Island Hopping in Greece is the Bee's Knees

I took the ferry from Çeşme to Chios (pronounced kios) on the 3rd. I was the lucky recipient of being the sole person to have to empty the entire contents of my bag for border control. The guy thought I'd some how come up with a way to fit cocaine into the air pockets of the foam cushioning in my bag. I was almost certain he was going to slice it open. Then had me answer a dozen times that this was indeed my bag. Thanks for being a dick just because I was American.
Chios isn't much to write about. The town is like most island towns here, it is built around the marina as the main focal point of the city. In Chios, the main road goes along the harbour and splits the shops and restaurants from the walk path. The affect this has is that it sucks; you don't want to sit in a cafe cause you have cars in your face and you don't really want to walk the path cause its uninviting. it does have a wall around part of it, but compared to other towns in Greece, its impressive. There is nothing resembling a hostel, so its not a great destination if you are traveling alone. I spent most of Wednesday morning trying to find a cheap place to stay. There are the hotels and pensions, but Greece has places that have a sign outside advertising rooms for rent. These are your cheapest option next to hostels. In the end I got one for €20. Always ask if they have cheaper rooms or will go less. Almost all will show you a room that isn't their cheapest, or they'll drop the price €5. The place I stayed had a great typical Greek lady running it. She was on the heavier side and hilarious. She spoke some English, but it was heavily accented so it was tough to understand.
It also turned out she was a level 2 reiki. She mentioned it to me when I asked her some places to see on the island. She said there was a sea cave that was great for reiki. She asked if I knew what it was, so I grabbed my big book of chi and turned to the reiki chapter. I tried to see if she'd do a session on me, but she said she couldn't for some reason.

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.

Blurb to Update Cause I Don't Plan on Internet for the Next 5 Days

So, really briefly...
Three things I forgot in the last post. One, the power in Luang Prabang cuts out randomly for random lengths of time. One day, part of the town didn't have power for five or more hours. Maybe that particular one was due to the storms that have been hitting the area, but the  power would cut out at least once a day even on the sunny days. Two, I was a bit in a funk when I was writing the last email. I don't really know why. It was after hanging out with the elephants. I came home and practically passed out, only to be awaken by my "take malaria pills" alarm shortly there after. When I woke, I was in a fog and a bad mood, but that mood lasted the rest of the night and I tried to avoid seeing anybody I knew. On the bright side, the next day the "boss" of the coffee shop allowed me to download music. I walked away with about 600 songs. Most hadn't heard, and a lot is jazz (there are a few gems but I will be deleting most of the jazz). I've gone through about half and am deleting about 1 in 8 songs. The third thing was that I found out that I will most likely not being receiving $1,000 of which I had budgeted into my trip. It involves a friend back home whom I lent money to. I don't know all the details or all the sides of what has transpired so it's not fair for me to speculate on here. Suffice to say that a combination of job loss and legal problems will no doubt put paying me as a last priority. I hope this not to be the case and I want to trust that this person can get their act together enough to pay me before I come home. It would be a bummer to have that issue waiting for me upon my return.

OK, now to the reason for this post -

Savannakhet, Loas Update and Book Review

After my last post, which ended with me dropping Ivy off at the airport, a couple of nice things happened to me to help cheer me up a bit. After leaving her at the airport, I took the train to the city. It doesn't stop anywhere near where I was staying, but I figured I'd just take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way. However, when I got to the last stop I was in no mood to do so. I guess I needed a good walk. On the way back a couple temples caught my eye, so I wandered in. I arrived at the second temple just as the monks were wrapping up praying. I was lingering about and one of the monks motioned me in as the last trickled out. He showed me how to pray and while it's pretty simple, involving three head to floor prayers, there is no way I'll remember what the speaking parts were. I talked to him a little bit in broken English and he said his name, but it was impossible for me to even pronounce. He also made me take a picture of their Buddha shrine. It was a really nice moment. Next, I stopped at another temple that was at the top of a "mountain" as the sun was waning. When I got back to my guesthouse, I went to the roof to find rabbits in what used to be a bar and a laundry girl that spoke near perfect English. I talked to her a bit about her life and then got some recommendations from her. The recommendations were spot on. I ate some fantastic baby clams and then had a beer in a tucked away deserted bar (I didn't want to be around anyone).I realized that Bangkok isn't the shit hole I thought it was. It has hidden little gems amidst a see of crap. Although, I'm not sure that I'll ever find a reasonably priced and not a dump, place to stay. So, those two things helped to cheer me up a little. Also, the next day I found a guy who reinforced the stress points on my new backpack (Ivy brought my dad's backpack which was identical to mine and we switched). He didn't do quite the job that the guy in Peru did, but it will definitely help to keep it from breaking.
Still, I needed to get out of Bangkok as quickly as possible. The first thing I did the next day was book a bus to Vientiane Laos. Then, the backpack thing. Then, a couple new books. I've been looking for The Celestine Prophecy based on a recommendation from Golden, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I didn't find either. Not that they aren't out there, just that when you go to a book store or whatnot, the books are stored happenstance. It is quite frustrating trying to find specific books as I'm sure you can imagine. However, there is something to it. In a way, it allows you to find things you weren't sure you were even looking for. I ended up picking out Dan Brown's new one (see book review below) and Into the Wild. I didn't know I was looking for them, but as I was looking for those specific ones above, they were the books that vividly stuck out.

