rockin and a rick baben

we just met up with rick and skinny for the full moon party on phangan, goin to be awesome! We are in an awesome little backpackers with them and just getting geared up for the party. Sounds like 25 000 people are heading to the same beach for the full moon party. I think we will even be meeting up with quite a few people we have already met on other islands, like koh tao and a couple from patong hopefully anyway. Just wanted to keep everyone posted, gotta go continue havin great times now later...

Two weeks in Thailand

we have basically gone from the far south of Thailand to the far north in these two weeks, and today we are off to Bangkok. I am excited to see the big city, we started at Patong, a beach town, then came to Chiang Mai. The atmosphere here is a cross between a historical temple town and a locals city. They have nice markets during the day and at night, selling all sorts of toys, lights, clothes and trinkets of every kind. We met some really interesting people at our cooking course, one of which we randomly ran into the day after the course and went for some drinks with him. He was a toxicologist from Germany, named Dom. We had a really good night with him. The next day we went to the most sacred temple in Chiang Mai, up on the hill. This was amazing not only because of the history and the temple itself, but the way the area was scattered with vendors, dogs and children. It seemed that the temple had been converted into a tourist trap, not very sacred but the way it is i suppose. When we were in Patong we spent alot of time on the beach, and in the the bars, that's what that place was based around. We had an awesome time with our Irish friends....ping pong show yikes, but it was all good fun. There was a million things to see and do there, it was like Thialands Vegas. Well have to pack for Bangkok so i will update later peace

Bali Bali

We have been in bali for a week and a half now, the weather has been great and the people are awesome. Everyone is trying to sell you something, from watches to hats, shoes to massages. The restaurants have every type of food you can think of, but one of our favourite dishes is from the little street vendors, called mie goreng. It is like ichi ban but way better. It usually comes with a fried egg on top or some chicken. Every other day we head down to the beach and rent some beach loungers from Bruno. He runs one of the bars on the beach, which are really just an area where they set up loungers and bring you drinks. He's a nice guy though always remembers us and will sit and chat with us. It only costs 45000 rupiah for two chairs and two beers. Thats only like 5 bucks! Some things can cost quite a bit relatively, like sushi and some of the restaurants. You can find really good deals though, like charcoal cooked corn with spicy butter for 10000 rupiah ($1.10), or cheap little warangs (restaurants). The beach is really dirty sometimes especially at night after the waves have pushed all the trash on the beach, but on legian beach, the beach closest to us it has been pretty good. The ocean is incredibly salty, and has plastic wrappers in it most of the time, but still alot of fun. It's funny how your cleanliness standards drop when your in asia. When we first arrived in bali we were a little leery about our hotel and the streets at night but now it if just a bunch of fun. And once you get used to the locals pestering you to buy things you can see the humour in it. One guy asked us if we wanted transportation and we said no thanks, then he just said yes and we said no thanks again and he replied why not? They are just silly. When it gets a but later at night some guys will offer transport, so we said no, then he leans in and offers mushrooms and girls. Haha a little scary when selling drugs in indonesia gets the death penalty. Next we are off to Thailand in 4 days, i will keep you posted. Happy travels!!!!!!

Sunshine Coast?????

We have been in our new van for almost a week and haven't really had any good weather yet. Kinda bummed but we are still seeing the east coast and moving along. We get a decent day here and there but usually it's it's overcast and rainy. This is not what we expected of australia in the middle of summer. We are of course still having an awesome time and are really excited to get to asia. We have all of our flights and tours booked, almost, except our ticket out of asia. We are unsure of where we will go next, possibly to Perth for work or Adelaide. Most likely we will set up in Perth for a while and get jobs and earn some money. We have certainly spent enough.
We are in a little beach town called Coolum right now, and about half way to Cairns. We are begging for some hot weather and I think the further north we go the better chance we have to get it. Either way we will be in Bali in about a week so there had better be good weather there or we will just give up and go home. Jokes

Upwards down under

We have started our northerly voyage in the land down under. We are now in Sydney, a beautiful city but we both still preferred melbourne alot. I guess it could be because our hostel is in the middle of smelly china town or the two days of rain we had. The weather is looking up, today we went to the harbour bridge and the opera house and tomorrow we are going to bondi beach, the nude section hopefully. Can't wait to get back in the sun. Our flight to asia are booked but for now we are concentrating on our path to cairns. I will try to keep the posts coming but our access to the internet is shady. We have started to frequent the local mac D's because they all have free internet but sometimes we feel like we have overstayed our welcome.(three hours and one 50 cent ice cream later) haha, o well. I will keep you updated!!!

days and nights in Melbourne

We have been in melbourne for three days now and it is an awesome city. We are in central downtown at our hostel. We have been busy everyday looking around and trying to get a vehicle.   We went out to a bar last night and partied with some mangled aussies, lotsa fun. We went and met a korean couple today to look at their car. I hope we get it, but i dunno yet. The price of renting is crazy so we would be way better off just buying. Then after the test drive we were back in the hostel and started talking to a guy form toronto and he told us he was a street preformer, so we went and watched his show. Its was cool, he rode a ten foot unicycle, juggled fire and chain saws, and was very entertaining. Then we wandered down the yarra river to find a huge festival called the moomba festival. Kinda like a giant carnival, but with a water ski-jump competition, and fire works, and ten times bigger than any other fair/ carnival i've ever seen. All in all a great day, but the city is quite expensive and we are looking to get out pretty soon, with or without a car. i'll keep you posted, ciao

life in the van

So we have left out surf tour and picked up our van. We are living out of this thing for the next two weeks and it's pretty cool. The outside is painted all trippy and colorful. The gas here is basically the same price as back home after you do the conversion, so pretty expensive. Driving on the left hand side was tough to get used to at first and there are some weird rules here too. Auckland was the worst though, we almost got in an accident 3 mins after we picked up our van haha. O well we are two or so hours away from there now in a town called paihia, in the area called the Bay of Islands. It's awesome here, but i guess i'm just happy to be out of the city. I just way prefer to be out in the land.
It seems everytime we move somewhere new, there is a little adjustment time where it's a little uneasy getting settled but once you find your rhythm its comfortable again. I guess im just getting used to being on the road.
We are on our way north, probably to the very northern tip of NZ. We were originally planning on going to the south island, including Christchurch but that is not going to happen now. Its starting to sound like it's going to be the worst disaster NZ has ever seen in terms of death toll. The main problem is that the epicenter of the quake was right in the CBD or central business district. It even took out the tallest building in Christchurch, though it hasn't fallen yet, it defiantly will be knocked over. We were lucky though.
The people we have met so far have all been awesome possum. Local or travellers they all are in the same state of mind. Chelsey and i said it's alot like going to B.C in the summer time near a lake or something. Every town has a ton of hostels, motels, campgrounds and beaches. It's endless summer here and there's always someone to talk too or have a drink with. Anyway another update will come soon. So long