Posts made during September, 2008
Brian Bait.
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
It has taken a world-record 32 minutes just to open this page before I could even start typing my blog, so I still can’t load any pics yet (I will load in a pile of pics when I get to Indonesia in two days time).
When I said in my previous blog that I felt safe in East Timor… well, I was wrong. After spending a day swimming in the warm, clear waters of Baucau I spotted a sign warning that there were crocodiles in the water. I asked one of the locals and he said, ‘No, there are no crocodiles. Oh, except for one big one, but we are trying to catch it.’ The day before there had been… (read more)
No tourists means your own personal beach.
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
I’ve been in East Timor for 4 days now and I haven’t been kidnapped once. In fact, it’s all very quiet and the locals couldn’t be more friendlier. It’s certainly quiet on the tourist front. I haven’t met a single one yet. That’s okay by me, though. I get not one, but three stunning beaches to myself. I’m staying in a little bungalow on the beach in Baucau and I’m eating fresh grilled fish and swimming in clear warm waters. Well, that’s about everything I’m doing really… (read more)
Can anyone spare a dime?
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…
I only had a tiny bit of running around to do today for my trip. I picked up some toothpaste, a new lens cap for my camera and a wad of US dollars. I was quite surprised to discover only a week ago that the official currency of East Timor is the US dollar. I imagine (and hope) that one day, when East Timor’s economy is stronger, they will get their own currency. And maybe they could make a bold independent statement by giving it a wacky name! There are some good wacky ones around the world. In Zambia people walk around with ngwees in their wallet. In Gambia they have bututs, in Guatemala it’s quetzals, while the Malawians hand over kwachas…
I like to pack light.
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
I have never written a ‘packing list’ before. I pack the night before I go away and even then it only takes me about 15 minutes. But, I’ve put together a list for you dear reader because I thought you might be interested to know how many pairs of underpants I’m taking with me on my upcoming trip. By the amount of ‘how to pack’ websites, though, there must be a lot of people out there who like doing packing lists. One website insists that: ‘Your top priority above anything else should be the acquisition, personalization, and use of a good packing list.’ There is even a (quite lame) website where you put in the dates you’re travelling, the weather, the type of accommodation you’re staying in, the transport you’re using and whether you’re going on ‘Glacier walks’… (read more)
We advice you not to go to East Timor.
Friday, September 19th, 2008
In less than a week I’ll be in East Timor as part of the trip for my new book. And for the first time in all of my travels I’ve registered my itinerary with the Australian government. I probably should have done this before when I’ve gone to places like Haiti, Togo, Kyrgyzstan and Tasmania, but with the potential dangers and unrest in East Timor I thought I should do something responsible and sensible for the first time in my life. On the Australian government Smart Traveller website they warn:
· We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to East Timor at this time because of the fragile security situation and the risk of violent civil unrest…
My new book about soil dispersion in West Burma.
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
I’ve recently purchased some books from Amazon.com as part of the research for my new book. To keep with the theme of travelling with the original 1975 Lonely Planet ‘Southeast Asia on a Shoestring’ I got these books (for historical, political, economical and environmental information) because they were all published between 1973 and 1975. The only problem about buying books on Amazon without a description, though, is that there is always a chance you’ll get a dud. Three of the books I purchased are great and I’ll get lots of interesting facts from them, but I might have a bit of trouble using anything from ’South East Asia’ by EHG Dobby. The entire book is about soil dispersion… (read more)
No one wants to read that shit (Part 2).
Sunday, September 14th, 2008
(…continued from previous blog)
Eeny, meeny, miney, mo. That’s pretty much how I chose my literary agent. Out the of three agents that were interested in me I chose the one who had a posh English accent because I thought he sounded, well… literary (even his name, Anthony Williams, sounded literary). I now had an agent – although I didn’t have anything that resembled a publishing deal yet I could at least now throw ‘my agent’ into conversations. ‘My agent’ sent the manuscript to two publishers to begin with and I soon discovered that there was a whole chain of people to get through before anyone comes close to offering you a deal. The chain begins with a ‘publishing editor’ who has a read of your manuscript and decides whether it’s… (read more)
No one wants to read that shit.
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
I’ve had quite a few emails over the years asking how I got started in the travel-writing caper, so I thought I’d share with you how it all began.
The first thing I did was to get retrenched.
Twice.
I’ve had two silly dreams come true after I got retrenched. The first time I ‘lost’ my job (I was working as an art director in advertising where retrenching is as common as refilling the water cooler) I searched for another job straight away, but there was nothing around. Then, one day simply out of sheer boredom, I was flicking through the employment section of the newspaper and spotted a job for ‘summer tour leaders in Europe’. That sounded like fun, but what really caught my eye… (read more)
A crash course in Indonesian airlines.
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
I’m in the middle of researching my new book (see previous blog) and I’ve just started booking flights to and around Indonesia for the first leg of my big trip. According to the Lonely Planet’s 1975 ‘Southeast Asia on a shoestring’: ‘For a third world country Indonesia has an amazing number of airlines and flying can still be a real experience in this dull Jumbo age’. Of the six recommended airlines in the Indonesian chapter only three are still flying. I’m guessing that the three that aren’t (Sempati, Zamrud and Bouraq) probably ran out of planes. Indonesia ranks as one of the worst countries for air safety records (last year they were second behind the Democratic Republic of Congo for fatal crashes). In 2007 an aircraft ‘incident’ was recorded in Indonesia every nine to 10 days. Even their national carrier Garuda likes to fall out of the sky… (read more)
Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof.
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
We had our first taste of spring in Melbourne yesterday, so I headed to the park with a book. I was going to take one of the many books that I’m halfway through, but instead decided to pick up one of my all time favourites – Holidays in Hell by P.J. O’Rourke. I’ve re-read this book a few times now and I still chuckle away at P.J’s witty and irreverent observations. Even though the book was written in the late 1980’s and the 3rd world political references are a bit dated his experiences in Lebanon, Panama, Korea, Philippines, USSR, South Africa and Northern Ireland are still relevant and entertaining. Here’s a sample of some of the many great quotes from the book: (read more)