The odd couple

I sparked a conversation with a Canadian named Mike at the Easter Island hostel. The two of us were going to the same place next, even the same flight, so he tagged along. One of the more interesting fellows on this journey. Apparently he has been traveling 8 years straight. And before that, he would travel 6 months and work 6. And did this for a decade.

I asked him how does he fund it? By spending his retirement savings. And at 39 he supposedly had a lot...from being a marijuana grower in the forests of British Columbia. I spent countless hours listening to his stories on growing, hiding, selling and avoiding the police in traffiking drugs across the border and hiding the money in either Indonesia or the forest. Like if you look at police flight patterns you can find a blind spot in the woods to grow your dope. And carry a machine gun while you sleep under plastic bags for 6 months camoflaged in dirt. It sounded like the Olympic bomber in Atlanta. I remember back in NC on a job one time we met he sherrif who caught him in the woods...details sound familiar. Though Mike looked pretty harmless I wasnt too sure all of these stories panned out. Especially when he went on about going to Basra in the middle of a war zone, doing cocaine in Tehran to piss off the ayatolla, spending weird days in Cambodia and trekking into Nepals Himalayas without a sherpa. I will spare you the details but ya kinda wonder if people can be a good storyteller or plain serious about these things.

I doubt the latter because he had a hard time navigating along with me from Papeete to Moorea from airplane, to le truck, to ferry and to truck again. And in between we slept in the Tahiti airport. Since we came in at midnight from Easter Island of course there would be no le trucks running to Papeete that late. Walking 5 miles was not an option. Didnt feel like splurging $30 on a taxi. So sleeping in the airport it was. On this bench right here. Ive been know to fall asleep on concrete before so this narrow piece of hard wood was nothing.By doing so we saved $60. And for a backpacker thats no small change. Read the next post on Moorea and you´ll see how to really spend a few days in Tahiti for less than $200.