Peter's Travels

Going to Georgia

2008-11-19T02:25:00.002+11:00

Some news - I'm going to Georgia!

I applied to the agenda management team for a conference being held there for the newly created Central Asia and Caucus (CAC) countries. That means there will be people there from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and more - mostly places I know little to nothing about, apart from geopolitically.

I'll be going there next April - actually I will be spending my birthday there, which will be an interesting experience.

I figure if I'm going to be an international journalist like I want, I'll be spending a lot of time in interesting countries like this - it should be fun!

Auschwitz

2008-11-19T01:39:00.002+11:00

So I think a big reason as to why I haven't written recently is because I knew it would take me a while to really be able to write something meaningful about this experience.

Just to give you some insight, Auschwitz is not just a disconnected concept for me, I had quite a bit of family there, great grandparents, and my great aunt who survived and still survives, currently about 95 years old. Us Jews are pretty hard to get rid of.

I'm not sure what I necessarily expected from Auschwitz - I simply knew it was something I needed to go see. I was worried about how I would handle it, honestly.

Catching the bus from Krakow, I got there reasonably early in the morning.

I have to say, the people who are taking care of this place do a fantastic job. The whole place is managed so well - with utter respect and care for the memory of the place - if only more important places were managed as this is.

I went on a tour provided by the site itself, which moved us through all the important bits effectively - I would have liked to take it more slowly, but there were a lot of other people there so it was the only possibility.

The experience was far too big to comprehend to be honest. If there was individual stories told there I think it would have been heartbreaking, but instead there were piles of nameless stories - with exhibitions consisting of piles of shoes, countless glasses, even human hair pointing to the ruthless efficiency of the Nazi death machine. I stood there, trying in some way to draw some meaning, but it was too much - too much horror, suffering and death for a mind some 60 years later to really understand. All I could touch on was the immensity of the whole thing, the complete disregard for human life and human dignity.

Above all it was so immensely sad I couldn't really conceive it properly - such sadness as it would destroy the mind to truly comprehend it - the idea that man can do that to itself is almost too much to bear.

I've been reading Viktor E. Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" which is about the truths of humanity, good and bad, that he learnt during his internment in Auschwitz and other camps, to see if I can begin to comprehend it myself - it goes in some ways to bring a human, almost optimistic element to that which is impossible to describe as human (though in many ways was all too human - the deepest blackest parts of all our souls).

That's all I can say of it really.

Poland

2008-11-19T00:49:00.002+11:00

Again, apologies about the period of time between posts - I can't remember the last time I had a proper day off! But at least I'm having fun.

So to catch up on the latest adventures, I went to Poland recently! I went to Krakow, where I visited Auschwitz (more on this later), and then went to chair a conference in Warsaw (chairing a conference basically means being Master of Ceremonies for it).

1: The Train Trip

God a love train trips. This one was about 10 hours, through the Czech Republic and into Poland, I had plenty to read, my music and it was a nice day so plenty to look at.

The Czech nature keeps up the whole "fairy tale" spirit - little tree covered hills, small rivers, pretty little towns to admire out of the window. Into Poland and the scenary changes - flatter, more sparse, with a definite sense of being larger than the Czeck Republic - more space etc. Instead of green, pretty forests of the Czech Republic, we moved through large stands of skinny grey trees that gave a much different air to the place.

2: Krakow

Krakow is freaking awesome. I had planned to travel to other cities, but I enjoyed it so much I stayed.

Firstly the city - it is small, easy to get around, but very pretty, with a fantastic city centre - kind of like a mini-Prague. Life has a nice, chilled out pace there, everyone having a good time. But it had everything! An American bookstore that was quite cheap, a wonderful little movie theatre with deep, leather seats, beautiful buildings, a castle, the whole bit, all pretty easily walked around.

I stayed with some interns - a girl from Turkey and a guy and girl from China, who were all wonderful, accepted me as part of the family as soon as I got there. The place they're staying in was remarkably nice - new everything, bathroom, kitchen, fixtures, hard wood floor. Nicer then my apartment anyway.

So I explored the city and chilled out around the flat for a few days, a little holiday. I cooked dinner for my hosts, they cooked for me, we chatted and had a nice time.

3: Warsaw Local Conference

Chairing a conference is definitely a new experience. As chair, I was responsible for the "feel" of the conference, motivation, keeping the time and bringing the party - all quite challenging, managing the conference team etc.

I definitely didn't do as good a job as I would have liked - my own National Conference was the week after and I spent quite a bit of time, when I didn't feel needed, working on that. This was a mistake, as I should really have focussed on the conference I was at, making myself more visible rather than sitting in my room and working.

Still it was pretty great, I Warsaw LC was a great LC, the conference was in a freaking CASTLE (yeah, I know, only in Europe) and I learnt a lot - if I'm offered the honour of chairing another conference I will know much better what to do.

Next, I will write about my impressions of Auschwitz.

I'm Published!

2008-10-28T09:39:00.001+11:00

Well, kind of. I got an article published in a Czech English language online magazine!

http://www.provokator.org/politics/lose-dignity-and-humanity-is-slowly-stripped-away.html

A step closer to becoming a journalist...

IC Part 3: Rio de Janeiro

2008-10-05T07:11:00.001+11:00

We left conference a day early so as to have enough time to go see Rio de Janeiro. Heading over to the long term bus station, we caught literally the most comfortable bus I’ve ever been in in my life down to Rio.

Let me pause and sing the praises of this bus. The seats were definitely comfortable, but the real genius was in the footrests, which were flat boards that came all the way up to your seat, allowing you, when the seat went back as well, to be essentially lying down, just at an angle. I fell into a proper sleep – not just dozing, as I normally do on planes trains and buses, but a real sleep with dreams and all. Brilliant.

Rio was a great experience. We got there in the late afternoon with no guide, nobody that spoke any Portuguese, and only a vague understanding of where the youth hostel we were to stay in was situated – near Copacabana beach. Somehow though, we found a local bus to take us there, asked the bus driver to tell us when to get off (they did) and managed to find our way.

Dropping our stuff at the somewhat crappy but essentially serviceable hostel – with an inflated price due to its position near the beach – we wandered down to the beach.

I’ve never been excited by a beach before, they’ve always been relatively common place for me, what with being Australian and all. But this was Copacabana fucking beach here. When you looked away from the water while standing on the sand, you could make out the Christo – the Christ on the Hill, and like I said in a previous post, I missed living near the water.

The Czechs were like kids with the waves, running towards them and then away as they chased them. The so – called winter night was pleasantly cool, and warm enough to go for a paddle. Still, the old problem of sand meant I’ve been finding little pockets of the evil stuff in my belongings ever since.

For dinner we went to a not-outrageous restaurant really close to the beach, and I (and most of my compatriots) ordered a large seafood dish cooked portugeuse style. It was lush, with fish, octopus, squid and other types of seafood, something I missed a bit from Australia. You can’t beat seafood from an Ocean country.

We found a little place to have a few Caiprinrinahs, and went to bed, knowing the next day would involve a lot of walking. No kidding, wandering from the beach to Sugar Load Mountain, we discovered that the price up the mountain was somewhat extravagant and the hike up the mountain not within our time capabilities. Some taxi drivers started talking to us, and we ended up negotiating with them to drive us up to the Christo, at not too high a price.

This was without a doubt the highlight. I’m not a sights sort of person, but the Christo was something else. A massive Jesus standing on a hill, arms out. Many icons are not as wonderful as you imagine them to be once you find them, but this was something really special. Not to mention the view – just brilliant. I can’t really describe it better, it’s something to just experience.

Finally we headed back down, went to an open air market and bought some souvenirs, found our way back to the bus and back to Sao Paulo.

We arrived at Sao Paulo at 6am, and managed to find our way to a large park. Still sleepy, we fell asleep under the morning sun, and all got horribly burnt. The flight back to Prague was subsequently a pretty big ordeal, dealing with sunburn along with the rest of the normal indignities of flying…anyway, I was glad to get home I can tell you.

And then I realised that this now did feel like home, in a bizarre sort of way, I mean, my home in Australia is home as well, but this felt like home, at least in a temporary way, and it was nice to be back.

IC Part 2

2008-10-05T07:09:00.000+11:00

IC Itself

International Congress is a behemoth of a thing, and there are many ways to see it.

1: AIESEC in its most perfect form. You sit in a room with 600 other people, from around 100 different countries, and you are all focussed on the same thing, going in the same direction, moving towards the same point. In many ways this is a beautiful thing, though it is a mirage, or a myth perhaps, because it is also:

2: A bubble. IC is an unreality – a place where everything is possible, but where no action can be taken. 10 days plus a three day preconference, it’s almost two weeks sitting and listening, discussing, planning etc, and somewhere within that time you and everybody around you begins to lose touch. So while the conference can appear, while you’re in it, somewhat utopian, this is in some ways meer self-delusion, because after the conference you return to reality, and it hits you in the face for ignoring it for so long.

3: The time when the most decision makers within the organisation get together. It is a time for big discussions and new thoughts. I came out of the conference with a much clearer view of what I need to do this year than when I went in, much more comfortable in the role.

4: A massive use of resources. For essentially a large pep talk, IC costs a lot of money. The conference itself needs to find upwards of 1 million dollars in funds, plus each delegate pays I don’t know what, plus everybody has to pay flight costs over there. The end price must be astronomical, something in the range of 3 – 5 million dollars I’m sure, when you count everything spent by everyone. Is the expenditure worth it? Hard to tell – you’d have to skip the conference for a year to really understand what it provides, by seeing what is missing without it.

In all honesty, I had a difficult time at IC. Half the reason this post took so long is because it really took me this long to get my head around it. I’m not the best with crowds, preferring intimate gatherings, and so the sheer size of the conference was disquieting to say the least. Still, I am if nothing else a people person, and I found my way I think, better than some in some ways.

