India tourist style

I don't know where I left off. I feel like it was so long ago. I'm in a nice car being driven from Jaipur to Agra. The past few days have been the most touristy of the past 5 months of travel. I'll start from Delhi. My last day in Delhi I finally get sick. I'll call it 'gastrointestinal issues' and leave it at that. Ended up not doing much that day, which worked because Servesh was all for just hanging around the house. We meet Marianne outside the train for a few minutes and then don't see each other until Udaipur. The way between first class and sleeper class, where we were, was blocked. We slept fairly well on the train. I felt great in the morning but Servesh felt awful. We met a driver outside the train who took us to our hotel. Servesh spent the day in that hotel while Marianne and I went out. We met up with a couchsurfer she talked to online. He took us to one of the lakes that is not commercialized yet. So let me tell you about Udaipur. Udaipur is one of those testaments to what is possible with limitless, cheap, expendable labor. It is called the city of lakes. All the lakes are man made. There is a main lake, which faces the palace and contains “pleasure island” and a massively expensive hotel in the middle of it. Then there are a series of lakes that are used as overflow destinations for the main lake. There are no rivers in Udaipur, as all the lakes are man made, the water comes just from rainfall which, they tell me, is significant in the monsoon season. On this trip we are tourists, and every part of every interaction makes you really feel like a tourist, a tradable commodity in India as you quickly recognise. Drivers do not even conceal the fact that they get a commission on where they take you. So you end up being driven to all these places where the prices are 3 to 5 times the already increased prices that you have been paying. On occasion the guide will sit with you and try to conceal that he is paying 1/3rd or less than what you are paying for the same thing. All the prices on everything are different for foreigners and all the prices are negotiable. The attitude toward foreigners is very interesting here. I believe that people in India genuinely like foreigners. People in the park will stop you to take a picture with you, sometimes to sit and talk to you for a bit. While eating at a restaurant the father of what looked like a very respectable Indian family came up and said that they were betting on where I am from (he bet London) on tours the Indian tourists will ask me where I am from and occasionally chat for a few minutes. I feel like a movie star. Even more interestingly I get more attention than Marianne, don't get me wrong the girl is gorgeous and the boys make no effort to hide the stares (they will literally walk by and with their heads turned stop a few feet away to just stare at us) but due to what I think must be a cultural thing people very rarely approach her. It makes sense when you think about it girl walking around with guys is not someone you would talk to in the Indian culture. In fact you never see anyone trying to strike up a conversation with Indian girls. This is the land of arranged marriages, the only mixed groups you see are relatives or couples. You would never assume that girl is 'just friends' with the guy she's hanging out with. There is no difference in behavior between couples, relatives and friends. Guys will hold hands only with other guys in public. In fact I just realized why handshakes here are so strange, the guys see no reason to let go of your hand after the 'shake' has been completed. A group actually asked if we were married and even after I said no they could still only muster together enough courage to get her to join us for a picture, then they continued to talk to me. Her tour guide from her first day sends her texts. They are amazing. I wish I could share them with you lets just imagine what a 13 year old would send over text to a girl who he thinks must obviously be interested in him because she asked so many questions during the tour. Now imagine this guy is in his 20s and the text gets twice as funny. Anyway, I went off on a tangent. Ummm visit Udaipur, it's beautiful.

Being a tourist, it sucks. You feel like everyone is trying to shaft you and not just on the prices. The tour guides want to be sure that you visit the shops but the actual tourist attractions always some with some effort. If there are 5 great things for you to see they will show you 2, slowly, and make sure you see some shops before going to the third. There is never time for everything. Everyone has a cousin who has a shop. When Servesh asks where to go and what something will cost they tell him that everything will cost twice as much because he's with a white guy, right in front of me. On one side I like that tourism hasn't raised the cost of living around here for the locals. Sure it's the difference of a couple bucks at most unless you're buying expensive stuff but nobody likes to feel like they are getting ripped off. And after shafting you on pries everyone expects a tip. Everyone.

I'm in Kajuraho as I write this. Waiting for the internet to start working again. I have hundreds of pictures poised and ready to be unleashed on Picasa. The internet is down. They say nobody can ever predict when it will work and when it won't. That sucks. I said goodbye to Marianne today, I keep saying the wold is small and you never know, but I'm starting to doubt I'll ever see most of the people I travel with again. It hasn't stopped me from wanting to know them as well as possible while traveling though. I hope not to lose this aspiration. I figure as long as I have long hair everyone I meet will be able to pick me out of a crowd and say hello in case we meet again. I hope that I will remember them as well.

Back to the travels. After Udaipur we got on a train to Jaipur, the pink city. We did not sleep on the train to Jaipur, the beds were not made for people taller than 5'5” and position was just the worst on the train. Jaipur is called the pink city because the center of it is painted many different shades of pink. We saw more temples, palaces, forts. It was beautiful, you should see it. I have pictures. Marianne is an avid photographer. Every day she passes me over 100 pics for me to sort through and pick out a few choice ones. Servesh and I take some as well but not in the same quantity. After Udaipur we learned that hotels are usually against the 3 of us sharing a room. When we got to her room in Jaipur we told them that we are not staying there. Then made it very obvious that we left at one point in the night only to sneak back in 30 min later. In the morning she made sure the coast was clear as we sneaked back out again and pretended to walk back in the front door. It was fun, she's paying for like 4 star hotel rooms, the prices may as well be in euros. After Jaipur we made our way toward Agra, famous for being the city that holds the Taj Mahal. What can I say aout it? It is said that after seeing the Taj, Bill Clinton said “there are two groups of people in the world, those who have not seen the Taj Mahal, and those who have” I advocate one day finding yourself in the latter group. Very sadly we saw it on a foggy day. The day before and after were crystal clear the day we saw the Taj it looked like it was in a cloud, and the stones did not sparkle. Even still it is impressive. The fog comes and goes every day. You never know when it will hit and when it does visibility drops to like 10m. It cleared out a bit at the end of the day but not enough. Also through the poor planning of the travel agency we were only able to see the Taj and not all the other things found in Agra. This, I hear is a tragic loss and I advise anyone doing such trips to plan for more than one day in Agra. Between lines and everything else the Taj alone will take half your day. And we started our day with 6 hours of driving ahead of us. In Agra Marianne stayed at a bed and breakfast and we learned that A) Servesh is somehow traveling without his passport, and B) this is not cool after the Mumbai attacks. Finding a hotel was difficult but not impossible. A little money greases any wheel. After Agra we took a 2 hour train that was 4 hours late, and then drove down to Kajuraho, famous for the erotic carvings on the temples. Tourists flock to these temples and examine every one to find the occasional carving of people fucking. (and the on carving of a guy fucking a horse) This is just about the only reason to come here. The tour guide convinced Marianne the leader of the group to go to some light show with a story about the temples. This show was so bad that we could not keep our selves from busting out in laughter at half the bullshit spewed throughout the show. And then one of these tourists who has also come here to glance a peek at carvings of people fucking dared to call us immature. The laughter that ensued was uncontrollable and loud enough for the whole crowd to hear. We were not kicked out and after this show was over we loudly and facetiously praised everything that was wrong with the presentation... so everything. In the morning we actually saw these temples. The carvings were cool, you only need to see one or two temples to get the gist of it. We made it a point to see every one. I'll get the pics from Marianne when she gets back to Dubai. Hell I may just put a link to her picasa site. And so this pretty much brings me to now. Of all the days mentioned in this post I have been healthy for about 1. On the plus side you can go to a street pharmacy and ask for just about anything you want. Antibiotics? Sure, 5 bucks. It's awesome but it won't make you better. I plan on being healthy tomorrow. It's scheduled on my calendar and it had better not be late. Oh the food in India. So, we refuse to go to tourist food places. When the tour guide takes us there we look at the menu, walk out, and tell them to take us somewhere they would eat. And oh do they. A few things surprise me about the food here. Rice is not common. Most people eat their curries or whatever with roti. Naan is at every restaurant but when you order a Tali you get a bunch of sauces and roti. The next thing that surprises me is how much these people love their butter. Sticks of butter are found slowly melting when you get your food. There is tons of butter in your curry, on your roti, everywhere. My body is not used to so much butter and fried food. It is actually difficult sometimes to order because I just can't take any more butter. I'm in India and all I want us a salad. It's time to go. Gonna see if there is a wedding to crash somewhere. It's the cheapest/best food you can get.

Delhi2

I've been fortunate enough to have 2 Delhi experiences. Servesh, the guy who let me sleep on his couch in Dubai, invited me to stay with his family just outside of Delhi. As with everything else it was a giant pain in the ass to get to. I left what I later leaned was the busiest, shittiest bazar in all of Delhi and arrived in a small village just outside. I am sitting on the roof of the two story building that Servesh's grandfather built. It is on par with or above most of the other buildings I can see. The second floor is completely unused, and on the first is a very simple yet charming house. Made mostly of what I would guess is clay, brick and cement, it has an open air square in the middle surrounded by rooms on the outside. On my first night here Servesh's cousin Anu made me some amazing Aloo Paratas. She has her MBA and as far as I can tell is the only one working in the house. Her English is good enough for us to communicate. Her mother and I talk at each other using as many hand gestures as possible as she knows little more English than I know Hindi. She is constantly offering me food, luckily I can understand that in any language and have been well trained on how to handle it. Servesh's other cousin Davey, the final resident in this house, has been driving us around Delhi for the past few days. His driving is something New Yorkers could learn from. The car horn is used a very different way here. Instead of showing displeasure with the surroundings and demanding a change as it is used at home here it is used for everything from “I am here” to “I am passing/would like to pass you” to “I will not be stopping before entering this intersection” to “I haven heard a car horn in a while”. 8 times out of 10 it is completely ignored by the target, 1.5 times out of 10 I'm not certain who the target is, and 5 out of 100 times the target moves over and allows the car to pass. Davey understands very little English, speaks even less. Basically the two of us can only speak to Servesh when we are hanging out. His job in the house is to take care of the cows. In an enclosed parking lot across the street about 5 cows (one of which was born yesterday) are kept. Servesh's family in the area seems very large, every time I'm in the house I meet a new member. I believe they all help with the cows in some way. Every morning I get milk that has probably been in the cows tit no more than a day ago. Everything I have eaten is amazing and I feel that my spice tolerance is perfect for this place. Nothing has been too spicy and the spicy dishes are still noticeably hot. But then again I did empty a spice bottle of cayenne and one of red chilli flakes just on home cooking in Oz. The most exciting thing that has happened recently came in the form of an email. A captain who's plan I particularly enjoyed said that he is excited about talking to me about joining him in his sailing trip of undetermined length. All I have to pay for are my on shore expenses and I can see the costal cities of the world at a relaxed pace. I call him tonight, he sets sail from Florida in March. If we really see eye to eye as much as I hope we will I will not return to Oz, I will stay in Asia until Feb then come home for a short time before going out into the world again.

