I’m back in Bangkok. Several people have said “You just can’t get enough of that place” or “You need your Bangkok fix every now and then hey”.
Bangkok is my home away from home. My base in Asia. I have friends here. Places I can stay. I know the city reasonably well. I can order food, get around, get online, etc. If I transit through Asia, I typically stop in Bangkok.
To keep the pics flowing, here’s the view from the 17th floor where I’m staying.
Ross and I set off in the eco camper van…
We left Sydney heading north. Our first night we pulled off the road onto a track through a forest and camped for the night.
Second day we made it to Nambucca Heads and awoke to this view.
As my two travelling companions are both non-drivers, it was agreed that I would drive and they would cook. So, inspired by this view, Ross whipped up a storm on the stove on our second morning.
We offered Fio a cup of tea, and in return she gave us the low down on the local area, and took this snap of us enjoying our first cooked meal on the trip.
On Tuesday (third day) we made it to Pottsville to visit Sharyn and Dennis. Sharyn is a long-standing friend of my mum’s. It was great to finally meet her after having met her kids and heard so much about her. When we arrived there was a freshly baked chicken pie in the kitchen of which we made short work! 
Here’s Sharyn on the phone in her kitchen.
After staying overnight at Sharyn’s (thanks again Sharyn) we drove to Brisbane to pick up our third hombre. On the way we met some tree girls. Good times.
Then we collected Ahmed from the airport.
After picking up Ahmed we were heading north to meet Fergus and Trijntje in Maleny. We got pretty close and pulled off the road to find somewhere to camp for the night. Eventually we pulled off the road and stopped. We were awoken to the sound of something banging against the van…
Once our bedmates were chased away, we realised we’d chosen a splendid spot to camp.
After a very late night and an equally late start, we made it to Maleny to stay with Fergus and Trijntje for a night. They live in a truly amazing house built from rammed earth. Here’s a shot from the gardens showing just how lush and tropical this part of the world is.
After two fantastic days with Fergus and Trijntje, we set off for a night out in Brisbane. We ran into one of our tree climbing friends again, and they invited us to stay at their place. In the morning we bore witness to the Australian man and his barbecue in action! Quite a feast it was. Thanks again Chris and Jasmine.
Then we cruised a little further down to the travellers mecca of Byron Bay. We proceeded to get outrageously stoned on our first night. Here’s some small token of our adventures.
Naturally, severe munchies ensued, and the chocolate cake was rapidly devoured.
After a couple of days of Byron Bay, we cruised on southwards in the direction of home. On the way we spotted a couple of signs for Fredo’s Pies. 50 varities of pies. We just couldn’t resist. Ahmed devoured the crocodile meat pie. He was fairly impressed. We had to snap a shot with Marilyn.
An assortment of photos from Sydney follows.
It’s quite common to see surfers strolling through the streets of Sydney. In fairness, this was just across the road from the beach though!
The first picture was just across the road from this, Bondi Beach.
Ross, master of the ocean.
The white ladies. This was taken at the Primo Italiano Italian Festival.
While leaving Agata’s place I couldn’t help but laugh at this sign. Otis, the lift company, are located at 5-9 Ricketty Street. Oh dear, that was an unfortunate choice!
I spotted Tunnocks Caramel Wafers in a speciality sweet shop in Pitt St Mall. I just couldn’t resist.
I’m starting to get a tiny bit ill. It’s the same sort of sore throat / slight cough that I’ve had a few times recently. So in a bid to beat it down once and for all, I’m going to overdose on raw food for the next few days! I whipped up to the shops this morning and bought a couple of bagfulls of goodness. Here’s my first raw breakfast:
Back at Mzoli’s today. I went out early and ordered a bucket load of meat (literally). There were 20 or 30 of us in total. We did order more meat later though. This was just the first round!
Somewhat begrudgingly, I have finally joined flickr. I was delighted to discover that I got the url flickr.com/photos/chmac – my usual username. It’s somewhat confusing, I log into flickr with my yahoo account callum_macdonald then my flickr username is callummacdonald (no underscore) and my url is chmac. Oh well, the chmac part is the important bit!
Here’s my first flickr photo…
I was at the Cape Town Facebook Developers Garage last night. I have the badge to prove it!
It was an interesting evening. Pizza was generously provided by Butler’s Pizza. If I’m not mistaken their delivery staff arrive wearing a tuxedo shirt (whatever it’s called) and a bow tie! Fantastic. Drinks were supplied by Joyent (I think I got the link right).
There were a few interesting presentations. Jacques Marneweck spoke about memcache. He looked pretty nervous, but had some interesting things to say. He talked about starling, a memcache based queue server developed by Twitter and some other highly techy stuff. His slides were missing due to a format issue. I think the slides would really have helped the presentation, maybe he’ll post them online.
I’m meeting a few of the same people at most of the tech events in Cape Town. There seems to be a few interesting businesses going on down here. It feels like a small tech community, with a few “big fish”. Reminds me of Edinburgh.
The first little snapshot of where I live here in Cape Town. Here’s my current CouchSurfer chilling by the pool in the garden.
