| Guilty as charged |
[May. 5th, 2008|02:11 pm] |
So, as some of you may know, that last post was an outright lie.
I am very much in Ottawa, and plan on remaining here for a while.
Try not to be too excited, now.
-Michael |
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| Ah! Motherland! |
[Apr. 26th, 2008|12:06 am] |
After writing the previous lovely post, I flew north.
I got into Brisbane at 10am and went to check in to my hostel.
They wouldn't let me check in until 2, so I dropped my bags in
the storage room and went exploring. Brisbane is nice.
Honestly, at this point in the trip, the cities are all starting
to look the same. At least Brisbane is a little warmer than it
was down in Melbourne.
When in Darwin, we made friends with a Brisbane resident, and
I promised to buy him a beer when I made it up there, so I gave
him a call and we met up the following evening.
Turned out it was his birthday, so I bought him two beers!
After two nights in Brisbane, I caught a flight to Cairns.
Cairns is in the tropical north of the country, and near the
southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. I spent a day or so
wandering around (there's not much to do in Cairns, since it's
a pretty small city), enjoying the lovely weather and the
slightly mountainous surroundings, then I boarded a dive boat.
Ahead of me was five days aboard, and 14 dives all along the reef.
I shared a cabin with a Japanese traveler, and we were all fed
delicious meals by the resident chef. It was a seriously welcome
change from living in hostels and eating spaghetti a la backpacker.
The diving, of course, was mind-blowingly amazing. I saw giant
potato cod, swam at night with the green shine of shark eyes in the black,
gaped at an unbelievable variety of stunning coral, and was even a
solemn spectator at a shark feeding frenzy.
When it was all done with, I landed once more in Cairns. Two days later,
the ground was still rocking like the deck of the Taka.
I relaxed in Cairns for 48 hours, just to make sure all that pesky
nitrogen was out of my system, then boarded another plane.
22 hours later, and I'm back in Canada!
I landed in Vancouver last night, took a shuttle into the city and found a
hostel. Found a good one, I think, since it includes free internet and is
only costing me about $15 a night.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do now. I've got practically no
money left, so I'll need to work for a bit before moving on. Honestly,
though, I really just can't wait to see that big "Welcome to Ottawa" sign.
Until we meet again,
-Michael |
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| Long time, very little happenings |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|01:26 pm] |
Right, I know I've been absent on this front for quite some time.
It's not because I don't love you all, it's because bloody nothing
of note has happened.
I've been rotting in Melbourne for months, working at a cafe for minimal pay.
On the plus side, I now make spectacular coffee. You just wait.
Anyway, I met lots of cool people and thoroughly enjoyed living right across
the street from an amazing market.
Yesterday, I finally broke free. I bought some plane tickets and booked some diving
on the Great Barrier. I'm in Brisbane for a few days, then I fly to Cairns and get on
a dive boat. The next five days will be spent cruising along the reef, diving all
the time. I can't wait.
-Michael |
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| News-o-rama |
[Dec. 29th, 2007|11:32 am] |
With the squeal of tyres and the shattering of glass, the adventure
took a drastic turn. Driving across the red centre of Australia, Matt fell
pray to the dreary landscape and nodded off at the wheel. He woke to our
shouts and the sound of gravel under the wheels, swerved across the road
twice, then took the van down the bank. For a fleeting moment, I thought
he'd saved it. Then the back tyres blew.
The van rolled twice into the desert.
Once everything had settled, we all crawled out and surveyed the damage.
The van was destroyed. My computer had been caught between the bed and
the rear seats and crushed. Other than that, everything survived. We all
made it away with nothing but cuts and bruises. With one horizon black with
thunder clouds, and the other orange with airborne sand, we began to pack
our belongings. The police arrived just as the rain began to fall. When the
rain really struck, we rushed to load everything we could carry into the back
of the police cars, then jumped in a drove away. My guitar was left in the
wreckage.
The clinic in Marla patched us up and we caught a lift south with some
people we met at the petrol station. Our ride turned out to be renowned
didgeridoo player Em Dee. We all left with free autographed cds.
We spent the night in an underground hostel in Coober Pedy. It was weird.
The next morning, the others hitched on to Adelaide while I stuck around
to try and track down my guitar. No luck. The next morning, I went to the
petrol station outside of town to flag down a ride to Adelaide. After about
ten minutes, who should arrive but some friends we'd met in Alice Springs.
They immediately offered to drive me to Adelaide and then on to Melbourne,
and we were off. In two days, we made Adelaide and met up with the others.
We drove all Christmas day, then parked next to a river and set up camp.
That night we baked bread on sticks over the fire, sang Christmas carols and
told bad jokes.
The next day, we made Melbourne and parted ways. There are tentative plans
to rent a place together, so we'll see how that works out. In the last couple
days I've bought a cheap mobile phone to facilitate job hunting, replaced
my guitar (but not really...), and sent out over forty resumes to Melbourne
tech companies. Now I sit and wait. Today, I think I'll try my hand at
busking and see if I can earn rent. That'd be cool.
Happy trails,
-Mike |
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| Road trippin' |
[Dec. 15th, 2007|01:07 pm] |
Saturday morning, we eagerly packed up the van and hopped in, ready for adventure.
It wouldn't start.
Turns out the ants had gotten into the ignition relay, and it had to be replaced.
So, $200 and two days later, we finally got moving.
