Tyson's blogspot

8 million people and 9 million motorcycles, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is out of control.  Funnily enough one of the main tourist things to do in Saigon is to just cross the road. 100’s of motorcycles speeding down the road you just have to take a brave step out, look straight ahead and keep walking without stopping or flinching and hope you don’t get mowed down. Once you’ve mastered crossing the road you can check out the rest of the place, as usual lots of markets and people trying to sell you useless crap really cheap so we head of to the Ho Chi Minh War Museum. Its like a toy shop for anyone interested in planes, tanks, helicopters, guns and other type stuffs along with a lot of graphic and painful pictures detailing life in Vietnam during the war and the consequences caused from the war. A lot of the photographers during this time died but by taking the pictures ensured people would never forget the horrific images, forests totally flattened, napalm and agent orange chemical poison victims, images of bodies scattered all around the city streets, plane crashes, explosions soldiers carrying their friends out, gruesome stuff. Kuchi tunnels were another top priority, a tunnel system underground where by the Vietnamese could live, cook, hide, move from city to city, attack American troops, ambush and defend. When interviewing American soldiers they described the tunnel system as being so complex and advanced that they couldn’t fight it and during the entire war never captured this area, a huge accomplishment considering all the Vietnamese people fighting here where peasants and women with little to no training. The tunnels were three levels deep down to 10m with booby traps, underwater river entrances and secret passageways, when I went down inside them you really can appreciate how smart they were and why the Americans were scared of this area. Lots of shopping and etc on the streets, plus the grandiosity that is the Lotteria Burger chain with its mouth watering Star Moi burger, so good and second only to the one and only Aussie KFC works burger.

Vietnam has great beaches and coastline and from Saigon we head to Nah Tran, a beach city with lots of islands around it and hit up Funky Munky’s boat tour, a day of epic proportions and non-stop fun. Old style big boat with about 30 people first stop was a island caye swimming and snorkelling, the boat was double decker so Brad and I put on our spider man pants entertaining folks with back flips and etc off the roof. Off to another island for lunch on the boat and what a farkin feast at that, the centre of the boat turns into a giant table and they cover it in all sorts of Vietnamese and fresh seafood to get into, followed by a performance by the Funky Munky Boy band, oh yeah the guys pull out the guitars, drums and etc and start wailing away on stage for about half hour with a combination of western and Vietnam songs and they were pretty darn good at that. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better Funky announces happy time!! Out from behind the back of the boat comes a floating bar and orders everyone into the water. Buckets of some super death mix we all float up to the bar, glass empty do a shot, say the word ‘No’ do a shot, basically just ½ hour of doing shots flat out while floating around in the sea, giant big speakers pumping out Prodigy and Chemical Brothers – mate this was turning into an awesome day. Met two kiwi sisters on the boat, one of which was her birthday so funky kept the drinks flowing while we went to the next island and everyone had a go at the parasailing. Heading back home the mood was set for an awesome night out however I had a bus leaving at 8pm so the kiwi sisters and I hit the Red Apple Bar up straight away for some birthday shots before leaving. We were having an awesome time until an ‘incident’ happened in the bathroom and the sink got broken off the wall and smashed so we high tailed it outta there, however on the way back a little later they caught up with us so we denied the whole thing and I told the girls to keep walking while I sorted it out, the little Vietnamese security guards tried to stop me from leaving so I basically picked them up and put them aside.  They must have been feeling a little intimidated at this stage cause they then proceeded to attack me repeatedly with pepper spray which in my drunken state turned me into a raging bull throwing little Vietnamese men all over the bar – that sh*t burns like hell. After some time the crowed watching numbered about 30 Vietnamese, after copious amounts of pepper spray and yelling we came to agreement and I paid them $500,000 dongs ($60) jumped on the night bus which was now 45mins late to head to the next town with a burning face, now you cant say that isn’t an eventful day.

