Auckland NZ

I landed in Auckland at 4:30 am it was the one time I wanted to land a little later.  Flying with Air New Zealand is pretty decent as they have a good selection of movies and tv shows to watch. The meals on Air NZ are pretty decent for airline food and hey you can get free wine (beer too I think). Going through customs was quick and painless but, they did want to see my hiking boots to ensure they were clean of foreign soils (they will do this in Australia too). I couldn't get into my hostel until 8:00 am and that is not fun when it is pouring rain and you are jet lagged. Today I am trying to do some of the boring stuff like get a new phone, apply for a 1 year visa extension, setup a bank account, update my resume and all of that other "fun" stuff. 

Right now it is pouring rain since I do not have my rain gear with me it is a perfect day to buy some new gear and give it a good try. The weather here right now is a lot like Vancouver British Columbia Canada - rain. I am going to spend a few days in Auckland before heading down to the south island and going to Queenstown. I want to spend more time in the south island and see the mountain ranges. People that know me well enough that I am a huge outdoor junkie and I would like to try to get a job working in the mountains. Right now it is coming into spring time slowly. The in between seasons can be the worst in the mountains as it is unpredictable.

Right now I am starting to debate what I am doing and why. I am not regretting my choices just merely trying to figure out what my choices are. I think a one way ticket booked to Queenstown just might be the thing to do for now since it is

My Life
My Choice
My Time

Tuna Tom

3rd near natural disaster/night out in Calgary

Hello everyone I am still stuck here in Canada but will be on my way soon....I hope. It is quite frustrating having to put your whole life on hold for this. 

Since I have been here, I met up with one friend for lunch to talk about my travel journey, and last night I met up with a few other people. It is always great to sit down and chat to those familiar faces about your adventures. Unfortunately in Calgary you can't sit on a patio without sooner or later someone coming along to harass you. After dealing with scam after scam and countless muppets in Asia, I have become quite skilled at dealing with less desirables. It is frustrating when you are trying to enjoy your day/night and someone is pestering you. Before the person had much of a chance to say anything I look at him and tell him to hit the road. The guy argues with me for a bit and realizes he is not getting anywhere and leaves. There were two girls sitting right on the edge of the patio who immediately say "thank you" for getting rid of him. I do not get joy out of being rude to people but sometimes you just have to do it. I had to negotiate with a cab to get a ride back to where I am staying and well it worked (negotiating for taxis in Canada is not the norm)! Wohoo the bad things I dealt with in Asia are already paying off!

Anyone who has followed my blog long enough knows I have encountered two near natural disasters since I started traveling; 1, in Antigua Guatemala a volcano exploded http://tunatom.blogspot.ca/2015/02/volcano-explosion.html and 2, in Jacksonville Florida a Tornado was close by http://tunatom.blogspot.ca/2015/04/welcome-to-rockville-day-1_26.html well now I have a 3^rd one. Unfortunately there are wildfires in the state of Washington in the US these fires are running quite rampant and British Columbia in Canada is dealing with fires too. Hopefully these fires will be brought under control soon as thousands of people are losing everything. Where I am staying right now you can see the smoke in the sky and the weather forecast calls for smokey conditions.   Last night there was a “red moon” from the smokey conditions. Although we are hundreds of kilometers away from these terrible fires we are getting some of the effects of the disaster here.

There have been times where people were the cause of natural disasters such as fires and flooding. There is a plethora amount of information online on what to do for natural disasters. You need to think about what could happen in your area and have a plan for it. I do not want to write down any of the information as I know I will miss it. Just spend some time making sure you are ready for anything. Every day I travel I think about what could happen in the areas I am in. I am not trying to get people worked up just merely raise awareness as it is better to think about it when you are calm rather than trying to deal with it when or if it comes up.  Take care everyone.

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Potential stop over?

