At a temple, Luang Prabang

Tyson at temple, Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

West Railay

Marni, West Railay
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

reader's course and more

I'm a week into the Readers' Course and am exhausted! It is a fantastic experience but very draining... lots and lots of reading, high standards are expected, so much to learn - the next couple of months are going to be a huge challenge. Am looking forward to the intellectual challenge, to developing new skills in advocacy, the lifestyle flexibility and (in the deep distant future) to making a decent living.

Cut'n'paste

Below is a comment I recently posted on my friend Ben Barren's blog- www.benbarren.blogspot.com.

THE key thing to remember about RSS (IMHO) is that it is all about making it easier to get the information you want, when you want it and in a form that is convenient to you. Other than to the people directly involved in "the RSS industry" it is NOT an end in itself and if it is ever to cross over to mainstream (remember that is a GOOD thing) the reason will be that it is USEFUL and not that it is cool technology. Obviously, to become genuinely popular it needs to (1) work and (2) be easy to use and understand.

West Railay

West Railay
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

Exterior of temple, Luang Prabang

Exterior of temple, Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

M&T - Luang Prabang

M&T - Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

At a village near Luang Prabang

At a village near Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

Street Scene - Luang Prabang

Street Scene - Luang Prabang
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

On the Mekong

On the Mekong
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

The next stage

So I'm back... and have started the Readers' Course. By mid-November I'll be a barrister. Yes, that is TOTALLY different to being a barrista - No I'm not going to explain how.
The holiday was amazing - and it was so much more than I could get across in my groupmails. A series of fascinating experiences in cities, villages, temples, jungle, beach etc etc. For example, we had an amazing day visiting a festival in a small village a few hours north of Luang Prabang in Laos and a really good day in Singapore on our way home.
Anyway, I can already tell the Course is going to be a huge experience for me. It is very intense, lots of work and high expectations, but I feel pretty confident I will thrive - I just need to make sure I keep my reading up and my mind open to take it all in.
Will blog a few photos from my trip then will stop for the moment - will update asap.

Self indulgent Asian travels post #3 (the final chapter)

This was my final groupmail (I promise) - enjoy!

Dear all

I hope this mail fids you well.

Marni and I are in West Railay in the Krabi area of Thailand and are having a great time... the beach is perfect and we are very relaxed. The last couple of days we've done morning yoga classes (which makes me realise how much I've been missing yoga) and otherwise have walked a lot, swum, eaten, drunk, repeatedly commented on how beautiful it is, had random conversations with random Europeans and North Americans, tried to work out whether the rude fellow-travellers are French or Israeli (Marni always thinks they're Israeli, I lean towards French)......

Prior to our Railay sojourn we spent a couple of terror-filled (for me) days in the Khao Sok National Park - it is a primary (ie untouched) jungle. We stayed in a very cute treehouse which we shared with an assortment of creatures of the night (and day). When not being menaced by mangy dogs in the little township, we went for a 15km trek by ourselves in the National Park. It is fair to say that I am not a hardened bushman. Especially when the bush consists of a tropical rainforest with an uncategorisable assortment of wildlife of every description. Luckily I didn't read until after our return from our trek that the animals found in the jungle include tigers, elephants, rhinoceri (sp?), vipers, pythons, cobras, asiatic black bears, sunbears (similar to the fabled Australian drop-bears), leopards and many many creatures i've never heard of. Back at our guesthouse I was just slightly less terrified, as the wildlife was just marginally at bay.

The drive to Khao Sok from Phuket by public bus was memorable. The busride itself was fine, but we drove through much of the worst of the Tsunami devastation (along the West coast above Phuket). Just horrible to see the massive extent of the damage and how little has been done to clean it up. There is damage also on Railay where we are now, but more has been done to repair the damage (although a lot more is still to be done!).

I think I have now got the hang of the traveller thing - I am dressing worse than ever before and feeling not a bit embarrassed, I can look at a fellow traveller and instantly assess their nationality with confidence (and I'm only wrong 50%-75% of the time!) and I watch with disdain when an American orders a hamburger or macaroni whilst I push my noodles around the plate.

We now have a couple more nights in the Krabi area then will be home mid-next-week.

Has been a great holiday, looking forward to seeing you all on our return.

Best regards

Tyson

Self indulgent Asian travels post #2

And my fascinating 2nd instalment from Luang Prabang...

Dear All

Marni & I have very much settled into the pace of life in Luang Prabang and will be sorry to leave (for Southern Thailand) on Sunday. We're having a great time, although yesterday I relented and shaved off the beard I'd been cultivating. I now look less like a terrorist (apparently that's a good thing).