The length as well, was difficult, as I said, it was hard to maintain a grip on reality sometimes, especially in my role, as every break I had was often filled with some meeting with some country about exchange, many of which were pointless in and of themselves, but I think I probably needed to do them in order to understand my role and the organisation better. In any case, I dislike losing a grip on the real.

Finally, and perhaps most difficult, and something I found I had in common with most of the internationals that lived there, was the sense of placenessness there. Here I was an Australian in Brazil representing a the Czech Republic, bizarrely enough, and I felt torn sometimes, between spending time with the Australians, many of whom my best friends, with the Czechs, who were my new team but I had only really known for two months, and getting out and meeting, somehow, new people. In a bubble, removed from reality, I was in an unreal place still, not knowing even where was really from.

So a bit of doom and gloom I’m sorry, you’ll be pleased to say that the expensive pep talk worked though, and while I had a hard time at the conference itself, I came back from it much happier about my place and position then when I was going to it. So what it was was a psychic low-point, and afterwards I’ve been going up and up.

Adventures with the Clock.

2008-09-16T00:58:00.000+10:00

I’ll put up part two of my IC tale soon. First, I’d like to write about something that just happened a minute ago. In our flat, where I write this, we have a clock. For a very long time, the clock has been upside down – meaning the 12 is at the bottom, and the hands have been placed in such a way as you can tell the time if you take into account the position of the hands and not the numbers. Well, I had a day off today, and noticed that the clock was positioned correctly!

Well, I love the upside down clock, and I think my team does too, so this wasn’t going to stand.

I took it off, and set the hands to the correct time, and then tried to figure out how to put it back up, on the nail in the wall that had held it before.

The normal hole wasn’t going to work, made in such a way as it only worked in the right (wrong) direction. Ok, I so I tried blu-tack.

The clock stayed up for a little while, and then fell down.

Ok, so I tried putting blu-tac in the hole, and pushing the nail through it.

Again the clock fell down.

(This took place over a few hours by the way).

I pondered, and thought about it. There must be some way to put it up, I just needed a bit of ingenuity. Stopping for a second, I looked at the back of the clock, and realised the edge of it could be placed on the nail in the wall.

Sometimes when trying to think of ingenious solutions, we forget to look for the very simple and more effective ones, that lie right in front of our face.

IC Part 1

2008-09-16T00:56:00.000+10:00

IC had three parts to it, France, the conference, and Brazil. If there are any non-AIESEC viewers in the audience, IC stands for International Congress, the largest AIESEC conference of the year, this year held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Part 1: France

We flew to Brazil with Air France, but unfortunately (or fortunately) our flight from Prague to Paris, which technically should have connected straight to a flight to Brazil, was delayed, meaning we missed our connection to Sao Paulo. Which we had to wait for the next flight.

Which meant we had to spend the day in Paris. Damn.

I love this sort of thing – random, brilliant unexpected adventures. My life is missing these at the moment, even though I’m living on the other side of the world, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, much of my time is now spent in an office, in front of my computer, and not adventuring.

In Paris, we got some euros and caught a train into town. The Paris transport system is…stretched. There’s a lot of people using it, even in the middle of the day, and even though there’s heaps of trains its pretty packed all the time. We got from the airport to one of the main metro stations, and were then stopped as it turned out the line we wanted to get was closed for maintenance or something. Wandering around the station, which had no information anywhere, finally Petra, who apparently speaks some French, managed to figure out where we should go.
Here was where I stopped and watched the people walk by in wonder, as I described in the previous post.

We found our way to Notre Damne, in all it’s brilliance, walked to the __ , outside of which we bought a crepe (mine was filled with chocolate) and some grass to sit down upon. From there, we walked up the Champs Elysee, then made our way towards the Eiffel Tower.

I don’t normally like being a tourist type, but if you have one day in Paris, what else would you do?

Something interesting about my team: we are very different people, on pretty much every level. One level is our views on time (I might talk about this later) and speed. Me, I’m a fast walker. Majo (pronounced Maiyo), our external relations director on the other hand, is an ambler, his walking speed is…slow. Very slow. In fact, I’d describe it as sloooooow. So, my journey through Paris, with 11 of us walking, consisted of me walking ahead, looking back, realising Majo and anyone he was walking with was out of site, stopping, waiting, waiting, going on again, rinse repeat.

I wonder, somewhat, if we can’t find a common walking speed, how are we going to be as a team this year?

Anyway, it was a brilliant day. I ended it by leaving my team to their dinner while I went, explored, and found my own dinner, an extraordinarily expensive two meal of French onion soup and a chicken main – no regrets. Sometimes you just need some time for yourself right?

We journeyed back, somehow made our plane, and flew into Sao Paulo.

Things I can't live long periods without

2008-09-16T00:51:00.001+10:00

The thing about living overseas (I wonder if how long you have to live “overseas” before you stop calling it that?”) Is that you very quickly figure out what it is you can, and can’t, live without. These things might surprise you, as some of them have surprised me, because they are things that in previous times you simply assumed as part of your life, pieces of fabric that make of the tapestry. However when these pieces are torn away, you feel the hole they leave behind.

Things I can’t live without:

• Multiculturalism

Is multiculturalism still a word in Australia? For so long our Government (the Howard one) made it a dirty word, divided us along cultural lines. Yet, coming to the Czech Republic, I find myself literally aching for it. The Czech Republic is probably 99% Czech or Slovak, and therefore 99% white. You see some colour sometimes, but they are far between and often seem to have designated areas (not by law or custom or anything like that, just for where I’ve seen them situated). There are a smattering of Africans, who all seem to be employed as Spruikers trying to encourage people into the bars on Wenceslaus square, and there are a few Chinese dotted around, all seemingly employed or running one of the many terrible Chinese restaurants that over-salt the landscape here.

I miss walking down the street and seeing different people, different ways of life. The fact is, single culture countries are boring. Multiple cultures create tension, but tension creates interest. Recently I was in Paris (more on that later) and trying to figure out where to go on the labyrinthine metro. I found myself in a thouroughfare, where hundreds of people were streaming past, of all walks of life – it was extraordinary. Africans, Asians, Arabs, I stood and watched and trembled in excitement as the tumultuous stream of differences walked past me, beautiful and magnificent.

I’m not going to pretend that multiculturalism doesn’t create problems – it does, but they are important problems, and more importantly they make for fascinating, dynamic societies. Sometimes I feel like the Czech’s all think in one direction, like a train on tracks that can’t change direction. I’d be fascinated to see what would happen if we injected a few million Pacific Islanders, or perhaps just a few hundred thousand Tunisians. I think it’d be brilliant.

• Water

I’ve never been much of a beach person, but still, as I find myself for the first time living in a land locked country, with nothing but a little river running through the city, I find myself missing the ocean.

On the way to Uni, I would cross the harbour bridge every day, and it was wonderful. Most days, I’d pull my nose out of my book and watch the water ripple past down below, the boats making snake lines in the water and the citylights reflecting off, and it was brilliant. Now I catch the metro which makes the whole journey underground – where’s the romance in that?
I think there’s definitely something about living near water – even you don’t visit it everyday it becomes a part of you, you can feel it, and now that I can’t feel it anymore I miss it.

I should say I miss my family as well and can’t live without them, because otherwise they’ll get cross. But meh.

Coup in Mauritania

2008-08-06T23:18:00.002+10:00

So I've started reading the English Al Jazeera, which is a brilliant news source but also makes me feel resoundingly stupid.

The front page today (english.aljazeera.net) states that there was a bloodless coup help in Mauritania, an event which will probably have a resounding affect on millions of people.

Except unfortunately I never even knew there was a country called Mauritania. Apparently its in the Centre-West of Africa.

So thankyou Al Jazeera, you continue to keep me informed and aware of my own general ignorance.

Where do all these people keep coming from?

2008-07-30T01:29:00.002+10:00

So here I am, literally on the other side of the world (or pretty close) and I keep getting bothered by people coming to visit!

I kidd, obviously it's brilliant, if slightly bizarre. I've been here for two months and so far I've been visited by three people, and on Saturday a fourth.

Visits 1&2: Lucy and Kate.

Lucy and Kate, having somehow been selected (read: bribed their way onto) AI, were in Prague for...wait for it...AI planning. (for the non AIESECers in the readership, AI is team of people that run AIESEC on the international level). That's right, AI decided to do their planning in Prague. Why not? Last year they did it in Tuscany. Douche bags.

Anyway, I was reasonably forgiving considering it brought me two such wonderful friends. It was honestly wonderful to see Lucy and Kate, I showed them around the city and talked in Australian. I also got to hang out with the AI team (including the PAI, who I didn't realise was the PAI for a good chunk for the day we were hanging out, which was probably good, because I could talk to him like he was a human being).

Jake would have been so jealous. I should have called him. Hey Jake, how are you? What? Freezing in Sydney? Well I'm here hanging out with Juan and the gang. Yeah, we're just chilling, kicking back, shooting the breeze, chatting about well, you wouldn't really understand, you know, me and the AI team, We're t-i-g-h-t tight.

There was also an MCP meeting (Presidents of AIESEC in each country) for Europe, and I got to know the MCP of Croatia (a lovely Portugese girl named Katarina) and the MCP of Slovenia quite well, plus a few other MCPs a little bit.

Visit 3: Steve.

Steve is one of my favourite people in the world. Totally honest, devestatingly intelligent, one of the most empathetic people I know, also one almost totally devoid of any proprietary. As you can imagine, we get along well.

We explored Prague for a day, I had to leave for Slovakia the next day so couldn't spend more time with him. We drank cheap beer, oggled good looking girls (Steve complained of there being two many, worrying that he'd get into trouble here soon enough - probably true) and generally had a nice time wandering around and having a laugh.

