Sydney (Australia)
20 MARCH 2013
This blog has been on the go for quite some time now, indeed it's been a constant companion in my travels for the last 7 years and has recorded an array of experiences, sights, sounds and feelings that I've been fortunate enough to have had over that time. That wasn't always that the way though. In fact the original name of this blog was Helishers' Death by Caffeine and in its time acted as an outlet for all my caffeinated inspired rants that were directly attributed to and in direct proportion with my all my ongoing frustrations in life, whether real or imagined. In very much the same manner that Franciso Goya had his 'black period', little 'ole Henry Elisher had his 'spirited era' or to put it less positively, black period during a greater part of his 20's. In whatever manner you'd like to slice it, time as it both appears and disappears equally is somewhat of a constant mover and shaker, and people in turn have the tendency to change with it, or so I've observed, and I in my own assessment of self I've found that I appear to have mellowed over time. And all that testosterone fuelled rage that once defined me has been replaced by a dose of acceptance, another dose of appreciation and the realisation that we all got a little lucky in winning the 'life lottery', I mean we made it this far so why the hell not utilise the opportunity that we've been granted.
My first travel experience was when I was 3 months old. I was fortunate enough to have a father that worked for an airline which meant that travelling to all corners of the globe was a reality rather than a far fetched dream. We weren't a wealthy family, not at all in fact, but the discounts that Qantas kindly provided on their airfares to staff acquiring a tenure of 10+ years made it achievable for even the three of us, that being mum, dad and myself, to get a little global. As I said, I was three months old on that first escapade and 'man alive' did I catch a nasty 'travel bug' on that first journey, and not that I've tried to shake him out of my system at all but still that cheeky critter has stayed with me ever since.
As I mentioned earlier, the name of the blog was originally Helisher's Death by Caffeine which morphed into its current guise, A Year Full of Saturdays back in the middle of 2010. At the start of that year I was in the midst of planning a jaunt that was originally to have had me away for nearly 12 months. A work colleague of mine mentioned to me that each day away would inevitably feel like a Saturday, in fact, he even came up with the new name of the blog. It's a gem too, so I'm sticking with it! If, or rather, when I turn this blog into a travel book then credit will go to Craig McPhee for nailing the title.
Anyway,now I'm 7 years removed from where I originally started and with this blog as my recorder of fact and acting as my tribunal of truth I've travelled through 32 of the 43 countries I've been to, have set foot on 6 continents and covered over 278,000kms. I've managed to hook up flight routes such that I now I actually have the right to say that 'I've been around the world'. I've seen many, many fantastic places, have met some great people who have turned into even better friends, have ticked things off my mental bucket list and actually strolled into a couple of towns that I can say, without question, are crap! Phonsovan and Montevideo, I'm looking at you squarely in the eyes...and don't snigger Tangier, I'll be after you next.
So prior to starting my next round of travel which I'd hazard a guess to say will commence at end of this year, I just want to take this opportunity to document my best of within a series of entries titled 'Your Saturday best - 7 years of sin and sensations'. I'm thinking of perhaps three or four entries to cover it but lets utilise this one as a just a sampler and see where it goes from here.
Starting with a bit of fun then....
Starting with a bit of fun then....
The TOP 5 'Dude, where's my car!?!?' moments
1. Vang Vieng (Laos) - [2009] - The unfortunate thing is that it will probably be people like me, with a lot less capacity to control themselves perhaps, that will shut down the backpacking draw card that is Vang Vieng. For those of you that that would like to read tales of days lost in the middle of a South East Asian wonderland then please feel free to check out what I remember of that time here - [The day that never was].
