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Travelogue
Getting the Travel Blues - 31 May 2014
One of the best things about travelling used to be the people you met doing the same things you were. Some of the most interesting people I’ve met in life have been those out there, where your lives intersect. As Jack Kerouac pointed out; travel is useful, it feeds the mind.Travellers' meetings can be those in which one learns more about one’s companion in a day, than in other circumstances would be possible in a year. Every time I went away, I’d meet great people. But alas, those days appear over. In these days of mass culture, an ever shrinking world and instant access to information, as opposed to knowledge, travellers seem less interesting than ever. They also appear less interested. The art of conservation is dying. The only culture many appear to be interested in is that to be found at the end of their thumb. Not only do they not engage in any meaningful way with locals, they appear uninterested in their own travelling companions. Smart technology is helping kill curiosity of the inter-human kind. Is this peculiar to this age, maybe not. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, a generation older than me, and much better travelled. He said he thought this had already occurred over 20 years ago. I used to be amused by backpackers wondering streets, their noses buried in a guide book. Often they’d walk right by some local feature completely unawares. Then they started annoying me. The book told you were to go. The trouble with guide books is; those out of the
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Jim Thompson and the Order of the White Elephant - 7 May 2014
When I first visited Jim Thompson’s house a decade ago, I was already much taken with the idea of living in Asia. After seeing the house I was sure I wanted to return. I was envious of Thompson and what he had created, a farang in Asia living his dream, comfortably off. There was also Thompson’s murky past as a WWII operative, full of intrigue
Letter to the Jakarta Post - April 2014
I travel widely in Southeast Asia and recently visited Indonesia after an absence of several years. I was disappointed with the state of tourist infrastructure at the budget end compared with other countries in the region. In particular hotels are of poor quality and overpriced. For 250,000 rupiah (US$27) in Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia you
Anti-Government Protests in Bangkok - Taking It To The Streets
On Sunday, 22 December 2013, Thailand’s opposition parties staged major demonstrations in the country’s capital designed to disrupt traffic and tell the government they wanted major reform of government processes. The crowds promised to be among the largest ever assembled in the history of the Kingdom. They had already announced they would be
Frying Fish - Civil and Political Unrest in Cambodia - 15 February 2014
There are some golden rules when writing on events in Southeast Asia. One of these is never write anything critical of Cambodia’s ruling elite. Expatriates in Cambodia are not invulnerable to the machinations of the domestic political scene and unwanted attention from those well connected is not something you should covet. That’s why it’s
New Zealand Football's Mexican Stand-Off - 20 November 2013
The play-off for a place in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil second leg in Wellington on 20 November was in stark contrast to four years before at the same venue. New Zealand had just been ‘thumped’ 5-1 by Mexico in the cauldron of the Azteca Stadium, one of football’s most iconic grounds. Prospects for qualification in the home leg were
Prostitutes, Transvestites and Junkies - Wellington's Royal Oak Hotel Bistro Bar - 26 October 2013
Port cities usually have their more lurid attractions and more than their fair share of characters. Wellington was no exception. The city has a rich maritime history dating back to the 1840s. Where there are ships and sailors there are usually bars. Auckland had the notorious Snake Pit but Wellington’s Bistro Bar at the Royal Oak Hotel was
Like a Hurricane - 28 September 2013
They call Chicago “The Windy City” but it has nothing on New Zealand’s capital, Wellington. Whereas Chicago’s moniker was apparently derived for the hot air and rhetoric of local politicians, “Windy Wellington” is so named because it is just that, bloody windy; like a hurricane.Old sailors’ claimed that below latitude 40 degrees south there is
White Cockies Can Bite - 30 August 2013
On what was once the outskirts of Melbourne, at the foothills of the Dandenong Range in Scoresby, 25 km from Melbourne, are the Caribbean Gardens. There’s a lake, Lake Caribbean; markets, the Caribbean Market. Nearby are the Caribbean business park and a large display yard full of boats, Caribbean boats. The market is a drive away. Like just