We drove out to Kakadu National Park and checked out the wildlife and some really
old Aboriginal rock paintings. We parked the van in an abandoned campground that night,
since there are no tourists around during the off season.
The next morning, we headed south. We stopped at a few more lookouts on the way, then left the
park for Pine Creek. We saw some pretty impressive brush fires along the side of the road.
About a third of Kakadu burns down every year. It's part of the natural cycle of the place.
We spent the night in Pine Creek, and then began the 1300km drive to Alice Springs.
Driving though the outback gets pretty tiring. It's just flat nothingness and ground-level brush
as far as the eye can see.
We made it about half way that day, and slept at Renner Springs. Matt lit his poi on fire for
the first time that night. It was pretty cool.
The next day, we made Alice Springs. Now we're here until I get the papers I need from the
vehicle registration people to finalise the van's change in ownership. Hopefully they'll
be here when the post office opens on Monday.
We're planning on going all the way to Adelaide, then east along the Great Ocean Road on the southern coast to Melbourne. I think I'll stay there for a while. Maybe get an apartment and a
steady job. We'll head north up the east coast as the weather starts to cool.
-Mike |
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| Finally free |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|12:57 pm] |
It's been almost a month since my last post, and I'm still in bloody Darwin.
However, I am pleased to report that, after the horrendous mango farms, the casino Christmas-decotrating gig, and countless nights of waiting tables and clearing plates, we have a van.
It is a 1985 Toyota Hiace, and it is beautiful. It is beautiful like the Darwin skyline as it receeds into the distance. It is beautiful like the endless Outback stretching out before us. It is beautiful like freedom.
I'll post pictures of it once I take them. |
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| Mathematics as Spirituality, revisted |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|11:00 am] |
I'm going to deviate from the usual travel reporting for a bit here.
You'll just have to bear with me.
Those of you who have read my original Mathematics as Spirituality
post, you've got some idea of what's about to come. The rest of you,
if you're actually interested in my crackpot philosophical musings,
you may want to read this post first, just to get some
grounding before I go off the deep end.
One last disclaimer before I actually start this post: I'm probably
going to get pretty technical here, but it's been some time since
my last university mathematics course. I'm going to be playing fast
and loose with the hard maths, but the concepts should (I hope) be
sound. I certainly don't claim to have the exact mathematical model
of reality figured out, but if any academics happen to read this,
I'd sure love it if you could detangle the random bits of half-baked
math I've got here into something a little more solid.
Alright, here we go.
One of the major concepts behind my Grand Equation theory is the
idea of a "base particle" of matter. So, what exactly is a base
particle? I conceive of a base particle as the collection of
properties that fully define such a particle. For example, an object
in three dimensional space could be defined by it's velocity, mass,
size, etc... Now, I'm not sure exactly what kind of properties would
be required to define a base particle (since we haven't even found
one yet), but let's say there are n of them. This collection of n
properties should be necessary and sufficient to fully describe a
base particle. A base particle may not even be "matter" in the way
we see it. The way things are going in science, the more we manage
to zoom in on matter, the more we find it full of mostly nothing but
energy and magnetic forces. Very little "matter" at all. So, maybe
the base particle is, in fact, not matter at all, but only the
collection that I've described. The "base particle of matter" is
really nothing more than a vector of n elements.
So, reality is built of n-vectors. Lots and lots of n-vectors. Let's
call "lots and lots" m. Reality is a really big n*m matrix. Cool.
Let's call this matrix U for "Universe".
I think I covered all this in the first post, but it doesn't hurt to
get it fresh in my head again.
You all remember my Grand Equation, right? The one that can take the
initial conditions of the universe and compute its state at any point
in time? Good, because I'm going to start trying to figure out what
it is. Well, its basic structure, at least.
I'm going to use function notation and call it G(U). G for "Grand"
("God"?). One possible form of G is what I've written above. In this
case, it would probably have to work like this:
G(Ut) = Ut+1
where t is time. I realise that time doesn't actually come in
discreet chunks like this, so an equation of that form would only
fit reality in some sort of a limit case where the size of the
"time chunks" approaches zero.
We could also write it like this:
gU0(t) = G(t)(U0) = Ut
where U0 are the initial conditions of the universe and t is time.
Ut is the universe matrix at time t.
We could graph an equation of this form. A ridiculously complicated
graph in n*m dimensions. What does an n*m-dimensional graph look
like, you ask?
Look around. You're living it.
I really like the first form of the equation, though. Why, you ask?
Because it's a dynamic system. Dynamic systems, in case you aren't
aware, are what give rise to chaotic systems, which are what give
rise to fractals.
And boy, do I love fractals.
Imagine, with every iteration of the equation, the system becomes
more chaotic. Tiny whorls of information, in such a high dimension,
becoming so complex that they develop self-awareness. Too much of a
stretch? I don't think so.
Already, there are certain behavioural pattens in chaotic systems
that mathematicians simply can't explain. Patterns that show up again
and again, arising from different equations and different initial
conditions, that just don't make sense. How complex can a system
become before it has to begin "thinking" to gain any more complexity?
Now, I seriously doubt that chugging out a two-, or three-dimensional
chaotic system on your home computer is going to spawn universes of
living, breathing creatures that experience an eternity in a few
seconds, but it's something to think about the next time you go
fractal diving.