Now the idea for the visit was gifted to me from a pretty ordinary business analyst that I worked with at AAPT who during his one time outpouring of orgasmic wanderlust veered abruptly into Lao territory, specifically a place that went by the name of Vang Vieng. 'You swore at me in what Asian language??' - was my first response to a place that I'd never heard of! But that way that he put it to me however and the way that it resided in my mind after that conversation, for a moment, made me forget how ordinary an analyst he was and also gave me the impression VV was a place that could have been lifted straight from the scenes of Apocalypse Now. He conjured up images of haunting mists on the Nam Song, dilapidated bamboo bars lining the river banks that ensconced criminals of all kinds, the weight of the unknown and all pervasive, all encompassing...........yeah....the reality was that it wasn't like any of those images or associated possibilities. What it now is is not the hippie Nirvana that it once was described as, nor is it the Apocalypse Now charade that I was sold on. What certainly exists in Vang Vieng is the Nam Song river, hundreds of bamboo bars, access to drugs of all kinds and an arena where time can stand still - if you dare think hard enough.
So I had an evening out in VV with JJ, one time friend of mine Jason and his partner Audrey where we happily wiled away an afternoon and an evening swinging in hammocks under the shade of dual occupancy bamboo huts. I also remember that I happily consumed more than my fair share of Happy garlic bread during the course of that afternoon and evening. I mean I had a craving so intense that nothing was going to stop me from getting the garlic bread fix that I needed! Then the Happy Herb caught up with me...oh yeah it did! This is then what I remember from the rest of that evening....
...I remember the BEST, I mean the GREATEST BURGER that this planet has ever seen, that has ever been created, EVER! In my humble, severe munchies opinion! I admit that assessment is totally subjective, but what's not was the size of this burger, it was a behemoth! It was somewhere at the point of burger completion that the night commenced drifting between auditory hallucinations, imagined conversations, cannon fire and panther growls. It was a scene man...in my head at least...and then, then the morning came. The morning of that day is all I have to recall for the rest of it drifted on by like the tranquil waters of the Nam Song that flowed but 50mtrs from the front door. Vang Vieng, I ask you, 'Dude, where IS my car!?'
Nam Song River - Vang Vieng - Laos
Bamboo bars on the Nam Song - Vang Vieng - Laos
Now do the maths here - people DIE in Vang Vieng, relatively frequently!
See the guy in the foreground? See the freakin' mental slide in the background?
Carnage ensues
AND THIS IS ONLY DURING THE DAY - NIGHT IN VANG VIENG IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT BEAST
2. Riga (Latvia) - [2010] - A four hour bus ride out of Tallinn (Estonia) and I was in another smokin' Baltic capital, Riga. Both Tallinn and Riga are known as being party towns once the Summer rolls around, partly for their value for money, partly for their quaint, 'old town' centres but mostly for their talent! Now when I refer to talent I refer to the female merchandise because the guys....pfft....I have no idea how they survive in that environment! The men are all box headed, crew cut, dopey eyed Russians. No apologies from my side either, that's just the way they look and I have to make a call based on truth.
My devil of a night in Riga commenced in a placed called the Shot Bar. I mean straight off the bat the name already conjures up images of hedonism and inevitable destruction doesn't it? The tale of my evening in down town Riga can be read here [Latvian nightmoves] but the abridged version is what you're reading this entry for I guess, so here goes.
I was attracted to the bar because I had discovered its magical happy hour earlier in the afternoon and also a cute bartender by the name of Inga that slid a few freebies my way during the course of the evening. What I remember of that night is that somewhere around 1am, happy hour time, the place instantly packed out and the crowd upped the ante in terms of atmosphere! Bells were ringing, random Italians were buying me Flaming Lamborghini's, I mean we really had lift off from command centre in Riga, and then sometime around 3am my inner being had a quiet word with the body it was carrying and suggested that finding a bed would be the only rational thing to do at that point in time.
I was attracted to the bar because I had discovered its magical happy hour earlier in the afternoon and also a cute bartender by the name of Inga that slid a few freebies my way during the course of the evening. What I remember of that night is that somewhere around 1am, happy hour time, the place instantly packed out and the crowd upped the ante in terms of atmosphere! Bells were ringing, random Italians were buying me Flaming Lamborghini's, I mean we really had lift off from command centre in Riga, and then sometime around 3am my inner being had a quiet word with the body it was carrying and suggested that finding a bed would be the only rational thing to do at that point in time.
