TravelStream™ news feed for member randommaia on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/randommaia en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:40:09 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206691200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206691200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206691200/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:40:09 -0400 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Shanghai, China

I think the best way to describe my Shanghai experience is something like this: I've never pointed to more things in my life and I absolutely, 100%, do not want to know what it is I've been eating.  It's been a blast, but I seriously think there is not a single person here who speaks English.  It could be worse though, I'm staying with Dan, an old friend from Dartmouth (and Tabard, for those of you who know what that means) so I've had a nice crew of ex-pats to spend my nights with.  Dan's been a great host and I've sampled all sorts of local beers, as well as local pubs.  I've been absolutely awful at taking pictures here so they won't tell much of a story, but I've basically spent my days walking around and people watching.  Shanghai is a wonderful city with an illustrious skyline along the water.  Luckily, my time here has beeen filled with sunshine so I've been taking the luxury of sitting on a bench along the water and catching up on my reading and journal writing for entire afternoons.  I'll interupt my people-watching for a cuisine adventure around lunch time, where I'll play roulette with the menu and hope for the best. I've had the best dumplings for $0.50 I've ever had in my life and I'm pretty sure I've eaten cat on a skewer. Don't ask.There's obviously a lot more to Shanghai than live bands at a local pub and dumpling stands in the park, but I'm pretty content with my version of the city.  It'd been nice to have a house instead of a hotel and to just sit in the  park for hours on end instead of running around trying to see every sight imaginable. I did venture into the Shanghai railway station, which was a mission in it of itself.  Somehow I managed to come out with a train ticket to Beijing, but I'm still not sure if it'll actually get me there... like I said, I really think no one in Shanghai speaks English.  And with that, I'm off to Beijing... or at least I'll try and hope the piece of paper I have is actually a train ticket.Till next time!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206330540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206330540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206330540/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:28:54 -0400 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

So originally I thought, 'what the hell, if I'm flying through Kuala Lumpur I might as well stop and check it out.'  It's not exactly the number one tourist hot spot, but I figured it'd be interesting enough.   As soon as I got in, I got a wiff of that familar Southeast Asian culture I had grown so accustomed to just six months ago. People shouting at me from up and down the street--"sunglasses, copy bags, money change..!" I remember how annoyed I got with it at the end of that part of the trip and I smiled at how some time away from the bustle can make it seem so refreshing and exciting again.  After being bombarded for a few minutes, I set out to find my hostel and was pleasantly surprised to find it had aircon and an elevator. You never really know what you're getting when you book these things online... and you definitely wonder what the hell they were taking pictures of when they posted them because it's almost NEVER the same place you end up staying it. Anyways, I met the other kids at the hostel and immediately got sucked into the Kuala Lumpur night life.  Where does one go out in Kuala Lumpur, you wonder?  Why, none other than Outback Steakhouse. I've debated whether or not I was going to admit this in the blog--that my first experience with Malaysian cuisine was an Australian chicken salad. As it turns out, and I assume it has something to do with the fact that it is predominantly Muslim, Malaysia has an incredibly high liquor tax. Apparently, Outback's $5 margaritas were the bargain in town and so it went... just hours after arriving I found myself drinking margaritas with new-found friends.  Despite the obscene liquor tax, I found out that KL has a very happening night life, with some clubs that rival New York City's finest.   I awoke the next morning and decided that I definitely had to extend my flight out as this town had a lot to offer (besides $5 maragaritas).  After a quick visit to the Malaysian Airways ticket office, I spent the rest of the day site-seeing through the nerous bazaars and went to steal a look at the world famous Petronas Towers.  They were as impressive as I'd heard. The next day I went with some kids I met to the Batu Caves-- these massive caves that double as  hindu temple and boast and HUGE (and I mean, really, really HUGE) gold Hindi statue. The caves were impressive, but maybe the coolest part of the whole thing was the number of monkeys that were everywhere. Don't ask why, but I happened to have two bananas in my bag, so I spent the better part of the morning feeding my new friends. Really, I could have stayed there for hours.      Some more site-seeing later and then i was off-- and now I'm here, in an internet cafe on the 10th floor of the shoddiest looking building on the whole block.. in downtown Hong Kong.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206085380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206085380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1206085380/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:22:30 -0400 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Hong Kong, China

