And you'll be happy to know that I've been downing every sketchy looking dish that the street vendors can toss my way. I've even been drinking the local hootch with buckets of poisonous ice from the bar. I'm indestructable!

(Notes: 1. Jay did in fact not die of the intestinal disorder that had him sidlined for most of the trip. 2. The shoulder complaints mentioned here were likely a mild case of the bends. )

written by  Jason Kester on December 15, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001
tagged Drinking
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Our first dive of the day was on this passenger ferry that sank a few years back. The main deck is like 24m down and it's upright and in good condition. It's fun and a bit spooky cruising around inside the thing, as all the divers stir up the water & visibility is reduced to just a few meters. Being a boat, it has plenty of narrow doors and confined spaces to swim through. Definitely a cool experience!

And for those of you keeping score, I've put in a total of six days on the route now. Only a couple burns a day recently, since I have all the moves wired now, and I'm just trying to put together a clean ascent. I can get it with one rest along the way now. Now I'm just moving that rest spot gradually downward until I can cast off straight from the sand.

The route will have to wait a bit though, as I'm off to the islands tomorrow, followed by a dash for the malaysian border so that I can get a fresh
30 day visa.

written by  Jason Kester on December 14, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001
tagged Climbing, Diving and Railay
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So check out the first photo on this page:

http://www.megagrip.co.uk/Thailand/Thai7.htm

That is the route that I'm working on at the moment. The photo doesn't do justice to how ridiculously steep this piece of rock is. There is a 20
foot section where you gain 3 feet of elevation! Completely unlike anything I've been on. It's all sorts of fun, and plenty hard as well. I've put three days into it so far, and only just this morning finally got to see the top. That doesn't mean I'm done by any means. Now I get to spend the next few days linking together moves and trying to get the whole thing in one go.

Anyway, things go well. Plenty to climb, plenty of time relaxing on the beach, even some diving in the cards. See ya!

written by  Jason Kester on December 9, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001
tagged Climbing and Railay
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I spent a few nights in Byron Bay on the way back down the coast. It's a pretty cool town with a great beach. They have this funky hostel there that attracts an eclectic subset of the backpacker community. This place has free digeridoo lessons, fire dancing and some really strange accomodations. I slept in a teepee.

Anyway, I'm back in Sydney now, trying to come up with a day's worth of tourism to keep me busy until I fly out tonight. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to check my mail in Thailand, so you all may get a bit of a break from my lame trip reports for a while.

written by  Jason Kester on December 2, 2000 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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It's a pretty cool operation. Much different than in the states, where there would be dozens of waivers and big warning signs and absolutely no alcohol on the boat. Here, the only piece of advice was "figure out how much alcohol you think you'll need, then double it." Australia rules!

As to the actual diving, it was great. I did an advanced course on the boat that added a 30m deep dive and a night dive, along with some additional skills. The night dive was really cool. There were dozens of meter long travellies following along at your shoulder. Whenever you'd spot a fish with your dive light, they'd flash past and grab it. It was so much fun that I just spent the rest of the dive spotlighting food for them.

The reef is pretty cool. Lots of big fish, sea turtles, rays and such. I even came up against a 5 foot reef shark.

Anyway, this internet connection has some serious issues, so I'd better get this off while I can. I'm off for Thailand in a week, so the next message you get will likely be from there.

written by  Jason Kester on November 23, 2000 from Mackay, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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I'm in Airlie Beach right now. It's a bit southeast of Townsville, and it's the point where the barrier reef is closest to shore. I'll be in the pool for the next couple days, then living on and diving from a boat out at the reef. Pretty cool!

written by  Jason Kester on November 18, 2000 from Mackay, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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Fraser Squad

So I'm in the town of Hervey Bay at the moment, having just returned from a few days on Fraser island. We were pretty much going to give the place a miss, but everybody we ran into kept insisting that we absolutely had to go. They were right.

Basically, you fork over some money and they pile you together into a group of nine strangers and hand you the keys to a big ol' Toyota Landcruiser. Then they toss in about sixty pounds of steak, 30 gallons of beer, and a couple beat up tents. The rest is up to you, and the ferry leaves in an hour.

Fraser is really cool. It's just a giant pile of sand, with a rainforest covering most of it. It has some amazing lakes with white sand bottoms and
incredibly clear, pure water. So pure in fact that you can drink it.

Apart from the beach (which is actually designated as an Australian highway), there are no roads, just a series of rough tracks through the jungle.
Now when I say rough, I dont mean just rough, but rough enough that they manage to consistantly bog vehicles designed specifically to never bog down in sand. Loads of fun! Even better with eight nervous passengers screaming in the back.

In short, the best time I've had in Australia thus far. Good times, good company, beautiful place. It's all good.

written by  Jason Kester on November 17, 2000 from Torquay, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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Yeah, it's good to hear that the sharks are keeping to their side of the country. We had a strange experience today though. We checked out this semi-crowded break just south of town & decided to go rent a longer board for the small surf. In the twenty minutes it took to find a surf shop and come back, the whole beach had emptied. Nobody was in the water (there were maybe 30 surfers and a crowd of swimmers) and there was a big no swimming sign. I have no idea what happened, but can only assume that somebody saw a shark. Spooky!

Anyway, the good news is that we went a few miles further down & found some great waves. Best of all, no wetsuit! Just trunks and a thin spandex shirt callled a rashguard. Things are definately looking up.

written by  Jason Kester on November 8, 2000 from Surfers Paradise, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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Along the way up the coast I bought the most beat up shortboard I could find. I've only had it in the water once, and got thoroughly worked as a
reward. It's cool not having to wear ten pounds of neoprene to avoid hypothermia, but I sure don't float to the surface as quickly without it.

And for the record, the toilets do indeed flush in the other direction, and the moon is oriented entirely the wrong way. All in all, good times are
being had.

written by  Jason Kester on November 7, 2000 from Surfers Paradise, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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