Night Train to Laos and Cambodia

The last few days have been action packed and some of the best of my adventure. Unfortunately due to slow internet connections, constant moving from city to city and a dodgy keyboard on my laptop I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like to but I'm hoping that will change when I get to Laos and start to chill out for a few days. Here are a few bullet points of what's been happening:

-I'm presently traveling with Philly Griffin ( a friend from Waterford), for Xmas we went to the islands of Kao Phanyang to catch some sun, hit the full moon parties, and have a monster New Years. The island was a bit like Ibiza but more chilled out and far better scenery. Life was mostly all about sleeping in a log cabin beside the beach, driving around on our Honda 50s on the most dangerous roads I have ever seen, drinking coconuts, avoiding 40 ft, 500km an hour tidal waves and having a daily "dream package" massage :)
-Three days were had in Cambodia. Without doubt some of the most enjoyable days of my life. Firstly, we went to the capital Phnom Penh, a dust ridden, unorganised jungle where everyone rides a bike and chaos manages the traffic rules. With literally no traffic lights and no names on the roads anything goes. It was not unusual to see 4 or 5 people on the back of small bikes beeping horns, zig zagging and jockeying for position, wearing a face mask to protect against dust and a baseball cap to protect themselves from the belting sun. Also got the chance to visit the harrowing Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Toul Sleng Genocide Musuem. One of the highlights was being brought to a army base by my taxi bike rider. A menu was put on the table and i had the chance to fire a varierty of weapons in a ravine or shotting range. I toyed with the idea of firing an M16 and a rocket launcher for 200 dollars but decided that i'd leave it to Chuck Norris, Rambo and the more than willing Israeli boys that were there!!! After a crazy night in the dodgiest hotel I ever stayed with we got two taxi bikes to the train station and then made our way painfully slow to Siem Reap and the amazing temples of Anker Wat. Anker Wat is the biggest religious construction in the worlds history, it spreads out over 77km of land and has a wide variety of temples, causeways, towers and underground chambers. Fascinating. I'd need a few hours to catalogue the experience. I'd strongly recommend a visit if in the vicinity. Will try write more about it later.
-After a tortuous 10 hour bus journey we landed in Bangkok and hit the central back pack streets. This place is seriously sleazy and anything goes from what I can see. Plenty of dart throwing and ping-pong shooting shows on hand for little or no cover charge. Crazy. After an early night in and the watching of a few FA cup matches myself and Philly called it a night. Today so far has been all about arranging our overnight train to Laos and getting fitted out by one of the famous tailors that are everywhere. Today I put in an order for 7 Kashmir pants and 9 cotton shirts. Have a fitting in a few hours. Total cost after receiving a free Pepsi and spending 10 minutes haggling - 200 euros. Time will tell if it was good valuable.

Lots of photos uploaded on the blog. Here's a link to the Cambodia section.

The New Year is upon us - let's be thankful!

It's still difficult to comprehend the wreckage and destruction the earthquake has reaked...it's still hard to predict the full extent of the damage... some of the facts and figures are flaggergasting:

-500 miles an hour waves
-40ft high
-quakes the equivalent to 1000 atom bombs
-120,000 dead

If you want to find out more information about this week's tsunami of biblical proportions and how you can help the victims, the best place to go is a new blog in the Indian Ocean region that's compiling everything from requests by organizations seeking donations to victim lists. It's called the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog. It seems that the bloggers are getting out for more information than any of the networks so check it out.

If you can get the chance to make a donation - do so. The devastated really need the world to unite to bring them out of this nightmare as quickly as possible.

On a lighter note, the show does go on, and its heartening to see people bravely resuming life as best they can. Tonight is New Year's Eve and while the people of Thailand like those of the other affected country are in shock they are determined to celebrate the coming of the New Year the best they can...

I know i am going to follow their brave example. Tonight will be a beach party - the likes of which has never been seen before.

Have a good one whereever you are and be thankful to be given the gift of seeing a new year.

