Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen.

Brisbane, Australia

So the adventure comes to an end, as do all things. Drew nailed it when he named the thank yous in his final post; this trip, as with any trip, is absolutely nothing without the people. And the people we met, talked to, taught things to, travelled with, and most importantly learned things from will always remain in our memories, hearts, and stories told around the campfire.

So this, the final post of Wangthai, is an acknowledgment to the people who made our trip what it was, and without whom it could never have been as memorable or as amazing as we were allowed to have.

We're home now, and being home makes us appreciate all the more what we left 3 months ago. As one random traveller asked us, "Why do you leave Australia? It is the best country in the world!" Our answer at the time was a laugh and a continuation of the conversation. But the real answer? We leave Australia so that when we return we can understand and appreciate how lucky we are to live in such an amazing and beautiful country. I've been home for three days, and every day I look up at our amazingly deep blue sky, fluffy white clouds, take a deep breath and just enjoy the view. Australia is an astoundingly stunning country, and only until you leave it behind and see what the rest of the world is like do you understand just how beautiful yet humbling our home can be.

I'm always travelling, and I love being free, but I still call Australia home (to paraphrase the great Peter Allen. Here's to you, you sentimental bugger). And after such a long time searching for a home, I finally found it where it had always been waiting for me; the place you belong, and the place where your heart tells you that you should be.

But to end Wangthai, and say goodbye to one adventure, we must understand that every day is a new adventure. When we arrived home at the airport, we were greeted by a group of close friends, and we went out for lunch at the exact same pub and table as we'd had lunch at 3 months earlier on the day we left. It took me the longest time to consider and contemplate what to cheers our drinks to. How do I encompass what we had experienced, what we had felt, and how we had changed to become better people? How do you put into words an experience that would last you a lifetime?

In the end, it was Drew who helped me realise that no words could explain it, nor were they needed. I looked at him over the top of my Guinness, and he looked back at me. In that one moment when our eyes met, I finally understood. I raised my glass to him in a silent toast, and an eternal thank you.
I had refused to contemplate it before. But in that one moment, I had also finally accepted the fact that our adventure had ended, and that we had a different and better future in front of us because of it.

I decided on my final cheers.

"Here's to the end of one adventure, and the start of a new one."

Let each day and each moment be such an adventure, and let us all take the time out of our lives to enjoy what we've been given. A life, and a home, in the most beautiful of countries in this great wide world.

Here's to Australia, to finding your home and yourself, and most importantly to the friends and family that make our lives complete. Without you, we wouldn't be the people we are today. Wangthai has, and always will be, dedicated to you.

Thank You

Yep it's day 79 out of 79 and we fly home in about four hours and since we're being all bored and retrospective, here is my large thank you post. There's been a lot of people who have helped us out over the past three months and I'll apologise now for anyone that I don't mention but to kick things off I'd like to thank four people in particular:

First and foremost I would like to say a hugggeee thank you to Adam for putting up with my own particular brand of cynicism, insanity, moodiness and general bullshit for just shy of three whole months, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. It really has been an unbelievable journey and it's been a lot of fun going through the whole thing and experiencing it in what is pretty much a defacto gay marriage. Thanks champ and I cannot wait to come home and not have to deal with your snoring anymore.

Next I need to say a massive, massive, massive thank you to our main traveling companions over the trip: Jono, Jess and Alli. I can honestly say that the journey would never ever have been as enjoyable, crazy and fun without having you all there to share it with. If this trip has shown me one thing it's that the journey is only a little bit of the pleasure of travelling, it's the people that you meet and experience it with that make it truly enjoyable and memorable and I don't think I'll ever be able to properly explain to any of you how much I appreciated and enjoyed your company. Awwwww. So thank you all for both putting up with us and coming along for the ride.

I'd like to make a shout out to my family (even you Ben) who kept me entertained with random news from home and all of our friends: Danny and Chris for keeping it real, the Happy Care House for the party stories, Fransoir for putting up with me when I was sick and needed to vent, and everyone else who took the time to email us, read the blog, or chat to us online. We've missed you.