Surprisingly I woke up when we got to Hoi An and felt quite good except for the fact that my face was burning and the skin was peeling off. Hoi An is the quiet relaxed custom made capital of Vietnam and the only thing on my mind was getting some grub, just as I sit down in a cafe the world basically shrinks down into a small lane where everyone knows everybody. I look over at the table next to me, no way that cant be!!! Paul, one of the guys I used to work with in the mines in Mount Isa is sitting there with his girlfriend – how small can this world get!. Now, ive been searching the world for this and never found it so I don’t care how much it costed – I'm going to get it made, zebra skin leather shoes, oh yeah baby. Extremely happy with myself I decide I need something to wear with these bad boys, time to get a custom tailored suit but I don’t want black to be common like everyone else so I make the most obvious choice, fluorescent yellow - this bad boy could be a landing beacon for space ships and blind small children. With the outcome of the suit, the quality of the workmanship and pure sheen value I decided with the help of English fashion guru Jo that another suit in bright purple should be made, she on the other hand decided on buying a second backpack and filling it!!!. With all this out of the road it was time to sink back some high quality Vietnam vodka with Paul who being a chemical engineer would later inform me that is basically pure straight nail polish remover maybe with a hint of metho, ‘mmm cant wait till tomorrow when we piss blood’we both jokingly remark.....the night got quite messy and ended up on the back of some motorbike taxis being taken out to king kong bar in the middle of the bush, Jo had troubles getting both on and off them saying hello to the dirt each time, great times!!!.

We take off through spectacular Hai Van mountain pass, considered one of the most scenic drives in the world, at the top of the pass remnants of fortresses and battle stations from the wars complete with M16 machine gun holes in the walls. 5hrs later we arrive at Hue which is known for its magnificent architecture of its Citadel, Royal tombs and temples. Onto the back of little moto taxis we look like giants compared to the miniature drivers and meander off through the endless rice fields and alley ways visiting unknown markets full of huge live fish being decapitated, a strange 100yr old Vietnamese fortune teller, and a monk temple before having an amazing lunch at a monastery and a 1hr kip, oh yeah. We strolled through the royal tombs and temples which are beautiful scenic garden walks and structures and to a copy of the roman coliseums where they used to train elephants for battle by putting 5 of them up against an angry tiger, how cool would that be, and in the tiger holding area you can even see the scratch marks etched into the concrete, pictures best describe all these.

Halong Bay is another one of the things that has to be seen before you die because words really cannot describe how amazingly beautiful and unique this area is with hundreds of massive limestone karsts rising up out of the clear emerald waters with caves, rainforest, secret retreats, and monkey islands, it was like the definition of paradise to cruise our boat for 3 hrs amongst them and soak up the tranquillity.  We stop over on Cat Ba island for the night and the next day head off sea kayaking through the limestone karsts to monkey island, of course the aussies were blazing away out front followed by the polish contingent and as with every sport, food or even sewing competition the poms were so far back we could hardly see them. As soon as we got to the beach monkeys came down out from everywhere to try and steal and pillage as much as they could, the little ones where awesome doing forward rolls and flips down to the water. To pass the time we had Aussies Vs Polish Vs English competitions, and who could have guessed, 1^st = Aussie, 2^nd = Polish and last the Poms again.

With my trip coming to an imminent end we head back to Hanoi for the last dinner, the perfect time to try out my new suit, and I must say it was a hit especially walking the 10mins down the street to the flash restaurant. A final game of kings sealed our fate for the last night and the next day everyone started going their separate ways, I had such an awesome group of people to experience Vietnam with, I miss them all and cant wait to catch up again maybe in Poland, Melbourne or even if god forbids it means a trip back to horrid Pomgolia (aka England). Thanks to everyone for such a great time, for those of you that haven’t been to Vietnam I definitely recommend it, really great place with a recent and tragic history surrounded by many beautiful beaches and natural wonders.

Lets see what the next exciting chapter and country brings, thankfully I know its definitely not office work =), enjoy life, travel safe and for those work/career types..... get a baby sitter, take some time to get out there and go somewhere crazy you’ll love it.

