News Archives

3/5/99 - email from Jeff - from Vietnam
3/10/99 - email from Jeff - from Vietnam
3/16/99 - comment by LS - J & M return to Thailand

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3/14/99 - Exerpts from an online chat with Jeff.
The first evening back in Thailand

Jeff: The girl Zoe who taught us to dive, her dad emailed us the nicest email.
LGS: About what?
Jeff: Just thanking us for putting up the pictures and talking about her, apparently she hardly ever gets home and I don't think her parents had ever seen photos like the ones we put up.
LRS: cool
Jeff: It was very nice.
LGS: Tell us about Vietnam
Jeff: Well as I said, it was good but not great.
Jeff: We are going to update the site later today and then leave tomorrow for Phuket, Thailand so this and the stories will be it for now.
Jeff: anyway I was really sick for about 5 days, bad fever and chills.
LGS: Ugh
LRS: bummer
LGS: What did you have?
LRS: you ok?
Jeff: so that definitely made my experience less enjoyable.
Jeff: better now, nothing zithromax cant fix.
LGS: How is your supply?
Jeff: finis
LGS: Should we send more?
Jeff: yes
Jeff: The Vietnamese in the name of tourism, hung all these purple, blue and green fluorescent lights everywhere.
LRS: beautiful... not
Jeff: It was hirendous.
LGS: Nice spelling.
Jeff: You should talk.
Jeff: I felt like puppets were going to pop out singing its a small world at any time.

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Comment by LGS: 3/16/99
It look as if our intrepid travelers are about to head off to Phuket Thailand for R & R as well as some serious Scuba diving. I expect that we will hear from them as soon as they find another cyber-cafe.

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Monday, March 22, 1999
This morning a great article about Jeff, Mike and timezone7 appeared in the  St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press tech section.
Article: Twin Cities to Asia--online
by STAFF COLUMNIST:  JAMES ROMENESKO

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Tue, 23 Mar 1999 06:03:31 PS
Exerpts from email - Jeff

They all! just returned tonight from our diving trip, it was a "whale-shark" expedition!! (whale sharks apparently being the largest fish on the planet). we didn't see any whale sharks but that was fine with us we were interested in diving at the similan which we did and it was spectacular, 3-4 dives a day!!!! we saw some beautiful coral, rocks and fish. we ate, slept, and lived on a boat with 26 divers, 6 dive guides, 3 cooks and a boat crew of 4, for 5 days. i still feel like i'm on a boat sitting in the internet cafe.......(more details to come by the 28th.........)we were psyched to see the newspaper article and the vietnam stuff up! crazy how he called kuester and dad.....i'll send out a mass mailer today or tommorrow to let people know...

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Tue, 06 Apr 1999 21:41:36 PDT
Exerpts from email - Jeff- After a week or so in Bali.

Hi! Sorry about the long delay in email......... I’m in Bali, … having a great time, spent most of our time in Ubud, I can’t believe all the amazing art here, it's like being in the middle of a flourishing art renaissance! Saw some dances/music performances, went to Uluwatu (famous temple on a cliff for sunset and its also a world renown surf spot), got up at 2am in the morning to climb a volcano to watch sunrise, and spent 2 days in Amid in a 5 star bungalow on the beach. I’m ready to move on to Australia. I’ve heard about the poisonous snakes in Australia (not to mention crocodiles, dingoes and spiders) but as of now the plan remains, if it makes you feel any better, I think we are going to get a camper/van to drive and to sleep in. As far as driving on the other side of the road, well, this probably wont make you feel any better, but we drove our motorcycles on the other side of the road, I adjusted easily and am not expecting any problems. However, I’m a bit worried about Australia just cuz of the cost of everything there. I don’t think I’ll get good meals for 2 dollars anymore or Phat accommodations for 7 bucks a night either! I get easily overwhelmed shopping here, with so much beautiful stuff to look at, after a while everything looks the same, I looked at a lot of garuadas yesterday but in the end past on them. I think with the exemption of maybe some more handicraft items I’m done with purchases. I get torn between how I feel about coming home. I’m definitely going through phases more frequently where I think about coming home more often and am feeling a bit travel worn, to not live out of a bag and have a home will be nice!, and to not have to negotiate prices for everything will be a huge relief!........As far as the website, we got the diving stuff just about done but the internet here is painfully slow, and to send a large zip file will not only be expensive but will take 2 weeks, we will do it at our next chance! I don’t think there will be much on Bali I but we will put something together. That's all for now.

