Protests, Pad thai, and Supersoakers

Let me do a little summary of my asian experience thus far.

1. Brunei.

A random, tiny, almost city state muslim country by malaysia and indonesia. No alcohol allowed in the country. Our flight there had to be blessed before take off, meaning a prayer to allah was on the tv and the loudspeakers for all to enjoy. And we did make it there safely. In the capital city there are some giant and extremely grand mosques built by the super rich sultan. Interesting contrast in that country between the grand mosques and the poor water villages right next door.

2. Bangkok.

Bangkok is just ridic. People, stuff, and people selling stuff everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Can't walk 5 feet without someone trying to sell you someting or a tuk tuk driver asking where asking to take you somewhere. It was awesome though, some cool temples, buddhas everywhere, and some good asian grub.

As you may have seen on the news, there is also a big protest going on there. Our first few days in Bangkok this was a pretty chill event, peeps hanging out wearing red shirts while a guy literally talked 24/7 over a loudspeaker. Our tuk tuk drivers would drive right through it, no worries. The day we left, however, was a diff story. We were in a taxi heading to the weekend market when all the sudden traffic diverted as a convoy of miliary trucks drove by. Tons and tons of soldiers. Our driver immediately said he was just taking us right back to Khao San Rd, the main touristy area, because it was not safe elsewhere. So we get back to Khao San, walk down the road a bit and realize that the protestors are marching past at the end of the road. We see people throwing things and chanting, but nothing too crazy. The vendors on Khao San were freaking out though, and all packing up their stuff with much urgency, thinking that the protesters might start marching right down Khao San. There were a couple times it looked like they were coming down our road, so everyone started running. Then we would stop running and see that they were not coming, so we stopped and watched again. This happened a few times.

Eventually it was time to get our bus to Chiang Mai and get the hell out of there. Little did we know that to get to our bus we had to walk about a mile across the freeway that the protestors had shut down. It felt like a war movie, the 40 backpackers walking to their bus, walking on the wrong side of the freeway in the middle of the road, past army trucks with slashed tires and smashed windshields, buses and cars blocking the road. We were like the kids leaving town for safety. The red shirted protesters were actually very friendly to us, taking pictures of us and telling us "Welcome to Thailand! So sorry! Sorry!" Because they felt bad we were leaving Bangkok. Either way, we finally made it to our bus through the protestors and army trucks and are now safely enjoying Chiang Mai.

3. Chiang Mai.

Here there is no sign of protest, only signs of partying. Right now everyone is celebrating New Years here, which basically consists of a massive water fight. Everyone, kids, teens, adults, old people, are walking around with supersoakers, squirt guns, water guns with extra ammo backpack, buckets, and any other type of water throwing devices. And everyone just drenches one another. A little thai kid will just come up to you and throw a whole bucket of water in your face. It's ridic!!

Thai people are driving around the main street in their pick up trucks with about 20 people in the back plus a barrel full of water to throw at people. Then we have the people in tuk tuks, and then the mopeds. Basically its people in the street vs. People in their vehicles, but you just soak anyone near you in the meantime. Since it is warm out, feels great to be wet. However, that's why it's popular to really own people with ice water. Some put massive blocks of ice in their water in case just simply dousing someone with normal water isn't enough. While all this is going on, we have club music blasting from massive speakers while people are dancing and drinking some cheap asian beer. This is going on all over the city as well, so you really can not go anywhere without getting soaked. Oh and today, on the 4th day of this water maddess, it has turned into a foam water fight party. So ridic. One more day to go.

Abel to Queenstown

After the kayaking and hiking of Abel Tasman I headed down the west coast of the south island. Lovely views along the way. The bus I was on, Stray, stopped at this rando town for a night so we could have a crazy costume party. I dressed up as a giraffe, thought it was fitting. Again, lots of flip cup.

After the costume party we kept making our way down the west coast to Franz Josef glacier. I had already been there for an interview back in the day, but this time it seemed like a completely different place. Our full day there was completely sunny, not a cloud in the sky. It was so beautiful to see the glacier on a nice sunny day. I don’t even think we really saw it last time we were there.

Instead of paying 150 bucks to do a glacier hike, I decided to just go on a long (free) hike through the rainforest with my friend Victoria. A solid 6 hour hike. After climbing over rocks and walking across waterfalls, streams, and one-person suspension bridges we got to the top for a stunning view of the glacier. We even looked down on the people doing the glacier hike, who looked like ants from where we were. Saw a goat on the way down. Got my money’s worth.

After Franz Josef and a lot more time on the bus we stayed at another rando town for an impromptu game of ultimate frisbee and lots of karaoke. The next day we finally made our way back to Queenstown, my home sweet home. Here for a few days, then Auckland, then Asia!