Bangkok was like a Canadian reunion, before heading to Cambodia it was shock after shock, first day back and I get a message on facebook, im in Bangkok as well, be at your place in 10. Mr John Murphy the Irish langer, the last person in the world I expected to see and fresh from Melbourne cup arrived for a few days stop on his way back to Ireland. For those of you that don’t know John was the first person I met when I started travelling and lived together for 2months in Vancouver, he’d met my brother in Australia and now we would have our final stand in Bangkok. In true Murphy style we hit the pub, checked out the bars, Kao Sahn Rd and spent time just catching up. Next night out sitting in the street having a drink and someone is standing there with there givin me the finger??? Nate, another one of the first people I met in Vancouver and who also did the snow season in Whistler with me, this is getting way random. My mate Brad arrives next day so we went for a beer and bought some ridiculous looking sunglasses, just when I thought things couldn’t get any more random, sitting at the same stand the next night and Joel that worked with me in Whistler is standing right there pointing at me, holy crap!!  We reminisce of good times spent in Whistler and caught up – this is the definition of a small world peoples. The boys went home about 3 and I kept on going with a group of Swedish girls I had met, and went with them to help finish off their bottles of drink before they left the next day, I'm a nice guy. About 5:30am as we are making our way back to the bar we get approached by this guy, “Hello, I am director of a movie we are filming here today and would like to know if you want to be in it, just have to sign these forms and there is free food and drinks in the cast area”, heck yeah, don’t know what the name of it was, we were still pretty drunk, but will find out soon for everyone.

The road to Cambodia was anything but grand, 150km of dirt in a dodgy bus which took about 7hrs, bumpy as all crap dodging cars, bikes, pigs, and cows the whole way, great looking countryside but full 3^rd world type poverty. Between Thailand and Cambodia there is a 500m long section that is classed as nothing land filled with Casino’s, so technically for those 5mins I was not in any country in the world. We arrived in Siem Reap, meaning “Defeat of the Thai”, the second capital of Cambodia renamed when the Cambodians defeated the invading Thai and home to the world famous Angkor Wat temples and ruins, one of the new seven wonders of the world. The site is stunning with temples and structures on par with the Incas of South America, the king at the time was well liked and respected achieving the construction of 47 different temples, towers, pools, lakes and walls in 49 years with the main structures being the Bayon Temple and Angkor Wat. The Bayon temple comprises of 54 individual towers with each tower containing the four different faces of Buddha and perfectly aligning with N/E/S/W, the Cambodian people believe if you can live by these four values then you will be well liked and have friends where ever you go. The show stopper though is Angkor Wat and this is how it goes, the city is built upon a huge man made island which has a mote about 100m wide dug entirely by hand stretching around the city leaving only two points of entry over the giant carved stone bridges. Once you cross the main bridge and through the arch it really feels like you are walking into an ancient kingdom, the main temple consists of five towers all perfectly symmetrical with the centre tower representing the centre of the world and used to contain a gold plate to signify it. Around the walls of the centre tower the entire history, religion and beliefs of the Khmer (Cambodian) people is carved into massive big murals separated into three levels,  heaven-earth-hell,  ill let the pictures do the talking. After Angkor we were off to the site of the Tomb Raider movie, the temple Ta Prohm which the king of this era (1186) built in dedication to his mother and would spend 1 day each week there meditating. The temple hasn’t been restored so all the giant trees are still left entwined through the temple walls and roofs, looks like some sort of aliens eating the buildings, the pictures are amazing. 

After the ruins we hit the floating markets, an entire city floating amongst the reeds and the weeds in the creek ways, not a flash place by any means, very third world, but interesting enough they grow all their own fish, snakes and crocodiles in floating pens to eat, trade and make money. As our boat was flying down the river we were chased by swarms of small boats with children trying to sell food and drinks, the parents would race up beside ours and they would jump over to our boat then jump back, fearless!!. Coming back from the floating markets Brad and I nearly got into a crash when out tuk tuk driver didn’t see someone on a bike and hit the skids, I think we were about an inch off from smashing the poor kid. We stopped in at a local orphanage to learn about how it all works, play with the children, see how the live and give them some presents to brighten up there day. The orphanage has around 70 kids and does very good work teaching them English, origami, computers and Microsoft Office, and providing them with meals, and bikes for the older kids to get to secondary school.