The other thing that I find really interesting about this "graph"
view of reality is the totally arbitrary nature of time. I've
structured the equation in such a way that it progresses as time
increments, but it doesn't have to be that way. The equation isn't
tied to the time variable in any special way. Our brains are designed
to perceive only four of the n*m dimensions, and we see the graph
as a differential with respect to time. That's our limitation. It
should be possible to take a partial derivative of G with respect to
any one of the countless variables. It would surely be a very
different interpretation of reality.
Reality being an "information space" instead of a physical space, it
becomes possible for an infinite number of realities to exist
concurrently. There are an infinite number of possible U0 matrices,
and G would operate on all of them. At the same time (although, in
our enlightened states, we realise how silly this "time" idea is).
Most certainly, the vast majority of U0 matrices settle into a dead
"dust" state after countless iterations of G (similar to how the
majority of Julia sets don't end up the pretty, connected fractal
pictures that we like to look at). But sometimes, just sometimes, the
initial conditions are just right and -pow- something incredible
happens; Julia sets bloom into beautiful mathematical flowers,
looping and twisting with all the colours of the rainbow. Worlds are
borne.
I see reality as a fractal, in all respects. It just makes sense.
Self-similarity is all around us: Nuclei are empty space and some
tiny particles, atoms are empty space and a nucleus, molecules are
empty space an some atoms. DNA chugs through its programming and
creates life. Humans chug through our programming and create... well,
we'll just have to wait and see. But if the self-similarity property
holds then, just as we are made up of many tiny systems that are each
made up of many tiny systems, we're just one tiny system making up
something greater. And that's just one tiny system making up
something greater still. Spooky, isn't it?
This is Michael, signing off. Proud atheist, and worshiper of the
infinite and beautiful complexity of mathematics. |
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| I'm not dead! |
[Oct. 26th, 2007|06:00 pm] |
I know it's been a long time, and I apologise.
Last episode left our hero relaxing in Vang Vieng. This episode will
tie up all the loose ends and answer all of the questions I know you've
been dying to ask!
We stayed in Vang Vieng for many days, tubing twice and watching a lot of
Simpsons. Eventually, we took the bus back to Luang Prabang with a couple
of Canadian friends, then got on the slow boat back to Huay Xai.
We went to Huay Xai for a very particular reason. Those of you who are
reading from Facebook may have seen the video explanation for our triumphant
return to that little town. "The Gibbon Experience" was most definitely worth
our three day return trip.
Three years ago, some crazy Frenchman decided that the best way to protect
the stunningly beautiful forests of Laos was to build an intricate network
of impressive tree houses and zip-lines deep in the jungle, charge intrepid
tourists to stay there for three days, and use the revenue to hire local
villagers (who normally earn money poaching and practicing slash-and-burn
farming) to patrol the nature preserve with AK47s and stop poachers.
His mad scheme worked brilliantly, and there are now five tree houses,
connected up with about fifteen zip-lines encircling the Bokeo Nature Preserve.
The local villagers love it, and are actively involved in building the
houses while learning about more forest-friendly farming practices. The
tourists (ie, me) also love it, since they get to zip around the forest
and live in awesome tree houses.
We had to hike in for seven hours because the road was washed out and they
couldn't get the 4x4 in to the nearby village, but as soon as we clipped
into the first zip-line, we forgot all about the pain in our legs and the
leech-bites on our ankles. We spent the first day hiking in, zipping
around and then relaxing and eating dinner in Tree House 1. We awoke at dawn
the next morning to the sound of the black crested gibbons singing in the
nearby trees. As the mists over the trees cleared in the morning sun, we
caught sight of black shapes leaping through the trees. It was quite beyond
words. The rest of the day was spent playing on the zip-lines, and then hiking
to Tree House 5, where we would spend our second night. The third day, we hiked
out (thankfully only two hours, as it had been dry while we were there and
there were trucks waiting for us in the local village).
It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I'll post pictures
(and a couple more zip-line videos) when I get the change. Unfortunately, it
might be a while since I'm moving to a mango farm - more on that later.
We had to leave Laos the next day, since our thirty day visas were up. We
crossed the river back into Thailand, then got on a bus for Bangkok.
We spent a few days in Bangkok, waiting for our flight to Australia.
Mostly, I shopped on Khao San Road (more because I became addicted to haggling
than because I actually needed anything). Guys, I bought you all awesome
ninja stars. I also bought a cheap Asian knock-off taser to zap Arion with.
We tested it out. It hurts, but not as bad as I expected. We met an awesome
Canadian girl who was in Thailand because she'd been deported from Korea (a cool
back-story for any traveler, as I see it), and spent a good amount of our time with her.
In typical traveling fashion, you really learn the great things about a city only when
you have to leave the next day. We jammed with travelers and locals alike (mostly
on the street because the bars we could jam in were closed), and I met a bunch of
Thai bluesmen that wanted me to stay. Oh, and we could have been GIs in an Asian
Vietnam movie. In the end, we boarded our plane for Australia, swearing to return.
Our flight had a stop-over in Singapore. We got off the plane, and went
to baggage-claim.
My bag was on the ground, next to a Singapore security officer. "Is this your bag?" he
asked. "Yes," I said. "Come this way," he said, and led me to a security station.