Sometimes while I'm traveling I can't help but be overwhelmed at just how big our world.  Then other times, I can't believe it's so freaking small. As I'm checking into my hostel (I use the term hostel very lightly by the way, it was more like a dilapidated tenament in the middle of downtown Hong Kong), I heard a familiar voice coming from down the hall.  'I'm in Hong Kong, no way it's a familiar voice,' I think, and dismiss the thought. But sure enough, as soon as I look up I see two guys I knew living in New Zealand. Unbelievable.   And it was as easy as that, within minutes of getting into Hong Kong, I had already found myself some fantastic travel and drinking buddies.  Nick and Feddy had just gotten there as well, so as soon as we all dropped our stuff off, we headed out into town.  How do I describe Hong Kong? I'd say it's probably the most expensive city in the world to shop in. On any given block, you'll find designer store after designer store... I think the cheapest item you could buy on our block was a $600 wallet from Armani.  The Louis Vuitton store took the prize though, with massives lines just to get in and browse.  It only took a little while to realize that there was absolutely nothing in our price range on our side of Hong Kong, so we decided to check out the other island. Hong Kong is actually separate islands, made up of Kowloon- the shopping district where we were staying, and Hong Kong island- the concrete jungle of massive office buildings.  I'm not giving it enough credit, though. We spent a whole day just walking around Hong Kong island, the architecture was really out of this world. Unfortunately it was pretty foggy and cloudy the whole time so I didn't get too many pictures of the buildings, but if you were lucky enough to get a postcard you'd get the idea...!   We basically just walked around during the days, took a ferry tour of the islands and explored the side markets.  Every night we started off at the world-famous lightshow.  It's pretty cool, basically all of the office buildings in Hong Kong island have gotten together and organized a nightly show of music and lights.  You stand at the waters edge of the Kowloon side and at precisely 8pm music comes on from the various speakers and the lights across the water begin to dance in sync with the music. The whole thing lasts about ten minutes and it really didn't get old... I don't even want to imagine how much electricity it uses up, but we enjoyed it!  After the lightshow we would make our way over to the night market, making sure to stop off at a 7/11 along the way to purchase the super cheap pbr's. Yes, they have pbr in Hong Kong, and not only that, but it was $1.25 for a LITER of it. And yes, it comes in liters.    So that was Hong Kong in a nutshell, pbr, lights, and office buildings. It was a blast, for sure, but honestly, I never once got the impression that we were in China (besides the Chinese, of course).  There were more American chains than local restaurants and there were more European clothing stores than anything else you'd find in China. But we had fun, and that's what matters :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205928780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205928780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205928780/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:48:02 -0400 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Tokyo, Japan

I think maybe one of my favorite things about traveling is the sense of accomplishment you get just from doing the simplest of things.  I got into Osaka last week at 8pm.  Customs, baggage claim, train ticket purchases... next thing I knew it was 10pm and I found myself in the middle of Osaka with only some jotted down directions to my hotel.  Of course, all of the street names were in Japanese and the first four people I stopped to ask for directions didn't speak a work of English.  Despite all of this though, it only took me about 15 minutes of map turning to figure out where I was and locate the hotel.  And like I said, the sense of accomplishment I felt when I put my bags down in the lobby is hard to compare.My first impressions of Japan were that everything is so CLEAN. I mean, really, really clean.  And to make it more interesting, it's impossible to find a garbage can anywhere in the city.  The best thing to do is go into a 7-11 (yes, there are a lot of them) and look next to the vending machines... you're always bound to find a recycling bin and sometimes a garbage can.  Also, the technology is out of the Jetsons.  I walked into the bathroom and as soon as I opened the stall door, the toilet seat sprang up to welcome me.  Now there are more buttons on these toilet seats than I have on my tv remote control... apparently you can wash your butt in many ways, sans toilet paper. I'll be honest, I haven't experimented yet.  And the trains...! I've never seen anything more exact in my life.  I asked someone at the information desk how to get somewhere and they gave me what subway, time and track to take... then the time and track of the subway I was supposed to transfer too, taking into account walking time.  And apparently they are never, ever late.But all those things are just the beginning.  There is so much more to this country than just the cleanliness and technology. For starters, Kyoto is one of the most charming and culturally rich cities I've ever been to.  After a morning in Osaka, I took a train to Kyoto and set up camp at a hostel there for a few days.  Kyoto is as modern as any Japanese city, but there's still a few major areas that have the ancient all-wood buildings and lots of shrines and temples.  It's in these parts that you're most likely to spot a geisha, which is really a treat.  I'm currently reading Memoirs of a Geisha, which I really recommend if you haven't read it.  Anyways, it made it really interesting to walk around the areas described in the book and gave me a much greater understanding of the beautifully made-up geishas I saw while there.  I spent the first two days in Kyoto sight-seeing with an American med student I met at the hostel. She actually spoke some Japanese, which made going to the food market super-fun.  I'm still not sure but I think I tried fish testes.  Regardless, the food market had all sorts of Japanese delicacies and I found myself getting braver with each attempt and really enjoyed the whole time there (except the testes part).On the third day, I took a day trip with a Kiwi girl I met down to Hiroshima.  Now if you had just transplanted me there without telling me where we were, i would have NEVER ever believed that this was the same city we dropped the bomb on 60 years ago.  