Servesh just told me that I need to get ready as I will be going to an Indian wedding in a few minutes. I don't want to hold up the party. I'll get ready and continue typing after.

The wedding was amazing! It was day 6, the final day of the process. We arrived just in time for the groom entrance ceremony. Alu is friends with the brother of the groom. About a dozen of her buddies from grad school were there too. They all spoke great English. As soon as we entered they dragged me to join the dance that preceded the groom's path. I gave the natural “what the hell is going on” hesitation but when they finally got me to the front and started dancing, I did what I had to do. They were sold, I was part of the crew. Throughout the night they would stop to explain all sorts of goings on to me. One guy warned me that the food might be spicy. I told him to try to find me something that I could not eat. With his dignity on the line he spent half the night finding me the spiciest food and getting me to try it. There was soooo much food. I think per pound there may have been as much as people there. A giant hall with food stands lining 3 of the walls, guys walking around with food trays, and fruits and stuff near the middle. I said that I wanted to try a little of everything. While this was completely impossible I did my best. Everything was good. Nothing came close to my spice limit. I was explained that since this was a traditional wedding all the food was veg and there was no alcohol. Vegetarians come to India! I got stares all night long as I was the only white person there, the long hair attracts a lot of attention as well. The boys did a lot of dancing to the Indian music and, when in Rome... I asked why only the guys were dancing and none of the girls came out to dance. The answer I received was “most of the girls are here with their families” even dancing with the guys can be frowned upon. Anu did not dance either, Servesh was the only one there from her family. In fact I did not see any of the guys talk to any of the girls other than Anu who was already their friend from school. At midnight Anu said she needed to get home, girl leaves for work around 7 every morning, I couldnt blame her. We had plans to wake up with her and go with her into town. That did not happen. It's nearing 11 now. I could not reach the captain last night, I'll try again tonight. We start proper traveling 2 days from now.

Still Alive

A number of you have expressed concern for my well being. I'd like to assure you that I'm still in Delhi, and the attacks were on 5 star hotels. I do not stay in 5 star hotels so I'm not too worried. I appreciate your concern.


A little more about India

Hygiene in India is interesting. When you are planning your trip you are told, the water will be filled with bacteria, the food will give you worms, your cuts will be infected with tetanus, the animals will give you rabies and the bugs will give you malaria. When you get here however the people eat everything with their hands, they drink the tap water, they walk the streets barefoot, they pet the animals, they could care less about the bugs and the most contagious thing you encounter is this attitude. I watched Barak lick his fingers after a tasty dessert, I already broke my veg plan for some dumplings, when you order a coke you get it in a bottle that has obviously been reused, and not just once. Sometimes the coke comes flat because it was not sealed properly after being repackaged. Some places you go to order food and if you request silverware to eat it with they will quickly rinse some spoons in the water that will give you cholera and put these spoons right into your food.

Will it make you stronger if it doesn't kill you?

Delhi first impression

I am back in my room at dusk from a day around the bazar. Barak Abraham, my Israeli guide is in his room eating some delicious momos. I just finished washing the bird shit out of my hair. For your reference it was the color and consistency of yellow dahl. On a completely unrelated note I'm never eating yellow dahl again. Btw the bucket method is a fun new way to take a shower that everyone should try at home. Where to start about India. When you hear people saying things about India your mind never fully registers what is said until you are actually here. For example: I as well as many of you have heard that they dont use toilet paper in India. Like the rest of you I hear this and my mind tucks it away in a little part of my brain next to facts about the Zulu conflict and interesting things I have heard about carnival in Brazil. However, when you find yourself on the shitter in the part of the world most likely to give you diarrhea your brain suddenly recalls that information except it comes back as THERE IS NO TOILET PAPER IN INDIA!!! There are actually a number of things the population of India just does not believe is very important. Many of them you can notice even before you get to the toilet. Traffic lights for instance, their color is not as important as you may think. Those lines on the pavement in some places known as lanes are actually there for decoration. Knowing the answer to a question is not an important part of answering it. I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll start at the beginning.

If one day you decide to undertake a voyage to India, I find that the experience is really enhanced by spending a day in Dubai first. I can imagine no sharper contrast. I was driven to the airport in the car we rented, which happens to be the cheapest car I have seen in Dubai, a 2007 Nissan. They gave us discount rates on the fact that it was old. The airport of Dubai is unnecessarily massive. The ceilings are so high you forget they are there. Even more so than the rest of Dubai everything shines and sparkles, the lights are bright, the people are friendly, Disney land. Emirates is a very classy airline. The in flight movie is on demand with 30 choices of the newest releases brought straight to the chair in front of you. You can even play tetris against the guy in the turban next to you once your movie is over. Before you know it you're on the ground. And walking around an airport with ceilings that a tall man might have to duck down for, the floors are being swept by an Indian lady with a broom that might be older than she is. Or at least it would be if straw lasted that long. For the first time ever I worried about whether my bag would appear on the first baggage claim conveyor I have ever seen that actually manages to indiscriminately lose a bag or two here and there. I arrived with 2 instructions. 1. find the prepaid taxi. 2. give them this address. Both I managed to do with relative ease. Finding the taxi was not hard either. I showed the address, now on a piece of paper that told the cab driver that I had paid and where he was paid to take me to. The man nodded, said some memorized phrases in broken English, told me to wait in the cab as he proceeded to ask every person in the airport where the hell he was supposed to take me. Twice I was asked “what hotel is this” sadly, this was the address at which Eliot is staying and all I knew were those 2 instructions I was given. We left the airport after a number of people made many direction-like hand gestures. At every opportunity my cab driver would pull over other cab drivers and most obviously ask them where the hell we were going. All of them made more hand gestures and told us a different direction. As you drive through Delhi you notice what you at first believe to be a fog and a faint, lovely smell of shit and car fumes. In the morning you notice the fog does not go away. Quickly you realize it never goes away, and it's no fog. We arrived at what looked very much like the address I needed to go to. I told the guard who I was there to see and he told me to go in. The building had 3 floors with a door on each. Eliot's instructions “the guard will get me and ask me to identify you” I knocked on all 3 doors. One of them had somebody behind it but that somebody did not want to talk to me. I went back outside and asked the guards if I was at the right address. They informed me that it was not and made some hand gestures to direct me to where the right address should be. Taking a hint from my cab driver, who upon delivering me to the incorrect address attempted to convince me that I need to “pay money” by repeating the phrase a few times with no success, I decided to ask just about every guard that I saw which way I should be going, and to no surprise found all gave different directions. Eventually, about 2 hours after my plane landed, I found Eliot's residence in time for her to quickly find me a rickshaw and direct me to the place where I could actually stay. Needless to say, my second taxi experience was too much like my first and about an hour later I finally found my destination.

Breakfast consisted of milk tea, paneer tika-masala (no rice), naan. $2. The omlet breakfasts that the guys had cost half as much. I don't think I need to describe what the streets are like. Everyone knows before they enter. Everything anyone has ever told you about India is true. I'll try to make an observation you may not have heard others make. >95% of guys I see have collared button down shirts, they are well ironed. As I walk I find myself wondering what I am doing in this market. I have no need for anything they are selling, I almost like that my list of possessions slowly dwindles. All I can think of is that I'm here to experience the dreadful poverty off it all. It has been interesting but I am ready to leave Delhi. I won't meet people here. Even if I do I will not trust them.
I had an interesting experience with a fortune teller kind of guy on the street. The guys that tell you a bunch of truisms then perform a simple sleight of hand trick and want you to think they have telepathic powers. The magic trick I figured out before he even finished it. But it was the truisms that made me think. Are all of our lives really that similar? When he told me I'll live till my 90s and be married in 2 years I laughed and left. Some things may be true for everybody, but that was too hard for me to swallow. Bastard even told me I won't be rich. I'm going to figure out how to put stuff up online. I don't have any India pictures yet. I feel weird taking photos here. I can't explain it. One photo I wish I took. While riding on the back of a rickshaw my eyes met with some kid on the bus. He didn't look healthy but he gave me a big smile. I couldn't hold back a big bright one right back at him. He waved as the bus passed and I waved back. I would have liked a picture of that kid.


I have yet to eat anything spicy.

Dubai

I am in my room in Delhi. It's morning. I think I'm paying 300 rupies a night ($6) but this has not yet been negotiated. It comes with room service. I'd call it dirty by American standards, compared to the street however this is sterile. The Israeli stoner who is my guide while Eliot is finishing classes is making sure he's hungry enough for breakfast with his friend. They are speaking Hebrew so I excused myself to catch up on writing for a minute.

