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Weeks 61 to 70
I was planning to catch up again with my friend Ari, the voice-over artist who I met last year when I first visited LA. So I settled into the hostel and made my bed, and then headed out to Sunset Boulevard, where I met Ari in a lovely little Indian restaurant. It was good to catch up again, and compare notes on what we had both achieved over the past ten months or so, but I was more excited to find out that Ari had come out on his Segway, and after dinner I could have a try on it if I wanted. Ari was very pleased that I had never been on one, and that he could introduce me to a new activity. I started slowly, and soon got the hang of the unusual machine, and Ari turned it up to full speed. Simply leaning forward or backwards makes the thing speed up or slow down, and a twist of the left grip turns the machine left or right. It was surprisingly quick, and great fun! Afterwards, I drove the Segway back to Ari's apartment, where he showed me his home voice-over recording studio, and then gave me a lift back to my hostel in his Merc convertible. A great evening all round.    This morning I was up early, and took the metro then a bus, ending up in Burbank to go to Central casting, hoping to get listed as a movie extra. The place was packed, and after the initial introduction the queues of prospective fellow actors began to form.    I had a chat with a couple of the staff members, but it was very quickly made clear that I would not be able to be registered without a US work visa. Even if I wanted to appear on a voluntary, unpaid basis, it would not be possible, apparently. This acting business is tough! I have faced my first rejection, and suspect there are more to come! I have another interview at a different agency tomorrow morning, but imagine it may well have the same outcome.
However, my plans have now had to change a little. I took the RV into Beverley Hills yesterday, and parking it proved to be a bit of a challenge! After that, I drove out to Lake Elsinore, where Skydive Elsinore is located, and am staying here for a couple of nights, but plans to head onwards down to San Diego have been cancelled, or at least postponed for now. I got to the dropzone yesterday afternoon, and by the time I got paperwork sorted out it really wasn't worth hiring a rig for the rest of the afternoon, so happily watched the action. It is the biggest and busiest skydive meet I have ever been to, and is largely aimed at female skydivers, as the event is called "Chicks Rock!", although there are also plenty of guys here to jump. They were running three large planes yesterday, and had a big meal and 70s theme party in the evening. Today they ran two planes and a helicopter too.    So this morning I had to get up early and join the queue to hire a parachute for the day, and then wait for the helicopter jumps to start. There was a bit of a mix up initially, as we were booked on in groups of four, and the helicopter could only take three people at a time. However, in the re-shuffle I was bumped up from load 9 to load 5, and geared up when the time came. The helicopter was pretty small, with open sides, and I squeezed in behind the pilot, the other couple taking the two left seats. We took off, and the small machine climbed pretty quickly, and it didn't seem very long before we were above 4,000 feet and the pilot gave us a two minute warning.  I was first to exit, and when given the go-ahead, climbed out of the door and stood on the skid. I gave the others a quick nod and tried to take in the experience, but couldn't hesitate too long. I jumped backwards, and watched the helicopter appear to accelerate upwards as I fell away from it. It is quite a different experience to jumping from a plane, as at first there is no wind, and before you pick up speed you really have very little control over how you fall. And the feeling of falling from a stand-still is quite intense. As I gathered speed though the familiar feel came back, and after a very short freefall I threw the pilot chute and once the parachute was open, got my bearings and made a pretty good landing on the narrow landing area. My little digital stills camera is not an ideal skydive video camera, but as a home-made glove-cam fastened into a modified glove on my left hand, does manage to capture some pretty good video. Take a look at Goal # 60 being achieved:- Later in the day I did a couple of jumps from the plane at 12,500 feet, which was fun. Chatting with a few of the other helicopter jumpers later, I discovered, somewhat ironically, that Perris Skydiving, just down the road, where I tried out their wind-tunnel last year, has someone who organises skydives from a hot air balloon. Well, my US funds are a bit tight now, but if I manage to sell the RV in time, I might just see if I can fit a balloon jump in too before I leave the States at the end of the month! We'll see. But I am elated to have achieved this goal in such a great place. Many thanks to all at Elsinore for making me so welcome.
Finding a parking spot where i wouldn't get a ticket was the next challenge, but aided by Eric, who I have now met a couple of times here in LA, and who was meeting me for a coffee, I found a suitable spot. At the One Source Talent office I met again with office manager Ema, and had some photos taken by Anji, and filled out some details for my "Talent Comp Card". I don't know if I can really be referred to as "talent"! Check out my online profile at One Source Talent here:- Ian Usher - Talent: 39756 I can also print out or email my comp card, and pick different photos, depending on the role I am applying for:-  So I'm ready for my big scene now! Over to Ema and the team at One Source Talent. Ema has promised to try her best to help achieve the goal, and hopefully her team can come up with something. Thanks for all the help so far. How exciting! Note: The blog title is the often mis-quoted line from the 1950 movie "Sunset Boulevard" The actual quote, from actress Gloria Swanson at the end of the movie is: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
I will be sad to see it go, but my US funds are running very low, and if I don't sell it, I don't actually think I have enough cash left to get to the end of the month! It really has been a home from home, and is very comfortable. For anyone interested, or if you know someone who might be, it is currently parked in Oxnard, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles. The bargain price is $3,000, or make an offer. Full details here:- http://www.100goals100weeks.com/RVforSale.php               
I had a long day yesterday, as I decided I needed to rent a car for a while, as driving and parking the RV in downtown Los Angeles is a bit of an issue, as it won't fit in any covered parking lots, and won't fit in a single parking meter space. It is also pretty expensive to drive, as it does about 9 miles per gallon, and Evan's place is 60 miles from downtown!! So at the airport where I had booked an economy rental for a week, they only had a cargo van available, and Evan had dropped me off and left me there! I had no choice but to take the cargo van into the city, as I had to be there in time for a scheduled meeting. Then after a quick conducted tour with Eric around the huge mansions of Bel-Air, I drove through Friday afternoon LA rush hour traffic to another car rental depot to swap the van for a small car and just made it in time before they closed. At the same time I was trying to field a couple of phone calls about the RV being advertised for sale, and immediately had to rush back to Evan's (more LA freeway rush hour traffic!) to show a prospective purchaser the RV. All ended well though, as Adam bought my travelling home, and wanted to take it there and then. I hurriedly cleared my stuff out, throwing it into the boot (or trunk) of the rental car. I was sorry to see the place that has been my longest term home during the last year disappear down the road, but relieved that my finances are looking a little healthier now for the next part of my journey. And so now with an economical and relatively easy-to-park vehicle at my disposal I decided to get out and about today. Clay Egan, who I met while in Salt Lake City in August, had emailed to tell me he was going to be at a four wheel drive expo in Pomona this weekend. I drove out there and we hung out for the afternoon, and I wandered around admiring the amazing vehicles.       The highlight of the afternoon for me was watching the daredevil BMX and freestyle motorcross displays. Those guys are so skillful. Later we grabbed some dinner, and I crashed for the night at his luxurious suite in the nearby Sheraton. It was great to catch up, and once again, it was very inspiring to be around someone so positive and motivated.
It seemed an appropriate movie to pick, as it is about a man in his late 40's, who begins to question his life choices. He quits his job, gets a pushy literary agent friend to represent him and starts writing. Although his marriage ends in divorce, the play he writes is a success and although his life is now different from before, he is happier. The original trailer, from New Film International, voice-overed (or should that be voiced-over?) by Ari, can be seen here:- Multiple Sarcasms - original trailer This is me in the booth, being guided by Ari:- And here is the edited end result, with me doing the voice-over:- Since the weekend things have been pretty slow, and I arrived back at Evan's beach pad on Monday and re-installed myself on his sofa. Evan has been amazingly tolerant of me drifting in and out of his place, and my time here in southern California has been so much easier (and cheaper!) thanks to his kindness. We went out for dinner last night, and were laughing about the fact that he is largely responsible for me being on this whole journey. The start of this whole 100goals thing can be attributed to a great degree to one conversation we had back before the ALife4Sale eBay auction. More details about that conversation here: Goal # 100 - book deal! At the time of the conversation we hadn't even met, and I thought it was funny that he was probably now thinking that he hadn't quite expected his suggestion to result in me living in his front room for several weeks! It's all very much appreciated though, and I hope I get to repay the favour one day! Today I have headed back into downtown Hollywood, and am staying for a couple of days at one of the backpacker places in town. Through AB Casting, who I am now registered with for an extra role, I received an invite to a red carpet screening of one of the movies they have been involved in. I thought it was this evening, but I got it wrong! Oh well! I was also hoping that the goal of appearing as an extra in a movie was going to be achieved tomorrow, but it has been raining for a couple of days here, and the shoot has been rained off, and will have to be re-scheduled for next week. So I now appear to have a few days on my hands. Ahh, what to do now then? Maybe I'll head down to San Diego tomorrow for the weekend.