Leaving the city of temples we go to see what small town life in Cambodia is like in a place called Kompong Cham on the banks of the mighty Mekong River, the people here are extremely friendly ad just to see a white people their faces light up while trying to speak English to you. I head out to see the monkey temples or Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei, as soon as I get out of the tuk tuk monkeys are everywhere like white on rice, the girls decide to buy a drink and this is when we find out the monkey know their sh*t, as soon as the can cracks monkeys come at her from everywhere like a swarm of bees. Fearing annihilation at the hands of 5000 monkeys she drops the can on the ground and all the monkeys come over knocking it over, picking it up and sucking the sweet sugary juice out. Heading back to the hotel we stop at another old temple to see the sunset and also see young children and orphans being taught how to do the traditional Khmer dances before grabbing some of the best market food ever for dinner.

Brad, myself and the rest of the crew were about to join the likes of Paris and Nicole with our own version of The Simple Life called “Cambodian Homestay”. On the way there we made a hairy little road stop to dine on the fine Cambodian delicacy of “fried funnel web spiders” holy crap this took a bit of self discipline, it was about as big as my hand and hairy as a wookie – in it goes!! Check the pics they’ll make your stomach squirm. Surprisingly it didn’t taste that bad, like eating prawns with the shells still on, another thing to add to the list of weird crap I’ve eaten. Our homestay was a nice little wooden shack with hammocks in the middle of nowhere, smack bang next to nowhere just on the other side of nowhere and a rice field. Not much there except cows, banana trees, and the big esky we brought full of beer, you all know how the rest of the night went.

Out of the jungle and onto the beach in Sihanoukville, a funky little town on the beach, lots of cafes, bars and restaurants setup on the beach, even had a few cows stroll by. Went out to the islands stopping on the way to do some snorkelling in the shallows reefs, with very little marine life Brad and I tried to perfect our simultaneous back flips from the boat. We arrived at deserted bamboo island for a treat, fresh cooked fish on the beach while we run around like crazy digging up small crabs to eat along with it, I even got to sit back and relax for the rest of the day fishing from the boat using a plastic water bottle with line wrapped around it and a bolt for a sinker.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia and home of the former Khmer Rouge and mass genocide claiming around 3 million innocent lives. We came here to learn more about what happened here and see the graphic reminder of Cambodia’s tragic recent history. First we went to Tuol Sleng, a former school which was taken by the Khmer Rouge and transformed into a torture and detention centre (security prison 21 or S21), with many of the shackles, weapons, torture methods, skulls and prisoner photos still on display it leaves a very twisted feeling in your gut to see the evidence of what went on here not so long ago. Things such has pulling the women’s nipples of with pliers then putting scorpions on the wound or cutting the men’s backs and stomachs before rubbing salt and chillies in them and sewing them back up, horrible horrible stuff. Next off to the Choeung Ek killing fields where around 17,000 people who had been detained at Tuol Sleng were transported to be executed between 1975 and 1978, they weren’t even shot because they didn’t want to waste bullets, they were just stabbed with bamboo and kicked into the holes. As you walk around this area looking at the excavated mass graves you find yourself walking on old bones and clothes while reading plaques explaining the history of the place, there is even a tree there called the baby tree where newborns were killed by holding their legs and swinging them at the tree, very graphic and disgusting stuff. As bad as this place is it really needs to be seen to understand what happened here and learn about it, I recommend it to everyone, the more people learn the more that can be done to ensure it never happens again.

Thats it for Cambodia, it is truly an amazing country with some magnificent and tragic history, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself  here and hope you all get to experience it someday, now its off to Vietnam!!

Hello my friend, want tuk tuk where you go, give you good price, want ping pong show?? Maybe I take you to place for Thai massage, very nice with happy special ending very much you like - you guessed it I’ve just arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, got the bus from the airport to Kao Sahn Rd and this is what I was greeted with. After finding a place to stay I head for the world famous Kao Sahn Rd to see what all the fuss was about, just like in the movies with people all over the place, foods stalls, tables full of cooked bugs and insects, neon lights, men dressed as ladies, $2 sucky sucky, every second person trying to sell you a custom made suit that is the best in Thailand, the whole shebang. Got me a Thai Green curry and I must say it was  a fine piece of cuisine at that, followed by a stroll around to check out all the different bars, all in all a quiet night, definitely what I needed after that last night with everyone in London for the rugby and other  shenanigans.  However to those people that think Thai food is the best…… it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING over proper Mexican food in Mexico, treat yourselves, go to Mexico.