Just so you know, this is a country with "DEATH TO DRUG SMUGGLERS" on their
immigration cards. They x-rayed my bag, muttered to each other for a bit, and then
the security officer approached me again. "Do you have any metal objects in your bag?"
he asked me. The jig was up. I took out the ninja stars, and they were gone.
Sorry for getting your hopes up, guys. I'm just glad they didn't shoot me.
Anyway, we got into Darwin at three in the morning, found a hostel, met another cool
Canadian (they're everywhere!) and started looking for work (the next morning, of course).
As of today, I've spent four days relaxing and two days working on a construction site.
The midday sun here is brutal. Tomorrow morning, the three of us (Matt, Shawn and I)
head to a mango farm to earn enough money to buy a van. Because of
my living situation for the next month or so, updates may be
sketchy at best. I assure you, the posts would only read "I'm
sore, it's hot, and I have to work tomorrow" anyway.
That's enough typing for me so farewell, my little intarwebites. Until next time.
-Mike |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|09:47 am] |
Luang Prabang was pretty nice.
We stayed for a couple days, found a good vegetarian buffet (as much as you can fit
on a plate for 5,000 Kip. You can check the exchange rate on Google).
My birthday present this year was not worrying about money for a day.
Went to nice cafes for breakfast, lunch and tea, then hit up a French-style brasserie for
a buffalo steak dinner. It was awesome.
We met a really nice Australian lady at the vegetarian buffet who said she could provide
us with contacts for a few opportunities in Australia, so that was cool.
Then we found the arcade. In the dingy, low basement of a building next to our guesthouse,
an enterprising Laos had set up rows of televisions and PS2 consoles. Pick a game, pay
5,000 Kip, play for an hour.
We wasted a lot of time.
After Luang Prabang, we headed to a village called Muang Ngoi. Spent a cramped 7 hours
on a bus, then another hour on a boat. About half way through the boat ride, we pulled
up to a sandbar and they told us we had to get out. Turns out they'd over filled the boat,
and it was riding too low to pass through the shallower water. We had to get out,
walk about 20 minutes through the brush, then get back on the boat on the other side.
Eventually, we reached Muang Ngoi. We found a comfortable guesthouse filled with fellow
Canadians and run by an overbearing 20-year-old matriarch. There was nothing much to do
there but lay about on hammocks, drink and play cards, so that's what we did. As luck
would have it, we timed our visit perfectly and were there for a Laos new year celebration.
The entire town woke up at 6am to give alms to the monks, and then the drinking began.
The Beerlao (actually pretty tasty) and the Laolao whiskey (pretty awful) were flowing
freely and by about 6pm, all the locals were wasted. We left the next day with our new
friends and headed to Vang Vieng.
In Vang Vieng, we tube. It's very simple: You get in a big innertube and float down the
river while Laos people on the shores try and get you to float to their bars.
The bars have many big swings and ziplines into the river to attract you. And it works.
The swings are awesome. Other than tubing, we've just been relaxing at the guesthouse.
The view from the balcony is beautiful (as are many views here) and they have good food.
Not sure where we'll go next. |
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| Exit Thailand |
[Sep. 18th, 2007|04:57 pm] |
Last you all heard, we were in Pai.
Well, we are in Pai no longer! In fact, we're not even in Thailand.
Our last couple nights in Pai were amazing, and it was really tough
to leave. We spent our final night relaxing with an expat girl in
her house in the trees outside of town, listening to good music.
We'd made so many friends in Pai that we really didn't want to go,
but our natural cooking retreat was beckoning. We ended up taking
a local bus back to Chiang Mai because the motorbike travel was
really expensive and we didn't want to risk being caught in
the rain.
We arrived in Chiang Mai, and checked back in to Julie's.
Matt instantly made friends with an Australian girl who taught him
how to make jewelry with string and beads, and he's been doing it
ever since. We spent a couple nights in Chiang Mai, then we headed off
to our cooking retreat. We rode up to the farm in a songthaew, stopping
off at a few local markets along the way. On arrival, we had to walk up
to the farm through the rice fields because the driveway was washed out
(this kind of thing happens a lot in the rainy season).
Along the way, I took a length of barbed-wire across my forehead. Not
really sure why they had one string of barbed-wire hung right at forehead
height, but it sure taught me to watch where I was going.
We couldn't have asked for a better place to learn to cook. The kitchen
was a large hut and, in typical Thai fashion, didn't have any walls. It
sat on the side of a low hill, and the view across the rice fields and
hills of northern Thailand was breath-taking. It was hard to focus on the
curries.
We got there in the early evening, and began with a tour of the garden.
They grow lots of stuff there, but not much during the rainy season since
(as they explained) insects will eat the produce. The prepared dinner for us
that night, and then showed us to our accommodations. Matt and I stayed in a
one-bedroom adobe hut, complete with bamboo bed, mosquito net and gigantic
lizard living behind a mask on the wall. We woke at 6:30 the next morning
and made our way down to the kitchen hut for the 7am yoga. At 8:00, breakfast
was served, complete with fresh baked bread (a rarity in Asia), fresh fruit
(the Pineapple in Thailand is the best I've ever tasted), and fried rice.
At 9, we started cooking lunch. About three hours of intense chopping, pounding
(we made our own curry pastes from scratch) and frying later, we had prepared
a ridiculous feast of a lunch. Having no idea how large our lunch would be, most
of us ate a lot at breakfast... big mistake. We were all pretty immobile after
lunch, and so the day was pretty lazy. I spent a few hours reading in a hammock
(side note: I've picked up The Illiad and The Odyssey as reading material, because
I figure I should read it. It's slow going...) while everyone went off somewhere.