When I started to plan my trip down to San Diego I included Dennis in my emails, and was surprised, flattered and grateful to get an invitation to stay with Dennis and Mary while in town, and enjoy the comforts of their spare room and good home cooking. While chatting with Dennis on Thursday evening we got onto the topic of his hobby of turning wood on his lathe to make beautiful hand-crafted pens, and I was fascinated with the process. I only did a little woodwork at a young age at school, and have never used a lathe, so Dennis said I could have a go at making a unique, personalised pen in the morning. From a wide choice of woods, I chose an unknown spalted hardwood, which is a wood where the decay process has begun, and has some wonderful dark grain in it. Dennis guided me throught the process of cutting, drilling, glueing and then setting up the wood on the lathe, and I set to on my creation.    With some patient and expert guidance, I think I produced a very satisfying final result. My pen has a wonderful light and dark pattern, with small holes where mites have bored through the wood.    I really enjoyed the process, and after lunch asked Dennis if I could do a little more on the lathe, and once set up, he left me pretty-much to my own devices, and from a couple of bits of really nice walnut I made a pen and pencil set that I am very proud off. It took quite a while and alot of concentration on the lathe to produce the shape I wanted, and as a pair they aren't exactly the same, but look great in the case Dennis gave me to store them in. In the evening John and Ivy picked me up from the house, and we went to the local pub, were we met up with Kurtiss and Willy, who were both out in Pamplona too, along with Willy's girlfriend Ashley. Nick and Mikey couldn't make it, as they are both in Iraq at the moment, which is a pretty good excuse! It was great to catch up again, and laugh over some of the Pamplona adventures we had shared. We all agreed that it was often hard to explain to other friends what Pamplona is really like, and how crazy it all is, and it was good to laugh again with friends who had been there and shared the excitement and craziness of the amazing event. 
Then yesterday Dennis and I went to the world-renowned San Diego Zoo, and spent a few hours wandering the impressive displays. My favourite was the Elephant Oddysey, where the spectacular creatures had a huge area to roam in, and were encouraged to forage for their food, having to roam around the unusual artificial trees to find their next meal, much as they would have to do in the wild.    Late yesterday afternoon I went to Willy's house, where we geared up his boat and headed for the boat launch ramp, planning to spend the evening catching lobsters offshore. After we made our way out of the bay around Loma Point, Willy set the nets, and we waited for the sun to set. When it was dark we pulled the nets in, and things looked good, a couple of the nets having six or seven of the California Spiny Lobsters in them.    Unfortunately they were all undersize, and all had to go back. For the rest of the night we reset the nets again, and then went round and pulled them back in again. Well, to be more accurate, Willy did most of this, as I sat holding a flashlight for him, and feeling slightly seasick. During the course of the evening, as well as a couple of crabs and one ugly looking fish (poisonous apparently!), we must have caught at least 40 lobsters, but not one was big enough to keep, and eventually at around 11pm we gave up and headed for home. The lobsters I promised to bring home for Dennis and Mary had to be kindly provided by Willy from the freezer from a previous evening's haul.    Today it is time to head back up to LA, and hopefully finally achieve my "movie extra" goal, and get some practice in for the next goal on the list - more info to follow soon. Many thanks to all in San Diego who have made my time here hugely enjoyable. It was great to catch up again with friends that I first met in Pamplona. Thanks to John, Ivy and Kurtiss for their local restaurant-guiding services, and to Willy for a great fishing adventure. And huge thanks too to Dennis and Mary for their wonderful warm hospitality kindly offered to a random internet stranger friend of their son! Very much appreciated. 
As I drove back from San Diego yesterday my phone rang, and Angie from One Source Talent asked me if I was still in town, and if I was still trying to achieve my goal to appear as an extra in a Hollywood movie. I had not heard anything from them since I registered a couple of weeks ago, and thought I might not hear from them before I head off for Mexico. I am registered with another agency too, and am promised a role with them, but the scene they are shooting, in a nightclub, keeps getting pushed back, and I was starting to get worried that time might run out there too. So it was with great relief that I accepted a background role as a guest at a bed and breakfast establishment, to be filmed on location in Malibu, for a movie called "Storage". I received details and directions by email from Alesia, and was told to bring three wardrobe choices of casual clothes. That's fortunate! The only clothes I have are all pretty casual! But on second thoughts this morning, I decided that most of the stuff I have is far too casual (meaning almost worn out) and the two smarter shirts I have managed to borrow are probably too dark (a light shirt was specified). So I made a quick stop at a thrift shop in Oxnard before heading down the coast. I found the location, a lovely house in the Malibu hills with a beautiful outlook, overlooking the hills to the ocean, and found Alesia and a few other extras, and introduced myself. We were shown where to change, and from our clothes we had brought, our outfits were chosen. One of my new thrift shop shirts fit the bill perfectly! $2.50 well spent. There was all sorts of activity going on, and calls for silence every now and then as a scene was filmed. I got to meet the lead actress, Sarah Jones, and took advantage of the photo opportunity.    Eventually it was time to film our scene, and we were sat on the balcony at tables, set up as a restaurant at a bed and breakfast place. My table consisted of three of us, and we were given a bit of background as to who perhaps we were, a couple meeting our nephew in LA. For the scenes we had to mime conversation, but keep silent as the sound from the lead actors was being recorded. We shot the scene three or four times, and then took a break as something else was filmed. It was fun sitting around chatting with the other extras, and I got a photo taken with the rest of my co-stars - well, co-extras, really - and with my "wife"!!    Later we shot the scene again from the reverse angle, pretending again to chat, eat, and sip wine.    It was all great fun, and I loved every minute of it. I chatted with a few of my co-extras about my goals, and why I was there today, and marvelled once again at the journey that all of this is taking me on. Here I was, in the hills of Los Angeles, filming a scene for a Hollywood movie! Awesome! Thanks to all my co-extras for making it such a fun day, my "wife" Deebye, "nephew" Nathan, "couple" Tarvon and Viet, "brandy drinking magazine reader" Tom, and "waiter" Ian. Thanks too to all on set who were extremely friendly, encouraging and helpful. Also huge thanks to One Source Talent, particularly Ema at the Beverly Hills office, who promised to help me initially, and Angie, who organised this for me. Also thanks again to my buddy Evan, whose endless patience for me living on his sofa has made this time in LA so much easier. 
Please feel free to come along to join in and help me achieve goal 62, as I do my first-ever public talk about my adventures in an outdoor sporting goods store in Ventura. See you there! Details on the poster below, click for a larger version:- 
His favourite poem was "If..." by Rudyard Kipling, and it has since become one of my favourites too, and offers some excellent fatherly advice. And so it became one of my goals to learn this wonderful piece, and to be able to recite it from memory. To achieve this goal I really felt that I needed to recite the piece in front of an audience of strangers, and the opportunity to do so presented itself, when I was asked if I would like to speak at an outdoor sports equipment store about my adventures. Last year I met John Robertson while in LA, and he told me about his daughter Ashley, and the store she and her husband run, and suggested that I might like to speak there. So back in LA again, I contacted John and he put me in touch with Ashley, and a date was arranged. I have been doing some hasty poem revision in preparation, as well as wondering what on earth I am going to say on my first public speaking engagement. So somewhat nervously I headed to Real Cheap Sports in Ventura this morning, and got set up with a computer and projector, and a few selected photos from my travels. By 11am here were ten people in the audience, so I was pleased to just creep into double figures, and I made a start. By the end there were a few more later arrivals stood at the back of the group. It was a good sized group for my first try at telling my story, as it was pretty casual and relaxed, and I already knew a couple of the people there, so didn't feel too pressured or nervous. By the time I got into it, I really enjoyed doing the talk, and could quite fancy doing a bit more of this sort of thing. I felt it went pretty well myself, and all the feedback I got seemed positive too, but I don't know if people were just being polite! I don't think so.    I kept it short, with an intro about myself, a bit of background on the ALife4Sale beginnings of my journey, and then I talked about four of my big highlight goals:- Swimming with whales Riding the Wall Of Death Running with the bulls in Pamplona Climbing 7 peaks in Colorado I also talked briefly about my last goal, acting in a movie here in LA, and then suggested that I was hopefully ready to achieve goal # 62. I got Carina, who had emailed me during the week, having heard about me via Real Cheap Sports email list, to act as video camera person, and launched into my recitation. I had one brief moment of hesitation, which gave me concern for a second or so, but quickly got back on track! Phew! I think it went okay, but you can judge for yourself if you like, by pressing "Play" below:- I am pretty sure that the poem is now fairly well embedded in my memory, and intend to keep it there by occasional practice. It is a great thing to have as a party-piece if I ever need it again. My thanks to John for suggesting the talk, and Ashley for offering me my first speaking opportunity, and pushing me once more out of my comfort zone. Also to Evan once again for providing accomodation and transport, to Carina, for video camera work, and to the others there who made the effort to come and listen to me. Thank you all. Thanks particularly to Doug, for making the effort to come along. I was very surprised and flattered to meet Doug, as we have talked a bit on Facebook, and he has been following my adventures since the ALife4Sale days. He had driven from Bakersfield to come to the talk, about a two hour drive. Wow. After the talk I chatted for a while with some of the people who had come, and then Doug offered to take Evan and I out for lunch, and we asked Ashley for a recommendation. When we picked Mexican, she and her husband and John also decided to join us to. What a great way to celebrate goal #62. Thank you all for a great morning. Thanks are also due to a couple of other people too. Firstly, to Kelli, who gave me a beautiful calligraphy copy of the poem last year when I was at her ghostly cottage in Oregon. And thanks also to Cari in Florida, who gave me a beautifully printed and presented version of the poem when I was there to visit the underwater hotel. This has been either on the dashboard of the RV, or in the top of my small back pack for the past three months now, and is looking a little worn, but has been the best help ever in learning this poem.  Thanks also to my dad for first introducing me to this timeless advice. If... by Rudyard Kipling
I fly down to Mexico on Thursday morning for a few days to see the Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead festivities, and then in November my travels take me to Southeast Asia, where I hope to see the Elephant Round Up, and hopefully actually ride an elephant too. One of my other goals in that area is to see the migration of the red crabs on Christmas Island, which happens each year around November, but could occur at any time over a period of four months. The migration is dependent on two things. Firstly the beginning of the rainy season is what starts the crabs moving from the inland areas towards the coast. But mating and spawning are dictated by the phase of the moon, and are timed so that the females can spawn (drop their eggs into the water) at high tide on the new moon. This year the two most likely dates for spawning are around 12th November, or 11th December. And my plans have had to remain flexible enough to be able to get to Christmas Island for either of these periods. My rough plan has either been to go to Christmas Island first, then Thailand to see the elephants, then on to Australia, or if the crabs migrate later, see the elephants first, which is around the 20th November, then go to Christmas Island, and then from there direct to Perth. I have been keeping in contact with Katrina at the Christmas Island Tourism Association, and just yesterday received from her an email update from the Christmas Island National Park. Apparently there has been some rain in the last day or two, and crabs have started moving in large numbers, but there is now not enough time for them to spawn on the 12th November, and December is looking much more likely now. So I think I can now start putting some plans into place. I have already booked my flight from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and arrive there on Friday 6th November. This was booked so that if necessary, I could have caught the flight from KL to Christmas Island on Saturday 7th, as there is only one flight per week to the island. But now I have a fairly large hole on the calendar, from 6th November to around the 15th, when I have to be in Bangkok, in time to get to Surin for the Elaphant Round Up. What to do, I have been wondering? And then, idly looking on the AirAsia website, I found that they do pretty cheap flights from KL to Beijing in China. A quick check of November temperature in Beijing revealed that it will be cold, as low as freezing overnight, but not too bad during the days. And so I made a decision, flexible as always, to go and spend a week or so up in China, and visit the Great Wall. It's currently less than US$300 to get to Beijing and then back to KL, and I get to achieve a goal that I suspected might be alot more expensive to achieve. Will I need a visa, I wonder? Better get on to that right away!! Down to the Chinese Embassy tomorrow!
