videos: swings, water and tubing in laos

laos was so much fun!
this is a little sequence of the swings and jumps at the kouang si waterfall (luang prabang) and the mekong river (vang vieng)..

i opted not to edit out the drunk chick in the end.. that's part of the atmosphere and she's a cool girl (hi, T!) =)

rtw quickies #4

- even after decades trying to control their population, there's still over 30 million possums in new zealand. 

- when doing a rescue diving course, the people being 'fake saved' shout "pizza", not "help" (for obvious reasons).
 
- women can't touch the buddhist monks.
 
- selling chewing gum is illegal in singapore. contrary to the rumors, possession is not illegal.

- if you go to this countries, you're likely to try this drinks: fiji: kava, australia: goon, singapore: sling, thailand: chang (beer), laos: beerlao and lao lao (whiskey), indonesia: arak. they're all either cheap or traditional, usually both. and generally very bad.

rtw numbers: people

- i met at least 150 people ("met" meaning talking more than a couple of minutes, exchanging names, etc)

- around 60 people added to facebook, and more popping up every now and then

- people from around 40 countries

- top 3 countries (in number of people i met): 1. england; 2. canada; 3. sweden (surprisingly!)

- i only really met 2 brazilians: one in laos (and then again in vietnam), and one in indonesia.. it was enough.

- i made friends with a few locals: in fiji, singapore, vietnam, egypt and greece

- places with the most beautiful people:
by concentration: queenstown, new zealand
by number: bali, indonesia

rtw faq #4

q: how crazy was your schedule?
a: it was pretty intense.. for the first half of the trip, i would wake up early (or VERY early), do tourism/sightseeing all day, and party at night, have 3 or 4 hours of sleep, then do it all over again... i'd stay 1 or 2 days at one place, then move on to the next... after a while i got a little tired, and began doing less sightseeing, more relaxing on the beach, less moving from place to place, more hanging out with people i met..

q: do you recommend a schedule like yours?
a: maybe. i didn't meet a single person who was doing 14 countries in less than 4 months.. next time i do something like this, i'm not gonna do it this way.. the reasons i did this were: 1. i didn't know better; 2. i wanted my final destination to be spain; 3. i wanted a true 'round the world experience. so if you don't mind the hectic schedule, skipping 'less interesting' places, and you just want to have a taste of all these different places, i say do the normal thing: book a one way ticket to one place, and go from there with nothing but a rough itinerary.. but make sure to study your budget!

rtw quickies #3

- egyptians stare at anything different (or "wrong"), and they don’t care. i didn’t care either.

- crocodile’s teeth are for grabbing and tearing, not chewing.

- according to statistics, lawn bowling is the world’s most dangerous sport. more people die playing lawn bowling than any other sport. the average age of the players is 85 years. really.

- while the western part of the menus in asia are subdivided in categories (breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, sandwiches, pizza, pasta, sides, etc…), the asian part is only one (noodles or rice).

- 80% of the fijian land is still owned by natives.

whole lotta posts

it's been over a month i don't post anything here..
i've been a little lazy and unmotivated (mostly for lack of feedback, honestly), but then i remembered this is supposed to be (also) something for me to look back and remember my travel experiences, and i still have so much stuff to post.. 

anyway, just so i post most of what i planned to, starting tomorrow i'll have something new here every day.. 

that's it. 

oh, and from now on, portuguese only on demand.. 

-- pt -- 

nao vou mais traduzir os posts pra portugues... muito trabalho a toa..
se alguem enstiver interessado, deixe um comment no post que voce quiser traduzido que eu traduzo..
ou entao tem sempre o google translate...