Waking up in Bangkok is not the prettiest sight, I looked out the window to find the city submerged in a sea of pollution and the lady below my window cooking on the side of the street while a cat sat next to the cutting board, I’m still unsure as to whether it had all its feet or some had been added to the pot. First day in Bangkok I get a tuk tuk and drive around  looking at the various giant Buddha statues around the city, beware people visiting here the tuk tuk drivers will take you to where you want to go but via l000 suit shops first and also a few TAT tourist agencies where we were told to get out unless going to buy, you see in Thailand you are not allowed to have a look around it seems, you go into a shop you buy something or get out.  Time to check out the long tails and do a canal tour, a long tail is basically a small boat with a car engine on the back and a propeller sticking out attached via broom stick handle. I head down the river to see one of the Thai temples, the Royal palace, floating markets and fish feeding grounds along with the Thai houses and villages floating along the side of the river banks.

Going north brings me to the town of Kanchanaburi, the site of the famous World War 2 POW camps and the bridge over the river Kwai. Formerly occupied by the Japanese in world war 2 this town was the site of horrific atrocities where over 1million Aussie, NZ, US, English and other troops lost their lives in POW camps while building what would later be known as “death railway” due to the number of lives lost building it, linking Thailand through to Burma. To get the full story we got a peddle bike chauffer to take us to the Jeath War Museum, containing photos, paintings, books, newspaper articles, personal recollections and war time memorabilia. You cant help but get emotional when reading the stories and photos of what these soldiers went through, limbs rotting off, dysentery, blindness, executions all to protect their country and it wasn’t all that long ago. POW memorial graves were next with endless rows of plaques dedicated to remember those brave soldiers from various countries that died but were never found, then a trip to the bridge over the river Kwai. This bridge was the key to the Japanese rail effort, 10’s of thousands of POW’s died building this bridge all while foreign troops conducted bombing raids overhead to destroy it, a very heartfelt day. We actually stayed in a little hostel on the edge of the river with the accommodation actually being floating pontoons on the river, was pretty cool except for every night they would have huge big river boat parties going back and forth past us. Again not to good on the pollutions side with all the toilets going straight into the river, and all the locals swimming in it too. The night markets here are great with loads of different Thai dishes and all super cheap, I found myself at the bug stand eating caterpillars and butterfly larvae, kind of tasted like an overcooked chip in bad oil, I’ve done it once, don’t think ill do it again but the little kids eat it like candy. Checked out Erawan falls which is a series of 7 magnificent turquoise colored waterfalls with jumps, slides, fish nibbling your feet and came home on “death railway”.

Ayuthaya was next on the list, being the capital of Thailand from 1300's to 1700's with a population of around 1 million the name means 'invincible city', given to it for its geographical uniqueness. The city sat on a 4km wide island surrounded by the meeting of 3 rivers, giving the city protection from any invading forces; it was the most famous and wealthiest of the old Thai cities. Being such a wealthy city it has many old temples, Wat Mahathat is the most visited of the old temples being somewhat restored to its former glory and also for the famous Buddha head in the tree, where an old fig tree has grown around the head of a Buddha statue leaving the head lodged in front of it.