I left my bag, and had to go out to find a bank for enough Mexican cash to pay for the hostel. Two blocks away I came across my first taste of the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, as a huge parade with a couple of marching bands blocked the streets. Everybody was in costume, and the air was very festive and fun. In the hostel I met Rebecca from England, who was sharing the dorm room I was in, and we arranged to meet a couple of her friends that evening, Mark and Karen. We met at 8pm in the main city centre square, the Zocalo, which is just around the corner from the hostel. The square is wonderfully festive, filled with brilliantly coloured and shadowed sand paintings or sculptures. Everywhere people are selling candy skulls and skeletons, and a Mexican band was playing.    We had dinner at a local restaurant, where I was introduced to the local dish, or sauce, mole, with chicken enchiladas. Afterwards we ended up in a local bar, where beer was on happy hour - "two-for-price-of-one" - and Mark insisted on shots of Mezcal, his including the worm from the bottle. What a great first evening in Oaxaca.    For a great overview of the Mexican Dia de Muertos beliefs and customs, take a look at this informative British Airways advert:-
However, my US time is just about over, and I feel that I am really travelling again, and today have really enjoyed that feeling of being somewhere completely unfamiliar. The city of Oaxaca is a fascinating place, and it has been a real sensory treat to be in such a vibrant and unusual place. You can feel the excitement in the air as the two big days of the Dia de Muertos approach, and people are making preparations everywhere you look. Flowers are being sold on many street corners, as well as all sorts of candy skulls and skeletons as offerings for relatives who have passed on. But it is the other differences that have stood out for me today, the sights that just make you stop and smile, or at times make you stop and look mystified. A shop selling a wide array of coffins, policemen with machine guns, colorful houses and murals, a dog asleep in the dust beside the road, oblivious to the noise and chaos around, traffic lights at junctions that merely seem to be a suggestion as to what might be appropriate, the vibrant market where about 90% of the food on offer is a mystery. It's such fun to be travelling again. Today, following Rebecca's suggestion I took a bus out of town to see Monte Alban, a World Heritage listed pre-Hispanic city that was occupied for 13 centuries, from around 500 BC to 800 AD. What a fantastic place, quite similar, I thought, to Chichen Itza, which I visited back in July, but without the huge central pyramid.    It was also very interesting, because you could climb up to the top of some of the temples, which gave a magnificent view over the whole site.    On my return to the city I wandered again through the market, and was offered fried (or roasted, I'm not sure) grasshopper, which was surprisingly tasty, so I bought a bag of them, and have been handing them around at the hostel.  I am really looking forward to tomorrow now, and my first visit to one of the cemeteries.
   Later in the evening I had a couple of beers and quite a few shots of mezcal, the local drink somewhat similar to tequila, with a group of other travellers in the courtyard of the hostel, and so had a slow and easy start yesterday. I set off late morning to try to find my way to a nearby town called Tule, again on the advice of fellow traveller Rebecca. I tried for some time at the crazy, run-down bus station to find the right bus, but my poor Spanish provided confusing results at best. Eventually I gave up and jumped in one of the shared taxis with a group of locals, and was pleasantly surprised that the 13km journey only cost me 8 pesos (about 70 cents). There isn't much to see at Tule, other than the spectacularly huge Arbol de Tule, a tree estimated to be well over 2,000 years old, and still doing well. It absolutely dwarfs the church whose grounds it stands in. It was nice to sit in it's shade, and contemplate the history that has happened during it's lifetime.    Back in Oaxaca I took some photos of the large sand paintings/sculptures in the Zocalo, the main centre square of the city, while it was still light, then later met with Rebecca, Mark and Karen, and another five travellers, and we set off for Panteon General, the main city cemetery. On the way we came across a comparaza, a big parade of people in Halloween costume, accompanied by an exhuberant marching band, and joined them.    The cemetery itself was lit by candle light, and was very atmospheric, and preparations were being made for a concert later that evening, as an ochestra and choir made their preparations.    But I had read alot about a cemetery further out of town in a place called Xoxocotlan, (pronounced Hoho-cotlan, or simply Hoho, with a throaty Spanish accent on the h's!) and was very keen to go there. Most of the rest of the group were happy to stay in town, and in the end only myself and Finnish traveller Essi went to find a taxi, which was much easier than we had expected. We entered through the gate of the cemetery, and were quite awe-struck. The scene was quite beautiful, very much as I had imagined it might be. As far as you could see there were graves covered in intricate flower decorations, and lit with candles. Family groups sat around many of the graves or tombs, all ages represented from oldest grandparents to sleeping toddlers.    At many graves the mood seemed to be quiet and reflective, but elsewhere celebrations were in full swing. Fireworks would shoot into the air, bands played, and there was much laughter and cheering too. I talked for a while to one guy sat with his family at his father's grave, and he explained that they came to be with their relatives, and let them know that they were still cared for, and on this one occasion each year were welcomed as they came back to join their family once again. Many people bring the deceaced relatives favourite food or drink for them to enjoy, and there was plenty of mezcal being drunk.     I found it all quite emotional, at times saddened and reflective, but at times laughing and clapping along with others as one of the bands played favourite tunes around a grave. We wandered until around midnight, and then went into the thronging little market area for a bite to eat, heading back afterwards to wander some more.    The whole experience was fascinating and thought-provoking, the different attitude to death, and celebration of the lives of people who have passed on being very interesting to consider. My thanks to Essi, who was a perfect companion for the evening, sharing my thoughtful and reflective mood, and I was very pleased that she had also wanted to make the extra effort to visit this touching event. I think it would have been a bit more challenging and confronting to be there alone.
In the afternoon I made a quick visit to one of the many museums in town before meeting again with Essi to go and take some daylight photos in the main cemetery. It was fairly quiet there, but quite a few people were washing and decorating graves and tombs for the evening. We wandered around quietly enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.     On the way back into the city Essi suggested we could get some materials to make our own Dia de Muertos offering, as we were invited to another hostel to join in making a group dispaly. We bought flowers and candy skulls, but unfortunately palns had changed a bit at the hostel we went to, the owner not allowing many people in after we managed to slip past her guard. We made a small display on a table, which was fun, but not quite as personal as I had expected.  Later, when Essi and many of the others decided to take a taxi out of town again to another small town I opted to stay in the city, and returned to the main cemetery alone. There, out in the quieter outer parts of the cemetery, I sat alone by an undecorated grave, and thought of some of the people who are now gone from my life. I tried to embrace the Mexican idea of focussing on happiness for the time I had with them, not sadness due them no longer being here. What a thought-provoking time my days here have been. I have enjoyed the somewhat introspective nature of this trip south of the border. Thanks to all I met and shared time with in Oaxaca.
