Australian update

Well I finally have a few minutes to update the blog.

We have moved into a new place, but unfortunately it doesn't have internet in it. I havn't been without a connection since i was 16 I think.. it sucks considering I don everything on it - check events, figure out bus routes or maps, talk to people, bank, and so on. Oh well, making by OK without it. The place otherwise is cool, we have 7 roommates but it works out alright as everyone is fairly cool. There are a scottish couple, another scottish girl, two korean girls, and one british guy who is moving out to go to thailand right away.

We also picked up a stellar ride. a 1986 toyota corolla with 377000 km. Toyotas are built extremely solid, however, so I expect it to last a fair while yet. All i can find wrong with it is a loose fifth gear (and the gas gauge stopped working for some reason).

Kayla has been quite successful in job hunting. She just quit at the balmoral as she said it was the "worst run company she'd ever worked for". The next day she was hired at another cafe AND was offered a secretarial job paying about $4 more than the cafe job. Unbelievable. As for me, I have received feedback from pretty much every job I applied for saying that they are looking for a permanent employee, nothing short term. With the labour shortage here I am quite surprised, as I'd be able to step into most of these roles with little to no training. If i was a permanet resident I'd have a job now for sure, and thye pay a lot. Maybe it'll change in the new year, as nobody is hiring now due to the holidays. If i don't have a job by early January, I'll have to pick up some crap job so I can continue saving.. as (if everything works out) we would like to hit the east coast, new zealand, and possibly a few other asian countries before we get back.

Sure doesn't seem like christmas. We went to the beach today, and the forecast for the next few days is around +35 . Can't complain !

Kayla says hi, and laughs at me because I am jobless.

John

Settling in Perth, Australia

OKay, so settling here has been a little hard. The bus system isn't the greatest so it takes hours to do one thing that with a car would only take you 45 mins or less. The housing is really hard to get. Every time we call anyone about a posting, it's already been filled.
A good thing though, is that it took me less than 2 days to find a job. I'm working at the Balmoral hotel. My first day was yesterday, just an orientation and the restaurant seems like any other restaurant except that you don't go to the tables to take an order. They come up to the bar to order from you. I found that a little hard to get used to because I'm so used to running around after customers. Nice little change but I wonder if I"m going to get bored more easily because of it.
So on Sunday we went out with Reece and Christine to one of their friends house for a BBQ. Had steaks and Snaggers (sausages), potato salad and alcohol. Hahaha.... supposedly, Sunday afternoon in Australia is like their biggest party day. I don't think people care that they have to go back to work the next day. They start early and go to a bar on the beach. It's a huge thing. The girls are really fashionable here too. All wearing dresses and very chic little outfits. When everyone was tired of standing in the bar we all went for a swim. The smart ones brought their bathing suits..... most just swam in their underwear. Hahaha all in good fun.
I have never felt power like that of the waves of this ocean. Even in Thailand everything was fairly calm. We were just playing in baby waves and it was enough to knock me over repeatedly. The power is amazing and I want to see what the big waves feel like. I can't wait to go see the surfers on the huge waves.
John has got a few interviews at IT places and I"m sure he'll get a job within the next couple of days. His leg's all healed up and he says Hi to everyone back home.

In Aussie!!!!

I know that some people have been having trouble trying to find our new photos so here's another link that you can go to.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/starf0rsaken/thailand/ko%20phi%20phi/

^ for some reason, our blog cuts off the end of that link, so you have to highlight the text with your mouse then right click it and copy it. then you have to paste it into a new internet window to get straight to that photo album. The eastier way is listed below.

If you want to see any of the other albums, all you have to do is go to the top left hand corner of the page where it says current album: starforsaken>thailand and click on Thailand. Then look to the box on the left hand side of the page that says My Sub Albums and click on anyone of those. They all have new pics in them.

Okay so after leaving the Cafe shop on Dec 2 we took a ferry boat to the Mainland, Krabi. Then got on a taxi bus to the bus station, then onto an overnight bus. The overnight bus wasn't that bad. We had the VIP section with couches and a table and they played movies. I actually got some sleep. Wasn't really expecting to. Once in Bangkok we got on a taxi to the airport. Then boarded a plane at 9:30 am and arrived in Perth at 10:45 pm.