At 4, it was time to start cooking dinner. None of us could even think about
food, but the chopping started anyway. By around 7, another gigantic meal had
been prepared, and we ate as much of it as we could.
That night, we found a scorpion in our room. It was discovered in a classically
comic scene:
(continuing a discussion about reactions to large bugs being on one's person)
Matt: "If you tell me 'hey, there's a big *something* on your shirt', my reaction
is going to the same."
Mike: "Hey look, a scorpion."
Matt: "Yeah, but this time I know there isn't actually a scorpion."
Mike: "No really, it just ran behind your backpack."
Matt: "Uh huh, sure Mike."
Mike: "Seriously. Go lift up your backpack and see."
Matt: "... I don't wanna."
In the end, he saw the scorpion and - on suggestion from our host - killed it
to avoid painful stings. From that point on, we searched everything for
scorpions pretty much constantly. We never saw another one.
The third day went practically the same as the second, except we were all too
sluggish from the vast amounts of food of the day before to do yoga. We were
a little more conservative at breakfast, and so were prepared for the huge
meals to follow. We spent our third (and final) night at the neighbouring farm,
playing music and drinking homemade passionfruit wine (it was delicious).
The next morning, we headed back to Chiang Mai, spent a couple more nights and
then jumped on a bus to Chiang Khong (on the Laos border). We got there too late
to cross into Huay Xai (in Laos), so we stayed the night and had to pay the 500
baht overstay fee the next day. We took a longtail boat into Laos, then got on
a slowboat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. It was 6 hours to the halfway
town of Pak Beng,which was a small village without paved roads and no power grid
(the town was all on gas generators, and went dark at 10pm).
We spent the night at a guesthouse (thanks to the US$14 I had left. There was no
ATM in either Huay Xai or Pak Beng), and jumped back on the boat early the next
morning. About 7 hours later, we were in Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang is nice, but seems a little upscale. We're seeing more "real tourists"
here; Older people out on holiday, not adventurous backpackers. It's a little
early to pass judgement though, since we've only spent one night so far.
We're hoping to rent a house for a week or two, as it might be cheaper than a guest
house, and would include a kitchen (We would get to get a chance to use our 1337
Thai cooking skillz!). Anyway, it's about time to head off for dinner.
Keep on keepin' on. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 1st, 2007|03:55 pm] |
Many moons have passed since my last journal entry, and I have ventured far.
Okay, not that far, but through a couple towns.
When I last left you, I was in Bangkok heading for Chiang Mai.
Well, Chiang Mai has come and gone and now I'm in Pai.
Compared to Bangkok, Chiang Mai was really relaxing.
We spent three days at a great guest house called Julie, and spent most of
our time chatting with fellow travelers and reading. The rest of our time
was spent riding around town on rented motorbikes and visiting the local
watering holes.
I've gotta say, driving a motorbike in Thailand is quite the experience.
As far as I can tell, there aren't really any rules on the road. The cars
generally respect the lanes (although, there seems to be an invisible
third lane in the middle that they use when they feel like it), but to
the motorbikes those little painted lines are meaningless. You weave your
way through any traffic that's slower than you, whichever way works best.
At stop lights, you'll always find the motorbikes in a group at the
very front with the cars behind.
It was fun.
We met some cool people in Chaing Mai that, as it happened, were leaving
for Pai on the same day as us. We caught a minibus to Chaing Mai, rode through twisty mountain rodes, gaped at the gorgeous scenery, and
eventually made it to Pai. Pai is to Chaing Mai as Chiang Mai is to
Bangkok. Where Bangkok had 6 million people, Chiang Mai had about 1.5,
Pai has only about 6 thousand. Everyone is so much more relaxed here.
No one's in a hurry to get anywhere. The tourist scene here is pretty
gigantic, but it's still a great little town. We've already made friends
with some locals (one of whom wants me to meet a friend of his that plays
blues guitar so we can play at one of the local bars - the music scene
here is awesome. Every night, there's live music at no less than five
places along the main drag), and we've found a few favourite restaurants
and bars.
Yesterday, we got back from a three day trek in the jungle. Because we
spent a lot of the time walking in and out of rivers (and I don't have
any good amphibious footwear), I spent most of the trek barefoot.
Apart from a few thorns and one swarm of army ants, it was pretty safe,
although my feet are regretting it now. The first day, we hiked to a
few waterfalls, ate a lunch of bamboo barbecued pork by the river, and
spent the night in a bamboo hut in the jungle, where we ate curries out
of bowls fashioned out of bamboo (I swear, you can do anything with that
stuff). The second day, we hiked up out of the river area and up into
the hills. By the time we got up to the rice paddies, it was pouring rain.
We ate lunch in a little shelter in the field, then continued on the the
Lisu village.
We spent the night there, then began the hike back to Pai. We hiked back
down out of the hills, then another few hours along the river and we
were done.
I have to admit, I've learned that three days of hiking is a little much
for me.
We've got until the 15th to leave Thailand and we're in no hurry. We'll
spend another week or so here, then head back to Chiang Mai for a "natural
living retreat". This time, we're taking motorbikes. There's a bike rental
agency here that will let us return the bikes in Chiang Mai, and will even
deliver our luggage for us. Driving the bikes through the twisty mountain
roads sounds like good times to me.