On Saturday will be visit 4, when Ana, a Portuguese girl who was my best friend in Thailand (we were on the same internship together) is coming to visit. I haven't seen her in 2 1/2 years, so I'm really looking forward.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Next month I'm off to Brazil for International Congress, which is pretty freaking cool.

Also some news: I passed all my subjects last semester, so I'm going to graduate! Hooray!

Peter.

Slovakia

2008-07-30T01:05:00.003+10:00

So I just got back from Slovakia, where we ran a duel-national conference between us (AIESEC Czech Republic) and AIESEC Slovakia. It was quite an experience.

Firstly, we pulled the conference together in MAYBE three weeks, while doing our planning at same time. I played a game once in a conference in Sydney where there were two teams, and each had to build one half of a bridge. There was one person from each team who could communicate with the other team, but only in a limited capacity. At the end, we had to put the bridge together and hope it could hold up a pencil.

Well, this conference was exactly like that. With no time for the conference team to meet as a whole, we did the best we could.

Good news is, we really pulled it off, it was an amazing conference, and the chaos added it a bit. Forced to do the best we could with a difficult situation, we rose up, came together and all did our best, and it turned out our best was pretty damn good.

I had a lot of responsibility at the conference, with responsibility for one entire day (out of 3) as well as two other large sessions.

We arrived in Slovakia and the weather was AWFUL, killing our planned site seeing. It was raining and the wind hit near hurricane level speed, making our umbrellas useless (also breaking mine) and generally making the pre-conference period unpleasant and cold.

My major responsibility was the Growth Day, whos main sessions was an "LC Fair" - where every local committee could showcase themselves and discuss with other AIESECers from around the two countries, getting ideas on how to do their jobs better and building a greater sense of community etc. It could have been awful, but somehow it came off really well and it seemed to be most delegates favourite session, which was nice.

The parties were NUTS. The best one - the last one - was an all night free for all that basically destroyed me (in a good way). Firstly, Topalki. This is Czech skolling/boatracing. No thumbs on table, the beer sits on the floor and you kneel over it with your hands behind your back, when its your turn to drink you pick it up and chug it down (of course).

Now this was like Australian skolling five years ago. The energy in the room was intense, the competition fierce. I was in two teams, getting into the semi-final in one. Most people who were really serious went to the bathroom to induce...well, you know...so that they could drink more and faster. I decided not to, and paid for it later as we were using full strength beer and I put back probably eight of them in a one our period.

Culture shock: when just before the final, a group of people (eight guys and two girls) did what they called "top-alki" (I'm assuming it has more meaning in Czech). The girls stripped to their underwear and the guys sat in two rows and pretended to have a masturbation race. YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY. The other internationals in the room were as surprised as I was. I'll put it down to cultural differences.

We then danced till 3am (I was drunk enough to enjoy the Czech/Slovakian music, and I even started to recognise some so I could sing a long a bit, without understanding the words). After this we went to a nearby club (discotheque in Czech) and danced till about 5am. Coming out to daybreak, I was dragged into what would have been culture shock number 2 if I had been sober enough to think about it. "Sukrece" (meaning "candy" in Czech) involved putting a piece of candy in your mouth and passing it around the circle. Yes, you read that correctly. Upon waking up the next day I brushed my teeth a few times.

Deciding at a bit before 6 to go to bed, I walked into the hallway of the honestly bizarre communist era building where my bedroom was, to find a group of people sleeping in a ragged pile on the floor, to which I was invited and joined for a period, before heading properly to bed where I slept for perhaps two hours, before having to get up and run a three hour session, with which I was not extremely effective.

Leaving the site, we missed our bus and therefore our train back to Prague, and ended up having to catch an 11pm train, arriving finally back to our flat (after riding the night bus from the main station) at around 5am on Monday morning.

I'm still tired. It was pretty freaking awesome though. And the girls in the sukrece circle weren't bad either :P

The Foreign Police Chapter Two

2008-07-30T00:30:00.002+10:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, it's been a wild and crazy month.

To start with, we have the second chapter of the foreign police saga.

I arrived with Vojta (one of my team mates) at the foreign police at 4am, to find myself 300th in the queue. Waiting around till 9am, we discovered that there were too many people and we should come back tomorrow. We were advised to come at 6pm and stay the night.

Jesus H. Christ, if you'll pardon my french (what's the deal with that saying btw?)

ANYWAY, I somewhat perturbed (to put it lightly) I went to the office for a short meeting, went home for a nap and came back to the police station at 7pm (my nap was a bit longer than expected) to find myself about 100th in the queue. Oh dear.

Luckily (I think) there was some organisation to the queue. Unluckily this organisation was in the form of the Ukrainian mafia (I think) who was in charge of "the list" I went up to the guy, who spoke no English, of course, and got my name on the list. From what I understand, he sells the top spots to those willing to pay...

Most of the crowd was Ukrainian, but for the most part they were well behaved. I quickly made friends with a Russian guy (called Dennis, of all things) from Siberia, whos English was excellent and we kept each other company.

Every two hours the "roll" was marked, and those not there were taken off the list, so we had to be around. Dennis and I went to get a beer, and promptly almost got into a fight in a small bar, where a large drunk man decided we had sat at his table. Denis, who is studying Czech, managed to get him to talk about football, and he promptly forgot he was angry at us. Then a homeless guy came up to us and asked us to buy him a beer, and we decided to find a new place to go.

The second establishment was nicer, if a bit strange in terms of decor (think H.R. Giger - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.R._Giger). And had a chat.

Dennis was nicely Russian, a completely impassive face that stayed the same even as he got a bit drunk, but language that became progressively more...passionate. With very strong points of view about politics, society etc, it was an exciting chat.

Heading back, I tried to have a sleep - I had brought my pillow and one of my team had leant me a sleeping mat, and I made myself as comfortable as possible on the cigarette littered dirt.

At 4am, we started to form into a queue and the struggle started, as we had to protect our place in the queue. We were inside by 8am or so, and I had a ticket - number 90 or so I think, and settled into wait.

The line moved a lot slower than the last time, and again I was served around 4pm, but I got through, got my stamp, and got sorted.

This was quite an experience. I'd never been subjected to something so...inhuman I suppose. A completely bizarre, antiquated, awful system, I was powerless to affect anything, having to sleep in the dirt surrounded by the other "lower" forms of humanity (read: not Czech or EU). We were treated like animals, left to fight amongst ourselves somehow, and there was built a strange power system, controlled by Ukrainians for some reason.

I suppose this is how billions of people feel everyday (minus the Ukrainian part). Left to sleep outside, treated as second class, left to fight it out among themselves, perhaps I tapped into a type of suffering there that I could never have experienced otherwise, perhaps in that moment I could come closer to understanding the inhumanity, the lack of dignity that so many people live with every day.

And I think that last part is important - the lack of dignity. I don't like to put hierarchies on things, but I really think dignity, ensuring people are able to maintain dignity, is so important, and when our dignity is removed slowly our humanity is stripped away, as we are treated like animals our behavior becomes more animalistic.

For all his virtues, Dennis was in no doubt racist. With us in the line were four Chinese people, two girls and two guys. I'm quite sure half of them were in front of us and the other two pushed in, but Dennis decided that they all pushed in, and started to get angry. He pushed in front of them and asked me to do the same, though this mostly meant I pushed in front of those who did not have the strength to resist - the women.

And here, with our dignity stripped away, I did nothing to bring it back up, in fact I lowered it further. I pushed in front of the girls, who, smaller than me, were less powerful than me in this strange hierarchy. I smiled when Dennis began to call them "Monkeys" not because I agreed with him, but because he was my friend and was helping me and I didn't want to speak against him. And so I bullied two girls and smiled at racist comments and lowered myself down, down, down.

As I think back on this, I feel so utterly ashamed, I wonder if those friends of mine back home who are of Chinese dissent can forgive me, and I wonder if I can forgive myself.

And I wonder if, given the same situation, I would behave differently.

Because when you're dignity is stripped away like that, your raw humanity shows, and it's not always pretty.

The Illegal Forest Techno Party

2008-07-05T23:08:00.002+10:00

We made our way towards the loud noise, as it echoed through the countryside. Up a forest path, through the forest, dodging cars that were coming both ways, we probably walked for half an hour before getting there.

We’d been hoping for something cool and big, a few hundred people…what we found was a small clearing, maybe 80 people, most of whom were drug-fucked, swaying to terrible techno music or (for some reason) playing foozball on a table someone had apparently bought. It wasn’t a terrible set up, the speakers were definitely loud enough, though the lighting was somewhat unimaginative (a single strobe light) it was probably good enough for the drug addled brains of our fellow party seekers. I was told that within 10 minutes of being there, we were both offered drugs and had people ask us if we had any drugs. Being good boys (and in the middle of planning) we declined, of course (don’t worry Mum, I’m not going to come back from Europe with a crack habit).

We stayed for an hour or so danced to the terrible, terrible music, and before I got bored and asked if we could go home.

So it was pretty random, and not particularly cool to be honest, but it was definitely an experience.

MC Planning

2008-07-05T23:08:00.001+10:00

So I won’t go into details of the MC Planning, because it’s a bit of a blur. 7 days working 9am till 10pm, or later, doing planning. I tired in a completely different way than I’d ever been tired before by the end of it – tired in the head, but not in the body, like I’d strained my brain. It probably wasn’t the most effective way of doing planning, but it was also a good team building exercise. I’m finally getting a feel for the people in my team, and it seems that we’ll make a pretty good team.
We were out in the countryside for most of it, staying above a pub (yeah, I know, planning in a pub, cool huh? A 4pm beer is a good planning tool it turns out). Every night, as we were winding down and drinking some beer, we’d here loud techno music coming from somewhere a ways off. Apparently it was from an illegal techno party in the middle of the forest, so one evening when we finished a little bit early we decided to go.

