Latest Dispatches:
 
aki in Vancouver @ Jul 6, 2005 6:53 PM
This past weekend was such a riot. Spent in Victoria, BC, I hung out with a couple of friends (duskybeans and danica), two friends of a friend, 6 cameras and a cat whom I am sure I must have bothered greatly. I went over to take photographs of the Pride Parade since I wanted to see how the pros do it. Unfortunately, everyone disappeared and in wai ... ( read all )
 
lainie in No idea. Lost. Very lost. @ Oct 20, 2004 1:07 PM

So, the one day I did spend in Bangkok, I found it well, annoying. It seems like everyone is just after your money and they want you to spend spend spend! But I guess it may be the same all over Asia? I walked around, shopping and trying to get to the Grand Palace and found that I could not walk more than 50 metres without some tuktuk driver comi

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lainie in Changi Airport, Singapore @ Oct 20, 2004 11:12 AM

zzzz.....what can one do at Changi airport at 2am? Well, it appears, lots! I can go on the internet, eat, work out at the gym, have a shower, drink coffee, buy stuff at 7-11 and also, buy makeup and perfume. The only retail shop that's open right now, at least in this terminal is the makeup/perfume shop. Weird. But anyway, I think I'll just stay

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lainie in Changi airport...again :( @ Oct 20, 2004 7:35 AM

I know. It should be "lainie in Chiang Mai". But no, it's not a typo I'm really at Changi airport in Singapore once again, sadly.

On Monday I woke up early and went to STA Travel to pay for my ticket to Shanghai on Oct 26th. Unfortunately as I walked in the door their computer system went down and they were unable to ticket anything. So I

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lainie in Bangkok @ Oct 17, 2004 9:53 PM
Could this day get any worse? ... ( read all )
 
lainie in Bangkok @ Oct 17, 2004 1:38 AM

Scary! I'm in Bangkok and whoa culture shock! It is so busy here, so noisy and dirty. Yikes! Thank goodness I had an airport transfer booked from the airport or I would have been lost. They brought me right to the hotel and checked me in, so it was all ok. The porter brought my bag up to my room for me and I had no money, I had to tip him with a

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lainie in Changi Airport @ Oct 16, 2004 7:30 PM

Free internet at Changi airport! Well for 15 minutes at least...I'm leaving Singapore for Bangkok in about an hour, should be interesting. I just hope my discount plane doesn't crash, oh I hate flying...

Bad news, it seems my grandfather has had a heart attack but is resting comfortably in the hospital. I hope he's ok and sticks in there for aw

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lainie in singapore @ Oct 14, 2004 11:46 PM

Yipee i'm in Singapore! It's very hot and humid but it seems pretty neat so far. My hotel is in the red light district but so far I haven't seen anything nasty. It's a nice hotel, considering, very clean and I have my own bathroom and tv! Fortunately I have air conditioning so I should have a good sleep tonight.

 

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lainie in Perth but not for long! @ Oct 13, 2004 9:44 PM
YIppee I'm flying out to Singapore tonight!!! :) ... ( read all )
 
lainie in Perth @ Oct 12, 2004 8:32 PM

Tomorrow night I fly out to Singapore. Unfortunately I'm still sick. I caught this terrible cold on Saturday night and have been dragging myself around since then. Blah. I was lying on my bed in the hostel, snuffling away, when one of my roommates, a British girl,finally noticed me and said "Are you ok, love?" to which I replied "I'm siiiiiickkkk

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lainie in No idea. Lost. Very lost. @ Oct 10, 2004 10:49 PM
Still sick. Feel awful. Write later when I feel better. ... ( read all )
 
lainie in No idea. Lost. Very lost. @ Oct 8, 2004 8:40 PM

Argh, I'm sick. Looks like I have a cold, I feel awful. It's all my fault, of course, I haven't been eating properly lately. Bad me. :( I wish I could sleep for awhile but it's hard to do in a dorm room with 7 other people :( grrr grrr no privacy to just slack off and relax

I feel awful....should I spend my last $10 on drugs or healthy food? hm

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lainie in perth @ Oct 7, 2004 6:54 PM

Well, yesterday I did a tour of Wave Rock. Basically the tour consisted of driving for four hours, spending one hour at the rock and then driving back. It was ok, not as impressive as Ayers Rock of course. I met a nice Japanese girl (so many Japanese girls here!) and a guy from Hong Kong on the tour. It was nice to get out of Perth. Unfortunately

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lainie in need i say? @ Oct 4, 2004 9:59 PM

Well today I tried to leave the hostel. Really, I did. I had it in my mind to go to Fremantle and stay at a place that has free internet called the Firestation. But when I mentioned to a guy staying in the room where I was going he urged me not to go there. He said that it's a terrible place with drugs, alcohol, parties etc. He bluntly said "I ca

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lainie in where else? @ Oct 4, 2004 0:44 AM

Yep, still in Perth. Had an interesting day yesterday though. I was sitting by the library when a guy of about 30 started talking to me. He was doing card tricks and did one for me, although it didn't exactly work. I thought he was a traveller, since he had a big backpack, but it turns out he's Australian and is homeless at the moment. Makes his