After getting the hiking bug from Macchu Picchu in South America, I’d been looking forward to the next part of the adventure since I got to Thailand, a three day trek through the Thai jungle staying with hill tribes in remote villages. We met our guides, an old Thai guy in his 50's called 'Superman' and his 22 year old son called 'Superboy' who carried water and food supplies plus our translator/guide Khan. ELEPHANTS!!!!, the first thing on the agenda was ELEPHANTS!!! Doing a ½hr ride through the jungle sitting on top of these things you really appreciate how powerful and massive they are, tree in the way?? Wrap its trunk around it and tear it out of the ground or break it in half, villager talking shit on the path, just eat him. I was on big momma who had a baby about 8 months earlier and was along for the walk as well, even trying to hold and wrestle this little tacker was a task I couldn’t accomplish, it just head butted me clear out of the way. After going through the jungle, small village and a couple of river crossings it came to the end of the road for the effalants, climbing down to feed them bananas for their hard work, not just one or two though, they eat them by the bunch, about 8 of them. The rest of the trek started off in true Thailand form along narrow muddy paths through the rice fields at the base of the mountains, river crossings over dodgy bamboo bridges and into the dense thick rainforest, I was already having a little trouble coping with the heat and humidity after being out of it for so long. Up, down, up, down, trees, jungle, more rice fields, lot of sweat and another river crossing before we arrive at base camp 1 shacks made of trees, bamboo floors, roof of leaves and some mosquito nets to keep the buggers out at night. A complimentary shower in the stream nearby was more the welcomed and the feast our guides cooked up was fit for a royal family. Entertaining ourselves with a good old deck of cards got a bit boring so I made things a little more interesting with my ‘catrobatics’ display, thanks kitty.  Arriving at base camp 2 the next day I touched up on my catrobatics skills again before checking out the next local village, seeing how simple they live, learning about how they farm, what they eat, what roles the men, women and animals play in the village and their customs. In Thailand it is customary for the girl to ask the guy for marriage, then the girls parents go and drink with the guy and his parents and make sure everything is all good, prolly wouldn’t go so well in our culture. All the village kids came round to the hut we were staying in and we served them all up a mix of noodles and fish before the kids all gathered round and gave us a sing and dance session of songs they learn in school, we had to sing some back, I ripped it up with heads, shoulders, knees and toes, fully sik. On the last day we checked in at a local kindergarten and school for some more singing and presents before the rain set in and we started hiking back out. Hot, humid, muddy paths, more dodgy river crossing and plenty of people going ass up on the way. It was such a relief to get back to the simple life after being in London and Bangkok, hiking, no power, no cars, simple food, wooden floors, river showers, the whole works, however by the time we got back I was definitely ready to sleep on something other than a wooden floor.

Going even further north I arrived in Chang Rai and the most northern point of Thailand, the Myanmar boarder and the golden triangle. They call it the golden triangle as it’s the point where three rivers meet separating Laos, Myanmar and Thailand by a small body of water. Went to this awesome monkey temple, monkeys everywhere in the trees, all over the buildings and you could feed them. Got a bucket of peanuts but the sneaky buggers come at you from every direction, as you turn around to feed one another is climbing up your leg or bomb diving you out of the trees to get the peanuts, we were amateurs at this game and they got the better of us, I accidentally scared one when I dropped my camera case and it turned into the full demon monkey attacking my leg with a fist full of fury and scratches. Dean and I tried our hand at fat Buddha guts before Dean, Chey and I sat for a bit of meditation with the fat bloke himself. A day of chilling out and oh the joy of a 13hr overnight train back to Bangkok, yay!!, Looking forward to getting back to Bangkok, Swoop will be there fresh from Pommy Land and ready for the charge into Cambodia!!.

I got picked up at the Stockholm airport at 11pm by a friendly face I hadn’t seen in a while. Id been planning to surprise Kristin for a few weeks and because I got in so late her dad picked me up at the airport to stay the night at their place before shocking her with my visit. The plan went perfect, the next morning about 8am I walked over to Kristin’s house, put my finger over the peep hole and rang the buzzer…. Few seconds later the door creaked open to reveal a half asleep Swedish girl standing in the door way rubbing her eyes saying “what the fuck, this cant be”. It took about 5 minutes for the shock to set in before 15minutes of non stop laughter and swearing came out of the shower, “are you really out there”, “this has to be a fucking joke how did you get here”. Basically the week consisted of eating some of the best home cooked meals since I left home, thanks ma and pa, chilling out and walking around, watching movies and just plane old catching up, oh and got my brain ticking again by reviewing Kristin’s PHD thesis and making minor changes to the English, I know all about the 3 spined stickle back fish now and how it can be used as a biosensor for marine pollution!! I love going to Sweden and this time didn’t disappoint, it was the start of winter so the temperature was dropping and all the trees were various shades of yellow and gold, Id love to live there someday.

