Without Direction

Well I had to get out of Thailand in a hurry, as my visa was about to run out, so I settled on heading to Laos.
So, I’m in the sleepy capital of Laos, Vientiane, on the Mekong river. Vientiane is not like any capital I’ve even been to. It’s more like a sleepy village. Laos is poor country, and you can see it everywhere, beggars, bad roads etc.

Main street, Vientiane, Laos.

However it’s a charming town. The people are very friendly, and the Lao language is very similar to Thai which is handy because I can actually talk a little bit Thai now-a-days!! Thai is my kind of language, no grammer! I’ve been visiting various Wat’s and the Lao Museum, which in the usually Asian style is more like a school project, by a kid in the communist party

I’ll be heading north to Vang Vieng in couple of days. It’s hot today so I’m off to drink a Beer Lao, @ Euro 0.80 ! Enjoy!

Hi guys, well I’m back in Thailand, in Krabi right now. Luckly I missed the bombings at the border areas I crossed yesterday. That area has been a little tense in the last while. There was a increased military presence there, and I met some travelers in Malaysia, who were told not to cross there or came across in the train with high security onboard. Well I think we can all agree that planting bombs isn’t the right way to gain independance, but check out how the Thai government dealt with it.

Yes I will.

My first resting stop in Malaysia was Tioman, a small Island of the East coast. Tioman has several little villages , some with little beaches, scattered across the Island, some of which are connected by “roads”, some are only reached by boat.

I stayed in Air Batang (ABC). Since Malaysia is a Muslim country there is a nice friendly sign at the pier.

No beer then. While actually there was. Mayalsia might be a Muslim country but its very towards other religions, ideals etc. So infact there were plenty of beer being sold (and drunk) by Non Muslims, and Muslims alike. Its only people who are Muslim who are prohibated by law.
The island had really great snorkelling , great swimming and OK beaches. I spent most of my time split between the above. Lazy days. A good deal of eating too, trying the local foods, Roti Canai, Sambals etc.. It turned out that the Island has a Duty Free. Cans of beer cost about Euro 0.40 each!!

One day I decided to cross the Island and cross over the middle of the Island to Juara.

Here is the route…

(click for bigger pic)

It was a 11 Mile round trip though the rain forrest. It was hot and humid, the jungle is full of lizards and monkeys (pics below), and the going was tough and steep. But it was pretty great being in the middle of rain forrest by myself.

Juara itself was a pretty little bay, but it was the journey that made it fun not the destination. When I arrived back to ABC, the locals on seeing my clothes soaked with sweat, laughed and said “Juara!!! ha! good walk! ”

I stayed on the Island for a week before heading to my next port of call on the East coast, Malacca.

Monkeys and Lizards!

Well I’m back in Singapore! Pretty good to be back in Asia, well sort of Asia. Even managed to get upgraded to first class on the plane from Oz. And yes it MUCH better then the slums in the back….more champagne sir? Anyway…

Although I really didn’t enjoy Singapore the last times, it actually grown on me. I mean its not Asia or Europe, its still a little too clean and perfect,but actually its a pretty nice place. Little India and China town are cool. The Zoo and it’s night tour is really cool. Electronics are cheap. People are nice. You feel safe everywhere you go. …Well except if are smoking a joint, then you’ll be killed by the government, but besides that!

Look at the lovely pictures !

Plastic Buddhas. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, this will come back as plastic chop sticks.

Little India - best food in town.

you can see why lift refurbishment is the number one election issue !!!

Fraser Island, north of Brisbane , is the worlds largest sand island. Its pretty beautiful, with rain forests, perched lakes, and lots of white sand! The only way to get around the island is to travel by 4WD, which is great fun. This is the only place I’ve been to where the main street appears and disappears with the tide! I did most of the driving on the Island, which was fine with me. We had a huge 11 person 4WD, to drive around. This thing was BIG! We camped for the 2 nights. Unfortuataly we had 2 of the most vile type of Irish girls in the world with us. You know the type, whiney fools who miss their home comforts and complain all the time. Complaining about the cold for gods’sake. Only time they had a smile was in the company of mentally ill kid, which obviously reminded them of their moronic friends back home, should have feed them to the Dingos…… o.k. where was I?? Oh yeah check out my ride!!!

My bad photos are worth a 1000 of my bad words…..
The main highway..

Side street….

