No goodbyes, only see you laters.

I believe that all roads lead to Rome. Travelling the world changed my life and has lead me back to my original goal when I was in my late teens. Everybody goes through some sort of crisis in their early twenties regarding what they want to do with their life.

I’ve spoken about it for years and alas, I finally put my foot down and will be flying to the other side of the world. My job will be to teach English as a second language, in a country whose I have long admired, Korea. Before I step foot on my first leg of the adventure, I want to revive this blog with a sincere and honest thank you to everyone who has witnessed and contributed to my recent emotional roller-coaster.

 

Vince
Do I even need to write anything? You helped me at the cusp of this decision making way back when I landed from China and mentioned it. You gave me a backhand of reality as to who we both know I am and how we both know I’ll be happier here than face deep into books again just for a couple extra 0’s in my bank account. I definitely already knew it, but I absolutely needed to hear it. I’ll miss the crap out of you, you recently converted old man.

Jacky
I have a single tear of the goddess in my eye thinking about not having you laughing at every non humorous thing I say. My behaviour changes  around you for the better and I’ll miss your ass. I’ll find an internet cafe and we’ll organize gaming dates. Stop being so generous, you sexy thang.

Mel
You’re the only person I seem to have had a serious conversation with in the past 10 years. Nothing will change, we’ll always talk every day on Facebook. I will finally visit you as I promised I would from 2009-2014  for the East coast but never did. West coast promise will be fulfilled, can’t wait to see you.

Julie
There better be some Korean person who’s okay with me calling them YABISH or else I’ll be on the first flight home. You better continue Thursday night chilling and/or drinking and/or board games. I’m only a Facebook message away from solving any problems that might arise. See ya soon, YABISH.

Shane
Puerto Rico brought us closer through the mutual hate, because it goes hand in hand with love. The last weekend of Vermont was so over the top ridiculous and amazing that I’m literally laughing about it right now. I can’t believe us and I’ll be damned if I can’t find some ridiculous person like you over there to have a crazy ass time maybe once a month, MAX.

Marie
I don’t really want to adult right now, but I will. Short lived as it may have been, you’ll still be receiving (and better be sending) the borderline acceptable things I find on the internet. We had a pretty ridiculous and scary thing going on that justifiably got fixed. Nonetheless you supported and encouraged my thunderbooty to fly away. TANKS.

Harjas
You left for the 6ix but never left my heart. Sending me snaps of prosciutto, calling me to tell me you miss me and it turning into a 45 minute heart to heart. I’ll miss you Slip Neckli.

Sasha
You have a child and still managed to stay awesome, social and yet remain unable to get to your front door faster than me if I said I was outside your place while still being at my place. That boating weekend will never be forgotten, I’m more than glad we finally made it happen. I’ll be back to see that little Mason jar and teach him to board.

Shank
I’ll occasionally log on to League to lose a game and talk shit with you.

James
Where have you been hiding? I miss having intellectual discussions with someone who’s a critical thinker and actually reads the books he brings to Starbucks with his Macbook while rocking wooden glasses. You’re like a hipster’s wet dream. We should probably play a game of YuGiOh before I go.

Ryan
Out of all the original crew that doesn’t drink or leave their respective caves, you’ve always tried to keep in touch, I admire and respect that. You’ll be missed, I hope that when I come back you smoke me at Smash Bros. Stay random, snap me MTL traffic, Gollum impersonations and never un-push the caps lock button on your PC.

Mary
I’m contemplating lending you my alpaca sweater on condition that you refuse to give it back to me upon my return. Good luck with gaming and streaming your caked up face for monies.

Thank You, From a Traveler

It’s been over a year since I’ve used this blog site and I believe it should be revived because I have more thoughts than I feel necessary for social networking such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. I’m a man with too much to say and today I have to thank everyone who has helped me in my recently completed Euro Trip.

The Public
To be modest, every single one of you who knew I was going to Italy, Greece, Croatia, Belgium and Holland tried your best to give suggestions. This ranged from really awesome  to really odd, whether it was typical tourist things or unique travel experiences. Many people back at home and those whom I’ve had the pleasure to encounter abroad have done nothing less but help me make my trip better by offering options.

Thank you all for anything and everything, regardless whether it was something or nothing.

Travelers we picked up
Aussies

I’m sure nobody in the world who travels would ever expect to meet an Australian……….
All jokes aside stop taking over the world, you’re everywhere.
The two groups of Australians, Perth and Brisbane, managed to liven up our group to the crude humor of the land down under. You’re all great guys, despite having very little time with both groups, our journeys will not be forgotten and I look forward to the day that we can organize crossing paths once again. Godspeed to the red gazelle

Americans

Our story is unmatched by any other travelers I’ve encountered since my travel addiction began. You’re some crazy guys with hearts of gold, you managed to make me laugh to tears a minimum of 5 times a day and even more. Somehow we’ve had some of the deepest conversations limited to anything we could imagine such as spirituality, religion, personality types, time, philosophy and the list goes on. You, you, him, me, he. Y’all, them, and Me stands alone. Thanks for the experience.