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.

Chopstick Theory - Self Improvement During Dinner

You have a lot of time to think when you travel like this. Naturally, you will inevitably allow yourself to think about things that you never would have before. This has many benefits, the least of all of them being that I've come up with about 8 viable (to differing degrees) business ideas. With the exception of one, none would make me wealthy. That's not really the point is it. The majority of them would require little work after startup and allow me to be mobile. The fact that they'd provide a tiny income is not important. But all this is a topic of another post. The other benefits are small self and world revelations. I spent 30 minutes on a train of thought about chopsticks while I was eating the other day, but it was fun. Without hustle and bustle of daily routines and deadlines for this and that, you have all the time to think about things as silly as chopsticks. There's just some simple joy in that I think we all need.

Last New Zealand Post, a Video Update and Advice on Campervans

So, this has a couple elements to it. The first, is the last update that I made, the second is some final thoughts about NZ, and lastly is my advice on what transportation to use.

I Need Snow

NOTE: I don´t know why the video only worked for a couple days. Problem is, I deleted it from my phone so I can´t attempt a recovery of it on here. I hope that this isn´t going to happen every time I try to post a video. Anyway, here´s the original post:

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.

Reflections from Central America

I`ll likely try to do some sort of relfection after I`ve been somewhere - something other than just a recap of what is going on and more geared to what I felt, how I am feeling now, and any insights I can come up with.
Central America was such a blur, each week in a different country, that I don`t think reflecting country by country was possible or fair to the country. So, this is kinda just a general cover of the last three weeks.

Last Day in Belize (non traveling)

Well, it's my last day before exiting Belize for Costa Rica and Panama with my brothers!!!
I guess I'll start with describing my last couple days, then move to some observations, and maybe if I feel like it some general where I'm at mentally/what I'm feeling thus far.

Thoughts From San Ignacio

Well, I made it. It was my first time taking a bus system in a poor country and it is a little crazy to say the least. Not to mention that it was insanely cheap. $3.50 US to get here. It's a bit different than Caye Caulker, but I like it. In some way it feels more comfortable. Doesn't hurt that I got my own hotel room this time cause it was only $2.50 more than the hostel. Don't get me wrong Caulker was cool, and if I wasn't doing tours here, I'd probably not spend more than a day, but the city makes it a little easier transition. However, it's way more muggy and hot though than the coast.

Moving On From Caye Caulker

Caye caulker was fun and super chill. It was pretty tough at first but things have improved. It definitely helped having Nicole's friend Leshea here, diving, and meeting people in the same place as me - just starting trips or nearing the end of long ass travel. There is a girl who has been traveling 8 years and teaches every now and then to supplement it, and Sam (Leshea's travel companion and friend) has done 6 or more year long trips. I can't say that that is my ultimate goal - to continue traveling like this for the rest of my life - and at the moment I'd say that I want to travel lots but maybe shorter periods of time like a couple months in one country here and there with someone.

In the Beginning

FYI, proof reading is not going to happen Becquerel it will cost to much.
So, to start this post, lets begin with Thursday. That was one of the toughest days of my life. I left a girl I love behind, I had a constant sense of dread combined with a terrible upset stomach and crappy feeling. I was barely keeping it together all day and that little voice that tells you not to do things wasn't inactive to say the least. What that told me is that I'm human, and what's more, that I need to do this. Just cause this is scary, just cause I feel all alone, these are the reasons I need to do this.