MC TOP

2008-07-05T23:06:00.000+10:00

So the MC TOP (MC Take Over Party) was a three day extravaganza of partying – or that is what it was supposed to be. Held in the middle of the forsest, at a site in the Camp Krusty style (old, wooden, rickety cabins etc). This was also coupled with an abnormal cold-snap, which meant our nights were spent huddled up next to a large camp fire – still, it was quite fun.
We started with two days of “functional meetings” where I was able to meet all the people I’m coaching – that is, the people that have the same position as me (exchange delivery) but at a local level. They’re all really great people, very switched on, and it’s looking to be a good year.
After this, we played sport (I read my book and chatted), drank beer from some of the kegs that were brought along (light beer AND dark beer – yum…) and hate slightly horrific looking Czech cuisine, generally meat and two veg, but Czech style.

The last evening, we had a semi official ceremony, where were passed our titles, and I was given my Czech MC Hockey Jersey! It’s super cool, and it has my name on it!
THEN, we had a bbq. Not just any bbq, they actually had a PIG ON A SPIT. They had cooked it slowly through much of the day. It was AWESOME! I can understand why people become vegetarians, I felt a little bad, watching the poor pig slowly rotating, except the amazing smell had me salivating…it tasted fantastic as well.

I spent a good proportion of my time in the a “alone in a group” state – everyone around me speaking Czech…I’m getting used to that though.

The Poo Shelf Toilet

2008-06-26T23:07:00.003+10:00

Ok, this one has been bugging me for a while, and I need to write about it. I'm sorry Mum and Dad, I'd suggest not showing this post to my Grandparents.

I'm going to be writing about the Poo Shelf Toilet.

Ok, so I've travelled a bit now, through China, Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries and cities around about, and I thought I saw some pretty strange toilets. The Chinese squat toilet is surprising at first, but somehow reasonable in terms of absolute utility. There's a hole, you poo in it. Easy.

All of these toilets pale in comparison with a toilet that I feel must be native to the Czech Republic - the Poo Shelf Toilet.

Imagine if you will - I'll understand if you won't - a normal Australian toilet. Porcelain rim over a largeish (though for most me standing over, not quite large enough) hole full of water, leading to a pipe.

Imagine now that this while was very small, and only at the front of the inside of the toilet, and at the back - a shelf - taking up 3/4 of the inside of the toilet.

No problem when you're doing a number 1. Do a number 2 though, and once you've finished, you get up to discover that your poo is sitting on the white, porcelain shelf, unning itself like a sculpture, smiling at you in all its glory.

I feel I know my poo too well now - I won't go into details, but I found out that you don't actually digest small pieces of corn.

I've found this species of loo in several places now, and it never fails to mystify me as to why on earth someone would choose to design a toilet like this. What twisted mind would decide that that this was a good feature? "Well geez...I enjoy the toilet experience and all, but I really don't feel close enough to my poop. What can I do about it...I think I've got it!"

Czech toilet designers are crazy.

Peter.

Back in Prague

2008-06-26T22:56:00.002+10:00

So sorry I haven't written in a while, things have been hectic to say the least. The last two weeks have included:

The MC Take Over Party, in the middle of a forest somewhere no-one has ever heard of
A full week of MC planning in the middle of the country somewhere no-one has ever heard of
A visit to the beautiful city of Olomouc
My last exam!!!

First of - the exam. Joy and jubilation, I'm finished - I hope. Luckily I did a lot of international relations courses last semester and my lecturers were happy to help me out - out of three courses, I did two exams early and one yesterday.

The problem with the exam yesterday is that I haven't done university for three weeks now, and I'm been swallowed by AIESEC stuff ever since. I didn't really do university much the whole semester, but you get my point. Trying to be "uni minded" was a challenge. Still, I managed to finish it in the right amount of time, email it back, and now just wait for my results. If I pass everything, I get my bachelor degrees! If not, then I get to go back to Australia and finish. Either way I don't have to worry about uni for a little while.

Anyway, I've got a few things to right about, so first I'll write a few short points and then get into some of the bigger stuff.

Cultural experiences in Ostrava

2008-06-13T07:26:00.003+10:00

So Lukas (the guy I'm taking over from), Lucka (pronounced Luska, a newly appointed MC Manager – unpaid MC position -, whos helping me with exchange) and I went to Ostrava for a training session we were running (I should say Lukas was running and I was learning). Firstly a little about Ostrava.

Now this is no view of the people I've met in Ostrava. Every AIESEC member in Ostrava has been, without exception, wonderful. They seem hard working, open minded, have a great culture, I really like them.

But the city...how should I describe it? If I were going to design a city that was in fact one large prison, it would look something like Ostrava. The communists really hit this place hard, square, grey building everywhere. The building I'm staying in, while the flat is quite large, the elevator looks like something out of a submarine. The best thing is the town hall, which has that strange off green tinge to it that all older building that haven't been properly maintained do. To top it off, rising out of the centre is a huge tower, that looks exactly like a guard tower in an American prison. It's a bit strange. Where as in Prague there are beautiful building adorned with amazing statues of angels etc, in Ostrava there are grey squares adorned with "heroic are the working bottom class" plaques.

So a little bit of a new cultural experience, which in fact paled in comparison with one I'd have at the pub. Ostrava has a road that, the entire length, only has pubs and bars. We went to one at one end, it reminded me a bit of the landsdowne, everyone on one long table. I went to where some interns were sitting, and sat with two interns, a guy from Togo and another guy from Macedonia. It was quite an experience.

The guy from Togo talked. He talked and talked. He had a HUGE personality, and could talk to a brick wall for four hours I think. It wasn't all easy though, the talk was often overtly sexual, racist sometimes, other times profoundly homophobic. At one point he pronounced that if he were the President of Togo he'd round all the homosexuals up (telling them they would be talking about how to make their experience in Togo better) and then kill them all. He swore, liberally and in a way that it had impact. At times, he seemed to be talking truths, at others he was obviously lying, and these stories interwove until you didn't know what to believe, at one point telling us about how violent Nigeria and Nigerians are, at others telling us about how he was going to Prague to talk to a football club about signing some players from Togo.

The Macedonian guy was equally interesting but in a different way. He was quiet most of the time, other times egging the Togan guy on, other times calming him down a bit. I thought he was the more reasonable, at least, of the two. Then a Czech girl came and sat down, and he started having a go at her. At first, I thought he was joking, because his expression, stony with a hint of a smile, never changed. Then it became clear that he wasn't. His complaint was that he had heard that this girl had said she hated him, stating that he heard it on the AIESEC grapevine (my term not his). He wanted to make sure she KNEW about this. That he was direct, and didn't say things behind peoples back like SHE did. That he didn't give a SHIT about it, and didn't give a SHIT about her (the Togan guy piped in occasionally talking about how much he loved life and didn't give a fuck about anybody). He did this all with the same expression as he had the whole night, the same tone in his voice, but he leant forward and pointed accusingly at her, all the while she had her mouth open, unsure what was going on, saying she hadn't done anything, but this fell on dead ears.

So all in all it was a bit intense. I found myself silent most of the night, occasionally asking a question, but mostly watching the interactions.

My respect for the Ostrava members grew tremendously though. In the face of this cultural onslaught, they sat and listened to them calmly, questioned, joked even, and never got overly upset by anything (I assume this sort of thing has happened before with these two). They did distance themselves, physically during and after the outburst, but I never heard a bad word from any of them, even when we had left, only understanding.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Zbraslavica for the MC Take Over Party, and my whole team will be together for the first time, which should be pretty exciting.

Alenka

2008-06-12T17:16:00.002+10:00

So I'm heading to Ostrava (northern CzR) for a meeting and then to Zbraslavice (a mouthful) for the four day (!) MC take over party! That's what I call a celebration. Then I think I'm heading somewhere else, then going for a week of MC planning near Ostrava again! So I might not write anything for a few weeks.

I will say that I meet up with Alenka the day before yesterday for dinner. Alenka was a Czech intern in Australia who I (and the rest of AIESEC Sydney at the time) was very close to, and it was AMAZING to see her. More than anybody else so far, she understood what I'm going through, and it was so great talking to her.

I think that meeting started me on a track towards becoming more at home here. I think, somehow, even though I've been here for over a week now, it still hasn't quite set in that I'm really here. Something to do with working so hard up to the time I left then coming straight here, it felt somehow unreal. Meeting with Alenka somehow helped me start to realise I'm here.

Something else that did was last night, going out to watch a football game in the middle of one of the oldest squares in Prague, on a big screen surrounded by extraordianry, old, beautiful buildings. That was pretty cool (Eurocup, Czech Republic vs Portugal, unfortunately the Czech Republic lost).

Anyway, I'm starting to get more comfortable, starting to find my groove I suppose.

Peter

Culture Shock

2008-06-10T03:36:00.002+10:00

So I'm painting a picture of my time here being brilliant for the most part (apart from the Foreign Police), and for the most part it is. There are, of course, occasions when I'm not very happy, occasions when I wonder why I'm even here.

There's a few things I'm having a hard time with. My team isn't here yet, they're still scattered around the country finishing exams, so I don't really have the support network that I assumed would be my main one, my team, here to support me in the time that I probably need them the most. There is Jaro and Lukas, previous members of the old MC, and now Vojta (whos full name is Vojtech, which sounds like a Czech transformer) has moved in, which is nice, but I really can't wait until the whole team is here.

Partly because of this, and the fact that I need to achieve things already with limited information or support makes things a bit difficult sometimes. I need to organise a "Growth Day" for a conference in July, a day where we will invite people from other countries in the region to help develop partnerships with LCs in the Czech Republic, among other things, and I'm finding it quite difficult. I'm a person that needs to talk things through, and right now there's nobody to talk things through with, so I'm kind of struggling through it, piecing together ideas and concepts, and it will eventually happen but it's a bit stressful right now, mostly because I don't have the information I need and it's quite hard to get it. Basically I'm trying to organise an event I've never been to in a country I don't understand, and I have to do it in about six weeks. Hooray! Nothing like being thrown in the deep end.

