Prague Through Berlin

I have had a surprisingly hard time finding time, for writing. Mostly, it is a combo of lack of accessable computers and doing stuff with friends. That should be at least calmed down a bit as I don't anticipate seeing anyone I know till I get to London next month. Maybe I'll have better access to computers, but I doubt it.
To get on with the trip, not really much in the way of cool stories happened in Prague; a lot happened in Munich; and Berlin was pleasant, though different than expected.

Turkey Post, Finally

I've been neglecting posting lately. Mostly that's because of access to a computer. I'm writing this from my phone, which I hate. It's hard to type long prose and I basically can't proof it, not that I do too much proofing anyway. So FYI.

After all that fuss that the picketing agent gave me in Bangkok, all I had to do was walk up, say I wanna go in Turkey, and they gave me a visa. When I got to immigration, the hardest part was the 5 min. line I had to wait in. I'm not sure one person looked at me to see if I was even the same sex as on my passport. I guess it may be because they have women with burkas comings through all the time and checking a passport against a small slit where you can only see their eyes really means nothing. No, they don't have to remove them, but yes, you as a man will need to remove your hat.

Tigers

As a sorta birthday present to myself, I decided to go to hangout with tigers. There are a couple places you can do this in Thailand. The Tiger Kingdom in Chang Mai and the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi are the only places that I know of. Before visiting either, I had heard mixed reviews from travelers and definitely polarized reviews on the Temple.
After getting a positive review on the Kingdom from the Irish couple doing the Gibbon Experience, I decided that it would be wise to go to that one, and perhaps if I felt up to it, do the Temple as an additional one.

Beer Wıth Me

I have several posts that I'm working on simultaniously, including my 9 month check in, so bear with me. Also, if you were one of the people interested in beer with me, Oktoberfest is fast approaching and it'd be prudent to get tickets soon. Jordan and Chelsea have informed me that they just purchased theirs!
Ok, so quick update - I'm ın Istanbul now. Yesterday was brutal.

Ever Had Fresh, Right Off the Tree That Almost Fell On You, Papaya?

No?! Well, it can't be beat.
I'm sure the big question, esp. after I posted the ziplining videos on FB, is how was the Gibbon Experience? Well, for most of the men out there, it was like living out a childhood fantasy. I lived in an awesome treehouse in the jungle, hiking and zipping around the jungle at my leisure. For the women, I guess it's the equivalent for you would be if I got to get married and cook and clean for 2 nights. Isn't that what you fantasised about?

Cambodia, Thailand, Ivy, and Jason/Angie

Sorry folks, but this will probably be a long one. It encompasses a little over two weeks of stuff and Ivy.
Originally, I planned on going through Laos to Thailand and meeting Ivy in mid-June. However, her work and idiotic bosses had other plans. They nearly made it so that she would never be able to visit. Why? Because two weeks off is too much. It is a sad, sad state of affairs in the US. First, we only get about 3 weeks off a year - maybe 4 if you're lucky or upper management or spend 20 years at the same place. Then, most people can't take more than a week off at a time. Most of the time it's just stigma. I mean, if we get our work done, or if it's shared work when we are out (as in Ivy's case - coworkers are required to cover for people on vacation), then shouldn't we be able to do whatever we want with our vacation time. When talking with European or Australian people, or even some of the third world, they are baffled about how we view work. Even British get twice as much time off as us, and they are workaholics too.
Our work paradigm is better spent for another post, so getting back on track, Ivy's work had another person out for a couple days of the original time, so they wouldn't let go on our original plans, then they were reluctant to let her go for two weeks. I'm not sure I would have allowed her to come if she could only get one week, it's simply a waste of money and we'd likely have not been able to Bangkok. We'd have had to take tours out of Bangkok for a couple days, but going to the islands in the South would have been out because we wouldn't be able to afford the time to not fly and we'd not have been able to fly there cause we are on a budget. Thankfully, her bosses came around, though I (and my parents) was about to have words with them had they not.
So, I flew from Hanoi to Bangkok for under $100 and was scheduled to arrive thirty minutes before her. I figured I'd go to her gate and meet her, you know, all romantic like.

Last Part Vietnam

Last you heard, I was in Hanoi eating snake hearts and pooping. I spent a couple more days there, but mostly just walking around the city. Ho Chi Minh has his corpse mummified there, but unlike Stalin, you don't get to look at it and they have a changing of the guards every now and again in front of the mausoleum. Also, there are all the ministries - on that subject, surprise, the biggest ministry was defense. It may have been on more acreage than our Pentagon. If not, it at least looked like a resort. Those defense strategists need their spas, but don't worry it's all inclusive. Moving on, I decided to go to Sa Pa.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - This Last Week or So

This is going to be another long one. A lot of things have happened in the past week or so. I'd like to end on a positive note, so I'll start with the ugly.