I will be heading back to New Zealand in the next little while but I will fly out of either Vancouver or the US. If I stop in the US do I spend a few days in LA first? Do I catch a NFL game? Go whale watching?  The possibilities are endless and I will challenge myself to get the most out of the whatever city in a 24-48 hour period. There are countless places to go to it's all a matter of where I want to go and what do I want to do after all it is; my birthday and unfortunately I am stuck here for now but, it is also

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Wasting our lives

Being a Thursday afternoon in Canada most people are waiting for two big things; the end of the workday today and the beginning of the weekend. It wasn’t long ago that was some of the things I was waiting for. It seems that we are always waiting for something weekends, flights, text back, results, supper, winter, a shop to open, etc etc. We have become a society that wastes our time waiting. Unfortunately for me at this point I am waiting for money so I can move on with things. When you spend your time waiting you are not really living you are merely letting your life be taken over by something you have no control over – time. These are the times I like to work on my blog but lately it seems I have very little to write about. My feet are itching and I am ready to go but I have no choice other than to wait. If you could take all of that wasted time and do something useful with it I bet you could accomplish something great. Yet we pace, check our phone and email, in reality we do nothing. How much time do we waste? I have created a posted titled a 48 hour challenge. I am really hoping I will have some tourism boards from different cities invite me over to see what their city has to offer. I want to be able to show myself and the world what we can do and how we can really live our lives to the fullest rather than sitting around waiting after all it is

Your Life

Your Choice

Your Time…….no wait a minute it is

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

PS I am willing to travel to any city to see what they have to offer and hopefully you have some tuna and beer....

Back to day 1 flight from Calgary to Houston

Just wanted to share some pictures taken from day 1 of my trip a flight from Calgary to Houston. If you ever fly with United Airlines get the tomato juice it is really tasty!

Pineapple picture scam Hanoi Vietnam

A little information on currency;

At the time of this writing 1 US dollar is equivalent to 21,818 VND (Vietnamese dollars). One other thing to note is when asking prices Vietnamese will say things like 150 which actually means 150,000 VND or 10 which means 10,000 VND. Vietnamese (or other nationalities) might also use US dollars so always check, recheck and carry a calculator. 

Now that is out of the way so what is the pineapple picture scam? Throughout Asia and other parts of the world you will see our better halves do a lot of carrying. (the two pictures below are not mine). 

In Hanoi around a main backpacker hub Ma May street there are ladies carrying baskets with pineapples. The ladies will come up and basically throw the baskets at you and say, hey try this and I will take a picture for free. After you get your picture taken they will try to sell you little bags of cut up pineapple for a ridiculous amount. I was ok with actually getting my picture taken I figure why not! I knew exactly what was going on as I have been in Asia long enough. The lady asked me for 150 VND (150,000) she was furious when I was saying no. She drops it down to 100 etc I simply say I will give you 10 and after several tense moments she eventually gives in. 

Just a little food for thought;

There are many scams out there like this one and they all work relatively the same. If people say free, or cheap or, look like they are just trying to help and, they are local put your guards up. Unfortunately you have to on some levels not trust people. Scams tend to happen more in touristy areas/tourist traps. 

Sometimes other scams might be them giving you corn to feed the birds and then asking for money. There were ladies selling doughnuts and would say hey try this one but then ask for money for it. Some people may demand money for taking a picture of them. Most of these scams work on a smaller level, but could still cost you a lot a good firm no and keep walking will get you out of it. 

As always please feel free to comment or ask questions. Don't forget to come back often. A couple of my upcoming blogs are for negotiating and, different modes of transportation.

Safe travels everyone,

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Heading to Calgary on August 9th

I will be in Calgary for a few days on business if anyone wants to go for a drink or grab a meal while I am there please post a message on here or send me an email tombroxham@gmail.com

Taking things for granted - first meal

In your everyday life you take things for granted and when you travel long enough some of the things you want are some of the basics. As some of you are reading this you are drinking filtered tap water and, having your breakfast which may be a bowl of cereal. I kid you not many long term travelers would love those two things. You may despise left overs but for some of us we would love that.The ability to walk or drive to everywhere you know, going to restaurants where you don't even need to look at the menu. Although we crave these things it wouldn't be long until we bore of them. A lot of us would love to just be able to pick up the phone to make a call or to walk to the place we need to deal with, When you need to think about the 12 hour or more time change it can be frustrating. From time to time you need that little taste of home maybe it is a burger, crackers, vegemite (for the Aussies), or any other of a series of foods.