Enablers/Hosts
Annika

Berlin was a short last minute stop in our trip that was one of the sporadic decisions that makes me love traveling. The short lived life span of that decision would not have been lived at all if Harjas and I didn’t have a place to stay. You allowed us to try curry wurst, German beers and to experience a unique club in Berlin. Subsequently our experience in Germany would not have lead me to race my first car on any racetrack; much less the deadliest one in the world. Thanks.

Marzia

I’ve missed picking your brain as you’re one of the most intelligent and work driven girls I’ve ever met in my life. I’m ecstatic for you that you’ve managed to do what you love and love what you do, not that I ever had doubts that you would. I’m really happy we managed to meet up twice before I left that hectic city you call home. Thanks for showing up making it seem like no time had passed since our last encounter. I’ll never forget my first pizza and bruschette in Italy. If you head back to North America I’ll make sure to culture you more than when you were here last time. Grazie 

Baptiste

Despite wanting to write it in French, or rather Quebecois for the humor I’ll keep it legible for the sake of any others who may read it. Thanks for meeting up in Amsterdam for the last weekend of my trip. I’ve missed you and your clown humor, I feel like we’re twins in different countries and seeing you lifted me up. Keep on pranking everyone in your life and you know that I’m jumping on that job offer in France. I’ll be one TGV away soon and we’ll be able to ride the alps together. Merci le gros connard

Silvia, Aurelie, Laetitia

Once again, sorry for the English. After having been studying in Montreal and not having showed you enough of my own city (snowboarding keeps me on my feet during winter) I was honored to have been your guest for a short and sweet 12 hours in Liege. I was cultured to the history of the city, saw the main districts, tried new Belgian beer and the list goes on. I will never eat mussels in any other way than the Belgian method. The bottle of Peket that you bought me moments before I left will remain a statue of your generosity and we can drink it when you come to Montreal. It was an experience I won’t forget. Merci infiniment les filles, je mangerais le chocolat bientot 🙂

Laurent

You. Are. Awesome. I don’t even know where to start.. I think you’re the person I need to thank the most in this trip. You gave us a place to stay (multiple times!), you went through so much to help us accomplish our goals and you gave us lots of love during our low moments. You’re an angel sent down from the gods. The beer we tried together, the memories we managed to pull back up, the weekend in Amsterdam – I wouldn’t have it any other way. You gave us so much and refused to take as much as a free beer when I tried to give you one. You cultured us to your very unique city, drove us to Liege, went so out of your way that I’m sure I owe you some sort of car by the time I get to the end of the list. I’m so glad we managed to meet up and have such crazy adventures together. I say this for Mike, Harjas, and Luisa – Merci infiniment pour tout ce que tu as fait pous nous, t’es vraiment trop fin – on sais pas comment te remercier.

Family
Claudia

You know you’re the best cousin when you take off work for the Canadian who opened with: Hey! I’ll be in Rome tomorrow! Grazie, I can’t express how amazing it was that we were able to become awesome friends after 20 years of not seeing or speaking to each other. I know your business is going to kick off because you have the talent and love for what you’re doing. It’s impossible to thank you enough as you brought us to your father who subsequently helped us get down south to some spots I would never have imagined seeing in my life. Thanks to you I was the first of the Coppola grandchildren to meet zio Silvio and see the house my father was born in. I owe you an entire trip worth of experiences as Italy would never have been the same without you. Thank your parents for everything, it went so much more appreciated than they know. Molto grazie!!!!!

Luisa

You’re family now, just as you should be. You managed to put up with three knuckleheads for two weeks without losing it. I thank you for being the person who could go to bed late and wake up early to explore with me. I thank you for putting up with the boys through thick and thin. I want to thank you for coming on this trip with us and being a Lady, a mother and a closer friend. After all is said and done we may not be the best of friends but I have a lot of respect for you and couldn’t have managed to stay grounded if you hadn’t showed up. Negative events aside I had a great time connecting with you. I wish my phone hadn’t been lost solely to email your mom some more action shots of you eating and having a good time. You were an angel on the trip and managed to take some really awesome photos of me even before I had lost my phone. You’re going to help me remember things I couldn’t have without you. Thanks for being a mother and tough as a rock at the same time. Your next drink in my presence is on me.

Harjas

You’re family now too, aside from the abandonment I’m about to face. Thanks for coming, I know it was tough at times trying to keep up with me popping blood vessels left and right about being early for transit and seeing sights. I can’t control the travel bug in me just as you can’t control that skinny gut you’ve got. All jokes aside man I’m glad I managed to be there to experience your first time being a traveler not a tourist and subsequently your first Europe trip partner in crime. I’m glad we went to the Nurburgring to make you happier than ever and to culture me. Thanks for the laughs, the endless generosity and for getting the full experience. You’ve made my trip entertaining in so many ways – enjoy Toronto with those dreads!