Prostitutes, Trannies, and Bears Oh My

OK, no bears. Just lots of the other stuff. And they harass you a lot. I have been taking it pretty easy around here, just going on walks around the town. Oh, and seeing movies just to get out of the heat - it is hot and humid here. My clothes are constantly covered in sweat, but then so are all the other travelers. Other than that, one thing I have been needing is a massage. In fact, I probably need a few of them and an alignment (not doing that here) because I have knots in my back literally the size of fifty cent pieces and am super tight in the neck. So, I was looking around for a massage place and found one of those "seedy" ones and had the strangest massage ever.

Final Peru Post - Cusco and Arequipa

Hello from what was sunny Iquique, Chile.

Today was my first day in Chile. Since my last post, I have been in Cusco, Colca Canyon, and Arequipa.
While Cusco is quite a nice city with stone churches and colonial building all over the city, there isn´t much to report. I spent 3 days there, which consisted mostly of a couple parties and walking around, enjoying the city. I did make a few friends there, two of which I will probably stay with a night or two in Santiago. The only real touristy thing I did was make an attempt on the only sunny day to go to Saquishuan (sp?). However, the price was 40 Soles for students and 70 Soles for tourists. However, I had forgoten my ISIC card. I tried to walk down a road that paralleled the ruins to see if it was worth paying the full price, but the guards wouldn´t allow me. I decided I didn´t want to pay the extra $10. That´s about the jist of Cusco, fun town and late nights.

Machu Picchu for $210

That number isn´t bragging. In fact, I got ripped off.

I arrived in Cusco at 5AM and because I was at my weakest moment (running on 5 hours of sleep), I did something I try never to do. That is, I was approached by a tour opperator and booked a tour on the spot after only 5 min of negotiation. There are many, many ways to do Machu Picchu. You can take the Inca trail hike, which is supposed to be the thing to do, but you can´t do it in Feb. cause the trail is closed. It also requires about 6 months advance notice (not exactly true, it is possible, though slim chance, to do it on the spot in Cusco, but it's a big risk if you don't have a lot of time in your corner) and costs a shit load; I heard $500ish. You can also do alternative multi-day hikes, which are becoming more popular. Don't know the prices; they're less $, but still high. You can take a train,

Very Short Peru Update, Puno and Floating Islands

I arrived in Puno on the 5th. It is quite a bit bigger and nicer than Copacabana. They too have a big festival going on called Virgen de la Candeleria, in which they have a costume and dance competition in the form of an unorganised parade. They have all sorts of crazy costumes, some of which seemed a bit Asian. I spent some time walking about the city and watching the parrade, that is until a thunderstorm rolled through and I needed cover. Eventually, I made my way to a tent at the main area where I was invited to drink with some Peruvians from Tacna. For the most part we talked in Spanish, but occasionally one of the more drunk ones would repeat that it´s cold here but very hot in Tacna and at the beach. After a while, I got pretty drunk too and I needed to eat dinner, so we went our seperate ways.

Super Long Bolivia Post La Paz - Sorata - Copacabana - Isla del Sol

Hey all, this is going to be a long post because the internet outside La Paz is pretty shitty and I haven´t had a chance to post some stuff. However, there were some pretty cool things worth reading about that happened, particularly in Sorata.

Bolivia, Uyuni and the High Andes

Last I wrote, I believe I was on my way to Bolivia. Well, lets just say that it's been quite a ride from then till now.
I'll start with getting to Bolivia. I caught the bus in Salta around 10pm. The bus, which was supposed to be 7 hours, was in fact 9. This ended up being a good thing because it allowed me extra time to sleep, which I needed because they played Preditors (in Spanish) at full volume starting at about 11pm. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it is the most recent shitty installment and 60% of the movie is yelling and gunfire. So, you may be able to imagine the difficulty a light sleeper may have had, even with earplugs. We did finally make it by 6:30 ish and it was a good thing I wore my warmest clothes cause it was freezing and drizzling.
I opted to walk to the border hoping to cross paths with a ATM on the way to pay for the Bolivian visa. Nope. Fortunately, every Argentine (including border officials) I asked said that there is no cost, which is incorrect by the way. I arrived exactly at opening of the border 6AM. I know, timing seems wrong, but Bolivia and the border are 1 hour behind. The wait was 1 hour to get stamped out of Argentina. I found out that yes, you need to pay for the visa from a border agent, so I headed into town with directions to a cajero de cambio (ATM). That's right, I just walked into Bolivia without any hasle of getting stamped in, similar to what the border was like between Costa Rica and Panama. Naturally, these directions were way off. So, I asked around. Some people had no idea what a bank or cash machine was??? A very helpful bus official pointed me to the nearest one that of course didn't know what an ATM card was. So, I wandered some more. Finally, at the second hotel I stopped by, the manager gave me directions to the only working one in town. Turns out there aren't any banks in Villazon, just a couple ATMs and a million casa de cambios (cash exchanges). By this time I had burned about 2 hours and having heard stories about train tickets, decided it was in my best interest to buy a ticket before attempting the visa back at the border.