When traveling there are things we take for granted such as the transportation methods we use, or the food we eat on a daily basis. Another thing we take for granted is friendships. Sometimes we try to talk to you about what great thing we have done or seen and you want to talk about very different things. I think it becomes hard as we drift apart but that is part of life. We get very used to say goodbyes and farewells and move on to the next group coming in. Back home you said goodbye to us and it is over with. 

One other thing travelers talk about is that first meal back as for the meal I want when I get back 

The Keg,

,

Drink: Glass of water and an ice cold cool crisp smooth glacier fresh bottle of Kokanee.  

Appetizer Caesar Salad, 

Main: Prime Rib Steak medium rare, baked potato fully loaded,

Desert, Cheesecake

This meal is still a long time away but I still know what it is hands down. First home cooked meal I want now that I have no idea.

Tuna Tom

ps. Someone go over to Suzette's desk and tell her to watch http://www.hockeyfights.com/

Scoot Airlines cheap until you have to pay for water

Dear Scoot Airlines;

I understand you are a budget airline however can you please explain to me how come the following situations are acceptable on your airline;

No free beverages...seriously would a cup of water or a bottle of water hurt that much. Sometimes we may not have a credit card or they might not work. On a flight from Sydney to Singapore and no free water (although you can bring it aboard). Have the executives not flown before? Do you not realize how dry it is on flights and dehydration is a major factor? You are charging 4 dollars for a tiny bottle of water come on now seriously.

I can understand not giving away a meal with a cheap flight but not allowing people to bring food on board. Why would I be willing to pay an arm and a leg for really bad airline meal when I can bring something from the airport.

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Hoi An Vietnam boat tour

Just wanted to post some pictures from a little boat tour I did in Hoi An Vietnam. I was walking along the water when I saw a boat (pictured below) with an older couple and a sign for 50,000 VND for a 30 minute tour. In US dollars that is less than $2.50. I decided why not and hopped in. They took me for a little tour around the area and I ended up giving them 100,000 VND for it. It was a nice little way to see more of the area. You can do bigger boat tours but the money I gave them will help them more than the bigger tours.

Don't forget to come back often. I will be writing a blog about airlines, luggage costs (which I got burned by one today) and a certain airline that will not allow you to eat your own food and charges for water..........

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Saigon to Singapore to Sydney Australia to Auckland New Zealand

I am waiting for my taxi to take me to the airport for the flights listed above 3 separate flights, several hours of layovers, suddenly you are not jealous of traveling are you? The next couple of days are critical for me and I am a little nervous right now. This is the first time I am going to a different country to work. Right now I have to calm down and just take things as they come. Worrying about future events does you very little good. Focus on what you can control. For any of those who ever travel for long periods of time or leave your country to go and work, make sure you have everything at home tied up with a nice big safety net that can be reached at anytime. If you have to do things from abroad it can be a huge pain especially if phone calls, physical presence or signatures are required.  Wish me luck!

My Life

My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom

Last few days in Asia

Tonight will be my last night in Asia. I am looking forward to leaving here and heading on to New Zealand. I will catch up with friends when I am there. I also plan on spending lots of time in Queenstown which is the adventure capital of New Zealand and possibly of the world. I plan on doing lots of skiing when I am there which it is prime ski season right now. It will be interesting skiing in August and it is my birthday then I am quite excited for it. 

Asia has been a big learning experience for me. I was taught some tough lessons which will remain with me for life. A few years ago I had little to no interest in Asia and although there are places I do want to see still Asia is not the place for me. I am sure when I come back I will enjoy it more. 

Although I will be working in New Zealand I know there are many more adventures to come, skiing in August, bungee jumping, seeing the Southern Lights, back to Australia to go to the beaches, maybe trips to Fiji and who knows what else afterall it is

My Life
My Choice

My Time

Tuna Tom