So at 5PM I left the San Diego Zoo, San Diego of course being right on the border with Mexico. 11PM the next day I was unpacking the suitcases from the back of my car in Canada.

Drove the whole way.

To make things even more impressive I caught 1.5 hour ferry in there, made a surprising number of stops for fuel and bathroom breaks, and stopped to eat proper sit-down meals as well. I even took a detour and got lost in San Fransisco, which I think added on another 2 or 3 hours.

Yep, driving clear across the entire United States in one trip, in only 30 hours, is pretty damned impressive even if I do say so myself.

Erin and I just got off a cruise from Mexico; I wasn’t a big fan of cruises but this trip was so enjoyable I think I’d go back. I’ll post more on that once I have the pictures unloaded, but you can see the entirety of my trip home in the pic above - Puerto Vallarta (orange), Mazatlan (green) and Cabo san Lucas (red).

So my close personal Apes, Colin and Sarah, have decided to hop on a hunk of styrofoam and drift off to the exotic location of Koh Phangan in Thailand. They washed up in low tide some 2 kilometers out from the beach and hiked their way over exotic fish, crabs, and coral reefs to their stupidly cheap rented oceanfront home complete with satellite internet.

The island is right above this comically drawn arrow, helpfully arranged by some Thai tourism website:

It’s that little island immediately North of Koh Samui.

The reason I bring this up is because they’ve started a little travel blog. I thought it would be mentioning all sorts of boring stuff (Like “Hey look everyone, we bought $17,000,234 worth of software for $5! Hey look, I picked up four PS3s and two Wiis!”), so I hesitantly checked up on them once in a while. Turns out they keep dropping bombs of information and insight, so I can’t tear myself away.

Most recently, Colin dragged himself out to a backroom boxing match between, amongst other events, 12-year-olds. The article is a little long and contains drunken rambling, but it is still chock full of goodness.

The first fighters show up and are about 12. The womans voice assures me that this builds character or some poor excuse and to be a master you have to start out this young. Trust me, noone swilling through this joint was going on to better things. This place had a real end-of-the-line feel.

So the 12 year olds kick the shit out of eachother for a while. I really wanted to get a picture of the kid in the blue corner standing, gloves down, with a bloody nose after the end of a round, but didn’t. Well not on film. The image is indelibly ingrained on my mind.

Check it out. Fun reading even if you don’t plan on going there.

Why is it that people can be so interested in what is foreign and strange?

I’m speaking in terms of foreign countries, in this instance. Why do us residents of Canada - or even residents of the US of A or even Australia - look outwards for their entertainment?

I’m interested in history, geography, and heck, even differing cultures. I don’t make it a hobby or anything, but when a friend of mine starts reading a detailed book on the history of North Korea, I’m interested. And that bugs me.

I can see inhabitants of smaller countries wanting to escape. In Portugal, culture and geography is largely the same throughout. Compared to Canada, I mean. You’d want to travel to Germany - England - Egypt - and see what there is to see. But here in Canada? They speak a foreign language on the opposite end of the country. In the north end of the country they speak yet another language. We have native indian reserves larger than some small countries!

Take Nunavut, for instance. The North West Territories was (and probably still is) the largest province in Canada. Due to some native land claims, the Government of Canada decided to cleave our largest province in twain, and give the Eastern bit to the Inuit - which named the province “Nunavut” in April of 1999. Sounds pretty generous of us, eh? Well did you know that if it were a country, Nunavut would rank 13th largest country in the world? Yeah, it’s pretty fuckin’ generous. It’s bigger than Mexico for Chrissakes.

And get this - I had no idea until just a few hours ago, but Canada wasn’t fully independant of the UK until 1982. EIGHTY-FUCKIN-TWO! Who knew?! Canada was named and given it’s own flag in 1867 - which makes us just a smidgen under 150 years old - but in terms of actual seperation from mommy and daddy? We aren’t even out of puberty yet!

I wonder what else awaits me in my own country. What other tidbits or facts are there to learn? What places or people will I be amazed with?