It wasn't a bad trip except for the fact that I was sick the whole time. Brutal. It was nice to sleep in something that wasn't moving when we finally got to Perth. We're staying with Reece and Christine right now. For those of you who don't know, Reece was John's roommate that went to Saskatoon from Aussie about 2 years ago and now lives back in Perth with his gf from Sask. Christine. We'll be staying with them until we can find jobs and a place to live which will be a while yet, seeing as the availablity for housing isn't that big in Perth.

We will probably be posting a little less for the next bit seeing as we're not going to be doing a lot o fun things. But we'll still post any good news. From here on in I'm just rewriting my resume, applying at jobs and getting familiar with the area.

Oh yeah and we saw black swans and jelly fish yesterday. We'll be going to the beach on Sunday for a BBQ ... hope we don't get eaten by sharks hahah. Yeah there's been sighting of a 6 meter Great White of the coast in the last month. No attacks lately, so we have some hope hahahaha.

Last day in Thailand

I am typing this entry from an internet cafe on Ko Phi Phi. It is our last day in Thailand, as we have to catch a ferry at 2 followed by an overnight bus (yikes) to Bangkok which should arrive around 6 AM. Then the flights to Hong Kong and Perth which will take an entire day.

I have also set up an internet voip number, it is 17472578899 . We can call to Canada for two cents a minute, but not sure on the rate for the receiver. You can call us as well, but if we're not connected to wifi (the internet) with the phone we can't receive the call although you can leave a voicemail which we can pick up the next time we are online with the phone.

We spent last night on Ko Phi Phi Ley, the infamous spot for the beach movie. It was great, much like depicted in the movie although some points were of course exaggerated or misleading. The sand was white and the water crystal clear, and the island is essentially uninhabited. It was awesome, check photobucket for pictures.

We have been on this island for 4 days or so, it's basically consisted a lot of beach time. I'll leave it to the pictures to say my thousands of words. The first night had a pretty sketchy adventure as our door wouldn't lock, kinda ridiculous, but the other nights we spent in nice places. My knee has also almost completely healed - and kayla says it's amazing that she hasn't burned yet.

I'm sure glad it's not -20 here. I havn't worn a shirt for 3 days.

GO RIDERS GO

Full Moon Party

Well actually this is just the beginning of the full moon party... we're taking it easy for the first bit so I decided to post something. Yesterday was fun. We went on a Munchies tour of the island that I'm not sure I'd recomend to anyone but it was okay. They stuffed like over 50 people on the one long tail boat, so it couldn't go over waves because it was too heavy so part of the trip was cancelled and they didn't tell us about it until after we got on the boat. We then went to a waterfall on the island. not as great as the previous waterfalls that we have seen but it was nice. Then some free time on the beach, back into the longtial boat and off to a coral reef to snorkel. Snorkelling kinda freaks me out, but we saw so many small fish. Got back home, went out for dinner, bought a bucket and I got drunk. John took care of me.
Woke up this morning in rough shape. It's John's bday. Lazed around the beach all day, played friesbee, read my book in a hommock and then out for dinner. I had a whole crab. You shoulda seen this thing on my plate. Not too filling because it's all shell but good nonetheless. We're in the beginning of the full moon party now and there are so many people just biligerent already. I can't wait to see the state that people get in tonight. Can only be fun. I can alreayd hear the good House and Trance music playing down at the beach. Buckets of Sang Som rum are 120 baht. Yeah that's 4$... cheaper than any one drink in Canada. Always fun. oh yeah and the crab for supper was only 8$ ... unheard of in CAn. Well John and I are off to join the carnage. Dancing time!! tell you all about it later