And finally, in semi chronological order, the big list. Thank you to:

Thai Airlines Stewardess for trying to teach us how to say thankyou, Taxi Tout for the rip job airport ride into Bangkok, the Thai king for being such a good bloke and having his country through him such a massive goddamn party, the Siam Oriental for being such a dump, $3 tallies, 3L towers of beer, Sangsom Whiskey, the Khao San palace (sorry about the room), Travel Agent dude, Gap's house, Pim, Insane Joe, Ute Lady, Sunni for the 3 day trek, the first village for showing us some lateral thinking puzzles, the second village for having the most amazingly fun and cute children on the planet, the Cow for dieing and providing us with a once in a year feast, Rice Wine, Sleeper trains for being nothing like I thought they would be, Pui for providing one of the most random and insane nights of the trip, for being the only person on this trip that I seriously got pissed at, and for not actually being a psycho serial killer and eating us. Thai uni students for being so hot, KAHN at Kanchanburi for threatening to kill herself if we didn't stay, Bill at the Death Railway, a big fuck you to the weather in the Gulf of Thailand that caused the sickest 90 minutes of my life, Ko Tao for being so goddamn perfect, Ko Pha Gnan for being so insane, Hat Yai Street Food, Malaysia, the Malay taxi dude that took us 35 km for 3 dollars, the Malay alpahbet for being Latin based, that....thing at Jerantut for being hilarious and harassing Adam, the Red Dragon for showing True Lies, Kuala Lumpur for being such a nice city, Maccas for the Prosperity Burger, Wani for giving me the burger and for running into us randomly @ Borders, the Starbucks lady who proved Muslim women could be hot simply by wearing eyeliner, Singapore for providing me a camera and expensive beer, the Jazz club for giving us the opportunity to put a bit more pirate into their advertisement, Singapore Air for proving you can make your staff wear full length dresses and still be smoking hot, the Vietnamse Airport taxi driver who tried to charge us 10 times the going rate for a cab, Saigon traffic, the various war museums for showing a different point of view of the Vietnam war

(deep breath)

The Eden bar for providing not only Phlough but also Alli and Jess (three of the hottest women on the planet), the Cu Chi tunnels for showing just how fucked America was in the War, Nha Trang for the Cabana bar and one of the most crazy nights in a pub of my life, Chung for the coffee and the two day tour of Viet suburbia, the old man on the overnight bus for being such a grumpy arsehole and then sitting down and shutting up for the whole trip, Hoi An for giving us a Vietnamese cooking course and some tailored clothes, BIA HOI for being so freaking cheap, Matt and Al for being awesome blokes, Hue for the CITADADEL and the cone hats, the overnight train for Adam on Valium and the experience of sleeping in a coffin, Hanoi Traffic, Baguettes, Pho (best noodle dish on the planet), water puppets, Halong Bay for being beautiful, every single person who we met on Australia Day (Matt deserves another mention for being hilarious), Noah, Maxx and Timbles for hanging with us, MOTORBIKE TAXIS wooooooooo, the Funky Monkey for the shit beats and good times, Vietnam Air for ripping us off, Laos for being so....Laos (??), Vang Vieng for being the party capital of the universe, the Hippies, Dale, tubing for the cold, the swings, the oodles of beer and the nightmare trip back home, the Plain of Jars for being random, the seventeen hour bus ride back to Bangkok and for the excessive speed and drunk drivers, Patpong road, Adams folks for everything, the Dusit for assigning security guards to watch us, Pattaya for being so insanely seedy, the ping pong show for being eye opening, Valentines Day for the big deep and meaningful, Bill for the Show, Catchunksomething markets and the Khao San for being...well the Khao San.

That about does it and of course I've forgotten people and once again, I'm sorry. Time to fly people, I'll see you all soon.

Love Drew

So This Is Where You Are, And This Is Where I Am

Bangkok, Thailand

A perhaps slightly melancholic post tonight, due to the fact that tonight has been our last night in Bangkok. That also means it's our last night in South East Asia, and our last night away from Australia. As I type, lights are being turned out all around me in the internet cafe, in the hallway outside, and on the street.

In a way, it's metaphoric for our trip. If freedom and the ability to choose what we want to do is light, then darkness is the complete antithesis of what we have been consistently striving for and have been achieving. And happily, more than happily, the things we have been ecstatically achieving.

So it's with a deep and lingering sadness that I report that the final night of drinking is done. We've had our jugs and our bottles of Singha, we've enjoyed our post-drinking kebabs and pad thai, we've bid farewell to my parents until the airport tomorrow. We've had emotional moments and chats, we've enjoyed the company of strangers, and we've embraced the randomness that is travelling.

All in all, it's been a good night. No, I'm sorry. I lied. Each day, night, and every single moment of the last 78 days have been excellent.

And now, we've reached the end of all things. I've been debating with Drew for the last few days over how to end both my written journal and Wangthai. Should I end it with something positive, something reinforcing our conviction in travel? Should I end it with something insightful, something that will inspire others to travel in our footsteps (avoid the Sang Som whiskey, dear GOD avoid the Sang Som)? Should it be melancholic? Hopeful? Truthful?

