PERU!!!
Lima, Peru
So 5:12 this morning I landed in Lima! My taxi wasn't there when i passed customs but luckily one of the other taxi guys let me use their cell to call my hostal who then said my ride should be there in 1 monite (He was). I got to Hostal el Patio and and they had my room ready. I pretty much slept 'till 4:00pm, I was sooo tired. Anyways I finally dragged myself out of bed and headed out to see a little part of Lima. I walked around and saw the pizza street Adrian mentioned. I had a quick lunch, crawfish, then headed back to my hostal to just chill. It was extremely overcast and starting to drizzle by now. I was in the rest of the night getting ready for my flight to Cuzco!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 7, 2010 from Lima, Peru
from the travel blog: 2010 - Peru - Lima y Cuzco

Goodbye Seattle!
Seattle, United States
So today will be my daughter's, who is now 23 months old, first international flight! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit scared about how she will handle being on a plane for nine hours but she did so well on her very first flight I think she will do great. My dad picked us up and took us to the airport. The flight was delayed by about 55 minutes which made me nervous since our connecting flight to Brussels departed only an hour after our arrival....
We got the airport really early and zipped through security, the airport was surprisingly not as crowded as I had expected it to be on a holiday weekend. We ate an overpriced dinner then sat at the gate waiting to board.
We will be arriving in London the next day so stay tuned for the update!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 2, 2016 from Seattle, United States
from the travel blog: 2016 - Hello France, we meet again.

Welcome to Italia!
Rome, Italy
Arrived in Italia!
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 22, 2006 from Rome, Italy
from the travel blog: 2006 - ITALY!!! - Graduation Present

Countering Jet Lag.
Madrid, Spain
So after 13 hours of travel I finally arrive in Madrid! Getting through customs was super easy (Looong but easy) and I found out that you do not need to fill out one of those immigration forms they hand you on the plane. After customs I grabbed about 140 euros from a cash machine then found a taxi and off I was to my hotel. Apparently taxi's like to ask which route you'd prefer to take. Not knowing any specific routes I just had him take the most direct route is possible. The Eurostars Madrid Tower hotel is really nice and my room is beautiful Oh and I have an amazing shower haha. I still need to figure out where I am compared to everything in the city but I can do that tomorrow when I meet up with Kumiko. I ended up just staying in all day and sleeping. While in my room I found out that the Playboy channel is one channel away from the Disney channel haha. Spain is funny. Anyways, my birthday is on Tuesday and I would like to do something awesome. I found out a couple days ago that the Running with the Bulls is going on this week in Spain. Sooooooo I'm going to look at bus tickets tomorrow and maybe make my way North to Pamplona to run with some Bulls on Tuesday :D Or just go watch.
So all in all -
Everything will start tomorrow :)
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 10, 2011 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: 2011 - Happy Birthday from España

Day 1: Arriving in Style
Monaco, Monaco
Man, after 29 hours of traveling I finally arrived in Monte Carlo, Monaco!
Lets start off on Saturday, April 9th.
I had the pleasure of being dropped off at the airport by Adam and Sami! I got to Seatac around 7:20pm and about 2 hours later I was on the plane to JFK. I was out for most of the flight.
We landed around 6:06am April 10th in New York.
I was in New York for about 12 hours and I must say it got REAL boring really quick. I jumped from gate to gate sitting for an hour at a time took a nap in a seating booth. 6 hours have passed when my mom sent me money to go hang out at the Delta Club Board room so I could sleep and not worry about getting my bags jacked. Board rooms are niiiiice free drinks, snacks and comfy chairs :D. And I must say the few gin and tonics sure helped with the eight and a half hour flight I was about to endure. Finally 4:30pm came around so I went to my gate. I was fast asleep soon after taking off. I wake up about 2 hours into the flight and notice the lady who was sitting in the isle seat to my left was gone, I waited an hour and then took her seat assuming she wasn't coming back. This was a mistake... The lady who was sitting behind me had her knees up in the back of my seat thus stopping my seat from reclining... I finally got it reclined once but she yelled. She literally yelled as though I did something wrong. Granted I did recline my seat with a little force... But still. She actually fought back and so I spent the rest of my flight upright. So dumb. Well...
Monday, April 11th:
I FINALLY LAND IN NICE, FRANCE!
Customs was super quick, 20 min in a line to get my passport stamped and I was off to the Heli Air transfer desk around 8:45am. My helicopter reservation was for 9:15am. In no time I was in a bus being driven to my helicopter! I'm watching my helicopter land
as we are pulling up and this was very exciting for me since It would be my first time flying in a helicopter.
There are 7 ways to get to Monaco: Walking, Biking, Train, Taxi, Limo (ok same as taxi but much classier), Helicopter, Yacht. I think next time I'm here I'll take a Limo to Monaco and a yacht back to Nice :). So I chose to arrive by helicopter for my first time to Monaco! The view from the helicopter was beautiful!
Flying over the Mediterranean Sea with the French Riviera to my left was breath taking.
We landed in Monaco and a driver took me to my hotel. I'm staying at the Port Palace Hotel in a Harbor-side Grand Suite room 501. This room is beautiful!
Two rooms, one being my bedroom, and a very nice bathroom. My bathroom has a jacuzzi type bath, a walk in shower and a separate room for my toilets. Yea that's right, plural form of toilet I believe one of them is a bidet lol. The view from my room is spectacular! The harbor is gorgeous with all the triple decked yachts; I can't believe I'm here.
I checked in around 9:40am and got to know my room. I decided to stay in and just relax after having been in airport-mode for the past 29 hours, 38 hours if you include all the time-zone changes haha. Lucky for me Monaco is a very small nation so I'll be able to see most if not all of it tomorrow. I fell asleep around 11:am and slept until 7:30pm-ish. I woke up sent some pictures to Sami and made a few calls to Adam, my dad and then my mom through my local Gmail voice number, my netbook and the hotels wifi :) The connection was very low so most of my calls started very well but ended roughly. Overall it worked! So now it's 11:23pm Monday night in Monaco and I just finished a pizza and watching a soccer match on tv. I think I will shower off Seatac and JFK and call it a night.
Night!
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 11, 2011 from Monaco, Monaco
from the travel blog: 2011 - Oui Oui, Ken Visits France and Monaco!

día número dos
Madrid, Spain
Today I finally saw KUMIKO! We met up at Puerta del Sol near a statue of a bear and tree around 3:00pm. Granted this was after me not getting her message that she couldn't meet at 12:30 and had to make it 3:00 but in the end it was for the better because in those few hours I got lost. lol. First I forgot to look up how to say 'statue of a bear' or 'bear statue' in Spanish so because taxi drivers in Spain don't really speak any English I had to draw a picture of the statue haha. Luckily my driver could make out my lame excuse drawing of a bear and pointed me to what I would later find out to be the right direction but due to my stupidity completely got myself lost. In all actuality the statue is a LOT smaller than it should be. I was expecting a sorta have-to-look-up size statue so i walked RIGHT passed it and got myself lost... after eventually making my way back to the city Center I spot the tiny-ass statue haha. During my time lost I turned on my internet on my phone to figure out where I was and where I should go consequently getting the late message from Kumiko about meeting at 3:00 instead of 12:30. lol. Her message was sent at the time we were suppose to meet so thank god I checked. After more walking, getting STARBUCKS, and sitting I call Kumiko and we finally meet up at the statue. She and I ended up just walking around Madrid. Madrid is very pretty. The parks are gorgeous and the architecture is outstanding. We talked briefly about possibly going to Barcelona over the weekend so we'll be doing some research on that later. Well I officially know how hot it gets in Madrid and how out of shape I am haha. The heat is killing me but I love it!
Well I'm back in my room and about to order room service and watch a show. Oh by the way, my hotel has a Pillow Menu. haha. I can order different types of Pillows.
Adiós.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 11, 2011 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: 2011 - Happy Birthday from España

Day 2: We offer you discount :D
Monaco, Monaco
Wow so today was quite the day!
I was up around 6:30am which is waaay to early to be awake but hey at least I got a good start on the day! I left my room around 8:00am and hit the town.
I walked around the harbor my suite looks over and awed over all the yachts. I then decided to try and get to the old city which overlooked most of Monaco also the Changing of the Guards at the Palace happens at 11:55am and I wanted to see that. First I wanted a drink so I went to a cafe and ordered a coca cola. I found out after finishing my drink that the place only accepted cash. Luckily for me the man let me leave to withdraw some money trusting I'd return to pay him which I did. After getting lost a lot and walking around Monaco like an idiot I finally made my way up the cliff to Monaco-Ville, which is the old city. I walked around the gardens and parks gazing over the Mediterranean Sea
and the Monaco shoreline. The morning was a bit overcast but warm nonetheless. Around 10:20 the clouds around the mountain tops dispersed and the skies cleared up allowing the sun to drape over Monaco. around 11:20am I started back to the Palace. I saw a line of gift shops so I stopped by to see if they had spoons. I now have a spoon from Monaco :D. By 11:30am it was getting very very warm and standing in front of the Palace waiting for the Changing of the Guards Ceremony was becoming my least favorite thing to do.
Around 12:00 noon It was finally over and I was on my way back down the cliff to either a) find some food or b) find the Casino. I chose option 'a' but not after getting lost again and taking more pictures of things. I ate at my hotel, it was sooooo pricey! God I kinda regret it but it was veeery delicious lol. I sat around my hotel for while after eating; I was very tired from walking. Around, uh, crap I forgot when, I think 1:30 ish, I was back out and went to find the Grand Casino of Monte Carlo.
This place was beautiful unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take pictures while inside. I walked around that general area of Monte Carlo taking picture after picture of the everything. well around 5:00pm I was back at my hotel. I was about to call my god mother which I did around 7:00pm, 10:00am PST. I After talking with her I decided to take a nap between 8pm and 9pm then head back out to one of the casinos I saw across the street from the Grand Casino. I ended up sleeping through my alarm waking up at 11:00pm. I got dressed and headed back out. Monaco is lovely at night. All the lit up buildings and yachts ah amazing. I got to the casino and dropped 40 euros at the blackjack table. Don't worry I was up for most of the time but I wanted to go through my limit. That was my very first time gambling and I did it in Monaco of all places :D. After losing I felt like a drink so I headed off to the Buddha Bar just around the corner. A nice dark place, I ordered my drink and sat one of the tables. So about 10 min later two lovely ladies sit next to me. After 20 min and me paying my bill the girls and I start chatting. They were from Poland and apparently live there and in Monaco 6 months at a time. After telling them I'm staying at the Port Palace and was American they asked if I would like some company. haha, I said company sounds like fun, you guys looking for fun? A couple minutes later they hint that they are working girls. I knew it. I chuckled and told them I have no money. They said "but you are in Monaco ;)" then offered me a discount. I told them "I have no money which is why I'm heading back to Nice in the morning." I then slowly stood up, grabbed my jacked, kissed their hands telling them it was a pleasure meeting them and left the bar. Well that was around 1:30am It's now 3:13 am I had just called my dad, Adam/Sami, my mom and chatted on facebook. Gonna upload the Monaco photos and call it a night. My bus is picking me up around 10:35am to bring me to my helicopter and then it's back to Nice, France!
Night ya'll.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 12, 2011 from Monaco, Monaco
from the travel blog: 2011 - Oui Oui, Ken Visits France and Monaco!

Day 2! Cuzco!
Cuzco, Peru, Peru
So this morning I almost missed my flight to Cuzco but luckily my hostal called my room and woke me up when my taxi showed up.I got to the airport around 8:30am. After I had a ticket agent print out my ticket I found a Starbucks outside of security so I just had to stop by and get my drink. They didn't mess up my drink!!! Peru ftw for making my drink correctly! Aaanyways after paying the stupid airport tax and sitting at gate 12 waiting to board my flight I in Cuzco! (I'll upload some pics onto this site into these entries when I get home. Cuzco is so beautiful and full of life. I got to my hostal where I sipped some coca leaf tea as I waited to check in. I still need to pay for my room.... I forgot to today. Ok so I walked around my immediate area to get a feel for things when I started to get really hungry. I stopped into this restaurant where I tried Pisco sour, cebiche, and alpaca. Oh and Pisco sour is boooomb. Well it's like 7:14pm an pretty dark out I'm tired so I'm callin it a nigh. Tomorrow I get my bus and entrance tickets for Machu picchu and start exploring further out.
Machu Picchu in 4 days!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 8, 2010 from Cuzco, Peru, Peru
from the travel blog: 2010 - Peru - Lima y Cuzco

Bangkok, Thailand
So I finally made it toThailand!
Here's the lowdown so far.
Flight from Seattle To LA I got my very first headache.... I slept wrong on the plane and woke up in pain.
While in LA, I had lunch with auntie Dory at Pacos wich was really cool considering I haven't seen her in three years.
She dropped me off back at the airport around 8 and I checked in for my flight to Bangkok. I had to wait at the ticket counter outside of security to see if I made the flight but luckily I got a seat, 30 min before the plane was taking off.
17 hours is sooo flickin long. anyways, I finally landed in Bankok!
This is where it gets fun.
After security and customs, I got a taxi outside the airport, very simple. The ride into town with tolls was 500 Bahts (1usd = 34bahts). I showed the driver the address and name of where I was trying to get too but he kept getting lost and asking other tuk-tuk drivers and taxi drivers. Finally after an hour of driving around Bangkok he stopped and said my hotel is down "this street". He was off by one I soon realized after walking the hot and crowded market street. It's now 8:40 ish and my shirt and jacket are drenched in sweat. The girl at the reception desk asked if I could come back at 1:00pm to make my reservation and get my key I was litterally dieing from the heat so I said sure and left. After walking for about 10 more minutes with my bags, I ran in the next guesthouse I came across, The Sweet Guesthouse. I asked for a room to drop my bags in and the guy gave me one for 140B. the room was the size of my bathroom, it was pretty cool I must admit. I quickly dropped off my bags, changed my clothes and set out to find a bank to get some Thai Currency to pay for the room. I luckily had this private driver during the next 2 hours driving me around town helping me get the things I needed only costed me 5 dollars. I Finally found an internet cafe, found a hotel, made reservations and headed out. I'm now at the Thai Cozy House and so far it's been pretty bad ass (My whole bathroom is the shower haha). I paid for four nights and leave for Delhi at 4:00am Monday morning. I spent most of the day in my room but I did get my first Thai massage which was really cool, I also did some exploring to learn the streets and my location and fought off a tout haha.
Tomorrow I head to the Grand Palace, do a river tour north then finish the day off with another Thai massage.
Saturday I make my way North East to the Chatuchak Market and and spend my day there.
Sunday I go see the standing Buddah and then the sleeping Buddah and do some laundry.
Monday I try to get to India.
Well That's been my first day in Bangkok!
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 18, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: 2009 - Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"