Mike

What are we now? Brothers? When I set out to travel with you I had a fear that your quirkiness or crazy humor might get to me at times but we stayed strong. We had a few small bumps in the road but at the end of the day I think you started off as a good friend and now you’re up there among my best. We had no many unique experiences that neither of us planned or would have expected. I’m sorry to your legs and feet for abusing them with walking and hiking but when it’s all said and dome I know you’ve acknowledged it was for our own good. I really can’t wait to get into the depth of our stories over beers with friends and laugh at the crazy sights we saw, it feels like a big haze or a dream despite that not even 24 hours ago we were chilling in our last hotel room of the trip. You helped me out in so many ways this trip words cant express my sentiments. I want to thank you for taking pics of me and helping me out after the phone incident as my memories may have been harder to retrieve without them. You’ve been a brother to me this trip and I think our bromance leveled up more than a few times. I’d like to hug you across the internet. Vuoi sposarmi?

 

Thank you all for everything, I will be blogging more often and will definitely post about my Euro-trip shortly!

 

Burmese Antique

Hey, so some of you have been following the poetry which is cool – but at the end of the day this blog is about having fun and doing new things. So here’s one I’ve been doing for a while but kept telling myself I needed more pictures before I’d publish it to the interwebs.

Lets get down and dirty.

My parents have this old antique from Burma that my father purchased early into the marriage, which dates back some couple of thousand years (awesome right?) but my mom despises it.

When my brother moved out to start the Valhalla Movement (check link on the side if you don’t know what it is) I snagged the basement. Along with it came the antique as I figured I’d get it out of my mom’s daily sight because I think it’s sweet.

While hanging out this past summer I was looking fora place to put my shades and ended up putting them on the antique to make him look awesome. This marked the beginning of something amazing – customizing what “gangsta” “swag” “rebel” or whatever you want to call my assortment of things that I decorated him with.

To avoid writing some text that’s longer than needed – here are the pictures.

PS: He needs a name really badly. Feel free to suggest new attires, a name, a theme or any feedback (this won’t be the last you see of this guy)

Cheers

Where To Go? Let Me Know.

Hey I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what to do with my spare time this summer.

I want to travel again; my criteria is as such
bold for negative underline for positive  here are the options:

• The consensus with the guys: They all want to go on an all inclusive together. Dominican to be specific. Might never happen if I don’t take initiative, ~1000$ for 1 week, im with my buddies, all inclusive, cheaper total cost 
• Bounce to Asia (Probably China but maybe Japan) for about 3-4 weeks: Most expensive, solo trip, will end up being an amazing cultural experience, i get to whip out the backpack and grow a beard 
• South America alternative to Asia: Expensive, same as Asia. might hit some spots where i know people who can show me around
• Head to the Eastern provinces: Long drive, less days than bigger trips, have a few friends there, cheapest,

Aside from that I’ve got nothing, so tell me my 10 followers, what do I do?

Haha

22 New Things Before Turning 22

For the first time I’m posting something that has nothing to do with my travel experience. Despite the fact that I’ve kept my blog almost exclusively travel oriented, I can’t be expected to keep it up 52 weeks a year with a new experience.

Some of you may know that the month before my 22nd birthday I decided that trying 22 new things before I turned 22 would be an awesome way to try new things and maybe get to know myself a little bit more. Not all of the things that I consider part of the 22 before 22 will be named here – rather they will be replaced with others as I completed more than 22 new things. This exclusion of some is because of the fact that they may not be internet appropriate and can lead to negative opinions if shown to the wrong people.

I’m very proud of myself for completing so many things on such short notice, I owe it to my friends for awesome ideas.

1. Beerfest – I had never been to the International Beer Festival that takes place in Montreal every year, so I got that one out of the way quick. I even managed to eat kangaroo again once I saw it!

2. Orzo Barley Coffee – A traditional drink that my family consumes on occasion, I always opted for the espresso but it was an easy one out of the way

3.  Cinnamon Challenge – Despite not having completed it, probably due to the alcohol I had already ingested, I did attempt it and kept it in for a solid 10 seconds before coughing it out. With requests I might go as far as to link the video.

4. Cooking a new food – I had made myself useful in the kitchen after having lived alone for 3 years. Coming back home stunted my culinary skill development as an italian household always has food. I made myself a bowl of creole rice – a recipe I found online with an amazing blend of spices.

5. Eating new food – This was directly related to the one above, however I did manage to try out a handful of new things in the past month by being open minded to things most people don’t order!

6. Drinking a new drink – Well this was the easiest one as I have friends who try new beers every time they go buy some. I managed to drink at least 5 new beers in the span of two nights of drinking thanks to my closest friends. I also figured out which beer i enjoy most! Sleeman.

