Journals & Stories - my-walkabout.com

Reports from the road

All Reports

July 2005
- Change of latitude
May 2005
- Utilian life
April 2005
- Deep Blue World
March 2005
- Easter eggs
- Much ado about nothing
February 2005
- Market economy
January 2005
- Butterfly effect
December
- Withdrawal symptoms
- That's all folks: I'm going home
- Haven on Earth in Laos
November
- Goodbye Vietnam
- In the Khmer kingdom
- Under-waterworld
October
- Why did I go South anyways?
- Phuket: I'm in Phuket
September 2004
- Lights on the water
- Wanderlust
August 2004
- The City
- I love Sahara
July 2004
- Senoritas y sangrias
June 2004
- Adios Warszawa
- Back on track (to liver cirrhosis)
May 2004
- Pulling up the white flag
April 2004
- Turkish Wedding
March 2004
- Strange structures, stranger socials
- Basking in the glow
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003

7 July 2005

Change of latitude

Three months on, Utila come and gone and it was time to go home... In middle of June I have finished my Divemaster program at BICD and jumped ship. Most of my good mates have left already and life on Utila was quickly getting stale. Diving and partying aside, there is precious little to do there and with no good social scaffolding it can be quite boring. Still, I knew I'd be back to the island before leaving Honduras to pick up a package that was currently lost somewhere in the Honduran post. Chances of a paying job on the island have gone from slim to none, much due to my own stupidity, inaction and talking to the wrong people, and so I decided to return to Seattle and from there plan my next working scuba destination.

As luck would have it, leaving the island caused my body to go into a complete shock. Maybe it was the withdrawal symptoms from smoking, diving, drinking and dancing, but my three first days off the island were spent in La Ceiba lying in bed with massive chest pains, drinking water and feeling quite sorry for myself. I have changed my plane ticket back home for July 4th and enjoyed the air conditioning of La Ceiba shopping mall as well as the indulgences like movies and Pizza Hut dinners. After a few days I finally made it to Copan Ruinas, a charming town in the western Honduras. Now, while the actual Mayan ruins of Copan were rather underwhelming, the town itself provided a perfect setting for a nice and relaxing few days. Enjoying local food and bars, a trip to hot springs and a coffee roaster and hanging out with backpackers from the hostel was all the recharge I needed for the last week in Honduras.

I returned to Utila, with the official reason being that I needed to pick up my package. The true reasons being that I just wanted to enjoy the last few days of my stay in Honduras on the dance floor of Coco Loco with the crazies of BICD, do a few more dives for free and most importantly: improve my sun tan before heading home. All was accomplished and on the 3rd of July I bid my final farewell to this island.

I've had a great time in the Divemaster program: love diving, great education and challenge, good instructors and great people to be around. Having said all of that, I don't think I'll ever come back to Utila. It's dirty, static and inhabited by mostly retarded vulgarians. It's expensive and there is cheaper and definitely better diving elsewhere. The reason why I had a great time there were the people, and by nature of this program, they all move on after a month or two.

So good luck to all of you, and hope to see you on the flip side.

- Bartek, DM who's lost his tee

Funny, silly and weird stories

All Stories

Fall in love with diving (Thailand & Vietnam)
It's a Holiday in Cambodia (and I've been hit by a truck) (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Epiphany in the desert (Sahara, Morocco)

Falling in love with diving

I suppose each and everyone of us has a list of things to do before we die. In my case, I call it "List of X things I want to do before I retire". The word "retire" in reference to death comes from one of my favourite films of all time "Blade Runner", and to a lesser extent my belief in own immortality. "X" instead of a number because the damn list keeps on growing. Before my walkabout it was a list of twenty things. I ticked off about ten in 2004, but added ninety more, so now the list contains a hundred entries...

My published articles, stories and content

Paid Travel Stories & Content

A Danish Smorgasbord - an article I wrote for igougo.com and The Wonderful Copenhagen bureau as part of a press trip package from the Danish Ministry of Tourism.

tokyonews.com - This entire homepage is content I have provided for this hotel reservation site after a solicitation from one of its editors.

Freelance Writing & Other Content

igougo.com - I wrote several journals and reviews under the handle Geo Walker. I'm still a member, although currently I'm not writing for them for the lack of time (I'd rather write for my own website). But it's a good travel site nonetheless, offering you points redeemable for frequent flyer miles and travel gear in exchange for writing.

hostelz.com - Miserably paid reviews for Nathan's Villa Hostels in Krakow and Warsaw. Despite their claim to be objective and that reviews do not have to be flattering, my piece for Journey's King's Cross Hostel in London was rejected with no explanation (except that it was a bad hostel and I wrote it).

bootsnall.com - Check out the profile Boots'n All did on me before I left on my walkabout. They profile travelers on round-the-world trips, and you can get a lot of ideas for your own.