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 ...

I have less than a month to go before I return everything to my storage locker and hit the open skies again. Last time I departed I headed south and ended up in Argentina. This time I’m flying west and hitting a little island off the coast of Thailand called Ko Samui One of the aspects discussed in the book Vagabonding that seemed was relavant to me this summer was the concept of reintegration. The author claims in the book that after an extended trip it becomes difficult to find a way to fit yourself back into your old life. That was definitely the case for me this time around, and lately I’ve ...

Six months ago I was sitting back in my apartment in Chilliwack trying to figure out where the first destination on my big adventure would take me. I immediately thought of the Caribbean, since it was an area I had been to many times and I was familiar with. Since the goal of my trip was to also work while exploring the world, that meant wherever I ended up would have to have decent access to the internet. That took Cuba off the list, as well as most small towns. I was actually homing in on the Dominican Republic when, out of boredom, I started thumbing through The 4-Hour Workweek, a popular book ...

Last weekend I flew up to Puerto Iguazu to check out some of the most impressive waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. Here is a breakdown of my visit to Iguazu Falls in South America. Flight From Buenos Aires To Puerto Iguazu I booked a flight on LAN airlines from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. Round trip airfare on the weekend is roughly $380 CAD, but thanks to some points on my credit card I managed to get about $300 off, ultimately costing me only $80 or so. Unlike most international flights, domestic flights within Argentina usually leave from the Aeroparque Jorge Newbury, which is a small ...

Photo by Gerdschenkel on Wikipedia This is my last blog entry until next week most likely. Friday afternoon I’m packing up some of my stuff and getting on a plane to Puerto Iguazu, a small city right on the edge of some of the nicest waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls. This will be my first real trip from Buenos Aires, and the first time getting on a plane again since I arrived. To say that I’m looking forward to this trip would be an understatement. Ever since I saw my first photo of the falls a few months ago, I’ve been anxiously awaiting my chance to see them. So this weekend I’ll ...

Well, I just did it – I booked a trip to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most city on the entire planet. I was originally going to go to Machu Picchu during that time slot, but once I learned that the southern most Irish pub in the world was in Ushuaia and that St. Patrick’s Day would align with the day I arrived, the decision became easy. As you can see from the above map, Ushuaia is about as far south as you can get on the planet, other than Antarctica of course. In fact, many of the ships that go to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. If I had more time, I would consider making the journey ...

About a week ago, Gus, Russ and I were talking about how we would all like to visit Uruguay at some point on our adventure. There are two options that most people consider: a trip to Colonia, or a trip to Montevideo. Due to time constraints, most people end up taking the trip to Colonia, since it’s not very far from Buenos Aires. Getting to Montevideo takes more time, and is generally more expensive, so most people choose not to do it. Since it is the capital of Uruguay, we decided that it was the place that we wanted to visit the most. The ferry company that handles transportation from Buenos ...

Today is December 4th, which means at around 9am exactly 30 days from now I’ll be aboard a plane slowly climbing out of Vancouver airport and heading towards Houston. I have a six hour layover in Houston airport, after which I’ll be boarding an evening 10.5 hour flight for Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving around 9am in the morning there. So, a full 24 hours of traveling from airport to airport. This last month has been quite stressful. It’s one thing to move from one apartment to another, but a different experience entirely moving from one apartment to no-where. Instead of transferring ...

Today marks the two week mark before I’m officially homeless. It’s the first big milestone for my adventure, and I’m looking forward to finally hitting that point. I have about 80% of my apartment boxed up, with only the kitchen to go. I’ll slowly box up the remainder this week, and hopefully start transferring everything into storage next weekend. Tomorrow my landlord is bringing some people over to look at the place and hopefully rent it out. He hasn’t seen the apartment in about six months, so hopefully he doesn’t find anything wrong with it. I’m counting on getting my full damage ...

For the most part, I’ll be spending the majority of my time in Argentina around the city of Buenos Aires. While there, I plan to sample as much culture as possible, and hopefully spend some of my down time getting private Spanish lessons. Near the end of my time in Argentina though, I’m hoping to take a week or two off and actually do a bit of exploring around the country. One of the attractions I’ve been told to not miss is Iguazu Falls, which is located right on border between Brazil and Argentina. It’s quite the trek from Buenos Aires to the border of Brazil, and I’ll probably have ...

I haven’t blogged about my upcoming trip in a while, so I thought I’d do a quick update. I have one room officially boxed up, and the living room is mostly packed as well. The next big chore is to go through all my old clothes and get rid of anything I no longer wear. After that, I can box up what’s left of the bedroom, and then start working on the kitchen. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t take me too much longer to get the rest all boxed up, but at this point if I go too much further it’s not going to be very exciting living in my apartment anymore. I sold my TV a while ago to someone ...

