The show runs for two weeks from the 3rd of December at MapKL (Solarius Datamas) for more information about tickets and show times, visit www.tix.my

Tech Desk @ MapKL

Concept

The concept of this production is to present a family on the brink of collapse following the murder of the Datuk, Jackson Mo, a successful business man, with some questionable money lending practices. The cast consists of 8 characters, each very unique in their role in the story. There is the almost divorced Datin (former wife of the murdered man), her brother who is a seemly simple and dirty old guy, the hilarious Indonesian maid, the removed son returning to make up with the family, the mistress and fiancé of Datuk Jackson, the young police inspector, and the ASP (Assistant Inspector of Police).

The play is designed to present to two separate audiences simultaneously, one in the study, one in the living room; essentially perform the play in its entirety twice, swapping the audiences at interval. This poses some challenging but exciting problems for the lighting, sound & vision, not forgetting the cast, set, props and script. In the creative development earlier this year in March, I was positioned in the wings, using a series of mirrors to see both sides of the stage. During the creative development we were limited to one audience as we could not sound proof the theatre. This time though, we are playing both simultaneously, so a system of audio foldback and CCTV will give me the cue points for Lighting, Sound and AV.

Operations Desk for development of Klue, Doh! March 2011, MapKL

Lighting

Our lighting rig involves some very amazing practical fittings from ALFO (www.alfo.com.my), and makes use of the in house lighting stock. The venue is not exactly fitted out like a normal theatre, with no patching to speak of, and lights fitted with modified IEC plugs, which is interesting to say the least. The leads are then hard wired into the back of the dimmers, so no re-patching is possible.

Sound

Rob Stewart is the sound designer and is representing The Rubix Cube alongside myself. Rob is designing not only foley sound effects for the show, but a soundscape encompassing the two room concept. Control is to be done by Qlab with some customisation of the standard sound rig in the Black Box at MapKL, including repatching the sound system, much to the horror of the venue tech. We have assured him we know what he is doing.

Vision

There is also some vision that is quite cool, tho I am forbidden from discussing it (by the Director) until the show has launched. More info soon! And probably pics too!

It has been quite an experience so far, and we are about a week away from Bump In where I am guessing I will experience many more funny, horrifying and entertaining things.

Stay tuned folks!

P.S. Thought you all might find entertaining the little security buggy that patrols the centre that the Theatre is located in… I think people will be more scared that the security guards might cover them in pink… Not the most intimidating vehicle!

An awesomely pink security buggy that patrols the centre we are doing the show in.

But first let me acknowledge that it has been a mighty long time between posts on this blog, my last almost 7 months ago from Singapore. This has been due to the sheer craziness of my time since then. A quick recap will now follow:

- Flew back to the UK to work on Leeds Festival
- Moved onto Bestival in the Isle of White
- Ran away in my awesome Volvo (Tony) to Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany (for 4 hours), Austria (for a night in a shack), Italy, Switzerland and France
- Just made it back to England to fly back to Australia
- Worked on three shows at Melbourne International Arts Festival (Stage Crew, Stage Manager, Artist liaison)
- Ran around crazily try to catch The Amazing Race Australia (Production Assistant)
- Worked a 100+ hour week at Stereosonic Festival (Site Crew)
- Surprising enjoyed a metal festival called No Sleep Til (Site Crew & Production Assistant)
- Brought in the New Year on one of the best Festival sites I have ever seen at Falls Festival in Marion Bay (Gates Crew)
- Battled through the dust, mud and sinking ground whilst tractor loving at Rainbow Serpent Music Festival (Site Crew)
- Did a bit of Lighting Sculpture consultancy (Shhh, you’ll find out more later)
- Got nicely sunburnt at St Kilda Festival with an amazing bunch of people (and a record crowd) (Site Logistics Crew)
- And some stuff I missed I’m sure.

My Lovely Set Model

Anyhoo, I’m here in Bangsar on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, enjoying the lovely 32 degree heat and 80% humidity whilst I plod through a CAD design and try and fix some problems that have already arisen. Also multi-tasking setting up emails for the company and fixing some links on the website, ah the life of a nerd & theatre worker, endless skillset.

I’ll be posting a few more updates through the process as we have constant internet supply here at the office and in the theatre which is a nice change from the middle of a field at a music festival.

Hope this post finds everyone well, please let me know what your news is by commenting on this post.

Cheers,

Geordie

Please note: This post is up to date, and other posts, posted after this may be back dated… Just to confuse you… I’m not a slow writer, just a lot of stuff worth documenting occurs!

I’m sitting at the bottom of a large apartment complex in Toa Payoh, a heavily populated suburb, on the outskirts of Singapore City. School kids are walking past on their way home from school, dressed in their navy blue and light blue uniforms, whilst their parents try and persuade them to stay out of the heavy tropical rain. An elderly couple are trundling by with a giant yellow umbrella, stopping occasionally to talk to other residents, no doubt about the weather.

It is very humid, and the rain has been steadily falling for the better part of an hour. There isn’t much traffic, apart from the occasional purple, red and silver SBS Transit busses, a few small tray trucks and some bright blue taxis, with bright LED lined adverts on the top. I’m sitting in Govins Grandfather old wooden chair, with pink flower patterned cushions, out the front of their ground floor apartment. I get a strange look occasionally from a passing resident, as this suburb is predominately not inhabited by young white people.

We are on a quick trip to Singapore, so that Govin can visit one of his friends whose mother is ill. We drove up yesterday, doing the customary 160km/h on the very well made tollway. We arrived at his grandparents apartment, being offered mountains of food and drink. It is too expensive to park the car here, so we headed off to his uncles house, a private residence in a gated community, where we can park on the street without a problem. Govins Grandfather drops us at his friend Avanash’s house, in a suburb a bit further out of the city. The house is four storey, and very art deco 70’s with each floor becoming a mezzanine above the previous.

We drink Heineken from what appears to be very small 330ml cans, compared to the usual 440-560ml from England. Govin and Avanash catch up on post show events, and the happenings in Singapore. I receive a call from Squeak in England, he has managed to get a phone finally. I explain the finer details of our volunteering at Leeds Festival in the crew kitchen, in exchange for a ticket to the festival. We are both equally excited about seeing Limp Bizkit, Blink 182 and Cypress Hill. I also speak with Hamish about the arrangements I have made for this weekends gig in Wales, Greenman Festival.

I find an open wireless network, and take the opportunity to email the volunteers for the weekend gig an info sheet. I also catch up on the latest news from the election campaign, Gillard is ahead of Abbott in two party preferred, with him making a fool of himself in several interviews recently. I rejoin the conversation, and then it’s time for dinner.

We walk about 10 minutes to the local strip of cafes and restaurants. We do a full circuit trying to make a choice. Avanash buys cigarettes, and Govin and I discover all sorts of Arnotts products, Tim Tams, Pizza Shapes, JATZ, and then Natural Confectionary Company Jellies. We make a pact to come back in the morning and stock up, but never do.

We walk back along the road, and in the end settle on a Brazilian meat grill place at the end of the street. We settle in, drinking Corona, whilst Avanash smokes Sampoerna, an Indonesian clove cigarette. Several different types of meat are continually brought to the table, with the chef calving off sheets for each of us. It is amazingly good food, and after a while we are having to send him away, “later, later…” we say. We share stupid stories of travel, drunken escapades and girls.

There is a lot of white expat businessmen and their families on the tables surrounding. A young boy is zooming around the footpath and down the ramp onto the road, on his new Razor scooter, whilst his mother keeps an eye out for traffic. Govin speaks Spanish to the chef, teasing him about soccer, his replies are fiery, and in the  end brings us a free apple pie with vanilla icecream. By this stage, all three of us are going to pop, and the decision is made to struggle through the walk home.

We get back, and settle in to Avanash’s amazingly comfortable couches. His housemates arrive home and we spend some time chatting on the front porch. One of his housemates is an older guy from the UK. He is impressed with my wristbands and we spend some time discussing the craziness of the UK. He is adamant that he won’t return, I find that interesting, and we discuss it for some time.

They are both working in the morning, and so we settle into a movie, Pretty Woman, as chosen by Govin, who Avanash and I decide is gay. It is actually pretty entertaining, mainly because of how dated it looks. I receive an email asking for me to fill in shifts for work at Leeds, and I rush to Avanash’s computer to try and get the good shifts. I manage to get all of Saturday off, which is when the bands we actually want to see are playing. I come back to the movie, and we watch the end, then sleep.

We wake late, and catch a cab with Avanash to his office tower, he is a lawyer. We head to a recommended café, enjoy a good coffee and a full English. We then board the SMRT back to Toa Payoh. Govin sleeps, and I sit out the front, and write, listening to OK GO’s new album.

We catch a cab to the city to the Australian Consulate, so that I can place a vote in the federal election. We both have to hand over photo ID and our camera phones, then up the drive we head. There is one guy sitting out the front at a table with posters of Tony Abbott, and no one at the Labor table, just a few how to vote cards. He offers me a how to vote card, and I explain that if Tony gets in, I’m not going back. He then responds and I quote “So you’re voting for the Ginger Ninja then? At least she’ll have your back… Ask Kevin?” Govin starts a “To-ny! To-ny! To-ny!” chant and the guy totally misses the sarcasm.

I head inside, fill in a form to confirm my address, and am handed a Maribyrnong Balot Paper. I fill in the house of representatives form and then ponder for a while whether I fill in one number above or 60 numbers below… I end up doing one above, cos I’m worried that if I fill in below, Steve Fielding might get elected again. We then exit, joking with the ladies on the election papers desk whilst we leave. We try and avoid a conversation with the fat liberal guy out front, but he just makes the same jokes, as we leave.

Once we’ve got our phones and IDs back, I take a picture of a sign (above) just outside the embassy, and get told to delete it by the security guard, to which I put on a good show and don’t delete it.

Then these guys arrive…

Nah, not really, they were just sitting on the side of the road a bit further up, opposite the British Consulate. We headed up to Orchard Road, past all the fancy shopping malls to a plaza so that Govin could buy his mate a phone that has only been released in Singapore. We walk through a shopping centre called Ion Orchard, which features some awesome LED screens, see the picture.

It has been a fleeting trip to this island country, one that is bizarrely clean, and has strange rules. Govin brought some chewing gum in Malaysia just before we crossed the border, and as soon as we got into Singapore, he deliberately popped several into his mouth and started chewing enthusiastically whilst driving down the PIE freeway, with a massive smile on his face.

Back to the airport tomorrow at 4am, heading to Cebu for a well earned break. Below is a crazy Fire/military truck I saw near Govin’s Grandparents Apartment tower! NIIICE!

After finishing off Glastonbury pack down, we headed back to the farm, unloaded the gear and attacked our very overdue washing, and showering. We had a few weeks off, with our next gig, Secret Garden Party, north of London. It was really weird to have time off, and be out of the 18 hours per day work mentality. We took a few days off just to recover, and then started repairing gear, sorting out the rubbish around the farm, repairing the caravan and generally potting about.

Midweek, ‘Bro’, another Australian who had worked with us in Australia, joined us at the farm, to assist with building some kids toilets and possibly fitting out our new shed. Squeak was with Hamish building some crew loos at Standon Calling so Mattia, Bro and I decided to go to town for dinner, to the always quality and cultural Weatherspoons. We ended up meeting some guys on the next table that had recognized me from V Festival last year, and had apparently had a conversation with me about living around the same area, I didn’t recall, but they were friendly.

Bruce, the ever entertaining Farm Dog, striking a pose.

One of the guys needed to get back to Bruton for an ‘emergency’, so we all went on a roadtrip to drop him off, so that Bro could see the countryside. We got back to the pub and that was when the fights started. There was one inside between two dudes, then 3 couples had a massive brawl out the front, which ended in one guy going to Hospital and about 4 police cars attending. We took that as our cue, and left for home.