ES MI CUMPLEAÑOS!
Madrid, Spain
Today was my birthday!
Okay, so, It wasn't as exciting or adventurous as I'd planned it to be but I'm in Spain so either way I really can't complain :D. I decided to walk around as much as my feet could bare. Saw a lot of Madrid and even got my bus tickets to Pamplona! I had to get them at the bus station because well as you know from my last entry the stupid Alsa.es site was saying my bank was rejecting the transaction... Stupid websites not taking my money... Anyways, I have all my bus tickets to get me to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls tomorrow. My first bus leaves at 1:00am so I will take a short 3 hour nap before heading to the bus station. My first bus leaves at 1:00am and I then have a bus change in Soria, Spain around 4:00am (hope I don't mess up). I should be getting to Pamplona, Spain around 6:30am tomorrow if all goes smoothly.
Well this birthday was very laid back. No Mountain hiking in ancient Incan ruins or flying between four differently countries but it was a BEAUTIFUL day, I got still got my Starbucks and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Well time for lights out.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 12, 2011 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: 2011 - Happy Birthday from España

Perugia Bound!
Perugia, Italy
Hello, Perugia!
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 25, 2006 from Perugia, Italy
from the travel blog: 2006 - ITALY!!! - Graduation Present

Day 3: Nice Bound!
Nice, France
So today is the day I leave Monaco :( I had a blast here and will definitely be coming back. Maybe look for a place to live when I do!
I woke up around 9am showered and checked out about 10:35am.
A van was waiting to take me to the heliport. My flight back to Nice, France was at 11am. Man, I love helicopters! So convenient. Anyways, The ride was just as beautiful on the way back got a few more pictures of the French Riviera.
So now I'm back in Nice at the airport. I got some more euros and then grabbed a taxi to my hotel. This hotel looks cool from the outside but the room is crappy. Well.. compared to my last room haha. The AC in this room doesn't work so I had to open my back door and my front door to get a cross breeze in. Oh speaking of back door, when my back door is open my ceiling lamp drops as in the part that is supposed to be attached to the ceiling hangs loose... And when I close my door it slowly moves back up to the ceiling... weird as heck. Oh and on another note... the view from this room is just spectacular! I'm at theLe Royal Hotel in a sea side room.
It's right on the Promenada Des Anglais so there is only a street and a beach between me and the sea. Anyways, Today was just a chill day since I'll be back for three days. I did walk around though, got dinner which was alright. 19 euros got me a huuuuuge pile of muscles cooked in white wine, two things of lamp with french fries and a cooked tomato, and two scoops of ice cream for dessert. haha French Fries in France. They were actually very good probably better than in the states. Except for in-n-out of course.
Anyways, Nice is alright. From the little bit I saw today, the only thing I would like is less people. The city is gorgeous I love the buildings and architecture
but there are way too many people. Oh well! I got back to my room around 5pm and decided to relax till it got cooler and darker out maybe 8ish head back out. I set my alarm clock and crashed. Well, I ended up waking up around 3am :/ meh so I went back to bed. I'ts now 8am and I'm up and getting ready to check out. I have a 6 hour train ride to Dijon today :) then I see Courtney tonight! It's going to be weeeird. haha.
over and out.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 13, 2011 from Nice, France
from the travel blog: 2011 - Oui Oui, Ken Visits France and Monaco!

Better not miss the Bus Change
Soria, Spain
Uh this is where I changed buses in between Madrid and Pamplona.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 13, 2011 from Soria, Spain

Bangkok, Thailand
Well today I was going to see the palace.. but i ended up getting lost for about 4 hours. I dont think i have ever walked through so many backyards, frontyards, houses, and alleyways in my life but it was a blast. I never knew there were so many cats around here. I walked along these railroad tracks through the poorest part of bangkok getting hit on by random girls and still attacked by tuk-tuk drivers, it was a whole other world.
ps: whenever you see a map hanging from a post either walk faster or turn around. Those maps act as spider webs, once you stop to look or even walk by it, someone will jump out try to help you then like 50 (ok more like 2 or 3) tuk-tuk drivers pop out of no where, It's almost like being "blitzkrieged" by German forces.
Pss: only ask poeple who dont look at you or the police for directions or help. anyone who walks up to you or seems too friendly will just end up annoying the hell out of you I finally figured this out.
Anyways, I left my hotel this morning around 8 and finally found my way home around noon, after hitting every corner of bangkok. I found out that Thai tuk-tuk drivers favorite question to ask is "where you from?" before they try to get you to pay cheap prices only to drive you not where you want to go but where they get commision.
So far I have been from Argentina and Mexico. The mexican situation was funny, a tuk-tuk driver tried to get me to use him, I pretended I didnt know what he was saying, then he asked if i speak english, so i blerted some random words i remembered from Spanish 101 and said hablo espanol poor chap still tried to get me in his "taxi" as i walked off. I saw several temples and buddahs during these four hours which was amazing. I got home showered then researched and headed back out to see the Grand Palace which is the coolest place ever and I'm totally modeling my future home after it. When i got back to my hotel after that i got an official 1 hour Thai message which ended with tea and dried fruit on the roof of the hotel where i ended up talking with this dude from Australia for an hour. now im going to my room to eat some soup.
Tomorrow I head to the weekend Market
Sunday I do whatever i haven't done yet along with laundry haha.
byee.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 19, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: 2009 - Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"

Cuzco broke my phone :[
Cuzco, Peru, Peru
So today was a very basic day. I walked around looking for the place to purchase bus tickets from Agua Calientes to Machu Picchu and the entrance tickets for Machu Picchu but after getting lost both places were closed. Okay actually one place was the closed the other I just couln'dt find... I had the most orgasmic alpaca strogonoff. It was amazing. I aso decided to buy some bracelets to get rid of this lady who kept bugging me and I also invested in a band by purchasing their CD. I also made a little friend, christain, who wanted to scrub my shoes but I wouldn't let him. He said the one sole would be for school and stuff, I just looked at him then he startedd to grin and I called him out, "No it's not dude" he laughed and still tried to scrub my shoes for a sole. Okay so, After eating an amazing lunch I decided to walk up the mountain for some photo shots. I walked up some really awesome corridors/steps 'till I got to a ledge looking down on the Plaza De Armas. It was amazing I sat there for a little while. I also watched this baby llama hop around while it's owners packed up thier crafts and such, cutest thing I have ever seen srsly. So after that nice break I decided to try my way further up the mountain, I took a picture of three ladies and their babies and llama but then ended up paying them 10 USD for that picture. They were asking for 50 soles total but I happen to lose them in the math when converting to USD. I walked up and up 'till I saw a sign for Cristo Blanco and Sacsayhuaman. A man I passed earlier and talked to for a short bit said Cristo Blanco was free to get to so I decided to trek all the way up to the VERY top of th hill. I almost died... 8 times... I finally made it and the view was amazing even though I only had minutes of sunlight left. The walk down was muuuuch easier and even though it was after dark it was still pleasent. I met this couple (totally forgot their names, a loud truck drove by as we exchanged names) who were traveling with their parents and so the reaso they were staying in a converted cathedral. It was super nice looking, from the outside. Anways it was only like 15 min walking down with them they were pretty cool. I got back to my hotel and took a shower with my music playing on my phone on a shelf by the sink.. Next thing I know I hear a crash... SHIT PHONE FELL! OH NOES!! I jump out and take a look at it. No cracks on the front there might be one on the back but eeh it's all good. My phone is now toast... And by toast I mean I can't use it until I plug it into itunes... Stupid thing wiped itself and now I have to reactivate it... A man here let me try plugging my phone into his apple laptop which has iTunes but my phone wont stay on for some reason. I tried his PC laptop, and the hostals desktop phone still wont stay on long enough to ask to be plugged into itunes... When I plug my phone into a wall outlet I get that stupid screen no prolem... :(
So I have no phone for the next five days... even longer if I can't get it fixed at home...
I did, however, find a way to pack up my pictures from my camera's memory stick for free so I will have more space for the ruins tomorrow and Machu Picchu. The man who has the two laptops, his PC netbook has a card reader! so he's letting me upload all my photos and videos onto Photobucket. yay.
Tomorrow morning I head out EARLY to get my bus and entrance tickets for Machu Picchu and my tickets to see Sacsayhuaman and Pisac. :)
It's 11:52 pm and my pictures are almost done uploading.
Night!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 9, 2010 from Cuzco, Peru, Peru
from the travel blog: 2010 - Peru - Lima y Cuzco

Chill Day in Cuzco
Cuzco, Peru, Peru
So today was gonna be the day I finally got my bus tickets and entrance tickets for Machu Picchu then visit Sacsayhuaman & Pisac. But that didn't exactly go as planned. I did however get my two tickets, beforenoon, so now I'm all set to see Machu Picchu! I decided to just stay in town and relax which I think was a good choice. Now I have a reason to come back, to see all the ruins around Cuzco. Then come back again to visit the north and again to visit the south, and again to visit the central part of Peru :). For lunch I got the alpaca strogonoff again because it's soooo good. By this time I had sandals on which discouraged the shoe cleaning people from bugging me. Score! One type down 4 others to go. Funny thing is I kept running into this one kid who was selling paintings. He would go through the exact same speech everytime he came across me haha, even he started to laugh. After this I walked around some more just sitting in random places it was a very slow day. Uuummm I was starting to get hungry again, it was about 4pm so I decided to try my luck with CUY! I found this nice little place where it was 10 soles cheaper. OKay so, overall... It was really weird, I was so not prepaired for it. I don't know if it was seeing a guinnea pig cut in half the long ways laying on my plate or if it was just the whole severed head sitting right there between it's body.... Also, I was kinda expecting more meat than organs but eh I at least got through half the guinnea pig. w00t. After I ate as much as I could I ordered a Pisco sour and woooow this was the strongest one I've had all week.
Well, I have to be up at 5:00am and catch my 5:30am taxi to Poroy where I'll depart from the train station around 6:50am. TO Machu PICCHU!
Goodnight!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 10, 2010 from Cuzco, Peru, Peru

Day 3 *Kenny Finds A Starbucks* (6/20/2009)
Bangkok, Thailand
Today I woke up and headed to the weekend market. That place is crazy and yet very ordered. I had some random dishes with meat in them that I can't mention due to not knowing exactly what and a lot of random juices and pretty much just walked around aimlessly in the labyrinth like shopping areas; you litterally feel like a mouse in a maze.
After the weekend market I was tired from walking so I went back to my hotel and just chilled.
Now the highlight of the trip so far.
That's right, finding a Starbucks (haha soo kidding, kinda). Anyways, today I find the mythical Starbuck hiddin in a back alley square only two streets away from mine. Lets just say this Starbucks isn't mentioned on the main site or google maps but only in the map my guest house gave me (this guest house is great!).
It's still farely early in the day, only 5:18 but it started to rain right after I finished my coffee so now im back at the guest house and prolly gonna call it a night.
Not a big day today but at least I found a starbucks haha.
Tomorrow I head to the bus station and head two hours South West of Bangkok to the huge floating market in Damnoen Saduak, Google it to see pictures. I'll be posting my pictures when I get back to the States.
byee
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 20, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: 2009 - Kenny Baldridge - "No Reservations"

Running of the Bulls!
Pamplona, Spain
So I did today what I was suppose to do on my birthday, see crazy people running around and sometimes under bulls. I caught the bus at 1:00am and man was I tired. Luckily I had a few hours until I had to change buses in Soria, Spain. Long and uneventful story short, five and a half hours later, around 6:30am, I arrive at the bus terminal in Pamplona! There are SOOOO many people dressed up in the festival attire of white shirt/pant with a red neckerchief and belt thingy all over the buss station. All these people either going to run with the bulls that day or are leaving having ran with then yesterday. They were every where. Anyways, I arrive in Pamplona only knowing what the route the runners and bulls will be taking looking like on a map so I begin my search for a map. I stop in a small souvenir store and ask for map, one is brought out and I am then shown where I am at the moment and where the Bull Ring is. Which is good cause the route ends at the bull ring. I then buy said map and then start to head up some stairs to the exit. Now, instead of asking for a taxi or trying to figure out which cardinal direction I'm facing I decide to reverse engineer a network of people back to a secondary source, the area of interest. I begin to 'swim' against the little crowds of people walking to the bus station hoping they will lead me to some where on the bull run route. Next thing I know I stumble upon a giant fence which itself is covered with people. Well I found the route now to find a good place to see the people and bulls when they pass by. Every inch of every fence was plastered with people sitting on top, crouching looking through it. The fences were three horizontal beams about 2 feet apart and one vertical beam about every oh 8 feet apart. Well it's now about 7:20am and I find myself accepting the fact that I'm not going to get a spot on top of the route anywhere and will have to try and make due with peering through the fence like oh so many unworthy on viewers. I'm sitting behind this old couple who are sitting on the fence and then eventually the woman looks down and points to a little behind her and off to the side right on one of the vertical beams and says I can try and stand on the second horizontal beam right behind her cause she will be standing when the bulls come so there should be enough room for me to squeeze in during the important part which only lasts about 5 minutes. I examine the area and figure I could climb that just before the bulls get into sight. Well 10 min pass and this girl standing next to me asks the people on the fence if she could try and get up and sit on top of the vertical beam since no one was actually on it. She knew I was gonna be jumping up behind everyone so i figured she'd brace herself when I appear. So she finally gets into place and all is good. Okay so, time passes and it's now 8:00 sharp, after seeing a few runners already run by, the first rocket goes off signifying the first few bulls were set free to run. Right then I jump up and squeeze in between now the girl and the older lady, oh the older couple were Australian by the way lol. Well at this point I'm practically holding myself up so to release some strain on my arms I lean over the top beam at which point the girl sorta leans on my back trying to take her photos while on top of me. She was cute, I was comfortable and able to get my pictures, everyone was happy so I didn't complain. first bull I see and tried to take a picture of came out blurry. I then tried to take video but it was during a moment where there were no bulls... All in all I figured there would be more bulls then there actually were BUT it was still awesome. After all the bulls were ran into the bull ring, running a whopping 6-ish minutes the gates and fences were packed up and taken away. Everyone ran around drinking, hitting up the now open bars and restaurants and attending the free show in the bull ring. At this show a lot of the runners were in the middle of the ring and one bull was let out to run around and smash people against the wall as they tried to tease and taunt it. I was rooting for the bulls. Well it's now like 9:00am and I don't leave back to Madrid till 2:15pm... I walk around the town taking pictures watching parades and people dressed up as characters riding horses and what looked to be giant chess pieces (I really didn't read up on the origins of this festival) and watched as they chased children around and hit them with a stick and foam. I kid you not these characters were beating children right there on the street. It was the funniest thing I've seen all week. I got something to eat, tried to exchange my bus ticket for an earlier time but 2:15pmas the next bus so I sat at the bus station for like 3 hours. Nothing happened during this time and come 2:15pm I was on a bus back to Madrid. One quick stop to change buses in Soria and I was back in Madrid by 8:00pm.
Well time for bed!
Ole!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 13, 2011 from Pamplona, Spain