7. Go to Oka beach – I’ve been a Montrealer for way too long to not have gone to Oka. Now I can say I’ve seen it

8. Centurion – I did not become a warrior as it may imply, but I felt like one when I was done. It entails taking one shot of beer per minute for a hundred minutes. This came out to 8 beers in 1h40. I had to take a break from drinking after that one.

9. Start a new book – I had been slacking on my casual reading so I told myself to start a new book. I began (and am still reading) the first of the Hunger Games trilogy, which up to now is so much better than the movie – some characters are so different.

10. Bet 50$ on red and walk – This is simple but hard to do. When people go to the casino they’re ready for at least a good half hour of playing. I walked in with 50$ put it on red and knew I would walk out 30 seconds later regardless of the result. Thankfully I won.

11. Create a LinkedIn profile – Another easy one; business students have been using it for professional reasons so I figured I may as well have one too.

12. Organize casual sports and get more than 10 people – I have been trying to get people together to casually play football or soccer together this summer, this is with hopes to get people to have more fun and obviously burn off the ice cream people eat on hot days!

13. Swim half way across a lake – This is pretty vague as I did more than half the lake. I don’t know how far it was distance wise but it was a decent swim and I plan to do the entire lake next time I visit my best friends cottage.

14.  Plant a tree – My brother is working on creating a self-sustainable community / farm on a piece of land he purchased not too long ago. With the help of his social skills he managed to get numerous shipments of trees to his land. I planted a row of pines and named them after the mountain chain in New Zealand – The Remarkables. Check out his site on my sidebar!

15.  Stop gaming for over 5 days – This is pretty easy in theory, until someone asks you to play. I used to game every day of my life, and with each friend owning a ps3 (or something inferior to it) it’s hard to avoid playing a quick game of whatever it may be.

16. Do over 50 jumps on a pogo stick – It was hard, I wasn’t able to do more than 10 for at least 20 minutes before I got the groove and hit a solid 30 a few times before finally breaking past the goal I set by hitting 68.

17.  See an Albino African American – This is one I did not plan but have always wanted to see in person. Albino people have no melanin (pigmentation) so I’ve always wondered what the Albino gene would look like on an african american. While walking through a mall in Burlington, Vermont, I saw a very pale man with napi hair pushing his child in a stroller. I realized his facial features were that of an african american and felt like this was an experience worth noting. Hate all you want but how many have you seen?

18.  Watch a new movie – Easy one but I hadn’t been to theatres in a good 2 months so it was worth checking Abraham Lincoln smashing vampires with an axe.

19.  Eat yogurt out of a mayo jar in public – This is pretty self explanatory. I thought it’d be funny, it was an idea I got from the internetso I can’t claim it as original. It was definitely fun doing this at Mount Royal, arguably the most touristy spot in Montreal.

20. Get a peticure – This was easy but hurt my dignity a little. I was running out of time and ideas and I love joking around. With the joke of me saying I’d do it my friend took her nail polish and lathered some pink over my toe nails. This lasted all weekend at a cottage as nobody had brought remover. It was an awkward visit to the beach.

21. Write a speech – One of my closest friends over the past 10 years is getting married in less than two weeks. I am the master of ceremonies so I needed to prepare some sort of speech to give at some point. I am not the best man but a close second – to be chosen as the priest I had to respond with a little more than “you may kiss the bride”.

22. Learn some chinese – Now chinese seems pretty hard at first, but once you get the concept of tones down, it’s not that tough to get the pronounciation. This is immediately related to the one above as the wedding is a semi-western chinese wedding. I’ve picked up a couple lines of Cantonese and plan to practice them every day leading up to the wedding.

Well that’s it guys! I don’t have much else to say but sorry for the fillers! I don’t want all the secrets of my actual 22 before 22 making it out to the public so some of those may look a little lame.

Next week I will expand on the idea I’ve decided to take up regarding taking a new picture every day to sum up my day for the coming year. With it I may include a second entry that I’ve already written regarding my travels!

Cheers and here are some pictures!

The Return Of Blog – Vermont to NYC

Hey, so it’s been a while and I’ve been having a little travel withdrawl.

With the slight failure of the site two friends and I planned to set up this semester I decided one of my (very old) posts for that site would be appropriate here. I’m just going to copy/paste it because I want to see what my posse looks like, if you dig it, I have plenty of stories to discuss.

I was just on my semester break from school this past week so I planned two trips to Vermont; one with my girlfriend and one with a good friend.