Mother of all roof racks (spot the Itialian boys bags? - we’re going camping guys!)

Beautiful perched lake

Part of my sail training was to be able to recognise differenet types of vessels, their direction of travel etc. at night. This is done by decoding the various different light patterns the vessel has on display. Here is my favorite one:

This is one you really want to avoid,it’s a Minesweeper, less than 50m long, seen from ahead, under way, coming straight for you!!!

Well guys, my time in Australia is about to come to an end. Tomorrow I am off to Singapore. Australia has been great, and I’m sad to go, but its a long way home; and my visa runs out on Sunday!! I got to Melbourne on Tuesday, hopped on the plane from Cairns, where I was relaxing after 10 days at Sea!! Yes folks I’m now officially a sailor! Check me out!

I spent 7 days, on a yacht called the 007, learning to sail in the Whitsundays, a beautiful set of Islands, 74 of them in total. We had great sailing weather, 20 - 30 knots some days, rain, sun, wind, calm, we had it all. We lived aboard for the 7 days, so we did some night sailing too, which is a interesting feeling. After the weeks training I had earned my Competent Crew sailing Cert. something I’ve wanted to do for about 10 years!! As well as the sailing there was plenty of time for Snorkelling on the Reefs , chilling Whitehaven beach, dolphin, shark, ray, turtle spotting, and drinking and BBQs. Yes of course we had a BBQ on the yacht, this is OZ!

I also had 3 days aboard a large sailing yacht, the Eureka II, big boat = big fun, fast!!

Hi everyone! First of all, sorry for the complete lack of posting to the site. I promise to fill the gaps, but first I’ll let you all know where I am right now; I’m back in Brisbane. Yes I’ve been here before, and yes it is on the opposite coast to where my journal left me last. Such is manner of unplanned travel.

After my last roadtrip, which shall be chronicled in depth in later entries, I was in Perth, on the west Coast of Australia. We checked into the cheapest hostel in Brisbane as a group. When I say hostel, you might have in mind a cheary colorful place full of fresh faced youths, eager for the break of dawn to explore yet another cultural icon of Perth. Rather you should think along the lines of a hippy residence, East coast USA, circa 1972, except, on the sun drenched west coast of Australia. A single house in the middle of vancant lots at the end of Perth’s party street, surrounded by a wall, often lept over; (often business conducted tool) with spaces to the rear and front, choc-a-block with broken and mis-matched funiture, and many empty beer bottles. No reception, no rules. Welcome to the house known to other backpackers as “the dark side”.

But don’t be mislead. I could have left for the hostel across the road, with swimming pool and Air-Con at any time. The sooty exterior concealed something of a gem, in your spic-and-span hostels that exist today - “A community”. So when a notice appeared on the notice board, showing a “teddy bear” blindfolded, a knife to it’s neck with a ransom note, everyone knew immediately who owned the bear, and who the likely suspects were.

There was a cast of tenants, that would make Dickens blush. Many of the people that hung out there, didn’t even live there; the just washed and ate and hung out there, and then retired to the back of their vans and cars to sleep. One Irish guy checked out, and promptly moved into the sitting room. There were the Irish guys, mostly working hard and living hard. Labourers mostly, a diver, all complete with Irish tans. The deadlocked Itailians, who visited to eat, and wash; play guitar and smoke. The young brash South African brother and sister; the English girls, one loud, one quiet. No americans. From time to time, a new face would arrive; sometimes leaving quickly, scared by the grimmy exterior of the people, the place.

Once in it was easy to get stuck. Everynight in Perth, there are deals for travellers. One pub PAID you to go to them, $5 a person, and a free BBQ. Another took $250 bucks from a group and give you a $1000+ bar tab. It was easy to drunk on $10. And we did. Everyday there was something going on, the beach, a BBQ in the hills. Days went by. I released I had to move, to decide where to go, and how. My visa was running out. I had to fly, I booked a flight to Brisbane; leaving the day after St. Paddys day.

Surprisingly maybe, St. Patricks day isn’t a big deal for me in Ireland. I usually avoid the city, but in Perth, it was fun. The streets were closed to make way for stages and drinking. Every non-Irish person in house dressed in green, Irish music was played, there were water fights, Irish dancing leasons, alot of beer. It was loud, brash but rather good fun!!
As you can imagine I took the plane to Brisbane hungover. So I was in Brisbane, what next?