On the way back to the car, we ran into a group of girls all wearing tracksuit pants and hoodies but with really done up hair and make up, I said something in passing and they asked if we were Australian. This happens a lot, especially in the country…
Them: Are you Australian?
Me: Yep
Them: Like Neighbours
Me: **Sigh** Yes… Like Neighbours… Toadies my cousin, and Carl is my dad’s golfing buddie
Them: OMG really?!?
Me: … No, but I am Australian
They then follow that with something like

Them: “Throw another shrimp on the Barbie, maate”

To which I reply

Me: We call them prawns

Them: PRAWNS????

Me: **Sigh** Nevermind…

Or claim that they do the best Australian Accent, and then fail shamelessly, or they say things like…
Them: I’ve got relatives that live in Australia
Me: Where abouts?
Them: Somewhere near Sydney… or Perth…  They’re close yeah??? I dunno actually, I’ve never met them…

Or they just ask for a hug and want a photo, like I’m some kind of awesome stuffed character at Movie World or something. Anyway, we actually ended up standing on the corner eating chips from a place called ‘Munchies’ and chating for about an hour and a half. They ended up adding us on Facebook, much to the envy of their other friends… Maybe in Somerset, Australians are like YoYos, only the cool kids have them…

They boys chilling in our awesome pimped caravan

Bro was heasing to London the following weekend, to his friends birthday party, and coincidentally, holding an impromptu birthday party for himself. We liked the idea of a weekend off, and so when Friday afternoon rolled around, Bro, Mattia and I headed off to Yeovil Junction Train Station, Squeak would meet us in the city.

The train was pretty cheap as we booked through Megatrain (megatrain.co.uk), the same company I traveled on in the US last year. They pretty much rent seats on low capacity, off peak services from the train operator, then sell a lot of them cheap. Great if they can make money from it, and even better as it means we payed about 12 pounds each way, compared with 40 normally.

Stupidly Cheap Alcohol @ Weatherspoons Brixton

We arrived at London Waterloo Station, had a much needed cigarette break, then boarded the tube to Brixton. We headed to get a cheap meal at the local Weatherspoons, a chain of very cheap and often very dodgy pubs. It was very much a cultural experience, but when you can order a Glenmorangie and Coke for two pound fifty, who’s complaining? Squeak managed to get in contact with me and shortly after we arrived he strolled in. We didn’t stay long, as the crowd were getting dodgier and dodgier, and Squeak and I desperately needed to make ourselves un-smelly. Squeak managed to leave his hat there, and we had to wait whilst he sprinted back to get it, then returned looking like a dickhead. We specifically asked him not to wear it, because in London, Australians are parasites in London. On the way, we dropped by the 24 hour Off Licence (Bottle-O), and picked up 4 x 440ml cans of Carlsberg for 3 pound, gotta love England.

We were staying with a friend of Bro’s in a very large (7 bedroom) share house, in an almost entertainly stereotypical English street, where all the houses looked the same. Lucky for us, the house we were staying in was on the very end, otherwise I think we would have ended up knocking on a few strangers doors.

Houses in Brixton, All The Same

We met the residents and settled in the backyard, getting to know the mix of people from the house. Squeak disappeared for a while, showering and generally making himself bearable to be around, then I did the same. We didn’t know what to expect of the night, or whether we would go anywhere else, or anything really. So we did what all good Australians in London do, drank a lot of beer. The party got pretty crazy at points, with new people coming and going. We commandeered the iPod and put on a series of crappy music, including the new Pendulum ABC News Theme Remix, much to the entertainment of two of the housemates, both Australian.

I ended up crashing pretty early, compared to everyone else, and was positioned on a mattress in the hallway, as I hadn’t made it as far as the Lounge room. I was looked after by two girls who ferried me water, and gave me back massages, so I was pretty chuffed with my position. I was told in the morning that at one point they checked to see if I was still alive, as they couldn’t believe the number of people stumbling past me and tripping over the mattress, and that I didn’t wake. I thank my Father’s side of the family for the ability to sleep through a Nuclear blast.

The next morning was pretty tragic. Mattia and I were very hung over, and squeak had managed to chew up his gums and tongue, Bro was nowhere to be found. We stumbled down to the shops, and brought some food. Squeak was unable to eat anything even marginally hard, and settled for a protein drink and a bit of a banana.

By this stage, the day was a write off, so we sat around in the Lounge and watched movies for the rest of the afternoon, then ordered amazing pizza from around the corner and watched some more films. I was intent on us actually doing something the next day, and drummed up the boys for a reasonable start.

On the train on the way into town

True to form, it was an absolute shitfight to get the boys awake in the morning, but I managed it. We collected some breakfast pastries and had some very large coffees at a local café, before boarding the tube and heading into the big smoke. Mattia had never been to Camden, so we started there, and I showed both the boys CyberDog and a few nice places within the Markets. I haggled some aviator sunglasses, and squeak managed to find a joker (Batman) shirt similar to the one he had worn to shreds. We ploughed on, having to Walk to Chalk Farm due to Camden Tube Stop being closed in the middle of the day. I discovered the Crumpler store, which has been becoming a habit of traveling (alongside Bubble Cup), and purchased a new camera holster. We wondered around some park, can’t quite recall which one, then got on the tube to Covent Garden.

Camden Markets

This was where one of the highlights of the weekend occurred, The Australia Shop. This is pretty much a store that stocks food, drink, clothes and such that are Australian or only available in Australia. We went a little bit crazy and I went to buy two slabs of beer, Coopers Pale Ale and Little Creatures, when they offered delivery for 8 quid. This was an offer too good to be true, and so we loaded up on other stuff instead, Arnotts Pizza Shapes, Barbeque Shapes, Jatz, Milo, and we all got a Bundaberg Ginger Beer. My two slabs would arrive at the farm within a week, and I was amazingly excited!

Crumpler London WOO!

By that stage it was very overdue for lunch, and so we headed up to a place that Gabrielle and I had lunch at almost 3 years ago when I visited her in London, Wagamamas. The boys had never experienced it, and we were all pleasantly filled, even through the staff didn’t appreciate our BYO Ginger Beers. Because Leicester Square was so close, we decided to wonder over and show Mattia. Half the Square was blocked off for some corporate event being built, but we chilled on the grass for while, before deciding it was time to return to Brixton and vist the Off Licence once again.

OMFG JATZ! Would have preferred Savoys but hey?!

We managed to get up in time to miss McDonalds breakfast, so we ate cheeseburgers and headed to Waterloo Station to return to Yeovil. It had been a nice weekend of only doing what we had the energy to do, and eating and drinking a lot. It was also nice to just have a house to hang out in, and watch cable TV. London has grown on me so much, it’s crazy. I hated it the first time I came here, and now I just want to explore it even more. Despite the cost of living there, I really think I would like to live there for a bit one day, and uncover the locals side of London.

Oh... I got my slabs! F**K YEAH!

P.S. I got my slabs eventually!

We were to have 20 publically available toilets in Stone Circle (Kings Meadow) which is the number one spot for late night mischief and nitrous inhalation; 30 at the backstage of the newest area of the festival, The Park. 5 in the VIP Tipi Village, home to Radiohead, K T Tunstall, Lilly Allen, Stings Daughter (and friends), Jarvis Cocker, and a few more celebrities; 10 in the Tipi Village; 2 backstage at Green Futures (the hippy area); 2 at The Bimble Inn (our best mates, cos they give us free cider) and 2 at The Rabbit Hole, another venue in The Park, run by a very crazy man by the name of Hamish.

We met with Lucy, the green initiatives manager who had essentially booked us, and discussed tickets. We were severely understaffed, with only 12 tickets to run 72 toilets, which sucked because that meant we were in for a hell of a weekend.

We had a delivery to site once again by our awesome Tractors and trailers, unloaded our boxes and frames and could begin the build. We had a pretty good team onboard, the absolute A-Team to be exact, consisting of Mattia, Squeak, Hamish, Frances and I.

We had some entertaining stories from the build as usual, my particular favorite involved clearing out some rather large stinging nettle bushes from a location we were to build toilets. I asked the site manger (Roger) and English guy who also worked in Australia for a wipper-snipper and he directed me to “Red Barn”, essentially the Glastonbury stores. So off I drove, up the top of site to Red Barn, located near the site office. I walked into Red Barn to find about 20 guys watching the telly, as England were playing someone in the world cup. It took a while to get some attention, and when I did this is the conversation that followed:
Me: “Hey mate, I’m after a wipper-snipper, Roger from The Park sent me up.”

Storeman: “You want a what…?!”
Me: “A wipper-snipper?”
Storeman: “A wipper-snapper… You want a small boy??! We don’t have those here, don’t know what Roger on about… This ain’t no orphanage!”
Me: “Nah mate, I need something to cut down some bushes… You know, petrol driven, long thing, has two wires on the end that spin around and…”
Storeman: “Oh, a STRIMMER!?!”
Me: “Righto, a strimmer it is!”
Storeman: “They’re both out, don’t know when they’ll be back…”
Silence for a bit
Storeman: “Try Greenpeace compound, they have a bit of kit like that”

After the hilarity of trying to explain to a Somerset man, who supposedly speaks the same language what I wanted, the irony of having to visit the greenpeace compound to borrow something that can hack away the greenery escaped me. So off I went in search of Greenpeace. I eventually found it and was directed to Storeman Steve, a man who would have looked right at home behind the controls of an army helicopter from Vietnam, with full moustache and weathered face. Steve said he had a scythe that would do the job if I had enough “strength and commitment” (his words), but I had to ask Dave who was working in the chainsaw compound. Yes, Greenpeace had a chainsaw compound, actually the only people onsite allowed to use them. I asked Dave and he was fine with it, so Steve collected my drivers license as a deposit and I was off, back to my giant bush of stinging nettles at “The Park”.

I had never used a Scythe before, and quite enjoyed the sheer mental-ness of swinging it nice and low and watching the bushes fall at the stems. Hacking away at a busy of nettles 8m long by 4m deep was no easy task and by the end of the task I was covered in nettle stings from stray bushes falling and was quite exhausted. You can see my handiwork below in my before, during and after photos.

By this stage the festival was very much taking shape, and amazing vehicles, plant and infrastructure was rolling onsite. We saw an amazingly cool 4WD mini, complete with fatty tires and matte paint job. The observation tower, central to The Park was also being erected.

We were down to our final two blocks to build, Bimble Inn and Rabbit Hole when I ran into Hamish, saying he needed help up at Rabbit Hole. I came up to investigate and found Frances and Squeak looking at the Hilux and scratching their heads. It was parked hard up against a fence post, in a big hole on the side of a reasonable hill. Turned out Hamish had directed Frances to back it in there, then realized it was going to be a struggle to get it out, so Hamish threw the keys to Squeak to do some Squeak driving madness/magic on it, and it had just slid along the side of the incline and into the fence post. There wasn’t much damage done, just a scratch really, but now was the task of trying to get it away from the post and up the hill without more damage.

We called in the cavalry, Squeak, in the straight mast forklift with a snatch strap. First we tried to get the fork to pull the Hilux up the hill and away from the pole. It was quickly clear that this was not going to happen and so, the pole had to go. From there, it was a simple task of just pulling the Hilux 2m further uphill and out of the hole. We had only had this car for 2 days and I had already given both Hamish and Squeak the lecture on not trying to actively thrash our vehicles, clearly fallen on deaf ears.

From there, we were built and ready to rock Glastonbury. We had some new additions to the team, Bart & Tim (two more Aussies from Melbourne), Sid (The Farmer), his daughter Anna and her cousin Shannon. I had developed a 4 hour rotating shift system, whereby there would be someone on duty from 6am through 2am, and if needed, like for example a changeover, other team members would come on board and assist. It worked like a dream, and actually meant that we could finish shift, switch off knowing we had passed the duties and information onto the next crew and head off to enjoy the festival.