Last Sunday I was at Kirstenbosch gardens for their weekly sunset concert. Last week McCully Workshop were playing. They’re a popular South African ’70s band and the concert was excellent.
Yesterday, Ismael Lo was playing. The concert set a new Kirstenbosch record selling out all 6’000 tickets in 6 hours. Ismael Lo is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist.
He really is a great performer. The whole band were excellent. They worked the audience well. By the third song people were already standing and dancing in the garden. By the end the whole audience was upright. It was a great afternoon.
They made an announcement at the beginning of the concert asking for no videos or photos. So the following are brought to you illicitly.
Here’s a shot of the stage early in the concert:
Now here’s a shot of the crowd later in the concert:
Then a shot of the stage again nearing the end of the concert:
Finally, a short video of the closing seconds of the whole concert, after the 3rd encore, when the crowd were at their most excited:
Guguletu is a township outside Cape Town. Answers.com defines a township as “A racially segregated area in South Africa established by the government as a residence for people of color.” Another word might be a ghetto.
I was told there’s always a good feast on a Sunday in the townships and some friends invited me to head out there with them. Being the proud Scotsman I am, I accepted so long as I could wear my kilt. It was set to be quite an adventure!
We left Cape Town a little after noon and caught a minibus taxi out towards Guguletu. It didn’t quite take us all the way, so we walked the last mile or so. It was obvious that we had left the “white” South Africa behind. For example, the hairdressers were in shipping containers.
We arrived in good time to get a table. Later in the afternoon it’s next to impossible to find a seat. The place sells meat and ice, but no drinks. So you head to the local liquor store to stock up on beer, which we promptly did. Here’s a shot of Zim behind our bucket of beers.
Here’s a picture of me while I’m still (fairly) sober!
Zim ordered the meat, and some hours later, a tray of chicken wings arrived. I forget the name of the white stuff, but it’s made of maze meal I believe. Despite the fact it looks terrible, it actually wasn’t bad!
It was hard to capture the essence of the afternoon with a still photo, particularly the pounding music (I had my earplugs!). So I shot a few videos, and I think this one sums it up best.
There was dancing, I think our table led the charge on the front actually. There was eating, drinking and much merriment. More than a few people asked me what was under my kilt and I gave my standard response to all of them. “To answer that question involves a woman and a blindfold.” Alas, no takers on this occasion. 
These girls did pose for a photo though. It seems to be the only picture of the day which actually shows I was wearing my kilt!
Thanks to the kind Unathi, our friend with a car, we were able to stay out past the last taxi at 5pm. We got back into town around 11pm after stopping at a house in another township. Then three of us came back to my place and I think I finally crashed out somewhere between 1am and 4am. It was quite a Sunday!
It was really interesting to see a real South African party. The townships have a reputation as being dangerous, mainly because they’re poor areas. My experience was entirely positive. Everyone I met was friendly and welcoming. Several people had to be sharply corrected for confusing the words kilt and skirt, but everyone took it in good spirits.
Overall, it was a great day out. I’m sure it won’t be my last visit to the townships.
I began my journey from New York to Cape Town on Tuesday night, around 3am (technically Wednesday morning!) and I finally arrived in Cape Town on Friday morning around 11am. It was quite a journey!
Naturally, a little celebration was in order on Friday night, after a little sleeping. It turned out to be rather a lot of celebration actually, as we chased the party into the wee small hours of the morning.
Saturday night saw a little poker tournament at a friend’s place. The Scottish charm worked a treat and I walked away as the champion of the evening. Viva Scotland!
Then Sunday morning I watched while some friends took a morning swim in the ocean. It was a pretty beautiful spot.
I’d heard stories that Cape Town was dangerous, although not as dangerous as Johannesburg. Every house I’ve been in has bars on the windows, and tall, locked gates. There are signs on many houses advertising that they are protected by an armed response service.
So it’s clear that crime is a problem here, or at least a perceived problem. However, I haven’t felt unsafe on the streets at any point. I’ve spoken to people in lots of different places, on the local minibuses, on the train, on the streets, in bars, and I haven’t felt unsafe with anyone I’ve met.
I have heard stories of muggings and robbery though, so it’s clear that there is a danger. I’ve been told, and I believe, that if you keep your wits about you, use common sense, and avoid certain dangerous situations, Cape Town can be enjoyed in safety.
It’s nice to be back in a warm country. The weather is very pleasant indeed. Warm sunshine, a cooling breeze, and cooler at night without being desperately cold. A light jacket and a tshirt is enough at night, so long as you have something to break the wind.
Once we crossed the border we stopped in a local pool hall for our first beer on Mexican soil. I felt I had to record the moment to share!
Then we pressed on to a small fishing village called Puerto Nuevo. Most of the prices were in US dollars and there were men outside almost every restaurant encouraging us to park and dine. It reminded me of Thailand. Hassle the foreigners with a passion! We found a hotel and headed back to Rosarito for the Friday night celebrations, as there wasn’t much happening in Puerto Nuevo.
