I've uploaded part of the Vietnam and Cambodia trip. I have more to upload, and they are not yet organised or captioned, so just wait a few days 'till i get to that part. These are from Minhyoung, hence the reason he is in most of the photos.

 

For those that don't know, I accidentally deleted all my photos that I took whilst I was there. NOTE TO SELF: Copy and Paste. Copy. Not Cut.

Well, I'd like to point out that this winter is quite mild, which is pleasant. Very little snow and ice around.

 

Been having a pleasant time with friends.

 

A few photos below. Obviously the remainder are going into the Korean gallery.

Well, I am back in Korea after having a good time in Los Angeles. I actually wish I had stayed there a bit longer.

 

I have 1 week in Korea before returning to Australia. I look forward to seeing you all (if possible) at the party next saturday.

 

You can view my approximate route here, via Live Maps - not Google Maps as the only information it gives you is that you are in Mexico. It is missing a few places, but I can't be bothered redoing the entire path.

 

What the hell? Now you can embed videos in blog posts?

Oh and I see that Live Mail has been updated. Super fast. Very slick.

Some below, more in the gallery.

Ok, not as many as I actually took. I did you a favour and dropped about half of them, like I usually do.

 

Anyway, the following photos (many more in the gallery) are from San Miguel and Guanajuato. Guanajuato was a little more difficult to capture its maze-like feel. The above ground cute town was easy, but the medievel underbelly is a little more difficult to capture and put in perspective.

 

A smell amount of information about the places is in the post below.

 

Enjoy! Tonight I head to the beach.

I managed to leave Queretaro on the wrong bus, and so ended up in a different place. However, like usual, things worked out for the best. It was a nice little town called San Miguel - though it has a huge Texan expat population. I met some great people there and had a lot of fun.

 

I have just arrived in a town called Guanajuato, which could be the coolest place I have been. It is a twisting mass of tiny streets, bridges and tunnels. The lower levels look like you are walking through a castle dungeon, the upper levels a cute town. The best way to describe it is that it belongs as a level in a computer game - quite cool. I usually have a great sense of direction, but this place throws me often. It is a university town, and therefore lots of young people - the university is really nice too.

 

I only have one more day here, as I am off to the beach, but I really could see myself living here. Nice place.

 

n.b. the title is a reference to an email I got from a girl I met here regarding my haphazzard travelling style.

I'm now into my final two weeks in Mexico. I plan to be in Los Angeles on the 20th or 21st, fortunately I've managed to score some accommodation there.

 

I am currently staying in Queretaro, about 2.5 hours North East of Mexico City, in a very large house. Queretaro is a georgous city. The interior is very beautiful, and the exterior is very modern. Although I had stopped, I've decided to take some more photos of Mexican towns for those of you that seem to think Mexico is a dirty, ugly place. I've posted a few below, and as always, the majority can be seen in the gallery.

 

As I write this it seems strange that I am leaving so soon. I have mixed feelings about it. As you can imagine, I would love to stay in this area longer, but it will also be nice to get home to some stability. Travelling for 5 or 6 months is not as easy as living somewhere for the same time.

 

Trust you are all well, and I'll see you in about 3 or 4 weeks.

From the previous post regarding the subway. The trains come every 30 seconds, can't beat that, and as always I love the advertising posters on them, as well as around Mexico in general. For example, a women in lingerie laying on a sofa, with a box of washing powder in front of her. Hot Damn! makes me want to do the laundry just thinking about it.

 

Today went out to a Geiser, blasting out steam and water. It was pretty impressive, but very, very hot. It filtered into swimming pools as well, we couldn't understand why no-one was swimming in the cleaner waters until we put our legs in - it was about 80 degrees I think, my legs are still feeling it 5 hours later. Though the steam blasting over them probably didn't help either.

 

Got some photos. Will post them later.

Last night I had what was one of the worst looking foods I've ever seen. It was some kind of big fish egg, cigar shaped, about 4 cm long and 1 cm wide, complete with nastly looking veins on the side. It basically looked like a malformed testicle. Not the thought you particularly want as you pop it into your mouth...

 

This morning a girl from Indonesia arrived with some classic tales from the Indonesian consulates.

 

They told her that if she arrives and the office is closed to go down to the Hard Rock Cafe, they will probably be there, and that "just because we are not there, doesn't mean we are not working".

 

She was also told to go to the U.S. embassy, probably they can help her faster than her own embassy - she's lost her passport.

 

Another time she went to another consulate to get something done to her passport, and they told her to wait a second. After 2 hours she walked out the back to see what was taking so long and found them gardening and planting trees! Naturally she got angry at them, they in turn got angry at her for being angry at them and told her not to interrupt them when they are "busy". So she waited until they finished that, and then cooked and had their lunch, and when they finally came back to the desk it took the best of 5 minutes to get what she needed done.

 

The story about her being told to go to the U.S. consulate rather than the Indonesian one it too complicated for me to write and still be funny, but I almost had tears in my eyes as these stories unwrapped. There were others but I don't remember them now

I picked up all the gear I left in Mexico City last night. It was nice to get it back.

 

Now I have my original headphones, which cost almost 4 times the amount of the discman I am currently using them with. So many extra intruments in songs and so much more depth.

 

I've got my other shoes back, so my 3 and a half year old sneakers are going to garbage land. They really didn't look good after South East Asia, but treking through the muddy jungles here, and melting what was left of the souls on the volcano, made them look like they would be found on a guy sleeping on the streets in Guatemala City.

 

As for my diabetic supplies, I'm not going to run out anytime soon. I have from 2/3 months up to about 9 months worth of various bits left. And to think I thought I might run out!

 

I picked up what I thought was a good deal on a CD on the subway the other day. It had a number of songs I wanted. However, upon listening to it, I found out that it was actually Mexican christmas tunes sung in chipmunk voices. I'm not sure why they are so popular here in Mexico, though they did provide a few laughs on my travels, however, I don't think I need a CD full of them...

 

I also sorted out my U.S. visa issue today. Much easier than I expected. Means I don't have to rush back to the States in a weeks time.

Well, my new years eve ended up being a rather fun one. However, I was amazed, for a city with the population the size of Australia, how small the central event was. The fireworks seemed like it was done by 3 kids throwing sparklers into the air, and the actuall countdown was almost possible to miss.

 

However, that being said, we (a small group of enibriated foreigners from the hostel) had a rather entertaining night. Highlights include starting a massive conga line in the middle of the plaza (couldn't see how many people were actually participating, but must've been a lot). Trashing the roof of a bar I was in. Well, trashing is an overstatement, it partially collapsed, but they fixed it. It actually ended up being quite a cheap night, which is great as I have spent a significant amount in the last week or two.

 

I do enjoy being in Mexico City again. After riding the subway again it still amazes me. It costs about 20 cents to go anywhere in the city. After looking it up on the internet, it is apparently the cheapest public transport system in the world. I like the rubber tires on the carriages and the little pictures that represent each station. Though I query how they chose a few of them.