My Soul is in Pai

Arriving in Pai
I arrived in Pai around 6 PM, when the sun was coming down. The ride from Chiang Mai was rough due to the Thai whiskey hangover. There were two hippies in my van that kept talking about a reggae festival - which I had already heard about from a young, broke English couple in Chiang Mai. The youngins had warned me that if I loved Bob Marley, I had to get to the Reggae festival in Chiang Mai and that it was too bad that I was leaving. They were wrong, the festival was in Pai and it just happened to be scheduled to begin the very week I showed up.

These little "coincidences" brought to us by fate is how I know that traveling is the right way to go. So many strange encounters and coincidences that confirm, to me - in my mind, that God is just trying to reaffirm that this is were I'm supposed to be.

The street was full of little knick-nac booths, food stalls, and hippies. Both Thai hippies and other world hippies. I walked off the bus dazed and a young French girl asked if I had accommodation and mentioned that she was staying in a lovely, cheap, and clean hut across the river. GOD I love the kindness of backpackers. So there I went, and after an amazing curry at The Curry Shack, I was out for the night.

Fate and exploring surrounding villages
The next morning I decided to walk around and explore. 5 minutes into my walk a French gentlemen named Adel came up to me. You see, I had seen Adel 2 nights before in Chiang Mai and had asked him for directions to a Reggae bar... and there he was now, in Pai, walking on the same street as me, at the same time. Adel asked if I had ever found the Reggae bar. We laughed and he asked if I wanted to explore with him. I said yes, and off we were, on his motor bike, to roam around Pai and Mae Hon Son.

The day consisted of us driving on the bike, stopping when we wanted, and continuing on. Riding on a motorbike in Northern Thailand with a French stranger... who knew I would ever be here? Just that very morning I had no clue. The unplanned surprises, the coincidences, meeting strangers that become great friends in an instant, and the situations which seem to always work out for the best. I feel so alive due to these reacquiring factors that are common daily. Isn't this how life should always be? It is difficult to imagine going back to life being any other way than this - clear, invigorating, thought provoking, unexpected, amazing, (dare I say it)... fun.

We found a little farmer's village and walked around with a few village kids. The inhabitants of the village lived in the simplest fashion. Their roosters, chickens, and ducks roamed the town. Their homes little wooden shacks surrounded by farm land - of which I assume where rice fields.

Adel and I became hungry and decided to eat in a little shack that was a make shift food stall next to their temple. We had a pork chicken soup and the lovely Thai cook brought us glasses of brown, sod-y water. I skipped on the water and ate the noodles alone in the soup. I hoped that leaving the chicken skin in the soup wasn't offensive.

We continued on to different view points up the hills near Mae Hon Son. As it was getting dark we headed back towards Pai and stopped in a little guesthouse that I was thinking about getting to in a few days. The guesthouse specialized in treks and I was attempting to plan a real trek with visits to real hill tribes.

Adel and I spent the first evening at one of the outdoor bars (Bamboo Bar) with large fire pits and hippie Thai guys. We drank our share of beers, as it was cold and we needed to get our beer jackets on.

Crossing the bridge to our huts at night was a bit of a scary experience - every night. It was made of braided bamboo and creaked and swayed every time you walked on it. Their wasn't much for lighting except for the people that left their hut lights on. You can hear the frogs and crickets. It was also cold. All of this, beautiful. Dawn was even more beautiful. You could see the mist over the neighboring fields, hear the monks chanting in the nearby temple, and the beautiful wild plants tickle your legs as you walk to the shower.

I had never lived as simply as I did in Pai. The toilet and showers were in a separate shack, on cement slabs with a sink outside. There were no mirrors anywhere and I rarely did much more as a beauty regimen other than shower and brush my hair. I ate great food at small food stalls and other meals at small mom and pop restaurants. The days were mostly spent exploring, the nights at the fire pit bars. I felt so at easy there, so beautiful. For the first week I was in Pai I could not confirm this feeling of beauty as there were no mirrors to be found. When I went into a restaurants' bathroom and finally saw my own reflection in a mirror, I giggled. I looked amazing. I think that inner happiness, the simplisaty of it all, was coming through. Who needs blush when you've got happiness!