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Tue, 27 Apr 1999 20:20:42 PDT - Jeff - on the road in Australia
Hey everyone! We are now in Broome, western Australia! Mike, Rochelle and I rented a campervan and have been touring up the west coast. We have been camping in national parks filled with ocean, gorges,wildlife and perfect weather. Normally the parks are jammed full of people but due to the recent weather they have been completely empty, lucky us! The vast countryside is amazing and I've been fully enjoying the time in nature. As usually are tour is not nearly long enough but I'm enjoying the time we have. sorry for the short update but there is no email around. I will try when we arrive in Darwin.

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Sun, 02 May 1999 22:45:03 PDT - Jeff - Darwin! woo-hoo!
Phew! We are now in Darwin. Its been a long hard road, enjoyable and beautiful to be sure but hard! Over 6531 kilometers in 302 hours to be exact, but here we are! Its 3pm, Monday May 3rd. Its about 78 degrees outside and the sun is out! Mike and I dropped Rochelle at a hostel and swapped our rented campervan for a smaller more economical one. They tried to give us a van with no tape deck and as we all no that was "not possible".
On the 5th, doing our best Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity impersonation, Mike and I will begin our journey into the heart of Australia down through Alice Springs and to the top of Ayers Rock! As you may have been able to gather email has been far and in-between along this leg of the journey. HOWEVER, have no fear for there are lots of good stories, photos, and general mayhem to tell, and it will all commence upon our arrival to Sidney! You can expect a big fat zip file being sent to the Big Gramps around the 12th! Other than that, all is well, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone!
Good on ya'! Jeff

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Thu, 06 May 1999 01:02:03 PDT - Jeff - Darwin -> Alice Springs
Just a quick note - we are in Alice Springs and are heading to Ayers Rock tomorrow! We spent the last two days driving (8 hours each day!). Today we passed the Devils Marbles (huge spherical boulders piled on top of each other in the middle of the desert, according to Aboriginal legend they were created by the Rainbow Serpent), and the town of Wycliff the "UFO capital of Australia". Who says the middle of Australia isn't interesting??????
Jeff

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Mon, 12 Apr 1999 19:57:53 PDT - Jeff - first of Australia
Hi all! Sorry for the long delay in communicating. we arrive in perth australia no problems, well, almost no problems, our flight left at 10:30 pm and arrived in perth at 2:30am - sucks huh? but then apparently mike and i look like major drug smugglers cuz while all the local ausies walked right on thru customs, we were held and our bags were thouroughly searched. they have no idea how long and carefully one must pack to get all there shit into a bag but after a few tries i was able to get it all back in. also mike got the chance to show off his "body of a king" to the customs officials as they asked him to remove his shirt. (that was from him having medical tape in his first aid kit - go figure?!) we then slept in the airport, hostels here are so outrageously expensive ($20-40 u.s. for two) that it didnt make sense to go to a hostel and pay for a whole nights stay. we've grown a bit used to sleeping in such settings from time to time, but what did happen that was MOST unexpected was, typically you have to sleep with one eye open so no one walks off with your bag, or decideds to see whats inside, BUT, this time we woke with a box of croissonts and jam sitting next to us! i guess we looked as though we could use the help! we then caught a bus to our hostel, as i said quite expensive. to my surprise there is quite a bit of travellers here, no americans but lots of english, austrialians and new zealanders (or kiwis as they are commonly reffered to). perth is beautiful and the weather is amazing 70's in the day and 60's at night. the city has a certain small town feel to it, kind of like minneapolis, lots of office towers and your typical downtown scene, they have two stretches of malls where no cars are allowed with shops, restaraunts, and movie theaters up and down them both. there is northbridge, were we are, that has lots of good restaraunts for relativily cheap, (lots of asian restaraunts) and bars and nightlife going on. its amazing how quiet it is here as well, i grew so accustomed to car horns blaring all the time i didn't notice it after a while but now that they are not here it seems SO quiet, and its so nice to be able to brush your teeth with the sink water and not worry if your gonna get sick AND to have a drinking fountain to drink from.........i just spoke with our travel mate rochel and it sounds like we are going to rent a camper van to drive up the west coast to darwin, from darwin she is leaving and mike and i are either going to head to sidney or cannes from there, we havent decided yet, but we did decide its not worth rushing through this part of the trip to see the great barrier reef, it will probably be something we will have to come back to see, HOWEVER we've heard that the diving on the west coast were we are going is better anyways so will see?! so thats the latest, it feels good to be back in the western world, but its not nearly as intersting.........
i miss you all, and will see everyone real soon, can you believe it, 4 weeks! love, jeff

