Posts made during October, 2008
Release date for ‘Sleeping around’.
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
After some serious pottering about ‘Sleeping around – A couch surfing tour of the globe’ finally has a launch date for Australia and New Zealand (overseas readers will be able to buy it online!). The book will hit the shelves on January 5th 2009. And… this is my new cover. What do you think? I quite like it. I’m also quite chuffed that Daniel Hoffer, the co-founder and chairman of couchsurfing.com, has given me a nice quote for the front cover. The back cover blurb reads like this… (read more)
I made it home in one piece. Just.
Monday, October 27th, 2008
I’m back home after the first leg of my Southeast Asia on a shoestring tour. I’ll be doing Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Burma early next year (I’m avoiding the wet season because tramping around in the mud is not my idea of fun). So far it has been fantastic and I’ve got some great stories and met lots of folk who were around in the 70’s. I’ve only told you a few stories because if I give everything away you won’t need to buy the book when it comes out 
. I say that I only just made it back in one piece because the day after Tony Wheeler left me to continue my bike tour around Bali I had a crash. Or more like someone crashed into me… (read more)
You just never know who you might bump into.
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
I was sitting in Canderi’s restaurant in Ubud, Bali (where 74 year old Canderi is still cooking in the kitchen as she was in 1974) when I spotted the founder of Lonely Planet and author of my ‘74 guidebook Tony Wheeler walking past. I ran up to him and, with my 1974 guidebook in hand, said, ‘Excuse me, can you help me? I’m trying to find a hotel, but my guidebook seems a little out of date.’
‘Maybe you should get a newer one,’ he replied with a laugh.
Meeting Tony would have been an amazing and incredible coincidence… if it wasn’t actually planned… (read more)
The best fruit salad in Southeast Asia.
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
I’ve just left Samosir Island on Lake Toba in Sumatra and I didn’t want to leave. What an amazing place. And, at the Hotel Carolina they have the best fruit salad in Southeast Asia. That’s what the 1975 Lonely Planet guide to Southeast Asia said and so far on my trip I still think it might be the same. The papayas, bananas and pineapples were sitting on a thin layer of condensed milk mixed with lime juice then topped off with shaved coconut and… sprinkles of Milo. The Hotel Carolina was also listed as being the ‘nicest cheap accomodation in Southeast Asia’ back in 75. I think that is still probably true as well… (read more)
I went to the Northern hemisphere for 5 minutes.
Saturday, October 11th, 2008
I hired a scooter yesterday in Bukittinggi in central Sumatra and risked life, limb and lungs to ride to Harau Valley. I didn’t need a map, though. I was joined on my expedition by A.J. an English backpacker who had what a hippy backpacker in 1974 certainly didn’t have – a GPS. It was well worth the ride. Harau Valley was stunning with steep granite walls sheltering a lush valley filled with rice paddies, palm trees and Sumatran tigers. I thought we might see some tigers when A.J. announced that we were only 5 kilometres away… (read more)
… and it’s burn, burn, burn, ring of fire.
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Johhny Cash must have been to Padang in Sumatra and eaten Padang food. Then the next day got all inspired to write a song about burning rings of fire. Yesterday I ate Padang food in Padang and boy did I burn, burn, burn. Eating Padang food certainly was interesting. About 10 seconds after I sat down at the restaurant 14 plates of food were thrown down in front of me. Most of the food was swimming in thick chilli paste or baked in a crust of chilli. I tried about nine of the dishes (I kept away from the ones that looked like something – as my dear dad would say – the dog brought up). It wasn’t until I went to pay that I discovered you only pay for the plates you eat (the ones you don’t eat… (read more)
I took my wife to Indonesia.
Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Jakarta?
No, she came on her own accord.
I’m in Jakarta at the moment and sweating in my underpants. It has been a great adventure so far travelling using the original 1974 Lonely Planet ‘Southeast Asia on a shoestring’ but, boy, am I over being constantly sticky. Many of the guesthouses and hotels listed in the original book are still there and many of them still have the same 1974 electric fan in the corner that flaps weakly towards the 1974 bed with the 1974 sheets. I suppose… (read more)