My girlfriend -at the time- and I set out on a Saturday morning, planning mainly to cook some homemade meals and possibly shop a little. Vermont does not tax on clothing so for us Canadians that is like an automatic 15% saving. When we arrived we immediately stopped at the University Mall, one of Burlington’s two malls. I only really shop at one store, Pac Sun, so I headed there for my fix of clothing. I immediately noticed that they had a rack filled with jeans at 15$ and on top of that there was a 30% discount on everything in the store! I didn’t really plan on buying anything while in Vermont, but I ended up spending 23$ on two pairs of jeans and a t-shirt at that Pac Sun.
We went to my father’s cottage in Vermont after a little more shopping to eat some steaks. We eventually got out of our day-long relaxation mode and planned to make a delicious Chow Mein style stir fry. We headed out after stuffing ourselves and managed to find a nice little bar called Flatbread. This place was a resto-bar that seemed like it served amazing pizzas; but we only went for two beers. It was a really laid back atmosphere with several local and international brews on tap for a very reasonable price.
The next day we set out for a more scenic start, a walk along the beautiful Lake Champlain. The lake was a little less snowed in compared to last winter, but it is definitely one of Vermont’s nicest things to visit. We stayed there for about two hours before heading downtown Burlington for some more shopping. Once again I stopped at the other mall’s Pac Sun and once again for only 26$ i got 2 t-shirts, a long sleeve and a sweater. We headed home in time to make ourselves a nice Onion Soup before calling it a night with some simple movies. Lesson of the trip: shop in Vermont!

The night after returning from Vermont, I set out for the same destination, except this time with a good friend of mine, and we had no idea what the night had in store for us. We arrived in Burlington and asked some college kids what bar they would suggest for a pair of Canadian guys. The search for the bar ended pretty quickly due to Burlington’s tiny downtown district, but nonetheless; the bar was awesome. We watched some pro’s play darts and made some good small talk with the bar tender. Around 1:30 am my friend had this great idea that we would drive to New York City and visit the bar from the hit TV series How I Met Your Mother. We both thought it was doable but unrealistic until the bartender told us to go for it; pulling out his iPhone to write down the directions for us. We had never done anything as last minute as that in our lives so we agreed to follow through. Within one minute of being in the car we got pulled over by the Vermont Police.

The officer told us our head light was broken and asked if we had been drinking. Although we had, we knew that neither of us was really intoxicated, but the officer insisted on asking questions. He was extremely pushy regarding questions about weapons and drugs, even though he knew we had crossed the border just a few hours prior. The questions eventually lead him to making my friend take a couple of intoxication tests such as: Following the flashlight without moving your head, doing 20 steps heel-toe, holding any leg up and counting to 30 one thousand. My friend passed all of them with flying colors but still got asked to blow a breathalyzer. We were both nervous because we knew that a couple of beers in a few hours could easily have made him over the legal limit. Thankfully, he blew a .069 and we were on our way to New York City with nothing but a warning about the broken headlight!

We drove all night, from 2:30 am to 9 am before we got any glimpse of the city or skyline. When we finally arrived we chose to park close to a friend of mine’s apartment and met up with her. She gave us the run through of where everything was and how we could systematically visit all of the attractions in a day. After a nice breakfast at her favorite diner we set out for the Empire State Building, Times Square and Central Park. We did a whole lot of walking and saw incredible amounts of New York that day; not to mention some impressive street performers. It was a February day, but arguably the most warm one I had seen in years, we sun bathed during the easily 12 degree sunny day in Central Park. After having walked about 80 or so blocks, we found the bar that How I Met Your Mother was based off of and chilled out for a couple of beers. Unfortunately we were relatively tight on time as our parking was 12 hours and we wanted to drive back to my cottage that night.

We had to leave McGee’s, which is the name of the bar MacLaren’s is based off, before the sun went down so that we could take a taxi to the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry to Liberty Island was done for the day so we had to take the free ferry to Staten Island to get our only glimpse of the Statue of Liberty before it was too dark. After having passed by the Statue twice, we passed by Wall street and grabbed a cab to my friend’s apartment. She ordered us some Philly Cheese Steaks from an amazing spot called 99 Miles to Phily and we devoured those delicious subs like there was no tomorrow. Given that we were short on time, we only got to hang out for about two hours before we hit the road for Vermont.

Keep on reading, I plan to release a couple food related posts, travel posts, and the anticipated 22-b4-22 post (a challenge I have set for myself to complete 22 new things before i turn 22)

Cheers mates and it feels good to be back.

The Return, The Surprise, The Resolution

G’day Mates
I highly encourage reading this with an Australian accent as it will possibly be the last time I use it.
So as you all know I’m back home. Back from my crazy Australia-New Zealand-Viet-Lao-Thai-Vancouver experience. My exchange program has come to an end and so have the holidays. The ball and chain begins on Monday and I’m so excited…

First off I want to say cheers to all those who I met and will hopefully see again before our time comes. Second I guess you might want to know what has happened and why I haven’t blogged.

For one, there isn’t much to blog about when you’re back to the same old lifestyle you left, but I didn’t tell you about Vancouver!