Hiroshima is a bustling metropolis filled with super-friendly people.  At one point I was sitting in a park and had two separate women come up to me just to say hello and practice their English and to see how I was enjoying my holiday.  One of them was there when the bomb was dropped and had no problems retelling her story. It's pretty incredible how well they've moved past such a terrible tragedy.  I told them I was from New Zealand when they asked, but I really think they wouldn't have cared if I said I was American. Still, I felt kind of funny about it.  Besides sitting in parks and talking to kind Japanese women, we also went to see the A-bomb dome (the one remaining building, or well, ruins, from the bomb) and the museum.  The museum... I don't really know how to sum it up in a blog entry.  I think it's hard to make a museum about such an event, but I've got to say it was really tastefully done.  It was much more of an anti-nuclear armament campaign than a museum about what happened, but I thought it definitely did a very good job of remembering the people whose lives were taken by the bomb.  While the day in Hiroshima wasn't exactly "fun," I'm really glad I went and I think it should be part of anyone's itinerary when visiting Japan.After that I spent another night in Kyoto where we all indulged in the Saturday night complimentary sake (I picked the right hostel).  I awoke early the next morning with only the slightest of headaches and made my way over to the train station where I boarded the bullet train to Tokyo.  If you haven't heard anything about these bullet trains, I suggest a quick wikipedia because these things are cool... they go about 200 kilometers per hour and are the most comfortable and smoothest rides I've ever been on.  The ride to Tokyo went by quickly and when I got out I realized that my task of finding Curtis and Katie was going to be a lot harder than I'd originally thought.  Curtis is Dan's (friend from high school who came to visit New Zealand) room mate from college and Katie is his girlfriend... they're both living in Tokyo teaching English.  I had been emailing back and forth with them and the *plan* was to meet in Tokyo station at noon. Ha, the numbers I've read vary but I think something like two million people go through Tokyo station PER DAY.  I started to look around for a payphone and within maybe 3 minutes of being in the station, I hear Katie call my name.  Talk about luck...Katie and I spent the first day bike riding around the city.  I don't think any amount of mountain biking in New Zealand could have possibly prepared me for biking through downtown Tokyo traffic, but man was it a laugh. We hung out at Tokyo's equivalent to Central Park, where we were entertained by the alternative Japanese culture: from dancing Elvises (look at the picture) to hacky-sackers to teeny bopper dancers, you could probably spend a week walking around this part and not get bored.  After that the three of us went to dinner with Joe, a guy I met in Queenstown who happened to be in Tokyo just for the night.  Curtis and Katie were great... they picked this place in the brightest part of Tokyo that did all-you-can-eat/drink Shabu Shabu. Shabu shabu... it's fantastic- it's Japan's version of fondue and you basically just swish your meat with your chopsticks back and forth in the big pot in front of you. Lots of fun, and the unlimited sake didn't hurt either.I woke up early the next morning, and I mean, 5 am early, so I could get a glimpse of the famous Tsukiji Fish  Market.  Holy shit.  This is where the tuna, and all the other seafood, get auctioned off every morning and it is just pure organized chaos.  There were 1000 lb tunas being flung everywhere and you could walk around for hours taking pictures of the crazy  different sorts of fish and crustaceans that were sold at this market.  I saw an octopus tentacle the size of my freaking leg... I'm not even sure I would have liked to see the full-sized thing.  Go look at the photo album for some pictures of this because I can't possibly describe it, but it was well worth the early morning wake-up.  I finished the fish market experience with an incredible sushi breakfast... it seemed fitting ;)To finish off my Japanese experience, I decided to go to an onsen, the Japanese word for natural hot pool. An  onsen is much more than that though, it is (or used to be, it's sort of dying out now) a place for daily social gatherings.  Before running water was commonplace in people's houses, they would go to the onsen for their daily bath and finish off the experience with a soak in the natural hot springs.  The tradition still stands with the older generations, but I definitely got the feeling that it's becoming more a thing of the past. Anyway, as I got there I definitely wondered what the hell I was doing. I should probably mention that you must be naked at an onsen (it's single-sex), and when I walked in not only was I the only white person there, but also the only person under 65.  I ran to the toilet and stood naked in the stall for a good five minutes before getting the courage or whatever you call it to go out there.  Turned out I made a big deal out of nothing, because the women there were all super friendly and made me feel really comfortable.  Besides the fact that the water was scalding hot, the whole experience was great and I left Japan super satisfied.   Next stop... Kuala Lumpur.  I suppose this is where I say that I have no plans and we'll see happens, but it seems like every entry ends like that, so how about just goodbye :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205364660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205364660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1205364660/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:46:10 -0400 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Sydney, Australia