Ko Pha ngon

K so after 2 days of Ko Samui, we headed over to Ko Pha ngon because calling places to book lodgings for the Full Moon party didn't seem to be going anywhere and we needed to have a place for a couple of days on Ko P. Took a rather short ferry over, I tanned the whole way. Then tried to find a decent place to stay. We took the first place we got for 500 baht so we didn't have to trek around our uge bags all day in the heat. This place didn't even have toiet paper, but it had a cockroach so we got another place to stay at for tonight with AC and a way nicer secluded spot. So we played in the ocean, went for dinner at this place that played Family Guy for all the westerners and then tried to watch a bad theatre rip of Saw 4. Gave up that bad idea ... we couldn't hear anything. Then went to the party. This whole time we had been drinking buckets. Now, in Thailand you can get these buckets. About 8 ozs. of whatever alch you like, redbull and a can of coke, sprite or fanta. They get you drunk 'quick but are the way to go if you want to party cheap. So yeah, John got REALLY drunk. I took care of him. He fell and broke his legs. (really just scratched them badly). We danced to trance. I got a dragon painted in fluoro paint all up the side of my leg. It was fun. Lost John at some point, then found him and went home.
He was paying for it this morning. We got to our new bungalow and then lazed around the beach all day , had supper , a bottle of wine, and watched the sunset on a cliff on the sea. Tomorrow we'e giong on a snorkelling tour of the island.

Password

Sorry, I didn't realize that everybody would need a password to get into see the pictures. the password is hotmail. Enjoy!!

In the South

Took an overnight train down here. The train sucked.. I didn't sleep at all. It was cold and loud and jerky. All the other trains we had been on hadn't been that bad. Okay so off the train and onto a bus and then a ferry to Ko Samui. Then onto the back of a truck after finding the post office which took a while. Got a tan on the ferry ride over.... was only out for like 30 mins and I'm already darker. hahha. Finally we arrive at Hat Chaweng.. the main beach of Ko Samui and start looking for a hotel. We got one at Samui Coral Resort for 1000 Baht a night. Pretty good considering everything is about 1200-1500 around here.
had lunch, walked down the white beach, played alittle bit of frisbee, went swimingin the ocean, which John has actually never done before. His first time tasting salt water was a funny sight. Lounged around, played mini golf, had supper on the beach by candel light on these little lounge benches. Then went and played pool at the Islander. John went in a pool tourny. Then jumped in the ocean for a little late night swim and bed time.
It's raining today... shitty.. but the suns coming out soon . Time for the beach llata

The Bar night after the Trek

Photobucket Album

Here are some more pics. They're from the night we gotback from our trek. You's think we'd be tired, but nope. John, Emma, Caoline, Alex, our leqader Jack and I all went out all night and danced and drank the night away. Our way of congratulting ourselves for making it through those strenuous 3 days.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/starf0rsaken/thailand/Spicy%20Bar%20night/

Pics

Hey okay here are some of the pics that we have taken so far. There are so mant others but we have been having problems finding places with the right connection or that will let us use the CD drive. Hope you like them!!!

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/starf0rsaken/thailand/Kaylas%20pics/

Kayla's pics

Photobucket Album

John at the 5th teir of the Erawan waterfalls

Last day of the tour!

I'll update you on what all the events that I haven't been able to tell you about later when I have more time. Last night was the last night of our tour and we said an emotional goodbye to a couple of our tour mates. First we went out for dinner with everybody ands got started on the towers of Chang beer. By the time we left there we were almost buzzed. Since we were on Khao San road we just stopped by a really cheap bar that was in the street and u sit on little stoolls in the middle of the road. We had baout 10 buckets of various alcohol and everybody, even the older people got trashed. We then went to a dancing bar where even our tour leader Jack was really drunk. Dancing was fun, Emma got carried home she was so drunk. We're going down south in about an hour. Fun Fun in the sun . lata !!

Details on Culture.. and culture shock.