Alright so I left Thailand a week early, cutting my time in Vancouver by about 4 days also, giving me 3 days in SuperVanCity. I did profit by gaining a full 23.5 hour layover in Hong Kong, which was worth every second. Hong Kong was like New York in Asia. It’s so massive with so many people and bright lights. Cheap food and markets, able to bargain yet see a more wealthy population that the slums I had seen for the month leading up to it. Anyways, I had some awesome food and definitely need to go back because there was so much that I didn’t see!

First off I landed with copious amounts of jetlag so I was screwed up the whole time I was there and a couple days into Montreal also. Anyways, I got around to checking out the city, Gastown, the drug area (which I only walked by because I knew it would freak me out but I had to see it for my own eyes, really scary stuff) and definitely Stanley Park. Vancouver is a beautiful city, even just to walk around in the light rain and hot weather they call “winter” I had a blast. I paid a visit to a shop where you’re allowed to essentially smoke inside, which was new to me as I’ve stopped smoking in years, but as an exclusively Vancouver thing, I gave it a shot. That lead to me meeting some awesome tourists and went out for some drinks and to watch the UFC fight. Anyways I made it up somehow at 5:30 AM to get my 6:30 bus to Whistler for the day of boarding. I got up on that mountain, jetlagged, sleep deprived and slightly hung over, but I had a blast. It was my first time boarding this year (excluding in New Zealand during our summer) so I was pretty rusty and I was riding a 158 (long for my height) board which didn’t help. Either way I ripped through Whistler for about 5 hours before crashing on the bus back and waking up in Vancouver again. Day 3 was basically a stroll through Stanley Park, and trust me, that makes Vancouver an even more beautiful city that its coast and mountainous region already does.

Upon arrival in Montreal my two friends picked me up and tripped out at my 47 day old beard and my 6 month mop of hair. Either way we kept it a secret from the others so I could surprise them (or you?). Most of you who read this probably know or were there for the surprise but I got on skype to talk to my friends and said I was still in Vancouver. I filled a box at a friends with things that I said were presents from overseas. Upon trying to open the box I sent a link to the Rocky theme song and made my grandiose entry 😀

It was a really sweet night and I actually did have a different bag filled with actual gifts that I gave out to those who came.

The Holidays! These were awesome, I was able to get an opportunity to possibly become a private investigator which is still pending. But more importantly (short term that is) I was home to see my whole family for Christmas, my favorite dinner of the year and I got to show this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHfw7kW-kM&context=C318d823ADOEgsToPDskJT54YHC3hTtBtvgbSuJqCC to my family! Which they liked and were disappointed about at the same time. Sorry guys.

Anyways, I managed to loaf a lot with the free time I had and definitely needed to do so after my life was on the go for so long. Now I’ve made a resolution to lose the extra pounds I’ve gained while abroad and probably download/buy a program that will help me brush up my Italian. I’ve got about a month to decide what to do next year and my options are, take a year off and work, take a year off and teach English abroad (Italy? Spain?) or apply for a Masters in Criminology at OttawaU.

The decision will be posted in my next blog.

Also, my two best friends and I are planning to make a lifestyle website of our lives. There’s just something about having a documented account of the best years in our lives that appeals to us. We’d post all kinds of things that we did, tried, tasted or anything really that just appeals or happened to us, for you guys to read about and maybe try out. As a quick but not exclusive example, we went to a famous small bar that we love called Distillerie in Montreal last night and had some awesome mixed drinks, our group favority being the Southern Tart.

Anyways Here are some pics of HK and Vancouver!

Cheers Mates!
-Coppola

Chiang Mai to Bangkok – Monkey in the Middle

G’day Mates!

So once again I find myself with sub-par internet, if I’m lucky I may be able to actually watch a youtube video! (hopefully I can upload pictures but we’ll see soon enough!)

Last I posted was my arrival in Chiang Mai, we took Thailand at a much more relaxed pace to allow us the luxury of enjoying every pad thai and sight we saw. The first night we just chilled out and browsed some markets, splurged a whole 6$ on a meal and failed at finding a bar. We managed to get scooters the second day (5$ per day + 3$ of gas for 2 days was a pretty awesome deal) and went up to see the Doi Suthep which was just a huge Wat (buddhist temple) that we got to visit for quite a big portion of the day. After finding some dumplings (which are ridiculously amazing throughout asia) we got lost about ten times before getting home, where some beers were well deserved.

The next day in Chian Mai was arguably the best day we had in Thailand. We set out to go to Tiger Kingdom after our breakfast pad thai. In tiger kingdom we payed a ridiculous (45$) amount of money relative to asia’s cost of living to enter cages with tigers and pet them. It was worth every penny because they were really awesome, especially the fact that we got to play with the baby tigers for a good 25 minutes. Making pretty good time at tiger kingdom we managed to scoot our way into another animal attraction; a crocodile show. The show was pretty funny as it was done by young guys who liked making sound effects and dance around the crocs. Eventually we got to sit on one of the bigger crocs which was just crazy. After the croc show we contemplated doing some atv’ing or bungy jumping but realized we would be cutting it close for the train (not knowing it was delayed two hours yet). So we just went back for some fried rice and grabbed a cab to the station. The train ride itself was an eye opener as it was an overnight train; when the sun rose we saw the damage of the floods.