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Wed, 12 May 99 08:35:41 -0500 - email from Jeff - From Sydney Australia
Just two days left here in Sydney! We are going to go to the Opera House and
Harbor Bridge today and also reconfirm our tickets for our flight. Tomorrow
we are going to check out the Olympic Grounds and dinner with some friends we met
in Thailand. Saturday we leave at 11am and arrive in L.A. at 7 am. We arrive before we leave! Looking forward to seeing you.  Jeff

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3/14/99 - Exerpts from an online chat with Jeff.
The first evening back in Thailand

Jeff: The girl Zoe who taught us to dive, her dad emailed us the nicest email.
LGS: About what?
Jeff: Just thanking us for putting up the pictures and talking about her, apparently she hardly ever gets home and I don't think her parents had ever seen photos like the ones we put up.
LRS: cool
Jeff: It was very nice.
LGS: Tell us about Vietnam
Jeff: Well as I said, it was good but not great.
Jeff: We are going to update the site later today and then leave tomorrow for Phuket, Thailand so this and the stories will be it for now.
Jeff: anyway I was really sick for about 5 days, bad fever and chills.
LGS: Ugh
LRS: bummer
LGS: What did you have?
LRS: you ok?
Jeff: so that definitely made my experience less enjoyable.
Jeff: better now, nothing zithromax cant fix.
LGS: How is your supply?
Jeff: finis
LGS: Should we send more?
Jeff: yes
Jeff: The Vietnamese in the name of tourism, hung all these purple, blue and green fluorescent lights everywhere.
LRS: beautiful... not
Jeff: It was hirendous.
LGS: Nice spelling.
Jeff: You should talk.
Jeff: I felt like puppets were going to pop out singing its a small world at any time.

back to top

Comment by LGS: 3/16/99
It look as if our intrepid travelers are about to head off to Phuket Thailand for R & R as well as some serious Scuba diving. I expect that we will hear from them as soon as they find another cyber-cafe.

back to top

Monday, March 22, 1999
This morning a great article about Jeff, Mike and timezone7 appeared in the  St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press tech section.
Article: Twin Cities to Asia--online
by STAFF COLUMNIST:  JAMES ROMENESKO

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Tue, 23 Mar 1999 06:03:31 PS
Exerpts from email - Jeff

They all! just returned tonight from our diving trip, it was a "whale-shark" expedition!! (whale sharks apparently being the largest fish on the planet). we didn't see any whale sharks but that was fine with us we were interested in diving at the similan which we did and it was spectacular, 3-4 dives a day!!!! we saw some beautiful coral, rocks and fish. we ate, slept, and lived on a boat with 26 divers, 6 dive guides, 3 cooks and a boat crew of 4, for 5 days. i still feel like i'm on a boat sitting in the internet cafe.......(more details to come by the 28th.........)we were psyched to see the newspaper article and the vietnam stuff up! crazy how he called kuester and dad.....i'll send out a mass mailer today or tommorrow to let people know...

back to top

Tue, 06 Apr 1999 21:41:36 PDT
Exerpts from email - Jeff- After a week or so in Bali.