Who would've thought a four hour layover could be so enjoyable?  I'm at the Sydney airport right now and after a riveting two-hour long game of Wii against an Irish kid I met on the plane, I've decided to take advantage of the free internet and sum up my last few weeks in New Zealand. First off, I ran the marathon!!!  And it was awesome... but more on that later ;) So I got back from Argentina and was immediately picked up by Pip, my housemate, and driven into town where I met everyone for lunch.  Since Random left, I've been living with Pip and her husband Eric, two of my good friends from the shop. I had gotten back just in time for Eric's last day at work so Pip and I spent the afternoon making arrangements for the festivities.  We invited everyone from the shop to meet there at 8pm, an hour before closing, and advised everyone to bring plenty of beer. We kidnapped Eric during his last hour and brought him down to the bike shop where we dug into the beers... a few hours later one of the more responsible kids in the crew decided we should probably stop drinking in the bike shop well past closing... given that we had started to try on the downhill body armour and were seeing just how "well" it protected.  And so began my first night back in Queenstown... After that I decided to take a little break from drinking, given that my marathon was now a week away and the longest distance I had run to date was 13 miles... if I wasn't going to be well trained, at least I'd be sober!  Stu and I decided to spend my last week of training by doing a roadtrip up the west coast of New Zealand and exploring parts we hadn't seen before.  We took a tent and a map and packed the car full of fun toys... we were off.  The first day we found a cool climbing spot and hung out for sunset before pitching our tent for the first time. The next day we went caving through this 600 meter long cave. Everyone there had full-on wetsuits and gear and we show up in our chacos and shorts. The water was freezing and besides not being able to feel your legs, it was probably my favorite part of the roadtrip.  The flash makes it seem like there was plenty of light but as you can imagine, 600 meter long caves are pretty dark.  After that we went up to the northern most part of the island and did a two- day, 50 kilometer trek along the beaches. It was different than most hikes I've done, pretty flat and well, beachy, but we were rewarded by the coolest camp spot ever just on the beach. And a long drive after that and we found ourselves back in Queenstown, just a day before the big race. So it went infinitely better than I though it would (which may not be saying much since I wasn't even sure I'd finish). Two of my friends ran too and Stu volunteered to drive us over to the start at 5am.  I don't think we could have thanked him enough.  The course itself was unbelieveable... huge mountain ranges (that we crossed) and river crossings that went up to thigh deep. Ahhhh, besides the fact that my sneakers were wet the WHOLE time, it was really incredible.  My only goals were to finish without walking and to break five hours--keep in mind it's off-road, hilly and there are rivers, so it takes a bit longer than regular marathons.  I ran across the finish line to be greeted by friends who had come out to watch, ten minutes *under* my goal and with sore legs from running the whole way... maaan it felt incredible.  Fast forward a few hours to a large pizza and a six-pack of Monteiths Black, my favorite kiwi beer, and I was one happy camper. The few days that followed included lots of beer, pizza, and hanging out with my friends before taking off.  Needless to say, leaving was very, very hard, but I know I'll be back soon.  And now I'll start my world travels again. I don't even know what part of the trip this is, but let's call it part 5. Part 5, here I come... :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1203993840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1203993840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1203993840/tpod.html Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:50:48 -0500 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

So looking at the map and knowing where I'm going next, I realize that this bit of the journey makes absolutely no sense logistically. I mean, 100%, absolutely out-of-the-way from everywhere else I've been and am going. But clearly logic hasn't been one of major parts of this trip so I suppose it's no matter.As you can tell from the map (or the title of the blog), I just got back from hanging out in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I guess it's like a mini-vacation during my perma-vacation. Basically my family was going through Maia-withdrawal, so they flew me over here for a little reunion. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. The 4000 calorie diet of pure steak and ice cream isn't exactly conducive to my marathon training, but other than that it's been fantastic to see everyone and enjoy my home away from home (away from home). So for those of you that aren't familiar with South American families, let me just say this: major family reunions with three generations and twenty families are not just a regular occurrence, they're a way of life. Between running around from the Chinese to American to the Russian to the Chinese to the American embassies (long, long story) and my breakfast/lunch/dinner reunions with the family, I haven't had much time to do any site seeing. I'm not complaining though, Buenos Aires is really, really hot and full of tourists this time of year and it's a nice change to feel at home in a city and not feel like I have to "take it all in" because I'm visiting it. We did take a fantastic weekend trip to Colona, Uruguay. It's this little town just across the river from Buenos Aires and has been pretty untouched my mordern technology. All of the streets are cobblestone and the buildings are pretty much in their original state from a hundred years ago. All in all it was a great trip and an even better trip back. Basically they oversold the flight and the only way I was able to get back was to be bumped up to first class... for free. I definitely won't be flying like that for the rest of the trip, but it did make for a nice little finish.Now I'm back in Queenstown, going on a roadtrip with my buddy Stu for a week, running a marathon (eeek!), and then off to Japan!Smiles and hugs,Maia