The Reggae Festival

After spending a week together Adel and I went to the Reggae festival, unsure of what to expect. We watched some wonderful Thai reggae bands open up the festival and slowly the venue filled with both Thai reggae fans and foreign backpackers.

(Above: Adel and I with our Thai friends)
Adel and I got a few buckets, and spent most of the night in front of the stage. We met a wicked group of Thai boys from Chiang Mai who passed around their buckets benevolently and danced with us. My favorite group of the night? JOB TO DO! We had already heard his songs as his reggae sound is very popular all over Thailand.

(above: JOB TO DO!)
Half way through one of the first acts I went to one of the booths to get a beer. While in line a drunk French boy who looks EXACTLY like my English friend Mikie, but only with thick glasses, looks at me and asks his friends "comment est-ce qu'on dire 'tu est tres jolie' en l'anglais?" (translation: how do you say 'you are very pretty' in english?). Instead of waiting for his friends to respond I respond to him. "AH! TU PARLE FRANCAIS!" I stayed and chatted with the group of boys and they wanted me to meet their other friends. We all went back to the crowd to watch the show together and they introduced me to all of their french speaking friends, one of which was a Swiss boy named Pierre.

Pierre is not the type of guy I would typically go gaga over at a bar. He is tall, with light brown hair and light eyes. He is thin and was a bit intoxicated when we met. He wore the most ridiculous hat I had ever seen but the moment we met, I knew I couldn't help myself. His french was a bit different, slower than the Frenchies. I could understand him a lot more and we chatted most the night. We spoke about everything... and although sometimes the bucket consumption and lack of french speaking practise left me a bit lost on the current subject of conversation, I was drawn to this strange Swiss bloke. By the end of the night he was gone and I didn't think I would see him again.

Getting home from the festival was an adventure in itself. I helped a girl that was on an LSD trip get to her guesthouse and although she trusted me, she looked at everyone else as if they were potential serial killers. We got on the back of a nice Thai mans truck with about 20 other people. Any of us could have fallen off the truck at any moment, but I knew that we all had the luck of the traveler and we would be okay.

(Above: Adel and I at the Reggae festival)
Adel went off for more beers, I went to my hut to go to bed. A few hours later Adel scared me when he drunkenly knocked on my door and said "zi cannot sleepa. may zi sleepa wis you?." I was furious and slammed the door in his french little face. How dare he spook me like that!

Hangover and the beginning
The next day I planned to go to one of the tourist offices and finally settle my trek details. I wanted to go elephant riding, I wanted to trek and camp in the northern hills, I wanted to eat dinner with a hill tribe. On my way to the office one of my hippie friends, Johnnie from Mendocino, sat in front of one of the liquor stores with beer. I sat and spoke to Johnnie about the crazy experience that was the night before. I decide that hair of the dog was the best way to go - as it always is - and had a beer with him. We drank right under the "no drinking here" sign surely posted by the owner. He told me about his psychedelic night and I told him how much I loved Thai reggae... and about an odd connection with an odd Swiss boy.

Just then who walks by but Pierre himself with his short blue eyed friend I had seen the previous night making out with anything that moved. I said "bonjour" and he hesitated a bit. Did he not remember me? They said "bonjour" and walked right by. Pierre came back 5 minutes later, asked if he could sit next to me, and admitted that he felt awkward because although he remembers my lovely face and our conversations he did not remember my name. We chatted some more, moved to the river with Johnnie and a few of his American friends, and then Pierre asked if I would like to go for a ride.

I loved riding the motorbike with Pierre SO much more than with Adel. There was really no comparison with the two experiences. I felt adventures and free on Adel's bike, but with Pierre I felt all of that and more. The smell of his hair and his neck. I could have stayed on that bike forever. Pheromones I guess.

We went to a nearby waterfall and chatted on a rock. Our conversations were mostly french as my french is a touch better than his English. On the way to the waterfall we saw some Gypsy looking women outside their shakes making fake cigarette signals. I told him that I felt sorry for them and i wanted him to stop so that I could give them some of my cigarettes. He laughed and explained that they did not want cigarettes, but were the Gypsy women that sold opium! How so very naive of me!

After we returned to town we went to dinner and by the end we were holding hands. The conversation was amazing, the energy between us - unmistakable. We sat at an outdoor bar and Adel spotted us. He came by and said an awkward hello and that was the last time I saw Adel. We bought a white balloon that was sold for the upcoming Chinese new year and let it go on the bridge.

Most days we hung out with a Quebec group and an American couple from Portland. The American couple was an amazing duo. The boy, Opossum (like the animal), and had short dread locks and piercings. He told me that he has lived in the street before, so he can handle backpacking. He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met - and extremely interesting.

Pierre and I spent every day and every night together after that - until it was time for me to go meet Chris and company in Bangkok. Him and his friend, the blue eyed Manu, where to go north to Laos and I didn't think I would ever see him again. I had come to terms with the one difficult situation about traveling - leaving the incredible people you meet. Little did I know that travelers fate would step in again, at the most unexpected place and moment.

(above: me finally riding an elephant on my last day in Pai)

Thailand - Phuket & Chiang Mai

Oh Thailand... sigh. Arriving in Thailand was a surreal experience. I flew into Phuket at 8 PM and the bus ride to the hostel was extreamly exciting. I could already tell that Thailand would be unlike anywhere I've ever traveled.

Phuket
I met a young German bloke at the airport and I soon learned that he was naive in the ways of backpacking. Our first meal cost about 330 bach each - which I thought was cheap. I only later discovered that meals in Thailand are usually between 20 and 150 bach a person. Thai lesson number one.

I stayed in Phuket for 2 days at a hostel called Phuket
Backpakers. The hostel was clean and in the center of Phuket town, but the pushy taxi drivers outside made it a bit annoying. One such driverswas Mr. Sawee. He was very persistant and made "deals" with us to visit a temple and a monkey school. My second discovery in Thaland: "deals" are most usually NOT deals.

Above: Mr. Sawee sings to us at a park in Phuket

Above: My route through Thailand

Chiang Mai

I took a flight north to Chiang Mai and stayed at a 400 bach a night hostel just inside the north gate of the city. I arrived in Chiang Mai on a Sunday afternoon - which happens to be the best day in Chiang Mai because of the abundant Chiang Mai Sunday Market. I spent one hour near the old town walls and thought I had seen all of it only to discover that I had only seen one tenth of the market. The market is blocks and blocks long and wide. I spent most of the time eating extreamly tasty street food snacks. I had shreded pork dumplings, spring rolls, pad tai, 5 bach sushi, and watermelon on a stick.
Above: one of many Buddahs in one of many temples.

Below: Girl dancing in Sunday Market

I spent most of my days in Chiang Mai exploring the various temples in town. I would set out in the mornings with a plan of which temples to visit, only to find many other temples on the way to the planned temples. I visited the oldest, largest, wisest, most educational, and most natural temples in Chiang Mai. By day 3, I was all templed out.

A side note on Fear: In Thailand I began reading "Why Is God Laughing" by Deepak Chopra. The story and principals are very enlightening and one main concept I took to heart is the concept of fear - or rather the non-existance of it. Deepak explains that fear does not exist. It is created in our minds. Growing up I felt afraid of everything. I thought that everything was going to hurt me and that the unknown was beter left that way. I have since gotten past most of my fears; however, I still felt fearful of perception. I lived in a constant fear of what others might think - even complete strangers. My mother calls this shyness, but in essence it is basic fear of people's perception of me. At 26 years old it is a difficult thing to admit, but that was my reality. As I entered one of the temples in Chiang Mai I saw a monk blessing a group of Thai worshipers. I badly wanted to walk over and be blessed by this monk, but had never participated in such a blessing. I watchted the Thai's as they bowed and clasped their hands, then repeated bows. As badly as I wanted to be blessed I was afraid that someone would see that I had no idea what I was doing and judge me. My throat closed up, my palms started to sweat, and my heart rased. I was trying to talk myself out of the potential embarasment of becoming a spectical to Thai strangers. I started walking away, but then realized that all of this was the fear. It took me what felt like hours to kneel down infront of the monk and get blessed. I bowed my head, clasped my hands, and repeated... all while feeling a huge sense of accomplishment of concoring a fear that did not exist in the first place.

I took a cooking class on an organic farm just outside of Chiang Mai. We visitied a local food market (where I had the most amazing Thai tea I've had since). We learned about Thai food culture as we roamed around the farm identifying Thai specific fruits and veggies and learned how to cook curries and other Thai dishes. Thai food is extreamly fast and easy to cook and with a little fish sauce, oaster sauce, and palm oil - you can make pretty much anything (note that olive oil is only used in Thailand for oil massages!).

After my Thai cooking class I changed to a more affordable guesthouse (lesson #3: always look around for accomo and bargain!). I found a great guesthouse called Same Same and I had my first Thai message, which is equivalent to message yoga (ouchie).

I spent the evening with a couple from my cooking class and a few expats. We sat outside a bar on a busy street and drank buckets - which is not the best thing for your liver (specially Samsung whiskey). We chated about what most backpackers chat about: politics, travel destinations, life epiphanies, and sports.

The next morning the Samsung was making me feel il, so I decided it was time to move on...
...to Pai.

Melbs

I took a trip to Melbourne for 5 days. Most Australians that know me say that they think I would like Melbourne more than Sydney. After exploring the city for just a few days, I know why they feel that way.

Melbourne is a planned city and is laid out so as not to overwhelm the pedestrian. It is a very European looking city and has a very laid back vibe. My favorite parts of the center of the city are little ally ways crammed with tasty restaurants, coffee houses, and boutiques. For someone that hates franchises as much as I do it is refreshing to see these little independently owned establishments with great food and a lot of personality.

I stayed with a friend who showed me around whenever he could (thanks T-Dog!). There is nothing better than experiencing a city through the eyes of a local. I got to meet his friends and check out his hangout spots which makes the experience unique.

We spent an afternoon at the botanical gardens. The gardens are lovely and it was an amazing spot to have lunch and a chat. I love to wonder in a city's gardens. It is something I don't do enough at home, yet spend entire days doing while traveling. It might be that at home we all have this 'go go' mentality and are unable to stop and have lunch in a garden or simply walk around and check out the seasons bloom. During the summers Melbourne hosts an outdoor cinema in the gardens - unfortunately for us, the only movies playing while I was there were Sex & The City and some lame-o action flick.

Saturday night was a big night out a Richmond local pub where T-Dogg's friend manages. The pub looked as if it could have been placed in Berlin or Seattle. The high wooden bar top (yeah, I could barely reach it myself), gorgeous patio, and 3 chandelers (y'all know how I feel about chandelers) made it beautifully novel. The excitement made me drink quickly and too much - which only made me more social.

On Sunday we went to St. Kilda, which is the closest beach town. It is a very cute area with a sea salt baths. On Sundays the baths host Latin music dancing lessons and its a great place to sit and people watch (specially the people trying to dance) while having a few beers.

My last night in Melbourne I met up with Jaime (a mate I met last year in Ios, Greece) and Cat (my flat mate in Sydney) and we went to an Australian comedy show! I have to say that Aussies are a bit more cheesy than I thought they would be. Melbs is known for their comedy shows, so it was a must do!

I'm back in Sydney now and I fly into Phuket, Thailand tomorrow! I can't wait for the next chapter in this adventure!

Exploring Sydney

I've been in Sydney for 3 weeks now and it has been a crazy few weeks!

I am staying with my friend Mattie and his 3 roommates and 4 flat guests. We are a total of 8, but the flat is large and we have the penthouse suite - so plenty of room on the roof! Most of our flat mates are boys, so the flat can get quite dirty.

We live in Bondi - 15 minutes away from the beach. It is a great spot - but a bit touristy. Most of the Bondi Beach population consists of Irish folk - most of whom I cannot understand!

Our neighbor is a crazy, kind hearted, CRAZY millionaire named Mary Anne. She sometimes just strolls into our flat at 6 am for a chat. She owns a restaurant in Paddington and always comes over with little treats for us.

I have explored the city a few days. China town is spectacular and I just love to take the 389 bus into town and just wonder around aimlessly. We have yet to check out some cute cafes in Paddington - but have already been around the CBD, Newtown, Suri Hills, The Rocks (my fav), Darling Harbour, and Manly.