Hi! Sorry about the long delay in email......... I’m in Bali, … having a great time, spent most of our time in Ubud, I can’t believe all the amazing art here, it's like being in the middle of a flourishing art renaissance! Saw some dances/music performances, went to Uluwatu (famous temple on a cliff for sunset and its also a world renown surf spot), got up at 2am in the morning to climb a volcano to watch sunrise, and spent 2 days in Amid in a 5 star bungalow on the beach. I’m ready to move on to Australia. I’ve heard about the poisonous snakes in Australia (not to mention crocodiles, dingoes and spiders) but as of now the plan remains, if it makes you feel any better, I think we are going to get a camper/van to drive and to sleep in. As far as driving on the other side of the road, well, this probably wont make you feel any better, but we drove our motorcycles on the other side of the road, I adjusted easily and am not expecting any problems. However, I’m a bit worried about Australia just cuz of the cost of everything there. I don’t think I’ll get good meals for 2 dollars anymore or Phat accommodations for 7 bucks a night either! I get easily overwhelmed shopping here, with so much beautiful stuff to look at, after a while everything looks the same, I looked at a lot of garuadas yesterday but in the end past on them. I think with the exemption of maybe some more handicraft items I’m done with purchases. I get torn between how I feel about coming home. I’m definitely going through phases more frequently where I think about coming home more often and am feeling a bit travel worn, to not live out of a bag and have a home will be nice!, and to not have to negotiate prices for everything will be a huge relief!........As far as the website, we got the diving stuff just about done but the internet here is painfully slow, and to send a large zip file will not only be expensive but will take 2 weeks, we will do it at our next chance! I don’t think there will be much on Bali I but we will put something together. That's all for now.

back to top

Tue, 27 Apr 1999 20:20:42 PDT - Jeff - on the road in Australia
Hey everyone! We are now in Broome, western Australia! Mike, Rochelle and I rented a campervan and have been touring up the west coast. We have been camping in national parks filled with ocean, gorges,wildlife and perfect weather. Normally the parks are jammed full of people but due to the recent weather they have been completely empty, lucky us! The vast countryside is amazing and I've been fully enjoying the time in nature. As usually are tour is not nearly long enough but I'm enjoying the time we have. sorry for the short update but there is no email around. I will try when we arrive in Darwin.

back to top

Sun, 02 May 1999 22:45:03 PDT - Jeff - Darwin! woo-hoo!
Phew! We are now in Darwin. Its been a long hard road, enjoyable and beautiful to be sure but hard! Over 6531 kilometers in 302 hours to be exact, but here we are! Its 3pm, Monday May 3rd. Its about 78 degrees outside and the sun is out! Mike and I dropped Rochelle at a hostel and swapped our rented campervan for a smaller more economical one. They tried to give us a van with no tape deck and as we all no that was "not possible".
On the 5th, doing our best Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity impersonation, Mike and I will begin our journey into the heart of Australia down through Alice Springs and to the top of Ayers Rock! As you may have been able to gather email has been far and in-between along this leg of the journey. HOWEVER, have no fear for there are lots of good stories, photos, and general mayhem to tell, and it will all commence upon our arrival to Sidney! You can expect a big fat zip file being sent to the Big Gramps around the 12th! Other than that, all is well, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone!
Good on ya'! Jeff

back to top

Thu, 06 May 1999 01:02:03 PDT - Jeff - Darwin -> Alice Springs
Just a quick note - we are in Alice Springs and are heading to Ayers Rock tomorrow! We spent the last two days driving (8 hours each day!). Today we passed the Devils Marbles (huge spherical boulders piled on top of each other in the middle of the desert, according to Aboriginal legend they were created by the Rainbow Serpent), and the town of Wycliff the "UFO capital of Australia". Who says the middle of Australia isn't interesting??????
Jeff

