Finally here

Quick update, better photos and short descriptions are up on my instagram – @happyseizure.

About to board

So I’m about to board flight leg 1, Sydney to Guangzhou. Not sure how limited my Internet will be but I’ll probably post a bunch of photos via instagram whenever possible, so follow me there or on twitter, both of them I am @happyseizure

There’s also a link in the ‘about’ page.

Packed and ready (I think)

Up at 5:15 am tomorrow morning to get out to the airport by 6:45 am.

…and then came the call

Hi, Michael?

Your references have come back all fine, you were very highly recommended, so with that I’m pleased to offer you the job. Of course, you know we’re looking for someone to start as soon as possible, so I’d say likely mid next week

I’ve been interviewing recently and was doing particularly well with two separate jobs when I was informed I’d be sent to Nepal next week. Starting a new job in the next week or so was a very real possibility and it was at the top of my mind when that email from Travelscene came through. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would handle trying to ask for time off in my potential first week of my potential new job.

The job offer came through yesterday afternoon, and I’m pretty stoked about it. The fact that they were looking for someone to fill the role ASAP was making me feel nervous about asking, but it had to be done. It was mid afternoon when this call was happening and he said he’d get back to me soon.

The rest of the afternoon went by without a call or email, and I spent the night and this morning worrying the time off would be a problem. Then came the email at 11am:

Happy for you to start May 17th.

For reference, that’s the day after I return from Kathmandu.

Time to bust out the flood pants, because…

Kathmandu, can do!

‘DING!’
Like Pavlov’s dogs and the bell, I get a little excited when I hear the bell of my phone, but instead of a fresh meal I’m waiting for the email to finish downloading. I don’t know what exactly gives me the urge to check it right then and there when more often than not it’s some newsletter I signed up to years ago, a Nigerian prince that needs my help to recover lost money, or some generous stranger offering to “ENL@RG3 Y0UR P3N15!” but this was different.

To: Mike
From: Adam @ Travelscene
RE: Kathmandu! Can do?

It took me a couple more minutes to register what was going on. “Kathmandu! Can do?” my head cocked slightly trying to kickstart my brain into making sense of the words. I read on…

Dear Michael,

Congratulations, you have been chosen as 1 of 4 participants in Travelscene’s Facebook Fan Trip 7 to Kathmandu – departing 11 May 2012…

Yes, two days ago this happened. Two days ago it was May 1. I have 10 days to get myself organised, then I’m off to Nepal. NEPAL!

Travelscene hold fairly regular ‘Facebook Fan Trips,’ in which they choose a small handful of their Facebook followers to go on and document a trip overseas. You go through an application of sorts in which you outline the things you would see and do if you were chosen to go on the trip, and to basically state your case. I’d share with you what I planned out in the fantasy in my head, though it’ll be more fun if I share it with you once it becomes reality. By the way, I love weird, whacky, crazy and just generally odd sights and experiences when I’m travelling so if you have any suggestions make sure you leave a comment.

It’s been a bit of a scramble over the past couple days to get things organised on my end to make things happen. Yesterday it was a few jabs in the arm, today it was running around like a headless chook to collect a tourist visa. So far I think I’m on top of the administrative stuff to get myself organised, now it’s on to consider what to get up to and what to pack.

Stay tuned

Wind Down

Full of ups and downs, I was back in Mexico with the trip drawing to an end. One of the most exciting things about the trip was the food. I love spicy food and especially Mexican, so this was my chance to load up on some real Mexican cuisine. Being a vegetarian down there made finding suitable food a little tricky, and aside from a couple minor translation difficulties, I ended up surviving it. Lots of tacos and burros, even legit churros, and of course hot sauce in everything. On potato crisps and even IN beer (oh michiladas!)

Playa Del Carmen was the last port of call, seemed like a good idea to avoid going back to the mediocrity of Cancun. Little did I realise both places are about as bad as each other, ultra touristy and pretty tacky. Not a huge bother, I ended up taking a full day tour out to Chichen Itza and a cenote. I’d say this day was the single biggest highlight of the whole trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone going. Chichen Itza was great to experience, much like the other ruins scattered through mesoamerica, but it was swimming in the cenote (limestone cave with natural pool) that was just incredible. The temperature was cool and refreshing, and the water was crystal clear and even had fish in there.