Happy to be still Rambling...Tsunami dodging

By now you've all heard of the earthquake disaster that has hit so many heavily populated coastlines in Asia. Thankfully, I wasn't affected, but, many were not so fortunate. The death tool so far as accurately as I can get is:

Sri Lanka: 10,800 dead
Indonesia: 4,500 dead
India: 2,958 dead
Thailand: 839 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Maldives: 32 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead

The first I heard of it was an email from my brother. I quickly asked some of the natives of the situation and they outlined the magnitude of the quake and the path of destruction that was being carved out as we spoke. At that stage some of the aftershocks were still sending 40ft waves out into sea. After a quick email home to explain that we were safe we went about finding out as much information as we could. First we were told that 1,000 had died. Later 2,000...So on and so on and now the count is approx. 20,000. Some of the stories that we heard were terrible as the situation unfolded. We met one guy who told us that he was talking to his girlfriend who was stuck in the island of Phuckat (one of the worst hit), she was on top of a mountain with some others who dashed to the summit and she didn't know what to do. They had received a 2 hour warning to reach high ground. Another told a story of how his friend was deep sea diving off the same island when the first wave hit. Both were saved. Others were less fortunate. Up to 20 tourist boats through out all the countries were missing. Many fishermen were lost and even the grandson of the kingdom of Thailand, a 21 year old boy, lost his life while out jet skiing. And its still not over for these areas. Talk has now swung to the disease that will spread due to poor sanitation and lack of clean water. Unfortunately, the death toll is going to be higher. More individual eye accounts can be found on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4125945.stm

Life on the island is going on as if it hasn't happened. Literally, everyone is going about the business. Fortunately, Koa Phanyang is in the gulf and protected by the mainland. As such, we did not experience anything at all. Just huge volumes of emails, phone calls and TV images of the devastation.

I count myself lucky. Back in June I made a decision to stay in Brasil an extra month. If I had not done that I would presently, according to my original itinery be on the east coast of Sri Lanka and would have been in one of the regions that was hit the hardest. I now won't be going there and must contact Quantas to see what my options are of a different flight. Maybe it will be an extra couple of weeks in China or India. I'll have to check it out.

Anyway, thanks for the emails. They were much appreciated.

We all need a bit of haiku for Xmas

subway woman asleep
picked daisies
in her hand

The blind musician
extending an old tin cup
collects a snowflake

little butterfly
floating over the flowers
christmas is beginning

Sydney

Day: 272
Location: YHA Hostel (Central Station)
Temp: 34

After some hell-raising with my good old mate, Mick Cluskey, I now find myself in Sydney. It's hot here. Very hot.

Tonight i go with a Japanese boxer, called Rocky, for a meal on the harbour. I'm going to get my 2nd Japanese lesson. Always fun trying to communicate with someone from the other side of the globe with a few clicks, winks ans arm swings.

Becuase of the potential situation with booked flights of not getting to Thailand for New Years Eve i had to make a tough decision to knock New Caledonia and the biggest Lagoon in the world on its head. It will have to be done another time. So much for practicing my French which i've been learning with the help of my new mini Ipod (a God sent for any vagabond).

As it stands i fly on the 24th of December. I stay in Thailand until the 28th Jan. I'm planning to take in the islands a week in the north, a week in Laos and a few days in Cambodia to check out the temples. On the 28th i make my way to Hong Kong to do some gambling ni Macaw and practice the Portugese again. From there one more day in Bangkok and then 2 weeks in Sri Lanka and a month in India.

I'd imagine the Christmas festivities are well and truely on the way. Same on this side of the world. Only difference being Santa has a barby, puts factor 60 on the snowmens' noses and Rudolf is wearing Speedos.

Melbourne

Yesterday i landed in Melbourne and had a long overdue meeting with my good friend Mick Cluskey (the first ever person i met in college). It was great to see him. He had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his step. Not suprised. Considering the fact that he was driving me around in his convertible MG. The boys enjoying life and catching his fair share of rays which are in abundance down here. A very warm 28 degrees today and serious beach weather.

