SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

IVE MADE IT! Damn the Nay sayers. I have survived Southeast Asia/Europe and I am now in Australia! I have been in Sydney for the past 3 days. And I am freezing my ass off.

It was a bit of a challenge getting here from Indonesia. The Bali airport was a little different from what I am use to. You have to go through a full on security check before you check in or check your bag. Now, I wasnt expecting this so I had stuff in my bag that you wouldnt necessarily carry into an airport terminal.

'Can you open your bag sir?'
'Yeah, no problem'
'Do you have any metal in your bag sir?'
'Um . . . I might.'
'What is this sir?'
'Its a camping knife (with a 6 inch blade)'
'OK, And what is this sir?'
'Um . . . that is a telescoping steel patton.'
'OK, And what is this sir?'
'Those are used bullet shells (from an AK-47 but I didnt mention that)'
'You cant take these on sir.'
'Why not, they are empty?'
'Are you military personnel, sir?'
'No.'
'Then you cant take it on.'

Come on, the 6 inch Alaskan blade I had was OK, the 12" steel telescoping button was OK, but the empty AK-47 shells were a problem. I had taken those things on 6 flights since I got them, one of which was into Indonesia, but leaving with them was a problem. To be honest, I thought they might give me a full cavity search because of those damn things. But anyway, they took them, the best souvenir I had.

When I arrived at the airport in Sydney they stamped the last empty page on my passport. They said they dont care but some countries will, so I had better get an emergency passport. The only available pages are the ones for Amendments and Official Government Use in the back. My Indonesian Visa had to go onto one of them just because they ran out of room on the other pages, but I think that was lucky and no other government would allow me to use them.

. . . . .

Asian Doug is dead. I killed him with a pair of small scissors and 2 disposable razors. It took me 45 minutes to shave off that beard and I mangled my face in the process, but it feels good to be clean shaving again. I am still getting use to seeing my lower jaw again. And I have this weird kind of eye nose tan thing going on right now, but I think I made the right decision. Sydney is very cosmopolitan.

The first thing I did when I got into town was take a hot shower and the second was buy some cheap Western food. I got some bread, bananas, cookies, I already had some peanut butter, and a Value Pack of Backed Beans. A value pack of Baked Beans! Oh man I am going to go to town on those things. The poor bastard in the bunk below me better hold onto his eye brows, because he is in for one hell of a ride.

Sydney has been great, I am staying in a hostel in King's Cross. Ill be here through Christmas and New Years. Its a nice area. A lot of nice pubs and places to go out. Ive been hitting the pavement a lot lately trying to get some work but I think I am going to have to wait for the Christmas help to leave first. But I am confident Ill get some work.

So far Ive seen the Sydney tower, the Opera house, the Governor's house of New South Wales, the Harbor Bridge and just wandered around a lot. It seems like more then it is. I have been just hanging out a lot. The option to do nothing has been too tempting to pass up as of late.

. . . . .

My camera is still messed up. I got sand in the lens when I was on a dive boat in Borneo. So below is the only picture of me from Indonesia. I got a Malaysian couple to take it and send it to me. It is me in front of Mt. Bromo.

Check it out! Teen wolf never looked this good.