Although it's hard to pick 'events' as highlights, given that so much of what is so great is slowing down and just living a life that involves wandering around town, observing (and occasionally interacting with) buddhist monks, eating, drinking, etc, a couple of higlights have been:

- a slow boat up the Mekong for 2 hours, just sitting and watching life pass slowly by - the river is a rich brown, the land vivid greens, occasionally interspersed with tiny villages and/or grazing livestock. Of course also plenty of insects, debris dislodged by recent storms, plastic bottles, etc. The purpose of the trip was to visit some (very very crappy) caves; irrelevant that they were totally uninteresting, given how great the boatride was

- dinner at a great French restaurant - The Elephant - felt like we could have been anywhere - an out-of-place experience

- trip to Waterfalls (about 30 mins drive by minibus along a road (ie.a dirt track). An incredibly muddy 45 mins clamber to the top was a lot of fun and even more fun when we both made it down alive. The waterfalls were running at full-strength given all the rain, so quite dramatic

- the monks we can see from our room - just watching them going about their daily life is possibly more fun than I used to have watching the daily bustle down Carlisle St

- food: chicken noodle soup (much more impressive and flavoursome than it sounds), black sticky rice with coconut and banana, everything with lots of chilli until my eyes water and i sweat profusely (then just a little more). Lving the sticky rice, though I needed a .ittle break after 3 serves in a day on Wednesday.

- walking everywhere around the town, includnig the little back streets -constantly fascinating

- how beautiful the people are - laotians are a very very attractive petite race. I am feeling extremely lumpy and indelicate in comparison.

- temples, colours, sounds, smells, falling over (again) due to incredibly wet muddy roads, wandering aroudn town holding hands, sweating, having unrecognisable insects land on me, getting very wet again, rain at least 50% of the time, street markets selling raw meat covered with flies, wearing horrendous outfits that i bought for about $3 (and for which I probably overpaid), getting our washing (approx 80% of our clothes) back and finding they have a mysterious vomit-like mildewy smell, avoiding the open drains in the footpaths of main street, being impressed by the wonders of modern technology whenever I walk down a made road...

- the feeling of superiority watching fat, loud middle-aged italians have a domestic literally at the door of one of the major temples *during* evening prayers.

Hope all is well

Self indulgent Asian travels post #1

Cut and pasted below is my first groupmail sent on my (very) recent Asian trip. Those of you who have already read the mail should feel very free to stop reading now.

Dear All

Am currently slightly drunk in an Internet cafe in Luang Prabang, People's Democratic of Laos (ie. Laos).

Having a great time - spent a couple of nights in Bangkok, visited the Royal palace and temples (beautiful but very gaudy) and then flew yesterday to Luang Prabang. It's a very old royal city in Northern Laos and remained a royal city until the monarchy was overthrown by the communists in 1975. The people remain strongly buddhist. Today we visited the waterfalls (i can't presently remember their name). Amazing, but very muddy (it's called rainy season for a reason) and went to a hmong village. Also went on a walking tour of the town in heavy rain and visited a Wat (temple). Am feeling very large and loud; people here are extraordinarily quietly spoken and polite.

Marni is doing a great job at managing most of the practical matters (despiite occasionally baffling absent-mindedness) while I am focusing heavily on continuing to look good despite the crippling humidity. Despite dire warnings before arriving, the food is good - have been spending an average of about US$3 per person per meal and really enjoying the food (eg. spinach and tofu stir fry, chicken and rice soup). Have just had a fantastic French meal for two (at The Elephant) for approximately the same price as a bottle of reasonable wine at a restaurant in Melbourne.

I scored a great coup in purchasing fake Teva sandals at a shop in town this morning (and being very unsuccessful in bargaining). They broke within an hour, however amazingly enough the shop took pride in their fake goods and agreed to swap them for another pair which at the time of writing continue to function. Have also bought a few very cool (and cheap) Indian-style tops and pants and look like basically every other traveller (except I manage to carry it off better).

Enjoying my wealth. Today I changed US$100 into more than 1 million Kip (the local currency). For a few minutes it was fun to have a fat wad of currency about 3 inches thick, then it got sort of annoying

Sleeping under a mosquito net is quite romantic. Although less so when I think about why I am doing so (and even less so when I realise there are some mosquitos trapped inside the net). Surprisingly few scary insects so far (although I didn't tell Marni about the lizard perched above her head during dinner tonight).

Hope life is good for all of you, will inflict another instalment on you later in the trip

best

tyson