Czechs have a terrible habit of talking in Czech - no duh right? But I'll be sitting at lunch with a bunch of Czechs and they might start a funny story in English, and then tell the punchline in Czech! Everyone laughs and I'm left going, "What? What happened?" Basically they tend to talk in Czech, not quite making the connection that I can't speak it, and I often feel left out, sitting in the corner by myself.

Some things are working though. I helped out an event over the last two days, an exchange training event for team leaders in LC Praha, and I've found through this that I know a lot more than I realise. I was able to run sessions about putting market research into action, country partnerships and intern reintegration with minimal preparation, and I pulled them off well! So more and more I'm realising I can do this job, and do it well, which is a nice feeling.

I guess in the end, I wasn't mentally prepared to leave home. I knew, and still know, that it was the right choice for my development, but it's been harder than I expected to leave my friends and family, and I miss them (you) a lot. I know, over the next weeks and months, I will find my rythm here, build my support networks and find a way to make this a "home" but right now these things are still forming, and it can sometimes be quite hard.

Fun times in Prague and Beyond

2008-06-10T03:24:00.002+10:00

So I haven't been especially frugal since I've been here, but boy I've had a pretty great time.

On Wednesday night, I went out with the local committee I'm coaching, LC Praha, for a mini-pub crawl. We split into teams and made something of a competition out of it, though my team (three internationals and 1 Czech) took our sweet time and enjoyed it. We went to some nice, cheap places (20 crowns for a .5L beer - about $1.5) and chatted.

One of the people I was with was a really nice girl from the Ukraine, who was with me on my adventure with the Foreign Police. The second was a Brazilian who is here as a site manager for a construction company (not an AIESEC internship) and tagged along with us - he was really cool, obsessed with Metallica.

On Thursday night, I went out with some interns to a tea house. We sat around, drank some nice tea, smoked some shisha (flavoured tobacco, don't worry, it's not illegal) and generally had a nice, chilled out time. Most of the people there aren't actually interns anymore, having extended their internships into full time longer term jobs. They were all really cool people and old school AIESECers.

On Saturday I went with these guys to a town about 2 1/2 hours from Prague, near the border of Poland and Germany, called Harrachov. We actually went to see a traditional glass blowing factory, which was a little bit yawn but I would have gone anywhere to see outside of the city.

The town was beautiful, a ski resort town in the winter, it was surrounded by forested mountains that begged to be hiked. Or would have begged if I was the kind of person who hiked, which I'm not. We did do what I prefer though, and sat somewhere where we could enjoy the scenery, ate and drank some beer.

The glass blowing factory actually had it's own brewery, and we got a free beer that they'd brewed. It wasn't pasturised (apparently, I didn't know beer was pasturised?), so it was really fresh and full of flavour. In Australia, home brewed beer is possibly poisonous, in Czech it's brilliant.

Augusto (Gus), an intern from Italy who had come to Australia a few years ago was there, and it was brilliant to see him. He's still the same, mouthy and funny, and has a totally hot Venezualan girlfriend now as well, so go Gus!

I'm going out tonight with Alenka, another old Sydney intern, who I'm seeing for the first time since I came, so it will be brilliant to see her.

Peter.

Living and Working Spaces

2008-06-10T03:19:00.002+10:00

So like I said, I'm living in a quite nice apartment in what looks like a vaguely derelict area, but apparently is actually not a bad place.

What is really cool is that about 10 minutes walk away is a forest, with massive hiking trails. I'm not talking about some woosy Australian bush (read: scrub), I'm talking about a FOREST with BIG TREES many of which are CHRISTMAS TREES. I think that's pretty great.

What's even greater is our office. Our office is situated in probably the equivalent of a side street in Martin Place. It's right near the main station, walking distance from the historic old town. I'll post a picture up soon of the view from my desk, which some of you have already seen - it's an old clock tower. The office really, truly IN PRAGUE. It's pretty great, two big rooms, one for meetings and one with our desks, being the first member of my team to start working properly I took the best desk, which is apparently ok because it's the "international" desk. Basically it's the desk with the best view.

Rain and Hail

2008-06-06T20:05:00.002+10:00

So the day after I got here, I some of the Pragueans showed me around, in the afternoon after I'd walked around for a while in the morning.

The first guy, Mishan, is going on an internship to Afghanistan. Very switched on, though clearly crazy, we walked around and had a good time. Then another guy Martin, took me up to a park on a hill called Letna, where we would sit and drink beer with a beautiful view of the city.

It didn't really work out that way.

Half way up the hill it started raining. We ran up and found a space underneath an awning and got two beers (somewhat blasphemously served in plastic cups), and then it really started raining.

This was like, skies open, torrential style rain. The awnings were apparently not designed for this, and kept filling up with water. The people that worked there had to run around with long sticks, pushing the awnings up to get rid of some of the water, obviously splashing everyone around.

So we were getting rain carried in by the wind, splashed on one side, and then it really got interesting and started hailing.

So some rain, splashed on one side, the hail bouncing off the awning and hitting us on the other side, we huddled in the meager protection afforded by the awning, being buffeted on all sides by the weather.

I had a lot of fun :)

2008-06-06T03:07:00.002+10:00

When things are backwards, they trick you twice.

Take a light switch. In Czech, you switch them upwards, to turn them on, the opposite way around, tricking you the first time.

So you remember that they are the opposite way to what you'd expect, but then you get used to them being the way they are, and the opposite becomes the wrong way again, so they trick you a second time.

And then you feel like an idiot for being tricked twice by a light switch.

Stupid light switches.

Peter McDermott and the Beauracracy of Doom

2008-06-05T00:02:00.003+10:00

Other titles I considered for this post:

Foreign Police my Ass
A day wasted
What the fuck is wrong with the Czech Republic?

Yesterday I went to the foreign police. I got up at 4am, to meet an AIESEC member at 5am at the main train station. First he took me to the office he thought it was at, but it had moved, so we got directions to the new place and got there by 6am. Big mistake.

The line was huge, round the block. We were joined by a new intern, Marina from Russia. The purpose of our visit was simply to tell the country that we are here. The foreign police, who are a body dealing exclusively with foreigners, as in people who aren't Czech, could only speak Czech. Even with a translator, there was nobody who could answer questions to make sure we had the right documents or what was required.

The line moved quickly enough, but inside we realised it was just to get a ticket. My ticket was number 162. We sat down and waited.

Two hours later, it was up to 30.

We went for a tea in a cafe, Marina and our guide went to get her insurance document translated, and I hung around, got some lunch, went for a walk. They came back, and the guy who was helping us (Richard) left and his role was taken by Jan. We waited some more.

We went for another walk, through the park, had another tea, and waited.

We weren't served until 5:30pm. I had been there for almost 12 hours at this point. I finally sat down and was told that I didn't need to be there, my VISA started on the 1st of July and I had to come back then.

I almost cried.

I was so angry! All the Czechs, from the President, to my team, to the members, had told me I had to go, I has asked a few of them about my VISA starting on the 1st of July, but they told me to go anyway. I went back to the AIESEC office and yelled at Jaro (the current President) as a representative of AIESEC Czech Republic of how it was unacceptable blah blah blah, mainly to get it off my chest so I wouldn't fume about it for days.

I have to go back to that hell hole next month! ARRGH! It's a nightmare, it's the most horrible, bureaucratic wasteland I've ever encountered. I'll get there at 4am or earlier next time to make sure I'm not there all day again.

Fucking foreign police.

Czech Cuisine

2008-06-04T23:46:00.003+10:00

Ok, I won't take long to talk about Czech food. Czech food is not healthy. So far, every time I've eaten Czech food, I've had some sort of meat with something, often "dumplings" (more like bread), onion, cabbage, drenched in some sort of gravy like sauce. Most food seems to be some sort of slight deviation on this common theme. After coming from Sydney, where there's every type of food and it's so good, I've got to get used to having some limitation on the food I have here. We went to a Chinese restaurant two days ago, but it was pretty awful. Sushi is expensive and considered a special thing, I haven't seen any shops that sell anything like salad. Some of the current MC members go to a gym nearby our house, so I might join them. It's a bit expensive, but I think it will be worth it to make sure I can fit through the door on the way out of the country once I'm finished here. Not to mention how much beer I drink.

Beer. Oh my god, beer. Beer is EVERYWHERE. I had a laugh yesterday, when I went into a KFC (for some comfort food, more on this later) and saw that you could get beer - from the tap mind - there.

In the Czech Republic, the beer flows freely, possibly to make up for the food. I've never seen anything like it. I thought Aussies drank a lot of beer, but we've got nothing on these guys. There seems to be a pub/bar/drinking place on every corner, and several in between. Every restaurant has beer on tap, every small shop has beer in the fridge. I've had at least one beer every day since I've been here! And it's good, oh so good. So far I've drunk Pilsner Urquell, Budvar, Gambrinus and Staropramen, I'm looking to expand this soon enough I think.

Prague Impressions

2008-06-04T23:16:00.003+10:00

I think the most extraordinary thing about Prague is the level of detail you encounter. At first, the buildings and streets make an impact on you such that it's hard to take anything in, let alone everything. When this passed though, and you stop gawping (it took a while) I started to notice the amazing level of detail and the extraordinary diversity and beauty in the built environment, something I wish that Sydney could take note of.

One building has a series of statues on it's roof, all different, another reminds of of a Parisian house, small windows with red flowers underneath each awning. Everything is beautiful and extravagant.

