Friday, March 31, 2006
I'm singing in the rain.
It rained here. Well, rain isn't really the right term for what happened... See that stream of water behind The Simons head? That's water coming from the roof of our hotel because of the rain! I know it LOOKS like a waterfall, but its only rainwater! You can see the raindrops in the next photomograph, raindrops that a large, Nathan Jones sized, man would drown in.
The streets, they were a flooded. In flood-like water. It was biblical.
Also part of the roof in our hotel collapsed! Admittedly it was a purely aesthetic part of the roof, but nonetheless it collapsed because of rain! The Simon has some better photos which will follow!
I was pretty shocked by the whole thing.
The receptionist, Apple, didn't seem to mind so much!
I guess Thailand wants us to remember her fondly...
Oh! Before I go! Simon had an "accident" again with his beard! He mis-trimmed the moustache and his vanity said "IT'S ALL GOTTA GO!". But, being a normal person, some experimentation was in order.
Part one, for the Oatlands crew of the Nineties, was Beard a la Papa Smurf! For the rest of you, lets call this... "Upside-Down head Simon".
The next is METAL GOATEE SIMON. Rock with the Dark Lord.
Could it possibly be more metal? The answer is, of course, YES.
And then it all, much like this post, came to an end...
The next post will be from Australia. With pictures of THE DUDE. Also Vix, Claire and Emma Mc. BUT ALSO THE DUDE.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Simon is... is a... HAMSTER.
I recently came across this cartoon on the internet. I have a sneaky suspicion that someone is spying on Simon...
(Check out Patches by Kelly Vivanco for more!)
(Check out Patches by Kelly Vivanco for more!)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Delia Smith, only SPICIER.
Hello there gentle reader. Today I'm doing a post on behalf of Emma, Amanda and Rachel, collectively known as The Girls. They asked me to do this post as they have not quite figured out this whole blog thing yet. I was more than happy to describe their adventures in Thai cooking, but keep in mind that, as I wasn't actually there when it happened, I may have gotten a few details wrong.
This is the happy cooking class before they began their adventure. Back row is Klaus (maybe). The Thai lady is the cooking teacher. Her name is Boom (apparently true). Next is The Girls, and in the front row is Tammy(most likely). Tammy likes long walks on the beach in moonlight.
If you're going to cook, then you need ingredients! Boom takes her eager class to the local market. Haggling is encouraged, as it is local tradition. Tammy mistakes flouncing for haggling, and is escorted out of the market , after several monks died of shock.
Back from the market and the students are ready to get started!! Ever the photo friendly bunch, they all look up to smile for the camera. Emma! What way are you sitting!? Um, Klaus, maybe you shouldn't watch the camera while chopping...
The key to good food is good preparation. Klaus knows this and has sneaked off to steal someone else's finished product after accidentally making one of his fingers a main ingredient during the chopping. Emma continues to sit in her advanced yoga position...
Finally, some actual cooking!! Boom looks pleased with her classes progress so far. At the edge of the photo, however is disaster! Tammys neck has broken from too much acting coy!!
Phew, she's ok!! Rachel has managed to cleverly trick Emma into doing her work for her, so she can take a rest. Amanda elbows Klaus out of the way so she can be photographed in front of a successful dish. Not like the burnt mess she made. Oh no.
Boom returns and its back to work for the two messers! Amanda can barely bring herself to look at her "cooking", and her teacher is not one bit impressed either. Meanwhile, Emma still has no idea what happened. Clever Rachel!!
After a days cooking, the only thing to do is of course, EAT EVERYTHING YOU MADE!!!! Once the food is gone, the new friends spend some time playing Charades.
Amanda's turn and can you guess what she's trying to be?? If you said BUILDER, then wooooo you're right!!!!
Now that The Girls are qualified cooks, life in Australia should be a bit easier. FOR PETER AND I!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the happy cooking class before they began their adventure. Back row is Klaus (maybe). The Thai lady is the cooking teacher. Her name is Boom (apparently true). Next is The Girls, and in the front row is Tammy(most likely). Tammy likes long walks on the beach in moonlight.
If you're going to cook, then you need ingredients! Boom takes her eager class to the local market. Haggling is encouraged, as it is local tradition. Tammy mistakes flouncing for haggling, and is escorted out of the market , after several monks died of shock.