I forgot how beautiful Melbourne is and how big. Well over 3 million people in looks like a very well run city and very safe city. We could take a lesson or two from the way they live down here.

Next few days will be chilling out in the city and visiting the beach. The weekend will be a trip along the famous coast line and a spot of camping.

Oh yeah, as you probabaly guessed Brutos got my password for the blog and has been throwing up some spurious, counterfactual rants. He has been rempremanded.

Hope your all enjoyin' the run in to Xmas.

An altrustic Maroi

I was reborn yesterday. The world looks anew now. Things have changed in my mind. I have crossed a Roubicon. It was the very ne plus ultra of excitment.

I was in a bar in Queenstown a couple of nights ago having a few drinks with two Swedish girls when an oldish Maroi dude sat besdie me with his sagacious looking wife. One thing lead to another and we started trading interesting stories about our respective cultures. The topic quickly moved onto how I was enjoying New Zealand, and in particular, Queenstown. I explained to the sage looking man and his gentle wife that I was having a wonderful time. He told me he could see it in my auro before i even spoke. He knew i was happy. He asked me what adventure sports i had done, what i thought of them and what ones did i still want to do. Over a very enjoyable pint of local DB brew i told him in colourful detail my thoughts and observations. I also explained to him that while having done my fair share, i was low on time and money and as such couldn't get it all in in this visit. As i explained to him the iterinary i was and would be leading and the budgetary mechanics involved he excused himself politely and asked could he talk to his wife. Both talked in whispers and then smiled, shook their heads in affirmation and then returned to my company. The eagle featured man then asked me if i had anything planned for the next day. I told him no. He then asked me would i be interested in a once off, never to be repeated sports thrill of a life time. Was i what... He then over the course of 30 minutes explained to me how he and his family and sisters had come from nothing and through a combination of fortune and hard work he was now a multi-millionaire through a portfolio of investments mainly split into property and adventure sports companies. He told me that i reminded him of his son that was living in London, then with a smile he offered me a free package of adventure sports starting at 9am the next day. He explained to me vaguely what was involoved and guaranteed me it would be the best day of my life. A bold statement. After asking a few questions about the practicalities involved and consultating with my brother i agreed.

At 9am i was collected on a hot-rod motor bike from Queenstown Lodge where i was staying. From there I was drove to the local airport and qucikly strapped up and placed in a 4 man microplane that ascended to 15,000 ft. In the plane i was introduced to my tandem instrcutor, a cool, hip hop clothes wearing dude called Rodge. In the plane he placed some more clips on my harness and produced out of a cloth bag a bungy cord. I was worried. I wasn't going for the world record highest bungy jump by any chance? He laughed at me loudly as one of his colleagues came over and doubled checked everything. He calmed me down a little by explaining that there would be no world record attempts but there would be a bungy jump. I was to free fall for 60 seconds, after that he would release a parachute that would bring us gently towards the river below and at 300meters he would release the bungy cord and he said i could then make a jump. He explained that the man i had talked to in the bar had developed the jump and that it was perfectly safe, to trust him and that someone would be waiting for me below. At this stage i had little or no choice and went along with it. It was amazing. I nearly sh*t my pants. The best part was the bungy jump. It was so weird, for someone even to think up the concept and to go ahead wIth building a special double sized parachute was poco loco.

