So I know it has been a really long time since I have posted.  Three and a half months.  No I didn’t fall off the edge of the world though I always have to watch myself as I am really close to it.  I have been getting things organized and finding work in NZ.

I am working at an ISP in Wellington, New Zealand doing programming.  It is interesting, challenging work and I am learning tons.  I don’t want to bore you with all the technical details, but I love learning.

As for things I do in my free time, I bought a car… ok that isn’t really something I still do… but it enables me to travel, to take my scuba gear and actually go diving without worrying about renting a car.  As it is getting into winter, I haven’t been traveling as much as I should.  As for diving, the water is cold, the crays are delicious and the visibility sucks.

Well, I plan to post more often, but what I plan aint exactly alway what happens.  We shall see.

So, I finally made it to New Zealand a week ago.  On my way from Thailand I spent five days in Australia visiting friends and scuba diving before heading off.  The first few days were really productive.  I found a short term apartment, signed a lease on a studio apartment, and got all my scuba gear taken by customs.  Ok, not all of it, just the pieces that were wet.  They will dry them out then give them back, how nice!

Other than that I have just been job searching.  I am figuring out how the CVs in New Zealand differ from Australia and the USA so I am rewriting my CV to meet local expectations.  I think it is harder to read but it is what they want.  Well, my laptop is out of power so I have to cut this short.

So I have been on Koh Tao for about a week. Relaxing on the beach, eating good food, and having a great time. I stayed in a bungalow 100 meters from the beach for the first 4 nights then moved to free accomedation while I was taking the rescue diving course.

The course took 3 days and was great, even if it was tiering for me. Learning how to respond to other divers in distress makes you much more comfortable if you were to get into the situation yourself. I highly recommend it for any scuba divers.

Well, once I completed the course I went back to relaxing. Sit around, read, do some fun scuba dives. Life is hard.

I have been in Koh Tao for a few days and have done a few dives.  I have to admit that it took me way too long to make it to the beach.  Now I know that southern Thailand is why I came.  The beaches are beautiful, the diving is fantastic and it is so much more chilled and laid back than the other places I have been.

I have done 4 dives since I have been here and today I decided that I am going to do the rescue diver course.  It is only 3 days and will let me do a lot more if I choose.  I may have to go on a visa run and stay for 6 weeks for me to complete my Dive Master.  It would give me something else I can travel and work at anywhere.

Well, I will be staying here for at least 3 more days and hope my sunburn has gone away and I have a more permanent solution for my allergies.  The pollution is quite bad in Thailand and I have been having issues.  I have lots of pictures but I need to filter through and put them up.  It is quite hard without the internet on my laptop so I will see when they actually get up. I have been enjoying the free data on my phone but it isn’t perfect.

I am going to stick with this site until I have moved to a country I can actually spend time to migrate over.  There is just too much worth doing for me to sit and do it here.  Well, I have to go study how no save a person so I will post again soon.

It has been a while since I have posted because I have been trying to upgrade my blog. Doing that while traveling, treking, and sight seeing is hard.

So, a bit of a catchup of what I have been doing. I met a great group of people at the hostel. Seven of us ended up going to chiang mai together. Five of us booked a three day trek. We picked up a couple more from the inn we were staying at.

The trek was great. Our guide tama was so happy and funny all of the time. We saw some great waterfalls and amazing views. There is a video somewhere of me jumping off a cliff. I will see if I can track it down.

After the trek I made my way to pai. It is a nice laid back town in the very north west. I rented a moped for the day and have been tooling around.

Today and tomorrow I am making my way to koh Tao. A long trip but I could use a relaxing beach right now.

Ok, I have been play with setting up a new mobile album so I can upload straight from my phone.  I think I have it worked out but it will be from a different album than before.  I create a new Flickr account and have it setup so I will be uploading pictures from my phone, hopefully often.  The link is off on the right side of my page.  And for those of you that only read RSS you can click here.
Something else I noticed is that my phone isn’t charging me for data.  Nothing. 0. Zilch.  Of course, calling to the US costs about $1.75 AUD a minute but since I rarely call but chat, use maps, check email, upload pictures, etc, it turns out to be pretty much free.  I still am using one of my Australian numbers (I never gave it to anyone, sorry). For those of you back in the States just use my local number.

Ok, I have been told before that pants are required.  Or, more to the point, shorts aren’t allowed.  Somehow when I ended up heading that way today I forgot and was wearing shorts.  I ended up just walking around Bangkok for several hours.

Earlier in the day I decieded to walk to Pantip Plaza.  For those who don’t know, this is a tech superstore of sorts.  There are six levels of every type of tech I could think of.  I am tempted to go back there tomorrow and buy a dslr camera but I need to know more about what I want, what kind of lens, etc and I haven’t researched it enough to spend that kind of money.  Maybe on my way out of the country.

I am still looking at where I am going to go next.  So much to do in Thailand and I have no clue.  Maybe I should just head to the beach while I figure it out.

I am using my iPhone a ton and I have to say, having a gps and maps in your pocket rocks when you have no clue if the person driving you that doesn’t speak english and has someone else’s picture on display as the driver is taking you to the right place.  Also useful is the thai language app from lonely planet.  So nice to have your phone teach you thai, or translate for you.

Ok.  Going to an Asian country I should have expected to be more out of my depth than say, Australia.  I know the people that are talking to me are speaking English, but I have no clue what they are saying.  I am sure I will get used to the accent after a while but right now just, wow.

I am also amazed at the city.  I have been in big cities before but to see so much life crammed into every place is amazing.  The sidewalks are covered with street merchants.  I’m not just talking about the major roads either. Every alley big enough for them to drive a car down and still have a stand on is packed.  I haven’t been that far away from my hotel yet because I wanted to get my phone working first. Maps/gps are important or just really nice to have.  I should have a new phone number soon but of course, my number back in the states will always forward.

Later today I plan on venturing out to go see where they take me, and how much I get taken for.  I am hoping to see the Grand Palace and maybe a temple or two.  I will try to take lots of pictures but my uploading place is full so I will see where I can put them.  Anyway, more thoughts later.

So here I am. Sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. I put everything I didn’t want to travel with in storage but should have put more. Cleaned out my apartment and I’m ready!

So, I am off to Thailand to play with sharks and tigers and elephants oh my! I really have no plans but that is the way I prefer to travel. Sit on a beach, get a massage, go for a hike. Sure I could do that anywhere, but why not Thailand?

So today was a hot day.  It had a high of 39.8 C (103 F) at about 2pm then cooled off 11 degrees in 15 minutes as a front came through.  Amazing how it can drop that much so quickly.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and I am sad to be stuck inside.

Well, at lunch during the hot part of the day I ran a few errands.  Somehow in my trip to the states I forgot my PIN so I went and reset that.  Then I went and bought an unlocked iPhone.  Bout time they had them in stock.  Expensive but this phone will follow me around for a while.  My last one lasted 4 years so I think it  was time for me.