A month or so ago, when I booked my flight out of the States, I made sure that I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in time to fly from there to Christmas Island on the 7th November, if the crabs were on the move. However, as the crabs started moving too late, and won't be in time to spawn this month, I now fly back out of KL to Beijing. The irony is that as I write this blog, I have just spent 14 hours flying from LA to Taipei in Taiwan, on China Airlines, and from here it is a relatively short hop to Beijing. But I now fly down to KL, on China Airlines, then a day and a half later, back up to Beijing, but with AirAsia. Never mind, the flights are all relatively cheap, and I get to spend a day or so in KL, which is a great place. I am very much looking forward to roti bread and sweet milky tea! For the second time in my 100 weeks I lost a day by crossing the International Date Line heading west. I flew out of LAX late evening on the 4th, and 14 hours later arrived in Taipei on the morning of the 6th. Missed the 5th of November completely! And I'm now back in the same timezone as when I started this second trip back in May, which now seems so long ago. In Perth in Western Australia it is the same time as here, and I feel like I am rapidly approaching the end of this part of the journey. I just hope the jetlag isn't too bad. It's only 7.00 am here, but it's now 3 o'clock in the afternoon yesterday where I left from! All very confusing!
It feels quite familiar to be wandering around here again, and I recognise quite alot of the places from my previous visits. I flew in from Taipei, arriving early yesterday afternoon, and caught the bus from the airport, and walked to the hostel I had booked for the night, and dropped my bags off there. I thought the best plan would be to go out, keep moving, and get a reasonably early night, in the hopes of minimising the jetlag issues. Just around the corner from the hostel I found exactly the type of place I was looking for, and ordered lunch consisting of roti and tea. Roti has to be one of my favourite foods. It is a sort of bread, the dough being rolled out really flat, then folded so air is trapped, then cooked on a hot plate. Served with a curry sauce and a cup of sweet tea, it is lovely. The cost for two of these and the tea, 3.20 Ringgit, or just less than $1.  I wandered the busy, chaotic streets and markets. As in many Asian places, the pester factor is fairly high, but good-humoured and reasonably easy to fend off. Eventually I found myself drawn to the skyline-dominating twin spires of the Petronas Towers, and was amazed to find that you can now take a tour over the bridge that connects the two towers. The price? Free! Apparently people get up early and line up for tickets, which all go pretty quicky in the morning. However, I just wandered up to the counter at around 6pm for further info, and was happily waved in along with some other lucky latecomers. The view of the city is pretty spectacular, even if from less than halfway up the 452 metre high building.     I had dinner in another little restaurant filled with locals, and was surprised at the expensive-sounding bill. 7.20 Ringgit. Then I realised that my huge buffet plate of various curries, along with the obligatory sweet tea, had cost me just over $2. It's funny how quickly your perception of price and value gets skewed when you travel in cheaper parts of the world. Changing $40 into local currency makes you feel like a rich man here! This morning I was avake at 5am, having managed a decent 7 hours of sleep. I did a bit of internet research, as I am considering a possible change of plan for December and January. At a more reasonable hour I got up and went for breakfast (roti and tea, of course) and then made my way to the spectacular KL Tower. When I last visited here the view was pretty cloudy, and the top of the Petronas Tower was hidden in the mists, so I wanted to go fairly early before the day clouded over in the afternoon. What a view! I've seen quite a few BASE jump videos filmed here. Check out the video here for an example of this sort of craziness:- BaseDreams.com It makes your stomach a bit queasy to look down and think how it would be to jump from that sort of height!    Kuala Lumpur - what an interesting city! I'm glad I got the chance to stop over here and experience this place again. Onward to Beijing in China this evening! It's non-stop travel at the moment.  
My last day in Kuala Lumpur was pretty long. After going to see the KL Tower in the morning I had to check out of my room at midday. However, I managed to store my bags at the hostel for the rest of the day, and was able to sit around in the lounge there too. I spent some more time wandering the city, and at around 8pm collected my bags and caught the bus to the airport. I had booked my cheap return to Beijing with budget airline AirAsia, who fly out of a different terminal, and arrived in plenty of time to check in for my 1am departure. However, foggy conditions in Tianjin, the destination airport near Beijing meant our flight was delayed until 3am. The seats in the waiting area were not at all comfortable - not much sleep to be had there. Eventually we arrived at Tianjin at 9am, and I caught the shuttle to the main railway station, and at a small cafe nearby tried to figure out what I could have for breakfast. I am finding it similar to my visit to Japan here, as the Chinese writing is a complete mystery, and very few places have English translations. In the end, I opted for pointing at a picture of a tasty looking dish above the counter, and received a bowl of watery noodles with two fried eggs on top! The train to Beijing is a marvel of modern technology, a non-stop luxury journey of half an hour at speeds up to 350 kph. At Beijing South Railway Station I found the subway easily, as signs are in English here too, and got on the correct train. However, I got off at the wrong stop, and my walk to the hostel I had booked bore no relevance to the map I had copied from the internet. In the end I gave up and caught a taxi, which cost me 13 yuan, or around $2.    Lancy lives in Beijing, and a while ago had been given an assignment by her English teacher to summarise an article about some crazy guy in Australia who had put his whole life up for sale on eBay! (Her words, not mine!) She had followed my adventures from there onto my 100 goals adventure, and had emailed me to offer to help me out in Beijing. She and her friend Jenny were waiting for me at the hostel, and after dumping my bags we headed out for a wander around the local area. They took me around an area called Nan Luo Gu Xiang, where the narrow streets, or hutongs, were filled with locals, and quite a few tourists too. We ate all sorts of interesting foods from shop windows and street carts - spicy tofu pieces, sweet cakes, pork-filled dumplings, strange soups and hot sweet potatoes. My first impressions of Beijing? It's cold here after coming from Malaysia. Temperature in the afternoon was around 12 deg C, but it drops to near freezing in the evening. It is a busy place, and apparently it gets busier, as Sunday afternoon is relatively quiet. It is, like Kuala Lumpur, a fascinating mixture of sleek modern and old traditional. Interesting sights, such as people playing chess or mah jong at street cafes. Strange and unusual foods. I wandered happily soaking it all up and chatting with Lancy and Jenny, who were wonderful hosts. At times I would feel my head swim a little with tiredness, but it was all too new and exciting to miss out on. At one point I was suddenly hit by the realisation that I was in Beijing in China!! That happens to me every now and then as I travel, and sometimes am struck by exactly where I am or what I am doing.    Later in the evening the girls dropped me off at home again. It still amazes me how quickly I now start to refer to a new place as home, even though I had spent only a few minutes there. Wherever I lay my hat... The girls went to catch their bus, and after quickly checking my email, ten minutes later I was fast asleep on my bed! Thanks to my wonderful guides, what a great introduction to this fascinating city. 
Unfortunately the weather was cold and overcast, so the view was not as spectacular as I imagine it could be. I walked down to the gate of the Forbidden City, having to run the gauntlet of over-enthusiastic postcard sales people and potential guides, presumably unofficial.    Some of the signs here are very entertaining, the "Engrish" being a bit tricky to understand sometimes. At the entrance to the Forbidden City I was reminded: "Please be self-restraint and be a good tourist to mold a well-mannered imagination." Huh??? I decided to miss out on the Forbidden City, as time was already getting on, and instead decided to mold my well-mannered imagination by walking around the outside, eventually arriving at the very impressive Tian'anmen Square, apparently the world's largest city-centre public space. There were a couple of the biggest TV displays I have ever seen celebrating 60 years of the People's Republic of China, and people wandered the wind-blown area admiring the statues of the heroes of the revolution.    I was amazed to realise that it is now 20 years since the Tian'anmen Square massacre, when an estimated 400 to 800 protesters were killed, in what would seem to be a somewhat heavy-handed government response when the tanks rolled into the square on the 4th June 1989. More information here: Tiananmen Square protests of 1989    Somewhat co-incidentally, China banned any internet access in May this year to sites such as Blogger, Facebook and YouTube, some suggest to prevent too much discussion of what happened 20 years ago. This has made things very tricky for me, as I use Blogger for my blog, of course. I was mystified initially when I kept getting a blank page, but a quick Google search for "Blogger China" soon provided some answers. I tried a couple of the suggestions for how to work around the issue, but to no avail. Eventually I had to resort to plan B, sending my blog text to a friend in Australia who can post it for me. Ha, even the Chinese government can't silence the 100 goals blog! I now wonder if maybe that's why I got so many questions when trying to get a visa for China, when I put "Travel Writer" in the occupation box. (Well, what else could I say my job is - I don't really have one, do I?) They wanted to know alot about what I was writing. The guy at the next window, a writer of financial reports was also having similar issues! By late afternoon it was getting really cold, and I decided that I had done more than enough sight-seeing in grim conditions, and caught the subway home, buying a dinner of some very strange-looking sandwiches from the local bakery, and enjoyed a quiet evening back at the hostel.
The huge park and spectacular temple on top of the hill overlooking the lake all looked very picturesque with a blanketing of snow, and at times the sun made a brief appearance too, to complete the scene. I wandered for a couple of hours among hoards of tour groups, all usually wearing identical caps to distinguish them from other, almost identical groups.        My next stop, after a fantastic mystery omlette-sort-of-thing from a street cart, was Olympic Park, site of the 2008 Olympics. The "Bird's Nest" Stadium is eyecatching, and the wide boulevard nice to stroll along, albeit it with thousands of other visitors too, and once again plagued by the touts selling all sorts of rubbish.    As it started to get dark my final stop for the day was the wonderful night market, filled with a mind-boggling array of wierd and wonderful foods, most grilled on sticks over a barbeque, and simply eaten as you wander along. I saw, grilled on sticks, among other things, scorpions, seahorses and starfish. And that was just the stuff I recognised! I stuck with slightly more familiar choices for dinner!  This really is an unusual place! Once again I am interested in how the travelling attitude to prices can shift very quickly. Here you get about 6.6 yuen to a US dollar. A night at the hostel costs around 70 yuen, pretty good value. I could hire a bicycle from a street vendor for 24 hours for the princely sum of 20 yuen (that's around $3, for a day!). But I was appalled when I found a Starbucks, and a small cup of coffee was going to cost me 26 yuan. That's 4 bucks for a coffee - outrageous! The best vale I have seen is petrol, at 1 yuen per litre, which is about 15 cents, or around 60 cents per gallon. No wonder the taxis here are so cheap! It's all just so different and so interesting.
