Oz

Tie me kangaroo down, sport! Throw another prawn on the barbie!
Yes folks, your occasional correspondent finds himself down-under in Australia. For the past month I've been Perth - the most isolated large city in the world, apparently. I wasn't too enamoured with the place when I first arrived - the weather seemed cold and windy in contrast to Asia and I found myself wandering the streets in the dark looking for a bed after a cock-up with my accommodation booking. I eventually spent a week in a dodgy backpackers while I found my feet and the first priority was to buy a car and some camping gear. Then I was off to explore this amazing country. I spent 6 days hiking some of the fantastic Bibbulmun Track - a 1000km walking trail which winds its way through native forest from Perth to Albany on the south coast. After a few more days camping, hiking and exploring I decided I wanted to hang around here for a bit longer. I like this city a lot - great climate (29C today), lots of veggie restaurants and food stores, excellent public transport, cyclist-friendly and in the unlikely event that I get homesick for West Lothian, I can even pop down to the suburb of Armadale! So, I've found myself a room in a house with some nice people and I'm now in the process of looking for work. Hopefully I'll get something sorted next week. Bye for now. Mates.

Home Again

After 6 weeks in South East Asia, it was definitely time to recharge my spiritual batteries. So, once again I find myself in Puttaparthi, India at the lotus feet of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the avatar of our age. It's good to be home.

It's feckin boiling here, though. I've been in India and other parts of Asia a number of times but this is the hottest weather I've ever experienced. Over the past few days, the temperature has steadily climbed over the 40 deg C mark. Of course, that's in the shade. After just a couple of minutes in the sun, I'm sweating like buggery, my skin is burning and I'm feeling a headache come on. A cold beer would definitely, go down nicely, but alas (this being a place for serious contemplation and reflection) there is none to be had. As a (distant) consolation though, the kiosks in the ashram sell bottles of Pepsi, 7-Up etc at Rs6 a pop- that's about 8 pence. Ice creams are a shilling. Not too bad.

I was tempted to stay here long term, like many other Westerners, but I reckon it's time to cease being idle and start looking for gainful employment again. So, maybe I'll get on that April 10th flight from KL to Perth after all....

Om Sai Ram!

In the P.D.R.

Welcome, Comrades, to the People's Democratic Republic of Laos!
Actually, this is quite a relaxed wee country. The hot and dusty capital, Vientiane, which lies along the north bank of the Mekong river, is the very definition of "sleepy". Unfortunately, due to urgent business in Bangkok, I only had time to spend a couple of days here - but more than enough to check out Vientiane's tourist sites, including the National Museum, which mainly recounts the events that led to the "inevitable victory of the proletariat". An odd aspect for tourists is that most things can be paid for in either US dollars, Thai baht, Lao kip or any combination of the three you fancy. Long live the revolution!

Back in Bangers

Got in to Bangkok at the beginning of Feb and soon hooked up with Horne and Jen. Since then, I've been happily living on the balcony of their apartment. For my birthday (yes, that bad number) we went out for a traditional Thai meal of, er... crepes washed down with French cider. Very nice, except for at the end when the staff presented me with a "cake" and sang Happy Birthday. Red neck!

The Hornes are the proud owners of a shiny new station wagon, so last weekend we drove up to Khao Yai National park for bit of camping and wildlife watching. We were determined to see a wild elephant, so made much effort to do so, including a night time "spotlighting" drive and a pre-dawn walk to a hide by a watering hole. However, the elephants remained elusive and having resigned ourselves to failure we set off back to Bangkok on the Sunday afternoon. However...on our drive out of the park, we noticed that the traffic ahead had come to a halt. We stopped to investigate and, would you believe it, saw this huge elephant coming out of the trees and onto the road. As we watched in amazement, the enormous tusker then strolled right past our vehicle before disappearing back into the jungle. Yipee!

Love Lane Livin'

"Selamat Pagi" from Georgetown, Penang - Malaysia's gloriously seedy second city. This is the third time I've been here and I can't work out why I've come back again. Maybe it's to lounge around in one of the cheap and sleazy guesthouses, gazing through the cracks in the ancient ceiling of my room. Or maybe it's the fun of being propositioned by the lady-boys (not very lady-looking by the way) who ply their trade on my street, Love Lane! Or maybe it's just to sit and have a strong coffee in a half-pint glass as I watch chicken carcasses being casually chopped-up in the local street market. It's even possible to get some decent veggie food by popping along to Little India whilst being accosted by Bollywood muzak blaring from the numerous cd shops and sweet incense wafting through the air. Fascinating place.

Paradise Spoiled

Got to Pulau Pangkor nae probs in the end and checked in to a nice wee chalet in a friendly and relaxed backpacker place called Nazri Beach Camp. The beaches here are fantastic and I spent a couple of happy days lazily toasting on the sand and floating on the calm sea. I then spent about 36hrs laid low with some kind of flu bug which eventually went as speedily as it arrived. However, a disappointment awaited my much anticipated first dip in the sea following said illness - the shoreline was covered in all sorts of garbage, especially of the plastic and glass variety (fag lighters being a particularly popular component). Fook. I may be wrong, but I reckon that the crap that's washed onto the erstwhile perfect beach has been dislodged from some rubbish tip somewhere by the earthquake which occurred off Indonesia the other day. The locals have made a good attempt at cleaning up, but there's still tonnes of crap floating around, so I ain't intending to take any more swims. Shame. Ah well, time to move on. Next stop Penang!

Sleepless in KL

Been in KL for about 48hrs now and my body clock is still way out of sync. Despite having managed to sleep for most of the flight (totally unlike me) and then having a long kip when I arrived at the YMCA (yes, it is fun to stay there) I'm still operating on Dale Standard Time. Today I've got two long bus journeys ahead to take me to the supposedly idyllic island of Pulau Pangkor and I am not feeling up to it. If I can't get any zzz on the first leg I think I might have to break up the journey by overnighting in the city of Ipoh (founded on the tin mining industry it says here). Not a welcoming prospect.

Ok, moaning over. It is great to be in the orient again, even if it means acclimatising all over again. KL gets better every time I come here - it's quite buzzing actually and (like many Asian cities) the place is overwhelmed by all sorts of outdoor eateries and roadside hawker stalls, some of which are open 24hrs. Also, its got a fantastic, modern transit system (monorail, light rail, etc) which is great for getting around quickly, cheaply and (most importantly) in air-conditioned comfort.

A curious phenomenon in this part of town is the number of blind people you see wandering around tapping their white canes. I couldn't understand it at first, until I saw that there are a number of "Blind Massage" centres in the area. I suppose the loss of one sense makes the others (including touch) more keen, they give a more gallas massage...?

Better go catch that bus.