When i gently met the river a large white pole was extended to me from two other guys in a yellow raft. They undid my harness placed a life jacket on me, a pink helmet and gave me and oar. Then, they made me repeat a prayer with them in Maroi and one of them asked me to go to the front with him and help paddle down the ravine. After about 15 minutes of hard paddling we landed ourself in the fercouisly wild rapids. The guide at the back fell out at one stage but got back in. The ride lasted an hour but it went by like the blinking of a river swill on the horizon. If that wasn't enough at the end I was met by a young red headed Australian called, Bruce. He took a photo of me and asked me to remove my clothes. He handed me a towel and told me to change back into a new set of clothes which he gave me. After this he gave me a lunch box and told me to sit with him and eat. I had a chicken sandwich, a drink and a bit of fruit. He told me a little about his home looked at his watch, 12.30pm, and then said right lets go. He brought me through a forest and ahead of us was a chopper. We got on the helicopter and he fired up the engines. After lift off, he lashed on a banging techno number that i could hear in the headphones and we headed for Mount Cook and the massive Tasman Glacier. We landed after 30 minutes and we were both greeted by a very attractive teenage girl called, Jade. She had a snow board waiting for me and asked me if was ready to rock. I simply nodded and got strapped up. The descent was amazing. It was also really cool the way the helicopter pilot hovered above us for about 10 minutes before he left. I could visualise him nodding and shaking his head to his tunes as he smiled and watched me cresting the snow dunes and skimming off the ice.

Within 40 minutes it was finsihed. On the way down i kept thinking, what the f*ck is going to be next. I hoped there would be more. There was. Another dude, this time a much older man, Mr Robert P Philip - well, when i say old, older then the ones before - i'd say mid-40s, handed me a mountain bike and pointed to a dense forest path. We went over, and started a gentle descent a long the meandering path. This lasted about 30 minutes and was the least strenuous of all the trips. When he got off his bike we had arrived at a small jungle hut. He brought me inside and in there i was greeted by the man in the pub in the face and his wife. We all laughed when we met. He asked me if i was enjoyng myself. I smiled and just laughted out loud. He told me he'd take that as a Yes. Then he handed me the keys to a 4x4 quad and told me that the both of us would have a little ride along the ledge road, which is this tight hair pin, rubble road on the side of a gorge. The scenary was spectaular the weather was playing a blinder and hitting the river below to throw up a variety of reflecting lights from the stones in the river bed.

After an hour we arrived at a thermal bath and inside were the two Swedish girls that i had seen in the bar the night before. I was ushered to a changing room. Given the smallest pair of speedos you have ever seen and was told that for the next hour i was to be the the Irish ham in a Swedish love sandwich. I was fed grapes, kiwi slices and told that i would receive a pair of Koala slippers after their bubble bath show!! Oh the rest, lets just say its not for public consumption...

I was reborn yesterday. The world looks anew now.

If you don't beleive me you can send a mail to the girls and they'll tell you Their addresses are:

metofat@yahoo.se and elizabethlongnose@hotmail.com

Killing Experiences

Hi, Brutos here,

The Master is asleep and so is Eusebius so I have decided to write this blog. Why should he be the one that gets to write everything?

We are in Queenstown now. And the master’s brother is here, Joseph. We’ve all been feeding on extremely rich hunting grounds. I’d be hard pushed to recall a time when so many kills have been made in such a short amount of time. Preys are everywhere and are easy to, pin, wrestle and bite your mental morals into!

Queenstown is Kerry on steroids. It’s green, really green, one hundred greens, with massive multi coloured, multi-sculptured, mountains, clear, blue, round, oval, egg-like, splatted paint-shaped pristine lakes and forever skies with mesmerising cloud formations and memorable multi-coloured horizons that seem to whisper at you some kind of secret song that only mother nature knows how to sing. The song is everywhere down here. Dogs can here it sometimes but humans can’t. In this part of the world the euphony is all around the land. I have heard it on more than one occasion. Eusebius told me that he did too. It is unique and special.

Something Queenstown has that Kerry doesn’t have is glaciers and massive ranges of snow peaked mountains, long, wide, deep gorges and ravines with acres of ripe, fertile, rich soil speckled in carefully manicured lush vineyards of Pinot Noir. Eusebius is more of a Melbec dog and the Master is into Merlot. But no sweat, each dog to his own tail, each dog makes his own whale. We dogs only can register three tastes unlike a human tongue, but, I’m happy with my lot. You can only imagine the smells we can get with our big wet sensitive noses that you humans can’t. Let’s say we’re even.