Lets get back to where I left off. Dubai. “Dubai is like LA” my host Servesh told me, as we proceeded to share our dislike of LA. He's Indian by origin but he lived in San Fran most of his life. You can tell. There is no such thing as a short walk to get somewhere in Dubai. Everything requires a taxi. They are not expensive but everyone complains about how difficult it is to get one. Nobody knows the bus system. Not that I met anyway. Dubai attracts a different kind of traveler. I met one person who has been in Dubai for 3 years, we were talking in the street as I was exploring the area around Servesh's hotel. Other than him nobody has been in Dubai longer than 2 years. Nobody plans on staying very long. They are all travelers in a new and more interesting sense. Unlike every traveler working in Australia at the moment, they are in Dubai to work first, and travel/party second. Maybe it's just because I'm sick of having the same conversation with everyone I meet in Oz: “where are you from, how long have you been here, where have you been, where are you going next, Oh I've been there you will love this thing that the guide book already told you to see...” .... my point was I really enjoyed all my conversations in Dubai. I hope to see everyone I met there again one day.
“Dubai is Disney Land” another Indian guy told me while giving me a ride to where I will find a taxi more quickly. Everything feels fake. How can it feel real when no more than 5 years ago most of it was just a desert. When you get a map of Dubai it comes with many disclaimers telling you that some parts of the map are either not even started yet or halfway built. I forget the name of it but that worlds tallest building is a perfect metaphor for Dubai its self. It's already the largest structure in the world but how tall it will be when it is done is still a secret. You can go to the shops and buy fake rolexes and fake cameras, or go to a sterile bazar next to a Venice-like river complete with fish indigenous to man-made waters with a view of big buildings that feel like they still have the shrink wrap on them built on man-made islands. All this is only a short taxi ride from the mall where you can ski on some very nice snow as people watch you while eating at a TGI Fridays that has a window facing the slope that I hear is redesigned frequently for variety. Halfway up the 3 minute lift you can stop on the 'mid-mountain' lodge to grab a hot chocolate, in case the constant -3c temperature is making you too cold. It feels like -3c with the wind chill.
Dubai is at the same time the most expensive and the cheapest place I have been so far. A hotel goes from $100 to No$Way$In$Hell$You$Can$Afford$This$ever! per night. The little hotel room where Servesh slept was around $500/night and while it was nice, there is no reason for it to cost that much. Those guys charging 2.5k/mo in Stamford for a luxury one bedroom are amateurs. Food can be as cheap as $1.30 for a kebab, $10 for a full meal that you can gorge yourself on with a smoothie and/or lassi. A taxi from one side of town to the other (a 45 min trip with no traffic) will cost about $20. US currency seems to be accepted almost everywhere. The prostitutes (I swear I don't ask they just keep coming up to me) quote the price in dollars. ($100 if you're curious) I imagine the locals Dubai does not have locals in the sense that you normally think of it. There are poor people who live there in less glamorous parts of town peddling their wares or working in one of the many construction projects. I'm certain if you ask the first 100 that you meet where they were born you might meet one that is from Dubai, but I doubt it. can find a reasonably priced place to stay and live incredibly cheaply. As you explore the city there are poor areas but I have not seen any crushing poverty. Only 1 person begged me for money, said he was hungry. When I told him to come with me so I can feed him he turned out to only be interested in the money and not the food. He looked healthy, moved from Pakistan.
When I come back I want to figure out what the “locals” do at night for fun. Also, I want to know what the night clubs are like. Though I hear the cover is like $30. There are bars in Dubai, they are expensive and filled with yuppies. Smoking shiesh (sp?) is very popular, just pick a flavor and they will bring a hookah to your table. You can meet someone from just about any part of the world in these bars. Even as you walk the streets you hear almost every language you can recognise being spoken. There are signs in Dubai in Arabic, English, Hindi and Russian. (as far as I have noticed). The map you get when you enter the mall to tell you where the shops are come in all of these languages. On one particular evening I went dune bashing. I reserved a tour where some guy drove because it was cheap. At first I resented the idea, “what makes this guy any better at driving in sand than me? I can just rent a car and do the same” 'this guy' proved me wrong. We hit the dunes faster than I would ever let myself do so. We turned blind corners and went over cliffs I would have never dared do at any speed never mind the speed we were driving. The most frightening part of the experience is the fact that there were maybe 10 cars on the same dunes around the same time. Though it did not look like it... in any way, there must have been some pre, programmed course to stop people from hitting each other head on, because there was no way to tell what lies on the other side of the dune as you're speeding up to the crest. I felt like I got my money's worth with just the 20 minute roller coaster. Everything that followed: food, drink, shiesh, entertainment, was all a freebie in my book.

Favorite Dubai moment: After skiing while waiting for my taxi I saw this guy backing in what must have been his brand new Lamborghini. A name I can not even spell properly. This guy quite obviously never drove stick before. I'm not a car connoisseur but the painful sound of hearing gears grind on such a beautiful car... I couldn't help but laugh.

Two of the people I met in Dubai, my host, and a very cool French girl, are going to be in India while I'm here. I hope to run into them.

Arrived in Dubai

It's my first morning in Dubai. My host works 6 days a week so I'm on my own. I forgot my phone charger and didn't tell the bank I'm going to be here. This is going to be interesting. I have a few local contacts who suggested meeting for coffee or something. as soon as I have a way to communicate I will call them. My host Servesh left his phone at home. Would it be wrong to use it today and pay him back for the credits? Surely this is a moral dilemma for the ages.

A quick first impression of Dubai before I make a decision on that moral dilemma.
The architecture is very cool. It's big western buildings with an almost forced arabic style pressed onto them. Think highrise mixed with arabic castle. I'll bring my camera with me today and take lots of pictures. Last night was fun. 2 pints of beer in Dubai cost 75 Dirhams. which is about 25 bucks. Everyone travels by taxi, and yet they are difficult to get. As I look out the windows of the Apartment building I'm in I feel like I'm in between 2 large business districts. Giant buildings are looming on the horizon on either side of me. Had an interesting conversation with a girl who is saving herself for marriage because the alternativve shames her family. You'd never guess by just talking to her, in every other way she's just a regular girl by my standards. (She's the one in the pictures) Also met some polish girls that work for the airline. They were less interesting. Traveling around with a girl does have its advantages though. When catching the ferry at night anyone wwith a girl in their company gets onto the ferry first and all the lonely guys need to wait. The city is very multicultural. You hear just about every language spoken in the streets. I even found a russian section where you could buy fur coats, it's advertised in russian as nobody would ever need a fur coat here. Thats all I can think of for now. More later

oh oh just forgot the guy hosting me is going to India to see his family The night after I leave.... I so want to hang out with them :)

4 nights till Dubai

First off I finally found a couch to sleep on in Dubai. Sure the guy looks a bit like a serial killer but I'm not really concerned. Beats sleeping in the street. Perth has been the same. I clean the hostel because I don't make enough money at the computer shop to both sleep and eat. So I work at the hostel to sleep and at the computer shop to eat... and to kite surf. I had my 2nd lesson. I did not do progress as much as the first lesson but I got up and rode. after that it's just a matter of time. before I get good. Practice is expensive though. I like it a lot more than surfing though and I can do it where there are no waves. All I need is wind.

I like the people here. I am friends with everyone at reception. I have a bunch of other friends that I cook with. I'm even interested in a girl for something more than one night.... you know 4 because I leave after that.

Got my overpriced shots for india. I'm ready to rock. And now it's saturday night and I'm not sitting at the hostel doing nothing. even though my abs actually are sore from coughing so much and I have a runny nose I'm not staying in tonight!

Kite Surfing!

I finally took my kite surfing lesson. However before I tell you about it I'll tell you about how when I was a kid I took some lessons in wind surfing out in Cali. It was on a man made lake that never got too much wind. I know because I went sailing there all the time and it was always very barely enough to move the boat. My first day trying to windsurf however that all changed. The wind wasn't just strong, it was so strong that me and everyone else were swept to the edge of the lake, down wind, and none of us could escape it.
When I went kite surfing the first time the weather gods decided that I needed the same treatment. except this time, I was ready for it. The day would randomly switch from clouds to rain to sun. wind gusted from 20 to over 30 knots. or so my instructor thought. the lesson was amazing. I did not get to use a board but I was told I got much farther than most people do on their first lesson. honestly though, I didn't need it. I could almost stand in the water by just having the sail pull me. and you know how you always see kite surfers flying through the air like 20 feet above the water. I did that! it has nothing to do with hitting waves or anything. you just move the sail the right (or wrong when you're learining) way and it throws you out of the water. It was awesome! I'm going back for another one as soon as I can. Sure it costs me a weeks wage. but it is so worth it.

I'm excited about tonight. the girl in charge of the front desk found out it was my birthday (I told her) and said she's going to throw me a party. I didnt take her seriously until I saw my birthday being advertised on all the doors. My room mate got me 2 cases of redbull cola (he worked for the redbull air race and got them free) I have procured a large quantity of rum. The girl at the desk will be handing out tequila shots and I told most of the people at the hostel to be prepared. Sam promised me a cake. It's going to be a crazy crazy night. I'll tell you all about it on Sunday when I am feeling better.