   My next stop was the final place on my tourist list of Beijing, and I think I had saved the best 'til last. I caught the subway from The Temple of Heaven, and wandered through Tian'anmen Square again to the south entrance of the Forbidden City. Once I negotiated my way through the minefield of sales people and potential guides, I entered what was once the palatial home of many Chinese Emperors. The place is absolutely huge. I wandered through the centre of the open palace, and through some of the main temples, until I finally reached the north gate.    I then headed back south through the western section, and finally north again via the eastern side. This took several hours. Apparently there are 999 rooms, one short of the perfect number that is believed to be heavenly. From a look at the map, it looks like only about half of the place is open to wander through, huge areas closed off, or undergoing restoration. The huge open centre section is impressive, but interesting too is the labyrinth of rooms and passageways to either side. An emperor could easily get lost in there! You would have to live there for months to really know your way around.    All of the rooms have wonderful names. For example, I passed through the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the Hall of Mental Cultivation, among many other equally grandly named spaces. It's all very impressive. I finished the day off by borrowing a bicycle from the hostel and heading for the bank, making the possible mistake of throwing myself headlong into rush hour traffic on the rattliest, wobbliest bike I have ever ridden! The cycling and traffic is chaotic, and the trip was hilarious and terrifying in approximately equal measure. I'm pretty sure my travel insurance doesn't cover this kind of extreme activity! Finally, a couple of random things I have learned about China:- Spitting is a national passtime. Male or female, it doesn't matter. And the more hawking and gutteral noise you make before the big spit, the better! And you can spit anywhere, footpath, road, temple, it doesn't seem to matter! Foreigners pay a different price for many things. I bought some fantastic bread this morning at a tiny little window outlet. The woman in front of me got three spicy hot bread rolls, gave 2 yuen, and got some change. I bought two rolls, gave 2 yuen, and got nothing back but a confused look. Upon my return later in the afternoon, I bought three rolls, and the asking price was 6 yuen. This is th point where I made a stand, and simply paid 3 yuen, which was accepted without question. I am pretty sure I still overpaid. It is one of the tastiest breads ever, and 3 yuan is 45 cents, so I'm not complaining! Public toilets can be pretty hit and miss, literally! Many are squat hole-in-the-ground type, and accuracy seems to be a bit of an issue with some of the locals! Another very important lesson to learn is that each cubicle (that is if you actually in a toilet block with the luxury of a cubicle at all) does not have it's own supply of paper! Don't discover this by trial and error! Collect your paper from the communal paper dispenser before heading for your cubicle. I visited one toilet today, optimistically labelled as 4 Star by the Beijing Tourism Administration. (It's somebody's job to go around giving out star ratings for toilets!!) I couldn't help but notice this, as the sign was proudly displayed above the paper dispenser that served both ladies and gents toilets!! 
Well, I guess finally I can truly call myself a man now, as today I got to climb and walk along the Great Wall of China at last. I was hoping that Lancy was going to be able to join me, and our plan was to go out to one of the older, less touristy sections of the wall, where you have to get a bus (or tour) to one point, then can walk a 10 kilemetre section of the wall, and organise return transport from there (or catch your tour bus back!) But the forecast was for the weather to get much worse, with predictions of heavy snow to come, so in the end I had to make a practical decision, and decided to at least go and see the wall today. There is a much more accessible section, apparently frequented by hoards of tourists, but from pictures I had seen, it still looks quite spectacular. So I was up and dressed warmly first thing this morning, and as I made my way to the local bus stop in the darkness, the snow had already started. The bus took me to a nearby bus station, where I transferred onto a long distance bus, and an hour and a half later we approached Badaling, site of a section of the wall. The snow had been falling all morning and was getting thick on the road, and with amusing inevitability, when we stopped on a hill, the bus started to slide, and eventually ended up completely stuck. I opted to walk the rest of the way with a few of the locals, and 15 minutes later arrived at the entrance to the wall itself. On both sides of the valley the wall headed steeply uphill, looking almost exactly as I had expected it to, apart from the fact that higher up it just disappeared into shrouds of mist and snow. There were quite a few people about, and several larger tour groups, but I suspect that the weather meant numbers were much lower than on a nicer day.    I bought my ticket, and decided to head up the eastern section first, as there were alot less people going that way. This section of the wall, which in total covers thousands of miles, has been extensively restored, and is in very good condition, although perhaps somewhat less authentic than many older sections which are not so accessible to tour buses. After a steep, snowy, slippy climb I reached a fortress at the top of the hill, and was greeted by my first and only salesman of the day - the bad weather must keep all but the hardiest of them away too. A few more people had made it that far too, but the wall continued, and the snow on the next section was completely untrodden.    A small extra effort always reaps rewards, and for the next section, I had the wall completely to myself for over half an hour. At the end of the section open to the public, the wall continues, but has not been restored, and looked very appealing, but unfortunately, due to a huge spiked fence, I had to turn round, and headed back down to join the throngs. I headed up the other side among larger groups of visitors, all of us struggling and laughing in the treacherously slippy conditions. At the top, many groups were loudly taking photos, but once again, an extra hundred yards of semi-skiing down the next, steep slippy section meant I had the wall to myself again.    Afterwards, I headed back down to the valley, and discovered that the buses were still not running up the Badaling road, so had to walk a couple of miles down to the main highway to catch a bus back to the city. I would have caught a taxi, but only had enough cash left for the bus and a bite to eat! What a great day out, made so much better I think by the snow and tricky conditions, which meant it was a much more unique and personal experience, in what could have just been a heaving tourist trap location.  Goal 64 is also number 4 of the "New 7 Wonders of the World". Machu Picchu, Christ The Redeemer and Taj Mahal still to see!
Friday morning though, as forecast, was warmer and there was a beautiful clear blue sky. I went out on the bicycle again (I'm like a local now) to buy some breakfast and some supplies for the day, and packed my bag. I caught the bus to the long distance bus station, where at 1pm I met Lancy as we'd arranged. A couple of hours on another bus would take us to Miyun, but our adventure started early, when our bus, which had been smelling strongly of burning gearbox oil for quite some time, finally ground to a halt! In the process of moving on to a new bus, we somehow managed to end up with an old lady practically attached to us, probably because I was the only foreigner on the bus. She kept telling us we should get off the bus early to catch a taxi to the Great Wall. We ignored her suggestion, as Lancy made some enquiries with other people on the bus, giving us better information. It is very nice to have a Chinese-speaking person with me. At Miyun our old lady continued to shadow us, babbling incessantly at poor Lancy, trying to convince us the only option was to pay 300 Yuen (about $42) for a taxi! At the small tour shop that runs the local bus, bad news! No more buses were running, as it was Friday afternoon - not sure about the logic of this really. However, our old lady seemed more optimistic about her chances, but she was really starting to bug us. Eventually Lancy produced results, and we were told where to go to get a shared minibus or taxi. We finally shed our old lady when she realised we had solved our problem, and some tough negotiations later we were on our way to Jinshangling, for the much more reasonable price of 50 Yuan ($7) for us both. At Jinshangling, where the temperature was bitterly cold, we found some reasonable accomodation for 55 Yuan each ($8), which again after some negotiation, at which Lancy was quickly becoming very good, would include dinner and breakfast.    In the morning we got up fairly early, and after breakfast made our way up to the wall. The sun was out again, and we started to warm up a little as we climbed out of the valley shadows. Up on the wall itself the views were stunning, and we could see the wall snaking off into the distance over the mountains in both directions, each mountain peak having a watch tower perched on top.    The day couldn't have been better. The sun was out, and there wasn't a breath of wind. The wall still had an icy covering of snow on the top, making it look stunningly bright. And best of all, because we had arrived the day before and got a good start, we were ahead of any of the tour groups that would be coming along later, and literally had the whole wall to ourselves for as far as we could see in either direction.     Our route would take us along the wall for about 10 kilometres, up and down the mountains, passing through the watch towers on each summit. Every step of the way offered the most amazing photographic opportunities - the views were gorgeous.    Some parts of the wall were pretty well maintained, but some parts were crumbling away, and at the steeper sections, especially covered in snow and ice, it was pretty treacherous, but we took our time, and had no real problems.    We walked for around four hours through the most incredible, wonderful landscape, and I tried to explain to Lancy how this absolutely perfect experience exceeded all my expectations about what it would be like to walk on the Great Wall. It truly was one of the finest days I have ever spent in the mountains. We were both very happy that we had made the extra effort to make our own, individual trip, rather than join a larger group on an organised tour.     We didn't hurry, and sat for a while eating our supplies and admiring the view. After a little over four hours, which seemed to have passed in no time at all, we crossed a suspension bridge over Simatai Lake, and descended from the wall down into the small town of Simatai itself.    More negotiations got us a reasonable taxi back to Miyun, and we caught the next bus back to Beijing. At the main station there Lancy and I parted ways, as I headed back to the hostel and she headed home. I will be eternally grateful to her for being such a great tour guide, interpreter, companion, and all round entertainer - I couldn't have asked for better company on such a marvellous adventure. I had a quick shower at the hostel, grabbed my bags and hit the road. Time to leave Beijing, and head for Thailand next. Thanks again to Lancy for her help and advice in many of the things I did in Beijing. Thanks also to all the helpful and friendly staff at the Sitting On The City Walls Courtyard Hotel, which was a great place to stay right in the centre of Beijing. I really have had a fantastic time here, and certainly hope to be back to see more of China. What a fascinating, friendly, fun place to visit. 