Squeak and I had done the morning shift and had the evening off, so we met up with and ex poo crew member (Sloanie) and headed off to see Snoop Dog at the Pyramid Stage (the largest at Glastonbury). The main arena is crazy, and apparently can hold up to 140,000 people. It wasn’t too busy as they had created a football (soccer) field where they were showing the soccer, so a fair few people were doing that. We met up with a few more of Sloanie’s mates up the top of the arena under the big tree (shade is GOOD!) and then Snoop Dogg started. I had one of those “Oh my god I hate my job” moments and Squeak and I were squealing like little girls. We all decided to get a bit closer and wondered down the hill to a lovely spot just in front of the disabled viewing platform (big tip for all of you, it’s generally pretty free because people can’t see past it to see the available space). Snoop Dogg finished on a pretty awesome note, with a big speech about how you should be greatful for everyday that you are given and that he has three things he does each morning, finishing on his signature “Smoke weed everyday” and then dropped Bob Marley to walk out to. Needless to say, it got a big response.

We had even more time free and decided to stay and watch the next band play, which was Vampire Weekend. A lot of people headed off to see Florence & The Machine, but we they are on the bill of a few more festivals we are booked to do, so we stayed. There were some guys sitting near us messing with people, using a plastic turd, which we were entertained by for a while and suggested we should get one to mess with people in the loos.

Vampire Weekend started and I have to admit I was quite excited. Squeak and I decided to get a bit closer as the crowd had thinned out a fair bit, and we ended up almost front centre. We were next to a very entertaining fellow who would answer the lead singers rhetorical questions with much gusto. At one point, the question was asked, “Are you guys having a good time?” to which the over excited crowd member replied “F**k yeah, let’s get f**king naked!!!” and sure enough, the next song was “A Punk”, a very crowd pleasing tune, and I look across to my right to see this gentleman completely starker’s, thing swinging in the breeze. Very very funny!

Squeak and I were on the late shift and so we used our very cool hospitality bands to do the short walk behind the main stage to the Other Stage, and headed back to The Park. It was a pretty easy run and we absolutely smashed it. We finished up around 1am and decided to meet up with a friend of mine from last year, and headed to the new “Trash City”, now called District 9 and the Unfairgrounds.

This place was just epic, a full scale set is built throughout the arena, and a range of awesome ‘trash’ is used, such as black hawk helicopters, old army bomber planes and some awesome modified tractors and cars that drive around. I can’t describe to you how amazing this place is, the photos don’t do it justice. We also noticed the amazing dome from Standon Calling last year, hopefully we are bringing this dome over to Australia for summer in the next few years. We headed around the unfairgrounds, finding little clubs here and there and generally thinking it was pretty mental. We then headed up to Stone Circle and had a chillout. Lucy went to bed with a mate and I headed back to find Squeak around the Park.

We enjoyed our sleep in and had a pretty slow day. After work, I met up with Ella, a marshal from Sunrise Festival, a few weeks before. She dragged me to see Shakira, which her mates were very much into. Ella and I were ready for a great bagging session, but as it turned out she was pretty amazing. We were waiting for the backup dancers the first few songs, and eventually they appeared to many cheers from the audience. We had the afternoon shift, so we headed back to The Park, quite a long walk, probably about 45 minutes to an hour including traffic.

We finished around 10 and headed back out to the festival. We met up with Ella and her friends again and decided to experience Arcadia. It is run by a company called Arcadia and they are hired at many festivals throughout the summer, on varying scales. They usually feature a large staging area, pyrotechnics, acrobats and general craziness. It didn’t disappoint, and the area was enclosed in London style street lamps, that were actually flame throwers, that went off to the beat of the music.

As if that wasn’t enough there were girls on each side of the staging area with very impressive flame throwers. The music was mainly electro, and Squeak, Ella, Her Friend and I were in quite an amount of disbelief at the epic scale and general randomness. Then came a crowd favorite, Nirvana with Lithium and they quite simply rocked. We called it a night when Arcadia stopped playing around 4, and headed off to get some well deserved rest.

We loved the shift system, and worked early morning and then again in the afternoon and then it was off to play again. We met up with one of Squeaks mates called Geeza and saw some band called Faithless who we thought we didn’t know. Geeza assured us that we did, and eventually “I Can’t Get No Sleep” came on, and the penny dropped. We cut faithless short and used the sneaky backstage path to get to the Other Stage to see LCD Soundsystem. We missed my favorite song “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”, but never the less was a good set. We headed back to the mainstage for the Sunday night headliner, and joined almost 140,000 people to pay tribute to Stevie Wonder.

Amazingly, we ran into Mattia, Bart and Tim in the arena, which is just pure and utter luck. We worked our way forward and settled in for some magic. Magic it was, and I even shared the love with home (Australia), calling them during the song “I just called to say I love you”. Needless to say, my parents were quite entertained. It was a magical end to an awesome festival, and as this is Glastonbury’s 40^th year, Michael Evis, the man who started the festival all those years ago, and the farmer of the land appeared onstage with Stevie Wonder to sing Happy Birthday to the festival.

We joined the masses heading out of the arena and headed to The Park to have one last beer and chill out. We had absolutely smashed the festival and our loos were a hit. We had worked a very managed shift roster and worked very hard when we were on, then communicated the situation to the next crew and shuffled shifts for bin changeovers. It was just ideal, and gave us an awesome amount of time to actually switch off and enjoy the music. Squeak and I couldn’t believe it, and there were many times in the crowd that we looked at each other and remarked “God I hate my job” HAHA!

Squeak and I were exempt from pack up on the Monday to go on a very important mission, tatting. Now that word may be foreign to you all, but essentially you get to discover the amazing array of stuff left by the punters. Including, as shown in the photo below, a massive amount of beer!

Glastonbury Festival is an amazing festival, you just get lost in it, an it’s not even for the amazing lineup, as you could never get around and see everyone. It’s actually the little things, like Trash City and Arcadia and awesome little secrets like the Rabbit Hole bar, with a secret back room and toilets with the best view of the festival. I will be back, I’d like to make a habbit of this festival, even if it requires saving money and just coming over for the week.

We have a few weeks off now, before the next festival, hopefully some prep time and time to recover! Until then, cheers!

After an Epic 30+ Hours of constant travelling, Squeak and I have made it to England. We are here for the summer, the festival season, and the English do it in style, with a festival at least every weekend from mid May through the end of September. I am working for a company called Natural Event, who provide environmentally sustainable sanitation solutions… Essentially, I am the Green “Kenny“, and yes, I get paid to go to music festivals. Anyway, I feel I should start from the beginning, the epic flight.

So on Monday the 31st of May, Squeak and I were, ever so kindly, driven to the airport by my lovely sister Bridget. We couldn’t surpass the opportunity for one last ‘good quality’ Australian meal. So we visited the airport Maccas, checked in, and after Squeak sent some last minute papers home, we went through Immigration, and onto our Malaysian Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur. It was a pretty easy flight, and I throughly enjoyed my brand new Bose headphones, a very expensive, but very worthwhile investment (nerd moment). The inflight entertainment system was a little glitchy on the way over, which limited the amount of movie catchup we could do, but we survived… Just!

We landed at KLIA, an amazing airport I have frequented before, and settled in for our 4 hour stopover, with me enjoying the Malaysian signature dish, (Nasi Lemak), and Squeak some very spicy noodles. I attempted to buy some clove cigarettes (Sampoerna), something I very much enjoyed during my previous trip to Malaysia, but the Duty Free store didn’t stock them. Squeak & I attended the smoking room, a very, very, badly ventilated, plastic decor’d, hazy box, and then boarded yet another flight, to Heathrow, London.

We were under the impression the flight was 16 hours, and were delighted to find it was only 11. This time, the inflight entertainment system was functioning, and we caught up on some movies, making sure we stayed awake until the last part of the flight to adjust our body clocks appropriately.

Now was the nerve racking part of our journey, clearing Immigration. As you may have read in some of my previous posts, I have had some issues with the UK Border Agency in the past, first having a visa denied, and then being hassled each time I entered the UK. Squeak on the other hand, had been deported just 3 weeks earlier, after attempting to enter on a legitimate business visa, that as it turned out, they rarely allow. He was held in Heathrow cells or 7 hours before being returned straight back to Australia. He had been living at my house ever since.

We were both asked one question “Are you here for business or pleasure?” and upon finding our visas, let straight through. Probably the second easiest Immigration clearance I have ever experience, after Dubai of all places. From there, it was onto the Heathrow Connect train to Terminals 1, 2 & 3, then a bus to Woking, then a train to Yeovil Junction. We were picked up by Hamish (our boss) and after a quick trip to TESCO EXTRA (an amazingly huge supermarket), we finally arrived at Bearley Farm, our home between festivals. Bearley is an awesome place; maybe it has something to do with my growing up in the city, but I do love the farm. There is endless mechanical toys; Tractors, Combine Harvestors, Telescopic Forklifts, Diggers, Trucks, and last but not least a Volvo Ute, which I am currently in the process of re-registering, Photos to come. We have 200+ cows as neighbours, sheep, cats, chickens, horses and my favorite of the bunch, two lazy black Labradors named Charlie and Bruce, the farms dogs.

We are going to hit the ground running, with Sunrise Festival, a hippy/green festival just outside a lovely little town called Bruton.

I hope this post finds you all in good health, a reminder that you can manage your subscription to my blog at geordiebarker.com/follow and I would like to encourage you all to comment, as I do love hearing from home.

I will try to keep this blog up to date as much as possible, but it is difficult when you spend most of your time in the middle of the English Countryside.

So for now, cheers!

Geordie

Sunrise Celebration Second Arena @ Sunrise Celebration

We hit the ground running, with Squeak heading to site with Hamish that afternoon. We had been given control of ‘Little Poland’, an alleyway of the farm, with Caravans, lots of vehicles and a lot of crap. It attracted this name due to the large number of Polish workers who had previously inhabited it. We were to rename it ‘Little Australia’. We had been given a large caravan with lounge, kitchen and  double bedroom, as well as ‘Terminal One’, an old racetrack officials building to base our operations out of. We were getting quite a good setup.

Our Awesome Site Ute (Peugeot 306 Hatch) @ Sunrise

My task for the day was to clean out and order these two new buildings, and what a task it was. Neither had power or water or gas, I of corse started with the power, finding quite quickly that it was fruitless and the professionals would have to be called in.

The next day, we moved onsite to Sunrise Celebration, a hippy style festival, located near the very cute and quaint little town of Bruton. We joined Greg and Gabbi (The Hungarians), and Mattia (The Italian). We had 9 blocks of loos, totaling 50 cubicles, spread throughout the site. Our gear was delivered by Sid (the farmer) and one of his workers Leshek (a funny Polish guy) using two Tractors and very, very large trailers.

Unloading the Tractor trailer @ Sunrise Celebration

The previous year, Sunrise Celebration was my first taste of an English Festival, after only just recovering from my dislocated knee cap. This year we had a few familiar faces (Hamish, Greg & Gabbi) and some new additions (Mattia, Squeak & Frances). We also had 25 volunteers who would clean the loos 3 times daily in exchange for a ticket to the festival, so our job was to be very nicely structured.

Geordie Mirror Shot - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

It was quite strange to be back on the festival site, and I reminisced quite a lot, especially driving through the one way streets of the very cute local town, Bruton. Things at Sunrise had changed quite a lot from the previous year; it had grown to be much bigger, had an extended main arena, and a lot more venues.

One of the funnier moments of the weekend involved our Crew Food. We were originally issued food tickets for a very pleasant food venue called Buddafields, a fully vegan café. The food was nice, and serving sizes quite generous, but unfortunately the shift to no meat, and a whole lot of mung beans, meant that the crew turned into more of a marching fart band. At one point, Hamish (the boss) was talking, and Mattia (the Italian) farted so loudly and continually that the boss actually stopped talking, a feat that for those who know him, defies belief.

Great Costumed Patrons - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

Eventually, we were provided food tickets for the crew food tent, catered for by the farm, so a lot of hearty meals were in order. I have a hilarious video, which I will try to upload, featuring our first meat meal in a week. Needless to say, we were quite excited, particularly Mattia, who is obsessed with food, and eats an amazing amount of it.