Back to London and our free house in the city, checked out Kensington Palace and gardens, very nice, oxford street and walked about 3hrs to London tower to get some fish and chips that I had a few weeks back (they were great Katie). Met up with whistler veteran Lisa for what would turn out to be a long, drunken and amusing night. Kicked off with 2 for 1 coronas (like it wasn’t going to be HUUUGE) where I got abused by some fat English twat in a suit for not giving a drunken homeless lady a beer, why should I support a bad habit, im not frickin Santa (thanks for your input Lis ;-), introduced Lisa to the wonderment that is the Cornish pastie, well worth waiting for. The PorterHouse would get a visit next to try some of their own brew before ending up at the walkie for jugs of snake bite while teaching Lis how to flick bottle caps and coins. An hour went by, lost two coins, and two sets of people had moved tables from getting hit in the face with shrapnel before we just accepted the fact that she cant do it and we got kicked out.

Had a look at the Tate Modern art gallery, everyone knows that im the last person on earth to give a rats ass when it comes to artsy fartsy stuff, but after being schooled by Scottish in South America on arts, I thought I better have a look. I must admit that it was actually really good and the displays were great, even if your like me and wonder if all this artsy hippie shit really matters these days. It wasn’t just heaps of splodgy paintings that don’t make sense, had cool scupltures, big metal spiders, all this touchy feely stuff and a lot of things that played tricks on your eyes and spun you out, great value for the $0 entrance fee, recommend it to everyone. Strolled down the Thames walk beside the river, taking in Shakespeare’s globe, the old borough food markets located in a very old part of London and got to watch a free Spanish dance show. What a cultured day!! I actually did all of this and im not lying, there is the odd occasion where I actually do this kind of stuff.

My last day in London, rugby grand finals, perfect recipe for a big night ahead. Lee’s palace was the venue starting around 3ish with a back yard BBQ covered in slabs of meat and sausages, just the way a BBQ should look. Was a bit of an Isa re-union with Lee, Belinda, Hannah, Olivia and Feather all catching up on old times and current aussie goss, along with other BBQérs from all walks of life. Beers were going down quickly, Lee being the genius that he is puts the speakers on a 2^nd story window and says “no way they’ll fall down” hour later and they are doing a swan dive into the ground, no one was surprised, over time we have all come to expect this from Lee. We tried to get into the pub to see the game, after about 5mins off heaving pushing and a total progress of about 2m in the door we decide we head off and found a quieter pub. Jules thought vodka shots were a great idea but poor old Lis couldn’t handle it and started dropping things on the floor and standing on them. The Saffas won as you all know, of course all the aussie’s were supporting them and one couldn’t help but run up and down the road yelling obscenities at all the crying English people after the game.

Well that’s England done for me, saw all the touristy things and did all the things to be done, again if it wasn’t for all the friends there it would be a grey boring concrete jungle. I’m going to Thailand now, thanks to everyone for the great times, random moments and hope to see you all again soon, preferably not in London.

Im off to Sweden now for a week before returning to London for an epic leaving party as I depart for 2months through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. No point staying in miserable, wet, cold London for the winter, im hittin the southern hemisphere for beaches and warm weather.

Sadly it was time to say goodbye to the crew that I had travelled with all through South America, they were all really wicked (even the poms) and I don’t think I could have had a better crew to do it with unless they were all Swedish supermodels that couldn’t speak and only brought bikini’s. See you all when I get to sunny old England. After what has seemed like an eternity I was also going to be saying goodbye to the Americas and head over to Europe to start the next adventure, as you’ve read along the way the Americas have been unbelievable, I’ve seen and experienced things that most people could never even dream of in their life, I cant even begin to describe how life changing this trip has been. Where next???? its off to Greece now for me, thought that would be a nice way to kick off Europe.

What another adventure and another country under the belt, don’t know if Bolivia was the country for me, most severe food poisoning ever, hospitalised, arrested, beaten up, sunglasses stolen, lost my pluggers, lost my hat, why one could come to the conclusion that I just wasn’t meant to go there at all, even though it was a very interesting place and im so glad that i went there I don’t think ill ever go back there, purely cause I think it will get the better of me and I’ll never make it back out. I highly recommend it to everyone else though as long as your name isnt Tyson