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1200388500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1200388500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1200388500/tpod.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 04:30:22 -0500 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Ahhhhh alright everybody welcome back to another 1.5 month saga of Random and Maia..... Slacking probably does not describe what we have been doing unless we only count the blog! Where are we? Queenstown, and all over the south island of Nuevo Zealandia...... Weather, hot and sunny almost everyday.... (when am I gonna finally get some snow?) I think the last blog left us before Christmas..... Christmas was a wonderful pot luck dinner, kinda yankee swap, and a marathon of Back to the Future movies.  The food was wonderful, we had diverse world influences such as Argentina, Australia, USA.... well thats about it, but there were 12 of us so we felt pretty diverse. The morning started out like most normal Christmas mornings- an hour mountain bike ride followed by a swim and a beer..... and ended with most of a round of frisbee golf, champagne and rain (that actually put a dusting on the mountains... just for my white christmas!) Maia's friend Brian (Bucky for those who know him as such) arrived for the holidays- he's a skydiver from New England who is also doing an around-the-world trip, as did a package containing homemade bits and goodies from his mom which he so kindly shared.  He was with us off and on for the next month or so as he used our couch as home base on his adventures in the country.  It is funny all these people that arrive from one country and are leaving on there way to some totally different one..... such a interesting traveling culture... Around Christmas we were working quite a bit as the people that lived elsewhere in the island took time and went and visited their families.  We still got to play ultimate frisbee with our pickup crowd Wednesday nights... one of our highlights here that we will both miss.   There are some really good kids and we are having great games weekly... followed by rounds of beer while we discuss the best scores....  New Years was an epic event.  It all started at 11pm.  Maia is all dolled up and ready to head out as she arranges herself one last time... We get a text from the posse of choice for the night and it looks like Maia's bar tending experience will come in hand as they bar hop around town dancing the night away. The group is at less than full strength as some of them had chosen to haul all their booze for the night up 2,000 vertical feet in 2.3 kilometers to spend New Years in a hut overlooking Mt. Cook.  For the rest of us that had to work the next day...... (retail barely ever sleeps!) we spent the night away in Queenstown.  There is a liquor ban on all public areas during the holiday season, unlike the rest of the year where you can drink on the streets and in parks...... and the local rugby club sets up outhouses and sells tent sites on their rugby pitch, so frisbee was kinda clogged with all shapes and sizes of tents and other homemade contraptions...... (you should have seen how many people came into the shop the next day with broken tent poles from people stumbling into them.....)  So New Years was a smashing success on all fronts, I think Maia ended up coming in the back door, quite a feet because it requires hopping down a 6 foot retaining wall..... I managed to rip it up till 11pm and then enjoyed a relatively blissful sleep only interrupted by fireworks and the sounds of breaking glass on the streets outside but managed to get into work at 8:30 am on January 1st. Whose bright idea was that?! The New Year arrived relatively quietly for me, the store at 8:30 am on New years day was relatively dead..... and I managed my longest no sale streak of about 3.5 hours..... the stuff your mind will do when you figure out that this job is about to turn really short term....... There are some perks about this job.... mostly bits and pieces around town, locals prices (50 cents off beers and 15 % off food and stuff) at bars and stuff..... free gear rental... free rides on the local ski area's chairlift and free use of monstrous downhill mtn bikes to rip up the trails with.  Our shop sets up a rental/demo shop up at the downhill mtn bike park, usually manned by our buddy Stu. Whenever we make it up there (8 mile bike ride, 5 of it uphill!)  or drive, he usually closes up shop and takes a couple laps with us as we get to test out the biggest bikes while all dressed in body armour and full faced helmets..... Maia got hooked up with the heli-bike guy and got a free heli-bike trip which consisted of a fifteen minute ride up in the middle of the mountains and a 2 1/2 hour ride down. So the perks are there.... rockclimbing with full setups at beautiful cliffs overlooking the lake with the sun setting over mountains to the west..... Sometimes the climbs require you to rappel down the cliff to the lakeside and belay from there as you take turns climbing up and jumping back into the lake, the fast way down.... We are still managing to do some trekking..... Maia and I have been out to a few of the beautiful huts in the area. One in particular consisted of a walk down a glacier carved valley as it winds its way up toward Mt. Aspiring and then as the valley closes in we took a left away from the big peak and walked straight up to a little hut with epic views looking over the mtn as the sun sets over it... Got a little snow that night too!  Then my parents arrived, they are leaving today actually.  They have had a wonderful time, having experienced everything from the beauty of Milford sound to a coworkers hen party.... which consisted of a large posse of extremely drunk 20-something girls running around trying to get the bride to be to kiss as many men as they could..... After a week of traveling around with them, Maia's friend Dan arrived for a whirlwind 9 day tour of New Zealand..... Now to put some guilt trips into it..... Here is where we hope to have some guest blog entries...... Well, while we wait for Dan to suck it up and write an entry, I'll (Maia here by the way) try and summarize his epic vacation. Dan showed up and since he claimed to not be that tired, we threw him right in the fire.  