Back from the market and the students are ready to get started!! Ever the photo friendly bunch, they all look up to smile for the camera. Emma! What way are you sitting!? Um, Klaus, maybe you shouldn't watch the camera while chopping...
The key to good food is good preparation. Klaus knows this and has sneaked off to steal someone else's finished product after accidentally making one of his fingers a main ingredient during the chopping. Emma continues to sit in her advanced yoga position...
Finally, some actual cooking!! Boom looks pleased with her classes progress so far. At the edge of the photo, however is disaster! Tammys neck has broken from too much acting coy!!
Phew, she's ok!! Rachel has managed to cleverly trick Emma into doing her work for her, so she can take a rest. Amanda elbows Klaus out of the way so she can be photographed in front of a successful dish. Not like the burnt mess she made. Oh no.
Boom returns and its back to work for the two messers! Amanda can barely bring herself to look at her "cooking", and her teacher is not one bit impressed either. Meanwhile, Emma still has no idea what happened. Clever Rachel!!
After a days cooking, the only thing to do is of course, EAT EVERYTHING YOU MADE!!!! Once the food is gone, the new friends spend some time playing Charades.Amanda's turn and can you guess what she's trying to be?? If you said BUILDER, then wooooo you're right!!!!
Now that The Girls are qualified cooks, life in Australia should be a bit easier. FOR PETER AND I!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
La Feile Padraig!
Boy oh boy. celebrating St. Patricks Day abroad is tougher than you would think. You have to wear green and drink a lot and also sometimes wear hats and be a good "ambassador" for Ireland, by drinking I guess... Well, that's how we did it anyhoos.
Simon gives MAD PROPS to y'all!
A big Australian fella gave Simon a Guinness hat, because he is Irish. We all wore it! For photos!
Amanda wears it with style, yo.
The younger, prettier Smyth wears it with grace.
Emma is seen here wearing the hat. Also you can see Simons hand holding the hat up. The picture after explains why!
HAHAHA! Her head is too small! Simon was preventing suffocation!
I was, as always, MAJESTIC.
Oh and THEN there were the hangovers... :-(
Hope y'all had an equally fantabulous day and night! How was the parade? Let us KNOW. Also keep reading down, there is another entry, forced as it is.
Simon gives MAD PROPS to y'all!
A big Australian fella gave Simon a Guinness hat, because he is Irish. We all wore it! For photos!
Amanda wears it with style, yo.
The younger, prettier Smyth wears it with grace.
Emma is seen here wearing the hat. Also you can see Simons hand holding the hat up. The picture after explains why!
HAHAHA! Her head is too small! Simon was preventing suffocation!
I was, as always, MAJESTIC.
Oh and THEN there were the hangovers... :-(
Hope y'all had an equally fantabulous day and night! How was the parade? Let us KNOW. Also keep reading down, there is another entry, forced as it is.
Friday, March 17, 2006
I Live!
I'm sorry! I know I haven't done a post in a while, but here y'all go. This is going to be a huge mismosh of photos in non-linear time. I decree that fun is more important than time.
Back in Siem Reap we sat on a tree-like vine thingy in our very own Temple of Doom! Simon stuck his tongue out at me, so a headlock was applied until he tapped.
In Vietnam we were Big Tunnel hero's! Here is Emma squishing out of an original Cu Chi tunnel entrance.
The tunnels are long and dark and hot and dark and full of hideous monsters!
Simon and I parted ways briefly with Amanda and Emma as we traversed overland to Vientiane, Laos. They went to the beach in Vietnam, Letrang or sumfink. Here is the night-train from Ho Chi Minh to Hue!
Up in them mountains t'was fierce cool. Maybe 24C! Look, we were wrapped up in our thoughtfully supplied DUV-ETTES by the night-train folk. (Seriously, we were COLD)
In Vientiane Simon and I became the Laos spoke-peeps for two well known brands. Here we are! Big prizes for those who can guess the what the subtly hidden brands are!
I haven't officially welcomed Nong-Rachel to the team on this blog, so here is a little section dedicated to her and her ALONE, except for a tiger. Have YOU ever tried to turn down a tiger? If I was a Russian doorman, maybe.
Holy Smyths! It's a T - I - DOUBLE-GUH - R!
Rachel is the Queen of light and also time! Holy Lightrods Batman!