Day 4: Dijon Mustard?
Dijon, France
Hey Hey, So today I am in Dijon! Yes, like the mustard. The train ride from Nice was extremely beautiful. My train passed through: Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Raphael, Toulon, Marseille St Charles, Avignon, Lyon, Macon-Ville, a place where I missed the sign, and finally to Dijon! Overall the journey took about 6 hours which surprisingly went by veeeeery quickly. My hotel is very nice. I'm staying at the Hôtel Le Jura. No AC at all in this room but at least it's breezy and cool up here in Dijon so I wont complain. I will though complain about the crappy wifi. Someone needs to restart their router or something I get about 10% of solid wifi and the other 90% is limited or no connectivity despite having 4 bars of signal strength. meh. Should probably type this up fast before I lose internet again. So I arrived in Dijon around 4pm and walked to my hotel. Oh the rail system in France is super easy. I was meeting up with Courtney in the hotel lobby at 7 so I jut stayed in my room and relaxed. So now it's 7 I'm sitting in the lobby looking at maps on my phone and Courtney shows up! Ah 4 years later and we meet in France. Epic. We went to this pizzeria and I must say, it was soo nice having someone who spoke french. I wish I could bring her back to Nice with me. We finished dinner around 8:40om ish. I walked her back to her place and chatted some more then I was off to find my way back to my hotel (I found it.)
Well it was a pretty simple day. We're meeting up at 1pm tomorrow. And then we're off to Paris the next day!
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 14, 2011 from Dijon, France

Let's not miss this bus either.
Soria, Spain
Just a quick bus change. On my way back to Madrid.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 13, 2011 from Soria, Spain

Aguas Calientes
Aguas Calientes, Peru
So 5:00am I was called by the front desk as requested. I had all my things packed for my one night in Aguas Calientes and I was out the door with my taxi by 5:30am(when he showed up as requested) It was about a 25 min ride to Poroy train station. It was bloody cold as hell this morning so cold I could see my breath while sitting in the partially hollow train station. Only a few people were there already for our 6:50am departure to Aguas Calientes. By 6:10 it was packed, sunny and still frickin cold. After boarding I swapped my seat with a dad who was in a different seat than the rest of his family and luckily I did cause I met this married couple who is living in Colombia right now and we ended up talking by the end of the journey. Oh on a side note, the lady must have had like applied touretts or something cause she would yell (not loudly though but loud enough for people to hear lol) every type of animal we passed. Okay im kinda exaggerating but she did do it a few times haha. The train ride was about three and a half hours long and IT WAS AMAZING! Ah I couldn't believe the views Peru offers. At exactly 10:30am we stopped in Aguas Calientes where after I departed the train, grabbed my backpack and made my way to where the hostals pick you up I never say my name... Well it turns out, after I came back to look once more, that they spelled my name funky and luckily I saw the name of the hotel on the sign or I wouldn't have ever caught on to my name that they were trying to yell. haha. This place is epic. It's amazing here. It's on a whole different level than Cuzco but the same level nontheles, if that makes any sense. They are both two of the coolest cities I have ever seen, in their own unique ways. for lunch I had sopa de zapallo which was awesome a coke followed by a pisco sour haha. Then the World Cup Final was gonna start in like 30 min so I stayed, had another coke and some crepes for dessert then watched the first half of the game there, at the restaurant I had lunch. Before the game started I tried to ask, in my broken spanish, who he was for, Hollanda or España. He said España of course and so was I which I shared. Afterwards he helped an older couple in to a table, then after that he walked by me patted my shoulder and whispered, "hollanda" as he pointed to the new people haha. After Lunch I walked all over the very small city where I ran into a boy I knew from Cuzco. Christian! The little shoe polisher boy! He ran up to me asking if I remembered him from Cuzco. I asked what his name was and as soon as he said it it clicked. haha cool little kid. He was still askin to clean my shoes for a sole and I kept saying no. As we said ciao and I was about halfway up the hill (it was a tiny hill) I decided to give him a few soles just for being cool. I ran back just as two policias asked him and another boy that was walking around too to pollish their boots, I gave christian seven soles to take a picture with me. The other boy was in it to and I had one of the policia take the picture. Well I was back at the hostel to watch the second half of the soccer match along with a new group that showed up. Only one of them, me and the two front desk ladies were for España... They won btw. :D
Well, I walked around a lot today, took many photos and even had some pizza. What is up with Peru and pizza? Oh and massage clubs. Well, I will have someone knocking on my door at 5:00am tomorrow so I can catch the 5:30am bus to MACHU PICCHU! The weather has been fantastic just cold at nights. Well, tomorrow will be my last big day in Peru before I head back home to Washington.
Adios.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 11, 2010 from Aguas Calientes, Peru

Day 5: Are you interested in goats?
Dijon, France
So today was the day I got my tour of Dijon. I woke up around 10am and got a message from Courtney saying that her meeting at 12:30pm got turned into a surprise lunch for all the girls since everyone will be leaving for Spring Break. She said that she should be done by 1:30pm so she's heading to my hotel at 2pm. I have become really hungry since waking up so I decide to go find a bite to eat before meeting up with Courtney. The whole time I've been in France I've imagined Subway being really good here. I finally found one by my hotel and well It was alright. Nothing special. The cookies were still very good so that was satisfying. I forgot to trim up my facial hair before my trip and it has become a little overgrown so I walked into the first hairdresser I came by and pointed to my chin and somehow got an appointment for 2:50pm or so I thought haha. It turned out to be 12:50pm and I totally missed it. Anyways it's still only 11:30am or so and I'm just walking around Dijon taking pictures of the city.
It's really pretty here especially around Notre Dame and the Duke's Palace. I kept walking around and eventually got myself lost for about an hour and a half. Finally I come across this fountain I recognize. It's almost 2 so I decide to sit on a bench and relax some. So 1:50pm comes around I head back to my hotel and at 2pm Courtney shows up. She and I chat 'till it's time to get my haircut. We show up and after figuring everything out Courtney gets me another appointment at 4:45pm :) She and I walk around Dijon, visit a couple churches, a crypt, some historical streets/areas and I'm snappin' photos left and right.
Courney showed me this wooden owl where one is supposed to place their left hand upon it and make a wish. Then you are suppose to walk in this specific direction or else you'll pass this wooden carving of a dog and the legend has it that if you walk back this way the dog chases after you and takes away your wish. I don't know about you but I prefer to keep my wishes so we walked in the safe direction. We then end up at a park sitting, chatting and then talking about what we'll be doing while in Paris tomorrow. 4:35pm comes around and we head to the hairdresser's to tackle this task. Overall it went smoothly all I really wanted was my beard and mustache trimmed a little it was getting too long and annoying. Afterwards we head to a place to get our train tickets to Paris then we go for a walk around town and end up at another park where we sat for about an hour chatting about Paris. For most of that time this man was running like a retard (not to sound mean but it's the best way to describe it) haha. He was like grunting and running flapping his arms around then he would walk back to this bench, sit for about 5 min then stand up and run again. It was cracking Courtney and me up. This park was beautiful.
It was practically a forest with a few roads going through it and a few open patches of fields or play areas for kids. Very peaceful. It's about 7:30pm now and time to eat so we get up and head back to the main part of town to look for a place to eat. We find this little authentic restaurant and well I ordered what I thought would be a casserole sorta dish but it turned out to be nothing like one. It was alright but I wouldn't order it ever again haha. We finish eating and end up talking for about another hour after dinner. I walked her back to her place, said goodnight and now I'm back at my hotel after getting a LITTLE lost. Well I should head to bed soon. I have to be up by 6:45am to get ready for Paris. Meeting Courtney in the lobby at 7:20am and our train departs at 7:46am to PARIS!
Tomorrow is gonna be a blast. Oh and today was PAYDAY!!! So I have even more money to spend in France. w00t.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 15, 2011 from Dijon, France

Words can't even begin to explain-
Aguas Calientes, Peru
Three Words...
Best Birthday Ever.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 12, 2010 from Aguas Calientes, Peru

Damnoen Saduak, Thailand
So today I woke up at 5:30am and headed northwest to the bus terminal where i caught the 996 bus to Damnoen Saduak to see the floating market. The whole place is obviously marked for tourists but locals still go to buy fruits ands meats and what not, either way it was one hell of a time. I got ripped off, I'm used to it now, on my hour long boat tour through the market (i think i paid a little more than i should have, oh well.) but I really didn't care cause in the end being right in the middle of it all was awesome, i got some really good pictures too. After my boat ride, i got dropped off where i started which was quite far from the actual market maddness, so i decided to walk back to the center of the market and walk around this time. I had lunch there which was a noodle soup with a chicken leg and a pigs liver, yum. I took more pictures then headed back to where i was first dropped off to find out where the bus stop was to get back to Bangkok... I ended up asking local after local and walking for ever to finally see my bus on the other side of the road passing by me, I ran across 6 lanes and thank god someone else was running too and caught the bus drivers attention.
Two hours and one 20 min taxi ride later I'm back at the guest house. I then bring my laundry down and head out to see what weird things I could find cooking on the streets, then I see a durian cart and a few people huddled around it. I walk up and finally have my first taste of durian... I like it! Then somehow I end up buying a kilo of it and I mean a kilo of the edible part..... Don't ask... So now I'm in my room with a half litre of coke, one kilo of durian and soccer on the television. Yay for south east Asia.
Tomorrow i wake up at 3:30am to check out by 4:00am and find a taxi to take me to the airport to chexk in for my (hopefully) 7:35 flight to New Delhi!
byee!
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 21, 2009 from Damnoen Saduak, Thailand

Back in Madrid
Back in Madrid!

Day 6: From Paris with Love
Paris, France
Wow... So today was absolutely amazing. Courtney and I met up at 7:20am as planned and were off to the train station. She had previously stopped by a bakery to pick up some pastries and bread as snacks for the ride. We boarded the train at 7:40am and were off soon after. The views of the French countryside were soooo pretty. I love trains. You
get to see soo much of country the way the land changes the closer you get to a city. You see all the little villages and just beautiful landscaping. The journey was about 3 hours but it went by very quickly.
Courtney read her book and I gazed out the window while listening to music. We arrived in Paris around 10:44am and decided to go get our return tickets to Dijon while still at the station. I had missed the second confirmation code when purchasing our round-trip tickets. I for some reason thought I had one code for both legs of the trip. So it didn't go very smoothly while trying to retrieve our return tickets. For some reason (maybe the lady was just on the wrong screen) no return trip was coming up even under my last name. This was completely wrong because I know i had purchased a round-trip ticket. Anyways after getting my return ticket to Nice printed out just to have it, I was just about to buy a one way ticket back for Courtney and me when she convinced me to figure something else out. So I got on my phone, logged into my email and found the email with our confirmation codes. haha it was there all along, we plugged it in a kiosk and tadaa printed out our tickets. Okay all set now it's off to see PARIS! I really only had a few things I really wanted to do: See the Louvre and the Mona Lisa painting, see the Eiffel Tower and eat a real crepe in Paris.
On our way to the Louve Courtney and I crossed this bridge where couples write their names on locks and then attach the lock to a link on the fence. There were two fences covered with these little pad locks on two difference bridges.
After crossing the first bridge our first stop was at Notre Dame. This one was really big and gorgeous. It looked just like the one from the movie haha.
After a few photos there we walked to the Louvre.
The line to enter the museum was pretty long but it moved quickly. The outside was amazing. So beautiful and the buildings were just breath taking. I love every inch of this place. After several minutes of standing in the heat, it was getting very sunny and warm by now we were finally through security and inside the main area between the difference exhibits right under the Louvre pyramid.
Maaaan talk about greenhouse effect it was so hot right underneath the Louvre pyramid. Anyways I got our tickets to enter the exhibits and then we were off! We walked through a statues hallway then some paintings and then it we turn the corner and there is the Mona Lisa! It was very cool I don't care what others said I loved it. I finally got a nice picture of it, no one else is in it :).
After my time with Mona Courtney and I walked around some of the painting exhibits. There are some very interesting events being depicted. Well after only spending an hour at the Louvre we head out and walk towards Arc de Triomphe. I got a couple pictures there and by this time we are getting a little hungry. Since we are still quite some distance from the Eiffel tower we decide to take the Metro over to it. The Eiffel Tower is soo cool up close. Pictures don't do it justice. The moment you see it up close you finally begin to realize that you aren't in Tacoma anymore but in frickin' France.
We walk all around the tower and then start lookin' for a place to snack. We end up at the little restaurant where we had a wonderful view of the tower. Courtney and I each had her favorite salad which is a green salad with toasted pieces of bread and warm goat cheese on the bread and a Dijon vinaigrette dressing it was veery good. I also had a Kir Royal which is Kir Liquor and champagne. It was also quite good and it's a staple french drink I was told. The whole meal was amazing oh and the day was perfect! Sunny, warm, breezy, clear with just a couple puffs of white clouds in the sky. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It's now almost 4:30pm and I still want to get my crepe so we walk around the other side of the Eiffel Tower and I get my very first crepe.
Courtney and I both got a crepe with banana and nutella. It was gooood. We ate them along the river with the most spectacular view of the water, the other side of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Well our train back to Dijon leaves at 7:45 pm ish so we start our walk back. We are really far from the train station but we figure we can make it. after 2 hours of straight walking along the side of the river we decide to take the metro the rest of the way; we didn't think we would make it in time and having to stay the night in Paris wouldn't be good.
After 10 minutes or so of trying to figure out where the nearest metro entrance was and then trying to find the correct train we finally find the two connecting trains to get us right inside the station or at least very close to it. We barely made the second train do to lots of people trying to also get on board and arrive inside the train station around 7:23pm. Courtney and I look at our tickets to see what train number we are on so we can find our what platform to head to... Well... looking at our tickets we find out that our train leaves at 7:28pm NOT 7:45pm... We had no idea what we were thinking... Well I spot our train number and it's at gate 11. I look and find 5 a 26 or whatever and that was gates 5 to 26 or whatever so now Courtney and I are running and these platforms were waay the heck out there. We run and get to platform 11 around 7:27pm quickly jumped on anywhere and then started to look for our carriage then seats, Courtney then jumps off to quickly ask someone that works there if we were in fact on platform 11 and that this train did stop in Dijon. The answer was yes, Courtney jumps back on, we get to our carriage and the trains takes off. Wow, a minute later anywhere along our journey and we would have missed this train. Some girl was sitting in Courtney's seat but after showing our tickets she got up and left and Courtney and I were on our way back to Dijon. We got back home around 9:07pm. I dropped her off at home and said goodbye in case I didn't see her tomorrow since she has a lot to do before Spring break and her family gets there. I'm not in my hotel and kinda bored. In a weird mood but it's okay. I'm kinda dreading going back to Nice I've had just a great time here. Well, I still have tomorrow to walk around Dijon I plan on going to the Musée des Beaux-Arts which I hear is wonderful. I really hope to see Courtney again tomorrow but if not meh oh well!
Okay I'm out. cya.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 16, 2011 from Paris, France

