23/3/16 I just had an amazing experience. I went on an overnight trip to a place called Turtle Island off of the coast of Borneo. I’d heard about this from a guy I met while whitewater rafting last week on the Padas River. He’d gone a few years ago and…
19/3/16 Today I am feeling so frustrated and disappointed. Yesterday, I set out to climb Mt. Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South East Asia. From the Himalayas in the north to Guinea in the south, there is none to compare with the 4095.2 metre tall (13435 ft.)…
There is a hitchhiker in my car. It’s a (rather large) spider that I discovered a few days ago. I’ll admit that it gave me a bit of a start when I first saw it. As I said, it’s pretty big. I’m pretty sure it’s a huntsman, and they tend…
Well, I feel a bit like a giant walking bruise, which is rather to be expected, given that I technically crashed a motorbike a couple days ago. The true soreness actually comes a couple days after a wreck, and I certainly haven’t been lying around in the days since my…
I suspect that today was so horrible in order to underscore how wonderful yesterday was. At least, that’s the idea I’m going to go with, since any other would make me just cringe about the suckiness that ended up being my day today. I’d planned to get up early-ish in…
I returned to Puerto Princesa today after my trip around Palawan Island. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to Manila for a few days before taking another trip to some other islands. Tonight, I’m really living it up. I’m staying at a place called The Citadel Bed and Breakfast. It’s a little bit…
Whew! I did it! I am now a certified PADI Rescue Diver, so yay me! I made it through both my “hell dive” and my “hell day” without (terrible) incident! The nice thing about the rescue class is that it gave me some exposure to lots of the things that I’ll…
(WARNING: Written while grumpy! May contain some cursing and general huffiness…) Today was the first day of my Rescue Diver course, a class which is a prerequisite for the Dive Master course. I am in El Nido, a town on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. I’ve heard the diving…
I just went out for dinner with Steven and Jacob. We had so much fun – we went to shabu-shabu style restaurant, called A Thousand Cranes. I’ve never been to one of those before. I’ve done hibachi, which is called teppanyaki this side of the globe, where they cook the…
I’m sitting in an Irish pub (Temple Bar) in Moscow, drinking both Guiness (yay!) and Russian Vodka (meh). Not a single staff member here speaks English. I’m not really sure why I’m surprised. Interestingly, their uniforms are halfway done over with a Scottish plaid. One of the guys looks Chinese.…
Today, I got up and my main goal for the day was a hot shower. It’s interesting how sometimes it’s the little things that become important when you’re traveling with not many things. I’d been taking cold showers at beaches and such for the most part when I traveled the Great Ocean…
23/1/15 Yesterday, I saw my first koala in the wild! For that matter, I also saw my first wild emus, incuding triplet babies. I had been traveling along the Great Ocean Road when I saw a sign for Tower Hill State Game Reserve. I turned off, actually thinking it would…
Although yesterday didn’t work out for Ryan and Wismine and I to rent ATVs to drive around the island, today we managed to get our schedules aligned. Ryan and Wismine had met up in Fira the night before with some other people we’d all met at our hostel in Perissa…
So I’m on my way to Santorini right now on a ferry boat from Athens. I got up super early this morning and left Thomi’s house to catch the metro to Pireaus, the port of Athens. When I arrived there, I picked up my ticket and hopped on the ferry.…
Meteora is a region of Greece which is known for having mountains – giant sandstone boulders, really – upon which monasteries have been built over the centuries. There are now about half-a-dozen monasteries (including a two convents) built on these rocks. In centuries past, some of them were accessible only by…
My wake-up call this morning was neither wanted nor pleasant! I was stung by a bee while still in bed! I woke up in Monodentri, a bit chilly, but snuggled in my warm bed. My shoulder was sticking out of the covers and I could hear something buzzing about in…
I am so ridiculously cold right now, I can barely type! It’s ridiculous! It’s been chilly every day since I got to Greece but yesterday and today have been the worst! I think I’m becoming cold-blooded…. Yesterday, I left Athens to visit Delphi. Shortly after catching the bus (with seconds…
Last night, I met a Maltese med student named David at an Irish bar here in Paceville. He told me that he’s hoping to become a general practitioner (preferrably in Ireland) someday. One really interesting thing that I learned from him is that here in Malta, medical students are paid…
Today ended up being amazing! I went scuba diving in Lanzarote. Ana, the girl I’m couchsurfing with, had said she would meet Ronald, David and I at a beach at 2:30. They are the two others who are couchsurfing with her also. We got up in the morning, intending to find…
Last night, I went to the restaurant that my host Zuri recommended called Casa Camilo. It’s right on the tip of the Puntilla, to the north of Playa Cantera. He’d said they had the best seafood around, and when I got there, the waitress first asked what I wanted to drink.…
I’ve been enjoying my time in Gran Canaria immensely. It has, for the most part, been a nice respite from the constant sensory and emotional input that is Morocco. There is plenty to see and do here, however. It’s also nice to be in Spain, because I’ve been able to…
Wow, leaving Morocco today was a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are several new friends and people whom I will miss very much. Although these last few days have been difficult, I definitely enjoyed my time here, and I’ve come to love many things about this…
I arrived in Ouarzazate yesterday rather late in the evening, on the bus from M’Hamid via Zagora. I was happy that I knew exactly where I was going already, since I’d called ahead and talked to the guys at Hotel Baba about getting a room again and the hotel is…
The day after I returned from the desert, Hassan invited me to join him and his family at their house in the evening, to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan. I hadn’t really intended to still be in Morocco when Ramadan began, as I have been hearing horror stories about everything…
After leaving Legzira, I spent one night in a town called Taroudant. I stayed in a nice little riad, but was only in the town for a very short time, so although I walked around in the Kasbah a bit, I didn’t really go to any specific locations or see…
I think I’m about to write an entire blog post about one single walk I took – and this may be composed of more photos than actual text, because I can’t choose only a couple! I arrived at Legzira Beach and after checking into my hotel, which is nestled against the…
Leaving Essaouira was hard, and the suckiness of the actual journey only reinforced for me the idea that maybe I should have stayed longer. The day started out so well…. When Ana and I got up on our last day in Essaouira, we were just in time to go meet…
