Travel

Well, the holiday is over and its back to work. We got back to Bangkok about 11pm Wednesday night.

It was a great time, not only in Adelaide, Halls Gap, and Flinders Ranges, but also spending time with the family on the farm and around Mt Gambier. And of course, eating some of delicious food, especially Mum's home cooking (I put on 4kg!).

Plenty of photos in the Gallery.

From April 10 to 13 this year was the Easter long weekend. This is a time when many people go on a holiday, often camping or in a caravan. Wan, Brenton and I went camping the Flinders Ranges, a large set of mountain ranges in central South Australia considered the start of the Australian Outback.

On Thursday Wan and I drove from Kongorong to Adelaide (about 5 hours), picked up Brenton from his work about 3pm, organised our camping gear and supplies at his house, then drove another 2 hours north of Adelaide to Clare Valley. This is a good place to stop on the way to the Flinders (which is another 3 to 4 hours drive, not because it is one of Australia's many popular wine regions, but because our friends Rob and Meg live there and we get free camping. We set up our tent at their place, enjoyed a BBQ dinner, and got on the road again by about 11am Friday. [Rob and Meg have a nice simple setup on their 100 acres, and about a week after visiting them they had their first kid, Willow. Check out their journey).

We drove via Jamestown, Orroroo, Carrieton and Craddick to Hawker and then arrived at Wilpena Pound (the heart of the Flinders Ranges) about 3pm. There are two caravan/camping parks: Wilpena Pound and Rawnsley Station. Both are pretty good - this time we stayed at Wilpena Pound for $27 per night (unpowered site, 3 people). You can also stay in the National Park, especially in places like Brachina Gorge, which is much more peaceful bush camping.

The weather was perfect for the trip. Everyday was about 28 degrees, with the occasional cloud. At night time it was not too cold, especially with the fire. What did we do there? A lot of time was spent relaxing with a beer at the camp site. On Saturday we went on an easy 3 hour trek up to Hill's Homestead and then to a lookout with a great view of Wilpena Pound. On Sunday we drove up through Bunyeroo and Brachina gorges, and then back towards Wilpena via Stokes Lookout. There are plenty of other places to go and things to do, but this weekend we all wanted to relax a bit. So after a couple of boxes of Coopers and half a dozen bottles of red we made our way home to Adelaide on Monday (and then back to Kongorong on Tuesday).

Photos are available in the Gallery, as well as at Brenton's Facebook page.

Halls Gap is a small tourist town in the middle of the Grampians, a mountain range in western Victoria. We spent 2 nights there at the start of April, staying in the Halls Gap Caravan Park in the middle of the town.

Halls Gap is about 300km from Kongorong. There were 3 car loads that went: Peter and Allison; Brett and the family in their car; and Wan and I in Brett's Jeep with Dad's new camper trailer on the back. Its a nice setup, taking about 20 minutes to put up and includes queen mattress on the trailer, plus floor space for about two more, as well as a large annex.

The caravan park wasn't too busy, with most people staying in cabins and caravans. We had the open camping ground to ourselves. In the early morning and late afternoon there were plenty of kangaroos around the park, coming up to our camper trailer. Peter and Ally slept outside in their swags, and had kangaroos almost walk over them.

On arrival, after setting up we had a walk around the park and town then settled down to some drinks and dinner. The next day we all made the trek to the Pinnacle, a lookout above Halls Gap. Before going home on Sunday, we all drove up to Stawell (home of the famous Stawell Gift) and visited a couple of wineries in Great Western.

Halls Gap, and the Grampians in general, are a great place to visit with many opportunities for bush walks, camping and mountain climbing. Check out the Photo Gallery for more pics.

On arrival to Australia, we had four nights in Adelaide, staying in the city at the Country Comfort Motel on South Terrace. Adelaide is a quiet city. Although the population is about 1 million, the centre of the city is small and everyone is quite laid back (to the extent that the city is almost dead on weeknights and Sundays).

Staying on South Terrace, within 5 minutes walk of King William Street is great because there is a free tram running from South Terrace to North Terrace during the day. Most shopping, cultural and entertainment venues are near North Terrace. Some of the things we did while in Adelaide included:

• Shopping (or at least window shopping) in Rundle Mall
• Visited the South Australian Museum (free entry)
• Wandered down North Terrace admiring the statues and old majestic buildings, and through Adelaide University to the River Torrens
• Lunch and shopping in the Central Market, which includes Chinatown and some good Asian grocers
• Tram to Glenelg Beach
• Coopers Pale and Sparkling Ales, as well as red wines at the Austral and Exeter on Rundle Street
• Dinner at the Red Ochre Restaurant (see me separate review), as well as at pubs and restaurants around Adelaide

On Friday we borrowed Brentons Pajero and drove up to Cleland Wildlife Park. Here is a great collection of Australian animals, most of which you can get close to and feed. We saw: kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, emus, echidnas, bandicoots, wallabies, wombats and all sorts of birds. There is also a snake farm. Well worth a visit if you are in Adelaide.