Day 7: Meh
Dijon, France
Today sucked. I had nothing to do at all. I did visit the Musée des Beaux-Arts and it was cool but I just wasn't in the right mood to fully enjoy it. I didn't get to see Courtney today because she had to pack, skype, and prepare for her Spring break because her family will be coming to France. I wish I had known before getting my train tickets so I could have left today instead of having to sit around waiting for tomorrow to come. I leave for Nice tomorrow morning which I'm also not looking forward to but meh I can't fix that either unless I want to spend money which isn't a problem It's just I don't want to. I think I'm all "Franced" out. Too many couples here it's annoying. I think I'll stick to less romantic places for future trips like the middle east or Northern Africa while I'm stuck being single haha. Well it's now 11:04pm, I'm all packed for leaving and just sitting in bed watching a muted soccer match on tv and listening to music play from my phone. I've played like 12 games of Yahtzee could tonight get any more pathetic?
So glad I'm blogging about all this. I wouldn't want to forget special moments like tonight grrr I'm so bored.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 17, 2011 from Dijon, France

On our way to Barcelona!
Barcelona, Spain
So today, around 9:00am, Kumiko and I meet up at the bear statue in SOL and together go to the train station in hopes to catch one of them to Barcelona. I checked online just before I left and figured we'd be getting the 11:30am one. Well we catch the metro to the train station and start our small journey to find the ticket office.... There are soo many different kinds of companies/offices we bounced from window to window, person to person until we finally find the train ticket office. We pull a number then wait. When our number got called Kumiko was trying to remember how to ask for two train tickets to Barcelona since very few people actually speak English. We get up to the counter and as Kumiko hesitates shortly I ask for two tickets to Barcelona. The guy smiles, says "Ah, Barcelona" and begins typing at his computer. He shows us the times, we ask for 11:30 and he prints off two tickets. Done and Done. Now we have two hours to find something to do. Outside, across the street from the train station we spot a McDonalds so we go there and get a very small and crappy breakfast. Oh I also want to add this McDonalds was WAAAY nicer than any I've seen in the US and was playing music that would NEVER have been played in the US at least not unedited. While there we find out that McDonalds has wifi and it's free so that's cool. Anywyas, 11:30am comes around, we get on the train and off to Barcelona we go!
Three hours pass and we arrive in Barcelona! It is very humid here. We enter the train station and well hmm, we have no hotel, no idea where in Barcelona the train station we arrive at even is and we have no plan. We head to the first metro map we see and see a station called Segrada Familia which is the famous cathedral in Barcelona and the one thing Kumiko wants to see here so we figure out the metro in this city and head there. The place is jam packed with people. But that is a good thing because where there are lots of tourists there are bound to be little huts of information and MAPS sooo we head to the park that is right across the street from the long line of people wanting to enter the cathedral and stop a little station where the lady gives us what looks to be a paper place-mat from McDonalds that is map. Well now we have a map of Barcelona, we know where the station is from our quick metro journey so now we just need a hotel. I look at the McDonalds map and notice that it marks every McDonalds in Barcelona. Well that's great, I tell Kumiko to follow me and I head straight to the closest McDonalds which is right around the corner. Luckily I'm starving by now so we order a small meal and find a place to sit. I finish my nuggets then whip out my phone and begin to use their free wifi :D I get on booking.com and start to look for hotels. I find three, screen-shot their names and addresses and now Kumiko and I are off to find a taxi. We show the driver the first hotel and he takes us right there. I ask if they have any rooms available but they do not :( Damn cause that place was nice. Anyways we find another taxi and show them the second hotel. We arrive and I ask this place if they have any rooms available. The lady behind the counter checks and yes they do! They had two rooms available. One room is a basic double and the other was an executive double with two stories, a terrace, one patio oh and a mini pool xD I said we want that one. Well 550 euros later we have the nice room for two nights :D Well today was basically walking around and getting to know the area. Tonight we wanted to try tapas so we went to the Moon bar? And orderd a few small dishes like calamari, fried hot chilies and four croquetas Oh and I got a salad which was absolutely AMAZING. omg it had like avocado, BACON, chicken, leaves and a balsamic glaze dressing sorta thing it was heavenly. Well Barcelona so far made a great impression on me :D
Bed time.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 16, 2011 from Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona Part dos.
Barcelona, Spain
Sooooo today reminded me why I like to travel alone. No offense to Kumiko but... Never again will I travel with her. Luckily she will never read my blog so I can say that. She bitchy and no fun. Okay, Aside from her being the most difficult person to enjoy a foreign land with Barcelona was amazing! We woke up around 8:30, okay I woke up at 8:30, Kumiko was up waay before that, and after I showered and got dressed we headed out. Okay, real quick this is where the first of many "seriously?" moments occurred with Kumiko....So I am the one paying 550euros for the hotel. My hotel. I am now paying for two hotels in Spain. One thing I like when I travel is my privacy. Which I keep by putting the 'do not disturb' sign outside my door at all times. I don't need someone coming into my room when I'm not there just to make my bed, and not with new sheets or comforters by the way, move my stuff around, or give me a fresh roll of toilet paper. I can ask for toilet paper and towels when I am in the hotel and need them. So as we are leaving the room Kumiko flips the do not disturb sign around so it says please come into my room and do stuff.... I ask "what are you doing? I don't want anyone in there while we're gone." Kumiko, like the spoiled little princess she is actually has the nerve to argue back and say "I want it cleaned." We were only in that room for like 13 hours, and 7 of those were sleeping... the room doesn't need cleaning... AT ALL. She gives me hella attitude like she even has a say... "Well whatever," i said and she had her wait but I said if anything of mine goes missing I'm blaming you. Anyways, now are finally off to visit la Sagrada Família. The famous cathedral everyone imagines when thinking of Barcelona. That place was amazing and very odd compared to other cathedrals I've seen around the world. It had a sort of extra terrestrial feeling to it with all it's bulbs and rounded surfaces. Anyways, we arrive later than we had originally planned. We wanted to get there a little before 9:00am since that's when the cathedral opened and we knew lines formed quickly but since I woke up late we arrived around 9:20. Well the lines weren't that long, nothing compared to the day before around 2:00pm, and so we jump in line. Kumiko is upset and complaining about the segrade going to be crowded when we get there because we didn't get here earlier and suggested we try again tomorrow.... Seriously? I had to explain to her that either we get here irrationally early so to be first in line thus first in the cathedral in which case we would only have minutes before everyone else was let in. So irritating. Anyways after explaining that there are going to be people in there no matter how early we get here because they aren't going to stop allowing people to pay for entry just because you want to be alone we should stay in line and go today. We were in line only about 15 minutes and were inside the cathedral in no time :) We both got two tickets, one entrance and one to go up to the towers. we had about an hour twenty before our time to go up. This was plenty of time to see the ground floor and take lots of pictures :D. 10:30 comes along and we are now in an elevator going up. Once we reach the top we then had the most spectacular views of Barcelona. the city is beautify from above. Kumiko and I spend about thirty five minutes at the top slowing moving in the direction of the stairs to go down (yeah, they make you walk back down via swirly stair case.) Next we spend about another forty minutes or so around the outside and through the museum. After la Sagrada Família we head back to around our hotel where Casa Milà or La Pedrera. This place is a building built by Antoni Gaudí. I don't really know what I saw here cause it was very odd. I do know there were apartments and there were elevators on every second floor cause Gaudí wanted it's inhabitants to know one another. the roof was extremely weird with huge pieces of art and the inside was very old. Oh and on what was... umm.. the 3rd floor? Was a museum explaining the history of the building and the inspiration for it's design from nature. Lot's of very interesting pieces on display explaining the different aspects of the building design polygonal shapes, curvature. After Casa Milà we decided to head back in the direction of the hotel to get some lunch. We went to this little tavern called Taverna Mediterranea right across the street from our hotel. This place was amazing and the staff were awesome. The main guy got a soccer jersey signed by Messi and had it framed and one of the ladies that worked there was putting it up on the wall. The man was very happy with it haha it was fun. We ordered the roasted chili peppers, deepfried cuttlefish, and green olives stuffed with anchovies as started. I ordered a steak with mushrooms and grilled onions which when asked how I wanted the steak cooked I answered, "well done" and the waiter told me "no," then pointed to his shoe haha he said I wanted medium well I said "well done!" he was firm in his decision of me getting it medium well haha. It was amazing! After lunch I wanted to head to the coast so Kumiko and I took some metros south and first went to the bus station to buy our bus tickets back to Madrid. After getting those, Oh also, around the bus station is an Arc del Triomf. This one is waay cooler looking than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris haha. Okay so after getting bus tickets we head to a couple cathedrals down in the old part of Barcelona, Cathedral of Santa Eulalia and Santa Maria del Mar. These places were pretty awesome with the latter being the better one. Santa Maria del Mar had a very odd Palm tree oases in the middle of it. For some reason the greenery surrounded by stone was so cool. Anyways, these were two very quick stops. Now we are walking around the old part of Barcelona with it's narrow streets and little cafes and tapas restaurants. I was in heaven here. Aside from the crowds this was what I love to see and do. See the architecture and getting lost. Which is exactly what happened when we wanted to go to the harbor. I said "This way" as I'm pointing left from this little plaza. Wanted to just walk around Barcelona and eventually get to the water I started walking in the direction I pointed and Kumiko followed. Okay so during the next hour or so we passed some locals and what I think were some prostitutes in what could best be described as the Bronx version of Barcelona, some Muslims rioting over something, some children playing cricket in between two buildings and into an area were we didn't see any tourists. I finally pull out my map and say lets go into this little mart and see where we are. Kumiko asked if I knew where I was going. I said "nope" lol. This is where things get interesting and why I kept reminding myself why I prefer to travel alone because at this moment Kumiko got into one of those female tantrums. Saying things like "don't say you know where you are going when you really don't" and "if you don't know where you are going then ask for directions." sigh... seriously? I told her I never said I knew where I was going and that I just wanted to walk around and eventually end up where we wanted to go. She blew off what I said as if I was wrong and she was right and said no, you said you knew where you were going. I said I never said those words, all I said was "this way." And anyways, she said "nope but whatever" and did that whole girl thing where you guys just get quiet and start walking as if it actually makes you're lies real. ANYWAYS, turns out we were going in the complete opposite direction from the water and had to backtrack like30 minutes or so. Man Kumiko was piiiiissed. I was laughing so hard at how mad she was. She just kept walking at a super fast pace. She is so irritating. Grrr okay I'm done with her, all in all we finally get to the port! It's very beautiful there. We send a good two hours walking around this area taking pictures and soaking up the beauty. After a good amount of time here we decide to head back to the hotel but first Kumiko wanted to grab some souvenirs for her host family from Barcelona... Now... The thought is nice but seriously? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure lots of people would think to do the same but I just don't get it. If I was hosting someone here and they went off to, like, Pullman or lake Chelan or even Seattle, I would not want them to get me anything from there... souvenirs are junk. I accept the fact that the spoons I collect from every country I've been to is technically junk but they actually have a purpose and no one else got them for me. Okay so we are finally on our back back to the hotel. back at the hotel it was very quiet... I went straight upstairs and Kumiko went straight to the bathroom and shut the door. She was in there for the whole hour or so I have no idea doing what but when I had to pee I set the dead bolt in the door so it wouldn't shut all the way and went up one floor to use the public bathroom. I was kinda trying to avoid Kumiko during this time. Anyways, she came out around 9ish and asked if I wanted to go get something to eat. So we headed out to find dinner. After walking in circles we ended up going to this Japanese restaurant haha. This was weird, my brain didn't know how to comprehend a Japanese waitress speaking Spanish in a Japanese restaurant. And on top of that as soon as we sit down the lady who seated us throws like a million different menus on our table - ones in Spanish, ones in English, lists in which we can pick 5 dishes from for 13.35 euros and another list in which for 9 euros we can pick 3 options and we can use the numbers next to each dish on the lists in Spanish to find them on the English menus, or we can use the bug menus and order from the set meals for 2 people, or we can just order large dishes, or individual dishes it was chaos! I felt like I was doing homework! In the end we decided to each do the 5 small dishes each for 13.35 per person. I got friend wontons, miso soup, raw fish, dumplings and uh a breaded meat in a sweet and sour sauce. All in all it was pretty good and a cool idea having multiple small dishes rather than one big dish. We called it a night after that and went to bed after check some internetz like right now.
Tomorrow we are going to try and visit Hospital de Sant Pau with a guided tour so we can get access to the tunnels since the whole place is under construction right now. Also get a quick lunch, pick up some snacks for the bus ride back to Madrid and finally get to the bus station before 2:30pm.
Over and out - :D
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 17, 2011 from Barcelona, Spain

