Matt’s Travel Blog

I .. am .. in .. Thailand.

Kicking , punching, surfing.

Went top Mui Ne on the coast for day. Its nice.. the water is a bit dirty but its still nice. Over developed though. So i didn’t stay.

I caught the over night bus up to Hoi An.. they put beds in all the buses here… sweeeet.

…just arrived this morning at 6am.. its beaaauuuuuuutiful. I just did a 16 hrs bus ride and i feel so relaxed here.. sitting by the river.. french vietnamese breakfest … not busy.. no horns or crazy motorbike mobs like the big citys.. its like a dream. I can only relate it to Pokhara in the Himalayas.. very peaacceee. And the shops and archetecture are fantastic..the dusty streets with old women wearing conical rice hats … i cant wait to spend my money.. oh ohhhhhh hehehe.. i only live once..

i even have a fantastic book to read.. its slow drip coffie by the river for me all afternoon.

I bought a cobra in a bottle. Deuce!

Saigon is pretty cool. Got here by bus the other day. Looks like Thailand, but no thai food.

Coffie is good.

The beat goes on.

Spent the last week in Bangkok staying with friend outside the city. It was really cool taking the local bus into the city and not so cool back out as it is filled with students. We went to an English Camp in Cha-am south of Bangkok and stayed at the school for two nights. The camp was fun…

I tried to book a ticket home but am on a waiting list … lame.

Took a bus to Cambodia border no prob. But the cambodians that were with our travel company ripped us off sorta.. the bus was not like the picture. Also lame. We spent 7 hrs sliding around the muddy road in a monsoon trying to get to Siem Reap, Cambodia.. i smelled pretty bad by the time i arrived. The trip was adventurous .. right? ..

Its too bad that countries that are poor always try to rip you off…. i know they need money.. but so do i. Atleast just give me the fair price and we can all be happy.. but instead i have to argue with people and tell cute little kids with dirt on their faces to stop following me cause i dont want their post cards… or bracelets… or books… or scarfs… or cold waters… and on … and on..

tommorow vietnam. I desire relief from begging kids sent by they’re parents to make me buy stuff i dont want.

Im tired .. .to many bus rides.

Back on the islands for full moon party.

Last night was a laugh. Walked around the beach watching people dance, fight , make out, pee, puke , other.. ???.. and generally be ridiculous to the glow of a full moon for no other reason than because some people decided full moon ’s = party .. which coincidentally = money. opps.

Fun was had… i did nothing toooo stupid. Spent the rest of the days motorbiking around the island and swimming at tropical beaches at eating seafood. The island is really beautiful but full of foreigners
which can be annoying. Esp at party time cause a lot of losers show up… lame. Anyways.. moving on tommorow.

Off to another island tommorow for kickboxing and some scuba diving before heading to Bangkok where i will be kickboxing and teaching some english camps.

Well I made it out of Australia. Sydney was excellent, I could def live there! To bad my camera busted and I have almost no pictures.. but ce la vie. I bought a new camera before i left so its all good.

I almost didn’t get out of the country. I think the airline desk lady was new at her job because she wasnt going to let me fly because i had a one way ticket to Malaysia and she thought i wouldn’t get into the country. I was patient with her but really i just wanted to tell her how stupid that idea was. Countries like Australia, Canada and U.S. dont let people in on one way tickets.. not asian countries. They don’t care.. who in Malaysia cares!?? AND.. what did she want me to do stay in Australia and be a bum? Wouldn’t you want me to leave your country if that was the case and make me another countries problem?

anyways.. flight was ok. Flew Jetstar.. cheap - o - line .. 8hrs later i was in KL again. I remember sleeping in that airport. This time i enjoyed Malaysia a lot more. Stayed at a great guesthouse in KL called ‘The Haven’ that was right in the middle of the city. Went to a Hindu Temple and got harrased by the monkeys which caused me to almost fall down the laborious 250 stairs i walked up , drank cheap beer, and met up with my cousin. Then we went to Melakka to meet a friend from Japan and got to meet her family. Very cool to be in a Muslim house out in the jungle. Then 8hr bus ride up the coast to Penang.

Also saw the movie Kung Fu Panada.. good times. “My Awesomeness and Attractiveness are free” was a good line.

So ill try pics now. Thanks to Lukeyboy for hookin me up with my website again and upgrades. I like it! .. hes a cop killer.

OHHH snap no luck there!

UPDATE::::: FIXED::: Luke has a large penis!

This one should be panoramic.. lets see what happens.

This is my friends family that we went to visit.

here are some other photos that i uploaded before but never put up from Aus.

AND..

c u in Thailand.

Got into Sydney a few days ago. Its nice to be finished work.. and not a moment too soon. A small Tornado hit Perth after we left and being a roofer there i dont really want to deal with it all. Not a roofer, never wanted to be, but the money was good

Sydney has been awesome. Its been rainy the whole time, but still really nice. Lots of buildings to look at, great architecture, wicked harbor front that Toronto wishes it had, and beaches you can swim in !