Last Day in Argentina

Hey everybody,
Today is unfortunately my last day in Argentina - well, officially I take the bus in the evening so I guess tomorrow is. Details. Tomorrow I take the bus up to La Quiaca at the border to Bolivia. I was considering taking a bus to San Pedro, Chile, based on a suggestion that it is less of a pain to get into Bolivia, that I could do the salt flat tour from there to Uyuni, Bolivia, and that it was only about $50 more. Well, as luck would have it, the buses were full till Monday and I´m not sitting around in Salta for the weekend. Especially, after seeing a dead dog with its spine and ribs showing (I think it got hit by a bus) and getting harassed by tranny hookers. Not that Salta is all bad. The central plaza area is nice and there are a lot of tours that you can do.

Argentina Update and Quarterly Review 1

Hello from Cafayate,
I´ve been in this little wine town for 2 days, which have been quite nice. However, with deadlines looming on making it to Machu Pichu before I leave South America, I am going to leave tomorrow, possibly spending one day in Salta, then heading to Bolivia. This is a cool "little town". It seems smaller than it really is, and has made it´s mark on the map because it can grow wine. It has seen an influx of wineries (most within walking distance) over the last few decades - most wineries here are under 30 years old, which also means that the wine they are producing is simpler (not as complex as the older grapes). It seems touristy here, but I think it is because of the time of year. January being Argentina´s month off. There are Argentines everywhere on vacation, so every place that I go seems a bit touristy. That being said, this town has a lot of charm and a lot going for it. Wine, obviously being the big draw, but it is nestled in what I think is a canyon. I say think, because I wasn´t paying too much attention on the bus ride. I´m pretty sure we decended. Anyway, there are rock formations and rich red hills that jet out. The scenery from the bus ride itself, makes it worth coming here. There is trekking and day hikes, some which you´ll see pre-Inca remnants like cave paintings and weird holes in rocks, which were apperently used for both grinding corn and something with interpreting stars. Or, whaterfalls, or ATVs, or whatever. I haven´t enjoyed it as much as Mendoza, but I made some pretty good friends in Mendoza.

AR Update, Iguazu to Bariloche

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since my last update post. Sorry about that yall. So last I wrote I was on the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls. On Christmas I took a tour to the Argentina (AR) side with the intention that they'd drop me off at my hostel on the way back. Doing this, I not only got to see the AR side, but I avoided the dangerous for robberies middle ground between boarders. Oh, and it isn't just a bridge, there's about 3km, which would have been really though with the 20 kilos I am carrying in 35 degree heat. So, because the tour was missing a guide and because the hostel dude was being nice, he took $5 off and the tour cost almost the exact amount it would have if I tried to do it all by myself and with none of the hassle. I just wish I wasn't having stomach issues on the 24 and 25. Both days they'd go away about 1pm, but on the 25th I didn't have the option of staying in the hostel till they went away. No, I was Iguazu falls and I was going to see them come hell or high watermelon. I powered through and a tip of the hat to the AR Parks system for they're excellent selection of restrooms. The only thing that I couldn't do was a small waterfall a ways away from the falls. Well, and the middle island cause it was closed for a while.

Part 2, The Road to Medellin

First off, happy belated Thanksgiving. I spent last night dancing, yes dancing, the night away. Casa Kiwi is owned by a dude from Seattle, and he threw a little shindig for the holiday. There was a great band and there are some Colombians in the hostel who made me dance with them. And get this, they said that I am a good dancer, "better than many Colombians". Ha! The band wrapped up around midnight, but I decided to go to a club with some dudes from Chicago I met on a the Pablo Escabar tour earlier in the day. The club played mostly American songs from the 90´s.
Anyway, in the spirit of the holiday: I am thankful for all the great friends and family and all the support they are giving me. For 2010 being one of the best years of my life. For falling in love. For meeting new and interesting people. For being strong enough to pull the trigger on this trip. And for being on this trip.

Half an Update Post. The Road to Manizales

Sorry I haven´t written more, but the I´ve either been busy or the internet has been spotty and I´ve been unable to post. That being the case, this is going to be a long one.

Brothers Home, Cartagena Here

 I know it`s been a little while since my last post. Quite frankly, I really haven`t felt like posting. That is mainly due to the fact that I`ve been more interested in meeting people and spending time with Dan and Ed.
Here`s a brief recap of what has gone down in the last week: