Koh Tao- Everybody Comes Back

I find myself sitting in a hammock on the beach. It's night and the waves aren't more than two inches tall. Glass flat water with the sound of fun chill out music in the background. 

I've been back on Koh Tao for two weeks now. Saw a sea turtle my first dive back, the island "welcomed me back", but not as awesomely as my friends did. It was my birthday the day after I got back and everybody came out and it was a blast- I've never preferred loud places so we went to the one Mini-Golf course on the island. Had a few drinks, played some golf, and shared a lot of laughs. Getting back into my rhythm has been such a joy. I've got a little bungalow about 10 yards from the beach. My morning "commute" to work is 2 minutes from my door to the shop door by motorbike.

Every day starts out the same way. Up by 8, Planet Scuba by 845ish, then either diving, pool with students, or office work.

Days finish at 6, Safety Stop Pub for a beer or maybe one of my other favorites, then chill out with friends and get ready for the next awesome day.

I've settled in brilliantly. I'm teaching again, I didn't realize at all how much I had missed it until I got back. I'm hoping to be getting back into my blog pretty steady- for the time being most likely writing about classes or dives or people. 

Thanks for reading! Stories to come soon!

Two Months in Thailand

Howdy!

It has been a very interesting two months, from drinking homemade Thai whiskey in a hill tribe in northern Thailand to getting "narc-ed" while scuba diving to 40m (130f). From teaching kids how to hike in Chiang Mai to being taught how to tie up a boat in Koh Tao in such a way that a Thai captain approves. My first two months in Thailand have been nothing short of incredible. 

I find myself on Koh Tao, an 8 mile squared island off of Thailand in the south. I'm scuba diving every day and am now a Dive Master. I never thought when I started diving in 2004 that I would ever get to this point. There is no way I could have achieved this goal without the help of the amazing people at Planet Scuba. These people have proved themselves to be the type of people that I have always dreamed to surround myself with.

One of the amazing things about divers is their diversity and acceptance. When diving it doesn't matter where you're from, how much money you have, if you're atheist, agnostic, Christian, or anything else, your political beliefs don't mean a thing. For one dive, however long it may be, people are brought together for the pure joy that is scuba diving.

 

These are the people that I'm glad to be among. Most of us came a long way to make this small island home.

Here on Koh Tao people might not have Budweiser, Yiengling, Session, or Coors. They might not watch American football. I might not have had decent fried chicken in months or have seen anything that resembles guacamole.... But somehow this small island has become home.

I have a simple routeen. 

Wake up- dive- eat water mellon- dive- clean gear- tidy up- drink a couple beers, go home- sleep- start over.

And nothing could make me happier.

I know this isn't my longest post but I will try and write a few more soon. Feel free to email me anytime guys! Always good to hear from people back home or elsewhere-- SteveGoesAbroad@gmail.com

Take Care Y'all 

P.S: for those who worry the coup has not effected me in the least. Koh Tao is okay and people are still traveling freely.

Australia- A Review

So, all up I ended up spending 8 Months in Australia and had a KILLER time. I wouldn't have traded that time for anything. Made some great friends, went to some amazing places, and had heaps of memorable moments. However, I ended up moving into Brisbane and living and working there so I had a different expereince than most backpackers. I also got plugged into a church, worked in construction, and stayed up with international friends... so I think my view of Australia is pretty broad and accurate. That being said, I have MANY positive and negative things to say, and in no way do I mean any offence to anybody.

One more time: I loved Australia, and the people are great!

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• People: 5 Stars

The people of Australia were very friendly to me. I have never had a hard time making new friends and Australia wasn't an exception. Many of the friendships I made will last me a lifetime. On many an occation I was also invited to eat dinner at different peoples houses: People from my church, from work, and other locals I met along the way. Australians were very open and wanting to share their culture with me.

• Nature: 5 Stars

Australia is amazing. All you have to do is get outside of a city just a little bit and you're in bush land. I was very spoiled as far as nature goes in Australia. I saved up and went Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I got to go to the Glass House Mountains (with church folks), Beach Drives (with my housemate Aaron!), and many other awesome sites. Every day you get to see parrots flying around like you would see bluejays in the states and it's no big deal to them! I'm like "Good gravy there's the most beautiful parrot I've ever seen RIGHT there!" and people are like "Just a parrot dude"

• Transportation: 4 Stars

I liked the public transportation system a lot while I was in Brisbane. Some people gave it a hard time but it was always good to me! It's very handy for a backpacker because I never HAD to have a car. True, I would borrow one off of people when I wanted one but Brisbane can be lived in without having a car. 

• Prices: 2 Stars

So far the only country I know of that is more expensive than Australia is New Zealand. Beer and Tobacco have crazy sin taxes on them. Bottles of alcohol are easily twice as expensive over there, and their locally not imported stuff is also crazy expinsive. The cheapest of cheap rent would be $100US per WEEK no matter where you go. The minimum wage is much higher there ($18AU - Almost the same as $18 US) so it balances out some, but no doubt about it, Australia is an expensive place for a backpacker to live!

• The Gun Laws: 0 Stars

Wanta own a gun in Australia. Prepare yourself for an amount of paperwork, screenings, and restrictions that is unheard of in the USA. I won't get into all the details, but I was SHOCKED when I heard about all the gun laws here. It's an ingrained part of their culture now. It works for them, but it wouldn't work for us. It is one of the biggest reasons I couldn't move to Australia long term.

• The Racism: Negative 5 Stars

I am from Forrest County, Mississippi. Named after Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forrest who, (after the county was named,) went on to found the Ku Klux Klan. I have met my far share of racist.

Mississippi has NOTHING on Australia in terms of racists. People I would call my friends, coworkers, buddies (not the church going crowd, but that's a minority in Australia)... I have heard MULTIPLE people on completely different occasions saying to a group of people "We just need to go kill all those F***ing Ab'os (Aboriginals)! All they do is drink booze, steal stuff, and live in freaking stick huts" - A level of extreme hate that I had NO IDEA existed in Australia. And then people wouldn't argue with them... Not all Australians are racist by any stretch... but man oh man do they have a lot of them. It doesn't come up every day... but when it does... true colors show.

• The Culture: 4 Stars

Besides the racism and gun laws, Australian culture is pretty similar to many parts of the States. There were a couple of difference that I really appreciated though. Australia is very focused on small business. Just about every neighborhood has its own butcher, baker, mom-and-pop food shops... it's a really nice feeling. The little shops are king. Coffee, Sushi, Pie(meat pies)... it was a strange thing, but it was awesome.

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Australia is also a big country for giving each other a hard time (this might be skewed from my construction jobs) but it's funny. You call your friends "*&^%s" (words that I will not even hint at in my blog or dare to say to people in the states) but you call your enemies "Buddy". Also most people cuss all of the time, it's just what they do. Australia made me a much "Better Cusser" if that can be said.....

All in all, there are several pro's and con's for Australia.  I really enjoyed my time there and would love to go back one day and visit friends and places. I would say it would be a good spot to live for some people, but me personally, I don't think I could.

Finally Back On The Road!!

I've done it! I have finally left Brisbane, Australia. I am very sad leave Brisbane. It had become home for me. But, the life of a traveller means getting comfortable in a place, making great friends, getting itchy feet, and moving on.

I find myself happily eating green curry while drinking a beer in a hole in the wall restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Now that I've hit the road again, I can feel the stress leaving me. My last couple of months in Brisbane had become stressful for some reason. Being in new places, going for spontaneous adventures (aka getting lost), meeting new people, and having the complete freedom to do whatever the heck you want to do..... this is my comfort zone and I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Yesterday was an incredible "adventure"/lost day. I spent 8 hours just wondering around temples, eating street food, meeting friendly people, and getting my future told! (January 7th is supposed to be extremely lucky for me! ESPECIALLY if I paid the guy 5000Baht [150 $US]).......(I didn't pay)....

One thing I REALLY like about Bangkok is the back alley scene. Tourist stay away for the most part, it's not "in your face" with trying to get you to buy things and it's easy to move around. The back alley restaurants are the best. Yesterday I got lost... utterly and completely lost (with no awesome landmarks this isn't a hard thing to have happen) I found myself taking a "shortcut" because I thought I knew where I was. I followed a dingy windy alley that was without a doubt the most sketch thing I have done to date. Passing by chicken coops, seeing people kill said chickens, everything being dirty and dark, water running down the middle of the alley, buildings in all sorts of different stages of dilapidation... and that's when I saw it.

A low roof building with a McDonnalds umbrella above it's one outside table. A couple of people scattered about sitting on wood boxes eating noodles. The woman in the "kitchen" -- A half indoor and half outdoor assembly of mismatched work stations, one big wok, and raw meet chillin under ice a foot away from the cooked meat -- she looked like she was about 100 years old. But she moved with the quickness and precision of a woman no older than 90....

I saw a sign that clearly stated something in Thai that I dont understand with a "-30b". So all I knew was whatever she was selling was 30 Baht or $1 US. I was hungry, so I figure why not!? I handed her 30 Baht, she pointed at the beef or the chicken...  the chicken had LESS flies on it so I went with that. Five minutes later the woman came back with a bowl of something that involved noodles, chicken, vegetables, and a broth that killed. The bowl was about the size of my face, I barely finished it all. But it was AMAZING. Without a doubt the BEST meal I've ever paid $1 US Dollar for.

What am I trying to say? Yes, there is an inherent plethora of dangers that might befall you when you decide to travel by back alleys that look as sketch as some of the ones I'm going down. But, sometimes they pay off. I have no idea how I got there, no idea what the place is called or if it even has a name, but that place will be lodged in my memory for the rest of my life as the best food I ever got for $1 Dollar.

So, I landed in Bangkok two nights ago. With the help and great direction of my Canadian CoachSurfing host, David: I managed to find his place, plan my next day, and have a place to stay for two nights! Yesterday, in addition to adventures, I went around to about 25 different Travel Agency type places and finally found the cheapest one. In about two hours I should be getting in a taxi, to then get on a bus, to then get on a speed boat, to the get to an island call Koh Tao(one of Thailands most legit scuba diving locations) for a 3 day stay to do 4 dives and hang out in tropical paradise.... I'm a little stoked.

I have a couple of other blog post to write, namely a "Australia- A Review" and a "People are Awesome" (thank you to several people) but this will most likely be it for today! I'm going be headed back to the states for Christmas and I'm stoked about that. If you wanta see me or hang or anything let me know asap!

Emails while on the road are always GREAT!
SteveGoesAbroad@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!
Steve

8 Ways to Make Sure Your Time Abroad Is AWESOME

Hello Friends and First Time Readers!

Let me start out my saying I wouldn't call myself an "expert traveller." I am however an experienced backpacker who has gleaned knowledge off of heaps of expert travellers and backpackers. And I want to make sure YOU have a great time when you decide to travel. Here are what I feel are some of the most important things to keep in mind:

1. Set a Goal

Seems silly right? To set out a goal. But if you think about it, setting a goal will drastically change the planning of your trip. You can do ANYTHING, but deciding before you leave is important If you want to travel, you need to decide what you want to get out of your trip. Do you want to meet locals? Understand new cultures? See ancient buildings? See every tourist site? Do extreme sports? Fine dine in world class restaurants? Learn new languages from scratch? Live off the sea in Malaysia? Go for a walk about in Australia? See every Lord of the Rings site in New Zealand? 

My main goal for my trip is simple: By the time I leave any country, I want to understand the culture completely of that place- specifically how it is different than that in the southern United States.

You can do whatever you want, but setting out a goal before you leave will make your trip planning much easier. You can always change it by country, city, or even by day. But having a goal will give you a place to start in your research!

2. Do Your Research

Ask anybody who knows me well. I started planning my trip way in advance. The idea had been in my head ever since I got accepted into the University of Alabama. The ideas kept growing and growing until I really started planning two years before I left. I knew I wanted to spend approximately two years abroad and go to 23 different countries, and my research started quick. I can tell you the entry requirements for any of those countries as an American, my easiest visa options, and my pack up plan should any of those countries not give me a visa.

What you need to know:

Where do you want to go?
What are the entry requirements for that country? Click To See
How long do you want to stay there (or in each of those places)?
What do you HAVE to see while there?

3. Pick the Right Gear

This kind of falls under research but is so important I felt like separating it. The right gear is crazy important. I am an extremely impulsive person... and I took a month and a half to pick my boots because of the advice I received from well travelled people. It is not crazy at all to be able to tell people how much EVERY item in my pack weighs, it's almost required.

What you need to know:

How much hiking do you want to do?
How much camping do you want to do?
How much weight can you comfortably hike with over long distances? (Some people say go with 1/6 your body weight, some say 1/4... go with whatever is right for you- Trial and error here)

As far as where to order your travel gear from, I would always suggest Rei.com I have been a member for a bit now and exclusively order my gear from there. Top quality, great value for the quality that you get also. I cannot brag enough about REI. Become a member today, it's worth it, I promise. Through the advice I got from people there I was able to plan so much better. The customer service is GREAT and I cant imagine my trip without them!!

4. Have an idea of where you're going to sleep

Seems simple I know, but this has a lot to do with your overall trip. Are you going to "go local" and stay with locals by living on their farms, or do you want to hang out in all the fancy hostels. There are many different options that each have their own merits. My two favourite options are:

• Couchsurfing.org - A way to stay with locals who live all over the globe for free. It's safe, free, and incredibly rewarding
• Helpx.net - A way to connect with places (farms, orchards, bars, resorts...)  that need temporary (usually a week or more) help in exchange for a place to stay and food.

However, there are countless other resources to choose from you just need to get out there and look for them. So the answer to "where are you going to stay?" is completely a personal choice (that is often influenced by money). My 3 months in New Zealand, thanks to these two websites and a whole lot of luck, I only spent money for 4 or 5 nights of accommodation. However I was also no stranger to pitching my tent off the road or sleeping in a bus stop.

Are you okay with sleeping on the streets?
Do you want money to decide where you will be staying?
How long can you go without a shower?
How much of a trusting person are you?

Where ever you end up staying: Look After Your Host/s Thank you cards, make them a meal, buy them a bottle of decent wine, anything at all. Let them know you appreciate them. Usually I make my host meal, and if I have the time I try to fry them southern fried chicken. Cooking your host a dish from your local area is always a nice touch.

5. Get your money sorted

Completely personal choice. I will never forget the woman I met about 3 months ago. I met her at a couchsurfing meeting in Brisbane. Somewhere in her mid-to-late 30's. I asked her, how long she had been travelling. She said since 1991! 22 YEARS. I said "!WOW!" bought her a drink and we talked about travelling all for a couple of hours straight. I wanted to mainly know how the heck she was affording it. She told me she hadn't had a sizeable amount of money since 1994. I coughed and laughed at the same time.

Her Method for getting by:

1. Go to Country X or City X.
2. Find a place she likes
3. Find a job, any job
4. Save money
5. Stay until she wants to leave or has enough money to leave
6. Back to step 1

So, if you never want to work abroad and want to stay in hostels all the time, you have some saving to do. If you are willing to work and live a little rough, you could probably hit the road as soon as you grab all your gear.

Currency is also something to keep an eye on. Now a days it's a lot easier than it used to be. Everywhere takes Visa/Mastercard and even awful airports have ATMs. Also be sure to tell your bank about where and when you are travelling so they can take off any safety features that might be a pain. You can pre-order currency if you'd like, but most places have currency exchange by/at the airports. Do NOT listen to ANYBODY saying "This is the only place you can exchange currency before you arrive at ______" Sounds simple but in the heat of the moment you might be temped to exchange with them.

Are you okay with not having any money? Cause that's gonna happen....
Are you a hard worker? The most important thing in my opinion....

6. Figure out your Transportation

Landing in a city in a new country is a great feeling. But how the heck are you going to get from there to anywhere else? I've been using CouchSurfing to help get my feet under me in new counties and it's worked very well. But then comes the question, how will you see the country you just landed in?

In just about every country you go to there will be a bus service to sign up with if you'd like to take the bus. There are always backpackers wanting to sell their cars or vans. Trains are always good. Heaps of places rent out vans to be used to drive around. And there's my personal favourite hitch-hiking. Each one has it's pros and cons, you just need to figure out what is right for you.

How do you see yourself when you picture yourself on the road? In a train? In a camper van with all your gear behind you? Hitch hiking? 

7. How to Handle Souvenirs 

Heads up. At some point in your planning or before you leave, you will be asked by friends or family to bring them back something from somewhere..... Be CAREFUL SAYING YES!! One or two people getting a few small things is cool. But, you don't want to have promised 20 people that you will bring them back something awesome.... something that turns out to be breakable and heavy... you don't want that. Getting people things is nice, but not when it costs you heaps of cash, time, and effort.

Also if you're on the streets, haggle. Haggle like it's your job. Something costs you 20 bucks? PSSSSHHHH right. That cost them maybe 4 bucks, maybe that much. If you don't knock a minimum 1/4th off the price you're not doing it right. 

If you must get something, you might as well try to get it cheap.

Do you have to get things from each place you go to?
Are pictures enough for you?
How much money will you spend on souvenirs?

8. HAVE FUN

Planning a trip and actually going on a trip can be stressful. It is very important to have fun. If you ever feel stressed about any aspect of your trip take a breath and realize what you're planning or realize where you are.

I remember my worst 48 hours in New Zealand. It was raining, I was hitch hiking in it, sleeping in bus stops and soaked to the bone with cold rain and wind. Then I realized.... Dude... I'M IN NEW ZEALAND!! AWESOME. You gotta roll with the punches, sometimes things won't go just how you planned them... sometimes you'll get in a bad situation. Stay as optimistic as you can. Nobody wants to hang with the crying foreigner.

Do you really want to stress on your trip?
Is it worth it?
Why not be optimistic? 

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I hope this has been helpful just a little bit!

If you have any other questions please email me. I've been having complete strangers email me with questions and I am MORE THAN happy to try and answer all of them. You can travel too, I promise. 

Family and friends I miss you so much! See you soon!!

Take Care,

Carpe Diem,

Steve

The Great Barrier Reef

Howdy!!

I've been out of the US for 9 months now... a freakishly long time... and in Australia for 6 months. As a way to celebrate being out of the US for 9 months I decided it was time knocked something big off of my bucket list: Dive The Great Barrier Reef!! 

Not having a car made this a little tricky, so I decided to go with my tried and true method of transportation: Hitchhiking. Once again I found myself dependent on the niceness of strangers, and once again, I wasn't disappointed. I decided my first destination would be Bundaberg [About 3 hours N of Brisbane driving and on the way to the Great Barrier Reef] Hitching I got there in just under 5 hours. My last lift took me to outskirts of Bundaberg where I was greeted at a truck stop by Trevor! 

Trevor (or as most people call him "reb") is an old friend of mine who I have been delaying seeing for a good long while because he lived so far north of me. I was ecstatic to finally hang out and catch up and reminisce about to good ole days. Trev let me stay at his place a couple of days until I got my dive booked! To burn some time off we ended up going to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery and having a good ole time of it. Great tour actually, I was surprised at the quality. 

Included in my dive trip was a bus trip from Bundaberg to The Township of 1770. A great thing because of how small 1770 is. 1770 is where my dive boat actually left from. I ended up choosing to go to Lady Musgrove Island; a coral island formed about 1.5 hours from the coast. The best part about the boat ride over.... was.... I was surrounded, yet again, my Asian tourists. Nothing against Asian tourists at all... except when they're on a boat.. and I'm surrounded by them... and A SOLID 90 PERCENT OF THEM GET SEA SICK..... so that was..... just... great. 

But on to the best part of the story!

The boat got there and we went onto a smaller boat and we did our dives. Straight away we say two humpback whales!! A mother leading her calf around. Off in the distance, they didn't want much to do with us. Throughout the rest of the dives we saw HEAPS of sea turtles, a shark, incredibly quick dolphin who were gone before we really realized what was going on. And more colorful fish and coral than I even knew were possible. Literally I did not know that some of the colors I saw even existed in nature. Crazy neons, electric blues, and yellows so in your face you almost needed sunglasses. I will remember that day for the rest of my life. I ended up getting 3 dives in and loving every second of it. 

While there in 1770 I ended up staying at a hostel called "The Cool Bananas." The Cool Bananas was a really unique hostel. It felt like a big living community. Every day people from the 4 local hostels in the area would go down to the beach and play beach volleyball together. I don't know exactly what it was about the Cool Banana but it was incredibly unique. If you every find yourself in 1770, go to The Cool Banana, you won't regret it. 

After my last night there I hitched back to Brisbane. A frustrating hitch because I kept getting dropped in bad spots, but it all worked out in the end. I am headed back to the states for Christmas in a mere 2 months. I have grown very attached to Australia and will be sad to leave. But there is much more of the world to see!

Until next time!

Steve

SMASH Camp!

Well guys, life is picking up big time!

Work picked up big time during the last couple of weeks. Between my two jobs I'm workin an average of 55 hours a week these days. But that's not the only thing that's awesome (yes I'm loving working crazy amounts, it's kinda fantastic). But it can't all be work! When I arrived in Brisbane one of my first goals was to get plugged into a Church.

[Heads up my non-Christian readers this ones a bit Jesus heavy]

Thanks to Emily Aitkin I ended up getting plugged into Keperra Baptists. Thanks to Keperra Baptists I ended up getting asked if I wanted to be a leader at a camp called SMASH Camp.  SMASH Camp is a camp where heaps of churches in the Brisbane area send their 8-12th grade kids for a week of learning, celebrating, and growing with Jesus. The week started out slightly oddly because I didn't know many people there, Keperra only sent 5 leaders to SMASH (including me) and there was somewhere around 50 of us leaders. Tack on the fact that I'm that random American who rocked up combined with the fact that we only did like 3 meetings before the actual camp..... and I felt like a bit of an outsider. Don't get me wrong the people were inviting as all get out and I ended up making friends with like almost every leader but I was worried at first.

I was co-leader of a small group of five grade 10 guys. My other co-leader was Daniel Kavanagh and he was a huge blessing in small group meetings. Me and him tag teamed it up well and ended up getting one recommitment to Christ in our small group- possibly a second in the future. I feel incredibly blessed to have been there for that. By the end of camp our small group was a well knit band of bros who would sit at meals together, share openly, and joke around pretty good.

That week was honestly one of the most fun and rewarding weeks of my life. I had done work with youth through the YMCA, Camp Wesley Pines, and other church stuff back home... so I thought I knew roughly what I was signing up for.... but I had no idea how amazing it was going to be, I'm still blown away by it.

SMASH Camp was off the wall fun 24/7. The leadership team jelled together incredibly quickly and it just WORKED. Everybody had their strengths that came it at just the right time. The funny people, positive people, patient people, less talkative people, wise people, everybody's strengths came out and it just worked so well. I'm so thankful that I was able to go on SMASH because I made some seriously amazing friends that I know I'll hang with the rest of my time in Brisbane.

SMASH Camp also had a huge impact on me. Couldn't smoke on camp, so I gave up and haven't smoked since then. Couldn't cuss on camp (we made the campers do pushups if they did), so I'm backing way down on that. Reading the Bible, praying, and worshiping daily was amazing. The average daily schedule was wake up, breakfast, quiet time, beach, morning tea, small groups, lunch, activity (anything from Cable skiing to lazer tag, campers got to choose), dinner, worship, night activity, supper, then bed. It was awesome. If I could I would love to do that camp for an entire summer like a Camp Wesley Pines. [Cultural Difference] The concept of a camp running all summer, rotating kids around on a weekly basis is very strange to Australians. When asked if I'd done youth work before I described CWP and people were in awe that camps ran for an entire summer.

SMASH Camp had some awesome activities and very fun memories. From going down a pretty good sized water slide, to cable skiing. Convincing kids at camp that my long lost brother was another leader and that I came to Australia to get to know him (another leader could easily have passed as my brother, red beard and everything). Teaching and Playing Ultimate Frisbee on outdoor sport day. Having seriously amazing talks with campers about Christianity and life. High fiving EVERYBODY because "purple" was not allowed (boys are blue, girls are red/pink; and thus cant mix to make purple). Hearing amazing testimonies. Lazer zone politics and alliances. Stacking cups, bowls, knives and such as high as you can so your table can go get food before other tables. Having kids open up to you and share their problems. It was so legit.

Well that was SMASH Camp! I'm in a Public Library right now and will soon get kicked off the computer. Tomorrow I'm going to Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef- I'm sure I'll do a blogpost just for that.

You guys take care,
Sorry for being so slack!

Happy Trails,
Steve