I'm of the opinion it's something to think about on the plane home.

But tonight, before my final few posts, I'll end it with a cheers that both Drew and I shared and appreciated. The Wanglor Elite will understand.

Here's to saving each other, one step at a time.

I'm Always Travellin'...

Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand

Oh yes my friends, we're back and here to stay. We've travelled on our last bus, journeyed between our last towns, and no longer have to search around a city to find what we're looking for. We know exactly where everything is here on the Khao San, and it's here that we stay until we go back to Oz.

Pattaya was a big gold coast-y porno (and I mean PORNO) city full of old geezers and their Thai bitches, so we didn't like it all that much. It was an experience, to be sure, but we thought we'd come back to Bangkok and spend one last night and day with our two girls, Jess and Alli. We've just seen them off to the airport, so they'll probably read this when they get home. Suckers!!!

We got ridiculously drunk (again) as a send off to the two girls last night. Met a few German dudes, a South African Indian stockbroker who I chatted to for about an hour about his job, how he knows what to do, tips on stocks, things like that. You never know when the info could come in handy!

After that we ended up at a rooftop bar where I bought an apple shisha (it's a hookah that uses flavoured blocks of tobacco to give the smoke a taste) and really enjoyed that. There's a place in West End where you can smoke shishas/hookahs, so I might pop in there one day when we get back.
Speaking of that place (both places that is, the rooftop bar and the Brisvegas shisha bar), I got to chatting to five Brits out on a gap year holiday who arrive in Oz in March for a few months. Gonna give them all the hot tip on places to see and do in Brisbane and up north a bit, might even hang with them when they get in. Who knows?

Anyway, at this point I'd been drinking solidly since 4pm and it was now 1am. I was absolutely shitcanned, so I called it a night and stumbled back to the hotel where I promptly passed out. Or, as I like to now refer to it, I embraced the blackness. Has a poetic ring to it, dontcha think?

Tomorrow we're going to go visit Dreamworld, the Thai version of a theme park. Should be cool! My folks rock back into Bangkok tomorrow as well, so we'll meet up with them at some point for dinner or something.

Ya'll better be preparing thyselves for our return. So far, we have our landing day covered as a day to spend with the gang, then the next night we're at the RE Toga party, the next day/night we're going to Sexpo, the NEXT day/night is the pool party, and finally the Sunday is another housewarming/pool party for Alli's new house.

And the day after that, I go back to uni. I don't think the drinking will ever end!

Ran into this on Youtube as well. Goddamn homesick crap. Who invented homesickness? I'm gonna kick em square in the nuts, seriously.

The Golden Coast Of Thailand

Pattaya, Thailand


Fine, fine, I'll get this out of the way first. Happy Valentine's Day. There. Are you happy?

Good. Now let's get back to the REAL work here.

Pattaya! We met up with my parents which was a tender moment (yes, I do have feelings, who woulda thunk it?), and we organised to tag along in their hire car down to Pattaya. We're staying in a hostel/hotel thing at exorbitant cost in downtown Pattaya while they're up in the Dusit Resort, a sprawling mass of vegetation, accommodation, and security guards that follow Drew and I around like puppy dogs. Apparently backpackers rate a 12 on a 1 to 10 scale of "keep an eye on those troublemakers and swiftly flykick them in the head when no one is looking". I love giving those security guys shit, cos we're more than welcome to be in the resort. We are, after all, guests of residents. Maybe seeing a dirty unwashed backpacker in their perfect little isolated world is disturbing for the fat, overtanned, wrinkled and disturbingly disgusting hordes of package tourists?

I hereafter remove my parents from that designation and label because they're my parents, and they're better than anyone else in that resort. Including that head security guard who really doesn't like me much. I give him a little wave everytime I see him. He just scowls. I think he secretly has the hots for me.

We haven't done much in Pattaya except checked out a few bars...and a few more bars. And a couple more bars after that. I received some saddening news yesterday (on Valentines Day, of all days) so I grabbed Drew that night and dragged him out on quite possibly the most drunkenly emotional pub crawl I've ever been on. So big thanks to the D man for being there in a moment of need for yours truly.

Tonight we're checking out some night markets, eating some random food, and I'll probably hit the piss again. It's excellent to have my folks around (extra drinking buddies are always a bonus, including Bill the American we met last night who dragged us into a pingpong show), yet its a subtle karmatic reminder that the end of our trip is fast approaching. But we still have some time left to squeeze the last vestiges of life out of this adventure of ours! Party on! Beer up! CHAI YO!