We ended the day at some luncheon where the servers played music and inexplicably danced with bottles on their heads.

And that was the end of the Mexico trip.

Super anti-climax to the blog of North America, I followed this up with two weeks of snowboarding, hopping between friends’ places between Vancouver, Whistler, Vernon and Banff. Seriously, best country I can think of.

Mexico part II, Don’t Stop Belizin’

It turned out five days in Mexico City really isn’t enough, it’s way too big to be done thoroughly in that time. That said, given the interesting few days of dealing with a robbery, the dodgy folk at the Hostel and chasing a police report for insurance reasons, I was pretty keen to move on.

I wound up flying straight to Cancun to spend a couple days there soaking up the sun, surf and sand. The water is a brilliant blue and for a time of year that is getting pretty cold in the States and Canada, it was especially warm and inviting.

Click for full size

Cancun itself wasn’t anything special, I’d liken it to the Gold Coast. It’s full of tourists and the beach is lined with hotel after hotel. All in all, not a terrible place, but not the Mexico I was hoping to discover so I considered my options.

Cuba was high on my list but for the length of time I could spend there it was working out way too expensive. Instead I hopped on a bus and headed for Tulum, a small coastal town on the Yucatan Peninsula with some Mayan ruins. The town itself is a fairly unimpressive town with pothole riddled, barely sealed roads. I’m told the place is beginning to expand and in the past couple of years development has been strong with the increase in tourist dollars to the area.

I believe there are some larger and more impressive ruins locally and slightly further inland, but I made my way to the ones by the sea. On a perfect day such as that, the scenery is incredible, and there’s loads of interesting wildlife hanging out in the area.

Admit it, you’re jealous

Iguana

Still not sure what this thing is. Apparently it’s related to raccoons, but looked a little like a monkey

Having a chat to some guy at a hostel, he highly recommended San Pedro in Belize, and seeing this as an opportunity to clock up another country I seized it. Exiting immigration in Mexico was pretty funny and quite probably dodgy, with a “you pay exit fee, go to central bank down the road and pay there… or you can pay me here and you don’t need to pay the entry fee when you come back.” Not dodgy at all.

The Mexican customs guys also take their job pretty seriously, rocking up to the dock, heavily armed with machine guns and sniffer dogs in tow. It’s pretty intimidating, and I assume that is pretty much the whole point.

A 45 minute speed boat trip later and we arrive at San Pedro, Belize. It’s the least intimidating customs facility I’ve ever encountered, quite literally a shack.

I went into it without much research an assumed I’d wind up spending a few days just swimming around, eating cheap food and drinking cheap beer. Also I was unprepared for the fact that the place has few locals and a lot of American immigrants. Turns out there wasn’t much swimming to be had (muddy beaches one side, cayman [or alligator?] infested mangroves on the other), and everything is pretty expensive in comparison with Mexico. Nice place for a couple days, but not the paradise I was hoping for.

Swimming with sharks in ‘Shark Ray Alley’, amongst the reefs off San Pedro

I found this a little humorous. Cayemart/Kmart

I met a colourful chap down at the Burger Shack, a burger joint miles from town I stumbled across while heading off for a walk. I really wish I had taken a photo of the guy, but I was admittedly legit afraid of the dude. Several slashed scars across his face and a rather inhospitable expression on his face, he appeared in the seat next to me from seemingly nowhere.

He introduces himself as “Tupac,” all his mates call him that because he loves the artist so much. He rambled on a little bit, then finally asked what drugs I do, because he can hook me up. I politely decline, so he moves on to ask “so you like b*tches? What do you like? Latino? Blonde? Asian? Whatever you want man, just go to my brother’s bar and he’ll get you anything you want.” I pull out the ‘I’ve got a girlfriend, I’m fine thanks’ and hope he moves on.

He began to ramble a little more before tapping me on the shoulder and pointing to the waitress walking down the stairs, “you see her?  That’s my sister.” There was a momentary pause, but no hesitation as he made the declaration;

“I want to f#$& her!”