I was thinking a few things through yesterday, and came up with a slightly different plan. My last plan was to give my apartment up at the end of December, and then take off in the first few days of January. I’m happy with the January departure date, but not so happy that Christmas would probably involve lots of box packing and moving. So I came up with a plan B. I think I’m going to give my apartment up for the end of November, and be totally homeless at that point. I already asked my dad if it’s ok if I use their upstairs bedroom off and on in December, which they said it was. Plus, I’m ...

I just wrote four post-dated rent cheques, one for each month until the new year. After that, I should be officially homeless, at least for a while. I have to give notice on my apartment on October 30th, which would put me out of my place on December 31st. Right now the plan is to take off on the 2nd of January or so, which means I can hang out around here for Christmas and New Years, and then hit the open skies. I haven’t had much time to study spanish yet, but I’m going to start blocking the time out in my calendar each week so I’m done all my lessons before I take off. I did one lesson ...

If you do the math, that’s January 2nd, 2010 2011. If all goes according to plan, that’s the day I’ll head out (with only a single backpack in tow) on a little adventure. While I still have a lot to plan for and get ready before then, I’ve set a date to hopefully give me the motivation to finally follow through on it. I don’t really know why, but I’m always a bit hesitant to travel. Maybe it’s all the time I’ve spent living out of suitcases in hotel rooms, or all the trips I went on that were work related (that usually involved 60 hour weeks, and then nights by myself in a hotel). ...

A while ago I decided that I would take a little break and have a little ‘me time’. I’ve bounced around a few ideas in my head, and ultimately come up with a pretty good weekend adventure. I’ve been keeping the actual location to myself, simply because I want to just disappear for a few days, put the cell phone on vibrate, and get in a little rest and relaxation. The last vacation I took was back at the end of last November, so it’s been nearly six months without a break. I don’t really feel like I need a week off at this point, but a nice relaxing weekend adventure complete with a ...

I’m nearly packed for my trip. Truthfully, I’m looking forward to getting away this weekend and relaxing a bit. The main reason I’m going is because Dave and Lauren are getting married on Saturday. That said, I’m hoping to meet up with a friend tomorrow night and maybe go catch a movie or go bowling or something. My friend Lynn is also coming along to the wedding on Saturday, which should be a lot of fun. The wedding is in a really cool location called the Herban Feast near Sodo Park. It looks like a really amazing spot, and I’m looking forward to shooting some photos in the venue. ...

Hard to believe I’ll be getting on a plane in 10 days and heading on vacation for two weeks. Truthfully, I’m really looking forward to relaxing by the pool with a few books. Reading is something I get a lot of enjoyment out of, but for whatever reason I go through big periods where I don’t really read all that much. So I’m hoping to hit a Chapters store before I leave and grab a pile of books. Like most vacations, I’m debating whether or not to bring my digital SLR. Truthfully, I think I’m going to leave it at home this time. I love having it around, but it’s just a pain lugging ...

A while ago I was approached by a Vancouver public relations company and asked if I wanted to be a guest of the Delta Grand Okanagan hotel in Kelowna for a weekend. The offer came right at a period of time where I was feeling a bit burnt out, so I gladly accepted and started packing my bags. The route from Chilliwack to Kelowna involves taking a highway through the mountains. Depending on the weather conditions, often you’ll find snowy conditions near the summit. Just in case I encountered those types of conditions I packed my chains for the car and also left early in the afternoon so I’d ...

A few hours ago I spread my legs out on the couch hoping that my headache would go away if I rested for a few minutes. I just woke up, and realized that I had actually fallen asleep for around two hours, which I guess means I was pretty beat. As I mentioned before, I’m heading out of town for the weekend. I’ve been treated to a complementary weekend in Kelowna thanks to the Grand Delta Okanagan hotel. It’s a great hotel situated right on the lake, and the Delta is putting me up in one of their nicer suites for the weekend. Tomorrow night I’m being treated to a really nice dinner in their ...

I got back home last night at around 2am and promptly climbed under my duvet for a long night of sleep. I spent the evening with some old high school friends, and invited myself into a poker tournament that was going on in the evening. I somehow managed to come in second out of ten people, even though I don’t really know how to play (which seems to always sort of happen – I won our first work tournament last year, and come in fourth out of thirty last time). I just woke up around 11:30am here, and feel fairly rested. My stomach is clearly not impressed that I have stopped antibiotics, but ...