We arrived in Lopburi, or Monkey city expecting it to be polluted with monkeys, and don’t get me wrong, it was, but only in one area. We grabbed a resort hotel with a pool and the whole shabang so we could see the monkeys for the first part of the day and enjoy a nice 25 degree December afternoon by the pool. We didn’t do much shopping, excluding the excessive amount of passionfruit smoothies I bought. The days we were there were holidays, in which the second (unfortunately) was the King’s birthday. Sadly we had our luggages that day to head on our 1 dollar train (delayed 5.5 hours) to Bangkok so we missed out on the holiday in both cities. Regardless, we made it to Bangkok around 1 am and overpayed (because the subway was closed and the taxi drivers all know each other) for a tuk tuk to the hotel.

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say about Thailand as we took it on a much more relaxed pace, Bangkok was pretty much just shopping. We went from market to market to ridiculously huge mall (which actually has a market on each of the 8 floors aswell) to market. We found some pretty decent things and saw some awesome sights, the skytrain alone was worth going to see, it’s like an outdoor metro on top of the roads to provide scenic views. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Royal Dragon restaurant because our budget was spent a little quicker than we thought. Our last night out milked us of virtually every baht we had, without getting intoxicated aswell. We managed to see some of the things you’d imagine in Bangkok’s night culture such as a club filled with white men, prostitutes and lady boys. It wasn’t the most fun we had going out but it was definitely a new experience.

The time had come after that night to say goodbye as Charles and I had different plans as of the 8th. It was hard to say goodbye to someone who had become such a good friend over the month; but we will see each other again.

Now I currently don’t know exactly what my plans are until my return to Montreal, but I plan to budget my trip and fit in as many activities as possible while still relaxing. I will write again once Canada provides me with wifi and spare time.

Cheers
Coppola

You guys will have to wait until I get better wifi (probably in Canada) for some pictures as this one won’t stay consistent enough to even upload ONE 😛

Hanoi to Chiang Mai, The Laos Experience

Sabai dee mates!

As you all know I tore through Vietnam in about two weeks and proceeded to Laos and now Thailand. I’ll let you know how it went!

Last time I posted I was about to get on the cruise for Ha Long Bay, and trust me, it was worth the (extremely high price in asia) 50$ we paid. We got on the boat (pirate ship) to get served a good 5 course lunch while heading out to the grotto. We didn’t get to do much more than explore the massive grotto and kayak while on the boat, but the scenery was equivalent to cruising through the Whitsundays from Australia. I managed to do some frontflips off the back once we stopped for the night but that was about it. We head back the next day just to make it to Hanoi in time for my 2nd lunch. We made our plans for the following day and called it a night after catching up on the TV series’ we follow.

My mates Charles and Aurélien flew to Southern Thailand while I jumped on the 22 hour bus to Vientiane. Luckily we didn’t have any farm animals on the bus although some produce was present. I met a good group on the bus and enjoyed some Beerlao (best beer in southeast asia by far) upon arrival. When we made it out to the night market I finally got to test my limits of what I could eat. We started with bugs, which weren’t too bad, moved on to the cow brain which was quite delicious with all the spices it was prepared with. We moved on to try some aborted chicken (or duck) fetuses. These were sold in eggs for about 50 cents each and you had to crack it open before eating the miniature bird inside the egg, which was surprisingly good. We moved on to try some barbecued chicken heart and a full frog each; both of which topped the previous 3 . Unfortunately we didn’t do any real tourism in Vientiane as we caught the 7 am local bus to Vang Vieng the next morning. That bus was filled to about 33% capacity with procude on the inside, not to mention the overload on the roof. Upon arrival I had my daily fried rice breakfast and tried some Lao-Lao, the rice whiskey that is apparently illegal yet it’s more common than water in Laos. We checked into our hotel and began the day of tubing, the main young tourist thing to do in Vang Vieng. The day progressed quite slowly by moving about 50 meters at a time from bar to bar being poured free whiskey and dancing. The tarzan ropes, ziplines and high jumps were well worth the time spent. We did two days there with very little else, my diet of fried rice helped the absorption of the alcohol.

After those two hectic days I took a bus to Luang Prabang to walk around and enjoy a more relaxed and scenic city. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to see the waterfall, hill tribes or elephants but I’ve made it a goal of mine to return there. I took a 12 hour bus to the border, hung out for a day in a city run by monks and took a 45 second boat accross the border to Thailand. Now I’ve finally landed in Chiang Mai and will be here for a few days doing relatively touristy things, starting with renting a scooter and planning some key spots to see.

