Europe in Asia

I haven't updated in a while. That is probably because I have been enjoying Thailand so much. I was in Bangkok for six nights. I have been in Phuket, the beach area of Thailand where the Tsunami hit a couple years back, for two nights and will probably stay four more.

Phuket is overrun with Europeans. This is their Florida during the cold months. The main difference is that Phuket is cheap. You can get an hour massage on the beach for about $1.25. Although, you would definitely want to close your eyes and hope you don't catch anything because the masseuse is definitely a little rough looking.

The large number of Europeans has an impact on many things. The most visible and shocking is what people wear or don't wear on the beach. Many women are topless. I say women and not girls because there appears to be no shame once someone arrives in Thailand. These women range in age from 20 up to 75. I have some great National Geographic looking pictures. Speedos are also insanely popular here. I think half of the guys on the beach wear speedos. One old couple looked like they were wearing the same bathing suit. That bathing suit was a thong. It is very different from Florida.

I was here for Mardi Gras day. I told someone it was Mardi Gras and he had no idea what I was talking about. However, here everyday is a little like Mardi Gras. There is one main street lined with bars. One of the bars even had girls dressed in school girl outfits dancing on a balcony. It felt very much like Bourbon Street except that all of the flashing happens inside and that prostitutes were much more blatant.

Bangkok

This could be the best city I have been too. I really think it is going to be difficult for any city to beat Bangkok. Traffic is crazy and so are the taxi drivers, but the taxis are so cheap. Taxi rides to pretty much anywhere only cost a couple dollars. Today I was in a taxi for about 45 minutes and it only cost $2.

I had the most incredible Thai massage just now. It was a whopping $13 for one hour. It is supposedly some tradition passed down from the Buddhist monks. The other famous Thai massage is from prostitutes. I'm staying away from them.

Last night I was standing on the edge of the sidewalk sending a text and I saw this large gray thing out of the corner of my eye, but just kept texting anyway. When it got in front of me I realized it was an elephant and freaked out.

While at the pool today I had an awesome conversation with an American and his Thai "girlfriend". I use quotes because he didn't hide the fact that he was paying for her. He told me all the best places to go to get Italian food and find working girls. What a combination.

That is just a couple of the crazy things that happed. I'll have more later. I hope everyone is enjoying Mardi Gras. I'm sad I'm missing it, but Bangkok is kinda like Mardi Gras everday.

Please Mind Your Step

There are even computers with free Internet at the gates in Singapore. My flight boards in about five minutes, but I just noticed something and wanted to write about it. I have been noticing that a lot of bathroom stall doors across Singapore have had a sign of them saying "Please Mind Your Step." Well, I just avoid anything that could cause confusion like that, especially when it is in the bathroom. In the airport, the sign is more specific and reads "Please Mind Your Step Squatting Pan and Water Hose In Use."

I wasn't brave enough to open the door.

Singapore Sling

The Singapore Sling is really famous rum drink here in Singapore. While I do like rum, I prefer cheap coconut rum (Malibu) to drinks that cost nearly as much as my stay at the hostel. Singapore is expensive by Asian standards, but a decent deal for Americans. It is an island city state at the tip of Malaysia. The island is barely long enough to run a marathon from end to end. 

There are many effects of its location and its small footprint. Singapore is one of the world's largest ports. The island is too small to make anything, and there are no real natural resources, so all of the nation's wealth comes from the port. They import everything here - even tap water. Land and therefore housing are scarce, so the government controls housing for 85% of the people. Only the a absolute richest have their own homes. There are huge high rise malls catering to the rich all over. I saw four Gucci stores yesterday. I was in one mall standing next to a Gucci store looking out a window across the street to another Gucci store. The number of high end stores makes Las Vegas look like New Orleans. These malls must cater to tourists because it doesn't seem like the people who live here would have the money to support them.

Government control is what leads this place to run so smoothly. The government controls everything and has fines for everything. Chewing gum has only recently become legal in Singapore, but it is only allowed to help people quit smoking. They are building the first casino here. Visitors will be able to go there for free, but there will be a $100 entrance fee for citizens of Singapore to discourage them from gambling. I don't think New Orleans would ever do that. Cars are taxed heavily, so only the rich have cars. This means the cars are extremely nice. Most of the cars are really nice since rich people drive them. I haven't seen a single old car on the road, so I feel like there is probably some law against that. Singapore also has the most incredible subway system I have ever experienced. It is called the MRT for mass rapid transit, and nearly everyone that lives here uses it. The tunnel for the elevators at one of the stations was completely surrounded my LED screens and white glass the give the effect of going up through a field of flowers. That was when I knew I was in Asia.