Our lovely 7.5t Truck - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

Squeak and I thoroughly enjoyed cruising through the festival site in the big seven tonne truck with tunes blaring, usually Australian Artists like Hilltop Hoods, Ash Grunwald, The Cat Empire etc, and entertaining the Green Stewards who were posted on each of the gates and junctions. There were two girls in particular that enjoyed our comings and goings, Ella and (I might have forgotten the other girl), purely due to them having the graveyard shift and us making it pass slightly quicker.

The management of the Volunteer was left to Squeak and myself, and was quite entertaining, with a few members of the volunteer poo crew being on substances 24/7 or just generally being trippers. We were pretty tight on attendance on the first day, but as soon as the volunteer crew realized that they had a pretty sweet gig, the had some love and commitment and wanted to come to work.

Amazing Scissor Lift - Sunrise Celebration 2010, Bruton, England

The gig was a smashing success, with a very high level of service, despite a bit of a lack of toilet paper supply (badly managed by the festval). The only other notable story from the weekend shouldn’t really be documented online, but lets just say it involved a pipe failure, a goldern shower and Geordie joining a very select club… Email me if you want the complete story!

Our packdown was quite smooth, and didn’t require any stupidly long days as we had two weeks to the next gig, Gastonbury. Which is the worlds largest Greenfield festival, around 210,000 people. There was only one hitch on bump out, when Squeak managed to fall onto the back of the truck, bend himself over the bar on the back and was subsequently rushed to Hospital on a full spinal isolation board. He ended up being fine, just muscular damage, and was discharged that afternoon.

Toilet Framed Sunset @ Sunrise Celebration... Fitting Really!

It has been quite nice to be back on the crew, and in the lifestyle of festivals. You don’t want to know the number of days we can go without a shower, but everyone around you smells just as bad as you do, so its not really an issue. Onto Glastonbury Festival next, looking forward to the bands and the craziness of 200,000 people on one festival site.

From working for the City of Melbourne part time, to designing three independent theatre shows, to assisting in the Operations Management of a company, and being a freelance theatre tech; life in generally finding a way to fill itself up.

So… Why the post today you may ask?! Well this moring, my flights were booked and paid for. I am returning to the United Kingdom (this time with a proper visa), to work with Natural Event as their Operations Manager on their music festival season, for just shy of 4 months. We are working on some amazing festivals including Glastonbury, RockNess, Sunrise Celebration, T In The Park, Secret Garden Party, Kendell Calling, Camp Bestival, Standon Calling, Bestival and more. I would run through the lineups, but it will only make you jealous, just Google one or two of the festivals, and you will see how dismal the Australian festival circuit is.

I thought I might take the opportunity to fill you in on some of the stuff I have been doing whilst back in the wonderful Melbourne town.

Shortly after my return from overseas, I was lucky enough to be offered a job with the City of Melbourne as the Technical Support Officer at two of their youth arts centres, ArtPlay and Signal. My role encompasses managing the lighting, sound, audio visual and computer based elements of the venues, as well as assisting the operations team in putting on and supporting workshops, performances, forums and the like. It is an amazing job, and I work with some amazing people, in two very unique and stunning venues. Please follow the links and join up to their eNewsletter, and if you know someone (or are someone) between the ages of 4-22, come down and get involved, as there are some great opportunities on offer.

I recently finished up designing the lighting for a show by Martia Fox called Waterproof, performed at the Melbourne City Baths. It was an amazing experience, if not a nerve racking one, trying not to electrocute the 5 person cast, as after all, I was placing electrical items in and around the pool. The work was based on an exploration of the subconscious and included a great soundscape by Liam Barton. I wanted to try and create a number of spaces in and around the pool by isolating the lighting to those areas, and using colour to shape the flow of lighting throughout the work. The finished product was an amazing success, click here for more images. My thanks to all involved, especially Director/Performer Marita Fox, and my lighting operator Ryan Heath.

Previous to this work, I designed the lighting for a work by Four Larks Theatre Company, called The Fate of Franklin. This work included original musical accompaniment and a very large cast. It was performed in a warehouse (secret location) in Northcote, and enjoyed an almost sold out season. The show was based upon letters written by Lady Franklin, and her husbands fatal voyage to try and find the north west passage. The show flicked between Lady Franklin’s battle to find out what had happened, and the men struggling to survive in the Antarctic. My lighting design played with this transition, by using a range of different fixtures, including painted incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes. The design was very successful in supporting the performers to tell the tale and take the audience on a journey. My thanks to Chloe Greaves, who was not only my lighting operator, but a great collaborator on the lighting design.

Late last year, I was contacted by the Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm (great name or what?) to collaborate on a show (Called Glasoon) they were producing in an old shop front in Brunswick. They are quite renowned for being very out there with their shows, so I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Many an evening was spent in the space, drilling lights into the ceiling and wiring them to beams and screwing them into the floor. The finished product was a grungy show, that packed a punch and was guaranteed to offend at least a few in the audience. I also operated the show, and learnt most of the dialogue by heart. I can safely say that it was one of the most enjoyable shows I have ever designed, as I became one of the Black Lung family. Thanks to Thomas and all the Black Lung Crew. For more information and images click here.

Apart from Theatre Lighting Design, I have been involved with a number of very random and very entertaining things… Such as:

Doing promotion work for Ice Break (Real Coffee, Ice Cold)

Driving a float in the Moomba Parade

Playing with fireworks and New Years Eve in the City

Working on weird sculptures for Melbourne International Arts Festival

Having fun with Sonic the Hedgehog at St Kilda Festival

And taking the dog for a walk

So I flee the Australia winter for the English Summer, not a great improvement in temperature, but it’s still called summer, so I’ll hold onto that idea. I guess I want to give you all the opportunity to stay signed up to my updates, or run without ever looking back, you can change your subscription status at geordiebarker.com/follow. I will be posting my adventures to amazing festivals and hopefully get to sneak in a quick trip to Europe at the end, we shall soon see. I like the documentation process, and love getting news and feedback from home, so please comment as much as you like, and tell me what you want to see, or hear. SynFM have asked if I would be their worldwide festival reporter, and ring in occassionally with updates on festivals and reviews. I’m very much into this idea, so stay tuned!

Until next time, stay safe!

Geordie

]]> http://geordiebarker.com/archives/959/feed 1 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/772 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/772#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:23:07 +0000 Geordie http://geordiebarker.com/?p=772 So as a semi excuse to play with the new iMovie, and because I am leaving Asia, I have made this groovy video. Please enjoy!

South East Asia in 5 mins & 51 secs from Geordie Barker on Vimeo.

Govin then offered to get me a job on the Colours Of Malaysia launch concert. My response, an empatic YES! So now I am the essentially the Stage Manager of a concert featuring over 900 performers, and being performed in one of Malaysia most sacred site, Merdeka Square.

I will endevour to update the blog with Phuket and my time here in Malaysia ASAP!

Until then, keep the news from home coming! Hope all are well, considering it sounds like Melbourne is falling down, earthquakes and all!

Geordie x

I have the knack of being able to fall asleep anywhere, and I had done just that on the VIP bus, only to be woken up at 12:05am by the lights being switched on, and the engine off. We were at a rest stop, so we disembarked the bus and wondered around for a quick look. There was no communication from the drivers, not even what time to be back by. After what seemed like forever, we all got back on the bus and were on our way. I fell asleep again.

I was woken by an Irish couple I had been speaking to earlier at around 4:30am. We were stopped, and our bags were being heaved off the bus and onto the dirt road, once again, with no communication. No one really knew what the hell was going on, so we followed the light, to a large quite brightly lit waiting area. This was the ferry terminal. We slept there, leaning on tables until about 7am, when we were herded onto the boat, to then spend two and a half hours going the scenic way around, first Ko Tao, a diving island and the smallest of the three main islands, then Koh Pangan, famous for the full moon parties, the Ko Samui, the largest Island, and my destination. There were free shuttle busses or vans to various parts of the island. I was off to Chaweng, the party town of Samui, and the backpacker centre. I had been recommended a place by Alex and Caitlin, called The Wave, and with the assistance of a gay couple from Sydney in my van, we found it.

By the time I got there, I had been in transit for over 16 hours. And to get there and find that the only room they have available is an 850 Baht, three bed air con room, was very very disappointing. I nevertheless took the room, because the idea of lugging my back along Chaweng Beach road, in the heat of the day, did not appeal to me at all. It was a massive room, with a dingy ensuite, and two beds. The air con was powerful and quite nice in the end. I dumped my stuff and headed out for some food. The Australians in my mini-van had recommended a place called Ninja Crepes, which was just across the road from The Wave. It is one of the oldest restaurants in Chaweng, and it famous for good, cheap food, and friendly service. It really stood up to its reputation.

There is not much to do in Samui in terms of cultural sights, apart from the Big Buddha, which compared to the Reclining Buddha, is not that big. I headed to the beach for a swim, which was amazing. The water is so warm, and its only when you leave the water that you feel some chill from the wind. I am very much used to Surf Coast kind of water temperatures, where you need a long sleave, long legged wetsuit to survive. I headed back from the beach and decided to spend some time on the net. I went to Ninja Crepes to have dinner and then back to the Hotel. On the way though, I found this in the local Pharmacy, see pic below!

I was planning to have a bit of a nap and then head out to check out the Samui nightlife, but I fell asleep and did not wake up to my alarm.

Day 15 – Monday 2nd of March – The Wave – Ko Samui, Thailand

I have been using a number of social networks during my trip overseas, as I am interested in seeing how they can impact and benefit travel, especially traveling solo. One particular social networking tool I use is a site called Brightkite. The idea of brightkite is that you ‘check in’ to a location, be it a restaurant, suburb or city, and can see if any of your friends or other people are around you, or have been there before. You then post notes or photos to that location, that other users can then view, when they arrive at or near that location. It is a strange concept to a non user, but if you visit this link www.brightkite.com/people/geordieb it gives you access to a list of basic and succinct information about where I have been and what I have done.

Geordieb on Brightkite.com

I had checked into Ko Samui the day before and was only the second person to ever do so, the first had been a mere 7 hours before me. I thought that this was an opportunity too good to miss. So in the name of social networking and web 2.0 I messaged the user, saying that we should meet up for the first ever Brightkite Meet Up. He agreed and was just as amused as I that we claimed the first two check in’s. We had decided to do lunch the next day. So at midday, I found myself walking along Chaweng beach to meet www.brightkite.com/people/dbruzzone

It was quite funny, to intentionally meet a complete stranger, but Davide was a computer programmer and as such, we got along like a house on fire. We whinged about PC users and how we are gradually converting the entire world to Mac. We talked about social media and the opportunities in the future, and all of a sudden, it was 4:30pm. David had mentioned that he wanted to go to the Boxing, and I had decided it would be an experience, so he said he would email me if he could make it later on tonight, otherwise it would be tomorrow.

The rest of my afternoon was taken up by the internet, reading my book and dreaming of great food for dinner. I could really get used to this. I had dinner at Ninja Crepes as usual, and then headed back to the Wave for a quiet beer. I met two English girls who were studying Lonely Planet guides. They were, as most young English people seem to be, heading to Australia, and as such, I gave advice.

Tomorrow I will be off to the Boxing with Davide. It should be a pretty interesting experience. I am not looking forward to the violence, but I think it should be okay.

Signing off… Geordie

Day 16 – Tuesday 3rd of March – The Wave – Ko Samui, Thailand

I woke up nice and early with the intention of exploring the island for the day. I booked another night, and headed to Lamai Beach, the next beach around the island from Chaweng. Ko Samui isn’t really big enough to warrant full size busses or a train, and as such, to meet the demand of tourists and locals alike, they have a fleet of what are called Songthaews. They are essentially a ute (Toyota Hilux style) with a large canopy on the back, and seats along the sides. You hitch them from anywhere along their routes and negotiate a fare before climbing in the back. The fares are pretty set, so no real bargaining can occur. It cost me 10 baht to get from Chaweng to Lamai.