In the adventure capital of the world there is too many activities to choose from. If you were here for two months you could do a different activity every day. And have loads left over for a return visit. On offer is: the famous AJ Hackett bungy jump, the biggest being the mighty Nevis leap which is 143meters high, there are 3 jumps in total; sky-diving, heli-hijking, heli-rides with drop off mountain bike descents, parachuting, hang gliding, speed boats, glow worm cave explorations, plane flights to the nearby famous Milford Sound fiord lands, world class fishing, rally driving, 6x6 and 4x4 mountain tours, clay pigeon shooting, a variety of horse riding extravaganzas, white water rafting grade 5 rapids, awesome body board sledging and oodles more. The place is made for adventure. And doesn’t fail on delivery. It is the first city in the world that I have ever been to that seems to be dominated by sports. It’s great… I love it here.

Let me give you an example why. Today was sledging with the aptly called Serious Fun Company. A crowd of lu-la, crazy, cool, thrill seekers. This is white water rafting without the rafts. Instead you use a body board… sound strange, it is… The way it works is you lash on a helmet, kind of like one of the ones that you’d see in an inter- county hurling match. Next, is a thick 5mm wet suit, flippers, shoes and gloves. After that comes the shiny board. The trip I went on was in total about 12km, a two run, one and a half hour riot down grade 3 rapids. Grade 3 mightn’t sound like much when you are in a raft but let me tell you, first hand, that when you are in the water without the protection of a raft, when you are at the mercy of dangerous whirl pools, jagged rocks, rips, curls, waves, rushing foam, branches, other boarders, sharp flippers and strong currents, travelling at up to 40km an hour it’s a big fat, crusty based adrenalin pizza your taking a few slices from. For me one of the highlights of this brilliant trip was getting a chance to take on some whirl pools. When you a hit a whirl pool its very easy to go into one, and if not to strong to catch an eddie (a nearby current, usually in the centre of the river) and kick your way out. However, if you lift your board vertical, instead of horizontal, place both hands on the top of the seam and hold it close, parallel to your body in a standing position you catch the whirlpool and spin around super quick and then eventually get spitted out. I caught two really good ones with three full spins inside. I also caught a good wave, paddling against the current and also threw a few mouth filling 360 pipes.

At one point in the second run, it started to rain. It was a beautiful site. 12 people rushing down a roaring river, multi coloured helmets bobbing in the water, boards tossing and turning, legs kicking hard, teeth clenched in wonderful smiles, shouts for joy filling the air, high-fives and index fingers pointing for the heavens and a thousands exploding drops smacking the river’s surface forming thousands of miniature bouncing hollows followed by a thousand more .

A serious work out, serious sport, serious fun, serious hunting.

The Cloud Piecer

Today I took my first helicopter ride. My brother and I and the dogs flew around the 70,000 hectares, Mount Cook National Park. For the last three weeks there has been bad weather here. Again, like te sky dive we were blessed with azure blue skies, sparse cloud cover, a high sun and minimum wind. The park consists of 140 peaks over 2,100m, 22 over 3,000 and the centre piece: an impressive 3695 Aoraki Mount Cook. The direct translation in Mauroi being "Cloud Piercer". Fortunately, we also got to see very clearly 3 captivating glaciers: (1) Franz Joseph (2) Foxes and (3)the 29km long largest glacier outside the Artic, Tasman Glacier.

The helicopter ride was a maganimous 40 minutes long. We all had to wear headphones to drown out the deafening propeller sounds but also to listen to some facts from the informative pilot. Half way through the flight we had a landing on Tasman Mountain, and a photo opportunity. Jospeh was like a gunslinger on the photo draw and ample time was given us to get some mighty snaps. Little diamonds. Also on show was a one man hiker. I don't know what he was donig up there but he was pulling his slay along industriously on his way to somewhere. Would have liked a night or two there with a good book, a log fire and a hot port.

Tomorrow is an 8 hour drive to the adventure capital of the world: Queenstown.