I'm leaving for Bangkok, Thailand in a couple hours. This is one of the cities I'm most nervous about, so I'm staying at a nice American hotel with hopes that everything there will be much calmer than the rest of the city.

Sing & Pictures

I'm in Singapore and finally staying somewhere with free wireless internet. The place isn't that great' but the internet is awesome. I let pictures upload all night, and now I have them organized. Captions might even come soon.

PICTURES FROM SYDNEY

PICTURES FROM NEW ZEALAND

PICTURES FROM FIJI

Sydneysiders

The more time I spend here the more it reminds me of America. Sydney really seems to be a lot like New York minus about 5 million people. People from Sydney are called Sydneysiders. They are a lot nicer than New Yorkers. I always try to blend in when I'm traveling and tonight I got the ultimate compliment on that front - three people asked me for directions. I felt pretty cool even though I only helped one of them.

The differences between Australia and the States are fairly small. One noticeable one is that McDonald's are much nicer here. I'm using a one's free internet to post this blog right now. Right beside me is a McCafe. It's basically a McDonald's coffee house. The people are the other noticeable. Most of the people in this city are very young. People are also beautiful here. Most people are extremely fit. It is rare to see someone in bad shape, and most of the time those people are tourists. The people here are very trendy, but that could just go along with being in a big city. Jean shorts are really popular for guys. They aren't just any jean shorts though. They are tight jean shorts to match the tight jeans that everyone wears. The shorts kinda look like the bermuda shorts we sell to the girls in Belle Chasse for school uniforms. People also have really crazy haircuts. Some guys have a rat tail or skinny mullet. Some even have that on one side of their head. It is probably the sickest haircut I have ever seen.

Drinking and driving is a huge deal here. When they checked my ID to go into bars, they asked how much I had already had to drink that night. The legal limit is .05 and the lite beer bottles tell you how it compares to a regular alcoholic drink. The beer I have was .8 of a regular drink. There are posters all over trying to explain how much you can drink and how different drinks add up.

Staying in so many different hotels is starting to get to me. I have started to save the room number in my phone so that I know where I'm going. Since I left New Orleans I have stayed in NINE different places.

Sydney

It keeps raining here. I have probably spent more time in the Apple Store than anywhere else, but now that I have finally decided on where to stay my whole time here I won't have to go back there until it is time to work on my plans for Singapore. My indecisiveness proved to be very expensive because all the hotels are packed tomorrow night for valentines day. If I had booked a room earlier, it would have been about half the price. I have been eating a lot of McDonalds to make up for it. I'm not eating McDonalds strictly because of the price...the other food sucks.

I took a bus tour all over Sydney today. At least in the bus I was out of the rain. I'm having trouble uploading my pictures becuase the files are so big. I just uploaded some more, so check Flickr again, but it takes almost a minute a picture.

Also, I just got some great news from LSU. I got a scholarship. It doesn't cover everything, but it covers a lot, so I don't feel as bad about my my hotel room for tomorrow night.

pictures finally up

CIMG0078
Originally uploaded by msims12345

Hopefully this will link you to my flickr account.

NZed

I'm writing this from one of my favorite places in the world, an Apple Store, so it has to be short. New Zealand was pretty cool. I'm glad Dave is living there and I got to stay with him. The 1st day I was there I just walked around the city center and saw stuff on Queen Street. It was pretty cool, but Auckland is a small city by big city standards. The next day Dave took off from work/school and we went to two beaches close by. We took the narrowest and most winding roads I have ever been on, but the drive was worth it because the beaches were so unique. One of the beaches had black sand because of all of the volcanic activity. It also had a really cool waterfall that we hiked too. I know everyone is thinking that I wouldn't hike anywhere. Well, it was a short hike. The other beach a cliff in the middle and we climbed up it. That climb was much more difficult and I have some really cool pictures but no way to get them on here.

I started writing a blog post in the airport this morning, but waiting in airports is quickly becoming my least favorite part of traveling. It is when I become the most homesick. The rest of the time I am busy doing things or trying to figure out what to do or at least I have something on my mind. When I'm waiting in the airport and there is nothing going in, it sucks.

