I checked out my hotel in Ubud, Bali and made my way down to the airport. I gotta say, driving in Bali is one of the scarier driving experiences I've ever had. People are fairly ruthless on the roads, and most of the paid drivers are extremely agressive (passing in the other lane when there's lots of traffic). You sort of have to trust that these guys know what they are doing, and do your best not to pay too much attention to what is going on. I heard that traffic might be bad, so I left the hotel early knowing I'd probably end up with time to kill at the airport. Unfortunately for me the free ...

After visiting Kuala Lumpur for five days, I decided to take a three hour flight down to Bali, Indonesia. Bali is known as The Island of the Gods due to it's amazing temples. It also happens to be a primary resort area for most Australians looking for an ocean-side vacation. I spent my first few days laying low in the hotel, mainly to catch up on sleep after a fun, somewhat exhausting weekend in Kuala Lumpur. I was staying in a hotel in Sanur, which is a beach area on the south-east coast of Bali. Ultimately I wanted to head to the cultural centre of Bali, Ubud, to meet up with a friend of mine ...

The more research that's published, the more evidence I seem to run into that indicates insulin resistance (and consequently obesity) seems to be related to oxidative stress and/or nutritional deficiencies. As I've pointed out before, one of the strange paradoxes that most theories generally can't explain is why obesity often goes hand in hand with poor nutrition. That is, if obesity is caused solely by overeating, then we should see the lack of obesity in populations where food is scarce or nutrient poor. As several populations have shown us (most notably the Pima Indians), that isn't always ...

I always knew I would be in Kuala Lumpur briefly, since I have a 9 hour connection there on my way to New Zealand. But outside of that I really wanted to make a trip down to Malaysia, if only to see the Petronas Towers in person. Given that my laptop was dead in Phuket, I decided to simply head down to Kuala Lumpur early. I stumbled upon a really cheap flight ($50) on Malaysia airlines and booked it the same day. Five hours later I was getting off a plane in Kuala Lumpur and heading down to the Reggae Mansion hostel in Chinatown. Here is a summary of the time I spent visiting Kuala Lumpur. Reggae ...

After leaving Koh Tao, I took the ferry back to Koh Samui and boarded a Bangkok Airways flight for Krabi. Krabi is a little town on the west coast of Thailand, and one of two gateways over to the Phi Phi Islands (the other being Phuket). Given the distance between the two locations, I couldn't find another way to get to Koh Phi Phi in one day, other than to fly to Krabi instead of bus. So that's what I ended up doing. The ferry was late getting back to Koh Samui, and even though I had pre-booked a taxi and had him waiting for me, I was probably about 30 seconds away from missing my flight when ...

I am in Koh Phi Phi, and it's gorgeous here. This area of Thailand is where the film The Beach was filmed, so last night I downloaded a copy to my laptop and watched it before bed. When I woke up, I opened my laptop up and realized it was dead. So I grabbed my charger (which I had used yesterday to charge it) and plugged it in, waiting of course for the little green light to turn on, but it never did. I spent about ten minutes wiggling it and rechecking connections only to finally admit it wasn't working. I then grabbed my little camera charger and plugged it in, and sure enough, it worked fine. ...

I left Koh Samui in the afternoon on Friday and made my way down to the Maenom ferry dock. I booked a high speed catamaran with Lomprayah. They actually had a deal going on where they would include a pick-up at your hotel, so that worked out great. They give you a 20 minute window where you need to wait in front of your hotel, and eventually a shuttlebus picks you up and takes you down to the ferry. We actually were there with plenty of time to spare, but I suspect that's deliberate since they have their own restaurant and store there, and there's not much else to do. The ferry to Koh Tao took ...

By the time this year is over, I will have spent nearly eight months away from home and on the road. I've been to South America, Europe, back to North America, over to Asia, and will soon be heading down to Oceania. I'll have close to 100,000 kilometers of flying under my belt by the time it's over, and will hopefully have my silver elite status. And yet despite all the traveling I have done though, I haven't really done much backpacking, other than the odd weekend trip. Usually when I go see something new, I branch out from my home-base on a weekend and simply grab a hotel or a hostel for a few ...

While many people advocate going to school and getting an education, the reality is that education costs are more expensive than most people realize. Canada thankfully provides reasonably priced educations compared to the rest of the world, but it is far from free. Given that I grew up in Chilliwack, and that I had to move out to Vancouver to attend UBC, I spent approximately $11,000 per 8-month period, which included housing on the UBC campus along with a university food program (which tasted fairly similar to prison food, I imagine). Of those costs, approximately $3,000 went towards tuition, ...