I think that about wraps it up for now... I know I'm not terribly detailed about day to day activities, but this journal is more of a summary for those of you that want to know where I am and how I'm doing. You're all free to email me for more, if you're interested. =)
Over and out. |
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| So much to say |
[Aug. 20th, 2007|11:40 am] |
Alrighty, I haven't posted in a while so here goes. Let's see how much I remember.
Met a couple girls on the way to Prague that didn't have a place to stay, so we hooked them up with the hostel we were staying in. The four of us ended up touring around Prague together for the duration of our stay. The only really touristy thing we saw was the castle, and it was a pretty cool castle. Other than that, we wandered a bit, went to see Harry Potter (it was awesome), then later to see the Simpsons (it was also pretty awesome). Prague was a pretty city, but also quite touristy and not as cheap as I'd expected.
The girls that we met ended up being from a hardcore Christian school in Arkansas, and we had lots of religious and philosophical debates with them. I ended up having to link them to some webpages to show them that no, Darwin didn't recant on his deathbed, yes, there is observational evidence for the Big Bang, and yes, researchers have recently observed monkeys hunting with spears (evidence for evolution?). I left them with a bookmark for God's Debris too, just for good measure =).
After Prague, we went to Vienna to visit one of Matt's friends from cadets. We showed up on Colin's doorstep (actually Colin's parents' doorstep) a few days earlier than expected, which led to some awkwardness, but all was well in the end. Colin showed us around Vienna, and we had an all around good time. We went to a pub/microbrewery and ate some delicious food and drank some delicious beer. I had a smoked beer that was quite tasty, and Matt regretted ordering the chili beer, which I must say was pretty spicy.
We stayed in Vienna for a few days, then headed to Hungary to visit Jodie. We got into Budapest, and headed for the hostel we had booked. I think it wins the "worst place I've ever slept" award, and I've slept in a train station.
The staff was terse and unfriendly, the building was dirty and ill-maintained and the bathrooms were just disgusting. Thankfully, we only stayed there one night before dropping in on Jodie and Judit. They informed us of a spectacular music festival that was going on in Budapest, and we decided to go. We dropped our bags off in Judit's flat, and headed for the Sziget festival.
Sziget (which is Hungarian for "island", and a very appropriate name) took over an entire island in the Danube. There were more stages than I could count, of all styles of music. We saw a Hungarian Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band, explored the Luminarium (which was a giant inflated sculpture that people go inside. It's all colourful and curvy... pretty.), played Go at the logic games tent, saw an awesome triphop band, then danced the rest of the night away to Satoshi Tomiie. As tired as we were, we had to go back the next day. Tool was playing. So go back we did! That day, we saw a Hungarian ska band (and they were bloody AWESOME), relaxed at the logic games tent for a long time, then went to the main stage for Tool. They were as amazing as ever (even if they didn't play Aenima).
The next few days in Budapest were spent wandering a bit and soaking in the thermal baths. Then we departed, for we had plane tickets to Thailand.
We took a night train to Munich, killed the day in the airport, then jumped on a flight to Bangkok. The 9 hour flight was filled with Matt having pillow fights with the little girl in the seat ahead of us, and a very drunk older gentleman buying us whiskey (without our consent...) and yammering to us in very broken English about babies, or something. I slept as much as possible.
We arrived in Bangkok at 10am, found our way to our guest house (less than $6 a night, each) and then accidentally fell asleep. Woke up around 7pm, and decided to check out the area. We're staying near Khao San Road. If any of you know Thailand, you know Khao San. It is nuts here. The street is lined with neon-lit bars, and street vendors have claimed the rest, selling everything from bootlegged dvds to ninja stars, butterfly knives and brass knuckles. The food here is excellent, and costs almost nothing. Dinner for less than $3.
Soon, we'll leave Bangkok. We're planning on heading north for Chiang Mai and Pai, then to Laos and Cambodia, then back to Thailand to explore the southern islands.
After Asia, I've got a working holiday visa for Australia (and MAN was it easy to get. Applied online in 15 minutes, then got the visa 24 hours later.), so I think some serious time in Aussie-land is called for.
I'll see you all later! |
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| Canyoning and more! |
[Aug. 3rd, 2007|03:34 pm] |
What can I say about canyoning?
It is every bit as awesome as it sounds. We went on the 7 hour canyoning tour in the Chile Shliere canyon just outside of Interlaken. Out of the seven hours, only about three was actually spent in the canyon (the rest was spent in transit, gearing up, etc), but after the very first jump it was worth every penny.
Highlights included jumping into a wall and sliding down twenty feet into the water, backflipping (with a twist) over a waterfall, and running along a wall matrix style, only to jump off sideways when the traction began to let go. There were jumps where we had to make sure to land flat so that we'd slow down enough on landing from the twelve foot fall to not break bones in the three feet of water. It was exhilarating, and they greeted us at the end with beer and sandwiches.
I highly recommend it to anyone. Not much skill is required, just a little sense of adventure.
Other than the canyoning, Interlaken was pretty cool. It was touristy to the max, but it was still a gorgeous mountain town. Add to that the fact that, any time you look up, you'll see people falling from the sky attached to all manner of parachutes, kites and other contraptions.
