND I forgot my deodorant. I smelled like a funky airplane. Not a pretty sight. Strangely enough, I never had the "I'm on an airplane" feeling, but the "I've been on a boat for a few days" one instead. Hmmmm....

Funny story: I was in the Anchorage Alaska Airline Board Room Wednesday morning during my THREE HOUR LAYOVER and I was in a corner trying to catch some sleep. Soon this other lady came over and pulled up another chair then someone else came over and we were having ourselves a right slumber party. A bit later, this chode and his son come over, rattling bags and drinks and whatnot, throw their crap down among us and turn on the tv! One of my slumber party buddies lifts her head and says "Do you mind?" They obviously didn't and ignored her. She puts her head back down for a few minutes then, grumbling, gets up marches over to the TV and turns it off. The chode begins to protest, but she cuts him off, saying, "You want to watch TV while I'm trying to sleep; I want to sleep while you're trying to watch TV", then marches triumphantly back to her armchair. They left soon after. My hero.

Anyway, after a quick visit to a three story pharmacy (I love big city space restraints) and a shower in my9x5 room (oh yeah. Even I am too big for the bed) I was off. Everyone and their brother here wears canvas shoes and I kept getting street gunk stuck in my Crocs, so I did as the romans did and bought a pair. I think the lady was mocking me a bit for not bargaining and accepting her first price, but really? I paid 3 bucks for the things. I think I am ok AND I look good.

Me and my new kicks then hit the city. My all important quest for dim sum has unfortunately ended in failure as there are almost no menus in english here (which I shouldn't be surprised by but dammit, this place was run by the british for more than a century!) I have however discovered curb side eateries where they yell at you to come in, you oblige, you try to scoot your chair out of honking traffic and sit down to giant bowls of unnamed chinese food. Awesome AWESOME! My mother will be happy to know I have not touched a drop of alcohol as any impairment on my part would render me unable to find my way home.

On that subject: I don't know what the chinese word for clusterfuck is, but I think that about describes this place. I don't know if all of China is like this, but if the british have left their orderly mark on this city, I would be very afraid of the rest of the mainland. To truly blend in, you only need a cell phone and a disregard for anyone around you. It's like Rome, but everyone is shorter. Don't get me wrong: I love this place. As long as you stay out of the Gucci, Burberry and Vuiton shops, your money goes a long way here. My feast last night cost me about $4US and I stuffed myself stupid.

So far, I've trundled myself across the bay several times on the ferry($.25US! brilliant!), including a few times at night with the light up skyline, hauled through more malls than I can count, visited Lantau Island with the worlds largest outdoor buddah (until I get my photos uploaded: http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/l/0/2782-buddah-at-lantau-island-lantau-island-hong-kong.jpg) , visited a working temple in the heart of the city (http://lh3.google.com/kclamac/Rfd-WZz-piI/AAAAAAAAAEY/w4WmBJ2Iikk/DSC5091.jpg?imgmax=720) eaten several sticky buns looking for my dim sum, and generally walked all over lower Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

I'm off again tomorrow for the last leg of my trip to Thailand where I'll hang in Bangkok for a few hours than hop an overnight train to Chumpon and a ferry to Koh Tao (I love boats.) I'm leaving now to go find more street food. I hear some duck and shrimp noodles calling my name....