I’m now officially a PADI certified open water diver. This means I can sign up at places to do basic SCUBA dives with compressed air. I still had issues going down in depth. Everyone else in my group could dive to 20 feet with no problem. I had to sink down a few feet at …
..and so ends my time in Qatar. I saw the sights, I ate the food, and I took some photos. There isn’t really much more to Qatar. It’s a small country. Its a fine place. Nothing wrong with it. It isn’t really what you’d call exciting, however. . Sure, you can go ride a dune …
I’m staying in Cairns a bit longer than I had originally thought for a few reasons: 1) It is warm and sunny here. 2) There are lots of girls in bikinis walking around the beach. 3) I have an opportunity to take my camera in a super fancy water proof housing and go diving with …
I’ve finally arrived in Hawaii for my long-awaited work vacation. I have holed up in a hostel a block from Waikiki Beach where I plan on getting face cancer from my laptop over the next 10 days. It has been over three years since I was last in Hawaii. My previous trip was the interregnum …
I spent most of today just doing logistical stuff: getting my ransom ticket refunded and getting my tickets to Rarotonga and beyond, moving to the hostel, and taking care of some stuff online. Yes, that took most of the day. I assumed that I would be leaving French Polynesia on Friday, but I found there …
I intended to go to Hawaii first so i could get my travel bearings in a place I was familiar with. The last week has been very instructive in how to go about the day-to-day grind of traveling. Things I’ve learned: If you can find a place with free wireless internet access, stay there as …
Growing up, you would always see articles/book/tv shows about how people celebrate Christmas around the world. The impression you get is that everyone, everywhere celebrates something this time of year, even if it isn’t Christmas. I can say categorically that Thailand, and SE Asia in general, really doesn’t celebrate anything around Christmas. Save for a …
I am not a foodie. I wish I was a foodie in the same way that I wish I could play piano or speak Italian, but I am not. I believe I could exist quite happily like Robocop on nothing more than a rudimentary baby food like paste to keep my organic systems functioning, provided …
Driving yesterday went much longer than I thought it would. The map is deceptively small. Most of the drive was near the Victoria river and the Victoria River Gorge in Gregory National Park. The scenery was quite stunning and unexpected. It reminded me a lot of West Texas and New Mexico, except with more trees. …