We spent Christmas eve pub crawling around CBD (Central Bank District) and it was interesting to be in a group of travelers, drinking, in the hot weather on Christmas Eve. As amazing as it was, I did miss my mom's outrageous amounts of delicious food, hanging out with my dad watching 'Its A Wonderful Life,' and watching my older bro get overly excited to open presents. All us backpackers did band together and become each other's family for the holidays - which was nice.

I woke up Christmas day with 6 flat mates piled on top of me screaming "HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!" It was, of course, a rough morning after the debauchery of the previous night. I got off my lye low and started getting to work to get things ready for our party.

We had 20 people at our Christmas barbecue feast! I made 2 Brazilian treats (brigadeiro and habanada). We had turkey, ham, skewers, burgers, and all kinds of other snacks and things. Oh and don't forget the bathtub full of beer. We improvised. :)

I spent new years eve at darling harbour watching the famous Sydney harbour bridge fireworks. It was AMAZING! I met a group of Brazilians and an Irish boy and just danced through the whole fireworks experience. After the fireworks I hoped on the ferry and went to a bonfire party my friend Chris was throwing on Manly beach. I watched the sun come up in off the water and the surfers catching those 6 am waves. It took me 3 hours to get home - to finally arrive at 9:30 am - but was worth every step of that journey.

We have been just watching movies and recovering the last couple of days. Now that the holidays are over, I am getting ready to hit the road once again. I am going to spend a week in Melbourne and then I am off to Thailand for 6 weeks. Once I get back from Thailand I am going to get a flat in Sydney and a real job and settle down.

Quick observation: sometimes I am sitting around with our flat mates - 5 English boys, an English gal, a gal from Cypress and I feel like I'm in a movie! Sometimes we have Irish, Kiwi, or Aussie friends over and I feel like its the UN! So many people from all over the place with so many different backgrounds and experiences and here we are - sharing these little moments. Cheesy yes, but also very true. :)

Noosa, Brisbane, Byron Bay, Newcastle, Hunter Valley

In an attempt to catch up...

Noosa
Noosa is where Aussies go to vacation. It is a quaint beach town with pricey shops and restaurants. The nightlife is almost non-existent as the town is geared towards family vacations.

Our first night in Noosa we met an Aussie boy that "lives in Melbourne, but has worked in Ios for 9 seasons!" Most of you know my affinity towards Ios. Ios is a little island in Greece where I spent a few weeks. I would say those few weeks were probably the best weeks of my life. We knew pretty much everyone on the island and we are still good friends with most of them - even though we all live in different parts of the world. I am actually traveling with one of those friends now! Oh how the world is small!

We spent our days in Noosa on the beach and our nights walking around the town and checking out the few pubs on the strip. There is one night club in Noosa, but unfortunately it was packed with schoolies.

What are schoolies you ask? Well, schoolies are recent high school grads who travel to a beach town and reek havoc with binge drinking and the like. They usually go to Surfers Paradise (a town we intentionally skipped do to the schoolies timing). They are just these young little rug rats that remind me how old I'm getting and how annoying drink kiddies can get.

We turned our car back in in Noosa - so now we are Greyhounding it with the masses.

Brisbane
All I had heard about Brisbane in the backpacker circuit was how awful it was - and everyone was pretty much right. It really isn't THAT bad, but we stayed in such a smelly, disgusting, scary hostel that it pretty much ruined the Brisy experience for us. (note to the reader: NEVER stay at Tin Billys in Brisbane).

The great thing about Brisbane is that Tamara's mother and stepfather were in town and took us out to dinner. They also introduced us to a lovely girl named Sarah.

Sarah is a grad student from Ohio studying in Brisbane. Sarah made dinner for us on our 2nd night and it was definitely the highlight of Brisbane. She lives in a Queenslander, which is a typical style home in Queensland. It is high off the ground with big windows and large patios. They used to build homes in Queensland in this manner because of the floods and to have a cool breeze go through the home. Sarah made us a lovely vegetarian dinner and we met some of her school mates which, where very inspiring to me.

