Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy Inauguration Day!!

The last week has just been crazy man. I finished my advanced diving certification which is cool. Also 2 days a ago I moved on board the Tupilano with Peter. Last night Elina, the other crew member joined us. So for the past few days we've all been working like crazy to get the boat in good condition to sail. I've been helping with some electrical repairs, boat cleaning, errands, and organization. There's about 12 people working all over the boat right now so it is complete chaos. Everything should be ready to go by tomorrow hopefully. Then we set sail for India!!

I'll try to keep this updated but I'm not sure how it's gonna go.

We were able to watch the inauguration late last night and it definitely lifted spirits on board. Go America

-Willy

Thursday, January 15, 2009

PHUKET ISLAND


Phuket

After 3 days staying at Patong Beach, the party time/d bag/touristy/gross capital of Phuket Island I was ready to get out of there! I rented a motorbike and took 2 days to explore the whole island, and it is really fantastic. Around every turn is the most beautiful scenic view you can imagine, and it just doesn’t end!

I was able to go diving at Koh Doc Mai, Anemone Reef and Shark Point, where we swam for some minutes with a pretty good-sized leopard shark! Preeeety sweet man. Tomorrow I start my advanced diving course with underwater navigation and peak performance/buoyancy control, and then on Sunday I will do a wreck dive, deep dive, and an underwater photography dive.

Now I am staying with a German woman that I met on the couch surfing project (www.couchsurfing.com). She takes care of me and she cooks dinner every night! Not to mention her husband is a captain on cable laying ships so she has tons of stories for me. Also staying with her is a girl from Bend, OR and another German woman who is on a cycling tour from Austria through Asia!! (attn WADE: she’s 45 man if she can do it I know you can!!)

I meet up with Peter at the Marina either Sunday or Monday and I couldn’t be more excited!

Phuket Good:
Incredible beaches/viewpoints
Great weather!
Great Diving!
Very nice people and other travelers
AMAZING THAI FOOD!!
Beach babes ☺
Motorbike adventures!
Monkeys!

Phuket Bad:
Patong Beach
Awful cover band butchering Nirvana tunes (Kurt is rolling in his grave)
I DON”T WANT A ‘MASSAGE’, ‘ARMANI SUIT’ or a TUK TUK!!

Mostly Good ☺

I miss Portland a lot but I’m having the time of my life!

Love Willy

Monday, January 12, 2009

I'm in Thailand

it rules i'll post more when i get some time. oh yeah went diving yesterday and saw a shark like 4 ft away from me. too many bros where i'm at now gotta go. pics soon
love willy

Monday, January 5, 2009

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year Friends!

I just got back to the states from Mexico. We had a great time, we were able to build a classroom building, re-roof 2 buildings, fix some plumbing in the kids bathroom, and a few odd jobs here and there. We were also able to visit some good friends we've made over the years and spend some time with them and catch up.

New Years was great. I spent it by myself on the beach overlooking Ensenada playing my harmonica and watching the fireworks over the city. How romantic.

Sooooo I just found out that I will be meeting up with a boat in Phuket, Thailand. From there we will sail to India, Oman, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt and then possibly Cyrpus and on to Turkey. We'll see where I go from there!

I'm currently in San Francisco to get my Indian Visa, then I'm off to Phuket on Thursday!

SR011349

(This was the beach I was camping at for the week)