Lancy translated the message for me, telling me that it was a warning about the slippery, icy conditions, and to please take care. Fortunately there was no such touristy nonsense on the much more remote sections of wall we visited a couple of days later at Jinshaling and Simatai, but I couldn't resist getting Lancy to issue a stern Chinese warning. And who would have thought before I began any of this, that my journey would take me to a remote section of the Great Wall Of China, without another soul in sight, where I would have some Chinese opera sung to me!! Awesome! One of the highlights of my journey so far. Press the "Play" button below to see the video:-
I have passed through Bangkok a few times before on my travels to and from Australia, so it is nice to be back again. It's a huge, busy, chaotic, fun city. One of the things I like most here is the huge wealth of really cheap, really tasty food choices. Absolutely everywhere you walk there is a huge array of little street carts cooking all sorts of tasty-looking foods. A decent chicken-fried-rice as a pavement restaurant costs around a dollar, and is usually delicious. Today I had a few practical things to do out and about, so met Tony close to the school where he teaches English, and we went for an early lunch. Afterwards i took the bargain tourist ferry along the river, a fantastic 20 Baht (around 60 cents) to travel almost right across the city on the river. The river is a splendid chaos of barges, ferries, long-tail boats, floating restaurants and assorted other craft, all vying for space on the crowded water.    At my ferry stop I made my way to Bangkok-Backpacker-Central, the must-see Khao San Road, packed with dreadlocked, baggy-trousered travellers from all over the world, scouring the fantastic street market for t-shirt, flip-flop and DVD bargains.    A cab ride took me to the railway station, where I booked my ticket for a seven hour train journey tomorrow to Surin, to the east of Bangkok. All organised for the next two goals now, I hope, although accomodation arrangements in Surin are a little sketchy at the moment - I'm sure it will work itsef out, it usually does - so we're off out for a few beers tonight!
I wanted to linger a while, but also knew that I should secure a hotel room as soon as possible, as the town's accomodation fills fast in the build up to the weekend's festivities. I had met Joy on the train, a veteran visitor to the Elephant Round Up, this being her fourth time, and she suggested I try The New Hotel first, right by the railway station. As I passed the elephants, one reached it's trunk out, and I patted it - the first time I have ever touched an elephant. I managed to get a room without trouble, in the mis-named establishment. It has been many years since this place could have been called new! However, even when the price per night doubles for the festival weekend, the cost of my room only becomes around $10 per night. Marvellous. Joy gave me directions to the wonderfully vibrant street market, and I dumped my bag and went for a spicy dinner, chosen from the vast array of tempting and mysterious foods on offer. After a quick chat with a few other regular Round Up veterans, I decided to have an early night, as I had discovered that there is a dress rehersal for the weekend's big elephant shows first thing in the morning at the stadium. It is not advertised, but you can go along and watch if you want.    I was up early and bought some breakfast (fresh pineapple) at one of the street vendor's carts, and then walked to the elephant stadium. I found a good spot at the front just before the start of the rehersal. The place was packed with school groups and hundreds of other elephant enthusiasts.    The show was pretty spectacular, but the best moment by far was when all the elephants filled the stadium field at the same time, approximately 250 elephants streaming into the centre of the football-pitch-sized arena from all four corners, circling around in the middle, then all sitting down. It was quite breath-taking.   I watched entranced as elephants played football, threw darts, painted and twirled hula-hoops, and one elephant easily beat a group of 30 volunteers in a tug-of-war. After the show rehersal I wandered the streets, fascinated by scenes of elephants wandering around in the busy city traffic. I took a walk past the Elephant Buffet Breakfast site, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and was amazed at the staggering amount of food being prepared. I guess 250 hungry elephants can get through alot of fruit.    After lunch, back at the hotel by the railway station, I made a start on this blog, but was interrupted by elephant trumpeting just outside my window. I went out to investigate, and grabbed a bag of sugar cane from one of the mahoots (elephant handlers) and fed an elephant. It really is incredible to be able to wander around freely with these huge creatures, and to have it nudge you with it's trunk for another piece of food, which it delicately takes from your hand. What an experience. Check out the video from today's pachyderm practice event:-
I was up early, and in the hotel lobby I got chatting to Irene, who was also wondering about riding an elephant in the parade. We decided to pool our resources and share the cost of an elephant taxi, and before long Irene had found us a pretty large elephant for the journey. Outside the hotel preparations were in full swing, with colourful floats, dancers, and elephants all arriving in the square. Irene introduced me to Darlien, our 30 year old female elephant, and Peter, our mahoot.    When the time arrived we climbed up onto a tall fence, and then one foot on Darlien's huge head, and up onto the seat. It seemed very high up, but the ride was very smooth and steady, and we soon relaxed. The parade began, and we all filed down the main street, which was wonderful - a huge long line of elephants ahead and behind us. The atmosphere was very festive, the parade route lined with school children, families and holiday-makers.       The journey lasted about twenty minutes, and we were eventually dropped off at a tall platform just before the elephants entered the roundabout area, and on into the buffet. Irene and I followed a couple of elephants into the buffet street, and I was slightly surprised, having lived mainly in health-and-safety obsessed Western countries, that nobody seemed to mind, or wanted to stop us. But we weren't the only ones, and the street was filled with a mixture of people and elephants, all wandering together. Both busily taking photographs, Irene and I soon got separated in the crowds. The elephants tucked in with enthusiasm to the huge spread of tasty elephant treats, and I wandered around happily among them. It was incredible to freely wander around among the huge animals, and I was amazed at how relaxed and gentle they were when you fed them something. All the elephants seemed very aware of people around them, and always avoided collision, but you had to keep a wary eye behind you as they tended to approach quiety, and were right behind you before you knew it.    I loved every minute of it, picking up some bananas or corn, which seemed to be the favourites, and offering them to a passing elephant, which would collect them gently with it's trunk, if it wasn't already well stocked up. The atmosphere was wonderful, and I walked the length of the buffet a few times, sometimes taking pictures, sometimes just enjoying weaving in and out of the groups of giant creatures towering above me. What an absolute delight! Thanks to Irene for joining me aboard this goal, and of course to Darlien and Peter.  Some video of the event here:- More pictures courtesy of photographer Boaz Rottem:-   
This morning I wandered to the stadium, buying a couple of BBQ sticks for breakfast on the way from one of the many street-cart vendors. One of my favourite things about Thailand is that you never really have to consider food. You can simply wander around, and there is a wealth of great stuff on sale from carts or small roadside restaurants anywhere you go. I bumped into Irene again at the entrance to the stadium, but had to go our separate ways, as we had different tickets. For a while I sat chatting with the Thai family in the seats next to me, and enjoyed the show, which ran to pretty-much the same timetable as the rehersal I had seen on the Thursday morning. Once again, my favourite part was when over 200 elephants streamed into the stadium from all directions, and circled around in the centre - absolutely breath-taking.   When the elephant tug-of-war was announced, an invite was issued for the "farangs" (foreigners) to come down onto the field, and I couldn't resist the chance to join in, meeting Irene again on the way to the middle of the stadium. Our team of around sixty of us were fairly easily beaten by the incredibly strong elephant.    Irene was pretending to be a press photographer, and simply stayed down on the edge of the field, so I did the same, and had a brilliant front row view of the elephant football game. Next we waved cameras about and blagged our way into the expensive seating, and high up in the stands had a great view over the whole field for the mock battle finale.    What an awesome spectacle the whole event is. This year is the 49th time the festival has been held, so I suspect next year will be a huge event, and I would heartily recommend that any elephant fan should make the trip to experience this incredible gathering.    Thanks again to Irene for her "press-photographer" skills, and for blagging one of the Surin 2009 floor mats for me as a fantastic souvenir.