One of Sarahs school mates was Chip, a British boy who just came back from Africa to study medicine in Brisbane. Her roommates were a Swedish mathematician and a German physicist. Sarah herself is working on a peace theory thesis for the UN. I really enjoyed chatting with such educated people. It inspired me so much that I am thinking that going back to school would be a real option for me - once I'm settled somewhere (God knows that Tati and settling may never happen).

Byron Bay
Oh Byron Bay - quite possibly my favorite spot in Australia thus far. It is a hippy type beach town with cute little shops, backpackers, and a few key pubs.

I LOVE the lifestyle in Bayron. The people that work the restaurants and pubs are mostly hippy style travelers picking to live in Bayron for the time being. Some become permanent residents.

Our Swedish friend Carin was still traveling with us in Bayron and the 3 of us took turns cooking dinner every night. We had some incredible meals and our hostel was more of a beachy resort than a hostel with apartment style accommodation.

We met 2 British brothers at a club one night and it turned out that they were staying in a room across from us. We hung out with the brothers most nights and just lazed around during the days. I did some surfing on 7 mile beach in Byron and LOVED it. I'm sure you will all see me on TV competing in a surfing competition soon. :)

I could live in Byron ... and maybe at some point during my year in Australia I will.

Newcastle
Newcastle is just 2 hours north of Sydney. My friend Tamara is originally from Newcastle and we have been staying at her mothers lovely home. We have been having home cooked meals everyday and spending much time with her family. They have been VERY kind to me and her mom even made some Pavlova (traditional Aus dessert - yumma)!

Some other friends that we met last year in Ios are also from Newcastle. We actually went out with them last night. We went to the pub that one of them, Sammy, manages. His brother Ian and his girlfriend met us for some drinks and some awkward Australian dancing (note: Australians might be the WORSE dancers in the world). It felt like we had never left each other in Greece. 5 minutes into seeing them I realised why I keep in touch - they are just great people.

Seeing Sammy was a bit strange as he was kind of my little short term boyfriend while in Greece. Even before I left Greece he told me that he was ready to come back to Aus, buy a house, and start a family. I knew that he would have a girlfriend in no time - being that he is uber charismatic. I could not help but note that it seemed like he was just a shell of his normal self. In Greece he was bubbly, funny, charming, and energetic. Now he just seems to sort of float around and I wonder if stability has killed his soul a bit. I think that people sometimes THINK they know what they are supposed to do and THINK it is what they want - but, especially when it comes to settling down - I find that maybe it is not the right thing to do for them. I think that Sammy might just not be the right kind of person to just work, buy a house, and live a sort of monotonous life. Maybe I'm wrong.

Hunter Valley
We spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. We drank on and off for 12 hours - so I dont have much to say other than... I LOVE DAY DRINKING!

We also visited the Hunter Gardens with its Christmas lights and it is the first time I felt like its the season.

Tomorrow we leave for Sydney and it is bitter-sweet. Tamara leaves for Thailand next Sunday and then she is off to move to London. I can't believe our road trip down the coast is coming to an end. I have many friends to catch up with in Sydney and others who I met along the way, but it just wont be the same without her. We have become family.

Ode to the Backpacker

Let me take a break from telling you all about my whereabouts to talk a little bit about backpackers. You all know how much I love the backpacking culture and with last years travels and this years... I have attained some backpacking 'wisdom'. What good is wisdom if it is not shared right?

Backpackers Commandments

1. A backpacker MUST always travel with a backpack. None of this rolly bag bull. Stuff it in a backpack and lug it around mate.
2. Stay in hostels. Even if a hotel comes out cheaper - there is nothing like interacting and living in hostels whilst traveling.
3. Always respect your fellow backpackers. This includes never turning on the lights when you get in from a night out, NOT stealing from your fellow poor colleagues, cleaning up after yourself in the shared kitchens, and not taking long showers.
4. Tell all good and bad experiences. Learning where to go and what to do from backpackers is one of the best parts of traveling this way.
5. Share. We are all poor and we become like a little family. Make that spaghetti for two!
6. No high hells. Get over it gals, your backpacking - your aposta look like a bum.
7. Wander. Don't over plan. You want to sort of drift to places as you hear about them and stay longer where you enjoy to - and leave where you don't.
8. Talk to randoms. You will meet people from all over the world in hostels - just start up convo.
9. Pass it forward. Sometimes you stay with a friend of a friend of a friend in Berlin, or an aquantance in Melbourne... when the time comes, let a semi stranger stay in your home or make them dinner.
10. Do what you would not normally do at home. Maybe you can pick up work feeding llamas or start surfing eventhough you are normally a little afraid of the ocean and its habitants. This is the time when you are learning the most about yourself, so push those limits.