Now what I know after that point is this. I left the bar at 3am. I'm fairly certain of that as the bar was still open and it was dark. The hostel I was staying at could be reached in a 10-15 min walk, that I also know. The last piece of information that I can say for certain is that after leaving the bar at 3am I walked into the hostel at 7am!!! Dude, WHERE's my car!!??!? Now I don't have the slightest idea of what happened in the the 4 hrs after leaving the bar. I have snippets of hazy pixelated images in my mind that recall 'perhaps' another bar stop, I also recall what I thought was a Japanese man telling me that I couldn't sit in the doorway that was propping me up because the Rigan police would without question lock me up for drunk and disorderly conduct, that I ripped my trousers whilst running in circles in a car park (the running in circles event was due to a severe loss of balance, nothing intentional there) and finally I remember a group of guys trying to offer me assistance and saying amongst themselves 'Hey, isn't that the Australian guy from the bar'. Man oh man, I don't think I'd ever been quite so totalled in my life.
Somehow, by good fortune or good grace I literally stumbled upon the hostel I was staying at and found my bed, as I mentioned earlier, a little after 7am. I have no idea how I found the street that I was on, it was complete a fluke but an ever so needed one!
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Old town centre - Riga - Latvia
Old town centre - Riga - Latvia
Leaving the shot bar at 3am - this is my 'last known wherebouts!' - 4hrs later I made it to my destination! Why I took this shot I have no idea!?
3. Parque Ambue Ari - Santa Theresa - (Bolivia) - [2010] - It's the Amazon, I mean it's difficult enough to get around this place during the day whilst being plugged into your sanity but what are your chances at 3am whilst still on the very high side of a bender? I answer in this fashion, please be acquainted with my good friend Slim and my other close friend None.
If you'd like to read about my night as a drunken Helen Keller then you can find it here [Escape from Alcatraz], but for those that aren't into 'linking around' then let me break down the contest for you, it went a little something like this. The Parque crew had a night out in Santa Maria, literally a one street town which runs perpendicular to the highway that splits this little Amazonian hamlet in two. Somewhere close to 3am after a night of drunken debauchery, jungle style, I decided to make a break back for the park which was 8kms from the town. Thankfully local buses make the trip on a fairly regular basis and I was able to float across the 8km atramentous sea of lost souls back to the parque without concern. It was when I took my first step off the bus however that my worlds of inebriation and sensory loss collided and I had a 'Dude, where's my freakin' accommodation moment!?'
Note this, the jungle blocks out all light, it is pitch black. My digs, well, where my mattress was based at least, was located 100mtrs down the road from the main camp and in my all too macho, all too boneheaded assessment prior to the evening commencing I made the rather witless and obtuse decision of not sticking a torch into my back pocket, 'Crikey, she'll be right cobber' was the adopted philosophy. A reasonable decision perhaps at 6pm with colleagues a plenty to call on but at 3am in the morning, not such a brilliant one when standing as the solitary being on the darkened road to Trinidad. Thankfully I was provided with a Bolivian lighter from a fellow camper to keep me company for what should have been an uneventful journey down to my 'crib'.
Flicking my new inherited lighter on and off down the Ventura Highway I must have looked like a 13 yr old girl at a Justin Bieber concert who was high on ...? Actually, what the hell are those girls high on? One wonders! But then it happened. The piece of crap Bolivian lighter literally crumbled in my hands, I mean it just disintegrated and left a pile of spare parts on the side of the road, and there too I was left. My head spinning from hours of drinking, an understanding that my digs were probably now only 20mtrs from where I stood but also with the understanding that I could not see JACK other than feel the bitumen underneath my feet. I was in a hopeless position. I imagined in those moments that waiting it out until morning was going to be my only realistic option, although I didn't like the idea of the types of companions that I imagined would be keeping me company for those hours. The freakin tarantulas in those parts are MASSIVE and I'm a SEVERE arachnophobe!