Took some pictures BUT my camera busted and i can see them on my camera but can’t get them off. I was going to buy a new camera anyways but that sealed the deal. I found the equivalent of a future shop here called Harvey Norman’s ??? .. anyways 8 megapixil, 5xzoom camera for 155$ Aus… not bad..

i like the pictures and will upload some.. too bad i lost most of my pictures of sydney.

Tomorrow I fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Excited to leave Australia.. dont care that much for Malaysia but it will be good. Mostly im pumped to get back to Thailand. I’ve already hooked up some work there too! Sweeet!

Back to Asia!

Posting!

Finally did something other then work and hang around Perth. Although i have saved good money in the short time im here..

Went to Margaret River , WA this past weekend. Its on the south west corner of the continent/country and hosts an international surf comp every year. This years was about 2 weeks ago, so the waves are pumping right now. Its got an interesting combination of South ocean, Indian ocean and river mouth. When i was there the waves were crashing in at about 8 - 12 feet depending on where you were. I jumped into the 8 - 10 ft section and kept clear of the reef breaks ..(waves over sharp rocks) some pics

and here

give an idea of what i attempted.

When you stand on shore there is no way to compare what it feels like to be in water with these waves right on top of you. Its just not the same at all. You can stand on the beach or cliff and say.. “yeah thats big but doesnt look too bad” and think you could still swim in it and live.. but once your out there dude.. your done. Its huge. Its like looking up at a cliff and saying “yeah i can jump that, its not that high” and then going up there and actually looking down.

I paddeled out into some monsters and almost drowned. How? Well surfing is all timing.. and when the wave is comeing in you have to try to match a part of its speed so it picks you up. You also have to do this so that when you match the waves speed its cresting and you catch the rip/power of the wave and ride inside of where it breaks .. sorta like a convyer belt made of water. Really fast moving, falling , rolling water that has an entire ocean on the other side of it.

Since ive never been in waves this big before I messed up my timing and paddled too late missing my wave.. but leaving me too far in front of the next one.. which means I have 1000’s of tones of water fall on my head. Waves come in sets.. i missed the beginning of mine.. ergo.. I got wave after wave on top of me. Sending me tumbling underwater for 20 sec or so at a time. 20 seconds is an eternity underwater!! Man my lungs were burring and I struggled against the wave to surface just to get a breath, come to the surface, and be sent back under again…. and again…. and again.. panic had set in.. and ive been trained to not panic with rigourous martial arts exercises where you hold your breath for a long time and in the water .. but in real life… oh man it was hell!

Eventually i washed up out of the immediate impact zone and got my surfboard and labored back to the beach. My arms felt like noodles.. useless, so exhausted.. so close to not making it back to the surface each time.. I now know that when im about to die, im scared. I struggle. I fight. But man, it was so close … way too close…

i went and sat on the beach for a while..

Then i got back out there , cause walking away would have just been defeat. Fuck that! I paddled back out and made my attempts .. most unsuccessful .. I can catch a 2 - 6 foot wave anyday.. but 10 feet is entirely different. But i can totally do it and i cant wait to try again. Ill get it next time with a little more experience under my belt.

I took some pictures of waves , myself before i went in , and after i came out.. but having trouble uploading due to crap internet.

Australia has the worst internet out of any country ive been too.. yeah.. Laos and Cambodia are better.

Dang yo!

Leaving Oz in a month.. stay tuned.

I work as much as possible.

So im travelling but not really seeing anything at the moment or doing much at all…. theres a beautiful tropical island and lots to see in Australia.. i just need to hunker down for 5 more months and work to make the money to see some of it../

.. and student load is still as oppressive as ever..

I’ve realized that when you travel the world for extended periods of time.. like 3 years.. you lose a lot of friends. You make a lot , no doubt, but few stay in touch once you’ve moved on and the experience you shared fades into the background of life. Which is quite understandable.. I love the friends i’ve made in the moment and then we both went our own directions.. those are great. Unfortunately i’m starting to notice that friends back ‘home’ that ive had for years have moved on so far that they stop communicating as well.

I guess for me ‘home’ as a memory is still pretty close and fresh for me cause i’ve left it and never really gone back to change and put energy back into it. I have visited for a bit but never stayed to live, which makes a difference. I think my friends back home have been living their lives and have moved on in their own way, but my version of home is still the same as it was when i left.. and now theres a distance between the two homes. My home .. what i remember and how i left it, and my friends home which they no longer identify with me or my idea of how thigns are / used to be. I guess thats the part.. for me its how things are.. for them its how it used to be.

That being said.. i still have about 5 or 6 good friends that will be there when i get back and will be pumped to see me and we will always be friends.. but there’s about 10 - 15..20? more that might not reply to the email i send .. and if I do see them it will be once.. then after that maybe never agian. Who knows maybe ill be surprised.. but this was the first xmas and new years where i send out messages to people and never heard back from them.

Its no ones fault .. i dont think so. Its just a think that happens when you leave for a long time. Its a bit of a bummer. Atleast i have those 5 - 6 friends that will be there for me forever.. which is more than enough to feel like im lucky in life.

.. now if i could just figure girls out. But thats way to much to expect. ..

Peace..