The hostel we stayed at wasn't exactly great, in my opinion. It was just a big barn full of beds. The door didn't lock, and the building was situated down a rather shady alley. Not the more secure feeling hostel I've stayed at, to be sure. The people, however, were top notch. The place was full of thrill-seeking Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, and the occasional Californian. Everyone was there for a good time, and it showed.
After Interlaken, we decided to head for Spain. We jumped on a train for Bern, which is much more of a rail hub than Interlaken, and tried to gain passage to Barcelona. All the trains were booked. So, we changed our plans and headed south for Italy instead. We arrived in Milan, hopped on another train to La Spezia, and then trouble struck.
We got off the train in the La Spezia station in a little bit of a hurry, because the train wasn't stopping for very long. I thought that Matt had left his Nalgene on the train, so I reminded him. He ran back on to get it, and the train pulled away. Then I noticed that I was carrying the Nalgene. I figured that Matt would be clever enough to return to La Spezia as soon as he could, so I just waited in the station with my guitar. He was, and we were reunited. By now it was around midnight, and there was no chance of finding a place to sleep for the night.
We had a "house tent" booked at a campground in a little town called Deiva Marina, but the next train wasn't until 4am. So, we slept on the platform. It was remarkably comfortable. Glad I have a sleeping bag, that's for sure. At four, we caught the train and found ourselves in Deiva Marina by 5:30am.
Of course, nothing was open and we certainly couldn't check in at the campground. We walked around aimlessly, slept a bit at the train station, and generally killed time until the town woke up. We then caught a shuttle bus to the campground and moved in to our tent. It was a big military style tent over a hardwood floor, and there were two cots in there. Pretty decent digs for fifteen euros a night. There was a rock face at the grounds with established climbing paths, so we went and checked it out. Really, we couldn't go very far without ropes and harnesses, but we bouldered around the base for a while, until Matt fell and hurt his ankle. Then we went in to town, bought some bread, cheese, meat and wine and had a feast.
The next day, we hiked the Cinque Terre path. The Cinque Terre is an Italian national park along the coastline. It consists of five small coastal towns, all connected with a rail line (for wusses) and a hiking trail. We hiked the first four (the prettiest ones, we were told). At the second town, we stopped to dive off a most amazing thirty foot cliff into the warm Mediterranean waters. I got some great landscape photos. Check Facebook.
After Italy, we headed for Prague. We caught a train to Munich (again), and met some nice people. We spent our night train to Munich talking and got no sleep. This brings us to today. Today, we all went to the concentration camp at Dachau. Pretty intense stuff, let me tell you. We booked a train to Prague for tomorrow, and got ourselves settled into a hostel for the night. Matt and I went back for some more delicious German Weissbier, and now I'm posting to you!
I've put up lots more photos on Facebook for your pleasure, just so you know.
Now, I'm off to bed, since I still haven't slept.
-Mike |
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| Damn good beer |
[Jul. 27th, 2007|06:42 pm] |
After drinking a decent selection of Belgian beers in Bruge, we have a winner.
The one that we both agree is the best is the one we can't get anywhere else but in that particular bar in Bruge. It's a kicker, but that's the way it is.
Not even the most delicious trappist beers could top the De Garre.
Anyway, the point is that I now understand beer.
I realise that, until now, I had never really tasted beer before.
Canadian beer is going to be terrible to me now, and it's a shame.
I'll need to seek out niche shops where they import real beer from Belgium.
Oh well. Such is life.
After Belgium, I had to take Matt to Germany to taste the German Weissbier. It's made with wheat instead of hops, and they have the process down to a fine art.
So we went to Munich. We only stayed one night, but we did what we came for.
First, we went and had a litre of beer at the Hoffbrauhaus, just because we had to.
The atmosphere was great; the beer came in gigantic glass mugs, and there was an Oompah band playing. The beer wasn't great though, at least not by my newly raised standards.
So we went to another bar and got some Weissbier. It is still delicious, even compared to the Belgian beers. Sweeter, less complex, but equally tasty. I definitely need to try and import some so you guys can all understand where I'm coming from here.
Anyway, enough about beer. We're now in Interlaken, for the canyoning.
I'll tell you my impressions about that next time.
-Mike |
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| Amsterdam |
[Jul. 20th, 2007|12:35 am] |
Matt and I are in Bruge.
The last week in Amsterdam with Jeff and Sarah was nice. A serious change of pace from the rest of my wandering so far, but fun. We spent most of our time wandering around looking at the buildings, visiting museums, etc.
The buildings are crooked there! Because the buildings are tall and narrow, people would hoist furniture and stuff up to the top floors with pulleys mounted on the front of the house. This worked, but sometimes the furniture would bang against the front of the house and that was no good, so they started building the houses leaning forward a little to keep the furniture off. Strange.
The canals are beautiful, especially at night. We walked to a part of the city where the canals met in such a way that you could see 15 bridges at once, and they were all lit up and reflecting in the water. It was pretty.
Anyway, now we're in Belgium and the beer is fantastic.
We went to a really cool place last night, down "the grooviest alley in Bruge". They serve all the beer in the proper glasses, poured at the table (because good Belgian beer is always bottled. Draught is for the crappy beer), with a little dish of cheese. Needless to say, I'm screwed now. When I get back to Canada, our "good" beer just won't cut it anymore. Oh well, such is life. We've been wandering around today, taking in the city. It's a classic picturesque European city, with old architecture and cobblestone streets everywhere. Windmills too.