I went exploring Prague by myself on my second day in town, simply wandering the streets of the old town, going down whichever street looked the most interesting, which took a few hours. I was met by an AIESEC member called Mishan, who is going on an internship to Afghanistan (!) soon, so he's clearly a bit adventurous. He showed me around a bit, and pointed out a few key landmarks, we walked over the Charles Bridge and through the old Jewish Quarter. I didn't go into anything, I'll do that over the next few weeks I suppose. I don't find myself pulled by the sightseeing though, I think I'd prefer to just wander around and experience the place. I haven't even gone to the Prague Castle yet! I'll probably do some proper sight seeing this weekend if I have time, and go see some of the main things, letting my guidebook lead me.

First Days in Prague

2008-06-03T19:01:00.002+10:00

So I got picked up from Prague airport by Vojta (pronounced Voyta), who was the only person free, everyone else being scattered around the country either helping with LC planning (the old team) or finalising their study (my team). We caught the bus to a metro and the metro to my new flat.

The Flat:

The MC flat is actually owned by the MC, which is cool and means I get free accomodation. My first impressions of the area it's in (Haje) when I got there was...derelict.

Yeah...it's kind of a weird place. Random flats in the communist style (square blocks) but painted random colours, although this just adds to the oddness. The shops nearby kind of look like they've been unused for years, except they're still in use...I'm not sure how to describe it better. You know when you enter the wrong building and it just feels wrong? That's what entering this building for the first time feels like. There's a random unnumbered door, another door and then up three flights of stairs past a ladder on the wall I assume is the fire escape.

The flat itself is really nice. It's got a very cosy feel to it and I'm really going to enjoy living there. It's an absolute mess at the moment, and I kind of feel like cleaning it all, but I haven't had the energy so far. I've been placed in a back room called the "chill out room" where there is a random mattress, until a bed becomes free I assume. It's comfortable and it's nice to have my own space for at least a little while.

We went out the first night and I got my first sight of inner-Prague. We went to a downstairs pub and I had my first taste of "magic cheese" (hi Mel2) which is basically cheese schnitzel. It was pretty great, and of course some Czech beer - Gambrinus. Yummy :)

The next day I went exploring.

Flying is not dignified or The interesting people you meet on planes.

2008-06-03T18:37:00.004+10:00

So I'm sitting in an internet cafe waiting for my interview with the foreign police, a period of beaurocratic dickery that I'll get into later. First the flight.

Flying is not dignified, in fact I think the entire aviation industry is built around pretending there's some sort of dignity involved while simultaneously sucking any dignity you try to cling onto right out of you.

In fact, flying long distances (is there any other type from Australia) involves:

Waiting
Being uncomfortable
Eating awful, awful food
Trying not to piss off the guy next to you
Trying to not let the guy next to you piss you off
Waiting.

I flew out of Australia at 8am on Korean Airlines to Seoul for a one night stop over. The flight over there was bearable, I had a seat empty next to me and the guy in the middle got out on the other side, so I had plenty of room. As always in the ticket price that I pay as a student, the plane was probably a month away from being scrapped I'm sure. It took about 10 hours, and not having flown that distance for a long time, I was far less Zen about the whole thing then I remember when flying to Thailand.

Incheon Airport is the transit from Hell. The whole town around the airport is built for transitting I think, it felt a bit like Homebush right after the Olympic games, all done up but nobody actualy there. Really quite bizarre. I got put up in the Best and Western, which was quite a nice place.

The best thing was the people I met. All of us transitting off the same plane went to the same hotel, so a few of the more interesting people including yours truly banded together. There was Dave (or Andy, I can't quite remember...) the gay Opera singer, heading to England for two weeks of singing lessons, Bella, who left school at 13 to go sailing around the world with her father and was heading to Italy to get away from a bad break up. My first encounter with Bella was on the plane, and auditory, as when we finally landed we had to wait for a gate to become free, and when this was announced a resounding "fuck" echoed through the cabin - this was Bella. There was Roman, a Czech artist in the middle of emigrating to Australia, he was going back to Prague to pick up his wife and daughter and take them home. There was also a German girl who worked in Australia at a dam for some reason.

We had dinner in the hotel and went out for drinks nearby, there were plenty of places to choose from, so we just picked one at random and had a few beers and chatted. Dave (or Andy), Bella and I went back to Bella's room to chat for a few more hours, before heading to bed.

My flight was at 2pm the next day, so we had a late breakfast and headed to the airport. I accompanied Bella as she found a little chemist which sold her enough sleeping tablets to take down a rhyno, no questions asked. She didn't want to be awake on the next flight, I should have followed suit. The Airport in Seoul is HUGE. Biggest Airport I've ever been in.

Saying goodbyes, I boarded the next, far worse flight. The flight was full, and I gave up my window seat to a Korean lady that wanted to sit next to her friend (if I were in her situation I would have asked for the same thing). Anyway, I sat next to a Czech guy who happily wanted to chat with me as much as I wanted to chat with him (none), so we were good, respectful seating partners.

I ordered pork for dinner and got recently warmed up fat, which was inedible, and felt rather ill most of the flight to Prague.

Flying is undignified, but at least it gets you there soon enough.

Peter.

In Prague

2008-06-01T20:17:00.003+10:00

So I'm sitting in an internet cafe in the middle of Prague. Yes, that's right, Prague. Holy crap.

I've been walking around with my mouth half way open (the catching flies look) for the last two hours. There's a reason Australian's go to London first and go east from there, dropping straight into Prague is too much of a head-fuck. The cobblestone streets, the buildings, the spires and towers, the clocks, the everything, is too much to take in coming from Sydney, it's so amazing I can't even describe it all yet, except in expletives (holy f^&$ing shit).

So yeah, it's something else alright, I'll have to collate my thoughts more effectively so that I can describe it better, I've taken some pictures which I'll post up soon.

Anyway, after a long hiatus, the peters-travels blog is back in action baby!

I'm going to go have a beer I think.

Peter.

Bangkok

2006-07-10T20:53:00.000+10:00

Well it finally hit…kind of…that I’m heading home, and I’m confused to say the least. I don’t want to go but I don’t want to stay and I’m happy and sad and angry and ugh. It’s awful. I have no idea whats going on in my head, it’s a bit messy.

On the plus side, we’re living it up. We’re staying at a $50 a night apartment with:

• Big bathroom and hot water (thankyou GOD)
• Big bedroom with double bed (which I got to myself)
• Big living room with couch (where Tim slept)
• Cable tv
• Fridge and bar

Oh yeah.

So we’ve just been pottering around, getting horrendously drunk every night and shopping during the day. We tried to get all our shopping done at Chattachuk markets, but that place is way too big and scary and packed and awful. Too long there and you start to go nuts. It’s HUGE, with a LOT of people. Ugh.

Anyway, that’s really about it for my Thailand trip. I’ll write about my thoughts about everything next time, but those are all the actions that happened. The emotions, and the changes in me are larger then words can say, but I’ll try in my next post.

Peter out.

Phuket and Phi Phi

2006-07-10T20:19:00.000+10:00

Well, it’s been a while! I knew I needed to finish my blog, it was just about finding the time and the energy I suppose.

My goodness…it’s been over 4 months since I got back, and it seems like…I don’t know. A different life time perhaps? Yet not…I’ll get into my thoughts on that later on. Not that there’s anybody reading this anymore :P

So, I left off with my trip back to Bangkok to see the concert. I’ve got to say that was the best thing ever, and such an amazing thing to do.

Tim and I hitchhiked down to Phuket. That was great, I always enjoy hitchhiking, you meet the best people that way. Can’t remember who we hitchhiked with this time. Anyway, we stayed at this awful old hostel, the oldest hostel in Phuket (where the hostel scenes in The Beach were set) and headed off to Phi Phi.

Phi Phi was great, truly beautiful. We went to THE beach, as in the setting of the movie, which on a national park. We also went snorkelling and saw a few sharks! Tim freaked out, he doesn’t like sharks.

The accommodation was truly crap, and Tim and I were in the same bed again, which is always fun. He hogs the blankets, the bastard.

Other then that not much happened really. We chilled out, went to the beach, read, and had some really nice dinners. I still can’t get over $5 crab on the beach. After that we headed back to Phuket and flew back to Bangkok (again…)

Khao Lak Concerts

2006-02-22T02:30:00.000+11:00

So Time and I rock up in Khao Lak, and it's like I never left, it was brilliant. Tim liked it as well I think, he got on really well with everyone.

It was weird at first, I got there and it was so great. I wasn't sure if I could leave again. It was so great seeing everyone, and I was only really gone 3 weeks. It was a bit tough really, my emotions are a jumble at the moment. I want to go home but I don't want to leave, which is weird, like being pulled in opposite directions.

Ugh, anyway, I got there and everyone was getting ready to head to Bangkok for a concert. There was a Rock Festival on apparently. So we're out on the piss, it's about 5:30 in the morning, the WHOLE night, everyones been trying to convince Tim and I to go to Bangkok with them. I leave it up to Tim, as he's only out here for a month, and he decided to go.

Best. Decision. Ever.

It was SO good. Oasis, Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, Snow Patrol, a Thai band called Big Ass. We
flew there from Phuket, and back the next Monday, with Jenny, Scott, Helen, James, Nikki,
Ali, Kevin and John. Kevin, if I haven't introduced him, is WONDERFUL. English guy,he sleeps
at the pub most nights because he drinks so damn much it's unbelievable. They wake him up at
the pub and he goes to work. THAT'S commitment. He's so much fun, the drunker he gets the
more touchy feely he gets, he keeps trying to snog me and feel me up. That sounds weird, but
he's such a big soft toy it's just funny.

Anyway, we went out every night, rocked out all day, it was GREAT. I had so much fun. Oasis
were great. Liam Gallagher is probably the biggest tool in history, whenever he wasn't singing he'd just wander round the stage, clean his glasses, stick his thumbs in his pants and just glare at the audience. Once he hit his mic off the stand and stormed off stage.