Since I got to Samui, I have been overrun with Germans. Every single person who sits next to me on a table at a restaurant, or at a bar, is German. There are a few Italians and some English, but a majority of people are German. As such, further along the road a middle aged German couple climbed in the back, and started chatting to me in broken English. About half way along, a German family also joined us. I was then excluded from the conversation, as they were speaking… German.

I got to Lamai Beach, and it was much like Samui, except a little wider. I decided to settle in for an afternoon of relaxing, so I sat on a banana lounge, ordered a banana shake, and watched the world go by. I dipped my feet in the water, but I hadn’t brought my towel, so there was to be no swimming. After what seemed like no time at all, I had to head back to get ready for the Boxing. So I hailed another songthaew, and enjoyed the view on the way.

I met up with Davide at Ninja Crepes and we had Pad Thai for dinner. We had been told that the stadium where the boxing was held is notorious for being around the girlie bars, where you might get hassled, not by beefy guys wanting to mug you, but by scantly clad girls wanting you to buy them a drink. We caught a cab, and got a little ripped off, as it was a lot closer than we thought. We brought our very expensive tickets and headed into Chaweng Stadium.

It was not so much a stadium as a large shed with a boxing ring in it. The boxing was surprisingly good, but hallarious! They had this opening sequence that was quite simply the funniest thing I have ever seen. It was a mix of The Real Slim Shady by Eminem, The Rocky Theme, and some Tu Pac song. I will put it up on YouTube as soon as I can! There were 7 rounds, and as such, I drank a few beers, Davide drank Red Bull, which is quite a funny little substance in Thailand. The last round were the big boys, who had moved here from around the world and trained here. They were pretty shit, because one kicked the other so hard in the ribs, I am sure I heard them crack. That was the end of the fight.

We headed out of the stadium and immediately started getting hassled by Girls from the bars, including one who slapped us in the croutch when we refused to drink with her. We ended up having a drink in one that was less seedy and then walking through the precinct and deciding it was time to wrap up the evening with a good hangover prevention. McDonalds in Thailand is alright, pretty much edible, much like home.

We actually ended up at one more bar, which was in the more intense party side of town. It apparently didn’t pick up until 2am which was pretty amusing. After about 10 minutes of drinking our very strong drinks, we headed home.

Day 17 – Wednesday 4th of March – Ko Samui, Thailand to Patong Beach, Thailand

Today it was time to leave Ko Samui. I was a little sad about that, it has not been one of my favorite places, but it has grown on me and I can understand why people come here to just chill out. My flight was at 2:00pm, so there wasn’t much I could do with my morning, so I visited Ninja Crepes (I live there) and then returned to my Hotel to catch up on blogness and facebook.

I actually met a few more English who were on a Gap Year and here for a few days before the Full Moon Party in Ko Pangan. They were pretty friendly and we chatted until I needed to leave to the airport. The Samui Airport was amazing. It was all open air and landscaped and featured a whole street of shops with a little railway car that ferried people along it if they didn’t want to walk. When I got to the terminal there was free food on offer and.. free wifi! Woo! So I chilled out for two hours on the net, eating awesome food.

The flight was good, the plane was a newer propeller plane, the first I have been on so far. It was also pretty empty, so I had a double seat to myself. I got to Phuket airport and it was nothing special, except it was quite large. I collected my bags and headed for the Airport Express Bus, to go to Phuket Town before catching a local bus to Patong Beach. I waited for a good 30 minutes and then payed my 15 Baht fee. About 45 minutes we arrived in Phuket Town and I was pointed in the direction of the local bus terminal. After wondering around for 5 minutes a local, who was sitting out the front of her shop informed me that the last busses leave at 6… It was now 6:10. I was extremely pissed off.

She called me a private taxi, and by the time I got to Patong, I had paid about 25 baht less than just catching a taxi straight from the airport. Patong Beach is the nightlife centre of Phuket and where most of the Backpackers head. I had pre-booked at a place called Dive Den. The driver had no idea, so instead we spent 20 minutes driving around before I decided to get out and walk, then ask for directions. Eventually I got pointed in the right direction, and then offered a lift on a motorbike by a young local guy. I explained that I couldn’t pay him anything, but he insisted anyway.

It was an interesting experience, trying to stay on a bike whilst 20 kilos is strapped to you back, and 9 kilos is strapped to your front, but eventually we got there safe. I checked into the Dive Den which was very clean and pretty good. My room was on the roof and was a dorm, my first for Asia (excluding Singapore). I locked my stuff up, then headed to a local restaurant for some dinner. It seemed like I had three room mates, but I hadn’t seen any of them, and retired to bed. I didn’t wake up when they got home, at some silly hour of the morning. I can sleep through anything.

Phuket seems more manageable then Samui. It also has some stuff to do. Things are looking up. I hit a bit of a low in Samui, so hopefully I will feeel better about this soon.

Till next time! Geordie!

I had only paid for one night when I checked in, because I planned to move to a fan room. After one night I decided I couldn’t live without the aircon, and paid for another night. Breakfast wasn’t included which I think is pretty normal in Thailand, so I headed to a nondescript café in Khao San Road.

My day was to be taken up by a visit to the Grand Palace, a series of historic buildings, temples and halls that featured displays of Thai culture and heritage. On the way, I was informed by a kind and friendly stranger that the temple was closed and that I wouldn’t be able to get in anyway because I wasn’t dressed respectfully enough. This is the usual line of scammers that then try and convince you to see some other bogus temple and pay for a taxi ride there. I ran into an Italian guy who had been spun the same line, he was concerned that maybe we weren’t dressed respectfully enough. I suggested we find out from the actual place.

The Italian was on his own in Bangkok, on his way to Bali to live and work. He was originally from Rome, and was a professional photographer for fashion and events. He had had enough of the crazy city life and wanted a bit more of a relaxing setting, so off to Bali he went. He was an interesting guy with pretty flawless English. We decided to tour the Grand Palace together.

When we arrived we were quickly ushered into a reception area where we brought a ticket and had to put down a deposit on ‘loan clothes’. Half of what the friendly stranger had said was true, you do need to be wearing respectful clothing. For men, this meant long pants and at least short sleeves. For women, this meant no miniskirts and at least short sleeves. I was given an ultra groovy pair of green pants that reminded me of doctors scrubs to put over my shorts. We followed the masses to the entrance, where we surrendered our tickets, and entered the main temple area.

The whole complex was simply amazing. The number and range of different buildings was quite staggering. There was some construction work being undertaken, but it didn’t affect the viewing of the Temples. The whole area was bordered in an undercover walkway / gallery that hosted scenes of divine intervention, and were painted and detailed with gold. They were pretty impressive, and as the sun started to fall in the sky, the pictures would shine back at you.

The largest of the temples hosts the emerald Buddha. The story goes that this Buddha was made from clay, and one day  it’s owner saw a chipped off section, which revealed a the amazing emerald underneath. It was quite beautiful, and despite the heat, I spent a good amount of time just observing the coming and going of the visitors. You are required to take your shoes off before entering any temple, and you must not point your feet at the Buddha.

After a good hour or so, I moved onto the next section of the Grand Palace, which features halls and administrative buildings. There was an interesting museum on weapons used through the ages. It was quieter on this side and I spend some time sitting under a tree, to escape from the sweltering heat. It was close to closing time, so I headed back to the entrance with the Italian guy. I deposited my clothes and headed back to Khao San Road. On the way, I booked my VIP bus to Ko Samui. I will be heading there tomorrow at 8pm, and thank god, Bangkok is crazy town.

I decided that some Pad Thai was for dinner, and at 40 baht or AU$1.90, it was a bargain. I sat down at a place called Silk Bar in the middle of the strip, and ordered a Singha. It was nice to remove myself from the road and just watch it all happen. I was sitting far enough back in the bar to not get hassled by street vendors. After a bit, I started chatting with two English guys that were sitting behind me. We ordered another round and they chatted about their travels and their plans. I offered them advice in Melbourne, and they London. Whilst sitting with the guys, the music suddenly increased in volume and about 6-7 local guys started clearing some room on the road. A break dance session had begun. They were quite good, and we soon realised that the bar owner was giving them free drinks in return for making a nice crowd out the front of his bar.

I was pretty buggered from my day of wondering around, so I wished the boys farewell and headed off to bed. On my way back, you guessed it, I found a Bubble Tea street vendor, and for 10 Baht, or 45 Australian cents, I had a green tea with pearls. If you don’t know what bubble tea is, see my previous post on Ho Chi Minh City.

I am leaving Bangkok tomorrow. It is funny because I have wanted to leave since the minute I got to Kao San Road, but today I saw the culture, and it was beautiful and worthwhile. I think I will change my opinion to… I hate Kao San Road, although Bangkok isn’t getting a compliment just yet.

Day 13 – Saturday 28th of February – Bangkok, Thailand to Ko Samui, Thailand

I was up pretty early, as today I needed to check out, stash my bags somewhere and follow a suggested daytime itinerary from WikiTravel. It would take me to some lesser known Temples, along Bangkok’s river system, through the rich district and back again.

I started at a place called Wat Pho, the home of the reclining Buddha. It was about a 15-20 minute walk from Khao San Road, past the Grand Palace, where I had been the day before. On the way, a friendly stranger informed me that I was silly to have forgotten it was Saturday, and a national day of worship, so the Buddha was closed to foreigners. He kindly suggested I come and see the standing Buddha instead. NO THANKS! I cant actually believe anyone falls for those scams. It is written in every guide book and tourist website that you should only ever believe the people at the ticket booth of the attraction. Eventually, I got there.

It was pretty stunning, a gold statue of Buddha, over 60m long and 30m high at its highest point. The noise in the temple was the thing that amazed me the most. For good luck, you can buy a bag of coins, and then deposit them in a series of jars behind the Buddha, along the back wall. The constant noise of coins being dropped was really beautiful. It was this point that made me want a DAT location recorder. I tried to record the sound on my camera, but it was useless.

After spending some time in there, I had a wonder around the grounds to the smaller temples and buildings. My WikiTravel advice said to exit behind the main building, so I did, and headed through a local market, to the river ferry to get to the other side, to visit Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn. It was quite a sight as we motored across the busy river, but as I got closer, I realised how run down it was. It looked in desperate need of a coat of paint and maybe a high pressure hose. I circumnavigated the whole site, then crossed the river again via the ferry, to wait for the Chao Phraya River Express.

After a few minutes, this large boat appeared and did a very interesting docking job. It passed the pier, then revved very hard in reverse, banging the back of the boat against the pier. This was the moment you had to hurry and get on, or off. The boat was filled with a mix of locals and tourists. The guide on the boat would speak English in a thick accent, and make very dad like jokes, but he was quite amusing. I disembarked at ‘Tha Orient’, to view the rich district of hotels, including The Orient, judged as one of the best in the world. It was fun to sticky beak, and the doorman even tried to take my bag as I approached the front, I had to explain that I was just there to look at the shops… Yeah, like I can afford a Louis Vitton anything!

I ended up wondering up to the main road, turning left, and walking for about 15 minutes hoping to get to China Town. I got very lost and ended up heading back to the river to catch the ferry one stop. As it turned out it was a good 4-5 minutes on the ferry, so walking would most likely have killed me in the Bangkok heat. When I got there I found a mass amount of stores, mostly clothes and other products. There were also a number of large chain stores, like KFC and Subway, but instead I headed into a shopping centre and followed the signs to an authentic looking place. I ended up being the only white guy in the whole building which the locals thought was great, as did I. I ordered some Dim Sum, specifically BBQ Pork Buns and dumplings and they were super good.

After lunch, I needed to figure out a better way to get back to Khao San Road, and so I set out in search for the bus terminal. I think I walked around for about an hour in the sun, before plonking myself down at a bus stop in frustration. Whilst sitting at the bus stop, I realised that Red Bus 15 ran through here, and that it was this bus I needed to take. They are great busses, with always open windows and plenty of locals with their arms out the sides. I rode the bus until the conductor told me to get off and pointed in a general direction.