A quick tour around the town, followed by a round of frisbee, then a two hour bouldering session, followed by another one of our improptu pot-luck barbeque dinners.  Keep in mind Dan landed at 2pm, so this really was a full day. I had to work for Dan's first two days, so we hung around town and spend the afternoons hiking and mountain biking (ask Dan about that one... the bike shop's reaction to Dan's bike after he used it was something along the lines of 'WOW, we've never seen a wheel bent *that* bad before).  It's amazing what a case of beer can do to smooth things over, and the bike guys quickly forgot about Dan's crash while they enjoyed frosty Stellas on his behalf.  After that I threw a 25lbs backpack on Dan and we went for the first of a few loong hikes.  We started easy, with a ten mile hike through beautiful forests and lakes to arrive at Welcome Flatts Hut... an unbelieveably situated hut in the forest just minutes away from natural hot springs. I pulled out the bottle of wine I'd been carrying and we spent the night in the hot springs with unbelieveable views of snow-capped mountains.  We woke up early the next morning and retraced our steps back to civilization, where we managed to hitch hike back over to the nearest town once we reached the road and meet up with Random and his parents.  The town itself was nothing special but we managed to find the one bar and all of a sudden it seemed great.  The reason we had decided to meet up there, though, is that the town is just a few kilometers away from a massive receeding glacier. As you can imagine, we spent the next day crossing the "DO NOT CROSS - DANGEROUS" signs and hiking all over and around the glacier.  It was all for the pictures ;) A long drive back to Queenstown later, Dan, Random, and I prepared our backpacks for the next long hike... this was a grueling 20 mile hike that the average person does in three days... but given our time frame and the fact that we wanted Dan to see everything, we decided we'd do it in a day and have Random's parents meet us on the other side.  Poor Dan... he's going to need a vacation from this vacation.  But the hike was incredible and we flew through it with flying colors.   We could probably write an entire blog entry on this hike and definitely fill it up with pictures, but we'll just throw a few pictures on and let you imagine the rest... or better yet, entice you to come visit and see it for yourself.  It worked out perfectly because the hike started near Queenstown (home, for those of you that have a hard time following all of this) and ended just near Milford Sound... an unbelieveable fiordland carved out by the glacier. Random's parents picked us up from that end and the five us headed over to the sound for a private cruise around.  No, it wasn't actually meant to be private, but seeing as we were the only ones on at that time, we felt pretty regal.  I know we always say the pictures don't do it justice, but really, here the pictures don't do it justice. Some of these cliff faces reached unbelievable altitudes of 4000 ft above the water... totally straight up and sho wknows how deep they went.  Our cruise felt like five minutes but they assured us that we had spent two full hours riding around the fiords.  There were tons of sea lions and we even got to see a penguin! Doesn't really feel like we're still within Dan's 9-day trip, huh? Now you see what we mean by not being able to summarize everything we've been doing in the past 45 days...  But after the Milford Sound we headed back home and Dan decided to cram one more thin gin- he went river surfing the next day while Random and I worked.  Perfect timing though, cause Dan returend from his river surfing trip just about the time I was getting off from work... we went home, filled a three-liter juice bottle with vodka and whatever bits of juice were left over, and went into town to help Random finish off his shift (and the vodka)... after which we wrangled Tiffany, another coworker, to join us in saying bye to Dan properly. Somehow Dan woke up in time, packed, though I think he might have left his jeans here... and made it to the airport just in time to get back to work on Wednesday morning.  Okay, now we'll wait for Dan to comment, and then back to Random.... Before I talk about my trip, I want to give a shout out to avid blogreaders Ed Antoian and Gabby Josebachvili. This blog would be nothingwithout the readers. Now that we have that out of the way, I'll try tofill in a few important details, even though Maia basically told youeverything I did. First of all, the only thing I ate on the entire trip was salami withcheese, hamburgers, and peanut butter on English muffins. I couldn't behappier about that. Second of all, I'd say my entire experience in NZwas similar to that of a fat kid in gym class. While I was strugglingto climb up easy boulders, her friends were off climbing rocks upsidedown by putting their feet near their ears and holding on with 2fingers at a time, all after downing a few beers. Also, at the end ofthe ten mile hike, Maia decided to run ahead to finish the trail, thenrun back into the forest to tell me that I was almost done, while I waswondering if I'd ever be able to walk again. That made me feel great.Finally I think we can all agree that the most important developmentduring the past two weeks was the Giants win over the Packers. Cominghome to the Giants in the Super Bowl was really the icing on the cake. Specialthanks go out to the Dudleys for helping us get around and taking usout for dinner and a cruise. It was great meeting you guys and I reallyappreciate it. Dan Okay, Random back.  The last few days have been crazy as Dan wraps up his trip.  My parents are packing last bits of stuff and bringing home stuff for me and presents for Catherine!!!!!  As some of you may know, I am coming home February 5th as my cash flow is insufficient to continue traveling, while Maia will stay here in New Zealand for a month or so, then off to Argentina, Australia, Japan, etc..... Have a great day.... I can't wait to see everyone.... and get some skiing in!  Looking forward to Sugarbush guys! Maia here, for those of you who are still reading this far.  