Bangkok & Chiang Mai (World Tour, stops 6 and 7)

Thailand has unbelievable shopping, food, and Buddhist temples but the heat, humidity, crowds, and traffic have worn me out.

In Bangkok, I went to the Chatuchak weekend market which was overwhelmingly big. There was everything and anything for sale: clothes, jewelry, tourist souvenirs, garden fountains, furniture, exotic pets- you name it and you could probably find it there. I really wanted a baby squirrel or hedgehog or bunny, but I doubt customs would like them as much as I did.

I visited Wat Pho, which had a 46m long reclining Buddha covered in gold leaf. I also went to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace, which was covered from top to bottom in small mirrored tiles in intricate designs. The huge buildings were all clustered closely together and it was almost too much color and detail to take in all at once.

Chiang Mai was not as crowded or touristy as Bangkok (but that's not saying much). I went on an organized day trip which included a visit to the elephant park, bamboo rafting, and a visit to a long-neck hill tribe. The elephants were the best part- we took rides on them, and saw a show where they paint and play the harmonica and drop kick soccer balls. I always worry about animals being exploited to bring in money, but the elephants were never chained up and seemed clean and well fed. The hill tribe women wind copper rod around their necks, which over the years causes their shoulders to drop and their necks to elongate. The guide said they started doing it a long time ago to prevent tigers from being able to attack their necks, but now they do it to bring in tourists. The tribes are illegally in Thailand (originally from Burma, I think?) and I wonder if it's good to encourage them to stay in Thailand illegally by giving them tourist money.

The street food vendors are amazing, and the $0.50 fresh mango smoothies are almost worth the risk of getting horribly sick from the ice.

It looks like I'll escape from here with all of my belongings and without getting sick- somewhat of an accomplishment when something like 30-50 % of visitors get traveler’s diarrhea here.

Auckland and Wellington (World Tour, Stops 4 & 5)

Auckland was so-so, a generic big city without much character. Partied with Cirque de Soleil roadies and some British Airways stewardesses in a backpacker bar which closely resembled a frat party. Met two nice but strange looking Chinese girls at the bar, and one of the roadies swore they were Thai she-men.

Wellington is awesome. The city has a young and hip feel, and a lot of cool modern artsy statues and indie theater and music. There's a cable car/funicular and a great interactive museum with exhibits about nature, wildlife, NZ culture, history, and art. It has a lot of similarities to Pittsburgh, come to think of it, except there's much better weather and no slums.

I met a software engineer from San Francisco at the museum. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the equation for calculating motorcycle horsepower written on it. He rented a motorcycle a month ago here and has been traveling all over the country on it- over 4,000 km. Needless to say, I'm jealous.

I'm meeting a lot of people, but it's the same conversation every time- where you're from, how long you're traveling for, where you've been/where you're going, what you do back home. It's sort of like college orientation, except you know you're probably not going to see any of these people ever again.

Byron Bay (World Tour, Stop 3)

I stayed at the Arts Factory Lodge, which is located right outside of the town on swampland. There were turkeys and 1.5 ft long lizards wandering the lodge, and everything was very outdoorsy and down to earth. A lot of the visitors were the dreadlocked shirtless barefoot types that carry their guitars around with them everywhere. There were campsites, bungalows, teepees, and normal dorms. One of the residents/lurkers was this crazy nature guy who always had his cockatoo on his shoulder and knew which plants to eat and which will kill you and which leaves are good to use when you run out of toilet paper. He also performed as a one man band and played the drums, guitar, and didgeridoo all at once.

Byron Bay seems to survive on selling hippie clothes, magic crystals, aura photos, and holistic medicine and yoga classes. I didn't partake in any of these activities except for a yoga class held on the beach which was actually well worth the $15. I also went sea kayaking to try and spot the dolphins that live in the bay, but we didn't see any :(

Most of the visitors were German or English, but I did meet one sort of depressing Irish guy who was very very drunk and told me he was 39 and asked if it was wrong for a man of his age to make love to a woman in her 20's. He then confessed he likes asian women because they have "small bottoms". He also claimed to have a PhD from UT Austin in Theoretical Physics. One of the other guys staying in his dorm told me that he downed 3 or 4 glasses of red wine in their room, and told everyone that he had to either drink like that or commit suicide.

Cairns (World Tour, Stop 2)

When I landed in Cairns there was a cyclone warning and it was grey skies and rainy. Not exactly ideal weather for a beach vacation. Luckily, the weather cleared up in about a day and it's been sunny skies for the rest of my stay.Went on a dive trip to the reef and saw sharks, fishes, and unbelivable coral; electric blue, bright pink, deep purple, in all colors, shapes, and sizes. The last dive site had an 80 lb rock cod that the divemasters feed, so it was quite domesticated and you could pet and cuddle with it. The visibility wasn't great because of the ealier storms but at least it wasn't raining.

Next stop: Byron Bay for yoga classes, beach lounging, and digeridoo lessons.

Sydney (World Tour, Stop 1)

I managed to burn myself badly within 12 hours of landing in Sydney. I went to the zoo and played with the kangaroos which roam around uncaged. I want to smuggle out some hopping mice to keep as pets (cutest things EVAR!!!).

Tomorrow I head to Cairns, where I'm staying at a party hostel. I'm going to book a day trip to go find nemo.

It's been nice travelling by myself, since that means I can go wherever I want whenever I want, but I"m sure I'll get lonely soon enough. My hostel has a lot of people, but most others are travelling in groups. The good budget traveler cooks their own meals, but it's hard when you're travelling alone since you can't really buy single serving portions of meat/veggies/food/etc. and I don't want to eat the same thing every night for a week.

I will probably be posting short updates every few days, since I have to get online to send my mom the "I'm not dead" email every now and then.