The real adventure

It was mid-November, I was due to head back to Australia in about a month,  and my cash reserves were running low. The answer came to me immediately: Mexico!

Next thing I know I have booked myself a two week trip to Mexico, not a single plan in place. All I knew was I land in Mexico City and fly back out of Cancun. What would happen in between was anyone’s guess.

I’m usually a pretty confident solo traveller, but something made me a little nervous about Mexico. I guess it started when I read on wikitravel that taxi robberies were fairly common, and to make sure to get an airport authorised taxi only. I managed to do that without hitch after landing at abut 1am), but I’ll fully admit the nerves started up when he made turns down a few dark, deserted alleys. As it turned out everything went down without a hitch and I made it to the hostel just fine.

The next morning I did the usual aimless walk in all directions, and somehow I feel like I didn’t see a whole lot. The hostel was close by the Mexico City Cathedral and the Zocalo Plaza (political centre), and some old Mayan ruins, but with the sheer size of the enormous city it is one of the few I’ve come across that makes it hard to see much by foot.

Mexico City Cathedral

That afternoon I went back to the hostel to jump on my laptop and do some research into what to do, so I went down to the common room as it was the only place that go reliable wifi. Suddenly I hear “WHAT THE F#$*!” yelled and I look up to see my good mate Ryan staring at me in disbelief. Neither of us knew each other was even in the area, let alone staying in the same hostel. We chatted a bit and decided to head off for a feed.

Fast forward 4 hours, back at the hostel and I notice my bag is strangely lighter and seemingly less full. It took me a minute or two before the reality kicked in; my laptop and iPod had been stolen out of my locked bag. The whole situation was rather suss, but to sum up the ordeal I’ll just say that when I was allowed to look through security footage chunks of footage had mysteriously not recorded (read: deleted).

Thankfully my passport was still in my bag and when I got around to it travel insurance compensated me (lesson to all you kids – GET TRAVEL INSURANCE!). After that incident there was nothing really left worth stealing, so any nerves I previously had now disappeared.

Getting back to what Mexico City was really all about for me, I made it out for a day trip with Ryan and his girlfriend Bec out to the Teotihuacan pyramids and the Avenue of the Dead. This place is awe inspiring. It’s about 45-60 minutes out of Mexico City, and strange to suddenly be seemingly in the middle of nowhere with nothing around. There was lots to explore, paintings still visible, lots of wildlife (especially lizards), and what I found cool is that the archaeologists there are still uncovering things. It’s the kind of place that I think I’d be happy to visit again in the coming years because there will be lots more to see as they unearth it all.

Panorama looking down the Avenue of the Dead and across to the Pyramid of The Sun. (click picture to get a better look)

Bec had mentioned wanting to see the floating gardens, kind of like a market on water with long, colourful boats pushed along with a long pole (think of a massive, inelegant gondola with a roof and table). We went along and rented one for just the three of us. We bought a bucket of beers, hand cut chips and soaked up the atmosphere. As we drifted along, mariachi bands would come by on their boats offering to play for you, and there were a few party boats packed with 20-somethings getting rowdy and having a great old time.

Ryan

Me trying to steer the thing… quite unsuccessfully.

On the recommendation of Ryan, I later hit up the Museum of Anthropology. It’s a gargantuan museum, it took me a good couple hours to make my way through, and as a normally non museum going kinda guy, I wasn’t exactly stopping at every exhibit to read everything. It was particularly interesting for the exhibits of the Aztec and Mayan civilisations and gave a better understanding of the ruins that I had seen. It also housed this giant stone tablet which pretty much everyone will recognise instantly.

Way bigger than you’d expect, it’s at least 3-4 metres in diameter.

The Mexico experience ended on one of the weirder ‘attractions,’ down at the Sonora Witchcraft Market. Apparently there is still a strong belief in witchcraft, and so this is the place you go to for all your witchcraft-y needs. Voodoo dolls, giant skeleton statues, potions, weird incense. Whatever you want, these markets will probably have it. I really wanted one of those giant skeletons, that’d make for some pretty badass home decor, luggage limits are a bitch though.