Fraser Island as a Goonie

Fraser island is a sand island. It is a nature reservation - and , to say the least, it is a gorgeous place. There are a few resorts on the island, but most people camp on the island. Visiting the island at minimum impact is ideal. We went on a self driven tour via Paradise tours.

Our 4X4 included 10 people total. The camping equipment (which was, falling to pieces mostly) was given to us along with the car. We were to purchase our groceries, cook, camp, and navigate the island on our own.

We knew we had a good group off the bat. Tamara and I were accompanied by our Sweedish friend Carine; Jack, an English recent grad lawyer with a sarcastic sense of humor and an eye for Tamara; Anette, a 'sweet' Sweedish girl that rarely spoke unless she got hammered and started showing her true, slightly scary, sexual experiences; Tom, a dreamy English man traveling all over who just jumped in to help everywhere he could and did most of the driving... and most of the drinking... but not at the same time; Phil, a chubby English fella constantly conserned over everything and who navigated most of the way (hence why we got lost a few times) and a fobia of EVERY creater - including march flies; Dave, Phil's brother who seems to spend lots of time working out and is very proud of his body yet keeps to himself a lot of the time; Kelly, a young British girl whos age shows, is more fun while drunk, and tends to nag her boyfriend 23 hours a day; Mark (pronounced, by Kelly as MAAAHARKKK), a 25 year old Brit with the maturity level of a 10 year old - Mark's random gestures and comments might have been top on our list of highlights for the trip.

The first half hour on Frasers we managed to mess up our tires - rookies. We didn't notice the mess until the next morning, which is good because we had such a great day that to know about the tire any earlier might have taken away from it. We started off at Lake Wobby, which is a beautiful fresh water lake between the doones and a forest area. It was the most refreshing swim. We played a lamer version of volleyball in the water while Tom snuck up on each girl 'croc' style.

After Lake Wobby we decided it was enough excitement and we wanted to get to our campsite. We settled in front of the beach and set up camp. This is, mind you, a sand island. Sand is EVERYWHERE and there is nowhere to hide. This and the lack of showers made us all look like hobbos by the end of day 1.

We played soccer on the beach and cooked up a barbeque. After eating we played Ring of Fire, which is my new favorite drinking game to date. It usually involves drinking Goon, which can get nasty. By the end of night 1 I had a name for us.

We are... The Goonies.

Day 2 was spent at Champagne Falls, the lookout, and an early dinner. I drove a bit on day 2, which was scary and exciting. We played Ring of Fire on night 2 and it was even more interesting than the 1st. A small group camped near us and joined in. We had pasta for dinner - which had sand in it - for texture. At this point one cooler had red blood leaked all over it from our meat and the other had red goon all over from our goon. :S

Day 3 was spent in Lake Mckenzie which was even better than Lake Wobby. The water is clear and warm. It was gorgeous and we spent most the time attacking eachother with sand balls and throwing the football around.

The largest drama that happened to the Goonies was our trip back to our ferry. the last ferry off the island was at 4 pm and we were on our way to 'central station' where we THOUGHT we were to fill our tires back up and get on the ferry. Well, we got to the station and it was the wrong location. We needed to go to the port in Fishermans Bay 18 KM away! On terrain like that of Frasers, this is not an easy distance to reach. Luckily Tom was at the wheel and he went as fast as possible in those conditions. It was the first time our car was completely quiet, with the exception of someone asking the time every now and again. We had 2 minutes to go when we were filling up our tires. We arrived to the port and the ferry was leaving. We all screamed and pleaded and... the ferry came back! We made it on and jumped around. Everyone on the ferry was clapping. The captain told us that some people had come up to him and asked "where are the Goonies? I don't think they are on yet!" ha!

We arrived back to Harvey Bay and spent Tamara's birthday night at our hostel... playing Ring of Fire.