Returning From Whence We Came

Bangkok, Thailand

Is this the fucking Khao San? HATS! Sizzlaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh....

...yeah, only Drew and Jono are gonna get that joke. Being back in Bangkok is bringing back so many memories. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were here on Khao San, freshly arrived off the plane not being able to speak a lick of Thai and having no idea about the culture or country. And now, after 3 months, 5 countries, meeting countless people, undertaking a wide variety of fun, crazy, and sometimes downright stupid adventures, we're back.

But we're not done yet.

We were sitting down at a bar yesterday afternoon having a few quiet bevvos before we went t-shirt shopping (the shirts over here have gotten a LOT better designs on them in the last few months!) and who should rock up but three Aussie blokes from Australia Day in Hanoi; Max, Noah, and Timbles. Random! They'd just gotten off the plane and were hunting for accommodation when they saw us, so they came to say hi. We did the Australian thing and invited them to have a beer, the end result of which was us meeting up at 830 last night for a night of drunken debauchery. Muay Thai boxing could wait! We had some SERIOUS drinking to do!

So we went and found some 3Litre towers of beer (hence the photo), got verschickered, stole other people's beer, then went and visited Patpong Road and the redlight district. Oh yes. Lets just say that the night got VERY interesting after that point. In the photo below, the one with the beard is me (isn't it glorious?), black and red shirt is Noah, yellow shirt is Max, and by logical conclusion the last one is Timbles.

At 2am after our Patpong experience we stumbled into a taxi and went back to Khao San Road, where we bid farewell to our new best friends. Drew and I are in the half-arsed planning phase of a road trip from Brisbane to Perth to visit and party with Matt (yes, he's THAT awesome and worth the trip), and these boys are from Adelaide so we may be making a slight detour to the city of churches on the way. Could be fun!


We're meeting up with my folks tomorrow (hopefully) to hitch a free ride down to Pattaya in chauffered comfort. And from there, maybe Ko Samet, maybe stay in Pattaya, maybe dance naked in the moonlight...the world is still, and always will be, our oyster.

Escaping Laos

Vang Vieng, Laos

Escaping Laos, and Vang Vieng in particular, is proving to be an impossible exercise. Its like once you arrive in this country, you become physically incapable of leaving. I wouldn't be surprised if all around the borders of this country are invisible force-fields preventing people from just hopping the border from one country to the next, forcing you to go through one of five ''checkpoints'' that are really just temporary gaps in the nexus of anti-leaving that this country propogates to prevent the financially empowered tourists from leaving when they actually want to.

But we've managed to find our own little nexus gap, and will be leaving for Bangkok tomorrow at 1pm.

On a bus.

On a seventeen hour long bus.

Believe me, we tried to do it some other way, but this was the only way we could get out of the country in the time frame we were looking for. I stand by my theory that you can't escape Vang Vieng even if you wanted to; we left down to Vientiene (4 hours), then went to Phonsavanah (12 hours), then came back to Vang Vieng (10 hours) because the prospect of spending ANOTHER night in Vientiene (the most boring city on the planet) hurt us more than the prospect of spending another night in the party capital of the universe.

But we're sucking it up, and soon we'll be back home in Thailand, where all of these crazy adventures started. It's been so long I'm afraid I'll forget what Bangkok looks like.

Oh, wait, nope, there's the mental image of the insane tuktuk driver surrounded by smog and lots of cars. I'm ok.

The plain of jars at Phonsavanh wasn't what we were expecting; we were literally expecting this massive plain with soft rolling hills covered in huge fuckoff shiny jars, and in the end we got a few concentrated spots of old big jars lying here and there in the middle of what could have passed as the Australian countryside. I'd show you photos, but I'm lazy today.

So it was an interesting way to kill three days. I think the place is designed as a passing through point between Vietnam and Vientiene; "oh, well, since we're in the area, lets check it out" rather than "Dude! Lets go there!" My bad!

We're off for a hopefully quiet night in Vang Vieng. Wish us all the luck in the world, we'll need it.

Water

Vientiene, Laos

I shit you not, all the water over here has "Filtered via Reverse Osmosis" plastered on the side. What is this? 'Reverse Osmosis'? Literally, does it mean ANTI absorbtion? It's freaked me out for the last two months, and now I finally have the answer. Read, and be enlightened.

By the way, we're crashing the night in Vientiene and going to Phonsavanh early in the morning. And I mean early. Like, 6am early. Once again, I ask who designs these damn timetables?!