When I arrived in Surin last week for the Elephant Round-Up, I made sure that one of the first things I did was to book a train ticket back to Bangkok, as I had read that the trains back filled fast, and if I left it until the Sunday, it might have been hard to get a ticket. The best option appeared to be the overnight sleeper train on the Sunday night, which left around 10pm, arriving at 7.30 the next morning in the city. Ticket price - cheaper than the day train, at less that $13. The sleeper trains are great. The carriages are pretty old, but the whole journey is so atmospheric. Returning from Surin, the beds were already made, and you just climb in and settle in for the night, as the train rattles and clanks steadily westward. In the morning you are woken at around 6am, and the top bed is folded away, and the carriage returned to seating configuration. At each station people board the train selling food and drinks. It's a slower pace of travel, and it's nice to just stare out the window watching the country pass by. And so after a couple of days back in Bangkok with my ex-brother-in-law Tony, going out as often as possible to eat and drink beer, I made my way once again to the railway station yesterday afternoon. I had decided to take a sleeper train again, taking a couple of days to head down to Singapore.    Stage one of the journey is from Bangkok, right down through Thailand and across the border into Malaysia. Departure was around 3pm yestarday afternoon, and I shared my seat area with an interesting Italian guy who had been living in India for over 30 years. At around 8pm the seats are converted to beds, and I had chosen the bottom bunk for this trip, discovering on my previous journey that they are bigger, darker, and have a window when you wake up - well woth the extra couple of dollars. I slept really well, and in the morning lay in bed watching the world go by again. Beds were changed back to seats again, and I ate the last of my food, having stocked up for the journey with the very last of my Thai Baht. We eventually crossed into Malaysia, where I saw one of the most amusing border crossing signs I have ever seen, and I've seen alot of border crossings recently too! This one described what could be classed as "hippy" characteristics, grounds enough to deny someone entry to the country! I managed to snap a picture of it subtly when none of the border guards were looking! Brilliant. Click the picture below for a bigger version that you should be able to read:-  Around lunch time arrived in Butterworth, a mainland port town just by the island of Penang. I was tempted to take the ferry across to Penang, but by the time I had changed some money, sorted out the next part of the rail journey which starts early in the morning, found a hotel and had something to eat, I really couldn't be bothered. I have been to Penang before, so decided to have an easy afternoon and evening, and took a bit of a stroll around the rather industrial Butterworth. I hadn't realised that tomorrow is a big holiday in Malaysia, and I think I was lucky to get a ticket on the train leaving at 7am. I'm not particularly looking forward to this next section of the journey, 14 daytime hours from here down through Kuala Lumpur and onward to Singapore. The timing is pretty good though, as I can get to the airport there late tomorrow evening, crash there for the night, and be ready for the early morning flight out to Christmas Island. It's certainly going to be a long few days of travelling! My thanks to Tony for his wonderful Bangkok hospitality. Good to catch up again. 
I finally found some breakfast and bought some food and drink supplies, and made my way to the station, ready for the long day ahead. With typical Asian efficiency, there was no sign of the train at 7am, and it finally arrived at around 7.30. It was almost an hour late when we set off at around 8 o'clock.    The time was never made up, and at the end of the day, we were supposed to get in to Singapore at 9.30pm, but were an hour and a half late. By then the local rail link to the airport had stopped, and I had to get a taxi, negotiating in Aussie Dollars, as I had no Singapore currency, and there was nowhere open to change money, and no cashpoint either! Anyway, I finally made it to Changi airport, and am now sat on the cold floor at midnight, waiting for check-in to open around 5am - another long night ahead! I have been pretty lucky with the flight to Christmas Island. Because the timing of the migration of the crabs has always been a bit vague, I have held off buying a flight, until dates became a bit firmer. There is only one flight to the island per week, coming in from Kuala Lumpur, and I eventually decided that Saturday 28th November would be the ideal date to fly in. However, by the time I had made my decision, something had happened with the airline that ran the flights from KL, and a new airline had stepped in to fill the gap on a temporary basis. The new flights are now from Singapore to Christmas Island, and the big advantage is that with Singapore being closer than KL to the island, the flight is now cheaper by $200. It's still not fantastically cheap, as you really are a bit of a captive audience - it's the only way to get there from Asia, unless you sail. The downside is that the new, temporary service ends tomorrow too, so as far as I can tell at the moment, I am on the last flight in from Asia, with no idea when, or even if, the next flight will return to Asia! Oh dear!
I got up at around 5.30am, and went to check in, and we were in the air shortly after the scheduled departure time of 7am. It's a two hour flight to Christmas Island, and on the way the captain informed us that the island was shrouded in fog, and we would have to hold for a while. Eventually the fog cleared a little, and a landing was a possibility. I got a brief glimpse of the island through the thick dark clouds as we lined up, but on the bumpy final approach full power came back on just before touchdown, and we climbed steeply again. The captain told us that conditions had been to bad to complete the landing, and as the forecast offered little hope we had to make the two hour return to Singapore. The rest of the day back at the airport seemed to slip by quite quickly, helped by a fantastic complimentary meal, and access to the premier lounge. I am now a fan of premier lounges! It's a whole new world in there! Free beer, wine, coffee, food, TV, internet, massage chairs, and more. The rest of Singapore airport is really good too - X-Box games, a gym, gardens and relaxation areas - plenty to fill a day on standby. Our flight was re-scheduled for early evening, and the same small group of people sat in the same seats again in an almost empty plane, and there was plenty of humourous chatter about the familiarity of the occasion. We followed the same route out again, except this time Singapore was lit by the last rays of sunset, instead of the first rays of morning, and we were served dinner instead of breakfast. On the flight south we flew by a huge thunderhead, lit from inside by spectacular flashes of lightening. I managed to catch one photo of the cloud lit from within.   Despite the problems, SilkAir did a great job, and the staff really looked after us. I seem to have developed a really relaxed attitude to the travel recently, and am simply enjoying the journey for it's own sake. It helps that I have plenty of time to spare at the moment, as the crabs aren't going to disappear from the island anytime soon!
So helped out by Katrina at the Christmas Island Tourism Association I got in touch with the local newspaper, The Islander. The paper is published fortnightly, and they kindly placed an advert for me, asking if anyone could help me out, by maybe renting me a room or lending me a couch for a few nights. I also finally decided it was time to find out more about "couch surfing", which has been mentioned to me a few times as I have travelled. I registered at couchsurfing.org, which is a network of fellow travellers who help each other out with travellers accomodation - a couch to stay on - surf the world from one couch to the next. I think it's a fantastic concept, as I already know that you meet some amazing people while travelling. I will certainly be offering a couch if and when I ever settle in one place again. On the website I found only one person on Christmas Island with a spare room to offer, and contacted Braydon, fully expecting his couch to be occupied for the crab migration season. Not many backpackers ever make it to Christmas Island, he has only hosted three people, and I would be welcome to use his spare room. Brilliant! I finally landed at Christmas Island at around 7pm, about 11 hours later than scheduled, and the friendly customs officer asked if I had found any accomodation yet - he had seen my ad in the local paper! I was met outside the airport by Gordon, who had also read about me in the paper and had emailed me. He runs Island Taxis, and had kindly offered to give me a tour of the island and drop me off at my accomodation. However, it was now dark, and the open air cinema had just started it's showing of "The Taking of Pelham 123". "I also run the popcorn stand there," Gordon told me, so I quickly rang Bray. "I'm at the movies!" Gordon knew Bray, everyone seems to know everyone here, and pointed him out on the outdoor cinema bench. We said a quiet hello, but couldn't speak much more for the next couple of hours, as we watched the movie, which was pretty good. On the way to Bray's apartment we had to weave around on the road quite a bit to avoid the occasional crab, and on just outside the flat I got my first close-up look at one of the Christmas Island red crabs, which was climbing up the wall there! It was pretty big - seeing thousands all on the move together will be awesome!  Thanks to Gordon for the airport pick-up and potential accomodation, and Bray for the spare room. Can't wait to see the crabs out in force over the next few days!
For the past 6 or 7 months I have been using my US funds from my US bank account, but I am down to the dregs now, and am going to have to start dipping into my Australian funds, from the sale of the house. Prompted by arriving here on Australian soil, I got my AU $ and bank cards out. I have about $100 in cash, my bank card's expiry date has already passed, and my credit card expired yesterday, at the end of November. I presume that there are new cards in an envelope stored away somewhere in Perth, but I have yet to figure out how to get hold of them. So for the past couple of days it has been a bit of a mad dash to book as many of my forthcoming flights as possible and get them paid for on the credit card before it expired yesterday. I have been in front of the computer almost full time for two days, but have made great progress. I had originally planned to head down to Perth after Christmas Island, and spend Christmas there before setting off on Trip 3, but plans there fell through, and I have decided to continue travelling instead. The following is an outline of what I have managed to book for the next few months:- 12th Dec - Christmas Island to Kuala Lumpur 13th Dec - Kuala Lumpur to London 15th Dec - London to Reykjavik, Iceland 23rd Dec - Reykjavik to London 1st Jan - London to Cape Town, South Africa 20th Jan - Johannesburg, South Africa to Santiago, Chile 23rd Jan - Santiago to Easter Island 30th Jan - Easter Island to Santiago 30th Jan - Santiago to Lima, Peru 2nd Feb - Lima to Cuzco, Peru 9th Feb - Cuzco to Lima 9th Feb - Lima to Buenos Aires, Argentina There are still a few more things to arrange, including figuring out accomodatio too at each place, but at least the major flights are now booked and paid for Still to arrange:- South Africa - trip to Victoria Falls South America - Flight (or bus?) to Iguazu Falls - Flight (or bus?) from Iguazu Falls to Rio, Brazil - Rio Carnival - Flight Rio to London Can I ask a bit of a favour from any friends or family in the UK? The above timetable means I will be back in England over Christmas and New Year, and mum still thinks I am going to be in Australia then. Can anyone that is in touch with her please not let the cat out of the bag, as I intend to do the "Surprise!" thing on Christmas Eve. Lets keep it a secret until then, shall we? Thanks. So I have only seen a little of the island so far. On Sunday afternoon Braydon took me on a bit of a tour, and pointed out several places I should go and see - caves and lookout points and so on. We also got a dinner invite from his National Parks work colleague Clare, and it sounds like I might get a chance to do a bit of volunteer work with them in the forest one day, plus perhaps fit in a bit of diving too. There are crabs all over the place, wandering around on the roads and footpaths, climbing up the walls stairs, and hiding in damp corners. You really have to watch your step in flip-flops (or thongs as we call them here!) We even had a crab wander into the living room the other evening.    Time to get out and about now and see some more of the island over the next few days. Braydon has kindly lent me his bicycle, so I should be able to do plenty of exploring.