Placebo were probably my favourite, though Franz Ferdinand were a lot of fun as well.

I got back to Khao Lak yesterday, to pick up our stuff, and headed down to Phuket this morning. It was a messy last night, I was drinking (funny that) and realised it was my last night in Khao Lak. I wasn't coming back, wasn't just leaving for a while, this was it. Done. Gone. I was talking to Jenny, and she started crying (she cries when everyone leaves), and that was it, it was all over, we just cried in each others arms the rest of the night.

Heading to Phi Phi tommorrow morning. We're staying in the On On hotel, where the scene with the suicide is filmed in The Beach. It really is that shit.

Peter.

Koh Tao (boo!) and back in Khao Lak

2006-02-16T18:40:00.000+11:00

Koh Tao WOULD have been nice if I'd gotten my divers license there. Unfortunately my ears wouldn't work properly and I couldn't dive. Let's not talk about this anymore, it just makes me angry. They gave me a refund, of $10. Thanks a million.

Back in Khao Lak now after a 15 hour (!) journey. 9 hours on the night ferry - this was fun, just a big room filled with mattresses, 2 people to every mattress. I was on the same mattress as a little Korean guy, so it was ok. Tim got a large german man.

The Korean guy's girlfriend spoke almost no English. When she got up the next day I laughed to see she had a Thai airways blanket. I pointed to it and said "Thai." She smiled and said, "Five fingered discount." It's probably the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

I didn't really sleep at all, though Tim slept most of the way. I do most of my deep thinking on extroadinarily long, uncomfortable trips so it was cool, I spent the time reflecting on my trip and listening to music.

Then there was a slow bus from Surrathani to Khao Lak, and I'm back home! I've been smiling a little since I got here.

I'll be eating with everyone tonight, so that should be good.

Anyway I'll keep you posted.

Peter.

Koh Tao

2006-02-13T22:46:00.000+11:00

Well Koh Tao might be nice, hell, it might be paradise. I wouldn't know, because it hasn't stopped raining.

It's supposedly dry season here, but apparently La Nina is having a great old time of it and swinging things around (or more probably, global warming is doing weird stuff to the weather). In any case, it's raining, continually.

It's not that big a deal, because for a good part of the day today we were underwater anyway. Yep, scuba diving! Today we learnt how to do it in the pool, which was fun enough. It's a weird sensation, sitting on the bottom of the pool, breathing. The first instant where you put your head under is unsettling to say the least. It's heaps of fun though, once you get into it.

The whole thing is vaguely complicated, with all sorts of tubes and pipes. We went over the whole thing in a video and in books before we did it for real.

Underwater you've got to keep yourself calm. There's a few rules to stop yourself from getting screwed up down there, and one of them is to keep breathing, so your lungs don't explode. It's easy to panic though, we were doing "worst case scenario" practices and one of the things was to take your mask off, still breathing, and then put your mask back on and clear the water out. I freaked out a couple of times, though I'm not sure why, just panicked and couldn't breath anymore. I got it down though, just got to remember to keep breathing.

That's about it. We'll be doing real diving tommorrow, which should be cool!

Anyway, back into the rain...

Adios!

Peter.

Koh Pha-ngang

2006-02-11T00:42:00.000+11:00

So I'm on an island called Koh-Pha-ngang now. It's smaller and a lot more fun then Samui, no fast food, lots of bars and clubs and almost entirely young people. This is not your mothers island, this is punk city.

There's a party here in 3 days, called the full moon party. There's anywhere up to 12 000 people, on a beach called Hat Rin (Sun beach). It's going to be MENTAL. I won't be here, fortunately or unfortantely, as I will have headed off for my diving course up north in Koh Tao. Maybe I will come back for the night, but I'd be worried about my diving course being affected. I paid alot of money for it and I have 2 dives the day after so...we'll see.

Either way, this place is great. Lots of cool people, lots of good looking bikini clad scandinavians. We're staying at a place called Bird Bungalows, which is right next to a rather dreadful beach, but a beach none the less. 2 beds and a bathroom, 12 dollars. Noice. When we got off the boat from Samui a guy came up and asked if we needed accomodation. Accomodation is a precious commodity over here, there's not much of it around and it worked for us on Samui so we said ok. Big mistake. The guy takes us to the rattiest, ugliest place ever. It was like some guy had built a few bungalows out of scrap metal and wood in his backyard. They were dark, ugly and presumably full of mosquitos. With a polite, but very definite no, we headed off to Bird - a place we had called in the guide.

We went snorkelling today. Piling into a skinny little boat that they love so much in Thailand - it has a big motor on the back and the propellor sticks out along a pole maybe 3 meters. They're great - we head over to the snorkelling spot. The snorkelling was ok, kind of compact and not very colorful, a bit of coral and a few fish. It gave me a taste for it though, and I'm really looking forward to diving. You panic a little at first when you start, it's kind of weird breathing while underwater. One dutch lady attached to a different boat paniced like crazy for no reason at one point, shouting "Get me out, get me out." It was kind of weird but understandable. I'm glad I did this before diving though, I can see how it could be very easy to panic while diving.

So yeah, basically being a beach bum. Tim is a good travelling companion. He can be a bit of a tool, constantly making inane, innapropriate comments, but all in all we're getting on fine. I'm a bit worried, because I'm at a different place in my trip then he is, and I'm quite happy bumming around when maybe he wants to go do stuff, but so far it's going fine.

What else? In 6 days I'll have been out of Australia for 6 months. Crazy huh? I called work the other day to see if they'd take me back, and they said to come in when I got back and they could talk about when I can work so that's pretty cool.

I think thats about it really. I'll meet you in Koh Tao maybe.

Peter.

Bangkok and Koh Samui

2006-02-08T17:42:00.000+11:00

Tim arrived safe and sound, I picked him up at the airport because he's a scared little boy. I had arrived early in the morning on the train to book a place, it took me a whole hour and the place we were in was CRAP. Super crap. Cheap, about $8 for the 2 of us, but you got what you paid for. Hard mattress in a room with a view onto a smelly alley beside a place that played loud music until 2 in the morning. Still, a bed is a bed.

We did the tourist thing, went and saw Wat Phra Kaew, rode around on the river ferry, wondered around Koh San Rd. You can't really describe Koh San. It's so freaking random. There's street stalls selling $1 Pad Thai next to places selling, quite openly, fake student cards and drivers licenses, next to a place that says "Strong Drinks: Fuckin' Good." We spent a lot of time at a place that was basically a bar running out of a converted combi van, they had sofa chairs outside so it was pretty sweet, and buckets of any cocktail for $6. Sweet.

We kind of bummed around and vaguely explored the city a bit otherwise.

The next stop: Koh Samui. This involved a 10 hour bus trip to Surrathani, then a 4 hour boat ride to the island. It was fun, I bought (finally) a neck pillow from some random Israeli guys that were selling them (I would have literally committed murder for one of these on my other bus trips). Plus I wasn't by myself and we met some nice Canadian girls on the way down who we chatted to. the bus wasn't to bad either, to be honest. The boat was fun, if a bit crowded. All our bags were put on top of each other in a huge pile (there were probably 100 bags or more). On the other side they put a plank of wood at an angle from the boat to the pier and chucked them down, which was worrying. I have a mammoth bag full of stuff I can't be bothered posting home, so if any bag was going to fall in it would have been mine. No worries though, these guys were bag chucking professionals. We headed onto Chaweng beach, the main beach of Koh Samui.

It has waves! I haven't seen waves the entire time I've been here. They're pretty savage though, you find yourself knee deep in water, with a wave coming in over your head wondering, "how am I going to dodge this?" You don't.

The place we're staying is nice enough, apparently the only freaking place in Koh Samui though, EVERYTHING is booked. Thailand's tourism is on the up and up. Only problem is, 1 double bed, 2 large boys. Now I don't have a problem with this really, I'm comfortable with my sexuality and Tim is a friend, but Tim's a freaking bed hog. He almost pushes me off the damn thing. This morning, questioning him, I found out why, apparently I'm on his side. We'll swap sides tonight. The next place we're definitely getting a twin bed.

The beaches here are ok, a bit built though. They're filled with restaurants and resorts, which is nice at night because you can eat ON the beach. Tim got a crab in really nice satay sauce a few nights ago for $5. A whole crab. Awesome.

There's random stuff here though. 2 nights ago, we were walking home, and a guy had a monkey and a camera. He put the monkey on my head twice. TWICE! The monkey was freaking out too. MONKEY ON MY HEAD. Freaking random.

We hired snorkels today, but we should have been tipped off by the fact that no one else had said equipment, as there's nothing to see, and for the most part, no ability to see it anyway. Waste of time. Apparently the next place has GREAT snorkelling though, so that should be good.

Anyway, yeah, the next stop is Koh Pha-ngan, the home of the famous full moon party, though we'll probably miss that. Heading there tommorrow.

Anyway, see you on the flip side, freaky boys and chicky-girls.

Peter.

Stories

2006-02-04T02:58:00.000+11:00

Well, I did the last blog as an update without the usual humourous anecdotes, and believe me, there were a few.

So I'm doing this massage course, and seriously wondering why. The teacher has the attention span of a dog with ADD, she's looking pretty much everywhere but at what I'm doing. I'm practicing my massage on this huge thai lady (this is odd, because Thai people aren't generally a big race), and to be honest, I'm really only planning to use these tricks on skinny blond girls with big hooters. This lady doesn't speak. No, seriously, she must have had some sort of sad upbringing, because she just lies there and doesn't make a sound. I have no idea if I'm doing this stuff right. 2 days of this. My final test is on the last day and I'm supposed to know my hour long routine off by heart. There's no way in hell this is going to happen. The fat lady, bless her large soul, holds the book for me and shows me when I forget the next step. I get my certificate, and finally she speaks. It's like a Silent Bob moment here. She says "You come back Chiang Mai, you visit me, yes?" I'm just been squeezing your oversized body for the last 3 days lady, I've had my fat thai fill here. I say, "Ok, see you later."