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lainie in perth @ Oct 2, 2004 7:10 PM
Had a better night last night. The evil girl with the mobile phone will be leaving today, basically she's being kicked out by the hostel. Bad girl. Everyone complained about her so out she goes. So I decided to stay another couple of nights at this hostel, then who knows. I got a list of job agencies in the city that I can call on Tuesday since to ... ( read all )
 
lainie in perth-still! @ Oct 1, 2004 6:50 PM

Worst night of my life. Well, maybe not, but not too great. I spent last night at a different hostel than the one before. It's a smaller hostel and looks very nice. I was put in an 8- share mixed dorm but actually there were 7 girls and 1 guy. Supposedly, quiet time at the hostel should be 10pm but I didn't get much sleep last night because of th

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lainie in perth @ Sep 26, 2004 10:57 PM
Just hanging out in Perth...not much going on here. On Wednesday I'm going up to a town on the beach called Lancelin for a few days. Should be ok. The two girls I was hanging out with are gone now. The Japanese girl and I got along well, we discovered that our boyfriends have similar names-hers is Akihiro and mine of course is Akiharu, though we b ... ( read all )
 
lainie in Perth @ Sep 26, 2004 1:38 AM

Made it to Perth on the train, long train ride, 2 nights plus one full day. Yawn. I met a couple of girls, a Japanese girl and an American girl. We hung out together for a few days, now the American girl's off to a job in a country pub and the Japanese girl's off on a tour up north. I still haven't decided what to do. Three weeks isn't a long tim

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lainie in Adelaide @ Sep 22, 2004 0:43 AM

Staying in a hostel. I guess some people have never stayed in a hostel before and are wondering what it's like. The hostel I"m staying at right now is an affiliate of Hostelling International-a worldwide hostelling chain. Which means it has standards and is generally very clean and quiet. I'm staying in an allgirls room (another benefit to HI!) w

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lainie in adelaide @ Sep 21, 2004 4:52 PM

Bored. Nothing to do and I still have basically 2 full days here. Blah. Tomorrow night I take the 2 day train to Perth and I hope and pray I don't get some huge Australian man sitting beside me again. Please please, how about some nice, petite Japanese girl?

Well yesterday I went out with Jane to a small seaside town called Glenelg. Pretty nice

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lainie in adelaide @ Sep 16, 2004 8:03 PM

I am so tired. I spent last night on an overnight train from Alice Springs with a great big Australian man sitting beside me (squished!) Plus he snored. It was awful. Right now I'm at the hostel in Adelaide which is very nice, I think I may spend a week or more here, I'm just wiped out from that tour up north.but the tour was pretty good. I had b

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lainie in Alice Springs @ Sep 15, 2004 1:46 AM

I know I know I have neglected to write anything here for awhile. Well, I just finished a tour of Uluru and the outback. Pretty neat. But too bad I don't have enough time to write about it right now, we're going for pizza and drinks tonight and I need to shower right away!

Update to follow...

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lainie in melbourne still @ Sep 8, 2004 7:46 PM

Another productive day. Went to the Chinese consulate and got the visa. Cool. Also finished booking the tour from Bangkok, my mother will be happy to know I arranged for airport transfer to the hotel so I won't get mugged the minute I step off the plane. :) Also booked accommodation in Singapore at a place called Orchid 81 hotel, a single room wi

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lainie in melboring @ Sep 7, 2004 7:47 PM

Well that's how the guy in Sydney described Melbourne-melboring. I wouldn't dispute that having spent the last 4 days here. Yawn. There isn't much to do but I haven't felt like doing much either. Oh well. I think my cold is getting better though. Today I ventured downtown and shopped around for some books to read on the long train ride tomor

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aki in Vancouver, Canada @ Sep 6, 2004 9:21 AM

testing travelogues section and missing Lainie :( ... ( read all )
 
aki in Vancouver, Canada @ Sep 4, 2004 5:23 PM
Well, Lainie is now in Melbourne and I'm on my way back to Vacouver. We're just around 30 minutes away from touch down. It was a bit of a weird thing to say goodbye this morning, try not to cry, try not to make it into a big spectacle as really, it's not like it's going to be a big deal in the end, we're going to see each other again in at most 5 ... ( read all )
 
aki in Cairns, Australia @ Sep 4, 2004 12:31 PM


While in Cairns we did two tours. The first was with a company called "On the Wallaby", which is an Aussie expression for "On the Road". It was quite informative and the information presented well. For some reason, I've become quite a watcher these days for any other interracial couple where the male is asian and the female is not.  On our t ... ( read all )
 
aki in Cairns, Australia @ Sep 4, 2004 12:31 PM


Cairns was once a transit point for mining. It's been converted over to be a tourist destination now for mostly its position in relation to the Great Barrier Reef. It's the gateway city to the largest living thing on the planet. We used to think it was pronounced K'air'ns. Instead, from listening to the locals, it sounds much more like "cans", kin ... ( read all )


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