I headed back to the Hotel to have a bit of a read up on Ko Samui and possible waste some time before it was time to go. I ended up chatting to a German girl who was leaving for Australia in the evening. She hadn’t checked out yet, and offered me her shower before I left. I agreed enthusiastically, not looking forward to my 16 hour traveling journey ahead of me. I offered to buy her dinner as a repayment, because due to her late checkout, she had incurred a cost of another nights stay. She agreed, and so we ate at the vegetarian place next door. She spoke only broken English, and at times it was quite amusing to see her trying to think of the words, or struggling to understand what I had just said. She was hoping to get work in Australia, without a work visa. I suggested fruit picking and wished her luck.

My then, it was time to go, so I walked her to the Airport Express bus, and then went to wait at the Travel Agents for my bus. I was collected by a guy who already had about 3-4 people in tow. We then proceeded to walk to about 5-6 different spots and pick people up, eventually ending up right near my hotel, which I was not impressed about. Eventually, after getting tickets from another travel agent, we boarded the very cool bus and were on our way. The bus was quite cool, with seats that reclined a very long way, and thick curtains to block out the street lights. It was called a VIP bus.

This is where my journey begins, you will have to keep reading into tomorrow to find out the horrors experienced on the journey.

Photos from Ho Chi Minh City

Once again, my flight was quite early, so Alex, Caitlin and I took a private taxi, organized by the Hotel to Da Nang Airport, about 45 minutes from Hoi An. We checked in without any problems, and quickly found that the airport had very little food, only Pringles and soft drinks. It was a very strange place; all the seats faced forward, they several LCD screens playing advert loops, and snippets of random Disney Pixar movies, and no food available, apart from Pringles, water and soft drink. We decided it was Pringles, and water for breakfast.

The flight was okay by Jetstar pacific standards. The plane was an old Boeing 737 and didn’t feel like it was going to fall apart. I had found out from Alex and Caitlin that Jetstar had brought the local carrier, Pacific Airlines, and had re-livered the old planes, with the intention to replace them with older of Jetstar Australia’s fleet, so when you fly Jetstar Pacific, its kind of pot luck as to how safe the plane is.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh, and even though we had all been there before, it took us surprising amount of time to see anything we recognized. We hadn’t booked accommodation and instead headed for the Backpacker district. After inspecting about 3-4 places, we decided to go with a hotel that was highly recommended online, An An 2 Hotel. We checked in, and had a bit of a chillout for most of the morning. I took the opportunity to nurse my sever sunburn, and lie on my stomach.

At about 1, we decided to have a look around the Benh Tanh Markets, a large market complex that houses just about anything you want / need. Despite being a visitor before in Ho Chi Minh City, I was still taken aback by the organized chaos that is the city traffic. I am a veteran of Vietnam road crossings, but it still took an adjustment of the nerves. Caitlin and Alex did some last minute present buying, and I set out to find a long sleeved shirt, to prevent anymore damage to my sunburn. On the way back to the hotel, I was quite amused by a dance / exersize session going on in the park across from the markets, see the picture below.

Thanks to the free WiFi, I was able to have a Skype conversation with the family back home. It was good to get the updates and hear about Bridget’s drunken O Week. I tried to catch up on my blog writing, but was unsuccessful, due to the amazing amount of time you can waste whilst on the net. If anyone would like to add me on skype, my username is Geordie-barker. Remember that there is a 4 hour time difference between Australia and where I am at, so when it is 6pm in Aus, its 2pm here, so you may find that I am not always online when you are.

We headed back to the markets to grab some dinner. The streets surrounding the markets transform once peak hour has dispersed, and market stalls, marquees and kitchens suddenly take up the road space. There is a great deal of good, cheap local food on offer, and even cheaper beer, but alas it is sometime not always cold as Caitlin found out. I experienced Bun, a mix of meats (shrimp, beef, pork and chicken) with noodles and a gravy style sauce.

I really do love Vietnam; its hectic traffic, its tasty food, cheap beer, smiling locals and unique bad smells. Its mix of architecture and history makes it a varying landscape. Looking at Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, you could swear they were in different countries. There is something that makes Vietnam seem more homely, and inviting. For me, time spent in the heart of Footscray and Collingwood has sort of prepared me for it, but I think there is one main difference between Vietnam other Asian tourist destinations. It is the concentration of tourists. You always see westerners, but you never feel like you are part of the tourist trail. There are western tourist areas, but you can walk two block and be surrounded by the locals. I like that in a destination, because I don’t visit other countries to see the sights, I visit to see the culture.

Till next time!

Day 9 – Tuesday 24th of February – An An 2 Hotel – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Alex and Caitlin were leaving on a flight in the late afternoon. They were headed to Singapore before returning home. I joined them for some last minute shopping in and around the tourist district, then saw them off from the Hotel. After they had left, I decided it was a perfect time for some people watching and a bit of alone time. I headed towards the Ben Tanh markets, to where I had spotted a Bubble Tea store.

Now for those of you not in the know, Bubble Tea is an Asian phenomenon, originally created in Taiwan, and quickly migrating to New York City and around the world. It involves the creation of a usually chilled drink from a mixture of different syrups and teas, always chilled and usually mixed or crushed with ice. It also includes the addition of a series of jelly style mixers, the most popular of which is Pearls. Pearls are little marble sized black balls of firm jelly, that are relatively tasteless and very chewy. Each drink is served in a plastic cup and sealed by a special machine with a plastic film over the top, to make it airtight. The straws used are fat, just big enough to allow you to suck up the pearls or other jellies. To get the cup open, the straw has a slightly slanted tip, and with a quick stabbing motion, you break the straw through the film and into the cup. This ensures that the cup doesn’t spill its contents everywhere. There are three main types of Bubble Tea, Crushed Ice, Blended Ice, and Red or Green Tea. My usual favorites are Mango Curshed Ice, Honeydew Red Tea, and Peach Blended Ice, all with pearls.

Right, now you have been worded up about Bubble Tea, I can continue. The staff in the store found it very amusing that I would want, let alone know what Bubble Tea was. They took a photo of me, and I of them. I wondered down to the park bordering the marketplace round about and settled in, watching the world go by. It was school finishing time, and as such, the street was filled with kids in uniforms and parents on bikes picking them up. The school uniform in Vietnam is quite interesting. It is a traditional white dress, ankle length usually with long sleeves. Although it is designed to be conservative, the material is quite thin, and the dress features a slit up to the hip on one side.

I had to head back to the Hotel as I was meeting Hai Anh, an old Uni High friend to go to dinner with her and her fiancé. Hai Anh lived in Australia from about the middle of Primary School, as her mum was lecturing at a University in Melbourne. She was at Uni High until the end of year 8, when she moved back to Vietnam where she has lived since. I had got into contact with her through the wonders of Facebook, and she had urged me to let her know when I was in town.

She arrived at about 8, with her fiancé Dùng and we headed to a local place to have some good Eastern food. They both ordered a number of things and I promised that I was up for anything. There wasn’t anything amazingly weird, except snails, which I tried and quite liked. The texture is quite slimy, but the sauce that accompanies them is awesome. They taste a bit like chicken! It was great to catch up and share the info on what people were up to and how things had changed at the school. She also filled me in on what she was up to in Vietnam. I talked about my trip so far and how I loved the local food, especially the spring rolls. Dùng cottoned on, and ordered me a plate which was so nice. He is really friendly and always smiling. They are getting married in August and are both really happy. It was lovely to meet him and see them together.

Hai Anh works as a teacher at an international school and is also studying at Uni to become a teacher, but due to it being a Wednesday, she had work at 7am the next morning, so we called it an evening and she promised to see me before I left. I decided the night was still young and headed out to see what was happening and perhaps have one more beer. I was coerced into the local tourist hang out, Go2, by streetside promoters, “Happy Hour all night”. On my way to the rooftop bar, I ran into the two boys from Sydney that I had met at the Beach Party in Hoi An. It was pretty amusing, small world huh? They convinced me to follow them to their next port of call Rendezvous Bar, on the next corner.

There I also met with a guy from Adelaide, who was also at the Beach Party. I had found a photo of him and I, alongside some very attractive Norweigen girls from the night of the Beach Party. Rendezvous was pretty scummy and we were particularly amused by the three local girls sitting at the bar, looking bored. The three Australians were on a tour, and their local tour guide was along for the session with them. He informed us that the girls there, were called Chickens… or hookers. We left pretty quickly, but on the way out ran into a bunch of Canadian girls, and asked where they were headed. They didn’t really know, but there were some murmurs of a club called Apocalypse Now. After a random argument, we all pilled into two cabs and headed that way.

Although quite inappropriately named, Apocalypse Now looked okay from the outside, it was only once we were inside that we realized what kind of an establishment we were in. The beers started in price at 50,000 VND ($4.80AU), for 333 or Tiger in a 300ml can. The music was commercial Top 40, and it was loud. We danced for a while and admittedly the music was quite good. It was Yun, the local guide who raised the alarm for us, he leaned over and said, ‘many, many chickens here’. Then upon closer inspection, the whole place was filled with middle aged white men, with small Vietnamese girls under their arms. After the music got crappy, we departed, and decided to call it a night. The boys were off to Cambodia in the morning, and needed their 3 hours sleep. I headed back to my hotel, avoiding the offers of Marijuana and pretty girls from shady motorbike riding men.

Day 10 – Wednesday 25th of February – Orient Hotel – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I woke up in the morning to my phone ringing in my room. I had been called the day before by some dude in room 610 wanting to make an international call, so I chose to ignore it. It was when it rang a second time that I picked it up. It was reception, informing me that they were full and that I would need to leave by 12. It was 11:45, I told them that that wasn’t possible and I would be down as soon as possible. I was a little dehydrated but not massively hung over. I reluctantly packed by bags and headed for the Orient Hotel, just on the next corner, ‘same same’ was the description from the An An Receptionist.

Hai Anh had mentioned that I should check out this temple about 30km out of town, so I decided to have a crack. I asked the Hotel staff and they told me it wasn’t possible to get there unless I took a taxi. I want too keen on paying US$50 to get there, so I headed for the bus station. I asked at a few counters, until eventually a lady wrote a bus number on a card for me, and so I joined the locals and waited. I waited for about an hour with no 616 bus in sight, eventually one arrived, with an English speaking driver who informed me that he was the last run out there and that I would get about 20 minutes there after sitting on the bus for over an hour each way. I declined and headed out for some more people watching.

I grabbed another Honeydew Milk Tea Bubble Cup, and positioned myself on the corner of the large round about in front of the markets. I took photos for about an hour. I got some amazing shots of the locals just riding by. They seemed to be interested in me taking photos of the traffic and a lot of them looked at me and smiled as they passed. I even got a few ‘Yo’s and ‘Hello’s from a few of the younger riders. I am hoping to make a collection of these shots available as I think they capture some of the character of the Vietnamese people.

I ended up spending most of the afternoon just wandering around. I some dinner at the local Pho 24, a famous chain of restaurants serving the Pho Vietnamese Noodle Soup as I felt the need for some local cuisine on my last day in Vietnam. On my way back to the Hostel, I ran into a girl I had met in Hanoi. She had been part of a little cohort of 8 or so that experienced Pho for the first time. She was drinking with a large group she had met on the train and invited me to join them. I ended up chatting to a few people, including a couple from Perth and a guy from the UK. I wasn’t in the party mood, as we had had a pretty big one the night before, so I retired to my new hotel for some rest.

I leave Vietnam tomorrow to head to Bangkok, Thailand. I will miss Vietnam, but I am looking forward to some nice sunny beaches and good Thai food. Hope everyone is well, please feel free to email me any news, no matter how small.

Cheers,
Geordie

Day 11 – Thursday 26th of February – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Bangkok, Thailand

Hai Anh rang me in the morning and asked whether I had left yet. She was skipping Uni, and wanted to know if I wanted to do lunch. I agreed excitedly and went about checking out of my hotel.