Day 8: Back in Nice
Nice, France
So I caught the train this morning back to Nice. The 6 hour journey once again went by really quickly. Well nothing happened during these 6 hours. The views were amazing I missed most of the country-side ones due to strategically places trees and hills but as we got closer to Marseille, Cannes and Nice I happened to snap a few coastal and city pictures.
I am in love with the buildings here in France I just think they are beautiful! It was a very sunny day and got even more so the more South we got. Luckily down in the French Riviera there are less trees and hills to get in the way of my picture taking so I was able to snap a few photos of the coast.
I arrived in Nice around 3:30pm then caught a taxi and got to my hotel around 4:15pm. I'm staying at the Hotel Elysee Palace in a Sea-view Junior Suite but the Sea view isn't all that great. The room is very nice and the hotel over all is just great. The site even has a weird thing goin' on that I just had to take a picture of lol.
Well I walked around a little today but I didn't really see anything new. I got lunch which was this green salad with bacon, mushrooms and mustard sauce but I now know when I see "mustard sauce" it really means they just dump mustard all over it eeh it was too strong; it should never be a tough task to finish a salad. I got back to my hotel around 7 tonight and just relaxed for the rest of the night. Made some calls and uploaded all my France photos to date. Well I'm calling it a night.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 18, 2011 from Nice, France

Farewell Barcelona!
Barcelona, Spain
So today we woke up, packed up, I grabbed the do not disturb sign cause I collect those and headed out. Since our bus didn't leave until 2:30pm and we had to check out by noon and it was only 9:20am we decided to check out then and luckily the hotel locked up our bags so we could see a few more things before leaving and not have to lug them around. So today we went to visit Hospital de Sant Pau. Parts of the hospital was under construction so in order to gain access to the under ground tunnels we needed to join a tour group. So we got to the hospital around 10:06am and saw the first english speaking tour was at 10:00am. But it had just started three minutes ago so we paid and quickly joined up with the group. The group consisted of around 12 kids maybe in like 9th grade? And three adults. Looked to be a school trip. One of the funny looking boys got on my nerves but that's just cause he looked funny and kept running into me. anyways, aside from a veeeery slow and boring beginning the tour was quite good. I mean don't get me wrong, I could have researched all this in half the time it took to walk through and hear the guide's speech but he was very into the hospital's history and was full of knowledge I ended up loving it. My views on tours hasn't changed the slightest and I still avoid them but I am not disappointed with doing this one. I learned a LOT about the place and boy did a lot of work get put into making the place pleasant for the patients starting with the colors used inside, outside, on the roofs and walls, down to the size of the buildings, shapes of the stones, directions of windows, religious options offered for healing, topographical layout of the facilities as in patients with infectious diseases are in the northern half of the facility so that the winds from the south when they blow through will take the diseases north and outward away from the hospital. I mean they thought about almost everything. There is just so much information I'm leaving out but basically in the end the hospital with it's many buildings was basically a city within a city. It was self sufficient with it's own farms nearby. Oh and not to mention how it got started. Okay anyways it's now 12:20am and Kumiko and I are now looking for a place to eat. We stop by this small still place and order fried green chilies, green olives and what seemed to be the breading used in frying seafood rolled into little bite sized balls but with a hint of seafood flavor like crab or something. I ordered pasta and Kumiko got a sandwich. The food was delicious. After we ate we went back to the hotel to pick up our bags. After we got our bags we stopped by this pastry place and got some snacks for the 8 hour bus ride back to Madrid. Well we get to the bus station, wait for our bus, get on said bus and head back to Madrid. Lots of small things happened on the bus but not really worth writing out. Just small little moments one sees when around the same group of people for an extended period of time. Well we got back to Madrid around 10:00pm Kumiko and I part ways at the metro and I am off to my hotel. MY hotel. lol. I oddly missed this room. Well Guess should call it a night I am exhausted.
^_^
Oh tomorrow is my last day in Spain :(.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 18, 2011 from Barcelona, Spain

Varanasi, India
Oh my god. Past three days have been hella rough. This is what I've been up to.
Monday I woke up at 3:30am and checked out and got to the airport around 4:30am to leave for New Delhi. I had like 4 or 5 flights that I could standby on. I get there, get to the ticket agent and they won't accept my tiket, apperently I had to go through this process first to be able to use their airlines with my zed ticket bought with Jet Airways so anyways after battling with ticket agent after ticket agent one of them finally just does it for me but I soon find out the 7:35am flight is now so overbooked they won't even let me standby, so is the evening flight with that airlines. Great two flights down and the rest of the other flights are later in the day. Ok so, basically I'm at the airport getting rejected after rejected for standbying, hours later i'm starting to know the staff that's working that day, both the taxi people outside and the information helpers inside oh and the girls with northwest airlines who were a huuuge help in getting me out of Thailand. I finally pull out my phone and start looking up other cities in India I could use my ticket for. I find Kolkata, and so I rush to Thai airways booth and ask if my ticket to delhi could be used to get me to Kolkata and they say yes and to come back at 6 to check in. 'Till then I'm still trying the other airlines to get to Delhi and I'm still getting rejected due to overbooking. It's finally 6:00pm, I've been here for 13.5 hours and they say the flight looks good and to come back at 10:50pm to see if I have a seat. So 'till then I have dinner, a beer with a taxi driver, talked to an English dude and his Thai girlfriend (oh by the way, there are a lot of white dudes old and young with Thai girls haha), sitting around a lot, watching a Thai movie being shot at the airport and I finally get a seat and make the 11:30 flight to Kolkata....before the flight I meet this man and his family who says if I really wanna experience India, then I should spend a month hiking in the hymalayas (Eliot, Cam, that's us next summer haha) and he tells me all about when to go what it's like and explained how the weather works there, he drew pictures for me and gave me his email address if I had any questions regarding the possible trip. Ok so now It's midnight, Tuesday, and I land in India, oh Indians and planes, that's a whole other story, I felt sorry for the pretty Thai flight attendants. Anyways my first 5 min in India, after their crazy customs check, I'm fighting with their crazy taxi driver who say the fare to my hotel is, which I called before exiting the airport to check on what the fare should be and if they have any open rooms, is 890 rupees... The hotel said 215 rupees. Shit so now were calling the hotel back, the taxi drivers and me (cause by now more have come over...) And they finally work out a price of 250, I only had 850 rupees on me so I decided to give them a 10USD, the driver drops me off at the railway station and I'm lost. Omg this town at night is the scariest place I've been, thank god everyone is so nice haha. This taxi driver helps me out in finding a place to stay. We drive around for like 40 min going to hotel after hotel and we finally get back to one we checked out earlier and the driver worked out a deal for me so I could stay, I only had 700 rupees on me by now so I gave the driver 200, and for the 800 rupee room I gave the man my last 500 and my passport to hold on to... It's around 3am now I'm in a room and I can't sleep, I got maybe 4 hours that night. At 8am I left to get money to pay the last 300 and more. The hotel guy really helped me out that day. After walking around Kolkata for an hour tryin to not get lost finding money exchange place the front desk guy of my hotel helped me get a ticket to Varanasi and had it delivered to me at the hotel since tickets aren't bought at the station this really saved me time and money. My train left at two. Time passes by and the guy with my ticket shows up at noon like they said, I pay him and they find me a taxi and now I'm at the station... The place the first taxi dropped me off the night before... I was sweating so bad it was crazy. I bought two litres of water and a 7-up for only 40 rupees! That's under a dollar. I finally figure out where my train is around 1:50 and I get shown my berth. Haha ok these next 18 hours really lifted my spirits about this trip. Met this military man who helped me out and before he left asked If I wanted him to tell the guy sitting with us when my stop was so he did. The rest of the people I was with was this huge guy and his son, this other skinny dude who was really nice and a business man. All were there the whole 18 hours with me. During this time I'm chillin and dying from the lack of AC On this train. Nothing big happened for the first 6 hours, I had my first chai tea in India. They get served in these little clay cups that you toss out the window when finished, actually you toss everything out the window when you're finished with it haha. By now I'm getting aquanted with my cabin. Ok so now this father, mother, daughter and um uncle I think joins us for part of the trip. You know something us up when the father asks out of no where if I have a girlfried, followed by how old am I haha. I answer, then watch as he speaks to his daughter in hindi whose now laughing and blushing and looks at me. The father says "that is my daughter" and I say "oh she's very pretty" she actually was mind you. So now the jokes start about him trying to get us together mmm good awkward fun now our whole section of the train is taking about me and that daughter, then the father leans over to me and says "give her a couple of days and she will give in" haha. So now they are joking about, well nevermind the details, all in all if their Stop wasn't that right when it was and they were with us the rest of my ride I prolly would have had a wife by Varanasi haha (joking mom!) kinda lol. Later on this trip I get some dudes junk thrown in my face... He was dressed as a chick and wanted something that I wasn't going to give (no that is not the part that lifted my spirits...) Eeh moving on, 18 hours later I'm in Varanasi! Finding a hotel was a whole lot easier and the tuk-tuk drivers were soo nice and not ripping me off at all. I'm now at the kareshut hotel and hot as he'll. Well I'll prolly update this entry with more stuff, right now I typed this all up on my phone so there's bound to by typos and stuff I missed. All is well and I'm still alive.
K heading out to the town.
Byee
Update (rest of the day)
Well it's now 10:22 and I'm stuffed and tired. After a well needed shower (it's been three days now without one) I head to the front desk to figure out where to get money and to get train tickets. A man working there says he will get my ticket and will also show me around town explaining things and all that touristy stuff free of charge. Well nothing is free and I don't like guides so I opted out. He still helped me exchange some money but before the he brought me to the Muslim part of Varanasi to take a free tour of the business that goes on there... It seemed a bit skethy but during it I had a good time, walked with the cutiest kids ever and learned how those one I a kind um what are they called... Duveys?? (spelling?) and those plankets you frame and put on walls and those sheets with the silver and gold threads that no one ever sees but are given to royality anyways I got to see how those are made in these little family homes. Then in the end I meet the man in charge and, this is where it gets sketchy, then he's showing me all these expensive decorative spreads and cloth pieces, then asks if I'm interested in buying one... Yup always money involved. After a half hour of him saying there is no obligation but still stacking on the discounts, mind you these things are ati in the couple hundreds range I finally get out without buying even the cheapest piece he has, and 900 rupees. I'm now back at the hotel and giving money out I'd my train ticket to Agra. I then venture out to find the river where I see the second white guy since being in india. I ended up stopping to talk and fund out he's lookin for the river too, I continue on down this road and he meets up with me and we find the ganges river. We're chillin out just enjoying the view and watched a ceramony performance then we went to get some food and we parts ways. Were both gonna head to the river tomorrow morning at 5am to catch a boat ride up river at dawn. And then to take a dive in the holy water. Well now I'm back in my room, it's 10:37pm and I'm waiting for my train ticket still...
K byee.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 24, 2009 from Varanasi, India

Day 10: Final day in Europe spent in Nice, France
Nice, France
Well today was my last full day in France and I must say it was awesome. It was a beautiful day I wouldn't have changed a thing and I took lots of pictures! To start off the day I woke up at 10 then snoozed till noon :D I wanted to visit the Matisse museum today so I got up, showered, made myself an espresso, checked my email and headed out to find a taxi. There are a lot of female taxi drivers here haha just something I noticed.
I couldn't take pictures inside the Matisse exhibit but it was housed inside the building Matisse had once lived in... I think.. I'll look into that. Anyways, I took a lot of pictures of the building. The exhibit was quite small so after I went through it I decided to walk south to the Museum of Chagall.
Chagall painted some very interesting pieces. I would say about 80 percent of the paintings I saw were of the 'woah' factor. I did particularly like one painting and luckily I was allowed to take pictures in this museum :D.
After Chagall I did a LOT of walking around the old town taking pictures left and right. I was just in "awe" of the coast line. I wanted to get some pictures of Nice from up above so I found my way to some stairs. I looked around and found a tunnel that led to a lift. whew. Well, the ride up was funny, some ladies were in there with me and one of the older ones had one too many buttons unbuttoned. One of the other ladies mentioned it and now I don't speak French but I'm pretty sure she replied back, while buttoning up of course, 'oh I don't hear him complaining.' haha anyways by the end of the ride I'm pretty sure we all were a little closer haha. So the views from up there were spectacular. I found a path that got me up higher and actually lead me to a castle. The panoramic views were perfect from the very top.
Well After a few more hours of picture taking I ended my day in the hotel bar. Well actually after there I decided to go for one more walk along the beach. It was about 7:00pm the sun was setting and it was starting to get pretty cold out. The beach was beautiful and there weren't that many people out. Actually there weren't that many people out the whole day compared to my very first day in Nice. There were though a lot of people gathered around the main shopping street but I only passed through there very briefly while I was temporarily lost lol. Well I depart tomorrow morning at 7:55 am to Paris and then at sometime after 10am I depart to Seattle where I'll be landing around 11:50am and have to be at work by 2pm. blah.
written by  Kennyboy12 on April 20, 2011 from Nice, France