So I tried for the impossible. I tap danced my way down the jungle path where I assumed our hut was, but 5 mtrs into the journey I started crashing through thick undergrowth, vines and all other terrestrial beings! 'F***!' .... Not matter the failure however, I'm a stubborn little buggger and I attempted this route and methodology a few more times with the awful thought lingering in my mind that the further I penetrated the jungle the less likely I'd be able to make it back to the highway due to the cloak of darkness that surrounded me.
On my final pass I became well and truly enmeshed and acquired an instantaneous dose of jungle fever. It was only at that point that I realised that my position was well and truly hopeless. So there I stood, drunk, technically lost and inspired only by the flicker of hope I held in that action that I was about to undertake next...I called out for help....'Help!...Heeeelp!....Help?'...it was that embarrassed, pathetic call for assistance where you realise that your own stupidity and drunken state has placed you in a most pitiful position.
....then I saw it, a light turned on from inside of the hut (all of 10 metres away!)...it left one of the rooms and came out the front door. It took a whole 4 seconds for a young Bolivian guy to come to be standing right in front of me, looking at me in a way that suggested he had already accepted his lot in life, he had done this before a number of times, obviously! What must he have been thinking, ' Another foreigner lost in the backyard!' - 'Riggs, I'm too old for this sh*t!'
The entrance to the camp on the left hand side of the shot - taken from roughly where my journey started to come undone - Parque Ambue Ari - Santa Theresa - Bolivia
It's tough enough trying to get through this during the day!
See that light on my head!?....yeah...hindsight huh! It's a wonderful thing!
4. Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - (Brasil) - [2011] - 'Muther flippin' Cachaca!'. Do you know what that stuff can do to you? Thankfully I never truly found out how brutal a Caipirinha hangover could be but JJ on the other hand took this alcohol ride for a long test drive and decided to both trash the car and throw away the keys. If you want to check out the after effects of losing your senses on the famous sands of Copa then you can check it out here, [Delerium tremens with Taio Cruz].
JJ, Jet and myself had a caipirinha session for the ages on night one of our moon dance with Brasil, and the boys on Copa, man alive, their drinks are like rocket fuel, you feel each sip in your nose and in the whack of that metaphorical paddle to the back of your head! We had a wicked night where proceedings wound up at close to 5am. Now for the life of me I don't know how the hell I beat what should have been a near death experience but I was actually out running on Copacabana at 8:30am ...my return back to the apartment on the other hand was like walking into a murder scene. Limp bodies, the air heavy with the smell of the toxic residue that these bodies were trying to excrete and there I was, on my exercise infused endorphin high, about to jump on JJ's bed and give an almighty bullocking rendition of the crowd favourite, 'Hangover' by Taio Cruz. Yeah, and just to give you the inside scoop on that, it didn't go down too well!
5. Phnom Penh - (Cambodia) - [2008] - Position (5) on this list was hotly contested and it eventually came down to a line ball call with Kuala Lumpur [2009] but for sheer randomness and the manner in which I fell into this night it rightly makes the final five.
Jason Carter and I had arrived from Ho Chi Minh earlier in the day on the back of what was quite a terrible New Year's Eve. During the course of the afternoon we had decided to do our own thing and had agreed that this evening was going to be a quiet one ...'A-ha you say, that's exactly how all the big ones commence'
Early evening crept up on me slowly and I was walking along Preah Sisowath Quay, scoping the wares of a few street vendors when I heard someone call out to me, 'Hey peder...let's just go for a couple'. So that's what we did, Jason and I pulled up a couple of seats at a reasonably nice bar and started sinking a few cans of the local brew. As the hours drifted along on the amber river that made its way down our gullets, we found ourselves chatting with a bar owner named Andy and somehow finishing off the remains of the day of a bottle of JW Green label [Heart of darkness]. Just to let you know, I haven't read the John Conrad book of the same name at the blog entry where the essence of this story lies but I know that it has nothing to do with Pol Pot or his country friend chicken.
And you know, I did the right thing that evening, I walked away when the bar was set to close. I actually called it a night and started the walk back to our lodgings, but then it came, a beep of the car horn and three drunken louts calling out my name! 'Hey Henry, we're going to another bar, c'mon man, lets go!' ....so with my arm twist I entered the inebriation chariot and we departed into a darkened Phnom Penh morning.
