Thailand is everything I thought it would be: hot, humid, insane traffic, friendly people, amazing temples, scam artists, tiny streets, unfamiliar tastes and smells, long train rides, cheap food, hard beds, unbelievable sunsets, and best of all: an adventure every day.
I arrived in Bangkok, a little shell-shocked, five days ago following an 11 hour flight from Auckland. I stayed at Shanti Lodge Guesthouse in Thewet, and I highly recommend it.
After a somewhat ambitious walk to Khao San Road and back, I crashed hard and woke 12 hours …

Sorry for leaving you all on such a down note, the last few weeks have FLOWN by and I am now in Thailand. A quick recap:
My friend Amy flew over from Australia (where she was visiting from the US) and came with me up to the Northland. We went to Whangarei and Tutukaka (on The Perfect Day boat trip to the Poor Knights Islands — fantastic!) and Paihia (where I took the highly recommended AwesomeNZ Cape Reinga day trip) together before going separate ways.
Whangarei & Poor Knights Islands day trip
Paihia …

That’s right, this time last year I was sitting pretty on a 15-hour Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Not having left Toronto by plane in over a decade this was pretty spectacular. Sure, my flight left at midnight, but wow there was no way in hell I was going to fall asleep. I was so excited! Even though it was the dead of night, I think my nose left marks on the window from being pressed against it for at least the first hour of the journey as I stared …

My flight from Toronto to Auckland took me through Hong Kong. With my friend Alex living in nearby Taiwan, it made sense that I break up my travel time with a quick visit over to Kaohsiung. I’d never been to Asia before, so even leaving the airport in Hong Kong on my own was a HUGE deal for me. Looking back I laugh at myself for feeling uncertain and nervous about it, as HK is a very efficient city with a fantastic public transport system and more importantly for this …

With my trip to Thailand just under six months away, I’m a little late in beginning to think about vaccinations. Twinrix, the jab of choice against Hepatitis A and B, requires seven months forethought — unless you go the fast track route which while possible in under 21 days, requires a FOURTH shot within twelve months.
With this in mind, I began investigating exactly what shots I needed to go to Asia. While Thailand doesn’t require you to have any vaccinations to enter the country, most information that I could …

I did quite a bit of work on the site yesterday. I wasn’t happy with the old layout, finding it too difficult to browse through older entries. This one is far more user-friendly, as not only does it have more stories on the front page, but it actually has links to the monthly and category archives right where you would expect to find them. I especially love the mini-category nav bar with links to my most used categories. I have so much content on this site, but before it was …

Im a little late in writing this up, what with this week being all crazy, New Zealand-style. After my day in HK, I spent the following weekend in Kaohsiung with Alex and his girlfirend Joy. Taiwan really isnt my speed, but I had a great time riding around the city on the back oh a moped (in the rain!), eating all kinds of insanely tasty meals, spending time with a friend I hadnt seen since February, and just generally being somewhere new.
Saturday Alex took me to Cheng Ching Lake, a …