Varanasi, India
Oh man, I'm starting to miss home. sike.
Today I was supposed to wake up before sunrise (4:30am ish) and head to the ghats. It's now 6:00am and I'm just rolling out of bed. So I miss the sunrise and meeting up with nick, the Australian dude from the night before. I still head to the river and pay for a private boat ride up the river. This hour long drift was so relaxing and the view of the city was amazing I took pictures of course. During the river journey we stopped at the burning ghat where a live cremation was being done and watched, by live I mean done in public not that the person was alive lol during this part I wasn't allowed to take pictures out of respect. After the boat ride I head back to my hotel and wait for my train tickets still... Ok so the rest of the day was spent waiting for my tickets which the man couldn't get. Eventually I end up buying a plane ticket from Varanasi to Delhi for 4500 rupees... Retarded but I really wanted to move on. So now I have a plane ticket and I ask if I can book train tickets for other cities from here. The travel agent guy and my hotel host said yes. So now were working out bus/train tickets for a route that was Delhi ---> Agra ---> Jaisalmer ---> Delhi. There was a connecting train bus I forget in Johdpur between Agra and Jaisalmer. In the end I opted out heading west to Jaisalmer and to just end my first trip to India with Delhi and Agra. I'll be back someday for the west and south parts of India. A couple hours later and more waiting and a thousand rupees later I have my train tickets for Delhi to Agra and back to Delhi. Sigh... Expensive stuff. Well now I'm packing up my things and heading to bed. I check out at 11:30 tomorrow. You know I never did take a dip in the Ganges, maybe I'll get up early, hopefully before sunrise and head back down one more time, then take a dive. We'll see how things go tomorrow morning.
Oh btw, on my way back from the river this morning a man approached me and we talked and he helped me find the street my hotel is off of but of course he wanted to show me the family silk business....I know Varanasi silk is what every Indian bride wants but do these "family businesses" need business that bad that they have to bug me? I'm cutting my trip short and they want me to buy shit. Heh. I didn't buy anything just so you know.
Well bed time.
Byee
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 25, 2009 from Varanasi, India

New Delhi, India
So today I arrive in NEW DELHI! And all I can say is... Arriving in New Delhi at 3 in the afternoon beats the hell out of arriving in Kolkata at 1 in the morning... By far. Also, New Delhi would have been a WAY better starting point for my adventures in India because it's such a nice step up to what I've been through. The people here don't beg to you as much, and the main bazaar is waaay easier to handle than any in Varanasi or Kolkata. But then again they did toughin me up so now this place is a walk in the park. I also have a very nice room for only Rs300. man I'm getting spoiled here!
Too bad I leave tomorrow morning for Agra but I have reservations for a nice place there right next to the Taj Mahal. I'll be back in Delhi the day after tomorrow, so I Think I will call it a night. It's about 6:30 am back home so it only makes sence that I would want to go to bed now haha, good times. Oh, while I was at the airport leaving Varansi, during the second security I had some sort of mystery metal hidden in my backpack... i put my back through the scanner, i walked through the metal detector then the security lady pulled me off to the side and asked if this was my bag and if i had any coins in it... i said yes, and we pulled out my canadian, thai and US coins... then she emptied out the larger sipper and the medium zipper and the two on the sides... now all my shits in a bucket and my bags getting scanned again, for a second time, then a third time, then i finally ask to see the monitor and they show me, and by they i mean the rest of the security crew is now with us... and i look at what they see and it hits me I had two metal bookmarks in my pen holder in the smaller zipper which we already emptied (minus the bookmarks....) sigh, we all laugh and im let free... retarded. alrighty, not much happened today, just checking out of Varanasi, getting over frisked at the airport and now arriving in Delhi. Mmmm such a nice easy much needed day.
K im taking my two litre water bottle and heading to my room.
Tomorrow at 5:00am my train to Agra leaves.
byee.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 26, 2009 from New Delhi, India

Final Day and Hemingway
So today is my last full day in Spain :( I slept in till around 2:30pm. Finally got our of bed at 3:00pm because some little bastard bug bit both my feet either in Barcelona or last night and man are they itchy! Anyways I showered, got dressed and headed out to SOL. I walked ALL around just south of that area. It was a beautiful day and I was taking pictures left and right. After about an hour I decided to go find the oldest restaurant in the world 'Sobrino de Botín'. The same one Ernest Hemingway ate at and also mentioned in two of his books :D I knew I was close so I grabbed the next taxi I saw and they brought me right to it. I took a few pictures from the outside and decided to end my trip in Spain with dinner here, tonight. I didn't do any research on if I needed a reservation or not or when I need to be there or really anything about the place but I figured dinner around 8:00pm would be nice. After making this plan I made my way back to SOL and caught the metro up and over to Nuevos Ministerios where I thought I saw a few cool sites when driving by that area a several days ago. Well I walked around here and didn't really see anything nice except for one place which I can't seem to find it's name.. I'll keep looking online and add it later if I find out what it was. Anyways there were a lot of shops in the area I was so I decided to visit one of them. I went into Massimo Dutti. Now this is the sort of store I wish I could frequently shop at. I walked around inside looking at the shoes, shirts, pants and jackets. I finally found one I really liked and it fit nicely. Well, 120 euros later it was mine :D. What! It's my birthday trip I get what I want :P Well I was done with this area and remember noticing how nice it looked just east of SOL so i caught the metro back to SOL and started walking east. Saw a lot of great sites like the Palacio de Comunicaciones in The Plaza de Cibeles and Parque de Retiro which is a beautiful park. Well 4 hours have passed and I have seen a lot today. It's about 7:00pm so I start my journey to Botín to see if I can even get in to eat. I show up around 7:50 and see a small crowd gathered around the entrance. Luckily it's just a line and it's still moving! So I hop in and when It's my turn I tell the guy for one and he asks if I have a reservation. I tell him no and he says no problem and directs me left where I am now going downstairs to cellar area. The place was still really cool I had a take in the corner and was handed my wine and food menu. I decided to order the house special menu which for 43 euros I got Gazpacho, Roast Suckling Pig, Half Bottle Red Wine, Bottle of Water and a Loaf of Bread. The roast suckling pig was basically a whole pig roasted over an open fire and two big chunks cut out and plated. The skin was crispy like chips. The whole meal was delicious :D I'm so glad I got a table. Well I am now back in my room. I called my mom and dad and about to call the front desk to ask for a wake up call since I should probably be at the airport by 10:00am.
Well, Goodnight! Last night :D

Idk
New Delhi, India
My pillow is lumpy and my ceiling fan is wabbly... Hmmm.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 26, 2009 from New Delhi, India

Day 10 -The Taj Ma-Holy crap!- (6/27/2009)
Agra, India
Oh.My.God.
What a frickin awesome day. So I wake up in Delhi this morning around 4:00am shower and head to the train station to catch my 5:30am train to Agra. While on this short 3 hour journy I got kicked out of sitting on the two lower berths by an old Pakistani mother.... Retarded because those two seats are for everyone to sit on during the day I believe... But I wasn't about to protest going to the top berth where I have to lay down when her three grown kids were with her... Wouldn't want a huge chunk of northern India getting blown up.... (I'm still a little bitter about it haha) anyways I also meet Dr. M. Ramalingeswara Reddy and his assistant who is a dentist who does speciality dental work, along with other things. Ok so this man is prolly the only real honest and helpful Indian I've encountered so far. He is from southern India and was helping his sister out with her work in India while he was gone and so he was heading to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort for the day before heading back to Delhi to relax then flying back south on Tuesday for work. He brought his assistant along to show him the Taj Mahal (he alway goes to see it when in Delhi). So I spent the day with those two before they took the 5:00pm train backnto Delhi. Not only did this guy help me with what stop Agra was, but we all shared a cab to my hotel so that I could check in and drop off my bag then to the Taj Mahal and he covered the fare. He offered to cover my entry fee but I told him I had it. Then he showed me the Taj Mahal.
That place is indescribable.... It's just breath taking, amazing, beautiful. Your eyes can't begin to see the whole thing when at the front door. The whole place is just... Wow.
Well after visiting the Taj, he took me out to lunch and so we ate at the hotel since it was right outside the east gate of the Taj (he covered the bill for that too) then we went to see Agra fort which is just amazing and the architecture was gorgeous. After an hour or so there we went back to my hotel and we said our goodbyes and I went up to my room to nap since I didn't really sleep the night before. The Dr. And assistant chilled at the hotel for couple hours until they had to leave for Delhi. This guy covered all the taxi fares, protected me from the Indians annoying me trying to sell me stuff and rip me off (he actually told this one kid that I was his brother and to leave me alone haha) all around great day. The guy said I was a guest in his country.
Well that was my day in Agra! I'm staying at the Sheela Inn and this place ia really great, the staff is awesome, the rooftop has a nice view, and the room comes with toilet paper! Well I have an auto-rickshaw coming tomorrow at 5:00am to take me to the train station and right now I finished drinking some water on the rooftop and am back in my room about to call it a night.
K byee.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 27, 2009 from Agra, India

New Delhi, India
So today was very basic; woke up at the crack of dawn, caught my auto-rickshaw to the Agra train station I was on a tran back to New Delhi. Heh, during this journey some yound child started biting my shoe... In Delhi I found another place to sleep (The Hotel White Empire {a really sucky place}) and then made my way up and down the main bazar and eventually to see the Red Fort oh on the way back from the fort I saw a man make a cobra dance, he walked up to my rickshaw sat down and opened a basket and a frickin cobra jumped out. The old man then said "picture!" but I knew I would have to pay for that picture but i had no small bills on me at the time so I said no no, no picture but he continued to tame the cobra and make it dance and do stuff as he kept tappin it's head, hella badass, then my driver took off as the old man was asking for money again... After that I walked some more, bought a shirt uh forgot what its called but its like a super thin bandana and a little larger and several litres of juice and water and now im heading back to my room to call it a night. Tomorrow I check out and find a nicer place to stay for my last night in India to take a real shower, get some laundry done, sleep in a real bed and maybe get my jacket dry cleaned haha.
well adiós!
PS: The ladie working for Qatar Airways call center was a bitch. No help and was being very mean. >:o
byee.
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 28, 2009 from New Delhi, India

You know that scene from Quantum of Solace where James Bond and the really really hot bond chick crash the plane in the desert, walk through the caves and the tiny village then arrive at the 5 star hotel completely filthy and shoeless and everyones looking at them as they pick up their room key? Well today I felt like James Bond (minus the really really hot bond chick). So this morning I woke up around 8:00am at the Hotel White Empire, hella shitty place, found a bed bug, killed another bug, packed my bags ad decided to spend my last night in India, hopefully, in a nicer hotel. So I checked in to the Le Meridian New Delhi 5 star business hotel. Haha. I'm Crazy. Don't ask why I did this, it was pretty random. Anyways, I hadn't showered in a few days and have been sweating nonstop during that time. I was wearing my dress pants and shirt both of which were filthy with sweat stains, mud stains, spit, juice stains and all kinds of crap. I walked through the security and up to the counter and paid for a single room with breakfast. I think the total came out to around 160USD for the night after taxes, the man said Rs7500 including taxes but well see when I check out and pay. The room is so badass, best hotel I've been to so far. So moving on, ive been relaxing in a very sweetass room took a shower in a waterfall and ate a delicious Chinese dinner on the top floor which was another Rs1600. Then I sent my clothes out to get washed and my jacket drycleaned then walked around the hotel, and now I'm just watching Air Force One drinking Cordon Negro.
This is the life.
K, well I'm gonna finish watching the movie and head to bed.
I'm listed for a fligt to Dubai and it looks as if I'll make it but not the flight to Cairo.
I check out at 11:30. And fly out hopefully at 4:15pm.
Kk well that's all, today was a chill day from hectic India.
Byee!