back to top

Mon, 12 Apr 1999 19:57:53 PDT - Jeff - first of Australia
Hi all! Sorry for the long delay in communicating. we arrive in perth australia no problems, well, almost no problems, our flight left at 10:30 pm and arrived in perth at 2:30am - sucks huh? but then apparently mike and i look like major drug smugglers cuz while all the local ausies walked right on thru customs, we were held and our bags were thouroughly searched. they have no idea how long and carefully one must pack to get all there shit into a bag but after a few tries i was able to get it all back in. also mike got the chance to show off his "body of a king" to the customs officials as they asked him to remove his shirt. (that was from him having medical tape in his first aid kit - go figure?!) we then slept in the airport, hostels here are so outrageously expensive ($20-40 u.s. for two) that it didnt make sense to go to a hostel and pay for a whole nights stay. we've grown a bit used to sleeping in such settings from time to time, but what did happen that was MOST unexpected was, typically you have to sleep with one eye open so no one walks off with your bag, or decideds to see whats inside, BUT, this time we woke with a box of croissonts and jam sitting next to us! i guess we looked as though we could use the help! we then caught a bus to our hostel, as i said quite expensive. to my surprise there is quite a bit of travellers here, no americans but lots of english, austrialians and new zealanders (or kiwis as they are commonly reffered to). perth is beautiful and the weather is amazing 70's in the day and 60's at night. the city has a certain small town feel to it, kind of like minneapolis, lots of office towers and your typical downtown scene, they have two stretches of malls where no cars are allowed with shops, restaraunts, and movie theaters up and down them both. there is northbridge, were we are, that has lots of good restaraunts for relativily cheap, (lots of asian restaraunts) and bars and nightlife going on. its amazing how quiet it is here as well, i grew so accustomed to car horns blaring all the time i didn't notice it after a while but now that they are not here it seems SO quiet, and its so nice to be able to brush your teeth with the sink water and not worry if your gonna get sick AND to have a drinking fountain to drink from.........i just spoke with our travel mate rochel and it sounds like we are going to rent a camper van to drive up the west coast to darwin, from darwin she is leaving and mike and i are either going to head to sidney or cannes from there, we havent decided yet, but we did decide its not worth rushing through this part of the trip to see the great barrier reef, it will probably be something we will have to come back to see, HOWEVER we've heard that the diving on the west coast were we are going is better anyways so will see?! so thats the latest, it feels good to be back in the western world, but its not nearly as intersting.........
i miss you all, and will see everyone real soon, can you believe it, 4 weeks! love, jeff

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Wed, 19 May 1999 09:21:37 PDT - the last email from Mike Waldman

Hello everybody;
Well I'm back in the USA.  It is very strange and hard to believe that 7 months is, as they say, "finis."  I look forward to seeing my home friends and keeping in touch with all that I have met along the road. Thank-you to everyone who has been looking and telling your friends to look at the site it has made the trip extra fun and different for us. I will let you all know how "oosa" is.
Peace and love to all the nations.

Mon, 24 May 1999 08:55:44 PDT - the last email from Jeff Siegel
Well..........7 months, 44 cities, 17 airplanes, and uncountable trains, buses, cars, boats, bicycles, rickshaws, motorbikes and camels. Here I am right back where it all started, Minnesota!  I'm back! timezone7 has come and gone, and is now, as they say......"finis!"  Kind of sad huh?  I wanted to thank everyone for all the great correspondence, suggestions and feedback! It was a lot of fun for us to maintain the website along the way. It added a unique dimension to the trip for us and was a great way to keep in touch! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at home and keeping in touch with those that I've met along the way, and all those I've met (or re-met) via email and timezone7!  Take care everyone, its been great!
Shameless ad for work:
26 year old graphic designer just back from seven month holiday in Southeast Asia seeks website design and/or production work.  All inquiries to jeff_siegel@hotmail.com :)

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Monday, May 24, 1999
This morning a second article about Jeff, Mike and timezone7 appeared in the  St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press tech section.
Article: Timezone7.com comes home
by STAFF COLUMNIST:  JAMES ROMENESKO

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