Halloween

I think I made a real friend in Perth. Don't get me wrong, everywhere I go I meet people and travel with them or for some time or cook with them or hang out, drink, whatever. I was hanging out with such friends at the hostel, playing some cards, drinking some tequila a decent night, if it wasn't halloween on a friday night. I had to go out. None of them wanted to commit to anything or take the slightest risk ini walking somewhere they didnt know. Even when we got phone calls of good things happening elsewhere. So, as I don't put up with that shit, I left. 'politely' said goodbye and went out. I had no idea where I was going. The plan was to find a sign for where a party was and go to that party. On my way I ran into this guy named Sam. We have met before, he makes awesome brownies and we've done some communal cooking. He is from France and his English is awful. I said hello as I was walking down the street. He was heading home and asked where I was going. I told him the 'plan' and he was all about it. We eventually found the piercing party. It's what you'd expect metal, some gothed out people, lots of undeadish costumes, a girl that had her dimples pierced, it looks less sexy than it sounds, live piercing on stage, some burlesque and a suspension as the grand finale. It was not Sam's scene. Despite this and his lack of English, he talked to everybody he met. It was amazing. I never saw him ask someone to explain what they said he just kept the conversation going having only to explain himself when he could not get his statement across. After 1 beer he declared that he was drunk. Turns out he does not drink much. Can't blame him around here. He says it's harder for him to speak English when he's drunk. We left around 2 in the morning. Went back to the hostel where he continued talking to people and I went to sleep. We talk more after this happened. What I like about this guy, when I say “we should do this” he says “I can't today but how about tomorrow” this, I find, is a rare quality in people and I get excited when I find them.
Went to the Red bull air race today. Damn Tiwanese people woke me up at 7:30 because they wanted to get there early and there was nothing to do other than roast in the sun until 12:30. I really needed the sleep. Tonight Sam is taking me to meet some people he works with. Locals :) yay. Tomorrow, after surfing I'm going to meet some girls that Sam started talking to at the Halloween show. The weekends are suddenly not long enough again. And I love it.

perth

1 week has just disappeared and I have no idea where it went. Time moves so differently in a city. On the road 2 days is such a long time, so many things are seen and done, large distances are traveled, new friends are made. Here in the city just as many things happen but they just aren't cool to talk about. So since I got here the following has happened in something close to this order: spent many nights drinking, one or two days recovering, dyed my hair, found a job, started work, all my traveling buddies left for the next part of their journey, I purchased plane tickets for dubai and india, and daylight savings made me miss my plan to play some settlers and meet people today. Damn daylight savings. I woke up this morning knowing that it was going to happen. Woke up, my clock said 9, I had to be somewhere at 10, with daylight savings I figured I had 2 hours to get there. Spring forward, fall back. Except... it's not fall here. In the southern hemisphere it's still spring. I woke up late, and took an hour and a half getting ready because I thought I had 2. I went anyway but I got exactly what I expected. I hate being right. So with my plans dead I figured I'd catch up on events. Dubai. I have 4 nights there and I think they may be the most expensive and the most uneventful nights of my trip. Traveling in Oz too long makes you think that you can go anywhere in the world, find a hostel, meet some people and have a good time. There are no hostels in Dubai. I may be lucky enough to only spend $100/night for a hotel. Maybe my plan today will be to figure that out. If you have some free time or any knowledge of such things please help me out! My traveling buddies leaving came at just the right time while I will miss Tom, and I'm sure he will miss me (poor guy is traveling with 4 Germans) however I know I will not miss the Germans. After a week they were starting to get on my nerves and despite my best efforts I couldn't get rid of them while they were here. They tried to get me to come with them I'm glad I had a good excuse. My job, working in some computer shop where they do repairs and sales. It's one of the most disorganised places I've ever seen. I have a feeling part of my job will be to bring some much needed organization to the place. They have no idea what their inventory is and their prices are completely random. Their tracking software sucks, If I could make access print bar codes then I could write a better system myself. I think it will be interesting if I make it. Hair, has red tips now, and by tips I mean about 50% of the length of my hair is some shade of red. I like it. I have no pictures of it that I like enough to share. It was free from a beauty school and I had some time. The plan is to stay in Perth and work until I make my way over to Asia. Which should be sometime in February or March. I'm hoping to meet Dave and anyone else who cares to join us in China and anywhere else in asia that people would be interested in seeing. I can't wait to see my friends again :)

and the internet is down so I can neither find better things to do nor send this.

Instead of moping around at the hostel I decided to find “the beach” that people have been speaking of. It turns out there are many beaches and after the consultation of a local I was directed to the one here I could go to surf. This beach was a 30 min bus ride away. Perth, and the west coast in general are not known for the best beaches in Oz. Given, this is a title that is impossible to attain here as all the beaches are amazing. No Perth is not known for the best beaches, but it is known for the windiest beaches. And it lives up to the reputation. When I went to the beach there were surfers everywhere and as you look down the beach you see many kites. Kitesurfing kites. It looks amazing. I have barely left the hostel for the last 2 days and I forgot why I came here. But now I know why I am in perth. I know how I will spend every free day I have. And Johan, when I get back you had better be ready.

I found out why there is no internet at the hostel. We have reached our bandwidth limit. There will be no internet until November. This sucks

First Impression of Perth

Perth is not too large or small. I can walk everywhere I want to go from where I live. The night life is similar to all the backpacker towns. On Friday and the weekends people fill long lines outside clubs and popular bars. Cover bands play everywhere and on occasion there is even original music. There is a hint of a dark side to this town and I can't wait to discover it. Walking around I see a large number of gothed/punked out people just walking around mid day. There are many ads for metal shows and a large number of “alternative clothing” stores. I also found a geek shop that I like but god damn is everything ridiculously expensive. This place seems to celebrate the important holidays. Octoberfest, Halloween, there is even a red bull air race which sounds like fun. I am clearly here at the right time. Though part of me hopes it is always this exciting. The fact that every hostel is 100% full tells me otherwise. I think they do Halloween properly here as well. To name a few of the advertised parties that even I have been able to stumble on: Heaven and Hell party (my backup if I can't get anything better) a costume party by a piercing place that is promising some serious metal and hinting to some suspension, and finally, what I am thinking of doing is a fetish party, though I have no idea what fetish I can afford. I'm open to suggestions. If anyone can think of something cool and cheap to do for a fetish party let me know.

Finding work here will require some lying. Dozens of shops are looking for staff to stay for xmass. I have no intention on being here at that time but I need work damnit! Monopoly money (what I call the AUD) has really gone down recently. When I arrived it was 1AUD to .96USD but now it's all the way down to 1AUD to .68USD. Which sucks as I spent a lot of money early on and now I'm trying to make money and it's worth a lot less than it used to be. Eh, what can I do.

So that's my Perth impression. Send me emails about fetish suggestions. My hostel, while not the cleanest or cheapest one I've stayed at does have free wifi. Woot!

Arrivig in perth

I am sitting at a table in my hostel in Perth. I am paying more than I want to. My plan for the day is to find internet, find a cheaper/better hostel, put minutes on my phone, look for work. All I want to do however is sit in bed and read a book. Had some late nights recently. I am tired and it is only compounded by the gratuitous amount of drinking we did last night. We have reached our destination, or mine at least, we had to celebrate. The drink of choice: a 700ml bottle of the cheapest whiskey we could get split, not evenly enough, between Tom and me. Mixed! With one can each of Mother energy drink. Though it smelled faintly of vomit it tasted better than the energy drink or whiskey do on their own. We finished that in less than an hour, we skipped dinner entirely and went out for our first night in Perth. The bars were not that great but we were filled with liquid lower standards. There are pictures of the evening so I dont need to say too much about it. The stops we made on our way to Perth are not really worth mentioning. We did a lot of bush camping which is fun yet filled with many blood sucking insects. Full report on Perth later. When I feel like writing.

West Coast part 2

Monkey Mia

After escaping Canarvon we headed to Monkey Mia, a small beachy place known for the dolphins that are often seen there. Every morning at 8 the wild dolphins are fed some fish for a mutually beneficial state of dolphins coming to eat at a specific time and tourists coming to watch at the same time. I was far more excited about the 2 catamarans on the beach than I was about the dolphins. Sadly they were privately owned and not for rent. Though it was expensive to stay there it was the first place in Oz that had free internet (not advertised and I'm not certain it was on purpose) though it was very slow. We ran into 2 German girls we met in Canarvon. A 32 year old who stays up late with us and is generally a lot of fun named Tanya, and .... the other girl she travels with who goes to bed early and, even though she speaks not much worse English, usually just talks to her friend in German even when Tom and I are right there. The more time the 4 of us spend together the more it feels like it's either the three of us or the two of them. As I write they are in their car behind us and it sounds like we'll travel in caravan style all the way to Perth. Tanya takes many pictures so there will be extra pictures as now I'm stealing from 2 people.

Back to the trip. Highlights of the Monkey Mia area include:
Dolphin feeding: Think aquarium without the glass.
The western most point in Australia: we didnt go
The stromatolites, an ancient bacteria that is said to have been alive for millions of years: rocks sticking out of water
Shell Beach: A true testament to the masochistic perversion of the area. In the land of countless soft, fine sand, rock free, beaches a tourist attraction is a beach that has no sand but rather is made entirely of shells. Sharp, hard, pointy shells. While I understand if there is any place in the world where people can be sick of soft nice beaches it would be Australia but still why would you go to such a place. The answer, as I understood it must be because this is the one beach in this country where a true masochist can really enjoy himself. So having come to this conclusion I decided that to full appreciate this beach, one must go barefoot. I wont say that I regret that decision, but I won't say that I'd do it again. In fact I have been going barefoot far more frequently lately. I have a very old goal of mine to build callus on my feet and I have finally been able to make great strides to achieving this goal. Somewhere along the line I bought $2 flipflops, the kind that you wouldn't want to wear unless burning hot coals are the alternative, and sometimes not even then. I then, through a combination of lack of information/planning and sheer stupidity, ended up on a 6 mile hike with these flipflops. I walked the first mile barefoot, and then after burning my soles I equipped the Ausie flag flipflops, that until then had been used to swat flies, only to have them break a few minutes later. Through the help of Tanya's hair tie and some German engineering they got fixed and I used them for about half the hike. This hike was actually amazing. It involved a small circle around a bend of a river going through a gorge. It took us 3.5 hours and we obviously started at noon to experience the hottest part of the day when the dark red rocks and sand cooked the flesh after short moments of exposure. Luckily halfway through the hike the path took us down to the water, shallow and lined with nasty, slippery vegetation it was not the best swimming I have done but after 2 hours in the sun such things can be overlooked. My favorite part of the hike came right after the swim where the path involved us walking along a shelf of rock just above the water with another shelf of rock above us, and possibly another shelf above that. The views from the hike were quite nice and we took a number of pictures though it is hard to capture being surrounded by it all. Afterward we spent the night bush camping in a spot surprisingly populated by ticks and mosquitoes. I tried to get in touch with my American roots, and even adopted a southern accent for the evening, or until people were sick of it. Tom was despaired when he learned the German girls could understand him better when he was faking a Southern American accent than when he was talking normally. I probably said something comforting like “It's ok proper English will soon spread to your country as well.”If Tom ever comes to visit the US I promised I'd throw him a party, and if that happens it will be a British theme party where we shall mock everything English and leave no stereotype unexploited.