Tonight we're going to sample a few more of the beers (we got recommendations from some locals), then tomorrow we head somewhere else. Not sure where yet. Matt is looking at the map as I write this.
Until we meet again. |
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| Adventures on the Rhine/Mosel |
[Jul. 18th, 2007|06:14 am] |
Hello!
Well, a bunch of stuff has happened since I last reported in, so I'm gonna get started.
After Vienna, I skipped Munich and went straight to Koblenz. I'd had enough of big cities for a while.
Koblenz is a beautiful city on the intersection of the Rhine and the Mosel rivers. It is serious wine country.
The hostel was on the top of a huge hill, and I had to carry my pack all the way up in the midday sun. It sucked a lot. On the other hand, the hostel was inside the town fortress and the view of the city was amazing. I have pictures shot from the courtyard. There, I met a fellow Canadian: a guy from Calgary named Shane. Just so happens that he does the voice for all the Starchoice commercials. Neat.
Anyway, he was heading down the Mosel river for a few days, and I had a while before I had to be in Amsterdam, so I tagged along. We went to Cocham (a smallish town on the Mosel), but the hostel wa full. They sent us to a tiny little town called Klotton, just 4km from Cocham. It was amazing. We booked into a small B&B for 18 euros a night. They were also a vineyard, and we spent the evening sampling their wine on the back porch, next to all the grapes. Now, I really don't like white wine, but that seems to be what they make on the Mosel, so that's what I drank. It was good. I mean, reallly good.
After that, we went to Trier, further down the Mosel river, then parted ways.
Now I'm in Amsterdam with Sarah and Jeff, waiting for Matt to arrive. He should be here later today.
The hotel room that Sarah booked is a welcome change to all the hostels I've been staying at. We have our own kitchen and everything.
Well, that's all for now I think. |
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| Vienna |
[Jul. 12th, 2007|05:09 pm] |
I'm on a really shitty computer in a cheap internet cafe in Vienna.
It's still been raining on and off every day, but it's alright because now I have an umbrella!
Fortune smiled upon me when I got here and I met a German chef at my hostel.
Last night he cooked a stunning amount of food for a few of us, and it was delicious. He's doing it again tonight, even though he's not staying in our hostel any more. He's actually coming to the hostel to cook for us. How awesome is that?
I spent today exploring the city. Vienna has a really cool bike-loan system set up where you take a bike from a depot (there are CityBike depots all over the place) and return it to any other depot. It's free as long as each ride is no longer than an hour. It's all hightech too; everything is done through a touch-screen kiosk and the bikes fit into automatically locking bike racks. The bike knows where it came from and how long it's been gone, and everything just works.
Tomorrow, I think I'll go to Munich. Really, I want to go to Koblenz (a city on the Rhine, which is supposed to be beautiful) and then on to Bonn (same deal) but Munich is close and all the trains seem to go through it anyway, so I may as well stop for a day or two.
Anyway, the monitor on this computer is really starting to give me a headache, so I'm off. |
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| Status update |
[Jul. 10th, 2007|04:59 pm] |
I am in Salzburg, and it is raining.
It has been raining for three days straight.
I finally caved and bought an umbrella.
Tomorrow I go to Vienna. |
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| I like Innsbruck. |
[Jul. 7th, 2007|07:53 pm] |
Okay, so Innsbruck is pretty awesome.
Not only am I staying in one of the nicest hostels I've stayed at so far for only 13 euros a night, but it's a college town (meaning that there's cheap food everywhere, and stuff going on all the time). The first night there, Buena Vista Social Club was playing a free show in the street. It was awesome.
The city also runs free guided hikes (including free loans of hiking boots and transportation to the beginning of the hike and back to the city). Went on one of these hikes yesterday with a guy I met in the hostel (Greg), and it was alright. The weather was kind of crappy and it was a really easy hike, but the views were nice and I was happy to be out of cities for a change.
Today, we decided to go without the group. We took off towards the mountains, hell-bent on getting above the tree line.
We left (myself, Greg and a Korean guy fresh out of his mandatory military service) at about 9am and by 1:30 (and nearly 2 vertical kilometers later), we were standing atop the peak of Rumerspitze, 2454 meters above sea level. The last leg of the ascent was right along the mountain ridge, and it was a little more like rock climbing than hiking. When you're working your way along a rock face that's about 80 degrees and a fall means certain death, it's a little nerve-wracking. Getting to the peak was exhilerating, and the view was spectacular (see the photos on Facebook).
It took us until about 6:30 to get back down. I'm so ready for sleep, it's not even funny.
Anyway, my facebook photos are now completely up to date (including shots from Scotland, London, France and Austria).
Now, it is time for pizza, then sleep.
-Mike |
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| Austria |
[Jul. 6th, 2007|07:24 pm] |
Here I am, reporting from Austria!
Met a guy that's into hiking but that couldn't find anyone to hike with, so we're hiking for the next few days. Austria is awesome for hiking.
I finally managed to get some photos uploaded!
Something seems to have broken right near the end of posting the Scotland photos, so I'll post the rest later. Perhaps tomorrow.
For now, enjoy lots of shiny pictures of the highlands. On Facebook, of course.
Anyway, this keyboard sucks and I don't have much else to say, so I shall bid you adieu for now. |
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