6 Countries.. not enough sleep, never enough beer
In and around Southeast Asia
Ladies, Gentleman, fellow travelers and the people of the world who haven't encountered me yet,
Here I sit at my computer.. 1:30 in the morning, 12 hours until I leave for my big "summer of George" trip to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore.
At this point on my "to do" list before I leave includes,
- move crap out of my driveway so I can park my car in the garage while I'm gone.
- Buy a new digital camera
- get passport photos for Vietnam visa
- pack.. no I haven't started
- Return an unused cellphone
- buy a few guidebooks
- finish drying some clothes
The way I see it if I stay up all night then I'll be preparing myself for the 12-14 hour time difference I will be experiencing VERY soon.
Right now the trip plan is AGRESSIVE. However, those of you who know me, know I'm not one to sit around and snooze my life away so I want to see as much as possible. I know I'll have to come back to many places (such as Australia and New Zealand) in order to truly experience them, but while I'm in the neighborhood I have to see what I can.
Trip plan looks like this:
TU 7/10/07 DTW->NRT WE 7/11/07 NRT->BKK TH 7/12/07 BKK->SIN->Darwin FR 7/13/07 Darwin->Sydney SA 7/14/07 Sydney SU 7/15/07 Sydney MO 7/16/07 Sydney->Christchurch TU 7/17/07 Franz Joseph WE 7/18/07 Car FJ -> Fiord (Te Anau) TH 7/19/07 Fiord FR 7/20/07 Queenstown -> Auckland SA 7/21/07 Auckland SU 7/22/07 Auckland-Brisbane-Cairns MO 7/23/07 Cairns TU 7/24/07 Cairns WE 7/25/07 Cairns->Bangkok TH 7/26/07 Bangkok FR 7/27/07 Bangkok -> Hanoi SA 7/28/07 Hanoi SU 7/29/07 Hanoi -> Halong Bay MO 7/30/07 Halong Bay -> Hanoi TU 7/31/07 Hanoi -> Siem Reap WE 8/1/07 Siem Reap TH 8/2/07 Siem Reap FR 8/3/07 Siem Reap -> BKK-> Ko Samui SA 8/4/07 Ko Samui SU 8/5/07 Ko Samui MO 8/6/07 Ko Samui TU 8/7/07 Ko Tao WE 8/8/07 Ko Tao TH 8/9/07 Ko Tao -> Ko Saumi -> SIN FR 8/10/07 SIN -> NRT -> DTW
Already, as the genius and excellent planner that I am, this schedule is blown as I forgot to account for time to get my Visa for Vietnam. So we may flop the Vietnam and Cambodia tour with the Thialand tour so that we have time to see everything we want.
So, thanks to Linda, Gino's beautiful, intelligent and oh so charming wife for letting him escape with me this summer. Thanks to all of my friends who are watching the house and the cat while I'm gone. And finally, thanks to everyone who has put up with my chaos while I've been scrambilng to put thsi trip together on a weeks notice.
I'll try to blog as often as possible and upload pictures as I go but as I said, I'm on the move and I don't know how much time in front of a computer I'll have.
Bill
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler WorldAdventureMan
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1
Its the Journey thats fun right???
So .. getting here is supposed to be the fun right?? RIGHT!!! Ok so it wasn't that bad. However leaving home the day I left... Continue reading »
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2
Finally.. a Destination!
Where to start the last two days.. lets see.. I hop off my flight from Singapore to Darwin at 4:30am, after being interogated, sniffed by dogs and... Continue reading »
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3
The San Fran of the Southern Hemisphere
You know when you've run out of thoughts and ideas and you just need to talk to someone else to freshen up your perspective. This is wha... Continue reading »
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4
WOW!! AMAZING!! STUNNING!! GEORGOUS!!
Well, since our last encounter I've taken another flight and a 7.5 hour drive coast to coast of New Zealand. Yes, coast to coast in 7 hours o... Continue reading »
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5
In the land of Tolkien
Have I mentioned the mountains.. wait no the lakes.. no I'm sorry, the coast and the beaches, nope nope... must be the waterfalls. I just can... Continue reading »
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6
God the Architect!
"The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel toos, but the gentle touches of air and water working at thier leisure with a liberal allowanc... Continue reading »
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7
Mustang Sally, you just got to slow that mustang down!
Well, I was all ready to write off Auckland and put it on the absolutely skip it list. I acutally think I still would skip it as it has no to... Continue reading »
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8
Rays and turtles and sharks .. Oh My!!
So I finally get into Cairns and get to my hostel, Travelers Oasis on Scott Street. Gabriel really hooked me up and had all the dive brochure... Continue reading »
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9
niester.com email is down. Use bniester@gmail.com
All.. due to what is likely a power outage at my house, my home email systems are down and cannot be reached. Until I get someone to go to my... Continue reading »
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10
Miles and Miles of CRAP on a shelf! w/ Gino commentary!
My story starts here with Gino... but first I'm going to upload some photos.
Gino comments in italics
So yesterday's gefaw for... Continue reading »
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11
The Sun came out today
Welcome to day two of Bangkok. It appears that I am getting a nasty cold or somethign as I have a severe stuffed up head, a sore throat and I... Continue reading »
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12
Holy Hanoi Batman!!
Well, today was our last day in Bangkok and I don't think I'm stepping over my bounds in speaking for Gino when I say it couldn't be soon enough!&n... Continue reading »
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13
What beautiful scenery
Well the last two days have been spent in a bus or on a boat. The trip to Halong Bay Vietnam was an interesting one. Let me tell you th... Continue reading »
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14
Gino does Ankor Wat
Since our last installment, we left the noise of honk honk honk, beep beep "coming through", BLAT, and eek eek from all the cars and motor sc... Continue reading »
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15
So there I was, So there I was, So there I was.... in the Jungle
Mom always said, if it wasn't screwed on I'd loose my head.. well today is proof of that. This morning I came down to catch our tuk-tuk with... Continue reading »
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16
Elephants in a quiet little resort town!
Finally we made it to the beaches. As we rolled from Hanoi to Bangkok to Karbi then by taxi to Ao Nang, we were wondering if we would make it... Continue reading »
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17
Welcome to "The Beach"
Welcome to the beach. Upon arrival at the pier, in Ko Phi Phi, *giggle*, we were mobbed, assaulted, harangued, cajoled and accosted with offe... Continue reading »
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18
"Serenity now... SERENTIY NOW!!!!"
Well, let me tell you the boys from the 810, or the 734 or the 313 are now living large! We've moved on from traveling on our feet to traveli... Continue reading »
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19
And now, the time has come, to say fairwell, the final curtain
Well, 11 hours in Singapore. What can you really do.. let me tell you. You can figure out the MRT (Singapore's train system), get to yo... Continue reading »
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