That is about it for my life so far. I have a feeling the next update I send will be from Perth. We've been one or 2 days drive away from Perth for about 4 days now. The relaxed pace is welcome and makes it an easier transition into the temporarily steady life that I plan on living for a month.

West Coast part 1

Our first stop out of Cape Bay was Carnavon. A tiny little town pronounced with the emphasis on the second 'a' found just south of the tropic of Capricorn. Slightly north are the blow holes as they are called on the map. What brings people there is a strange rock formation. There is a rock floor where water easily gets underneath in large quantities, and there is a little hole in this rock floor. When the water level rises the water ends up shooting out of the hole and going as high as 30 meters just to relieve the pressure caused by the swell of the ocean. While this is in its self amazing and inspired me to spend 10 minutes reenacting scenes from Fantasia, I found it to be far from the only amazing part of the experience. The place is laid out in a very touristy fashion where you drive your car up to the blow holes, take a picture and then drive it a mile down the road to a little lookout. While time drove I felt the need to walk that mile along the coast and just feel the awesome force of the water smashing the rocks. What I found to be even more awesome than the water were the animals that actually lived there. Hundreds of crabs colored black, orange and purple with white claws live in these rocks. And they dont hang out where the water is safe and not moving. no. they are all in the shit of things. They are living on the edge, clinging to rocks as water smashes them. Every now and then as you walk you see crab bits that were not taken by birds but rather obviously smashed against the rocks. These crabs are ballsy as hell and cling to the rocks like they are made of gluet As I walk by some run and hide but others thrust their big white claws in my direction as if to say 'bring it bitch, this is my rock'. And if the crabs are not cool enough the fish are even better. Fish ranging from tiny to a little larger than my hand ride the waves and end up in little rock holes that fill with water waiting for the next wave to come to swim from one hole to the next. Some end up in little lagoons where the only escape is to jump a waterfall. I don't know if the crabs are going for the fish trapped in these little holes or if they eat something else but these little places of constant turmoil that even I would not dare enter are filled with life. My mile walk took a long time as I made certain to check every hole and crevice and climbed every tall rock and looked over every ledge and dodged many attacking waves. Tom was getting antsy but I insisted on tiptoeing along this sparse and sharp path from the mainland, along seldom frequent rocks, to a large island about 300 feet off shore. I was halfway to this island, about to do the easy home stretch when a big wave came in and half the rocks that I planned on using to get across were suddenly submerged, along with half of the rocks I had used to get to where I was. Tom was not going to attempt my rock dancing feat but rather his plan was to tread through the water with flipflops but that failed him as well since he found the rocks too slippery and very oddly shaped. I'd like to take a moment to point out all the rocks looked like they had undergone hours of constant shrapnel bombing. Anyway I never made it to the island but we had a good time with the people at the camp site. A small group of people that worked at the farm were celebrating the weekend with plenty of food and drink. Tom found out he is allergic to kangaoo, as the slightest bit of it made him spend the whole night puking. It was his second time having such a reaction and I imagine it will be his last. We're on our way south now to hang out with Dolphins.

Ningaloo Reef

Ningaloo Reef is frequently compared to The Great Barrier Reef and people dispute whether it's better or worse. I do not feel qualified to make such a comparison. The main reason being that I spent about 500 bucks on a 3 day 2 night hedonistic boat cruise of the GBR. The boat traveled for 3 hours off shore to get to an exclusive part of the reef where my buddy and I scuba dived without the interference of anything other than our own air limit. In Nigaloo I spent about 50 bucks for 3 days of snorkeling, 100 oz bucks if you include sleep and food and drink and everything. Instead of being ferried around on a boat and, after being told that we're only at this site because of rarely perfect weather conditions, and then being shown exactly where to swim to see everything there is to see, we rented some snorkeling gear and walked off the beach into the ocean. The first day the only guidance we received was “go to this bay” In that bay Tom saw a turtle and I saw an octopus (as thousands of tropical fish and colorful reef are ignored when giving descriptions of what you saw in the reef). The second day, which was initially destined to be the last day, we were told “go out as far as you can, the farther you go the better the reef is. So we went out until we saw sand and hung around there a bit disappointed. Tom was cold and demoralized and said he's done with this shit reef and we should move on. As we had an hour left on the snorkeling gear I said that I'm going out for one more trip to figure out what all the hype was about. So taking the “go as far as you can” suggestion to heart I positioned myself perpendicular to the beach and swam. I swam for about 25 minutes through the shitty, dull, reef that we had seen before and then finally reached the real reef. It was so dense I could not see the bottom, it was as bright as the GBR and there were lots of fish. The farther I swam the more dense this reef got. As I was low on time I turned back when the reef actually got too dense for me, it went all the way to one meter below the surface. I dont feel comfortable swimming in such dense reef. First I dont want to touch the reef because when you break something that has lived longer than every other living thing you have ever encountered you feel like a complete douche bag. And to reinforce that douchebaggy feeling that you get from touching the reef, the reef also likes to remind you that it is not a fan of being touched and when you incur the wrath of the reef you will feel it for many many days to come. So I turn back and get to the beach and inform Tom that “we have made a grave mistake and what we have been seeing was merely the retarded afterbirth of the real reef that everyone talks about”. This “real reef” goes from a quarter of a mile off shore to as far as the horizon in every direction. If you spent a week here carefully combing every accessible point of this reef for 8 hours a day you might see half of it. But I have not seen the edges of it to properly assess that. So, to make the comparison that I said I am incapable of making: I have not snorkeled the GBR and I have not gone diving in Ningaloo but I would never snorkel the GBR, as you will not be able to appreciate it and I don't feel like I have missed much by not diving in Ningaloo. If you are looking for a tropical ocean adventure and you do not know howw to scuba dive.... and do not care to learn.... go to Exmouth and Cape Bay and snorkel to your heart's content. What Ningaloo will not give you however are the 40m sheer reef walls. Found at the GBR. Personally I enjoy the activity of scuba diving even if there is nothing to really see. But it is a spectacular sight when what is effectively the size of a decent sized building (outside nyc) covered in coral and fish that you can circle 3 times and not see the same patch of reef as long as you keep changing depth. What you will not see at the GBR however (and is advertised to no end in this area) are the whale sharks and manta rays. Whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet and are said to hang out in this area between March and July. Manta rays... are awesome.... and are said to make an appearance ever now and then. In this area, more-so than anywhere else in Oz you run into a lot of Ausies that are also doing the nomadic thing. They got their kids and all of their possessions in a van/trailer/camper whatever. They have no permanent place of residence, they slowly circle Oz as the year goes on. Some live in this place or that long enough to save some money and go to the next part of the journey, while others really make me wonder where the money is coming from. I feel strange asking parents how they can afford this particular lifestyle especially as they chase after their rugrats but I do wonder. Exmouth and Coral Bay do seem to attract more Aussies than backpackers.


We are currently driving south now. We are slowing down our pace and just taking it easy on the west coast. Tom is ahead of schedule and though I need to I am not looking forward to buckling down and finding a job in Perth or, more practically some hick town outside Perth where work is easier to get.

Let me know how much more annoying this blogging thing is for you and I'll remind you. I'll be sure to let you know how much I care :)

all the old posts

This is as far back as I care to go I started in Sydney but I only care to put up the posts since Cairns. More fun stuff to come though