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Hmmmm so today I wake up around 9am call the service counter and have then send up my clothes and jacket. I then take a nice long shower and eventually head down to the lobby for breakfast. After a nice slow breakfast I head back to my awesome room and gather my stuff to check out. Turns out the whole bill came out to around 281 dollars that's or the room/laundry/drycleaning/dinner.
I arrive at the airport at 1 like the man on the phone from Emirates told me to do and as far as I knew everything was taken care of and all I had to do was tell the Emirates ticket agents that I was there. But noooo it wasn't that simple. Ok first of all I had one ticket that I could use for both Qatar and Emirates airlines. I just happened to have the Qatar routing on my tickets which doesn't really mean anything since they are both in the same ZED Zone. Anyways, to cut to the point the Emirates people said I could not use my ticket with them cause it had Qatar on it... After an hour of me yelling at them telling them how it all works and explaining in detail the workings of a staff ticket and that I've done this 5 times the past two weeks and kept having them call people higher and higher in command... They finally let me on the flight... Omg hella retarded... Anyways that was the first issue, I also spent anoter 30 minutes protesting paying the airport tax of $22 because it was included in the ticket I had. Implicitly... anyways... I said fuck it and paid the stupid tax twice.... I'm calling in on this when I return.
So now I'm in Dubai!
Big mistake... Well sorta. This place is not the place a backpacker with no reservations should stop at. First off it's a pricey city to begin with, nd secondly, well I have no connections for cheap places to stay and all the hostels online had no open rooms for tonight... So now I'm at a 4 star hotel, the Metropolitan hotel Deira. Haha. $83 gets me a room and transportation to/from the airport. Sigh...
Well I'm off to bed, gotta leave here at 4:00am. :(
K byee!
written by  Kennyboy12 on June 30, 2009 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Day 14 - Egypt has been nerfed - update 1: Did I hear Iran??? - update 2: scratch Iran it's now Qatar - (7/1/2009)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
This country will not let me leave!
I've been at this airport since 4:20 am and it is now 6:00pm. I've looked at all flights to Cairo for today and tomorrow and all flights to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia, Sudan and Bahrain.... All overbooked. Man using zed tickets was a baaad idea haha. Well now I know how it all works for the most part. Well I still have half a zed ticket for the distance between Cairo and Dubai so I'm still looking for a place to fly to. Egypt is a no go at all and would take some sort of miracle for me, or some tragedy to others to get there this summer. So my trip will be cut short quite some time and I'll be turning 21 where ever the hell I can get myself. I have a good chance of making a wide open flight to Osaka tomorrow morning at 3:10am so that will at least get me in Japan. So this means I'll be at the airport till then... Heh. I've been up since 3:00am. Stupid rich country not letting me leave....and I haven't even had a chance to do anythin here like head to the beach or see the sites. I know the airport quite well and the shuttle driver between the terminals haha. Well we'll see where I end up in the next 24 hours. I'm kinda wanting to ape d a day in Syria haha. Nah I'm too scared to even hang out in their airport.
Well I'll update this throughout the rest of today or this morning or people back home.
Byee.
::Update::
So a flight to Iran is open enough for the ticket agent to say there's a 100% chance of me getting a seat! So I checked prices from Tehran, Iran to Cairo, Egypt and they are only $370. Looks as though I'll be visiting Iran! ... I hope :).
So emirates airlines are fuckers. omg fuck them. Anyways they suck major balls and pretty much screwed everything up and costed me $375 cause they're fucktards. So yea, well now I'm flying to Doha, Qatar to try and use my zed ticket from there to Cairo. So egypt is hopefully still a go. Oh, btw. STARBUCKS! that's right, as I'm walking down the huuuge center of the Dubai international airport, coming up to my gate, at the very end of the.... Yellow brick road... or whatever... I slowly begin to recognize those giant green letters. Haha. Best part was... They knew how to make my drink. This makes being at the fucking airport for 24 hours a little better. Oh I also got a spoon from here too. (I think only my parents will know what that means). Anyways, it's now 4:00am the next day and my flight departs at 5:55am :( omg I'm going to explode...
K byee
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 1, 2009 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Cairo, Egypt
So I FINALLY make it to Cairo... Only 36 hours, three airports and $375 later. Man it has been quite the... um Day? So to recap a little. I woke up at 3:00am ish July 1st, and got to the Dubai international airport around 4:15/4:20 ish. After not making the 6:00am or 3:00pm flights to cairo I start trying to figure out where else I could fly to so to spend as little as possible on a real ticket from there to Cairo. I looked at flying into three different cities in Saudi Arabia, two in Pakistan, one in Sudan/Ethiopia/Jordan/Israel/Omen/Iran/Yeman. I tried all over the place, and the cheapest I found was from Tehran, Iran but that price quickly jumped an extra $100 within 30 min. So now it's around 8:00pm and I've been in the staff ticketing section for 16 hours checking loads and calling my mom and trying to figure out the best route to take which was starting to look like skipping Egypt and just taking the wide open flight to Osaka, Japan at 3:10am July 2. After hours of more planning and failing, i decided to call it all off and just head to Japan right then and end my trip early. So now I'm talking with the ticket agents for Emirates airlines and they say they can't issue me a ticket based off the ticket I had because it was a ticket under Qatar Airways and had the city Doha to Cairo... Anyways thats whole arguement is complicated to explain to people who dont already know about this stuff so lets just say Emirates let me enter their country using the first half of my ticket but now wont let me leave using the second half which is now inflicting me costs of probbably having to pay for another hotel... So now im flippin out on the ladies, and just want to go home but my mom says how about I get myself to Doha so that I can use my ticket without any questions or problems... This is where the 376 dollars comes in. I end up buying a ticket from Dubai to Doha which is only a 40 min flight JUST so I can try to standby out of that country. yay... It was 1:50am July 2nd when i bought that ticket... I've been at the airport for 22 hours. At 5:55am I depart to Doha, Qatar and get a nice 30 min nap in. The sun is out by now. Now in Doha there is a flight to Cairo at 1:oopm. I am now chilling out at the Doha International Airport for another seven and a half hours. Oh by the way, we left Dubai at 5:55am and arrived in Doha at 5:30 am lol. After much standing, napping, walking, and more napping the Qatar transfer guys got me on the flight to CAIRO! They were such a huge help and it was a really good change from the damn Emirates.
I land in Cair at 4:05pm.
I need a visa to vist Cairo which I am able to pay for on arrival at the airport but I soon find out I need cash to do so... so security at the passport check hold on to my passport and let me out to access an ATM. On my way back in, I guess you aren't allowed back in the airport once you leave, I get bombarded by security asking me why im walking back in, or at least I think thats what they were saying since it was in arab... So anyways i pull out my notebook, which has all my info and receipts and phone numbers and maps and well stuff I need, to show the men my atm receipt and that i had to get cash to pay for my Egypt visa. THEN THEY SNATCH MY NOTEBOOT OUT OF MY HAND and wouldn't give it back and were like trying to treat it as my passport and walking around talking to the other security men and im like "hey give that back, that's not my passport I need that, the other guy has my passport, i was just getting money to pay for my visa" and im kinda freakin out. they start askin me where my passport is... omg I just told them... anyways i tell them again and say to follow me and i will show them. so the guy still has my notebook and were walking and i finally get my passport back and show him, he gives back my notebook then im off to get my visa and go through the customs check.
ok past the airport and out in the real world. great now come the flock of tourist helpers and all that fun stuff.
hmm anyways, after telling people to back off and leave me alone, i sit and figure things out. i catch a taxi and start checking if any hostels have any rooms, all the ones i wanted didn't and all i wanted was one room for one night so i could relax and figure out my next plan in peace. so now im in the Hotel Indiana. Its $55 but I really dont care, its a nice huge room with AC and so tonight i rest, eat and make reservations for a cheaper place for the rest of my time here in egypt. Man still can't believe I made it. If you could have gone through all the shit i went through the past day and half... man.
ok well im out.
I plan on being in egypt through the 12th, and then go through all this again on my way to Japan. bah can't wait to get home, kinda.
byee
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 2, 2009 from Cairo, Egypt

Day 17 - Best day ever - (7/4/2009)
Cairo, Egypt
So yesterday morning I paid 120 Egyptian pounds which was like 21 U.S. dollars or so for a private driver to a few main areas outside of Cairo. Later that day the manager of my hotel said there will be another couple joining me and asked if that would be ok. I said ya no problem so he cut my price in half so j only paid 60 Egyptian pounds. And so this morning I woke up had a simple but wonderful breakfast and met the other two who would be joining me on this journey. Their names were Ronni and Val. Ok so Ronni looked up what we paid for and found out that people pay quite a few hundred bucks for a tour lime the one we had for only like 10USD. omg I can't even begin to explain how awesome we ha it today. So first of all we had a driver the whole time who would wait for us at each stop. He drove us to saqqara where the very fort pyramid ever built is (the step pyramid), ancient Memphis and finally to the pyramids. So we had to pay the entrance fee but the what we saved in having this driver was just amazing. Now after two stops, an ancient graveyard and the sackara pyramid we were getting hungry so he brought us to a friend of his. (this was prolly planned case later they sold us a camel ride) well we arrived at the frieds houseD saw his horses the we had lunch, for free. After lunch our new host explained the layout of the pyramids and was trying to sell us a guided horse or camel tour. In the end we decided to take the camel tour around the pyramids. It was 190 pounds and the host let us pay him when we got back, he actually had a good vibe about him overall. Now the camel ride tonthe pyramids... This part was sketch cause we enters the whole area in a back way and every security officer that approached us.... Our guide would hand his a little cash and we would be on our way. It was pretty badass cause there was NO ONE else out there. No one at all just Ronny, Val, me and out two kid guide. We got a panoramic shot of the three main pyramids the we rode right up to the base of the pyramids I climbed up several feet and had my picture taken. Actually we all took a lot of pictures. It was incredable.so far we've been riding around fir an hour and a half and now we head down to the sphinx. This is where all the tourist were. We get off our camels and visit the sphinx the head back to the house and to our driver. There was some money issues that was kind of annoying but not worth mentioning cause overall all three of us were so happy we did this. I must say it was quite the deal. After this it was like 4pm and we went back to the hotel. I mentioned I'm thinking of taking the oasis trip with my hot and mentioned what I knew. We three talked about the possible trip and try decided to try and make it also. We decided to have dinner together later that day so we'd talk about it then and see how things will work out. Before dinner our driver took my to Islamic Cairo, just a quick drive through so I could take some pictures. We got back to the hotel and 30 min later around 6:15pm Ronny, Val and I went out to eat. We decided to go on the oasis trip, and together make our way to Luxor to spend a night or two there then we'd part our ways since I was heading to Sinai and theybwere heading more south. After dinner we head to a bar for a couple drinks and sheesha. We each had three beers but the waiter tried to say we each had four... Long story short I got out of my seat and argued wkththe waiter till be dropped the price. We didn't tip. We got back to the hotel and tried to purchase three tickets to luxur but the sight was trippin out. So we'll do that tomorrow. All in all, today I made a couple good friends, got an unheard of deal for touring the outskirts of cairo, climbed a pyramid, paid of the police, rode a camel, took some great pictures of Islamic Cairo, smoked sheesha, drunkenly foughtt a waiter, and now about to go to bed. Tomorrow I sleep in and later Ronny, Val and I head to Coptic Cairo. Egypt is amazing. I love of so much I just wish I could have writtinf about my day a letter better. Hopefully you still get the feeling of how amazing today was. ash I love it.
K.
Goodnight :)
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 4, 2009 from Cairo, Egypt

Cairo, Egypt
So I went back to re-read what I had written about on my last blog, and all I can say is...wtf..haha. Maybe I did have 4...They were pretty big bottles too. I think one bottle was about two.
ok on to what I've been up to the past few days.
this is what's been up.
Today everyone slept in since yesterday was quite the day. Val came and woke me up around 11:00am to tell me that Ronny had gotten really sick so they had to pass on going to the oasis. Later that afternoon Ronny was resting so Val and I headed out to get our plane tickets to Luxor. After walking around trying to find a place that accepted credit cards, we found a place that was too cheap to pass up and so we paid with the cash we had left. So now we have three tickets to
Luxor for the 8th. After getting the tickets Val and I went out to get some dinner which was really good, but the waiter tried charging us for two fish dishes... I only had one.. What is up with Egypt trying to charge us for more then we actually got... ANYWAYS, after that Val needed to get some crackers and pop for Ronny the she and I went to a little outdoor cafe and had some sheesha and chatted. That was pretty much that whole day.
This morning I woke up around 6:30am, the hotel brought my breakfast to my room :) and I packed up to head out on my oasis tour. I left my bag and backpack with Ronny and Val and check out so I wouldn't have to pay for a room I wasn't using (don't worry, I grabbed all my plane tickets and valuables before leaving my bags with strangers). then the hotel driver brought me to the bus station and helped me on my way. In Bahariya my guide met me and and also the 4 others in my group. Four Japanese guys, and one Malaysian guy who joined us last minute. So now us 6 are eating a lunch and soon meet up with a couple from Argentina and off we all go in two jeeps to the black desert. This place was wicked awesome, and we all climbed this huuge mountain to take a photo of the land. After the Black Desert we stopped at a few photo op places and then stopped at a sand dune to mess around and take more pictures and yea. Next we went to Crystal Mountain which is exactly what it's name implies... It was like one giant crystal crystals were everywhere! Then we made it to the white desert and yes it was totally white. We stopped here and took more pictures and messed around then about 30 min further into this part of the desert our jeeps stopped and our two drivers and cook set up camp. The camp was badass. They used the two jeeps as walls making a corner, and set up carpets on posts and rope then hung a couple lights from a rope above it, and made fire. They then put down blankets and mats and two tables and began cooking up a delicious meal. All of us just walked around and took pictures and pretty much just chilled and gazed at the out of this world land that was all around us. After dark dinner was ready so we ate egytpian soup, a vegetable salad, rice, a chicken breast, and egyptian bread and another type of soup. About 20 min into dinner little coyotes started to walk up so we tossed some chicken for them and took a lot of pictures. After dinner we all found a place on the sand to sleep. Our guides handed out a thin mattress and a few blankets and so I pretty much fell asleep in the middle of the desert, 200 miles away from Cairo, listening to deathcab for cutie, under the stars, with a full moon, and absolute silence (I didn't use my blanket cause it wasn't the slightest bit cold.)
This morning, around 6:30am we all woke up, our cook made breakfast, hard boiled eggs and Egyptian bread with jam and cheese and we raced back to the village to catch our bus back to Cairo which is when i realized i lost my glasses back at the hotel where we all met up.... The Asians and I parted ways with the couple from Argentina, and made it back to Cairo where we were let off at the wrong bus station. At this station the Japanese guys and I parted ways with the Malaysian dude and made our way back to the correct part of Cairo where then we parted our ways and I found my way back to my hotel. Then i had the hotel manager call the oasis hotel and ask for my glasses so hopefully someone will bring it with them when they head back to Cairo... I hope... So now I've been chillin' in my room and ready to leave Cairo for Luxor. Oh I also realized my bank fucked up again and started adding and removing money without any notifications...and so now I have roughly 100 dollars less than i expected... dammit... well I may have to skip Mount Sinai... fuck.
Ok well my hour is almost up for internet so i gotta go!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 7, 2009 from Cairo, Egypt

Day 21
Luxor, Egypt
So today Ronny, Val and I LEAVE CAIRO.
We arrived in Luxor around 7:00pm and so far it's been waay better than Cairo.
Not much really happened today but I did lose my iPhone at the airport....
When i went through seccurity I put my wallet and stuff (like my iPhone) in the mesh pocket of my bag but after security i grabbed everything but my phone.... then i CHECKED that bag cause i could only have one carry one... so now im at the gate freaking out and tell the ticket agent about my situation and he kinda blows me off but i didn't lay off untill he started to do something. He took my name, made some calls, then walked off. After about 30 min of waiting at the gate and freaking out he finally comes back from with my phone in his hand. omg i was so relieved...
oh, also this morning i got a message from the front desk of my hotel saying they found my glasses! so i asked if they could bring it back to the hotel whenever sometime before July 14 and email me when it gets there so i hope they pull through. omg i can't beliefe im forgetting stuff left and right bah.
I'm leaving out a lot of details about today because this computer is hella slow and not keeping up with my typing and its just wasting my time and im getting really annoyed with this crappy machine so im going to end this blog here.
byee
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 8, 2009 from Luxor, Egypt