Hitchhiking

Generally in the US when we think of hitchhiking we think of horror movies and of people getting chopped into little pieces. In New Zealand, however, hitchhiking is simply another popular mode of transportation. I wouldn’t be more surprised if someone told me they were hitchhiking somewhere versus taking a bus or car. In fact, some people here in Queenstown will literally hitchhike to and from work everyday.

I personally have only tested it out a few times. My first time my friend Tara and hitched to a gym 15 minutes drive from Queenstown. We were a little sketched about the situation; again due to the rather negative impression we have about hitchhiking in the US. However, our friends reassured us that we would get picked up in literally one minute, so we had to test it out. And what do you know, as soon as we stick our arms out the first car that drives by picks us up. And it’s even a girl who happens to be going to the exact same place as us. Super nice, offers us a ride home after we are all done at the gym.

Another one of my hitching situations involved a 40 minute ride from the middle of nowhere to the little town called Oamaru. Normally it’s difficult to hitch with four people, as often there might not be four open seats in one’s car, especially in the middle of nowhere. However three friends and I waited only ten minutes until a guy with a van drove by and picked us all up. Really nice guy. Find out he’s a butcher, the profession any hitcher would hope for from their driver. Oh hitching, only in New Zealand.

Sailing, Hiking, and Free Willy

Next stop after Nelson was Abel Tasman, known for being one of the most beautiful and most visited national parks in NZ. One of the most famous things to do at this park is a three day hike, so naturally that’s what I did. Or attempted.

But before I get into that, the first day I was in Abel Tasman I did some kayaking. Abel Tasman is known for being one of the most sunny places in New Zealand, so of course it was raining. Kayaking in the wind and rain is about as fun as you can imagine. However I still had a great time. The beaches there were beautiful, we did get some patches of sun in there, and our tour guide was a hilarious kiwi. As we kayaked against the wind for a couple hours to get to a certain beach, our guide suggested that we try a more relaxing method of getting home: sailing.

Generally sailing and kayaks don’t go together, but after some failed attempts and some problem solving, Mike (our guide) amazingly was able to make it happen. And all we had was a large rectangular piece of fabric. So we had Mike’s kayak in the middle, with two corners of the sail tied to the front of his kayak. My friend Victoria and my kayak on one side, our friend Geoff’s kayak on the other. Geoff and I both held on to Mike’s kayak to essentially make one big boat. Then Mike tied the other two corners of the sail to his two paddles, held up his paddles in the air, and we were off! Was a bit unsteady but certainly a fun way of getting home.

Then we have the hike. One of my friends from wwoofing in Oamaru met up with me to do the hike. Then we had Victoria and Geoff, who I had met a couple days before, who also joined in on the hike. I think the total distance is 51 k or ( miles), which we would split into three days of hiking, two nights camping. The first day was amazing. Hiked 6.5 hours. Wonderful sunny weather, beautiful views, amazing beaches, etc. Carried all our stuff to campsite for the night, this amazing beach. The next day, however, it was raining. Again, in the most sunny place in NZ. At first this was fine, even fun to be braving the rain; it was sorta just a drizzle anyways and we were in the rainforest protected by the trees. Then it started pouring. Then thunder. So then after hiking 3.5 hours, only 2 hours shy of our final destination, we decided to grab a water taxi back to the hostel.

Was quite the bumpy ride, but we were so glad to catch this boat. As we were on the boat, the driver heard over his radio that there were whales in the area. So we decided to do a bit of whale watching. Obviously other boats heard the same news, as there were a few boats just lingering around at sea, waiting. After waiting and waiting we finally spotted some fins. As soon as we spotted any fins all the boats zoomed over. And then we’d see them somewhere else, and the boats would zoom there. We just kept chasing around the whales. And then we saw him; Free Willy. He popped his head out of the water to say hi.

After whale watching had one of the best burgers I’ve ever had at Fat Tui, a local burger joint. So it ended up being an alright day after all.

On the Road Again

Well since my last post I have done quite a bit of hopping around.

First, quit my job in Queenstown so that I could travel around the South Island some more.

So my journey since Queenstown started with the Catlins, where I saw penguins waddling along the beach. And seals posing for pics. Then Dunedin, this student city in the south. Went to the Cadbury choc factory there, but other than that Dunedin was not that exciting. From there, however, the excitement began.

I left Dunedin for this small town called Oamaru, known for cutesy historic buildings and more importantly, penguins! I went to Oamaru to do a help exchange, which means working a couple hours a day in exchange for accommodation. Most of the time the work is farmwork or cleaning or stuff like that, however I lucked out and my job was to make a website for this hostel. The hostel is called Chillawhile, and that is definitely what everyone did, chilled awhile. When I got there, found out that there were a bunch of other people doing help exchange already, so all the helpers became this little family. And since there were so many helpers and not so much work, we ended up just hanging out all the time. My first night there got to experience stickbread, wrapping dough around a stick and cooking it over a fire. Delicious. Will be bringing that back to the US. The next nights included lots of singing/guitar jam session, campfires, potluck dinners, movies, volleyball, chilling, and a few drinks here and there.

