Good Morning Vietnam.

Vietnam just happened to take the cake in my Southeast Asia travels... a land that is starting to come into it's own. Its amazing history is everywhere, and Vietnamese people will never let an American forget who won the war (oh, they did). To die for food that's sold from street stalls (note to self, must find a place in Western Society that sells bún chả). Not to mention the dog that is roasting for someone's lunch... From dressmakers in Hoi An to the thousands of rocks jutting out of the water in Halong Bay, this is a country I will be visiting again. Good nite 'Nam.

indonesians and the gili.

From Bali to Gili Islands... this place rocked my socks. And Indonesians just won the ticket for favorite foreigners. 1) Girls trip snorkeling around the Gilis 2) lunching 3) Haynsie gets his tan on 4) / 5) / 6) local snaps 7) Old Mate Jay having a whinge 8) Bright town in the hipster specs 9) locals passing us on the footpath

I miss Indo!

kawp chai ly ly (thank you very much).

Ahh Laos. The country that is pronounced without the "s" sound. 80% rice paddies, amazing mountains and drunken tubing down the river, as well as the most amazing BBQ I have ever tasted. Also a place I had never heard of until I booked my ticket to Southeast Asia... and I'm not even one of the ignorant Americans.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Saw Edward Sharpe at The Closet in Richmond, on Saturday nite. Awesome awesomeeee performers live, they seem super personable and down to earth. Hippies o fo sho.

Apparently the lead singer is from Ima Robot? Had no idea. He came and talked to people after the show was over as well. The whole show it seemed like they were having the best time ever.

The finale of the performance they had a whole bunch of the crowd come up on the stage with them. Love it.

and in the end.

So, when in Romeeee. I decided to jump the gun and finally get the tattoo I've been wanting for ages. Sooo, I decided on a Beatles lyric from the song "The End."

I changed one word tho, so instead of saying "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make," it now reads "...is greater than the love you make."
Dedicated to my mother of course. All thanks to her for my love of The Beatles!!

Gee-long.

For a quick one nite getaway, Nilo, Brighton, and myself went to Geelong with a couple of friends that we met thru work. Geelong is about an 1 1/2 drive up the coast, North of Melbourne. It's kind of a random little place... not somewhere I would normally just go to without knowing anyone. But in this case it was great!!



Our friend had a little setup right on the water in the bay, so we dropped off our stuff, then hopped on the boat. Drove around for a bit, and the water was crystal clear and super shallow in some parts. Of course the Aussies had a crack at the Americans about the sharks... blah blah blah, but I chose to ignore those bits. Mostly because sharks are in my top 3 fears.



After stopping for lunch, cruising around, yadda yadda, we found a sweet tower (meant to direct large ships and to show them where the deeper water is) and climbed it, and proceeded to jump off it. Was absolutely amazing! The top was pretty damn high, and covered in bird crap (gross but whatevs) and when you looked down it was just a dark blue with these white splotches everywhere.



Those splotches turned out to be ginormous jellyfish, which sting for daysss... so as I jumped, I strategically jumped where there were no jellies. I succeeded. Then I didn't move until the boat came to pick me up. And the whole time I was waiting all I could think about were sharks and or/gnarly Australian underwater creatures.



After that we finished off the day tubing, and were followed by dolphins, then of course a nite of pizza and wine... was oh so great!

home is wherever with you.

Spent a week at Bluey's Beach, a 3 hour drive North of Sydney. Stayed at a friend's house for a few days, and was lovely swimming and doing a bunch of nothing 5 days straight. Hammocks always were my favorite. The beach was incredible, and the scenery gorgeous! Apparently great white sharks are a common sight (but don't worry, they are mostly seen at dawn or dusk...), so needless to say that scared the eff out of me. Luckily there were no sightings. The highlights of the oceanic world was getting hit in the head by a jumping fish, and avoiding bluebottles which apparently sting gnarly status.



I'd say another highlight was playing King's Cup to start off a nite, which ended in "Chin's on the table for all male folk." That was a good rule.



Besides that, got to spend time in our buddy's newly acquired bus, which they have been driving around coastal Australia in search of amazing surf. The last day of our mini-vacay was spent in actual Sydney, where we spent at Bondi for a coupla hours, then headed to see a friend finish off the nite DJing. Was by far best Syd trip to date!!