On Saturday morning Mum and Dad arrived in Adelaide and we all went up to Barossa Valley for some wine tasting. The first stop was Chateau Barossa, a new winery built by the guy who owned Chateau Yaldara. The wines were not special, but the highlight was the large rose garden outside. It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth II on here previous visit to Australia. Lunch was at a snack shop in Tanunda (Wan tried a Hamburger with the lot and was full after 1/3 of it). Then on to Jacob's Creek Winery which had some nice wines.

Back on Adelaide we had dinner at the Gilbert Hotel. It was great food and atmosphere until I noticed the last couple of mouthfuls of my chicken schnitzel was uncooked. Not sure how much of it was uncooked but luckily there were no side effects the next day.

On Sunday we made our way to Mum and Dad's home in Kongorong near Mt Gambier (about 450km south of Adelaide).

This New Years I was invited to the home of May and Jum, two sisters who work with Wan. They come from Yasothon, a province in north-eastern Thailand. I had a great time there, except for the time spent driving and feeling sick. Unfortunately that was about two-thirds of the entire long weekend.

The first thing was getting there. Being a 5 day long weekend, there was going to be a lot of people on the roads. Having to work on Tuesday 30th of December, we left on Wednesday 31st (New Years Eve). There were two cars going (I was driving Wan and her friend Nee), although not driving together. We decided to leave early in the morning to avoid the heavy traffic. Unfortunately 5 million other Bangkokians had the same idea. We left Thammasat University at 5am and within 5 minutes of entering the main road (Pahonyothin, Highway Number 1) we encountered traffic jams (i.e. traffic stopped or travelling a mere 10kph). There was at least 4 lanes of traffic all the way, some times 6 lanes. It took us about 6 hours to travel the first 110 km's. The many petrol stations and food stops along the highway were full. After Saraburi (normally a 1 hour trip from Pathumthani, this time more than 5 hours) the traffic improved and we managed to get up to reasonable speeds of 80kph. We took the bypass around Khorat, staying on Highway 2 until slightly after the Phi Mai turn off, then made a right turn onto road 207. At this point the traffic lightened, although now we were on a single lane road. Traffic jams came in spurts, most often due to accidents, traffic lights or police check points.

Police check points were setup in almost every small town. You also saw police stationed at major intersections. From what I saw, the police were not stopping people (e.g. for speeding), but rather there in preparation for accidents. Some of the check points also doubled as places were you could stop for a rest. I had the feeling there major focus was on safety, rather than collecting money from traffic infringements, which I thought was good.

Including several food/toilet stops, we finally arrived in Yasothon at 6pm. A 13 hour trip. Not something that I had planned, and I probably wouldn't have done it if I knew it would be like this, but didn't have much choice once we got started. Because we were going so slow, the first 6 or 7 hours were in fact easy driving. But by the time I arrived in Yasothon, my right ankle/leg and bum was killing me.

The others left Bangkok at 3am, but still hit the traffic and it took them also about 13 hours.

Given the long day on the road, New Years Eve was not going to be big. After eating hot pot with all the family and having a few beers, I was in bed by 10pm! I was awoken at midnight by some very loud fireworks being set off nearby. I got up to see them for 5 minutes, and then hit the sack again.

The next morning the extended family were up early for a trip to the local Wat to offer food to the monks. Then after breakfast we drove to Mukdahan, a town/province about 100km's from Yasothon and on the border with Laos. There we went to Phu Pha Thoep in the Mukdahan National Park. This was some rock formations which were nice to wander around for an hour or so. For lunch I had some delicious (and spicy) Som Tam and Laap Bplaa, as well as a local delicacy, Moo Yaw. After lunch the others were shopping in Mukdahan town, while Wan, Nee and I went for a drive further north to Kaeng Ka Bao, a popular spot on the Mekong River and the Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. We also stopped at a large Christian church - apparently Christianity is reasonably popular in this area, as well as the provinces north of Mukdahan. It was another long day, arriving back at Yasothon at 7pm.

That night we headed to the Yasothon nightclub for some whiskey, live music and dancing.