As we were all from different countries, I decided it would be culturally important to teach my foreign friends an American tradition; flip cup. Their response to flip cup was quite amazing. They could not get over how great it is. (Although they do not have anything resembling solo cups here). But yes, they loved it so much that they will definitely be bringing this tradition back home with them. They wanted to play every night. Couldn't believe it when I said we play this multiple times a week back home. As my mom wonderfully explained, I am like Johnny Appleseed, instead of giving seeds away I am teaching everyone in the world how to play flip cup!

Anyways, so after about two weeks of chilling there, I left for Christchurch. Most travelers I meet say that Christchurch is very boring, however I actually liked it the most out of any New Zealand city. Was cute and artsy, which is all I can ask for. Definitely not as naturally beautiful as the rest of NZ, however for a city was quite nice.

So since then I have been traveling around the north island. Had to pass through Picton, the cat town as described in previous posts. Only a couple cats, and I stayed at a really cool hostel, so was a better experience. I am currently in Nelson, where I celebrated St. Patty's Day! Arrived here yesterday alone on this fine holiday, however quickly made some friends and hit the town for some good ol' irish fun.

From here I will continue traveling the south island until the beginning of April, when I will be heading to South east asia. Will be in Southeast asia-- Brunei (random almost city state country near malaysia and indonesia), Thailand, Loas, Vietnam, and Cambodia-- until mid May, and then finally back in Wisconsin!

Kiwi Christmas, Lingo, and Life in Queenstown

So far I have been living and working in Queenstown for a little over two months, and although nothing monumental has gone down, I can share a few fun tidbits with you.

First of all, I experienced my first New Zealand Christmas and my first Christmas away from home. Although it was sad not to be with fam and friends, it was so different than a Wisconsin Christmas that it ended up being just fine anyways. The main difference is the fact that xmas is actually in the middle of summer here, so bbqs on the beach are the norm and ugly xmas sweaters don’t exist. Seeing Christmas decorations around town is pretty weird when you are hot and sun burnt.

Anyways, the festivities began with our Rydges Hotel Christmas party a few days before Christmas. This of course was a traditional bbq on the beach complete with great food, sunshine, and plenty of refreshments. I said “Merry Christmas” to someone and they looked at me like I was crazy. Will admit, the whole thing did not feel in anyway “christmasy” but it was tons of fun regardless. On Christmas Eve, my friends and I bought cheap light up santa hats that played Christmas carols and decided we would do the most “christmasy” thing we could think of, go ice skating at the local rink. Well, unfortunately the ice skating rink was closed for the summer, so we headed to a bar instead and chilled outside for the afternoon. Later that night at a different bar, the mood was actually surprisingly christmasy, with everyone wearing the same santa hats (only one budget store in town) singing Christmas carols and saying “Merry Christmas.” At midnight, we began singing a wonderful rendition of “The 12 days of Christmas,” which is actually a lot more difficult than you’d think. Anyways, ended up being a very different but fun Christmas Eve. Christmas day was kinda uneventful, jumped off the pier into the lake (which is so cold incredibly cold that most people never go in). Worked Christmas night in the restaurant, and that’s about it!

Other than that, I have basically just been working, hanging out, hiking, and relaxing. Can’t complain about work, it’s more of a social outing than an actual job. We do get quite busy and waking up at 5:45am for my 6am shift isn’t the most fun thing ever, but can’t say I am stressed. Will probably work here for a couple more months until I start traveling again.

Some funny things about New Zealand/Q-town….

Campervan culture. As you may have read from my earlier blog, I did travel the north island in a campervan, and even then I did not realize how common the things were. Living in Q-town, campervans are everywhere. The entire walk from my hotel to town (which is only 5 min) is completely lined with campervans. And many of these people are not just traveling, they are living in those campervans for a while. In fact, one of my co-workers lives in a van that he parks in front of the hotel. Although back home this would we would view this as desperate and homeless or at best extremely hippie, here is it entirely legit and not at all alarming.

It’s Saturday everyday. There is literally no way to distinguish between days here. Going out, a Sunday will be just as busy as a Saturday, Monday just as busy as a Friday, etc. People will be laying out in the parks in the middle of the day on a Wednesday or Saturday The only way to tell is the different daily drink/food specials. This works well for me, as my job is not exactly a 9-5, Mon-Fri, but it’s still pretty weird. There are just so many people traveling here or working random touristy jobs that no one has a normal schedule. It will be weird to experience a true weekend again.