Dive trip – mid trip

Past 2 days have been total hedonism. Eat, dive, sleep, dive, eat, sleep, dive, look at pretty girls in bikinis, eat, dive, sleep... I take little naps between dives as there is little else to do between dives other than sunbathe. I'm loving the boat life. Others complain about sea sickness and stuff like that but it's not an issue for me. The food is some of the best eating I've had in weeks as I assure you that living on a budget reduces the amount of gourmet eating I've been able to do. The first dive, as always, the flippers skinned the back my ankle where the Achilles tendent is. I haven't been diving in 2 weeks and I forgot that this always happens to me. One of the staff recommended wearing socks while I dive. Genius. It will be a while before the skin grows back and there is a lot of pain but from now on I dive with socks on! At the moment I can't hear out of my right ear. Not something I'm happy about. I need to stop sticking my finger in it hoping my E.T. Touch will help it. To backtrack a minute, I went up to Cairns after not being able to find work in Brisbane. I have also decided that I am no longer going to be looking for shit work. I have cash saved and there is no job here that will pay me as much as I got paid at home so as of now I either find awesome work on a boat or learning some new awesome skill or I keep moving and see the world. As much as I like australia I could never live here. Cairns is in northeast Oz check it out on the map. It's known for the best diving in the country. The town its self is tiny and touristy, very touristy, it reminds me of the Caribbean. I may spend a few more days trying to find boat work if that fails... who knows :). Diving in the reef is amazing. It lives up to the hype. My buddy/room-mate has a camera with him and is all about taking pictures. It's like having my own personal photographer with me documenting my dives. His name is Mat he's from the UK has an old money demeanor about him but is really nice and easy to get along with. From first dive we've been going in and just sticking together. No big groups, we usually go away from the masses (we swim fast) and it's like we have the reef to ourselves. Despite the camera he does not slow me down much and he prefers it when I lead and manages to take some amazing pictures that I will be stealing at the end of the trip and passing to you when I get the chance. He's in a couple of them but you can't tell anything with full mask on. Right now I'm waiting for the night dive to begin, I think it happens after dinner though which has not yet been served. I have never done night diving I'm really excited about it. The crowd here is a little different. It's more vacation people and less backpackers. A welcome change I don't feel like I need to hide my computer when there are nice underwater cameras everywhere. Oh reef diving ((dinner just got served so I'll make it quick)) is as stated awesome. The coral is beautiful and very plentiful there are places where its all coral in every direction. And, as you may have heard it's dying. I see tons of dead coral. I dont know how much there was 100 years ago who knows when it died and who knows if we're responsible but dead coral, it exists. This 'bleaching' of coral that I have heard of is true too. I see a lot of beautiful colors of a certain type of coral (star coral) is a very bright shade of blue which looks really healthy and I hear it comes in all types of colors but I only see it in blue, and rarely at that. I've been told that it's far brighter elsewhere. Even as I'm here though I can't help but think that as careful as I am and as much as everyone tries to be cautious we are hitting the coral and we are doing it damage. There is a $45 tax to go to the reef. I really hope it goes to a good cause.

Off the boat:

Just checked in to a new place will be here for 2 nights. Sharing a 3 person room with just this girl from the trip. Semi-random coincidence. She's Canadian. My ears ring and everything sounds slightly dulled. My feet hurt and every step makes me wince. It's a 20 min walk to downtown and I will be going out tonight. Deciding whether going barefoot will cause more or less pain. The diving was amazing. More-so than the fish or the coral I realize I enjoy just the feeling of diving. There is a euphoria when you get off the boat and into the water. All the weight is off me, my hair cooperates with everything, the hum of the boat is gone, so is the shouting of people, its just you, your buddy, and the open ocean. As previously stated I was very happy with my buddy. One of the last pictures in the set come from him getting his arm scraped up on coral. To list a small number of creatures I saw on the reef: sharks (white-fins), eels (giant moray), turtles, lobster, giant clam, barracuda, tropical fish of every variety, tons of sea cucumbers, I don't even remember the rest. There are pictures. Again I have little time to write. I prefer it this way. Always doing something always more to write and more to do. I can say so much about the dives and most of it is just saying how great it all was so I'll spare you that. You know it's great. Here is what went wrong. Just before we were about to get into the water for the first night dive we got called out on an emergency to some small boat that was supposedly near us. It was not. We traveled for about an hour and a half to basically pronounce someone dead. There was a girl on board that was a doctor. She didnt sleep that night. She said she just saw that guys face and thought about telling his family that there was nothing she could do. For the rest of us we missed a night dive. The 2nd night dive was in a large group there were about 9 of us swimming together. I got flippered in the face twice nothing like having your regulator kicked out of your mouth to make it more fun. We did not see much as we were just climbing over each other the whole time. Not much fun if there was a dive after that I'd have just gone with the buddy. The doctor girl got the shaft the final day too. There was some other medical emergency and we traded her off to another boat. She missed 2 dives we did them very very quickly. They had better give her some compensation. I want to dive more.


Uploading pictures as I send this. I deleted more than half of what the guy took this is what's left.


I'm still in Cairns. 2 interesting things have happened so far. First I went up to Cape Tribulation, the place where the reef hits the rain forest. Buncha guys and I rented a car and just went. It was fun but you know, just another beach. Clear blue water, soft sand, nice jungle views, some reef fish, maybe 6 other people there, warm water. You know, boring. We didnt even see any endangered animals. But we did have ice cream made out of fruits I've never even heard of even after my carribean adventure. What was really fun about it was the fact that I got to drive! Tiny car with 4 people, left hand drive, stick, at night, in the rain, on windy, thin, mountain roads. They were scared at first but I got the hang of it fairly quickly and we got home in one piece.

I got a nice place to stay that I'm happy with. Got a job in IT. This place was all sorts of messed up. when I got here there was no security on any computer, the computers used by the front desk were the shittiest ones there and were connected to a swtich that was connected to a switch that was connected to a switch connected to a router. My first day I redid their network archetecture and that wast too bad the 2nd day I ghosted all the computers. I was there for 12.5 hours after which I realized I didnt have lunch. My work is still not done. but at least now I'm not working so much. Sadly..? they are open 7 days a week but it's lonely work so I want to hang out and do things afterward so I'm happy with it. today I networked their printers and I'm hopefully going to make a new image and reimage all of them again. I'm sick of making the same change to 20 computers. they need a new image anyway. I've never made one so wish me luck. I also have very limited software but I figure it will be a fun learning experience get caught up on all this tech suport stuff.

I'll put up cape trib pictures eventually, there arent many of them so I'm not in a rush.

How are you guys? I've hear from some of you regularly but some of you I dont even know if this makes it through your spam filter.

I'm going on the road again. a few nights ago i was sitting around with 2 german girls who lost a travel buddy for cookstown and offered to take me instead. They are renting a van and planning on staying for a month. I agreed with them under the condition that nothing else i had worked out for me. they didnt really have any other choice.

Then the very next night i run into a guy that is going up to darwin, has his own 2 passenger car but only 1 passenger. he's from england. offered to go hiking with me today to see if we get along. sounded like a good plan so i went.

While we were out hiking i got text back from a guy i messaged a number of days ago. he is also interested in taking me to darwin.

All of these are leaving on Saturday.

Thats how life goes one second there is nothing happening and you're wandering aimlessly and the next 3 people want to take you places that you want to go.

Where am I going you wonder? In short, Darwin with the guy I hiked with. But read on if you care about the logic involved. 2 german girls. very cute (a little too tall) have a van to sleep in for all 3 of us. Sounds great for a single guy like me right? Except with them I'd have to make a month long commitment as public transport to cooktown is scarce and expensive. I'd also have to spend half the trip explaining myself as they speak very little english. the rest of the trip I will be spending listening to them blather on in german. And as much as having 2 german girls to cuddle with at night sounds like a fun plan I realize that the more realistic plan involves me sleeping outside somewhere while they take the bed. It's probably way too hot for all 3 of us to sleep in the camper anyway. Though sometimes, I wish I thought with my cock, maybe I'd make more stupid decisions more frequently.

Anyway. the trip to Darwin will take about a week maybe more. Darwin is currently as hot as balls dipped in chili sauce. I dont expect to have much internet access while i travel. In fact I dont expect to have much of anything while I travel. I expect to be sleeping outside and eating ramen for a week in the jungle. Why this excites me more than cute german girls I can not explain to you. However both Tom and I realize that Darwin is way too hot to stay in for long so he will also drive across and to the west coast, where I want to be anyway. This is the crazy outback experience I've been waiting for. Spending a month in a town of nothing with girls that can barely understand me is not.

I'm putting up photos of Tom and Sue (his car). He just called to say we're leaving Sunday instead. phew. some time to pack. awesome thing about a guy with his own car, there is no set plan. the way I like it.

Wednesday the 24th I woke up in the tent on the side of the road just west of mt Issa. Since the day we left I've acquired a sleeping bag and have learned to put my towel under it. It's almost as good as memory foam I swear. We're not sure how far we're going to get today but we'll be out of queensland for sure. We started waking up earlier. Something about trying to pack up while the blazing sun is beating on you makes waking up early not seem so bad. I never realized the true meaning of wet/dry seasons until we got out here. Here it makes sense. Every few kilometers is a sign on the side of the road to let you know how deep the water on the road is. It goes up to 1m. We constantly pass creeks that are bone dry, some rivers too, great big wide rivers, completely dry. Even the animal life is lacking. Most of the stuff we see is already dead on the side of the road. Only the birds come to clean it up, the crows and eagles are fat in this land. We have spent most of the time driving on one lane roads. I dont mean one lane on each side. I mean the kind of one lane roads where you play chicken with the car on the other side of the road to see who pulls off into the dirt. Big trucks always win that game. I think they are almost 50% of the traffic here. Usually carrying 3 trailers filled with cattle that shit on your car as you drive by them. We figured out real fast to keep the windows closed as we go by. Sue doesnt have power windows, nor does she have AC and she doesn't like going faster than 110km/h. Imagine going cross country in the US going the speed limit, the whole time. Tom drives 90% of the time, I offer to do my part but he says he's ok. We have both windows open the whole time and my hair is so tangled and knotted that I'm thinking if I dont wash it for a few days I'll have dreads. No, I'm not considering it. We're as far south as we will be, from here on in it's just going to be warmer and rainier. We only travel by day. We like to have a camp set by nightfall. A campfire is good to have as well. Since it's dry season all the wood is completely dry and burns easily. I'm the chef for this expedition and so far we've had meat every night and no meal more than twice. I hope to keep this up but it's getting difficult. We're being fairly hardcore about the trip, we carry everything we need and can make camp anywhere but the longer we're out here the more I realize we dont have to. We could have just as easily packed no food with us and no camping gear and there are enough places to stop so that you're able to eat and sleep without having to worry about it. Depending on the length of the trip it may even be cheaper but I have no idea what the prices are to be honest, we don't check, we got everything we need. When I get them up my picasa pictures should show a map from which you'll be able to estimate the path we went. There are few choices. If you end up wondering why we went so far south it's because the other way requires a few hundred K of driving on gravel roads. Sue is not about that, Tom is with her on it. Gas is pricey, between $1.45 and $2.10/liter which for those of you too lazy to do the conversion is $6-$8/gallon. Cows, they are everywhere. We go from one fenced enclosure of cows to the next, sometimes they arent even fenced and you have to play dodge the cow on occasion. Far too often the road has a little grid like they use at the 6 flags safari to let the cars pass but not the animals. The big cars go right over without noticing them but we're not in a big car. Oh and termite mounds, they are everywhere, thousands of them. They grow over a meter tall and sometimes you can look out the window and easily see 50 or more without turning your head. All my stuff at the moment is covered in red dust from an off road track we tried to take. There was supposed to be a ghost town but in reality it turned out to be 1 burned down building. Oddly enough there seems to be little to fear out here. There are no predatory animals, any human out here needs to own an offroad vehicle or stay home. Everyone has a nicer car than we do. So unless you step on something poisonous, which is hard to find in the dry season, the most likely harm that can come to you is from hitting something large with your car.