My trip has come down to its last few weeks so I’m hoping to take full advantage without breaking the bank (as snowboarding once in Vancouver will cost the budget of about 4 days in asia)

Anyways, right now I have decent internet so I hope you can enjoy the pictures!

Vietnam South to North

Xin chào mates!

As you know from last week I’ve been hanging out in Vietnam for the past 8 days, and as you may know from Facebook not all of it has been fun. With every experience that we encounter I believe we grow a little, regardless what it is. I’m still not over the bad experience that I will elaborate upon later but I know that it had changed me and my perception of the world around me.

So that night my mate showed up and we met up with his mate (my friend’s friend) in the morning and just saw around Ho Chi Minh City, went through the markets and chinatown, had some drinks and whatnot. The eye opener was how much of a target you are when you are 3 white guys walking around a relatively poor country. Everyone wants your money, and even if you want their goods, you want to haggle for at least two minutes before settling down. The price you’re told is the “tourist price” as we’ve been calling it and you shouldn’t settle for more than 50%  of the price you’re first told. After that day we lived it up a little that society was quite  cheap but ended up spending more than expected by doing so.

Anyways, we chilled out, got some drinks and I got some fake shades (so I wouldn’t need to wear my real Ray Ban’s.. and they were just 1.50$!) We caught a train to Nha Trang where I had my bad experience. We started the day off well with some vietnamese noodles for lunch then head out to see some Cham Towers. The towers were awesome and we followed it up with a mud bath / mineral water spa experience right after. We got back around supper time to treat ourselves to gourmet food, for myself; Ostrich. We got some drinks at one of the local bars but after we were confronted by some people trying to sell us stuff, as usual. We tried to tell them to get away and that we didn’t want anything, but the lady reached over my shoulder to bring me to her merch (or so I thought) but within one second or two tops she jumped on a scooter and blasted off, which is when I realized that my necklace that was given to me at my baptism was stolen. I later confronted some guys about the situation and they agreed to get it back for 250$. I agreed without hesiation as long as they got and showed me the necklace beforehand. Clearly I didn’t think in advance because they ditched me after the 200$ was given. The story is a bit longer but typing it and talking about it don’t make me feel good so I won’t get into it. I felt like crap all night and ended up barely sleeping outside my hotel because it was locked after 2 am, just around the time I managed to get back. Regardless the next day we went on the 6$ boat excursion we booked and I got to try turtle and shark for the first time. I couldn’t stop thinking about my necklace and going over the event hundreds of times in my mind and I still can’t get it out, it was a traumatic experience so that day I wasn’t really hungry or into any of the stuff we did on the boat.

We caught an overnight sleeper bus to Hoi An that night and were very lucky to get a bus to the My Son ruins about 20 minutes after we checked in. The ruins were awesome and definitely a noteworthy first time experience. We got back in time for lunch and immediately searched for the best tailor. Hoi An is polluted with tailor shops so the two guides (Lonely Planet and the France equivalent) lead us to a couple, but one stood out for me. It had the exact slightly shiny navy blue color I was looking for in a high quality cashmere/wool fabric. We spent about 5 hours there picking out fabrics for shirts and suits (and jackets for my friends) before heading out. The next day we rented 3 scooters for 10$ and head down to the beach. The beach was pretty sweet, not the clearest water but there were tons of crabs on the sand and the waves were crazy, a surfers dream for sure. We rode back to town to try on our suits and were all very happy although some minor adjustments had to be made for the next day before leaving. We got up early enough to take the scooters for one last ride and sight see a little. We had to head to the tailors by 11 to do the final fitting and for me the shipping (as they decided to save the 30$ shipping cost by buying 20$ bags and lugging those around for the next few weeks). We jumped on a bus to Hue and an overnight sleeper again from Hue to Hanoi. This one was much less pleasant as it was 17 hours and we got stuck in the back, sharing the space of 4 sleepers for 5 people, making it very crammed, uncomfortable and hot. Regardless we made it here where we chilled out sightseeing for today.

Tomorrow we jump on a 2 day 1 night cruise around Ha Long Bay (Vietnam’s Whitsundays) and hopefully after that I’ll manage to get to Laos within 3 days as my friends are flying to Thailand because one of them only has about a week left of asia. After Laos I will be meeting my mate in Central Thailand to do the North and work our way down to Bangkok for our goodbye.

As you may know I’m going to be in Vancouver from the 15th until the 22nd which is the night I return and hopefully see those closest to me on that night or the following.

I want to also add that there  will be a facebook event or message sent regarding a package arriving in Montreal a week or so before me that I would like all of my closest friends to attend, this package will have gifts from my travels, the date will be announced soon.

Until then, enjoy some pics!

PS. Note that I haven’t cut my hair since I left Canada and I haven’t shaved my beard since Halloween.

Picture uploading is not working at the moment, I’ll try again soon, I may need to do 1 at a time due to the frequency of disconnecting in Vietnam.