I think that for the first time I can actually say Random has *not* covered everything, but he did a pretty great job considering we've now gone almost two full months without a blog entry. Anyways, I'm just chiming in for a look at what's in store for the blog, assuming I motivate and actually start to write in it after this little hiatus.  Random leaves here pretty soon and after I'll that I'll be moving in with some friends for the remainder of my time here.  I'm going to Argentina Feb 14th to visit the family for ten ways, after which I'll come back here and travel with our mountain biking buddy Stu for a week or two, semi-training for my marathon (I didn't mention that yet, huh?).  Yeah, I signed up for an off-road, mostly uphill, river-crossing marathon... this was definitely on a whim seeing as I only had about 7 weeks to train and I'm not really a huge runner to begin with. So we'll travel, I'll run, then run the marathon, after which I'll head up to Japan and China and take the train from Beijing to St. Petersburg... Phew... and yeah, then eventually make my way home :)  So if you know anyone in any of those regions send me their contact info, I'd love to see a semi-familar face! Enjoy the day and see you guys soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1197764040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1197764040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1197764040/tpod.html Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:56:13 -0500 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Hello All, Happy Holidays to one and all..... its 80 degrees here and for the holidays everyone is talking about something called a 'Barbie on the beach' and I haven't played with dolls since....     On a lighter note, we are going flat out here.  I am trying to do way too much, I am now fighting a cold after an epic 13 hour, 60 kilometer  (38 mile) hike.  I decided midway through my day to do the whole hike (4 days) in one because I forgot my toothbrush and the sandflies where so bad.  It was a beautiful walk through two glacial valleys, separated by a 3,000-foot saddle.  Epic views of snowcapped mountains all the way to the sea.  I decided to culminate the hike by proceeding to the bar till 2:30 in the morning to celebrate Maia and our friends' birthday.  Not sure where that cold came from though! We are both working retail now at Outside Sports.  Maia is now working twice a month or so at the bar, for cheap drinks and cheap all nighters.  It is my first time working retail and I am realizing that I may not have the patience to sit there and explain to people all day how to use their telescoping hiking poles. I just hate having to subdue the urge to stab them with it after they ask me if 'that is as long as they go?' Who the *&%$ needs a hiking pole over 6 feet long?   The people we work with are all pretty sweet though.  There are only about three kiwis working at the store, Americans are a major chunk with four of us on the floor.  There are adventure racers, masters students, graphic designers, and a lot of people chasing summers around the world.  My wonderful people skills have stuck me upstairs in the tramping and camping section, where besides being able to play with packs, sleeping bags and tents, I am in charge of Outside Sports vast and smelly rental department.  The gear is top of the line which has my materialistic side threatening to come out and consume my paycheck.  The Holiday specials by all the wholesalers have gotten Maia and I salivating.  I have managed to satisfy myself with one super sweet softshell jacket, but Maia has gotten a few new toys.   There is so much to do around here that I do stuff and then realize how much I can't do because of how my body is feeling.  I am learning how it is to have to recover from something other than a weekend hashing.  Maia has gotten a new mountain bike and we have all sorts of sweet places to wander around and play on them around here.  She also has gotten a few of the girls in the shop, who coincidently have gotten new bikes, to start a girls ride on Monday nights (boys play Frisbee golf.)  Tuesday's and Saturdays have become roped climbing, and bouldering respectively.  With ultimate Frisbee on Wednesday nights that leaves very few nights to just chill out and enjoy Dux'd'Lux the local microbrewery..... alas.   Yesterday we went out to a local field where some massive boulders had just popped off the Remarkables mountain range and scattered themselves around sheep and thistles.  Our evening was spent, six of us, bouldering.  Working our climbing skills while observing the sun setting on the snowcapped peaks on the other end of the lake 30 kilometers away. Towards the end we iced our aching fingers with some of New Zealand's frosty adult beverages.   Queenstown is definitely a wonderful place, we live within 5 minutes walking of two trails that lead to 1,500 foot and 6,000 foot peaks, a huge supermarket, 10 bars, downtown and the lake. There are still some kinks though.  Buying a car here was one of the easiest things yet opening a video account required a proof of residency, passport or NZ drivers license and a photograph of whoever will rent under this account.  Hot peppers are 59 dollars a kilo, so I have started growing our own.  Avocados though, our favorite vegetable is super cheap, 79 cents a piece.  So guacamole is one of our staple meals much to our delight. We have no idea what to do for the holiday.  We have instigated an 'orphans dinner' at our house with a few or our new friends from all over the world.  We have not figured out whether to watch the Indiana Jones trilogy or is that to Thanksgivingly.... any ideas?  We are thinking pot luck and we'll take pictures of the one of a kind feast it is sure to be! Alright, We have given in to an afternoon of shakers at Maia's bar..... till next time!  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1196458620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1196458620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1196458620/tpod.html Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:00:53 -0500 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Ahhh travelpod... I just wrote a whole entry and it got deleted...!Well, I'm feeling entirely way too lazy to retype everything so here's a brief summary: Random got a job at the outdoor too so now we never get paid... we just buy EVERYTHING we see... seriously, I think I make negative money there. But it's awesome... we work with great people and get to play with all sorts of toys. I've got a watch coming in two days that does everything- measures my heart rate, does calories, has a gps pod so it'll tell me exact distance I run and stuff... lots of fun!  