Side note. When you order a burger with everything in Oz it will include the following: bun, burger patty, tomato, onion, bacon, ketchup called tomato sauce here) beets, egg, and pineapple. For anyone who wants to recreate this experience back home (Tom I expect to hear how you felt about it) use 2 slices of beet root, 1 egg scrambled and fried, and 1 slice of pineapple.

When we reach any destination we are usually the smallest car there with one exception of a guy we met going around Oz on his motorcycle. everyone else is in vans they can sleep in or big 4wd cars with trailers or even full camper vans. people look at us like we're crazy when we set up our tent. I've always liked those looks.

Thursday. We spent the night at devil's marbles. just 1 day drive from ularu and the red center. I don't care to see it and Tom will see it later on. I personally feel something like devil's marbles is more fun because i can climb all over it instead of just observing some rock in all of its rocky glory. and yes i know yuo can technically climb the big rock at ularu and nobody will stop you but you may as well piss on the natives while you're on top of it as it wont be much more of an insult.
Now we are finally heading north. after 3 days withuot a shower we're hopign to stop at a hostel in Katherine, maybe get some internet, recharge all of our devices, did i mention shower? hopefully find some internet to send our progress and then spend a few days in Kakadu park. I hear it is one of the glorys of Oz a big gator infested rain forest the pictures from there should be the exact opposite theme of the pictures I should be uploading with this email. for those that have forgotten they can be found at picasaweb.google.com/alsounique I've been just lettign tom use his nice expensive camera for most of them which works well for me as i don't like taking many pictures. As for final thoughts on the outback adventure, through the middle of nowhere Oz I'd say... don't do it. I had a good time dont get me wrong but if you're lookig for the experience of driving through nothing for 4 hours and then paying far too much for gas and supplies and then driving 4 more hours then I'm sure you can find a similar experience in the midwest. Just less red sand and termites. It is far far cheaper to just fly everywhere you want to go in Oz. When someone told me that she took 11 flights in 3 weeks and saw everything there was to see that way I didn't believe her but now I think she may be right. The cool thing about Oz is the variety. Today we are going from desolate wasteland for as far as the eye can see to the edge of a lush rainforest. It's just 1 day's drive away. Two days after we leave the rainforest we'll be visiting beautiful beach towns and sometime after that I'll find my own way to Perth. The constant change in scenery is really cool. But the differene between driving 10 hours for that change and flying 2 hours is really just a matter of time and little else. I'm also really looking forward to a mattress. sleeping on rocks is only fun for... wait no, it's not. But yes right now I can't wait for Kakadu. Though I hear it's painfully hot and we have no AC I am still really looking forward to it.

Friday. I'm paying $2 per 15 min for the internet so i'll just send this and be very brief with replies thank yuo to all who email me.

Kakadu day 1

Actually before I start let me backtrack. One step.

The Aboriginals:

On our way to Kakadu we drove through 3 small towns. All of them had many many Aboriginals in the street. Day and night. Especially night. One of them tried to steal our camera but he was too drunk and we were too careful. However if you walk inside to any of the shops anywhere they are all manned by white people. All of them. In fact the only Aboriginal I met that was working was at one of the bars there was one as a bouncer. That's it. The grocery store was all manned by white people and most of the people shopping were Aboriginal. At Kakadu all the shops are run by white people. There are some Aboriginal guides/gardeners/camp caretakers but even that is not very frequent. For reference Kakadu is the Aboriginal reserve park where technically the land is owned by them. You can make your own deductions but it's the same story as the native Americans all over again.

I talked to some locals about it. They say that the "Abies" get some serious money from the gov and the large majority of them choose not to work. They are also not good about sending their kids to school and that it is very rare to find them making anything of themselves.

Back to Kakadu.

The story left off Thursday when our hero was in desperate need of some AC and a shower. And looking to Katherine to get it. We booked a hostel in Katherine but when we got there the dorm rooms were all filled with locals looking to do some mango picking and there were 2 spots left one in the girls dorm (that Tom called before I realized what was happening) and one in a guys dorm. The guys dorm had a broken shower and hot water was constantly leaking and steaming up the place so I opted for a non air conditioned dorm thinking it's not that hot. And at night it wasn't. It was actually bearable, except in the room where the temperature for some reason was a good 10 degrees hotter. And there was only one window and no cross ventilation so I ended up sleeping on the window sill. Seriously. In the morning, rested and refreshed we picked up some groceries, spent some time online, at $2/15min and started our trip to Kakadu. Due to the heat in our non air conditioned car we made frequent ice cream stops. Our first stop in Kakadu was after an hour on a dirt road. And when I say dirt road I would like you to imagine a washboard except with groves that are 2-3 times the size or that sand that you find underwater on some beaches that is stiff and rippled and no matter how you step your foot is always landing on the top of just one of the ripples. Yea imagine driving on that for an hour. Except instead of metal or sand it's dry red dirt and rocks. Lots of rocks. When we finally made it to the place we were going we found that one of the tires was flat. So we get out of the car, and get swarmed by flies. Dozens of them attacking my face while we try to change this tire on a car that is so hot from just the sun that we can barely touch it. After that was done we had some very warm cereal, our breakfast at about 4 in the afternoon and went to see this waterfall. Now I must remind the readers that this is the dry season. We get to the bottom of this waterfall and it's a fairly large cliff. I'd say about 200 feet. The water coming down is about as fast as it would go if I drank 2 cans of beer really quickly and needed to relieve myself. In fact I thought about doubling the flow of the water but reconsidered. After having been to the bottom we climbed to the top. I'll attach pictures of the view. It wasn't bad. We get to the top of this fall and there are a bunch of little pools at the top of it. There are children swimming in them so we know they are crock free. When you enter the park they tell you the only "safe" water is in the pool. But we felt that if the crocks aren't eating the children then we must be safe. We spent the next 2 hours swimming, rock climbing, cliff jumping, and exploring this absolutely amazing place. I dont have pictures of this but there was a gorge at the top of the falls that we swam up ad when we got to the end of the gorge there was another waterfall, the water was so warm it felt like a shower, collecting down in these small little pools surrounded by rocks. Fun climbable, smooth edged rocks. With nice safe... well not too safe :) water underneath. I was like a fat kid in a nutella factory. We climbed everything there was to climb and jumped everywhere I could jump and just had a blast. And forgot all about the tire and everything else that sucked down below. Except the flies, they always reminded us as soon as we left the water that they were there, waiting. We stayed for the sunset just hanging out and swimming and then walked back, set up camp and stayed up talking with some Dutch people and when they went to sleep we talked to some locals, air traffic controllers. Good guys, offered us their booze and to bail us out if they found us stranded on the side of the road.

Day 2

We got up really early in the morning. There was light but the sun was not really out yet. We drove as slowly as physically possible back up the dirt road. Did a walk that is not worth mentioning and saw a cultural center where, for me, the highlight was the air conditioning. Then we planned to see some rock art but on the way we heard this loud noise coming from the spare. We stop to check it out to find a piece of metal is out of whack, so Tom puts it back into place and we continue, very slowly, on our way. 5 min later we hear a much louder noise and the car starts to shake. We get out and see that that piece of metal has made its way over to thee tire and hit the wheel stripping the tread all the way to the metal mesh. I didnt even know car tires had a metal mesh and yet there it was. There is a picture of this. Half the tire tread is missing. The road suddenly got a lot bumpier. We start driving about 20k/h for a little while longer and then we hear a new noise. The tire tread that has been dislodged is now more dislodged and hitting the mud flaps. Sigh. So I cut off the extra tread, and we crawl to where we hear there is a workshop. It takes forever. When we arrive, the shop is closed. We can get a mechanic to come out on the weekend but there is a $130 fee. We decide to wait. We crawl down the street to a camp ground and let sue rest. We treat ourselves to some ice cream, get a beer, and sit around by the pool, and run into some old friends. The air traffic control guys are now at this campsite. They tell us they can squeeze us into their car while ours is fucked and take us with them to see the park. We heard from others about exactly where to go and when so we share our little secrets and agree to meet them the next day. Then proceed to spend the night drinking with these guys. Ahh whiskey and coke on ice really cheers you up after a hot shitty day.

Day 3, Tom's birthday.