She picked me up on her bike, and we headed out of town, riding for about fifteen minutes. Riding on the back of the bike was awesome fun. I had really wanted to hire a bike in Hoi An, but unfortunately due to me not having a motorcycle license in Australia, my travel insurance wouldn’t cover any damages. We were heading for the rich district of town, where there were a number of large compounds housing expensive houses, and where the rich kids owned apartments and ate at the fancy cafes. Hai Anh knew of a really good Chinese restaurant, and so we stopped there for lunch. We got too much food as usual and Hai Anh got me to try chickens feet. They didn’t taste too bad, but it is mostly skin and you eat it off the bones of the feet. I was okay with it, but it wont be making my top ten.

Once again, we had no shortage of topics to catch up on, and most of the meal was spent talking. It was really good to see her again, and it made me wish I had stayed in more contact over the years. After lunch we headed further into the rich district and she showed me her uncles house, worth a massive amount of money, in a large compound. The streets were pretty empty and very wide, so she asked me if I wanted to drive. Now this was a major tick box for me, drive a motorbike in Asia. It was automatic, so quite easy to ride and after a few meters, I had the hang of it. I even mastered the art of getting over the speed bumps. I only had limited time, so we headed for a juice place before heading back to my Hotel. I obviously didn’t ride back into town, but I secretly wish I had the skills to do so.

I got a meter taxi to the airport after refusing several before it. I was hassled by the check in lady as my bag was 22.80kg. She told me that she would give me a 1kg leeway, so I had to remove 800g. I struggled and ended up throwing out my shampoo and conditioner. I passed immigration and headed to the food and shop level, above the gate lounges, which had a view of the runway. There I ran into one of the English guys I had been chatting to the night before. As it turned out he was on the same flight, but on his way home. It’s funny how you manage to meet so many travelers and then run into them by accident again. I suppose you mostly follow the same routes, so its bound to happen.

I arrived in Bangkok and went to catch the Airport Express Bus to Kao San Road (pronounced Cow San Road), the famous backpacker district of Bangkok. It was pretty good, and the aircon was so cold I had to put my jumper on. It took 45 minutes, and then we rounded a corner and passed probably the most crazy thing I have seen, so far on this trip. It was three city blocks of street stalls, shops, bars, cafes and westerners. I had tried to book accommodation online, but it was all quite expensive, and the general advice was to rock up and find accommodation then.

I was surprised at how much hotter it was than Vietnam. It could have been the humidity, but it felt like I was having a shower in my clothes. I checked out 4-5 places, wondering the length of Kao San Road several times. Most of the places I found were expensive, and not very appealing. Eventually, after asking at one place, I was led to another described as ‘same same’. It was called At Home Guesthouse and Restaurant, and I got an aircon room for 450 Thai Baht a night, which is around AU$19. It was about average for a room with aircon in Bangkok. It wasn’t very nice, put simply it was a tiled room, with just enough room for a double bed and a sidetable, and an ensuite at the side.

After locking up my bags, I headed out for some food, and to explore Kao San Road. I hated what I found. There were so many people, and it was noisy and smelly and massively full on. I ate a nice chicken and cashews and drank a San Miguel beer, and headed for bed.

I plan to see some sights tomorrow, but if my feeling don’t change I am getting out of here as soon as possible. Down to Ko Samui or Ko Pangan, the islands in the Gulf of Thailand. There is something about Bangkok that doesn’t sit right with me, it is no more busy, or smelly, or hectic than Vietnam, but I think its because its so touristy and westernized.

Photos from Hoi An, Vietnam

Once again, I was up at the crack of dawn, to catch an early flight. I had organised with the Hotel to book a private taxi for 6:30. It was waiting when I got downstairs. The man couldn’t speak any English, so most of the trip was done in silence. He also wasn’t in much of  a hurry, driving through Hanoi’s deserted streets at about twenty kilometres an hour. We eventually got to the airport, I checked in, cleared security and went to grab some breakfast. The only food available was essentially ‘instant pho’, which I suppose is the two minute noodles of Vietnam.

Flight was pretty uneventful, apart from entertaining a baby in the row across, with one of my koala toys, which I ended up giving to her. The airport was pretty small, and had no stores, I literally walked in one side of the room, got my bag, and walked out the other. I ran into a red head English girl, who I had had Pho with in Hanoi. She was on her way to the other side of Hoi An, so we agreed we would probably run into each other there. Outside the terminal there was a man waiting, with a sign reading ‘Alex Henderson, as Alex had booked the Hotel. He was friendly and spoke to me a lot in his broken English, pointing out sights along the way.

The drive was about 40 minutes, and soon enough, we were at the Green Fields Hotel, a large establishment, with a pool, free wifi, and free cocktails for an hour each evening. My room was very big, and had the usual TV, fridge and such. Alex and Caitlin weren’t due to arrive until around midday, so I settled in, catching up on my blog posts. The wifi in my room was sketchy, so I headed to the reception area, and after about 15 minutes, ran into Alex and Caitlin. It was awesome to see them, although they seemed a little flustered. As it turned out, there was no private taxi at the railway station to pick them up. We said our hellos and headed out to get some food.

It was really nice to see someone I knew, even though it had only been 5 days. It is quite strange traveling alone, whilst being very liberating. You have experiences and meet people that you simply wouldn’t if you were traveling in a group or as a couple. We caught up, sharing stories, and catching up on the news, including the bushfires, which was quite sobering. Caitlin had been getting up to date reports from her mum, so there wasn’t much I told them that they didn’t already know.

We lounged around for the rest of the afternoon, eventually heading into town to get some food. We ended up at a riverside restaurant, which supports a local charity, The Blue Dragon Foundation. It assists local street children, allowing them a decent education, through support of their families. The meal was good, as most food in Hoi An was, and we got chatting with a local man called Nam, who as it turned out had been helped by this charity, and now owned a shoe store in Hoi An, which he runs with his wife. His English was top notch and he was a really lovely guy. We got a photo with him, and promised to drop by and visit his shop.

We headed out to a bar that was recommended in my travel guide (www.wikitravel.com), it was called ‘Before & Now’. It was amazingly well decked out with awesome artwork on the walls and some cool light fittings. The beer was slightly more expensive than normal, but the place was full of young westerners, so that was to be expected. We were planning a countdown to midnight, as it was Caitlin’s birthday, when we were approached by an English girl handing out fliers. She was promoting a beach party that was run by the same owner as Before & Now. She promised Caitlin a birthday bucket, and we were sold. So at eleven thirty, we rolled out the front and were led to a minivan. I still cant believe this, and I have photos to prove it, we managed to fit 27 half drunk western tourists in the van. Once we were in like sardines, we set off to the beach resort, complete with pounding dance music and people taking myspace-esk shots by sticking their cameras out the window and pointing them back into the van.

We arrived and were greeted with a candle lined driveway. The prices were a little inflated, but the setting was quite nice, so we didn’t mind. We met two guys from Sydney and a guy from Adelaide, who were on a tour. We were all a little fixated on a couple of Danish girls who had also decided to come to the party, and as such, see the photo below. The beach party was complete with pounding music, and a lot a quite inebriated backpackers. We counted down to midnight and sang Caitlin happy birthday. Much of the rest of the evening will remain under wraps, not because it was controversial, just a normal beach party in South East Asia. I arrived back at the Hotel at about 4am, with a very drunk girl from Adelaide, a quite cool Chinese Canadian girl and three other randoms. We all agreed we would share the pain of our hangovers together tomorrow.

I am now starting to get into the traveling thing. It takes a bit of adjustment to get the currency conversion right, and also your firm but pleasant denial of goods and services from street sellers, including very persistent taxi drivers. I have had to start tightening my belt, as I have been spending way above my budget. I hope everyone at home is safe and well, and I hope you are all enjoying my blog.

Cheers,
Geordie

Day 5 – Friday 20th of February – Green Fields Hotel – Hoi An, Vietnam

We slept in, as it was Caitlin’s birthday, and we had had a pretty epic night, with the beach party and such. Lunch / breakfast was at the same place, Green Moss Café. We then headed into town to have a look around. Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage listed town, and as such, all of the building in the old quarter are original, drawing on French and Chinese influences, both of which have occupied Vietnam at one time or another.

We stumbled upon a newer section of the old town, where believe it or not, the waterfront precinct was landscaped and designed, with sculptures and large street lamps. This was unusual for Vietnam, as civil works is not one of their strong suits. As it turned out, Hoi An have launched a lantern festival in January of each year, and we missed it by about 2 weeks. The lanterns were still hung around, including several barges in the middle of the river with various types of lanterns, including a very impressive flower. Whist we were sitting there, school finished, and we were surrounded by hundreds of school children, including one naughty little boy who was trying to reel in the large flower lantern barges by pulling on the power cord. We headed back to the Hotel, for a swim and a relax.

When dinner time rolled around, Caitlin wasn’t feeling very well, so I headed out for some food on my own. I walked right into the old town, and sat down at a large restaurant with a few westerners and a few locals in the front. Once again the meal was very good, although this time, I got to chat to the guy who cooked it whilst I ate. He had average English, but spoke to me about how he had studied in Hanoi, and that he had a friend in Sydney. He was quite a friendly guy, and kept me company for the duration of the meal. At the end, he cleared my plate and was gone. There was a couple at the table in front, and the guy asked me for a lighter, I said I didn’t have one, and then he asked where I was from in Melbourne. Turned out he was from Melbourne too, somewhere out towards Oakley. They were traveling South to North, so we shared a few tips. After a good chat, I headed back to the Hotel.

On the way back, there were a number of stores still open, which I later found out is because usually the family lives out the back, so they just hang at the front of the store anyway. On the way, I took a few long exposure shots of a few intersections and shop fronts which are now up on Flickr. When I got close to my hotel, there was a family at a street stall. They had a young boy, of not more than five or six, who showed some interest in my camera, which I had around my neck. I took a photo of him, and then showed him on the screen. He was pretty entertained, and so I passed the camera to him, and showed him how to take a photo of me, which he found even more amusing. He then took the camera from me, and took a photo of his dad and his mum, which he showed them proudly. I showed him some of my other photos, then said my goodbyes. His dad reminded me that if I needed a bike or a motorbike, I should come and see him. I agreed and waved goodbye.

I love the Vietnamese, they are so friendly and always smiling. They are always willing to help you out, then sell you something, but they always help you first. I am looking forward to returning to Ho Chi Minh, and also visiting an old High School friend, Hai An.

Till next time…

Geordie

Day 6 – Saturday 21st of February – Green Fields Hotel – Hoi An, Vietnam

Due to us still recovering from our beach party experience, we did very little today. We returned to our usual lunchtime spot, but that was about it for the daytime.

In the evening, we decided to head to a restaurant where Caitlin and Alex had done a cooking class last time they were in Vietnam. It was called the Red Bridge Restaurant and Cooking School, and was about 5km out of town. We had to make a reservation with them through our hotel, and lucky we did, because after our 5 minute taxi ride, we were the only people in the whole place. As it turned out, they had stayed open specially for us.

The setting was magnificent, alongside the river whilst the sun was setting. The restaurant was open air and had great furniture and lighting. There were frogs hopping about at the bottom of the stairs in and out of the light, provided by lanterns hanging above giant water filled pots. We all decided to splash out and ordered cocktails. The food was probably the best I have had on my trip so far. It was fresh and tasty, and quite memorable. I had a seafood noodle dish and shared some vegetable spring rolls.

After our meal, we thanked the staff profusely, and ordered a taxi back into town. We were headed for a place called the Cargo Club, which was a restaurant that served some of the best food in Hoi An. This is because they import most of their produce. Meat from Australia and New Zealand, and some other stuff from other places that I didn’t really care to remember. They had a patisserie attached to the side, hosting a number of ridiculously good looking cakes, pastries and sweets. Alex and I got a slice of chocolate cheesecake, whilst Caitlin stuck with a lemon tart.

We almost needed to be rolled on our sides back to the Hotel, but once again, Hoi An impresses with awesome food.

