Haven't Been There, Haven't Done That

I am creating this blog to begin chronicling my adventures both across the globe and locally. This blog is to serve as a up to date journal of my activities and adventures. I am not going to lie, writing a blog was largely a result of the influence my wonderful girlfriend has had on me (littleplate.blogspot.com). Had it not been for her, I would have done this in notes on Facebook. :P

This will start off be being a record of my trip to Malaysia and Thailand, which I think will be the biggest adventure so far in my lifetime. Never before have I traveled to a foreign land for so long and without family. Even still, I have never gone outside of North America. the furthest I have been from home is definitely Haiti, and that was only a few hours when I was on a cruise. It was hardly an experience, especially considering the port is owned by the company that runs the cruise and only registered workers are allowed to enter to sell you stuff.

As for the name of my blog, "Never been there, Never done that", it comes from the fact I have honestly never been anywhere outside the U.S. that has given me a unique cultural experience. This is what I want so much, to go and learn about other people's ways of life before globalization makes everyone the same.

I guess I should tell you all where I have been.

Inside of the United States: I am from and grew up in Salem, Oregon, now I live in Portland, Oregon. I have been to Seattle, Washington a few times, though not for several years. Outside of that, I have been to San Diego, California multiple times, though mostly for Marine Corps training. I went to Los Angeles, California once to go to Disneyland and Universial Studios, and I have been to Orlando, Florida twice, once for Disneyworld/Universial Studios Orlando, and the second time was when I was enroute to Port Canaveral for the cruise I mentioned earlier.

Outside of that, I have been very few places, aside from places where I had layovers from my flights, but I'm not going to count those because I never even wandered outside the airport. I also didn't include all of the places I have been within Oregon because that would take forever and isn't really interesting... that is, if I could even remember them all.

Outiside of the U.S.: I have been to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, twice, although I have not been there for MANY years. To put it in perspective, last time I went to Canada, the exchange rate was better than $1 USD to $1.5 Canadian. I don't consider Canada to be much of a cultural experience largely because Canada and the US are pretty much the same as far as living standards and especially so to someone who is a tourist.

I have been to Mexico twice, though once was on my cruise (Cozumel, Mexico), so I don't really count that. The only cultural experience there was when we went to this smaller town/city called Bucerias (the main part of our trip was in Puerto Villarta which is a huge tourist spot and wasn't much of a experience except for experiencing the constant pestering from vendors wanting you to buy things). The only experience there was due to the fact we actually ran into people who couldn't speak english, so my brother and I had to attempt to communicate with our terrible Spanish speaking skills.

The only other places I have been were all ports of call on my cruise. These include Labadee, Haiti; George Town, Grand Cayaman Island, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. None of these were vastly culturally enlightening because we were only in a tourist location and where only there for a short time.

I hope my trip in Malaysia is more interesting to me... as I am sure it will be.

P.S. I would have included pictures from my cruise, but my camera got stolen in Jamaica, so I don't have any. :(