Okay, instead of reciting what it is that we have done so far (I will do that another time), I wanted to mention how different their culture is from ours.
- everything is open here. There are barely any doors into markets on the sides of streets.
- There are grass and bamboo huts everywhere, and they're not even that bad.
- the streets are incredibly narrow and other than taxis and the odd car owned by one of the few rich people here, everybody drives scooters or motorcycles. They drive with no helmets, stop signs barely any lights and often with two or 3 people on one scooter. And amazingly I haven't seen one crash yet. To get across the street you pretty much make a run for it, nobody will stop for you.
- We often ride around in the back of trucks that we call taxis. It's closed in and there are benches, but it is not always comfy. I have a pic for you.
- Dogs wander the streets amliessly around here. You are never quite sure if the dog belongs to anyone, they are everywhere.
- There are food vendors at every corner that are often attached to a scooter or a bike so they can just drive or push their food for sale down the street.
- The people are just plain small.. I tower over almost all of the girls.
- At night in certain parts of each city they have a night market where little vendors are set up to sell some sort of item. Anything from traditional Thai and Chinese lamps, to shirts, to purses. Think the Forks Market second floor where all those shops are along a norrow corridor. It's jam packed and hard to move around sometimes. But there are great things to be bought.
- You barter with the poeople you buy stuff from. They will always lower the price to about half if you start walking away. I have become pretty good at it.
- There is poverty. Not as blatant as say downtown WPG but there is. I have seen numerous little girls trying to sell flower wreaths they have made to try to earn some money for their families.
- We went to see a long neck colony where they put rings around the girls necks as a way pf protecting them from spirits or the tiger (a part of their culture). These women then have really long necks and up to 27 golden rings around their neck.
- There are temples everywhere. I know in Canada there are churches everywhere but not like this. Almost all temples are beautifully decorated and adorned with statues and engravings. All the temples we've seen have something special about them, like a crystal , jade or emerald buddha, some great history to it, or the newest all white and silver temple that resembles heaven on earth.
-Buddhist people are really respectful. You put your hands together at your chin and bow your head to say thank you, good bye or hello. John and I are not allowed to show any affection in public as it is frowned upon because we are not married. Many people just assume we are because at my age most girls, especailly within the tribes, are. I am not allowed to go into temples without my knees and shoulders covered and at some bathing places and pools the girls have to cover up and are not allowed to wear their bikinis. Us girld have eluded that rule, always picking pools we can wear our bikinis' at. Also, you can never touch the head of someone else. This is considered an insult to the Thai and Budhist people because they believe that a part of Buddha resides in their heads. It is the most holy of their body parts and the feet or the most dirty, so you can also never point your feet at someone. that is also an insult.
- the fruit here is amazing, I even like the bananas.
- A jug of beer is like 3$, and you can have a beer anywhere, they even sell them at 7-11.

As much as the Thai culture is different, we have gotten used to it really quickly. It is an accepting culture and easy to adapt to. And we still have 2 more weeks!! Can't wait to see what the south will bring!!

More Fun

Alllright!!! So We have been away from civilization for a few days so I haven't been able to post anything. Back to where I left off.
That night after kayaking.... I didn't go out as I was sick and sore. But later that night what do I wake up to?...... A COCKROACH!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!. JOHN GET UP AND KILL IT NOW!!!! I was definetly freaked out after that one. We woke up the next morning and Alex said he woke up to "IT"S A COCKROACH!!" haha at least i didn't wake anybody else up.
That day we got on a bus to Autthaya, where we did a temple tour. 3 gorgeous temples from the time when Autthaya was the capital. I will have pics posted hopefully by tomorrow. We haven't had wireless internet connections anywhere but I have found a cafe that has laptop servies.
After the temple tour we got on an overnight train that was actually quite a lot of fun to Chaing Mai. Aside from the fact that they put you to bed at like 11 and you have to wake up to the sound of "GOOD MORNING" in thai at 6:30 in the morning the train was actually cool. You got your own bed that turned into a table and chairs. Emma, Caroline, Alex, John and I played drinking games until we had to go to bed.
Day 1 in Chaing Mai: Seeing as we were all fairly tired. We kinda had a relaxed day cycling around Chaing Mai. Saw a couple of temples.... had lunch.. went to a bar.. played pool... and then cycled around trying to find a Tropical Mini Golf thing that didnt exist. After doing that for a while we decided to get a massage instead. When that interesting experience was over ... (and I say interesting b/c Alex got a ball cuppage and all 3 of us girls had our boobs massaged hmmm.. didn't know that was part of it) we then ditched the bikes and went to another bar.
That night was fun as we got to go to the night market which Chaing Mai is famous for..... I have bought so much stuff... now where to put it.. hmmm??
Trekking:::: Hardest thing I have done in my life.
Didn't really expect it to be a climb up the side of a mountain for most of the day. We were all exhausted but in a good way when we got to our hut that was right beside a 10 meter waterfall later that night.