Several blocks later we pulled up at a girlie bar where Andy and his mate appeared to be well known. After this point all that my mind remembers is that it became a 'gong-a-thon', the gong signalling drinks on the house. It was the Copperfield of drinking escapades, beverages appearing in my hands faster than my thoughts could will them. They also disappeared faster than my good sense should have allowed.
Hours later as my body alerted me to the onset of the morning hours I felt the need to crash out as I remembered that I actually did have plans for the day. I tried, in absolute vain, as always seemed to be the case with Jason, to move his body away from the corner of the bar...'Oh well, f*** it, he's a big boy, I'll just have to leave him here' ...this was when I started my walk back to our digs for a second time, alone and out on the dusty streets of Phnom Penh. Truthfully I don't know how I manage on most occasions but my sense of direction even in foreign places is always very good. At sometime close to 5am I woke the poor 'inn-keeper' and asked him to open the door for this poor foreign soul.
As the sun streamed through the window and as my body slowly grasped that the heat of the early afternoon meant that I had slept through the morning in an intoxicated coma I had a 'Dude, where's my friend moment'. I had felt certain that the place that I had left Jason hours earlier was probably going to be the same place he was at at this moment. Gingerly I turned over to face the opposing wall and saw that the immovable object of those morning hours had met his match in the tranquility offered by his Phnom Penh cradle.
Angkor Wat - Siem Reap - Cambodia...reflecting on my time in Phnom Penh perhaps?
Bayon temple - Angkor complex - Siem Reap - Cambodia
The TOP 10 'This is how you remind me' moments
This section is dedicated to those songs that instantaneously take me back to a place in time. They may not be my favourite songs but they certainly know how remind me of some of the places that I've been and particular moments in this space.
1. Carlos Varela - 'foto de familia' - San Carlos de Bariloche - (Argentina) - [2010] I'm sitting at one of the three computer terminals of the Tangoinn hostel in Bariloche. I'd been in town for a day and loved it, then again what's not to love about a place that has the Andes mountains cascading into Lake Huapi right at its front door? As I'm cruising the WWW this song comes on and it all hits me at once! I'm actually doing it! I'm on the road in South America, no agenda, no time lines to adhere to, just me and the adventure that I'd always dreamed of having. Now that was a cool realisation and this song gets me right back there in a second.
View from the Tangoinn onto lake Huapi - San Carlos de Bariloche - Argentina
Cerro de Campanario - San Carlos de Bariloche - Argentina
2. U2 - Mercy - Anoeta stadium - San Sebastian - (Spain) - [2010] & Buenos Aires - Argentina - [2010] - My time in San Sebastian gave me more than I could have ever imagined. In fact, in the six months I had away in that year it took out top spot in terms of my favourite places visited. On the 26th of September U2 played a concert at the Anoeta stadium in San Seb for which I managed to score a front row ticket. So come on now, my favourite band playing in a town that is picturesque, has charm, is full of energy and just food obsessed! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that picture! And whilst this isn't a well known U2 song, in fact it hasn't been released on an album, they played it on this evening in San Seb and for me it was the highlight.
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U2 360 Tour - Estadio Anoeta - San Sebastian - Spain
As for its relationship with Buenos Aires, well that's a little different. I arrived in Boedo, Buenos Aires what should have only been several hours prior to Dina's scheduled arrival time. This was DAY 1 of South America and I was excited, ready to conquer as much of the continent as possible. I spent most of the first two days in this barrio waiting around for D to arrive (she ended up being delayed 2 days in Madrid!), drinking wine and listening to this song continuously in a local internet cafe.
Downtown Boedo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
3. Fedde le Grand - Raise your hands for Detroit - Hemavan - (Sweden) - [2006] - My travel blog actually started with my trip to Sweden back in '06 but unfortunately those first entries are lost somewhere under a different blog location...and now that I've said that I've just completed my own little investigation and found the link to those specific entries [Sunset at 1pm] & [Put your hands up for Detroit], the second entry being more than appropriately named it seems.
