“I’m honored just to be nominated” is such an overused phrase. But when said, it is meant wholeheartedly! At least, I assume so! Perhaps some people are upset when they don’t win, but for me, the fact that something I did deserves a nod is worth a bit of celebration.…
Update July 2020
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.)…
I’ve been having problems with my stomach since I came to Malaysia. Actually, it started before I even had left Australia. I thought maybe it was something I ate or the way I was eating that was messing up my lap-band. I thought I’d irritated it because I ate too…
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…
I’ve noticed that the further northwest I travel in Queensland, the more kangaroos there seem to be. I’ve also noticed a marked decrease in Wi-Fi. (This seems to be a direct inverse relationship.) There have also been a bunch of termite mounds, many of which are clothed – yeah, t-shirts,…
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…
I’m so glad I finished my first day of my rescue dive course. I’m worried about the next two days, however. There are two main things that worry me. There is a dive called the “hell dive” which is supposed to happen tomorrow. It’ll probably be on the second dive. …
(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.…
I met the greatest lady yesterday! I had stopped in a cul-de-sac on the top of a hill so that I could clean out my car. I’d spent the morning at the library, but it was a Saturday, so it closed at 1230. So, before deciding where to go from…
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…
It’s funny. Once, my brother commented to me that our father really likes to talk about meals. Food might be one of his favorite topics, we realized. Whenever we talk to him we usually end up finding out what he had to eat in the last day or two, particularly if he…
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…
Well so far, New Zealand has been a delight! Especially after the suckiness that was my time in China…. I arrived here early in the morning on the 27th of November. My cousin’s daughter Mona was going to pick me up at the airport and my flight got in a…
Later… I am definitely so glad to get out of China. I’m on the plane to New Zealand now. What a pain in the ass this trip has been! After all the customs and hanging out on the floor and everything in Urumqi, I went to check in again two…
“I’m like a bull… I only fly away” You know what country I find kind of intimidating? China. More than a billion people here. I can’t read or understand their language. I believe the country is still communist, but I’m not entirely sure. Either way, they have a lot of…
I’m on a ferry right now, headed back to Athens from Santorini. I had a great couple of weeks there. It would be more difficult to leave, I think, but as we were pulling out of the port, the clouds opened and the sun burst through. I am on the…
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…