I just arrived in Sydney but so far it is pretty cool. It reminds me of New York, and I really like New York. My goal is to try to find a place to stay for more than two days, so now I have to get to that.

 

Green Zone and Head in the Sand

I feel like I'm staying in Iraq's Green Zone now. The Sheraton Fiji is located on a large tourist Island that is completely isolated from the rest of Nadi. The isolation along with the fact that the Vice President of China is staying at my hotel makes it seem like the Green Zone. Security is intense. Not as much as you might think it would be for a Vice President of such an important country, but there is still a very visible security force everywhere. The section of Nadi is almost like Sandestin if Sandestin had guards and motorcades and if the rest of Destin were like the 9th Ward.

When I arrived at the hotel today the lady at the front desk told me that everything was so busy because the Emporor of China was here. I'm not the biggest history buff, but I had a good feeling that a a community country China no longer had an emporor. A little time on google quickly revealed the truth. He is here on some kind of Kathleen Blanco style trade mission, but this trade mission involves a Chinese warship being docked right outside the harbor. Fortunately I didn't notice the warship. Those kinds of things don't exactly make me feel like relaxing on the beach.

Pretty much all I have been doing is relaxing on the beach. I was on Beachcomber Island for two nights. It wasn't as isolated as I expected. There was even a very limited supply of hot water. The incredible surroundings make the less than pleasant sleeping conditions and food things I could deal with. The first night I had to have like 5 beers before I was willing to get into the bed. Five beers is a lot for me, but considering the very wild party atmosphere there, I have kept my usual lightweight status. Nevertheless, Beachcomber had the clearest water I have ever seen. Snokeling there was incredible because the fish were so exotic and the coral provided an awesome background. There were people on the Island from all over, but I mostly hung out with British people and a couple Americans.

I have started telling people my name is Martin. People don't really understand me when I say Marty, so for traveling it is just easier to go with Martin. I love the way the British people say my name. I really like the way they say almost everything. It was really nice to meet other people who are traveling around the world on their own too. One of those people was a modern day Canadian hippy who pretty much is the reason I no longer want anything to do with hotels. He kept telling me I needed to more fully embrace the backpacker lifestyle. I kept trying to avoid him. When I finally left the island and saw him for the last time, I told him that I'm a tourist not a backpacker.

Right before I left Beachcomber, I got myself into all kinds of trouble becuase I couldn't find my boat ticket to get back to Nadi. I started to frantically search for it. In the process, I forget my wallet on the counter where I was checking out. I didn't realize that my wallet was gone until I had finally respolved the ticket issue. The people that world at the place took my wallet that I left open sitting on the counter and just set it behind the desk. Everything was still there when I finally located it. I got a good scare and will now be keeping a much better eye on it. Luckly the Fijian people are very good people. Most go to church daily and 3 times on Sunday.

After all of my commotion, staying at the Sheraton has been great. It isn't exactly $14 a night, but I never set out on this trip trying to spend as little as possible. This is probably the most beautiful place I have ever stayed, and it has made me realize that I want to stay in nice places as a I'm traveling even if that means I don't get to travel for as long.

I'm off the Auckland, New Zealand tomrrow. Hopefully that goes well.

Fiji First

Today was my 1st day in Fiji. While it wasn't that eventful, it was pretty worked up about it. Leaving home has always been difficult for me, and this time was no different. Luckily this time I was coming to a beautiful (and cheap) place. My bed for tonight cost about $14 and the place is the located on the beach, has a pool, and as a type this is even having some crazy "hava" ceremony that involves everyone singing and drinking some mystery drink from the same cup. Needless to say I wasn't too tempted to particate in that. There are people from all over the world here, but it is mostly English speakers from Australia, the US, and the UK. Nearly everyone is only here for only tonight becasue this is just a stopover place on the mainland of Fiji before going island hopping. 

I'm not here for that long so I'm just going to Beachcomber (http://www.beachcomberfiji.com) for two nights before returning here the night before my flight. I don't expect to have much electricity at Beachcomber, but I think I'm ready for the challence. Of course by ready I mean my iPhone is fully charged.

So far Fiji is a great place. The people are incredible. They are dark skinned and very cheerful. The service here is excellent, and there is NO tipping. Prices are still pretty cheap, but Fiji brand water is still expensive. I have spent more on water than I have on lodging so far.

It isn't always that easy to get online to check email or talk to people, but I have my cell phone with me and incoming text messagages just count as part of my normal plan. So, text me because it doesn't cost me anything extra to receive them.