It was Zanna’s birthday so we hit the town in style. We spent an absolute fortune, but it was worth it. It all started with margaritas on the beach. We were treated to our very own bonfire.
It turned into a pretty long night. I think we got home around 4am, then continued on till the sun was well up. In an outstanding burst of foresight I realised about 9am that we’d better check into the hotel for another night in order to avoid being rudely awoken and booted out at the rather brutal 11am check-out time. I had horrible memories of awaking to the screaming of maids in Bangkok.
We took it easy on Sunday, it was a late start. Then on Monday we hit the Mexican countryside. We were trying to avoid having to go back through Rosarito on our way north. We ended up in some pretty sparse mountains and I felt I had to snap a shot for el blogo.
We spotted this outrageously bright building and I felt compelled to stop the car and brandish the camera. It turns out it’s both a garage and a computer repair shop. How very industrious!
We stopped for lunch in Tijuana on the way back, at a trendy, European style coffee shop. Zanna was desperate for the loo and it was the first place we came across with a carpark!
Then the epic ordeal of getting back into the US began. Most of the roads we found signposted for San Diego were taped off with Mexican police officers directing traffic in other directions. Eventually we found a lane where we could get round the tape, and spent at least 2 hours waiting in line.
We finally reached the border. The officer glanced briefly at my passport. He asked what we were bringing back into the US, a few beers. They didn’t even look at Zanna’s driving licence and then we were waved on through.
So, that was Mexico. I certainly won’t hurry back to Tijuana, but I hope to explore more of Mexico, further south and further from the American border!
We definitely had a Mexican adventure. This is me, en-route back to the USA, straddling the US / Mexico border!
Thanks to Hertz I rented a car for the first time yesterday. No electric windows, no central locking, no cruise control, no CD player, but it does have a plug for an MP3 player, oh but it does have wheels!
I got drunk and I got pierced.
Viva Las Vegas!
I went to a CouchSurfing potluck last night, it was fun.
Poor bicycle…
Here’s a few snaps of what I’m enduring in case you’re having difficulty understanding my departure for Las Vegas next week!
I can’t remember what I was trying to capture in this first shot, but this is all I could see…
I wonder what’s not supposed to park here? Reindeer? Snowmobiles?
Or perhaps this is what happened to the last car that ignored the signs. I wonder if it’s warm under there…
It’s important the snow has somewhere nice to sit in Montreal.
Perhaps now you might have a feel for why I’m choosing to depart from bonny Canada in search of warmer shores. If I had all the winter gear (waterproof everything, boots, lined trousers, thermals, etc) then it might be fun, but travelling with two pairs of jeans it’s definitely not. Viva Las Vegas!
Miro is an awesome program. It’s a very simple concept. You download the player and subscribe to “channels”. Those channels are simply RSS feeds which include videos. The videos are downloaded automatically for you, and the program tracks what you’ve watched and what you haven’t. So it tells you when you’ve got new stuff to watch.
It even supports torrents, and the channels are simply RSS, so with a little effort (or probably searching) you could set it up to download your favourite TV programs by torrent.
There are currently over 3’000 channels, all of them free. My favourite thus far is The Onion News Network.
The best part is, the player runs on Linux, Mac and Windows. Here’s a screenshot from my lovely new Fedora 8 desktop.
Here’s the most recent Onion News instalment which inspired this post.
A few pics for the photo lovers…
Firstly, the so-called “Streetcars” that whisk passengers around Toronto.
Snow angels anyone?
This is what happens to beer bottles left outside overnight…
A random house I spotted in Saranac Lake a few weeks ago.
Here endeth this installment.
This is the view I awoke to this morning…
Nothing like a little snow to make me glad I work from home!
On Monday I caught the ‘hound to Plattsburgh, NY from Montreal. From there I hitched over to Saranac Lake, population ~5’000 where I witnessed local politics in action. Twas exciting! Today I hitched back to Plattsburgh and from there back up to Montreal, crossing the border on foot.
My first lift was from a mother, daughter and guy just out of jail for selling methodone. My second ride offered me a pipe of weed and we sank at least 3 beers on the ride. This morning I was picked up by a doctor coming off a 24 hour shift, then a mobile salesman, a couple with a disabled sticker and finally the US Postal Service truck heading from JFK to Montreal.
All in all, a couple of days of adventure.
Here’s me leaving Saranac Lake this morning.
I went out for Halloween last night and drank only three beers and smoked zero cigarettes. Despite standing on the balcony while the smokes were being had. Woop.
Like the costume?
I’m considering buying a Canon SD1000 (IXUS 70). I saw it in a shop today for $279 CAD plus tax ($318). I decided to resist the impulse purchase, do some reading, and check the price online. Dell USA sells the camera for $165.99 USD while Dell Canada sells exactly the same product for $299 CAD.
Has nobody told Dell the Canadian dollar is worth more than the American dollar? The camera is 45% cheaper in the USA! I’m only 2 hours from the border! It’s outrageous.
Needless to say, I’ll be buying it in the states if at all.