This song was everywhere over the Christmas and New Year's period of '06-'07 and when I hear it I think of apres ski in Hemavan, the sun setting at 2pm in the Artic Circle, drunk Swedes, my good mate Jay and jager shot & beer. Good times Fedde! Good times!
Hemavan - Sweden
4. Black Eyed Peas - I got a feelin' - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia - [NYE '09/10] - Somehow I knew in advance that this song was going to be the soundtrack to my NYE that year. Jet and I had made our way to the Traders Hotel in KL and booked ourselves in for the NY period. We also managed to score ourselves a table at Skybar which is probably THE view that you want to have in KL for the NYE fireworks.
This song reminds me of the NYE 'psyche up routine' prior to heading up to Skybar, it also reminds me of half hour before NYE as of course this track had its obligatory spin and finally it reminds me of New Years Day and me blaring this song in our room, trying to get even the slightest wiggle of an eyelid from Jet who appeared to be knocked out cold.
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia -NYE 2009-10
5. David Guetta/Usher - Without You - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil - [2010] - The intro to this song has Usher on the beaches of Ipanema singing the lyrics 'I can't win, I can't reign, I will never win this game without you'. Whilst there's nothing deeply profound about those lyrics other than a strange personal association the fact that the lead off to the film clip commences on the beaches of Rio really makes it more than easy for me to think of golden beaches, caipirinhas and the clouds surrouding Cristo.
Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
6.Rage Against the Machine - Testify - Buenos Aires - Argentina - [2010] - Phwoar! These guys brought the intensity!!! I think I was able to capture a snippet of that in my blog entry titled [The Quickening]. This was the first song of a furious set played out on the grounds of Constanera Sur in BA that triggered the crowd into a machismo induced state of delirium. You know the feeling that you get just before an intense storm is about to break and the atmosphere feels heavy with the weight and energy of some type of pent up angst, just like Mother Nature has chosen this moment to let out a little bit of her frustrations. Well the first strains of Testify felt like the thunder that explodes directly over your head after the realisation of that first strike of lightning. It was fucking amazing and I attach that song to that very moment in BA.
Buenos Aires - Argentina
7. Thirty Seconds to Mars - Kings & Queens - Barcelona - (Spain) - [2010] - I remember being in a nice little bar on the beach near Barceloneta, looking out onto the Meditteranean, just chatting away with JJ and kind of off handedly catching this song being played on the TV in the background. It stuck and now the memory this fantastic city is brought on everytime I hear the song.
Barcelona - Spain
8.Feeder - Insomnia - Vietnam/Cambodia - [2008] - So I snuck this one in even though it runs against the rules that I have of a song reminding me of a time and place. It does in fact remind me of the time just before heading of to Vietnam/Cambodia and the build up to leaving, and because I create the rules on this block I also allow myself the occasional indulgence of breaking them every once on a while. Yeah, I'm a bad boy!!! Huh!?
Angkor Wat - Siem Reap - Cambodia
9. Slash/Adam Levine - Gotten - Paraty - Brasil - [2010] - There's JJ, Jet and myself sitting on a verandah overlooking the magnificence of the Bay of Ihla Grande on the Costa Verde. Strangely one of the things that you tend to miss the most whilst travelling is music and one of the last things added to your preparations list prior to leaving is something that has the capacity to play some tunes. OK, so with the advent of the iEverything these days it's not such a hassle and thankfully Jet had the new Slash album on his iPhone ready to go, along with too many songs to mention by Suicidal Tendencies. This song however reminds me of Paraty and of a few moments in my mind when the strangely held hope of something that I'd wanted more than anything for half my life to come true actually did....'Never say never punks! '....seriously!!!!
Ihla Grande Bay - Paraty - Brasil
10. Your own personal Jesus - Depeche Mode - flight from Dubai - [2006] - You've got to blame Emirates for this one, and perhaps the fact that I made a conscious decision to listen to the Best of Depeche Mode for the second leg of the flight home.
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