To sign off, here is our favourite snack food in Thailand. Truly it is a delight!
that's about it. Happy Saint Patricks day, y'all!
Back in Siem Reap we sat on a tree-like vine thingy in our very own Temple of Doom! Simon stuck his tongue out at me, so a headlock was applied until he tapped.
In Vietnam we were Big Tunnel hero's! Here is Emma squishing out of an original Cu Chi tunnel entrance.
The tunnels are long and dark and hot and dark and full of hideous monsters!
Simon and I parted ways briefly with Amanda and Emma as we traversed overland to Vientiane, Laos. They went to the beach in Vietnam, Letrang or sumfink. Here is the night-train from Ho Chi Minh to Hue!
Up in them mountains t'was fierce cool. Maybe 24C! Look, we were wrapped up in our thoughtfully supplied DUV-ETTES by the night-train folk. (Seriously, we were COLD)
In Vientiane Simon and I became the Laos spoke-peeps for two well known brands. Here we are! Big prizes for those who can guess the what the subtly hidden brands are!
I haven't officially welcomed Nong-Rachel to the team on this blog, so here is a little section dedicated to her and her ALONE, except for a tiger. Have YOU ever tried to turn down a tiger? If I was a Russian doorman, maybe.
Holy Smyths! It's a T - I - DOUBLE-GUH - R!
Rachel is the Queen of light and also time! Holy Lightrods Batman!
To sign off, here is our favourite snack food in Thailand. Truly it is a delight!
that's about it. Happy Saint Patricks day, y'all!
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Fun with the animals!
Back in Thailand and on the road again... We stopped off in Kanchanaburi for a few days. A smaller town than usual, we also decided to try something different for us: Activity days! We have become slothful since leaving Ireland, so days with lots of walking around were considered a good idea...
Here we are at Sai Yok Noi waterfall! Its a picturesque area, and the water is nice for paddling your feet in, or going into up to your knees as one poor tourist found out as she slipped forward on algae covered rocks. Here's Emma and myself blocking the nice view.
Oh no! Emma has been tied to the tracks by a nefarious criminal! Amanda looks on in horror as the train races towards Emma! What a sad end to Emmas adventures.
After the waterfall we went on an elephant trek. We were brought up to a hillside village where the elephants live. They drivers communicate with the elephants by making different sounds, and kinda tickling behind their ears with their feet. Oh there's Emma. Guess she got away from the train somehow...
As we walked along the elephants stopped every now and then to decimate bamboo trees. Turns out, even if your job is to be an elephant trainer, its really difficult to persuade them not to eat on the job. We were told not to worry about the acres of burning mountain side in the background.
The river rafting was really fun. The bamboo poles are loosely tied together with little seats on them for passengers. When you get on the boat the main body of the boat actually goes mostly underwater, which is a little unnerving at first. The man at the front just pushes the boat along by driving a bamboo pole into the river bed and pushing hard. He was good enough to let me pilot the raft for the 2nd half of the journey. Lets just say its not as easy as they make it look! Amanda celebrated a safe journey by getting her foot stuck in the raft while getting off.
This is part of Hellfire Pass, a stretch along the Death Railway, which also has the Bridge over the River Kwai. This clearing was made in the hillside using POW's and slave workers from around Asia. Along the side is a memorial to a POW who was killed by the Japanese because the compressor drill he was using broke in the tough rock face. Mechanical tools were an extreme rarity though, with the vast majority being done by hand.
On the way back to the museum, Rachel and I took the long way back so we could do some more exploring. It meant going up and down about a million steps, which was a little more than we bargained for. Rachel is a real trooper though and doesn't let death by heat exhaustion get her down.
This second of the railway was completed in a month , with ~700 people dying during this period.
Finally at the end of our train journey is the Bridge over the river Kwai. You can actually walk across it, as the bridge has been completely repaired as a memorial. Its a risky endeavor however, as the metal plates in the middle bend when you walk on them and the wood boards at the side aint in the best condition of their lives. There's no barriers to prevent a long fall if you trip either!
Next day was a trip to Tiger Temple. Its home not just to tigers, many lost or injured animals from the area wander in its gates from time to time. These include deer, boors oxen, peacocks cows and chickens. Tigers are pretty big up close by the way. Much bigger than when viewed at a distance behind bars. Especially their paws. And Teeth.