Kiwi Lingo. Love how when asked, “how are you going?” (not ‘how’s IT going’ or ‘how are YOU’) I could easily respond “Pretty choice.” ‘Jandals are ‘flip flops,’ ‘ta’ or ‘cheers’ is ‘thanks’ but rarely do I ever actually hear someone say ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you.’ ‘Lollies’ are ‘fruit snacks,’ ‘sweet as’ instead of ‘cool’ or ‘sweet.’ ‘Knackered’ for ‘tired,’ ‘skull’ instead of ‘chug.’ If you want to say someone is a cool person, you would say ‘he’s got good value.’ And then there are new inventions like the ‘chipbutty,’ actually British not kiwi, which is a buttered piece bread with chips (fries) and ketchup (‘tomato sauce’ in kiwi) folded inside to make a little chip sandwich. Fruits and veggies are a whole other sich, with ‘rock melon’ not ‘cantaloupe,’ ‘capsicum’ not ‘peppers,’ ‘kumara’ not ‘sweet potato,’ ‘coriander’ not ‘cilantro.’ And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. If you order a lemonade you’ll get Sprite. ‘Biscuits’ are ‘cookies’ and trying to explain to people what we would consider a ‘biscuit’ proves quite difficult. The KFC does not serve biscuits, so this does not help. Not to mention ‘dinner’ is ‘lunch,’ ‘tea’ is ‘dinner’ but this doesn’t usually involve tea, and ‘morning tea’ I believe is ‘lunch.' ???

From Wellington to Queenstown

So last time I wrote I was traveling around the north island in that little spaceship. I have since bid farewell to Ginger and am now working and living at a hotel in Queenstown right on a beautiful lake with mountain views out my bedroom window.

I’ll rewind though and give a quick recap of how I got here.

First, Angela and I drove the spaceship all the way to Wellington. Once in Wellington, I stayed at a zebra stripped hostel, literally a five-story building painted like a giant zebra. Anyways, met lots of cool people at that hostel and chilled there for about a week looking for a job. Wellington is a really cool city, lots of restaurants, cafes, shops, art galleries, and design companies, so it seemed like a great place to settle down and work for several months. Apparently lots of people had this idea however, so finding a job there was pretty competitive.

Not wanting to waste more time lingering about Wellington looking for jobs, my new Canadian friend Tara and I decided to hop on the ferry and head to the south island. The ferry lands in Picton, a place we quickly found to be a sketchy cat town. Basically, our experience there started off when a very eccentric woman with crazy Mrs. Frizzle hair picked us up from the ferry to take us to our hostel. We got there to find cats running around the place. This was our first clue about the cat obsession in this town. At least the cats weren’t in the 27 bed dorm room we were sleeping in. Anyways, it was horrible weather so we decided to hit up the library for free internet. We got to the lib, and my friend Tara sat at a computer next to a guy who was googling images of cats. Clue number two. He kept asking my friend to look at pictures of cats. Tara then noticed the stack of cat books lying next to him. Clue number three. Right after Tara told me that she was leaving because of the cat guy, I looked out the window to notice a cat strolling around the front of the library. Clue number 4. As we were leaving the library, Tara grabbed the local newspaper. Picture of a woman nuzzling her cat on the front cover. Clue number 5. We left this city as soon as possible.

We then rented a car and headed straight to Franz Josef Glacier where we had an interview at a five star hotel. The owner of the hotel let us stay there for free for the interview, so after spending the night at a creepy cat hostel in a 27 person dorm room we each had our own king sized bed in a luxurious five star hotel room. We got the job at this hotel, however Franz Josef is a very small tourist town, so we decided to keep moving down to Queenstown, where we had another interview at a hotel anyways.

Queenstown is basically the Vail or Steamboat of New Zealand; a small tourist town nestled between mountains in front of a giant beautiful lake. The views are pretty unreal. There is a small downtown with heaps of restaurants, cafes, stores, and bars. Generally Queenstown is the ideal city where backpackers want to settle down and work, and we luckily we were able to make this happen.


So my friend Tara and I got jobs working at this hotel’s restaurant. (Check it out at www.rydges.com and check on the Queenstown, NZ one). With the job we can live in the hotel in our own rooms (including our own bathrooms) with all meals included for an awesome price compared to the other options around here. Plus access to the hotel’s pool. Housekeeping once a week. Don’t have to cook or do my dishes. Plus that mountain view. It’s no graphic design job, but it’s definitely a good situation. The mandatory menu and wine tasting for the restaurant staff was not a bad perk either.

I should be living in Queenstown until around April, and then after that traveling New Zealand’s south island, or who knows. I plan on taking roadtrips from here, but otherwise I probably won’t have too much to report for a while!