Day 7 – Sunday 22nd of February – Green Fields Hotel – Hoi An, Vietnam

We decided today that we would head to the beach for the morning and then have a bit of a nice meal for our last night in Hoi An, and my second last night with Caitlin and Alex. We were going to hire automatic motorbikes, which I was amazingly down for, but unfortunately my travel insurance only covers a vehicle I have a license for in Australia… BORING! So we settled with normal bikes.

It was about three or four kilometers from our hotel, so we set out, battling with the traffic, which is not as crazy as Hanoi, but still very unsettling. We arrived in one piece and parked our bikes at the quite shifty bike storage place, that of course costs money. The beach was quite nice, although it had a very steep drop into the water and was a long shore trough, see I did learn something from Lifesaving at Anglesea. This meant that you would be dropped into a big hole as soon as you got in, then you could walk out and stand in water up to your waist or knees.

We lay on the sand for a bit, getting hassled by ‘Lu Lu Number One’ and her cohort, essentially ladies that wonder the beach and annoy you until you buy something. We collected our bikes from the storage and headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, to cool off, then some lunch.

At lunch, I noticed that my hands and arms were quite red and irritated. I put it down to heat stroke and went back to my meal. By the time we got back to the Hotel, I was sure that I had put on olive oil, not sunscreen, my back, shoulders, arms, hands, and left foot (go figure) were extremely hot and tomato red. I spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing cooling gel and moisturizer into my skin and praying it would be okay in the morning.

We headed out for last hurrah, to the Cargo Club, which had great western food. We all ordered Lasagna, which was funny, but it was so good! I have refrained from eating western food, whilst I am surrounded by great local food. After our meal, I skipped the deserts, but Caiti and Alex indulged, and we headed home.

Off to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) tomorrow, it is my last night with Caiti and Alex

Day 1 – Sunday 15th of February – Footprints Hostel – Singapore, Singapore

So as per my previous post, I have successfully left the country, after 2 delays and a great deal of frustration. I flew out at 11:20 on Singapore Airlines, and arrived in Singapore at 4:00pm local time. I was one of the last off the aircraft, due to a great conversation with the cabin crew, regarding my apparently famous seated neighbor.

Singapore Airport was really nice. I flew into Terminal 3 of 3 (plus a budget terminal), which also featured the MRL Train to the city. After clearing Immigration, collecting my bags, and clearing pretty lax customs, I changed into shorts, organised my bags, and headed for the train station. There was a lovely customer service lady there, who not only gave me a city map, but also brilliant directions, and even gave me some smaller notes to use to buy a ticket. The train was perfectly on time, amazingly clean, and very quick. We seemed to travel underground for about 3 minutes before actually clearing the airport grounds, which gives you some indication of how big the airport is. I changed trains at Tanah Merah to Platform B, and then again at Outram Park to the North East Line. I was heading for Little India, and my hostel Footprints. It was about a 4 block walk from the station, which in the 37 degree heat / 75% humidity, was a challenge. I checked in, locked up my bags, made my bed, and jumped on the free WiFi. Funnily enough, my parents were on the computer, so I had a good conversation with them, which was pretty funny considering I had seen them that morning. I also responded to the several Facebook notifications.

Whilst sitting on my computer, I got chatting to three English boys, who had been in Singapore for a few days, arriving from India. They were talking about this tower they had been to, that had a ‘brilliant’ view of the city, but not so brilliant beer prices. They were heading there to take in the view, drink one expensive beer, then grab some food. They quite nicely invited me to come along, so I packed up my computer, changed my shirt and we headed out. It was a decent walk, probably about 15 minutes. The city is quite a conflict of the senses, as it has the heat, feel and smells of asia, but is extremely clean and very modern. The walk was great fun, taking in the large shopping complexes, the busy streets, and street eateries. We arrived at the tower, one of the tallest in the city, and proceeded up to the top two floors, where the bar “Equinox” was situated. Luckily, it was ‘happy hour’ and so out beers only set us back SNG$9, which is roughly the same in Australian Dollars. The view was something else. The city has so many high rise buildings, featuring apartments, offices, shopping complexes, and carparks. There was also a great view of the observation wheel, and harbour.

After we had been asked four or five times whether we wanted any more drinks, we bailed, but not before seeing the smoking room. It was quite literally that, a room, where you can smoke, that has a seriously large aircon system that blows the smoke outside. We headed back down the tower, and went to get some food. The hostel was about a 15 minute walk from the tower and we ended up almost the whole way back there, chatting on the way. They are all 21 to 22, and have headed away for about 6 months because they couldn’t get work at home. We had a good laugh at the financial crisis, and talked about comparisons between Australia and England. Eventually, we found a street side shop, and grabbed a menu. The waiter was pretty cool about us being there and pointed us in the right direction with a menu choice. We all ended up getting Chicken Wonton Noodles. It was pretty damn good, and we all agreed that this was a pretty authentic experience.

We headed back to the hostel and by that stage it was 11:15, so we all pretty much retired to bed. So here I am, sitting in bed, on the free Wifi in my hostel! I am planning out what to do tomorrow, and got a great email of tips from Elina, a 2nd year at VCA, who is from Singapore. She even gave me her mums number if I got in trouble!

Anyway, until tomorrow! Geordie

Day 2 – Monday 16th of February – Footprints Hostel – Singapore, Singapore

I was up pretty early, considering my quite late bedtime the night before. The breakfast at the hostel was basic, bread & spreads, but okay. I set out with a great deal of pointers from a VCA 2nd year student, Elina, who is from Singapore. My list of things to do, would take me across the various sectors of the city and involve a great deal of walking an swapping trains.

I began by heading to Sim Lim Square, a nearby shopping complex that specialises in IT products. It was quite amazing, 7 floors of cameras, computers, accessories, mobile phones and more. They even had a food court in the basement. It is renowned for being the place to bargain for a good deal, but as such many shops have shop keepers that sit at the front of the store and try to coerce you in. As I was carrying my Digital SLR, I had many offers of lenses, spare batteries and memory cards. It was pretty daunting, and I did have a quick browse of the camera lenses, but as I packed so well, I didn’t really need anything, so I headed to Bugis Station, to catch the MRL to my next stop. On the way, I spotted a great advert, see here.

The MRT is amazing, and I found that the longest I waited was 3-4 minutes. The stations are all airconditioned as are the trains, and a good respite from the heat and humidity. My next stop was Esplanade, and Theatres on the Bay. It was a short walk from the station, and an underground mall was available, but instead I chose to walk at street level to get my bearings. On my way, I spotted a very large building, which turned out to be where I had been the night before, New Asia Bar. I arrived at the Esplanade, and walked into the main theatre foyer. It was stocked with a seriously large collection of lighting fixtures, for the VCA people reading, the foyer had more lights than VCA AV Store. It also hosted a great temporary sculpture by a local artist, made out of dried tree roots and branches, it was titled “Calligraphy”.

As with all things in Singapore, there was a mall attached to the back, so I wondered through, and found a great little arts space called Jendela, which was displaying an artists work, with free admission. There is a photo f the space on my Flickr, it was quite cool, I wouldn’t mind a cool party in there. After navigating past all the shops, I headed out the back, past Harry’s Bar, a well represented Singapore franchise. At the rear of the building they had an amphitheater with believe it or not (sound nerd alert) a D&B Sound System that was amazingly too large for the space. It would most likely be able to de-clothe the audience members, and certainly remove them of their hearing. After my tech nerding had finished, I took a few photos of me by the water, with the assistance of the nearby brick wall. Across the other side of the bay, they are building 2 new casinos, as part of Singapore’s plan to increase entertainment in the city.

I perched myself next to the water, and got a coke from the local street vendor. After a few minutes, I was greeted by a elderly man and asked where I was from. He kept chatting to me, and sat on a seat next to me. At first I was suspicious of him, thinking he was either going to scam me, or try to sell me something, but in the end it seemed like he just wanted someone to listen to him. His said his name was Frank, and showed me his elderly citizens card. We chatted about the fires in Victoria, the new developments in Singapore, the city and it’s different parts, and he took my map and a pen and highlighted the places he thought I needed to see. After about ten or fifteen minutes, we were interrupted by a few large crashes of thunder and significant lightning, then within 3 minutes, it was raining. Frank and I retreated into the Theatres building, where he informed me that he was heading to the Library on the bottom level, to take a nap in a comfortable chair. He grabbed my map again and showed me a place to get lunch, then shook my hand and he was off.

After the rain had stopped (about 10 minutes) I decided to take Frank’s advice, so I headed along the river, past the old Victoria Theatre, The Parliament Building and headed towards Boat Quay. I headed past that to a place called DK Eating House. I selected Dumpling Noodle, for $3SG (about $3.10 AUD) and settled in to watch the locals go about their business. I also couldn’t resist getting a pork bun for a semi desert. Once full, I walked back across the river and into the city, to yet another mall, called Funan Digital Life. Like Sim Lim, Funan Digital Life was an IT mall, except Funan was more high end. It was much like Sim Lim, except it had more brand name store, like a whole store dedicated to Case Logic cases. It also featured a Harvey Norman, which I visited out of respect to the Australian Franchise. I had a great giggle at a 3-4 year old boy, playing on an interactive mat, that had a sensor that allowed you to play soccer, or disturb fish in pond. Once again, I resisted the urge to buy something technical that I didn’t really need, and headed back towards the river, to check out the number one night spot in Singapore… In the day!

Clarke Quay was a collection of restored buildings and new riverside platforms that featured some of the ‘best’ nightspots in Singapore. I wandered around for a bit, looking at the very overpriced menus and taking photos of the amazing roof that they have constructed over the whole precienct. As it was a nightspot, and it was the day, there wasn’t much going on, apart from a few drunk Americans, sitting in the Hooters bar and making suggestive yelps at the staff. I moved on from there pretty quickly to the Clarke Quay MRL Station, to see Orchard Rd, the centre of shopping in Singapore. As usual, the MRL was amazingly efficient, and I arrived in no time. The whole strip was quite commercial, and as I couldn’t afford to buy anything, I was a little disinterested. I popped into the Singapore Tourist Information Centre, and asked about the Zoo, the lady there was convinced she had served me before, and was in for a chat. Do I attract these people??? I got out of there, and decided to call it a day, I had a 7am flight the next day, and needed some rest. On my way back to the Hostel, Rafi, a VCA Production Alumni and local Singaporian messaged me and asked if I wanted to meet up for dinner and a beer. I was very much up for it, and so I made a beeline for the Hostel. I was to meet him at 7:30 in the foyer of the Theatres on the Bay.

I once again caught the very efficient MRT, and met up with Rafi in the foyer. I jazz duo were playing to a small audience, but we headed out to grab some food. I hadn’t walked north past the theatres building in the day and was surprised when Rafi headed left, to reveal a series of authentic food stalls. Rafi asked about my food preferences, and I said I was up for anything, so he ordered us a selection. We had satay beef, asian greens, carrot cake, which contains no carrot, and singray. Rafi beat me to the obvious stingray joke about doing my civic duty, and we started to eat. I loved everything on the table, and the our conversation went quiet whilst we indulged in some seriously awesome food. Rafi is working at an arts school at the top of the island as the theatre manager. He originally studied with me at VCA and we designed a show together, Blind Giant Dancing, directed by Bruce Miles. Toward the end of the meal, Rafi suggested I try a sugarcane juice, which I went to get. It was amazingly good, very sweet and full of sugar, but had a kind of woody taste that made it a perfect desert. Once we felt suitably fat, we headed back to the Theatres building to grab a beer at Harry’s. I felt it was customary to try the Harry’s beer, which wasn’t too bad, and much like a Heineken. Rafi had to be at work the next day, and I had my 7am flight, so we called it a night after a good catch up.

I really enjoyed my time in Singapore, despite everyone telling me that it’s just a giant shopping mall. I was really lucky to find such a good hostel, and also to be introduced to good food by a local. It’s off to Hanoi in Vietnam next, so I am expecting to have to adjust a little from the very civilized and westernized Singapore.

Till next time,