Ok, so what have I been up to these past few days...?
I can't really recall what exactly happened on which days but here is a synopsis of the three.
Ronny, Vall and I hired a driver to take us to the west bank in Luxor to see the temples. We went to four and during this time met the funniest guy ever. He wanted to show us a mummy but apparently it was a secret and behind the fence so he was all hush hush. we followed him not expecting to tip him anything but lone behold there was a body behind this wall. Anyways, we continued to follow chef as he called himself and with his broken, very broken, English, he told us the history of the temple. Apparently there was a man named Ramon who "cut" everything. You had to have been there to know how funny this was. It was soo funny that after he was finished with his little tour we decided to tip him. Then he wanted a pen for one of his kids (this is when we noticed everyone wanting a pen from us...) we three walked around luxor in search for a pool and we found one on the roof of a hotel. it only cost us 25 pounds each but it was worth it. after the pool and a stella, we went out to eat at The Taste of India. wait, the Taste of India was the very first night we were there and the West Bank tour and the pool was the second day, the evening of the second day July 9th, we decided to hit up an Irish pub... This place was ridiculous, hecka funny, but still retarded. So the only beers they had were the three Egyptian beers, Stella, Sakara, another type of Stella, and a Luxor something beer. They had Guinness on tap, but no Guinness... So that on top of an all Egyptian crew, and DJ who was was always off beat did not make for a good time. after a couple beers we left and went to another place which had a stronger beer. when finished we walked back to our hotel where i played soccer out front in the street with some random kids. the next morning , July 10th, we went out to explore the East Bank of luxor, the side we were staying on. We walked around and saw the Luxor Temple and then looked for tour guides that could give the best deal on a cruise to Aswan for Ronny and Vall. Before all that actually I tried to get a train ticket that evening back to Cairo because i called my hotel back there and they said THEY HAD MY GLASSES!!! So yea, i had to get back ASAP. I still can't believe my glasses traveled 200 miles back to me! at the train station all tickets were sold and i would have to wait till the morning of the next day to purchase the 10pm train tickets to cairo... no good, so i went back to my hotel and they easily got me my bus tickets and a driver to get me to the bus station. I Left Ronny and Val in Luxor at 6:00pm and by 7:00pm I was on a bus back to Cairo. 12 HOURS later I arrive in Cairo and hurry back to the hotel where my glasses were waiting for me :) they didn't have any vacant rooms so i hung out in the reception area for 5 hours, until someone check out which was around 11:30, and I got my room. So its July 11th, and I'm just relaxing and waiting for my flight tomorrow.
Egypt has so much to offer and i've missed out on so much i really do need to come back.
The four questions I'm going to miss the most are...
Taxi?
chariot?
felucca?
pen?
The Phrases I'm going to miss are...
Nice/Lovely Tatoo (said to Val every two seconds)
Very cheap price just 5 pounds!
"Where you from?" [America] "OH, OBAMA!" [yeaaa...] "TAXI?" [no] "Why not!? Very good price!" [like free?? NO] "OBAMA!"
Walk like an Egyptian!
Well looking back I really enjoyed Egypt, not necessarily the random kid who ran up, hugged my waste and then kissed my belly, or the waiters trying to charged us for more than we ordered, or the high prices given to tourists, or the lack of ability Egyptians have for standing in a line... But I'm going to miss all the taxi, chariot and felucca drivers I messed with, playing soccer with the kids, all the friendly people, how the average Egyptian smiles like 20 times more than the average Indian, and how somehow, anything i lose ends up back in my possession!
It's now 9:20pm my last night in Egypt and I'm going to bed.
Tomorrow is my birthday :) and if everything goes smoothly..God I hope everything goes smoothly, I'll be spending it in Egypt, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and Japan.
Byee

Seoul, South Korea
So it's now July 13, and I am now in Seoul, South Korea!
So, July 12, which is still going on for everyone back home, I woke up at 7:30am and my hotel had a taxi waiting for me. I got to the airport around 8:30am and waited outside of the first line of security before the ticket counters. When the security opened and I got there, they asked for a passport so I pulled out my little black notebook first because it was in the way and the frickin security guy at the metal detector grabbed it while it was still in my hand thinking it was my passport. Ok so by now I'm like hell no this already happened once coming into Egypt I really don't want to go through this again so I tighten my gripas he's trying to rip it from my hands and rip it from his hands saying "NO!" and I slowly pull out my passport and hand it to him like a civilized person. Now the part that made me laugh was at the Korean air ticketing counter where I check in was the same man who was at the gate for my flight from Cairo to Luxor and who got my cellphone back from the cargo of the plane. Haha so I approach the desk and he asked if I've lost my phone again, I said nope but I did lose my glasses. He laughed and asked if I enjoyed Egypt and of course I did so I says yes because everything I lose you guys find a way of getting it back to me. Good times. During this I meet this older lady who is also using a staff ticket. She works for Air Canada and lives in Tokyo so we were doing the same route an so we got out seats together. Oh yea we got our seats right away which was awesome! 5 hours later we land in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and deboard for about an hour. We all reboard and a few others and 6 hours later we all land here in Seoul, South Korea!
That lady and I went straight to the transfer desk for Korean Air and GOT SEATS RIGHT AWAY! Then we found me a Starbucks and a place to buy a spoon. Now I'm waiting at the gate and the lady is out shopping. Let's just hope the Japanese rail system is as easy as all this has been :)
Byee!
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 13, 2009 from Seoul, South Korea

Misawa, Japan
Made it to Misawa!
So lets finish off day 26,
-7.13.2009-
I got on the flight to Narita with no one sitting next to me and about an hour forty later I was in Japan!
Ok, so for those of you who might have seen the news (or maybe not) apparently my flight to Japan made the news. haha. I don't think I have ever had a more wicked landing experience ever in my life. So we like hit turbulence seconds before touching down, and I mean like a few feet off the ground I was out of my seat turbulence, but I guess that was our back tires touching down before our front, but I'm not sure. And then we are on the runway and I realize the pilots have turned the plane and we're now skidding on the runway at a few hundred miles an hour and still bouncing around. haha it was weird, people were like screaming and panicking, and the flight attendant sitting in front of me facing me was just smiling away and rolling her eyes at the passengers and we're both laughing.
Now that was a landing.
Ok, after the roller coaster landing I get through customs and the older lady met me out in baggage claim. She has a name by the way... haha, it's Noriko. So Noriko knew the type of rail pass I was trying to get so she showed me where the rail booth was and began speaking Japanese to the person working there to figure out if I can get that pass. The lady working turned to me and said that JR passes had to be acquired from your home country, outside of Japan... I told her no, that I know some do but I checked their website and this pass had to be bought in Japan because you had to show a plane ticket leaving Japan. Well I went to the bathroom real quick and experienced the most high tech toilet it was crazy. When I came back Noriko had looked up train passes to Misawa and their prices and they were, like I already knew, really expensive one way... well Noriko said there is an official JR office one floor down, so she took me there and talked to them for me and they were all like, "Oh yea, the four flexible day pass, no problem, it's this much and will you be using it today?" haha super easy, so I told them I was going to Misawa and they made all my train reservations, and gave me my tickets and told me what to do and then I was off! Noriko was going just to Tokyo so, which was my first stop and train change, so we got seats together here, this whole times she's helping me figure all this out. 70 min later we arrive in Tokyo, before she leaves she helps me find my next train and how to use my passes. Then I go through and say goodbye and now I'm on my own. haha. So this is my first time on the bullet train.
I'll be on this train for about 3 hours, from Tokyo all the way to Hachinohe where I then have 15 min to figure out where the next train is, the one to Misawa. Everything goes smoothly, the scenery was amazing.
and the train to Misawa was delayed like 30 min. I finally arrive in Misawa around 7:10pm and hurry to the taxis. omg, these taxis were AMAZING! The drivers have like a button that opens and closes the door automatically, so you never have to really work, and their meters works! And when you arrive at your destination.... They print you out a receipt! They don't ask for tips, they don't "get lost" and have to stop and ask others for directions, they don't charge more for being a tourist, they are clean, and they don't really talk to you but are still very nice. It was cool. So it's now like 7:20 and I walk up to the office outside the Misawa Air Force Base and use their phone to call Josh.... No answer... so I call again... Still no answer... So I call his work.... An answer, but it's not him and the person on the phone doesn't know where Josh is.... So now I spend the next hour calling his room and no one is answering. I ask the officer working if there are any hostels around or an internet cafe (which he began laughing when i said internet cafe 'cause he prolly thought I wanted to stay there lol) so I could find a cheap place to stay online. He asked around for me and said the nearest hotel was across the street, for about 5,000 yen. So I went there, got a room which ended up being 6,200 yen but breakfast was included. The room was really cool, small for the price but this is Japan. So I went to my room and got situated, plugged in my phone and fell asleep.
-7.14.2009-
Ok, so this morning I woke up around 6:30am. I went downstairs to have breakfast then went back to my room, packed and checked out. I go BACK to the base, it's now around 7:40am and i try calling josh again. He finaly picks up half asleep and is all oh crap, hey I'll uh be there soon. A little later a guy walks in to the front office and asks if I was Kenny, I said said yes and so he checks me in and I get my visitors pass. we then drive into the base and pick josh up. Josh isn't allowed to really leave the base due to a little thing that happened haha. Anyways, I'm finally at Joshes place. Josh has to go to work at noon, so he goes to take a nap, and I decide to crash as well on the couch. Even though I slept for a solid 9 hours the previous night, I still slept hard for another four and a half hours, this trip has worked me over.
Josh comes back around um, 4-ish with food and after two hours he heads back to work. So I've just been chillin' around relaxin' and watching movies on TV and talking to Kumiko on facebook about meeting in Tokyo. Tomorrow I don't know whats up, I think I'm going to go see Joshes work, or walk around Misawa. I'll find out tomorrow. It sucks though 'cause Josh can't leave the base, and he also has to work from noon to midnight. But his probation ends the day I planned on leaving for Tokyo. So I will now be leaving for Tokyo Saturday morning so we can go do something Friday night.
Well, I've uploaded some pictures from Thailand and India on facebook. I will get some from Egypt up, then upload a few from all three up on here.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 14, 2009 from Misawa, Japan

Seattle, United States
So Josh was finally off restriction on Friday so him and I went off base. He still wasn't allowed to drive so i got to drive while on base, prolly not legally, but it was still fun. We went out to get some food and some other things then went back to his place, i showered josh did some laundry then we headed out to the clubs. we started drinking around 8 and we had to be back on base before 12 but there was a bar on base so after 12 we hung out there till around 1:30am then i went back to the dorm and he was out till 2:30. during these hours we went through 5 bars, I ate horse for the first time (I loved it, it's frickin' amazing but hecka expensive...) smoked some hookah, met a few of joshes friends and a couple new people then passed out. I had a train to catch at 8 am the following morning....
July 18th 2009 (the following morning):
I woke up on time with a massive hang over.... I managed to shower and josh called the taxi for me. at the train station i was feeling like crap but couldn't do anything to fix it... I had a 4 hour train journey ahead of me before getting to the shinjuku station in tokyo. So i ran to the bathroom before my train arrived and punched myself in the stomach until something came out. haha, it helped a lot!
:::long train ride and some connecting trains:::
I arrive at the station where I was meeting Kumiko and Derek. Then i finally meet up with them! we all went to get food, then Kumiko and her friend went back to the friends house for the rest of the day and Derek and I went to find our capsule hotel. we find it and the people working there don't speak any English but luckily Kumiko had written Derek and me a note saying what we wanted haha. after we drop off our bags in our capsule, we head out and do touristy stuff. its late so a lot of stuff was closed or empty. we end up walking all over Tokyo and taking subways left and right till around 2 am. We did the pretty much the same thing the following morning, not really that exciting to write about but it was still hella fun for us.
July 19th 2009 (following morning):
Derek and i wake up early and get breakfast at McDonalds...lol... Then we head out to find some specific places and sights. We traveled all over Tokyo till around 5 when we met back up with Kumiko and her friend. had dinner then said our goodbyes. Derek and Kumiko had to leave and The friend had to go home so now i was alone. I decided to just head to the airport just the way i was and try to find my way home. I make my way back to Tokyo station to grab my bags that i stuffed in a locker then catch the next train to Narita airport. Ok, so it's now around 7:40 at the airport and I'm expecting the worst possible outcome to occur. Me being there another 38 hours or more jut like Dubai because all the flights i had looked at and had my mom call about were really over booked :( I'm at the airport looking at all the flights for the rest of that day, and there was only one more going to north America and that was to Hawaii. I was in Terminal 1 so i rushed to Terminal 2 and tried to make that flight but it had left at 8pm and i was too late to try and make it. I spend some time in terminal 2 looking at flights from there out and around 10:33pm decide to head back to terminal 1... so I'm waiting for the shuttle bus and none come... then a girl walks up to me and in broken English we figure out that there are no more shuttles tonight and i need to get to terminal 1... she decided to walk me to terminal 1 so i wouldn't get lost. she was really cute too. Too bad she was only at terminal 2 to see her boyfriend. anyways, we talked the whole way to terminal 1 then finally say goodbye. i walk up the stairs to the top floor of the terminal for international flights and as I'm using the touchscreen computer inside to look up flights, all the lights and my computer shut off... the airport closed with me inside...so now I'm like shit shit shit cause i don't have ANY yen on me for a taxi. luckily the doors still worked from the inside so i walked out and walked down the road to the first floor, a good 15 min walk (my bags are really really heavy). i notice lights on still on the first floor so i head to them and walk in the door and the security guard who spoke no English stopped me and i tried asking for an ATM. well all in all we got to the conclusion that the ATM was shut down, but i could stay the night at the airport on a bench in the meeting area. That was cool. got a free nights sleep.. so i got about 6 hours sleep and woke up right when the terminal reopened. i was gonna take a shower but the public showers were over in terminal 2 and i dint' feel like going back over there. so the next 6 hours are of me fighting with ticketing agents and flight crews again trying to use my Air canada ticket from Narita to Vancouver BC on other airlines to other destinations. The same old same old stuff i've been doing the past 33 days. Anyways, I end up renting a cell phone for the day to talk to my mom to help find direct flights to the US, Mexico or Canada. i get a list together and then head out to those airlines. America Airlines would not let my pay the difference, nor would Korean Air but they ALMOST let me. I finally talk to a Delta girl and she looks at my air Canada ticket and says "yea you can use this where you trying to go?" and i said "Anywhere in North America is all I'm asking" then she said " ok well we have two wide open flights to Portland ... and ... Seattle... do any of those two work for you?" OMG i laugh and almost hugged the girl. I was like SEATTLE SEATTLE SEATTLE SEATTLE!!!!
flight departed at 4:15pm.
I landed in Seattle at 8:36am.
The End.
written by  Kennyboy12 on July 20, 2009 from Seattle, United States