IMG_3393
Originally uploaded by ndls.

some select photos of amsterdam. Click in and look around.

James... Originally uploaded by ndls.

for those who do not understand who James is. James is a very intellectual guy who knows many things about the world, and has some very strong and in-depth views of how it all works in a political sense. However, after some alcohol James, is no longer James, the professional investment banker that his name conveys but rather a totally different person who from my photographic evidence is quite a wild and unpredictable kinda guy. "He is James by day and Kwang Wong Lee by night." - Russel Peters. (click pic for more barcelona pics)

I must write this down for it may slip my memory for i have no journal and photos of this event.

The story starts with NYE and we gather in barcelona for dinner. Following the local tradition we all got a little box of grapes. Grapes? yes grapes. According to tradition, a potentional dissatisfied person can ingest the grapes during the transition of NYE to NY and his/her wishes will be granted. It is also believed that ingesting them all at one moment increases the potential probabilty of "wish-coming-true".

Given this knowledge, upon the transition time everyone started stuffing grapes in their mouths. Soon (5 seconds) we all realised, that the second part of the tradition could not possibly true as several of us began contemplating if the potential rise in "wish-coming-true" was worth choking to death for. So instead we started a new tradition with the grapes which involved the throwing, squishing and all types of mischevious behaviour to do with grapes.

Remaining out of the fray, i was gradually finishing my stockpile of grapes until i was sconed in the eye by Mr James Lee. Enraged, i responded accordingly by pegging a grape at him, now its hard to depict what happened after this point but if you have seen the Mike Vick Nike ads, wehre he throws a football at his teammate and his teammate gets totally knocked over. Imagine that, but with a grape. In my mind Wonzy was airbourne for about 5 seconds.

I was blind with laughter after that for the next 5 minutes.

(in truth, wonzy/james slightly overreacted to the peg and unfortunately tripped at just the right time as my grape hit him which caused the whole illusion of my immensely strong arm strength)

This trip has been superb. Just excellent all the way i cant explain it. All i can say is i stared with a tiny cake probably muffin sized, and now i got well.. a muffin with about 30 layers of icing. And i believe a few more layers of icing to come.

Anyways to catch all my many many readers up to speed, i decided to pike on all my friends (earning me the term "master piker") and trek around in the sahara. Mind you it was a hard hard choice, but it was essentially a proximity issue since i was much much closer to the sahara then my friends.

Anyways that was very very beautiful and inspiring to see expanses of sand that stretch to the horizon, much more interesting then expanses of water which are kinda flat and mostly boring. A few interesting things happened along the way like 1am green tea cooked on a private fire, freezing my entire sections of my body off as the temperature in teh dessert plummet, camera running out of batteries and losing my wallet on the camel ride. All great and exciting stuff. Got a few good photos too boot. Oh. I found my wallet, while trekking back through the dessert without a camel. It was sticking halfway out of the sand, as if a camel stepped on half of it. If it were to step on all of it, it would be submerged in sand and lost 2 the world. Lucky me.

Mmm, lets see, a man stole my scarf and my beanie on the train from Marrakech to Tanger. The slimy slimy bastard. Fortunately i saw him at the final stop and i confronted him and retrieved my scarf. How often would that happen?

Somehow i was transitting through Malaga in Spain, which turned out to be an amazing little city with a great set of ruins and gardens. It was great fun exploring and setting up timer shots of myself with the sunset and what not. Who needs a tripod?

If that wasnt good enough, my time in Amsterdam was just superb. Hanging out with Jess, her friends, Jono, Lynzy, Wonzy (James) and Nancy was just awesome fun. Although possibly for different reason which i'm willing to accept money in exchange "no disclosure" agreements.

Mind you despite all the weird stuff (the weed and the sex) this place is just a great city with so much depth of character then all the obvious touristy stuff. Walking around the city gives you a certain flavour, and then you jump on a bike and u get a totally different one. tatemo sugoi as some japanese guy instructed me to say.

Then, unfortunately people started leaving, firstly the three hoppers (lynz, wonz and nanc) off to prague, and then Jess and Jono to Istanbul, But Jess's friends (namely Mark, Elinor and Sabina) pulled through and showed me a great time. Great people, good times.

Anyways. The final icing, getting a business class ticket on the way home and going to the business class lounge. Which is just great in itself with all the comfy chairs and stuff. But, free net, free food, free drink, free TV, free printing. Man i havent even scoped out all the free stuff i get in here, i feel like i'm in an oasis and the poor tens and millions of people outside wandering the dessert never knowing how good it is here.

Oh i got a leather jacket. And 3 pairs of new shoes.

So much icing.

At the moment i am in merrekech, moved on from Fes. Unfortunately i'm at a time and date where a choice must be made. I have three options available to me:

1) Get going back to Barcelona to head to berlin to meet up with Wonzy, Lynzy and Nancy (why are they all ending in 'y'? is this an australian thing we do?) 2) Head back to Fes where a few australians and a moroccan awaits. Also a sheep beheading festival, which i have been kindly invited to. Horray sheep heads!! *shrugs* 3) head into the sahara dessert for a trek and some respite from the rain in Merrekech and Fes

decisions decisions.. i cant decide.

ps: update on the phone call with the morrocan turns out i stood her up at the train station because of the english-french barrier. Its all good though, we managed to meet up and she forgave me =) bloody anglais!!! ..

so hello people wh read this, i cant imagine there are many of ou since my updates are so infrequent. but just as a genral update for my ozn god and our knowledge i have travelled successfully to morroco zithout being ripped off.

Yes you did read correctly , I am in Morocco , Fez to be exact. Took a train from barcelona to malaga then a bus from malaga to algercerias and then a ferry to tanger and then an overnight train and arrived at 230am. It was a great excursion dozn and meeting people is always fun, esecialy australians in this little corner of the world is amazing.I was also surprised to see the japanese down here as well, i think as much as the moroccans.

But geez, i feel greatly inadequate not knowing any other languages besides my native tongues; right now im shooting myself for not seriously learning french. People lie, if 90 percent of what people say is through body language then apparently i speak 0 body. For the overnight train i was accompanied by a young attractve moroccan girl and we are spose to meet up while im here. The catch is she doesnt speak english and i dont speak french. Man, its gonna be such a super struggle phone call.

The main reason for this post/email is that i read something about people being kidnaped and sold to slavery, which on one hand zould be very adventurous, i dont think i zold enjoy it as my stay gets extended indefinitely. So i figured i should a least begin the cookie crumb trail so one of you guys can track me down if need be.

So im at Fez, stayed at hotel central and internetting at anasoft.Come find me.