Sonora Witchcraft Markets

Vancouver, Seattle, Vancouver

Caught back up with Mel in Vancouver and stayed with a couple friends in East Van. We really didn’t do much, and it was the best way to spend my time there. Good company is all I need when I’m in my second home.

We did, however, head back down to the States for a quick shopping trip and sight seeing tour as a day trip. The best story to come from this was the ever-friendly US border security guys. It’s a long and boring story to recount, but just imagine the usual intimidating guards suspecting you of anything and everything, pulling us out of the queue, making us wait around for some immigration officer (who realised we were fine all along and waved us through), and then the officer at the boom gate basically calling Mel stupid because she didn’t go to ‘college.’ For a country that could really use tourist dollars, they’re doing themselves no favours with having those guys on the frontline.

So after all that, we made our way down to some outlet shops, bought loads, caught up with Mel’s mate for a feed then went on over to check out Kurt Cobain’s old house.

It's somewhere in there poking out from behind those trees.

Post-Fest West Coast shenanigans

After the hangovers wore off and the bruises had begun to fade, we found ourselves back on the West Coast in the ever amazing San Francisco. There was little on the agenda, other than to visit Alcatraz, blow some cash in Amoeba Music (one of my favourite record stores in the world!) and check out some live music.

San Francisco was generally pretty good to us, the sun was shining and not nearly as cold as I was expecting for the time of year. A trip to Alcatraz provided some sweet views across the bay and a few photo ops.

Mel enjoys having her photo taken.

Surprisingly, the audio guide was quite informative, one of the few I’ve ever actually paid attention to for most of the tour. The cold and haunting feel of the buildings, the history being shared, the props, the location; it all made for an excellent day out, and at a relatively inexpensive price to boot!

Mel made use of the strong $AU and filled her bags with records, clothes and whatever other goods she could exchange her $$ for. San Fran is pretty good from the shopping point of view, and the whole place in general just blows LA right out of the water.

Of course, some live music was on the cards as we went to check out the 2012 AP Tour, headed by Four Year Strong with Gallows, Sharks and Title Fight in tow. It all went down in a massive ballroom of a venue, and with maybe only two or three hundred kids in the room it felt awkwardly large. For me, the night was all about long time favourites, Gallows, especially to see how their new singer (Wade, ex-Alexisonfire) would go filling in for the huge shoes left by Frank. Sadly, he had nothing on Frank, though he deserves points for trying.

There’s never a shortage of things to see and do in SF. I’m a big fan of interesting sculptures, odd sights and pop culture, so if there’s a photo op involving any of these then I’m all over it. Here are just a few.

The Full House house! They refer to them locally as the 'painted ladies.'

This was just one of the many yet-to-be-removed Halloween decorations. This had glowing eyes and all!

I’d also heard about a ‘wave organ’ somewhere along the shores, and as the name suggests, it’s an organ that makes sounds based on the tides. Sounded cool enough, the reality was somewhat different. I expect that when it works it would be impressive to some degree, but as I discovered, when it is low tide the organ won’t make sounds. It’s made out of recycled stone and pipes and looks kinda cool, although I’m not sure I’d go as far as to say it was worth the 50 minute walk it took me to get there.

San Francisco wave organ: Thumbs down.

Having seen and done everything I’d hoped to, I hopped on the Amtrak and headed for another favourite city of mine, Portland, Oregon. The trip was pretty comfortable, nothing like the cramped CountryLink trains you’ll find in NSW, and some pretty nice scenery all the way up the coast.

There are very few reasons to dislike Portland. There’s no sales tax on anything, they have loads of great beer, a bookstore that takes up an entire city block, free public transport in the downtown area, and best of all the locals all kick ass. Really. There are very few places in the states I could honestly say I could settle in (and I’ve extensively traveled the country), but Portland is definitely up there.

This time around, my only mission was to sample the world famous Voodoo Doughnut. The range they have, both in size and flavour, is incredible. Some doughnuts literally the size of the average adult head. I opted for the jam filled chocolate voodoo doll and can honestly say I’ve never struggled harder to finish a doughnut. Hello adult onset diabetes!