Early the next morning I wasn't feeling well. At first I thought it was the whiskey (although we didn't drink much, a bottle between 6 of us), but then I started firing at both ends. About 10am, Win drove me to the local hospital where I spent the day and night with a saline drip.

The night in hospital and 4000 Baht for private room and medicine was well worth it. The next morning (Saturday) I felt fine, and in an attempt to avoid the traffic going back to Bangkok on Sunday, we left Yasothon about 11am. Another 13 hours drive though - this time the traffic was mostly between Yasothon and Khorat (from Khorat onwards it wasn't too bad).

So overall, the things that I managed to do - Phu Pha Thoep, Kaeng Ka Bao, Friendship Bridge, disco - were good fun. Unfortunately too much time was spent in the car and hospital!

Photo Gallery

SIIT held its Annual Seminar (end of year trip) in Cha Am town (in Cha Am province). Most of the staff and faculty from SIIT went down to Cha Am on a bus on Saturday morning.

After speeches and lunch, Saturday afternoon we went to a Royal Project for planting trees, where everyone got to plant a single tree.
This was a little disappointing for me, mainly because I was expecting that we would be planting lots of trees (i.e. doing some hard work). Instead we spent a good 45 minutes waiting for the previous group to finish, then listened to a talk and movie for 45 minutes then spend 30 minutes planting a tree each. The holes where already dug for us - we just had to unwrap the tree, put some dirt around it and splash it with water.

A couple of us had a swim Saturday afternoon, but the water was freezing for Thailand's standards. Dinner and shows were held on Saturday night, as were some drinking sessions on the beach.

We stayed at Long Beach Hotel, Cha Am. This was a large tourist hotel with standard rooms, and all the facilities you could need. It is in a great location, about 50 metres from the beach.

Photo Gallery

No, I don't mean the Test match in Adelaide. At about this time I should be arriving in Dunedin in New Zealand to attend a conference (PDCAT'08). It was to be my first trip to New Zealand. Although I had four days of conference to attend, I was looking forward to the visit - enjoying some good food, some famous white wines, Speight's Brewery and catching up with colleagues.

Unfortunately, here I am still in Bangkok. Both Bangkok airports (Suvarnabhumi and the old Don Muang) have been shut down for about 5 days due to the protests by the PAD Thai's. No, not the delicious dish, pad thai, but the People's Alliance for Democracy.

From what I can gather, there are two main political sides in Thailand: the Democrats (and PAD) that have the support of the middle/high class based mainly around Bangkok; and the PPP that have the support of the poorer, rural folks mainly from the north (Chiang Mai) and north-east, i.e. Isaan. I'm not sure how the south of Thailand fits into this - of course, there are other significant problems there (1000's of people killed from fighting between Buddhist and Muslims). The PPP have the numbers (i.e. win elections), whereas the Democrats/PAD have the power (money/army). Throw in a guy who made billions from satellite communications (IPStar), and probably millions from dodgy deals as a prime minister, his brother-in-law (the current PM) and Samak (the previous PM sacked because he enjoyed cooking), and you have a recipe for confrontations between the two sides. It hasn't been too violent yet (handfuls dead from small scale grenade attacks), but there is a lot of tension that things could turn ugly soon. The only saviour may be the King, who has his birthday this Friday.

This is of course an over-generalisation of some very complex issues within Thailand. In practice, apart from a missed conference, it hasn't affected my life here much. I don't have any additional concerns for my safety, and life is proceeding as normal. The only thing is that I might start carrying my camera with me more often, in case I come home from work and find the streets lined with tanks again.

Last weekend was extra long, with May 1 (Thursday) Labour Day and May 5 (Monday) Coronation Day and for me, May 2 annual leave. Hence I had five days driving around in my new car in Khon Kaen and Loei. I stayed at Wan's house near Chum Phae, and visited a few local attractions like caves, mountains and bats. I also made the hike up Phu Kradung, a popular mountain in Loei. We spent 1 night on the top of the mountain and saw waterfalls, cliffs and lots of leaches.

Photo Gallery

On 26 March I returned home to Australia for the first time since arriving in Thailand 18 months ago. This was a 2 week holiday, with most time spent catching up with family and friends in Kongorong, working on the farm, and doing a little bit of local sightseeing. Photos of people, places, animals, food and more are in the gallery.

Today I went to Rot Fai Park with Khun Ahe, Maew and Ping. Actually we first went to a Buddhist temple around Chiang Rak (a few km from Thammasat Rangsit) at 8am. I like Buddhist religious activities. Sure we had to get up early to go, but the ceremonial part took about 10 minutes, and it was pretty much private (5 to 10 people). Then we did exciting stuff (for religious ceremonies): released some turtles and eels into the nearby canal. Maybe its time to change from an apathetic agnostic to a buddhist ...

