Smoking Police at Fiji Airport, but Sydney is all good

My flight from LAX got delayed for about 4 hours, but luckily they called ahead and delayed the connection flight in Fiji. Then again, maybe it wasn't so much luck, due to the fact that the Boeing 747 that we were flying on from LAX had 550 passengers on it, and if they didn't hold the connection plane, it would have left Fiji completely empty. I ended up passing the time chatting with a Swedish girl at LAX who was headed to Fiji to couchsurf for a few weeks before heading to South America. I ended up sleeping quite a bit on the 12 hour flight from LAX to Fiji, and then even slept a bit on the 5 hour flight from Fiji to LAX.

The worst part about Fiji was that they didn't have a smoking section unless you left customs, even though most of the terminals were outdoor terminals. Then then--to boot--they send everyone back through a security screening, even though everyone had just had one at LAX, and at that point they stole my lighter. 

"Why do you have this?" asked the heavy set security screener. She had a perfectly rounded afro, and acted as though i was smuggling a bomb.

"because I smoke," I said back.

"but how did you get it here."

I pointed at the massive plane that I had just exited and said "I flew here on that, and it was in my pocket."

"but how did you get it through security?"

"I've always been allowed to fly with lighters and they let me at LAX."

She glared at me as if i had just said something pretentious and said "well, this is Fiji, not LAX, and we have to take this from you."

At that point it didn't much matter whether I had a lighter or not, because there wasn't anywhere to smoke anyway, and every employee at the Fiji airport seemed like they were just getting paid to make sure people didn't smoke. 

When I arrived at Sydney Airport, the line for customs took roughly and hour, and as soon as I walked outside, there was a barrage of people smoking right in front of the exit doors. No throwback leper island, no dirty looks, just people and their cigarettes, so I did the only thing I knew, and asked one of them for a lighter.

Flying to Australia and Smoking at LAX

  So here I  at Los Angeles International Airport. When I first arrived my dad parked in the garage and hung out with me in front of the International Terminal for an hours or so before I went through security. While out front, I smoked a couple of cigarettes as I knew from past airport experiences that Airports are the worst places to smoke. For the most part, you have to leave security, follow signs to some remote part of the property and hang out with all the other lepers that have been deemed by society as marginal characters. American's can overeat, get fat, develop diabetes and hard desease anywhere they want, including the International Terminal at LAX. There is a McDonalds that not only enables them, it overcharges them too. 

So I pass security, and the first thing I do is go into the Duty Free Store where I purchase a carton of my favorite cigarettes for fractions of the price I would pay anywhere else, including the navajo indian reservations in Arizona. Of course, unlike the fat asses, I am unable to use them unless I want to pass through security, and then re-enter--which I dont. 

My only hope is that there is a smoking section in the Fiji airport. 

Fishing in Alaska, Australia, and Pickles in Thailand

Alright so, I just got of the chats with my brother. He is doing very well in Thailand and even had time to put up a few pictures. Click here. Other than that, not much else is new.

Aside from getting things in order for my trip to Australia, I'm pretty much just being a bum so I figured with some time on my hands I would put up a few pictures from Alaska. so, here you have it!

Jelly fish are one of the worst parts about net fishing.

Kodiak Brown Bears

Pink Salmon

A dead Finn Whale.

Laird Hot Springs. (2nd best hot springs i've ever been to. Yukon/BC border)

Quick Introduction

The time has come to leave, and the new destination is Australia. The past couple years of life have consisted of traveling around America on on money that was made from two seasons of commercial salmon fishing in Alaska. After graduating college, Me and my younger brother Sam drove my car to Alaska and found work on boats. With the money we made we spent the year traveling to various places around the US. Sam, my younger brother, bought a van and has been living in it for the past two years (his blog can be found here). Currently he is in Thailand, where he is rock climbing.

After the first season of fishing, I spent the year traveling around the US, visiting cities such as Houston, New Orleans, Richmond, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, New York, Portland-Maine, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Portland-Oregon. Then I went fishing for the second time, as did Sam.

After the second season of fishing I spent more than three months living in Seattle, where I applied for and was granted a visa for Australia. Then I flew to Hawaii where I was supposed to help a captain sail a boat from Oahu to San Francisco. What was supposed to be a three week trip turned into a ten day Hawaii vacation, where instead of sailing the boat to San Francisco, the captain was an alcoholic who slept. After the auto pilot broke on the boat, I had to sail it from Maui back to Oahu alone because the captain was drunk and vomiting all over. After thirty-six hours straight, I managed to get the boat back to the marina in Oahu and had the captain buy me a ticket back to Seattle. 

While all of this might come across as vague and short - it is. It's late right now. As I update things through my time in Australia, I'm sure i'll mention and post more pictures of 2010 and 2011. They were a good couple of years. But until then.

Maybe I'm looking for something. If I am I apparently haven't found it in America and my journey will now take me an entirely new place. I don't have agenda. I'm simply leaving and hoping that the chips fall in a place that makes things fun. Australia, I'm coming!