   Rob, a teacher here on the island, saw my advert in the local paper as I was looking for accomodation, and invited me for a delicious dinner, which his wife Ebony made for us. He took me to the road near the school, which as the afternoon cools down, becomes very busy with crabs. After dinner we headed out along with other dinner guests John, Amy and Izzy to look for robber crabs in the forest. When we spotted out first one I was amazed - they are HUGE! We stopped and John picked one up. It was incredibly heavy when he handed it to me, and I was pretty nervous of the huge claws. It is like some nightmare creature out of a horror movie, and is bigger than a soccer ball. Very impressive.    I have been doing quite alot of cycling around, and late afternoon and early evening is the best time, as it gets a bit cooler, and the crabs start getting much more active.    Last night I got a call from Brad, whose wife works at the school with Rob. Did I want to go out fishing in the morning, he wondered? I was up at 4.30am, and we were on the water not long after 5am, as the full moon was setting. It didn't take too long before a couple of the reels were whizzing out, and I grabbed the one on my side, and under Brad's direction reeled in what seemed like a whopper. It put up a bit of a fight, but apparently is only a reasonable sized wahoo. It's the biggest fish I've ever caught! As I reeled it in it was being chased by a shark looking for an easy meal, but Brad got the wahoo in over the side before the shark managed to get a bite! Talk about excitement!    The rest of the morning was less eventful. Brad thought we hooked a couple of sailfish, but they became "the ones that got away", and on the way back in I caught a small barracuda. Brad cleaned the fish, and we fed the carcass remains to the trevally, biggish reef fish near the shore, which devoured the leftovers enthusiastically. At Braydon's apartment I had delicious fresh fish for lunch, and cleaned and cut the rest, storing it in both the fridge and freezer. We have enough fish to last for weeks!    Thanks to all here on Christmas Island who have made me feel so welcome so far, and invited me to join in with the activities going on here. Much more to come over the next week or so, I imagine.    
Well, I am going to have to make one more change before I get to the end of my list, as I have two conflicting goals, and I can't see any reasonable way to achieve both. Over the course of my adventures during the last sixteen months, I have become a firm believer in never saying that anything is impossible, because once you believe it is impossible, then for you it will be. I did write in a blog post that one goal had become "unachievable", because the date of the event had been changed from June to August. You can read that post here. However, when I re-examined the problem, there was a simple solution. All I had to do was change the planned dates for the "7 Peaks in 7 Days" goal, and find a cheapish return from Denver to London, in order to take part in the Worthing Birdman Competition. And so I have another conflict of dates coming up in February next year. The world has many festivals and events which take place on Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, as it is called in many places. Fat Tuesday, a literal translation from the French term "Mardi Gras" is on 16th February in 2010, the day preceeding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and of course is the day on which Mardi Gras is celebrated in New Orleans. Fat Tuesday is also the day on which the Carnival in Rio reaches it's festive conclusion. But unfortunately, on the same day, the Sedgefield Ball Game takes place in the north of England. I have weighed the two events, and the carnival in Brazil is the one that I think offers more of a challenge, and is more in keeping with the nature of my 100 goals adventure. The ball game will be there in subsequent years, and is only about ten miles from my mum's house, so is still something I would like to attend one year. I just don't think it is going to be in 2010. Please note that I don't say that it would be impossible to attend both events. It would be feasable, and I would be prepared to give it a go with the right sort of assistance! England is 2 hours ahead of Brazil, and I imagine it would certainly be possible to attend the ball game on the Tuesday morning, jump on a plane straight afterwards at Teeside Airport (time for a quick pint before leaving Sedgefield, of course!), and then fly direct to Rio for the festivities that evening. One small issue is that I will already be in Brazil for the build up to Carnival, so would also have to fly back to the UK for the event. A second issue is that there are no direct flights from Teeside to Rio, so the only option would be a private charter. Now, if someone out there has their own jet and crew that they can lend to me, I'll happily give it my best shot! But without such assistance, I am unable to fund such an option myself, and even if I could, I probably wouldn't! I already seem to spend far too much of my time on aeroplanes as it is! So here's what I am going to do. I am going to move the goalposts (pun intended!), by removing "Attend The Sedgefield Ball Game" from the list of goals, and replace it with the sixth most-voted-for goal from the "Add 5" list chosen by blog readers before the start of my 100 weeks, when my final 5 goals were chosen by a vote. And I was really hoping this one would make it to the final five, and therefore the list of 100, and I am now excited to add my new goal:- LEARN HOW TO RIDE A UNICYCLE.
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Prologue Weeks 1 to 10 Weeks 11 to 20 Weeks 21 to 30 Weeks 31 to 40 Weeks 41 to 50 Weeks 51 to 60 Weeks 61 to 70 Weeks 71 to 80 Weeks 81 to 90 Weeks 91 to 100 Epilogue
Prologue
(28)
Weeks 1 to 10
(52)
Weeks 11 to 20
(47)
Weeks 21 to 30
(42)
Weeks 31 to 40
(30)
Weeks 41 to 50
(37)
Weeks 51 to 60
(38)
Weeks 61 to 70
(36)
02 Oct 2009 Rejection!!
04 Oct 2009 Goal 60 - helicopter skydive.
06 Oct 2009 “I’m Ready For My Close Up Now, Mr. Demille!”
07 Oct 2009 RV for sale!
11 Oct 2009 Progressing slowly.
14 Oct 2009 Downtown Hollywood!!
17 Oct 2009 Making pens in San Diego.
20 Oct 2009 Deadliest catch!!
21 Oct 2009 Goal 61 - "and......Action!"
22 Oct 2009 Next goal invite.
24 Oct 2009 Goal 62 - "If you can keep your head..."
27 Oct 2009 Christmas crabs causing confusion!!
30 Oct 2009 Heading down to Mexico.
30 Oct 2009 Magnificent Mexico!
01 Nov 2009 Goal 63 - Dia de Muertos.
03 Nov 2009 Thought-provoking last day in Mexico.
06 Nov 2009 Long days of travelling.
07 Nov 2009 Kuala Lumpur stopover.
09 Nov 2009 Day One in Beijing.
10 Nov 2009 Tian'anmen Square
10 Nov 2009 Summer Palace on a winter's day
11 Nov 2009 Forbidden City
13 Nov 2009 Goal 64 - Walking on the Chinese Wall.
14 Nov 2009 Wild Great Wall.
16 Nov 2009 Chinese opera on the Great Wall.
17 Nov 2009 One night in Bangkok.
19 Nov 2009 Pachyderms practicing.
20 Nov 2009 Goal 65 - Riding in the Elephant Parade.
22 Nov 2009 Goal 66 - Elephant Round Up.
26 Nov 2009 Back on track.
27 Nov 2009 Malaysia to Singapore.
28 Nov 2009 Deja vu again.
29 Nov 2009 Christmas Island.
01 Dec 2009 Island life.
03 Dec 2009 The Old Man and The Sea!
05 Dec 2009 Moving the goalposts.
04 Oct 2009 Goal 60 - helicopter skydive.
06 Oct 2009 “I’m Ready For My Close Up Now, Mr. Demille!”
07 Oct 2009 RV for sale!
11 Oct 2009 Progressing slowly.
14 Oct 2009 Downtown Hollywood!!
17 Oct 2009 Making pens in San Diego.
20 Oct 2009 Deadliest catch!!
21 Oct 2009 Goal 61 - "and......Action!"
22 Oct 2009 Next goal invite.
24 Oct 2009 Goal 62 - "If you can keep your head..."
27 Oct 2009 Christmas crabs causing confusion!!
30 Oct 2009 Heading down to Mexico.
30 Oct 2009 Magnificent Mexico!
01 Nov 2009 Goal 63 - Dia de Muertos.
03 Nov 2009 Thought-provoking last day in Mexico.
06 Nov 2009 Long days of travelling.
07 Nov 2009 Kuala Lumpur stopover.
09 Nov 2009 Day One in Beijing.
10 Nov 2009 Tian'anmen Square
10 Nov 2009 Summer Palace on a winter's day
11 Nov 2009 Forbidden City
13 Nov 2009 Goal 64 - Walking on the Chinese Wall.
14 Nov 2009 Wild Great Wall.
16 Nov 2009 Chinese opera on the Great Wall.
17 Nov 2009 One night in Bangkok.
19 Nov 2009 Pachyderms practicing.
20 Nov 2009 Goal 65 - Riding in the Elephant Parade.
22 Nov 2009 Goal 66 - Elephant Round Up.
26 Nov 2009 Back on track.
27 Nov 2009 Malaysia to Singapore.
28 Nov 2009 Deja vu again.
29 Nov 2009 Christmas Island.
01 Dec 2009 Island life.
03 Dec 2009 The Old Man and The Sea!
05 Dec 2009 Moving the goalposts.
Weeks 71 to 80
(41)
Weeks 81 to 90
(34)
Weeks 91 to 100
(36)
Epilogue
(6)
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