We grab some breakfast and meet these guys in their $85,000 SUV. It not only has air conditioning but there are vents in the back seat. We travel to the places we want to go at 140k/h the guys keep lively conversation, they keep a good walking pace, and after a hike we get back into a car that turns freezing cold in less than a minute. This is the way to travel. I take back everything I said about not driving around Oz. Drive around Oz just be sure to do it with all the right camping equipment and a large, air conditioned, off road capable vehicle, and bring a giant cooler and fill it halfway with booze. Do it with style. Check out the photos of the lookouts we got to. The last one with the sunset we behind schedule for so we seriously sprinted up this mountain. The 5 of us going at almost jogging speed up a 45 degree incline and some sheer climbs get to that height you see in the pictures in about 15 min. breating heavy and sweating like mad we get to the top, a place where it does not look like we were supposed to go, and crack open some beers and watch the sunset. A perfect end to an amazing day thanks to 3 army guys we ran into. The one who owns the car is married with kids and speaks fondly about the wonders of marriage. The other two are single guys, in their 20s, all Aussies from different parts of the country. Dont really know what else to say about them. Just how awesome it is to run into people that are genuinely out to just have a good time and help someone in need.

Day 4

We take Sue to the shop. We get the original tire fixed and get the hell out of Kakadu. The car is driving fine. We take it to a tire shop, or tyre as they spell it, weirdos, and get a quote on a new spare, say we'll pick it up in the morning. We get to a hostel that is booked and as we are trying to leave we find out that the reverse gear on the car no longer functions. So I had to push this car out of the parking lot and into the street and jump in through the window while it was moving. Ok I didnt have to jump through the window but... you know me. We get to a new hostel that has rooms, Tom is freaking out about his car I'm just trying to keep him calm. As we check in we see a familiar face, we barely recognized him as we met him on our very first night out but Paul, the guy riding around Oz on his motorcycle is sitting at the reception desk. He has just checked in. He asks us how we are doing, we tell him and he says well let me look at the car. He climbs underneath the car and fixes the gear box. We stand in awe as if he had just turned water to wine. Clearly, we need to get this man a drink. And man do we. For a non-sea shanty Monday night we certainly had a great time. He's going in the same direction we are. We told him that we'll meet up at some point in the next big city. I think we're all looking forward to it.

So, moral of the story. When traveling talk to everyone. Offer them a drink. Have the largest camp fire so that people are attracted to your site. You never know when the people you meet can save your ass and it is a very very small world.

Next, we are off to one more national park tonight and then off to Broome where we may spend a few days if the weather is nice.

I just arrived in Broome. The trip was not long but as I look ahead I see that unless we stop somewhere for a long time we need 2 days to get to exmouth and 2 more to get to perth. This is at a safe driving rate where we eat 3 meals a day and dont drive in the dark. The plan as I imagine it right now is to get to Perth and find a job to save up some money then at the end of November fly over to India and party with Eliot while she's still there and knows what's up and has all the touristy stuff out of her system. I have no idea what I want to see, to be honest I dont want to see anything I want to experience it if you know what I mean. As with all the flights I have gotten I will buy a one way flight and stay as long as I feel is needed. But I'm not here to write about the future. I'm here to talk about the things I have done. So, the story left off with Tom and me in Darwin. After Darwin we went down to Litchfield national park. Some say it's better than Kakadu and others say it is nowhere near as good. My diagnosis: while Kakadu has far more impressive sights and many beautiful lookouts and good hikes Litchfield is far more fun for me. Litchfield has waterfalls. They are not huge, they are more active than the ones in Kakadu in the dry season but what makes these falls amazing is how much fun they are to play in. the water is deep, the rocks are climbable and you can do 5 completely different cliff dives from a single site! I swam around for hours. There was nothing else that I wanted to do. After it was getting too dark we finally made our way to the camp site. It involved a short dirt road and as we crawled toward camp a big land rover passed us and our old friends the air traffic control guys drove by hanging out the window yelling at us. More drinking, eating and merriment followed that night. The guys offered to let us stay at their place just south of Kathrine the next night and we took them up on it. I got some internet that night and slept on a bed for the first time in a while. Oddly enough I woke up more sore than I have sleeping on rocks. Maybe I'm getting used to sleeping on just my back as nothing else is an option out in the bush. We got up not too early and after 2 days of boiling, unbearably hot driving and camping we made it to Broome. We hope to stay a day or two to do some surfing or at least swimming in the beach. I seriously spent the last night between sleeping and a wake half consciously wiping off the sweat and dinking water like an IV drip unable to sleep in the heat that has no logical explanation. We were much farther south, maybe the winds just blew from the desert. Whatever the reason it is much nicer in Broome, I hope that the day is as refreshing as the night. If not, we move on. I hope to bring more tales of aquatic adventure and interesting jobs in the near future. Broome is a giant pearling center. I think I could make an awesome pearl diver. :D

I have pictures up, read the captions they fill in the details of the story,

Broome:

We spend more time in Broome than we planned on. We run into the two Japanese girls I found sitting on the sidewalk in Darwin, while I was drunk. There is a picture of one of them in the Kakadu section of my photos but there are in fact 2 of them traveling together. There are many many pictures of them in the Broome album as we seriously spent about half our time with them. Speaking English very slowly and clearly and repeating ourselves when we got that "I have no idea what you are saying but I'm going to smile just in case" nods. Long story short I never thought anything would happen to begin with and Tom tried so hard and walked away disappointed. We had good times though, and it was good to hang out with people that are not just Tom. We tried to convince them to follow us to Exmouth and I have a feeling that when we are done there they will finally make their way down. We are hitting the road very late today.

As for Broome itself there are 2 beaches even though we only went to one. The better one by all accounts. It faces west it has miles of clean white sand, no rocks. There is a quarter mile stretch that is patrolled by life guards and most of the people swim either right there or within a quarter mile in either direction. So basically if you walk a mile away from the crowd you suddenly have a gorgeous beach all to yourself. We spent 2 consecutive nights going down to this beach at sunset once with just me and Tom and once with the girls. Both times we found it deserted if we just walked for 30 min in any direction after sunset. As you walk by in the dusk little crabs run away and as we went swimming we could see fish swimming through the waves as we tried to jump over them. We really enjoyed broome but it feels like the 'city' thinks way too highly of its self. I'm currently in the most expensive hostel I have stayed at in all of Oz. And yet we have no AC, no breakfast, nothing that would really justify this price. And the worst part is all the hostels here are like this or worse. All are fully booked. We are done here and not a moment too soon. I am looking forward to Exmouth, I think we will get there in two or three days of driving. Depending on how late we leave today. Its a long trip.

We left Broome 2 days ago. It's the end of the 2^nd day of driving and we plan on arriving in Exmouth tomorrow before noon. Swarms of little green birds looking for an adrenaline fix fly right up to the moving car and pull away at last minute riding the wind as we break through the stale air. Rays of light come from a cloudy sky and land on red rocks surrounded by greenish yellow grass growing out of pink ground. Oddly enough the more we travel through the middle of nowhere Australia the more I enjoy it. The beauty of this drive is impossible to capture by camera, or at least with my camera. There is nothing spectacular about a couple short trees growing on top a small outcrop of red stone unless it's set in the background of the vast, flat, yellow savannah that stretches in every direction. It's the sharp contrasts and subtle changes that you miss when you can only capture a moment. It's the way the color of the dirt goes from dried blood red to pastel pink by just turning your head. When Tom drives I slowly make my way through The Lord of the Rings and every time I look up the landscape has suddenly changed. Right now there is white grass among green shrubs growing out of reddish-orange dirt. A few hours ago (sorry for the geek reference) I felt like the Barrens were on the right side of the road, with yellow grass, short trees, bridges that cross only sand and a hint of green in the distance. To my left I saw (I'm almost happy to forget the name of the place to the left of the barrens) mountains, tall, red, with small growths on them and little caves that you can see in the distance. Hours behind me Silithus with its giant termite mounds coming out of dusty maroon land and the charred remains of trees caught in the last bush fire. A few hours in the future I will be in the middle of an Ashenvale, green forest that I can almost see over the horizon, and I am already scared of the giant spiders that lurk there. The last thing we did in Broome was visit a light house and I know the pictures wont come out but what I found most appealing about it was the way the sharp red rocks clashed against the background of the soft blue water while in the distance warm white sand leads to just the slightest hint of civilization. And maybe the energy drinks, that are required for driving such long distances in the hot sun, are getting to my head but I'm glad that I'm driving out here instead of flying from one point of interest to the next. Because if even I can appreciate the sheer boring landscape then maybe there really is not a waste of time and money. It also may have to do with the fact that I'm finally getting accustomed to it. Your first night sleeping on rocks in a boiling hot tent really sucks. Your tenth night, however, is not as bad. Maybe by my 20^th I'll actually look forward to it.

I woke up on the last morning of our trip to Exmouth we woke up before 7 to the sound of rain drops. I was both pleased to hear them and annoyed that it meant we had to pack up quickly. We got out just before the rain started. I have not seen rain since Cairns. It is as welcome as it can be especially since when we do hit Exmouth we will no longer need to stay in a tent.

A quick little ironic observation, Aussies suck at labeling roads. We have frequently wondered if we are going the right way and what the hell road we are on. However I just passed the 2^nd "you are on this road" marker I have seen in Oz. Strangely it is over 100km away from the nearest intersecting road in any direction, and so was the last one. It's like going into the middle of the desert and putting a sign up that says "you are in the desert" without even any information on how to get out of it. There will also be a sign to tell you the name of every single dry patch of dirt they call a creek, however, I can not list the number of times we have passed a road with no sign indicating what it is called. Oh and every now and then there is a sign that says "the road you want is to your right in 200m" and then it is followed by 2 right turns very close together as if I'm supposed to get out my measuring stick and figure out which one is closer to 200m away from the sign because whatever road you get onto will not identify its self until you're 200km from civilization. Tom shares the same frustration so I know it isn't just me being used to the American roads.

Anyway it has become easier to put this up in blog form instead of emailing it out. Some of the recipients have been trying to convince me of doing this for a while but then someone decided to appeal to my already bloated ego and mentioned they wanted to share it with other interested parties so I figured it can not suck that bad. Other than this entry where I just felt like writing with nothing other than open road to write about. Ahh the problem of blogs.