Cambodia day 1

Fuck I'm so tired. Waking up at 4am for a flight is no easy task. When we arrived in Phnom Penh we immediately tried haggling with the locals to drive us to our hostel for a discount price - no luck.

I think 'tuk tuk' means hello here because so many locals were shouting that phrase at us. I didn't want to be rude so I shouted 'tuk tuk' back to them and kept walking. Learning a new language is awesome.

We arrived too early to check into our hostel, but too late to get drunk with the drunk British backpackers. Instead we ran into a girl called Lottie and the 3 of us travelled to the killing fields together (not the best social activity, I know).

The killing fields were really eye opening. I wish I did more research behind Pol Pot before I showed up; that way I could get a glimpse into the 'rational' behind his genocidal purge. It's crazy to think that he only resigned from prime minister in 1979 (11 years before I was born!)

Our tuk tuk driver sneakily drove us back to our hostel via a shooting range; no doubt he would get commission in some way or another. We considered shooting ak47's into the air after seeing the killing fields a little culturally insensitive so we decided to just head home instead. We were very conscious that disappointing locals with a huge stockpile of guns and rocket launchers could turn into a huge mistake so we apologized profusely and then sped off into the distance.

When we got back we devoured a beer and some street food. Yum! I really like the beer here, but no local tells me what it's called, they just say its 'Cambodian beer'.

For dinner we met up with a bunch of British and Dutch people from the hostel. The food was great, the company was nice and the beer was Cambodian.

Sadly I decided not to partake in the party that was happening in the hostel that night. I had to wake up at 6:30 am to have a Skype interview for a job I applied for several weeks back. I better get this job!!

Malaysia day 3

Fuck today is my last day in Malaysia! As soon as I woke up I waddled on down to Matt's hostel so we could go to Batu Caves together. The caves were much better than we expected. Monkeys littered the giant staircase to the cave, and inside there were hundreds of bads flying aimlessly around in circles. The view was amazing too! If it wasn't for the sound of drilling in the nearby vacinity, the experience would have been very tranquil. We also did a paid tour which was brilliantly done. We learned about the history of the cave, the formation of the cave and the numerous species of  insects too. On the way back, I stopped by a small shop to buy water. My immediate suspicion about the missing plastic wrapper around the lid of the bottle was worsened when I tasted dust, coconuts and cigarette tar in the water.

My parents kindly invited Matt and I to an awesome Japanese farewell dinner. Thanks mum and dad for meeting with me for the first part of my journey, and for buying heaps of stuff for me :) I'll cya in Brisbane !

Well, I've got a 4am start tomorrow! Time to fly to Cambodia! Lego!

Malaysia day 2

Fuck Malaysia is humid. Even with an industry scale airconditioner, plently of water and light clothes I still felt like I was melting to the bed.

I woke up extremely early (damn jetlag!!) And helped myself to my parents collection of fruit, croissants (still not sure if I'm spelling that right), and cerial.

I walked over to Matt's hostel at 10am and immediately caught the monorail to Sentral to see the Diwali Indian Festival. It was good but extremely small. There were only 3 tents and a handful of tourists walking around. The best part was getting street food and a large tiger beer. A good morning start!

Matt and I raced to the cinema to meet my parents and a few family friends to watch the new James Bond film. The film was predictably crap, but the seats were amazing.

Afterwards we all went out to an Indian place to enjoy some curry. Delicious!

After watching the movie, catching Taxis and eating food in fine restaurants I felt like I needed to immerse myself in Malaysian culture so I decided to walk back home through the broken streets and overcrowded bars. Strangely, Malaysia is reminding me a lot of Dubai; not because of the fancy cars or first class atmosphere, but because of the large overpowering malls. Sadly, it gives this amazing city a strong artificial aura.

Malaysia day 1

So this is it. I'm writing my first blog post out of many that will summarize my Asia trip. Because I haven't written anything for a long time I've probably lost any talent for reporting things that happen in my life with any sense of proportion. Thats right, my writing skills that once could have been personified as a sleek and calm hunter clutching a rifle, now more closely resemble a hyperactive toddler running wildly wielding an oversized butterfly net. But despite my obvious illiteracy disability, I'll still try my best to write this thing. here goes.

Fuck. I've got glass in my foot. I must have stepped on a small shard of glass last night when I emptied the rubbish. I didn't notice it at the time, but now its really starting to bug me. I have asked the air hostesses if they have a first aid kit; and amazingly they said they didn't. Air Asia, oh how I missed you.  Ironically though, I reckon if I exaggerated the size of glass in my foot every hostess would have felt compelled to 'disarm' me. On a separate note, I went to the same hostess to ask her for water. She said she didn't have any and pressed me to buy a $7 bottle instead with a patronizng endnote "we also accept American dollars if you've ran out of Australian currency". At that moment the inner Sherlock Holmes in me discovered a kettle of boiling water, a small bucket of ice and a pile of disposable plastic cups. I asked her to do the hokey pokey with them and she reluctantly compiled. USA! USA! USA!

Sadly due to a series of delays I arrived too late in the evening to go looking around KL. None the less, I met up with my parents and Matt Gates and had a good ol' fashioned catch up. Tomorrow is when the adventure starts. Can't wait.