Emma being fearless as usual. I suppose if you can take a train on, a tiger is no problem. They aren't chained to anything by the way. Those cats are free to wander around their area, but the handlers try and discourage it. They also don't like the colour red, so a man we saw petting them today with red shorts was a daredevil without even realizing it.
Here's Rachel petting.... a monk?! Those guys are celebate, leave them in peace please!
After about 45 minutes they Abbot of the monastery told us the tigers wanted to leave so we had to wrap things up. As we left I had the chance to walk beside an unrestrained tiger. It was an amazing experience. We went back to the park and had a look at some new arrival tiger cubs and the other animals around the park.
During feeding time, DISASTER!! All the animals rush for the food, seemingly about to crush us all under their thundering hooves. Amazingly, Emma isn't the only one with super strength. Amanda stops them all with one hand!
We shall be moving on in a few days. Paddys day is coming up soon, so we'll get back to you with how well Asia manages to pull it off!
Here we are at Sai Yok Noi waterfall! Its a picturesque area, and the water is nice for paddling your feet in, or going into up to your knees as one poor tourist found out as she slipped forward on algae covered rocks. Here's Emma and myself blocking the nice view.
Oh no! Emma has been tied to the tracks by a nefarious criminal! Amanda looks on in horror as the train races towards Emma! What a sad end to Emmas adventures.
After the waterfall we went on an elephant trek. We were brought up to a hillside village where the elephants live. They drivers communicate with the elephants by making different sounds, and kinda tickling behind their ears with their feet. Oh there's Emma. Guess she got away from the train somehow...
As we walked along the elephants stopped every now and then to decimate bamboo trees. Turns out, even if your job is to be an elephant trainer, its really difficult to persuade them not to eat on the job. We were told not to worry about the acres of burning mountain side in the background.
The river rafting was really fun. The bamboo poles are loosely tied together with little seats on them for passengers. When you get on the boat the main body of the boat actually goes mostly underwater, which is a little unnerving at first. The man at the front just pushes the boat along by driving a bamboo pole into the river bed and pushing hard. He was good enough to let me pilot the raft for the 2nd half of the journey. Lets just say its not as easy as they make it look! Amanda celebrated a safe journey by getting her foot stuck in the raft while getting off.
This is part of Hellfire Pass, a stretch along the Death Railway, which also has the Bridge over the River Kwai. This clearing was made in the hillside using POW's and slave workers from around Asia. Along the side is a memorial to a POW who was killed by the Japanese because the compressor drill he was using broke in the tough rock face. Mechanical tools were an extreme rarity though, with the vast majority being done by hand.
On the way back to the museum, Rachel and I took the long way back so we could do some more exploring. It meant going up and down about a million steps, which was a little more than we bargained for. Rachel is a real trooper though and doesn't let death by heat exhaustion get her down.
This second of the railway was completed in a month , with ~700 people dying during this period.
Finally at the end of our train journey is the Bridge over the river Kwai. You can actually walk across it, as the bridge has been completely repaired as a memorial. Its a risky endeavor however, as the metal plates in the middle bend when you walk on them and the wood boards at the side aint in the best condition of their lives. There's no barriers to prevent a long fall if you trip either!
Next day was a trip to Tiger Temple. Its home not just to tigers, many lost or injured animals from the area wander in its gates from time to time. These include deer, boors oxen, peacocks cows and chickens. Tigers are pretty big up close by the way. Much bigger than when viewed at a distance behind bars. Especially their paws. And Teeth.
Emma being fearless as usual. I suppose if you can take a train on, a tiger is no problem. They aren't chained to anything by the way. Those cats are free to wander around their area, but the handlers try and discourage it. They also don't like the colour red, so a man we saw petting them today with red shorts was a daredevil without even realizing it.
Here's Rachel petting.... a monk?! Those guys are celebate, leave them in peace please!
After about 45 minutes they Abbot of the monastery told us the tigers wanted to leave so we had to wrap things up. As we left I had the chance to walk beside an unrestrained tiger. It was an amazing experience. We went back to the park and had a look at some new arrival tiger cubs and the other animals around the park.
During feeding time, DISASTER!! All the animals rush for the food, seemingly about to crush us all under their thundering hooves. Amazingly, Emma isn't the only one with super strength. Amanda stops them all with one hand!We shall be moving on in a few days. Paddys day is coming up soon, so we'll get back to you with how well Asia manages to pull it off!
