Archive for category Travelling

No more busses!

Dec 16

Posted by SteveDUH in Phillipines, Random Jargon, Travelling

Busses suck.

I’m so sick of them. They are shitty enough as it is back home. Now imagine them with more seats that aren’t big enough for a tall, lanky Canadian such as myself. Then there are extra seats in the isle (much like the seat I’m in now) which are even LESS comfortable than the usual seats. Being cramped into tiny spaces like this has gotten WAY old. It was old a few countries ago.

Luckily I’ve only got about 8 or 9 more hours on this bus then one more bus ride back to Manila. Then… no more busses. Just a long-ass plane ride back to Canada. Then another flight to make it to Edmonton.

Hopefully everything back at home is just as comfortable as it was when I left.

UPDATE
Stopped at 12:30 in butt-duck nowhere. All I can hear is some poor bastard wailing his brains out to karaoke. He sounds like he’s in pain. Beings me joy, though.

UPDATE
2:00 am.
Learn to sleep sitting up.

UPDATE
3:30am
After moving to the bus floor, I got my head squished by Jordan flailing her legs around. Now I’m wide awake and tired as shit at the same time.
Also…
A couple of people feel that 3:30 is the perfect time for a loud conversation. Annoying and quite rude.
Also…
Right as the air conditioning finally started getting the bus to a nice, cool temperature, some assholes complained (first by just raising their hand in the air in a dark bus… hoping the bus driver would notice… Then they started vocally whining) and now everyone who came preparded for the cold bus is now going to be nice and hot.
Thanks, guy. Thanks.

UPDATE
6:30am
Woken up on the ground of the bus by people wanting to climb over me. Got a seat with a guy who kept elbowing me and almost seemed like he wanted to cuddle with me. I took the next open seat and got about an hour and a half of really broken, uncomfortable sleep.
The ride ended up taking almost 11 hours.

Oddly, the ride back to Manila only took us 6 hours. Go figure.

Well, this will be my last post while on the road. I will slowly write a detailed journal on here for your viewing pleasure. … With TONS of photos.

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I have entered a time warp

Dec 2

Posted by SteveDUH in Life Updates, Myanmar, Travelling

It’s true.  Myanmar (Burma for those not in the know) is like a giant time machine.  And I’m stuck in it.

We got here on the 21st and were expecting to leave this morning, the 2nd of December, at 8:30am.  Oddly enough, I find myself in a cyber cafe in Yangon, Myanmar at 7:30pm on the same day.

PAD supporters took over the Bangkok Internationl Airport a week ago and peacefully shut it down.   No flights in or out for a week.  Didnt seem like a problem at the time… we still had 5 days until our flight back to Bangkok… plenty of time to clean the mess up.  It’s now a week later and the protest was JUST called off a few hours ago as Prime Minister Somchai and his government was found guilty of election fraud.

As it stands, I’ve heard reports of the airport in Bangkok opening as early as the 4th and as late as the 15th.  Our flight got rescheduled for Saturday the 6th so opening on the 4th sounds really quite splendid at the moment.  That gives us a 2 day buffer… not too bad.

I’d really like to leave Myanmar.  This country is beatiful and FULL of culture… but it’s so corrupt that it makes me really sad.  It’s like a time machine.  The government has blocked it off from contact with the outside world so badly that it seems like the 1980s around here.  All the music is ripped of songs from America sung in Burmese instead of English.  Power goes out at least 20 times a day, and the internet is blocked from such awefully political sites as Hotmail and Gmail.

Sadly, once you see all the sites, there isnt a whole lot to do.  Especially in the capital of Yangon.   It’s going to be a painful 4 days until our flight MIGHT fly.  The next few days will be spent trying to find an escape route that is free of drug trafficking and shitty, over packed busses.

Hopefully something works out soon.  I’m really looking forward to getting some crispy golden brown skin (kinda like the Christmas turkey) on Philippines beaches while drinking frosty cold, cheap, Philippino beers.  Thats our last little vacation time on this trip.  Myanmar brought the culture.  Philippines is bringing the beaches and beers.  I hope things work out.

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Indonesia is a bust… Myanmar is not

Nov 20

Posted by SteveDUH in Life Updates, Myanmar

So we were supposed to fly out to Jakarta the other day.  Although, I still find myself typing this from a Bangkok internet cafe.  So far, I have spent almost 2 weeks in this damn city.  I’m sick of it!

Indonesia fell through when we heard from some friends that had friends there that it seemed really sketchy in places and they heard some rumors of bombings happening.  I havent heard of anything like this happening, but they may just be smaller ones.  In any case, we were flying into Jakarta and thats a place that no one says is beautiful, or safe.  We decided it’d be best not to go.

Instead, we’ve been wasting time in Bangkok.  Got visas to Myanmar and are heading there in the morning.  It should be interesting.  Strict military rigime who loves censorship.  I read that I might have to give the government my camera to hold while I am in their country.  They don’t like photographers or jouralists visiting them and showing the world how corrupt the country is.  They also don’t have ATMs, as most are tied back to American credit unions, and apparently they hate The States.  Lots of .com sites are blocked, as well.  It’s gonna be weird going from the openness of Thailand to the restrictions there.

It should be pretty cool to see, though.

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A few more photos up

Nov 10

Posted by SteveDUH in Fun, Life Updates, New content, Random Jargon, Thailand, Travelling

Sorry the site was broken for a while…
I tried doing some stuff to it that I really should just wait until I get home to do. But I was bored and did it anyway. Anywho… It’s all back in working order.

10 new photos to check out. Mostly of Koh Lanta.

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Birthday in Thailand

Nov 10

Posted by SteveDUH in Life Updates, Random Jargon, Thailand, Travelling

Celebrating a birthday a few hours from home wasn’t as lame as I thought it would be. We chilled on the beach during the day, got some food for about 2 dollars, then played drinking games in our hut until we were nice and drunk so that we wouldn’t spend tons at a bar.

We were given a flyer while on the beach to check out a nearby bar. Seemed like it could be fun. So we checked it out. Right as we got there, everyone but the locals were leaving… so we ended up just chilling with the locals in a treehouse bar til the wee hours of the morning. Nice and mellow night… Perfect way to celebrate. Koh Lanta gets tons of props for being super chill and super fun.

Now we are in Koh Phangnan, Where the Full Moon Party magic goes on. Although it’s been raining like mad here. So hard that our electricity cuts in and out. There is nothing to do because not everyone has gotten to the island yet. Kinda boring. Hopefully this party will make up for it.

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