My phone gave me a warning last night that my Internet package was about to expire. That means I've officially been in Thailand one month now. I still have to do a write-up about my adventures in Chiang Mai, but I'm just waiting for a few of my photos to go up, as well as some Scott took with his point and shoot (I didn't take my SLR out around the elephants as it was a bit too dirty and wet for my liking). But hopefully this week I'll write a big post about my adventures up there, as it was a really good time. I have only four weeks left in Thailand. Yesterday I decided to go for a drive on ...

Last year my friend Dave got his genetic profile done up by 23andMe. Basically they can take a saliva sample, extract your DNA from it, and then compare it against all the current research in the field of genetics. When they originally launched they were asking over $400 for each profile. I've been patiently waiting for a sale to get mine done, and eventually managed to find a coupon to bring the cost down to $99. So right before leaving to Thailand I mailed off a saliva sample to California and have been waiting for the results. Some people have told me previously that they actually wouldn't ...

I've been in Thailand now for about three weeks. So far, it's pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Food is amazingly cheap, the people are super friendly, and in general Thailand is really laid back and accommodating. While the weather has been mostly cloudy lately, it's still warm by North American standards, and a daily dip in the pool has become part of my routine. Back home a Pad Thai dish probably runs around $12 or $13 a plate. Some of the best Pad Thai I've had here costs around 50 baht ($1.66), so there's quite a big price difference. At one place, you can pay 80 baht ($2.66) for ...

I had heard of the legendary full moon parties in Thailand before coming here, but I wasn't entirely sure I'd get a chance to check one out. It wasn't until I got set up in Koh Samui that I realized Koh Phangan, the island where the full moon parties take place, was literally next to us. So it seemed like a shame to be so close and to not visit it. Making Plans To save money, I was originally thinking that my friend Scott and I could head over on the day of the event, party all night, and then simply come back in the morning without sleeping. Turns out that would have been a really bad idea, since ...

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a few websites where you can order custom clothing from Asia. Since I was heading to Asia, I decided to Google around and see how easy it was to get custom tailored clothing in Thailand. Sure enough, not only is it easy, but tailors in Thailand are extremely prevalent. Unfortunately, many of the tailors here are simply around to sell you expensive fabrics. Once purchased, they are sent somewhere else along with your measurements for the actual sewing. Often you get back something decent, but there are lots of negative reviews as well from people where the process ...

...

I made it! After nearly 18 hours of flying, I finally landed in Koh Samui a few days ago. My friends Scott and Samantha had an airport shuttle booked for me, so I simply got in the shuttle after landing and headed down to my new apartment here. The place I'm renting is about a 10 minute walk from the beach, but it's in a new complex with a pool, internet, maid service (for $5 a pop), and air conditioning. Normally these units run for about 21,000 Baht/mo (around $700 CAD), but because we were renting two units for two months each, Scott managed to negotiate down to 18,000 Baht/mo ($600/mo), which ...

I was just lying in my hotel bed here in Richmond, about to go to sleep, when I realized I hadn't written anything about heading out tomorrow. On the last round of travel I did, I couldn't wait to write a post and get the ball moving. But with my cousin recently dying, and the last minute shuffle to get everything back into storage, I've actually been pretty wiped out lately. But in about 12 hours I'll be heading to Vancouver International Airport and getting ready to head to Thailand. I have a 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo in the morning following by a 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok. Together that's ...

About a week ago, I got word that my cousin Corey had died back in Chilliwack. It obviously caught everyone off guard, since he was only 38 years old and was relatively healthy. As a family, all we have been left with are questions, sadness, and the hole where Corey's life used to be. When I originally set out to Argentina at the start of this year, my mom sat me down and we talked about what would happen if someone were to pass away while I was gone. Obviously if possible, I would do my best to get back home for a funeral or support. But I was told by my mom, and later reiterated by a few other ...

I spent last night packing up everything I took out of storage at the end of April. In a few hours my brother-in-law will show up and help me load everything up into his truck, and we'll head back to Chilliwack together. Once my items are in storage, probably around noon sometime, I'll officially be homeless and in migratory mode again. And at that point, I'll finally get a chance to relax a bit after a fairly exhausting week. I'm scheduled to fly out on Wednesday afternoon, stopping briefly in Tokyo, and ultimately ending up in Bangkok after about 17 hours of flying. I get to have a quick sleep ...

At exactly this time in one week, I'll most likely be heading down to Vancouver International Airport for my flight to Tokyo, Japan. That means I only have five or six more days to get everything sorted again before I take off - I'm starting to feel the pressure! The most pressing issue is packing up my room and taking everything down to my storage locker. My brother in law is coming on Friday to help me move my bed back to Chilliwack, and I need to have everything sorted and boxed up by then. That means the next two nights are likely to be busy. But the bright side is that I should be mostly ...