Last day at work

Yesterday was my last day at work. I wasn't naive enough to expect a farewell party, but I was hoping for more than; a pen, a 5 minute talk about my future and a weak handshake. After I cleared my desk of all my belongings (seriously, he did I accumulate that many pen lids?), I felt a sudden urge to go to Knox Grammar School. I'm not really sure why I decided to go to my old school; maybe I was just in a reflective mood, or maybe I wanted to see for myself how far I've come since I graduated since '08.

It was a bizarre time for me to come visit because I noticed that there were students, parents and teachers everywhere. I suspected they were having a parent teacher night or something like that which must have made me appear like a single young parent who had lost their kid. Despite everyone staring at me strangely, I managed to tour all my old classrooms and hallways. A lot has changed. The biggest change though, is that I noticed girls wearing Knox uniforms! WHAT!? To be fair, it was a Friday and I only saw girls wearing Knox Cadet clothing, but it's still a really big step! I guess the 100+ year old conservative supporters of the school must have all dropped dead, allowing a wave of liberal thinking to wash over the school. Another strange thing I noticed is that there wasn't (much) screaming, shouting or hurling abuse at other students. Is it true that my negative perception of my old school is a fabricated memory I invented to suit my own preconceptions? Nah, it was just a Friday and parents were around to control their kids.

After I came back from Knox I immediately headed straight to the Opera house to meet Matt Gates. He had somehow managed to get free tickets to see the comedian Russell Brand! It was really cool, I loved it.

Alright, enough small talk, now for the deep introspective bit.

I'M UNEMPLOYED! YAY!?

I originally wanted to use this time to go on the Great North Walk (a solid 2 week hike from Sydney to Newcastle). Sadly though, I found out a few days ago that I have "tibialis posterior tenosynovitis" , which is a fancy way of saying i have "tendonitis" which is a fancy way of saying that my tendon has fluid in it which is a fancy way of saying my foot is fucked. Woah, that means I ran the 42km marathon with a fucked foot! Can I get my international badass of the year award now?

But when God closes a door, he opens another one. Even though I can't walk or run, I can still do weights. I've still got 30 something gym passes on the Luna Park gym - what a joke, I know. My aim is to get absolutely ripped by the time I travel to Malaysia. I can also make more videos without distraction now which should keep me occupied too!

Strangely, this is the first time where I haven't constructed a well written list detailing all the things I want to do. I reckon I'm gonna wing it. I'm a little terrified that I might just resort to playing computer games for 5 hours a day to fill up my spare time though!

But wait! Are playing hours and hours of computer games really too different from working a 9-5 job? In one environment you're sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for hours swearing underneath your breath at someone who isn't utilizing your skill set, and in another environment you're sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for hours getting sworn at by someone for not using your magic skills!

Unemployment!

I'm almost jobless! Poor nutrition, dirty clothes, and brown paper bags to conceal my alcohol - here I come!

At first I thought I would be really empowered by the idea of being unemployed because of all the opportunity lying in front of me:
1) I have money now!
2) I have got my website up and running (barely)
3) I have nothing chaining me to Australia. For the most part, I can literally spin a globe and randomly point to a place I want to live
4) I'm going traveling around Asia in November & December

But recently I've been starting to feel quite anxious. My main concern is that once my travel induced optimism wares down, I'll be stranded in a random country without a job! I'm also especially worried that I might decide to spontaneously get a tattoo saying "Thug Life" across my chest in Vietnam, which will make employment quite a bit harder! Fortunately, no matter how drunk I am, I can trust my nerd instincts to kick in, and demand the tattoo artist to write "Thug Life" in klingon or elvish.

In all honesty though, I'm actually kind of glad I feel a little anxious. I think I'll be able to funnel that emotion into excitement and motivation when the time comes. I mean, there is so much I can do right now in this period of my life. I can brew my own beer and create personal labels for different types - I'm going to label them "Good Shit", "Cheap Crap" and "Decent Stuff".  I can live in Canada for a year and get drunk playing ice hockey! And so many more beer related activities!

At least for the next two months, I'm going to live entirely in the 'now' and let the future paranoid Matt go AWOL for a little while.

Water on Mars!

Ok so this post is going to be the first of it's kind! For once I'm not going to talk about me!

We (NASA, not me) found liquid water on Mars! Wohoo! How awesome is that? How cool would it be if life existed on Mars?

(ok this is where it gets boring so feel free to skip)

This isn't just interesting scientifically, it's interesting philosophically too. So far every religion asserts, either though metaphor or literal interpretation, that humans were created by God on a world that's just right for us. I reckon Discovering life on Mars should silence these confident religions. Why would the Bible or the Quran leave that shit out?  I'm honestly curious about how many religious scholars will try and reinterpret passages in their holy books and claim, through creative use of metaphor, that it was always written that life was on another planet. I mean, lets face it, if science could silence creationism, it would have already done so - if discovering the true age of the earth and facts about evolution can't stop people believing that humans were placed on a 6,000 year old earth, then nothing will. Overall I'm both happy that science is pushing the limits further and further every day, and frustrated that superfluous religions are being dragged kicking and screaming right behind.