Also, we get to demo everything, and man do we take advantage of that-this afternoon a bunch of us from the store are going mountain biking with the demo bikes so we can "know the gear better for the sake of the customers ;)" mmmm...!  [edited to add: just finished mountain biking and of course I had to ride the $5000 dual suspension demo and fall in love with it... i think my next paycheck is going to be a bill] Other than that, we've been spending all of our free time playing ultimate frisbee and hiking. Last week we stayed in this amazingly orange hut on the edge of a cliff and spent the last hour of the hike scrambling up using tree roots and whatever else we could grab just to get up there... maaaan was the view worth it!  Made me wonder how the hell they got the hut there in the first place but as soon as it started snowing at night I didn't really care how they did, I was just happy it was there.  Anyways, the main point of this entry was just to upload some of the hiking pics to entice you guys to come and visit! Seriously, we have a couch and endless activities just minutes away from home and even  if we're only sort of friends, you are more than invited to crash :)  Soo, have a great day and come on over!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1195369020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1195369020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randommaia/epicworldtour/1195369020/tpod.html Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:05:59 -0500 England, India, Nepal, Everest, Thailand, Cambodia- and now we're in New Zealand! As they say here, sweet as..! Who knows what's next :)

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Queenstown, New Zealand

Ok folks, this is Random again.  Yes you are on the correct blog.  After leaving Kuala Lumpur and getting to Auckland, I managed to swing back into my old stomping grounds of Christchurch, NZ.  There I manged to purchase a subaru, get it stolen, recover it, (a story to be told at a later date.)  I wandered off into the backwoods of the south island to recover my sanity and relax a little bit and think of my life up to this point. After meting a wide variety of people, from places far and wide, from Surinam to Latvia.... I ended up sitting in Wanaka, New Zealand waiting to meet up with a certain someone with Argentinian roots (though her ends may be pink!)  After an exciting day of catching up and exploring Maia and I ended up hopping in Smokee (my subaru, yes two e's) and getting on to Queenstown our original destination,  two months ago..... Ahhh it was a heavy moment, I'll admit, it took my dumb ass a few days, an overnight trek to some hotsprings filled with an amazing group of  people from all over.... I ended up shooting the shit with two American dudes, in a epic natural hot spring over a bottle of red wine, discussing wine, women, politics and the merits of  ones job choices.... (him a seasonal park ranger, who at working six months a year is contemplating leaving it all..... so we have lots to think about)  It was good to talk to some Americans again who lived along similiar lines as I choose to.  I ended up hiking 20 miles in a little under 7 hours to make it back to my car and see if one Maia J had already written me off.  FYI there is no cell reception on the west coast of New Zealand.  After a two hour drive, a hitchhiker/paraglider and some oil, I managed to get a hold of Maia.  She must have just written the last blog entry, she had had an exciting few days and had come tosimiliar conclusions.... That her and I have a lot of love for each other and we do not have nearly as much fun with anyone else as we do with each other.  I know, she knows, and you can all imagine, that we have lots to work out, but nothing feels more right than this... As of now she is employed at two jobs, working quite a bitand I am hiking a lot.  I am getting into the shape I want to be in while Maia is sporting cheerleader outfits to her bar's theme nights.  I am applying to jobs and Maia is looking over my shoulder telling me to tell you about our apartment.  Its nice, better than anywhere we have ever lived, views of incredible mountains, lakes and we can watch the paragliders kick themselves off the peak right outside on our porch (one of three)   The place is super new, we have a room, with its own patio, and share the place with two other girls.  One a manager for a B&B and the other is a rarely-seen Japanese tour guide..... It is huge, furnished and has more amenities than I have everhad.  The shower has hot water, and doesn't require quarters, samewith the laundry.  The kitchen is fully stocked and is a joy to cook in.  We park right outside (Smokee and Maia's subaru, we can just call LOUD because it has a custom tailpipe, and yes, she managed to find the one car in New Zealand that has a car alarm as annoying as her gold civic), and are a 4 minute walk to town, (sounds quick but it is straight up coming home!)  Our room has a huge high ceiling and a large sliding french door that goes out to a patio with morning sun.  A huge closet, but who needs a closet ( right Maia!?) with all that floor space to throw stuff on! There are at least three or four great hikes right outside our door.  One is a 5 hour round trip, straight up to about 6000 feet overlooking the town and lake Wakatipu.  We already enjoy living in town and it is small enough that you can walk everywhere and we also get to play ultimate frisbee on Wednesdays down the street.  The other major highlight in the area is the Ferburger burger place, open 7 am till 5am, and serves gigantic freshly made burgers.... one of a kind..... Ahhh we are going to go find dinner now, and will pick up this blog at a later date, hopefully  I will be employed.... MAIA + RANDOM
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