3 REALLY busy Days!!

SOOOO... there aren't any more Canadians on the tour with us. But John and i have made friends with 2 Bristish girls that came here together... Emma and caroline, and a British guy that came here himself and is a total laugh, Alex. our tour guide loves making fun of us but he knows his stuff and I wouldn't want anybody else. We left the crazy sketchiness of Bangkok on Monday and went frist to Kanchanaburi. We were staying in the cutest river houses on the river Kwai. I'll post the video as sson as we can get the laptop hooked up to the net. There's not a lot of wireless connection here. We toured around all day and went to a couple bars. The food here is amazing. You have to try everything even if you don't know what it is. I had a spicy papaya salad and almost died it was so hot.
The second day in Kanchanaburi was the most amazing day ever. We got up at like 6:30 and took the hour and a half bus ride to the Ewaran waterfalls. We spent a good part of the day hiking up the 2100 feet to get to the top. Most of the group went..... John, the British folk and I decided we would do more swiming and less hiking and jumped in. The waterfall wasn't just one waterfall. It was a series of 7 major waterfall all going up the side of a mountain. We swam in the 3rd and 5th teirs and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Monkeys were around and these little fish kept nibbling at our feet. They scared all of us and to keep them away from us we couldn't stop swimming , so it tired us out after a while. After the morning of waterfalls we went to the Tiger Temple, where they have real wild tigers that they have taken out of thewild because of injury or something and then tamed. So we all got pictures of us petting the tigers.
I can't wait to post the photos. After the Tigers and wild animals on this sort of farm thing John, Alex and I went kayaking on the river Kwai. I beat the guys with my mad kayaking skills. It was really beautiful and we pretty much pulled right into our guest house on the river. Awesome. Post more later! Wishing you were here!!

OKay, We just met our tour group and just about everyone has had a bad experience with the tuktuk or taxi drivers. Warning to anyone travelling here, they're trying to scam you or take you to some "associate's" place so they can make more money off you. Just don't get in one. Tell them no. We took a small tour down Khoasan rd.to do some money exchange and I have never seen soo many small shops selling counterfeit items. It's a definite must see in my books just so you get exposed to the full culture shock of it all. Not buying anything here... I'll wait for Chiang Mai which is supposed to be 10 times better. Can't wait to buy some stuff. Though where I'll put it i don't know.

Safely arrived

The flights were long, but thankfully there were no issues other than one delay with Air Canada.

Typing this from our hotel lobby. Our rooms are good, with the exception of the twin beds. Hot water, a/c, and my mobile & laptop both have the 220v converter builtin so i odn't have to worry about a separate converter.

Had a bit of an issue with our first taxi, we were ripped off a few hundred baht in toll fees (which is approx. $10), but not too big of a deal. The warnings are all around here in regards to fraudulent tuk-tuk and taxi drivers. Nevertheless we arrived at our hotel safely, and are spending the rest of the day touring around before our guided tour starts at 6 pm. It is 12:40 PM right now, about 16 hours ahead of our CAN timezones.

Preparing to leave

Testing out the blog. We leave on November 2nd at 9:00 AM... and after stopovers in CGY / VAN / HKK will arrive in Bangkok on the evening of the 3rd.

Drove home from Winnipeg yesterday, the serpentine belts on Kayla's car almost blew but they just so made it. Have to replace those tomorrow, and then back to Winnipeg on Thursday. I am currently busy rummaging through all of my stuff to back the backpack i will be living out of for the next ~ six months.