After some breakfast, we drove into Rot Fai Park, which is behind Jatujak Park (and Jatujak Market, one of the biggest markets in the world). At Rot Fai Park you can hire a bicycle for 20 Baht, and then ride around the many tracks. There's plenty of food places and the Bangkok Butterfly place. It was good Sunday fun. Once we worked up an appetite we headed over to Jatajuk Market for a lunch and some shopping (well at least looking). This place is massive! I've been there two times now, and bought a few small things. But I really need to go back with an intention to buy more stuff. With 10,000 shops, they have everything!

Khun Ahe is the photographer amongst us, so she has some great pics of Rot Fai Park and surrounds.

Brenton and a bunch of his friends from Japan were in Thailand over New Years, and so we celebrated the arrival of 2008 in the coastal town of Hua Hin. There was about a dozen of us, but some people will coming and going at different times. We all stayed at the Guest House Hua Hin, and spent a lot of our time eating, relaxing by the beach, getting massages, and a few nights on the booze (well, just about every night, except Brenton, who had pneumonia). A good time had by all. Check out the photo gallery!

Not a very imaginative name, but a nice place to stay while in Hua Hin. The Guest House Hua Hin is in Takiab beach, about 5 km from the centre of Hua Hin. I stayed there fore 5 nights over New Years 2007, along with 11 other friends (although not all at the same time).

My friend Brenton is visiting Thailand again, this time with a group of his friends from Japan. For the first few days of his trip he made plans to go to several tourist attractions in the provinces of Khorat (นครราชสีมา) and Buriram (บุรีรัมย์). Once I knew Brenton would be travelling alone for these three days, I decided to keep him company. This is an overview of our trip, starting Friday 21 December 2007 and ending on Monday 24 December.

The most questions I get from friends in Australia (and elsewhere) are along the lines: How is the weather in Thailand? And from Thai's here, one of the first questions they ask after meeting you is Do you like the weather in Thailand? Whatever I answer, most people do not fully comprehend, especially those:

• Australians and others that are used to seasons (Summer, Autumn/Fall, Winter, Spring), and haven't spent an extended period in South-east Asia
• Thai's that bring out the jackets, long trousers and scarves during "winter" when the minimum temperature drops to 20°C

So maybe some facts and figures will help explain the difference in weather between Thailand (Bangkok) and Australia (Mt Gambier and Adelaide). Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, and is where I worked and lived for 12 years. Mt Gambier is where I grew up, and most of my family still live. It is about 500 km south of Adelaide, and known to be much cooler and wetter than Adelaide. The state of South Australia is the driest state in the driest (inhabited) continent on Earth.

The following table summarises the average maximum temperature, average minimum temperature, and yearly rainfall for the three locations. On average, Bangkok is about 10°C hotter than the locations in Australia! However, this is the average over the year - Australia has same extremely hot temperatures during summer. In Adelaide there 5 to 10 days per year with the temperature above 40°C. The most recent hottest day I recall was 46°C! In Bangkok, it seldom (if ever) reaches 40°C.

The difference in rainfall is also significant: Bangkok is twice as wet as Mt Gambier, and three times as wet as Adelaide. In short, when it rains in Thailand, it rains a lot!

The follow graphs show some more detail of the temperature and rainfall on a monthly basis. This is good for illustrating the difference between seasons.

In Bangkok, it is warm to hot all year. And the overnight temperature hardly drops below 20°C. The only respite you get is around December. This year (2007), there was about 2 weeks of "winter" when I actually felt cold when getting out of bed in the morning. One night I walked outside at 10pm in shorts and t-shirt and had a slight feeling of coldness. But this "winter" was brief (mid-December) - I am back sleeping with an air-conditioner on.

In Mt Gambier and Adelaide, the seasons are more pronounced: hot in summer, cold in winter. Even in summer you get cooler temperatures overnight. Another comparison: I guess I have slept without air-conditioning in Bangkok for about 20 days per year. In Adelaide, it was about half that many days when I slept with the air-conditioning on.

Although the temperature does not distinguish seasons in Bangkok, the rainfall does. A wet season (May to November) and a dry season.

In summary, although the weather is a lot different to that which I am used to in Australia, I cope well with it in Thailand. I actually like the warm weather, and am dreading going back to Mt Gambier in March 2008 (which may contain some 40+ days) and having to get out the jeans and jumpers.

Source of weather data: Australian Bureau of Meteorology and BBC.