On the train ride home, I was sitting eating my fried rice in the spectacularly loud eating carriage. The train is loud and the windows are open, so they just turn up the music as far as it will go to cover it all.

I'm just sitting there, minding my own business. There were no other seats, so I sit across from a train guard, who is packing by the way, says "You very handsome." I say, thankyou, then look at the window in what I hoped was a "Please don't hit on me anymore, I'm looking out the window." sort of way.

Anyway, those are my two stories.

Peter.

I'm going to regret posting this

2006-02-02T15:55:00.000+11:00

So I just got into Bangkok, on the train. The train was infinitely preferable to the bus. I think I've said this before, but trains are so much more romantic then buses, plowing along their own lines through the countryside, rather then chugging along the roads. I ate a nice dinner in the restuarant car and got to sleep in a bed...kind of. It was a bit small for me to be honest. and the little mattress kept moving. It's freaking impossible to move a mattress effectively whilst lying on it.

Anyway, the last 3 days in Chiang Mai were spent on a 3 day certified course in Thai massage! That's right, I'm a certified Thai massuer. Before I get inundated with requests, let me tell you Thai massage isn't all fun and games, you get contorted into some pretty interesting positions, and some of the things are a bit painful. It's a massage for those who like a bit of hurt in with their pleasure.

That's about it...I'm going to pick Tim up from the aiport tonight.

Peter.

A vegetative state

2006-01-28T22:47:00.000+11:00

SO, I met up with Kyle in Bangkok. It was GREAT to see her, she's just the same, which is to say, brilliant. She's going to Afghanistan, a fact which blows my wtf radar right out of the water. Every time I even think about it I'm like, "She's going where? Huh?" But it's cool if anyone can deal with it she can.

So, we went to Chatachuk markets, markets so huge they blow your mind. There's EVERYTHING there. The coolest clothes ever, dogs, fish, art, EVERYTHING. It's crazy. It's crazy go nuts university.

Where else did we go? Mainly we went eating. Kyle loves to eat, and I love trying new things, so that was fun. On a whim we took the skytrain to "On Nut" (hehehe) and ate a random dim sum meal at a random hole in the wall place there. It was great.

Heading off day before she flew to India, I took a bus to Chiang Mai, a major city up north. The bus ride was a tourist bus, and I sat next to (small world) a girl from Willoughby, the suburb next to mine. Rather gorgeous, we were herded in different directions after we got off the bus, before I could get her contact, which is something I'm kicking myself about. Oh well.

I got to Chiang Mai and found a cheapish place ($10 a night) with fridge, big bed, hot water and (gadzooks!) a tv, WITH CABLE.

And then I entered a new dimension of true laziness: Peter, the vegetable.

I got there, lay down and turned on the tv. It sucked me in with mindless bad movies and cartoons, and I've been that way ever since. I've lost track of what day it is, I watch tv till I can't anymore, sleep till 2, go out and get some food, and go back. This is my half-life. I had all these plans to do a massage course, a cooking course. It's not happening. I manage sometimes to get myself up to go for a wander, but that's about it.

Don't be angry with me, I think I need it. In the next few days I'll start sorting my brain out, writing lists, figuring out priorities and getting down on paper what I can about my thoughts and experience.

I train it back to Bangkok on the night of the first, meeting my friend Tim on the 2nd, and island hopping (etc) till I fly back to Sydney, on the 2nd of March.

Someone tell me though, what day is it today? No, seriously.

Peter.

Peter's Goodbye

2006-01-25T23:07:00.000+11:00

This is the full lyrics of the song. This is mostly so I have a record of it.

Buddy you're a white man, ozzie man
Burning in the streets
Gonna make a straight wall someday
You've got cement on your face,
You big disgrace,
Wagging your "thor" all over the place (Thor is the name of the mallet at Thaptawan)

Chorus: Peter We will, we will miss you

Buddy you're a big mouth, mega mouth
Shouting in the streets
Gonna make someone deaf someday
You've got spit on our face,
You big disgrace,
Embarrasment of the Australian race

(Chorus)

Buddy you're a big man, speedoman
"powing" in the streets (pow referring to the text written on my superhero jocks)
Gonna chase your male friends away
You've got ... on your face (rude...deleted)
You big disgrace
Flashing your package all over the place!

(Chorus)

Buddy you're a drunk man at the fishermans
Dancing on the beach
Gonna outgroove Andy someday
You've got Sangsom on your face (alchohol of choice in Thailand)
Khao Lak's disgrace
We've just managed to get you kicked out of this place

(Chorus)

Well, thats pretty great.

Peter.

Newsletter Article

2006-01-25T03:55:00.000+11:00

This is an article I wrote for the v-stay newsletter.

Life at Thap Tawan; sweat, dirt and the time of my life

So I'm up to my waist in mud, shoveling it out of the hole as fast as I can with a bucket. Above me is a Finnish couple from a place called Orland, wherever that is, and they're probably the nicest people I've ever met. I pass my bucket of mud to Mona, who in turn passes it to Guy, who throws the mud away and passes it back. It has to be quick, the water table is high and the hole just gets muddier, filling with water. Our goal: to put 3 large concrete cylinders down into the ground. It will be a septic tank for the house beside us. The job is sweaty, dirty like you wouldn't believe, and I'm having the time of my life. Welcome to Thap Tawan.

Of my roles here in Thailand so far, by far, the most time has been spent on a project known as Thap Tawan, named after the village we are helping to rebuild. After a week or so of septic tank filling, I've moved from job to job, rebuilding houses for the sea gypsy people that live there. The village is built on a peninsular of land.
When the tsunami hit, over a year ago, the village was hit on three sides, killing 50% of the villagers.

So this is where I can be found on weekdays. Tasks a varied, for a while we laid floors for bathrooms. 3 jobs
here, bringing stones and sand to the mixer. Mixing, which involves chucking the sand, stones and concrete into the mixer with the right amount of water. Then carrying the concrete in buckets to where it needs to go. I've done all of these. It's constant, non stop, for hours on end. You concentrate on keeping yourself hydrated and it's okay (after the first day or two). Mostly it's the amazing people I'm working side by side with that makes it so much fun. People from all over the world, both tourists passing through for a few weeks and long termers like me, all with their own story, their own reasons for being here.

If this isn't one of the best times I've ever had slap me twice and call me Wendy, because it's wonderful.

Sometimes the days are long. Sometimes I get home, and I'm so tired I can't talk, I can't think, I just shower and go to bed. But most of the time, the working outside, with my hands, with the most basic of tools, I just love it. This is something I've never done before, probably something I'll never do again, but I feel stronger, healthier and happier then I have in a long time.

My traineeship finishes in less then 2 weeks. It seems incredible, but I think it's a good time to go. It's been an experience, but it was only ever a transient thing. I couldn't say the experience has changed me. More, it's made me discover who I really am.

So with a resounding cheer that ends every working day, "Thap Tawan!" I bid thee adieu. Thap Tawan, Khao Lak, and soon enough, Thailand. The experience has made me a better person.
~ Peter, Australia

Gone and gone

2006-01-25T03:10:00.000+11:00

Well, as the title says, I have left Khao Lak. I havent worked through my feelings about this fact, but I'll tell you about my last bits and pieces.

So, I was a bit lazy my last week. I didn't go to work as much as I should have, but there were HEAPS of people volutneering at the time so it didn't matter too much. Instead, I went exploring some beaches around and about, and taught Jenny how to ride a motorbike (yeah I know, maybe accident boy isn't the best teacher. Shut ya yap).

My last two nights were AMAZING. Oh man, so great. On Thursday night I was supposed to have a joint farewell with Eddie, one of my english friends who bizarrely is in someway related to the royal family, something we never let him forget.

SO anyway, the night started with a bbq on the beach, where I cooked a nice fish for myself. Yummy. We headed to Fishermans (the local) for drinks, as per usual. Buckets etc were had, until it hit about 2:30. Jenny, who had remained sober, had brought her bike, and Larry, who drove a bike back home offered to ferry us back to the house, one at a time. Anyway, they asked me politely to come and I came, not wanting them to worry about me walking home.

They had bought bottles of Samsong, pepsi and snacks, and set them up on our verandah. we sat up, sitting on pillows, talking laughing and drinking, Jess, Jenny, Larry, Anna and myself, until 7 in the morning. It was brilliant.

The next night though! My God. I thought it would just be a dinner with the housemates and people from Thaptawan, but it was so much more. First, they made a costume for me! Jenny (different Jenny), Helen, James and Scott had made me a superhero costume.

This came about through a dream I had and told them about, where I was a superhero, and in order to turn into my superhero-hood I spun around and yelled Cha cha cha!

Anyway, I'm apparently famous for speaking too much, too loudly (you know this), plus they like my huge smile (which is nice). So they made me a cape, that said "Mega Mouth Man," underpants to put over my shorts that said "POW!" on the crotch, and a sticker shield to put on my chest. Also, a cardboard mega phone, to use as my secret weapon.

We went on to Pia Foot, a really nice bar, where everyone bought me drinks and I showed off my costume. Pia Foot is great because it's outside and not real big, so everyones pushed together, rather then spread out, and it means there's lots of big groups chatting and having fun, rather then people being strewn throughout the bar.

Anyway, they sang me a song! They wrote a song for me to the tune of "Rock You."

Buddy your a loud man, ozzie man
Gonna build a straight wall someday
you've got cement on your face
Australia's disgrace

We will we will miss you.

I almost cried. I have the full text of it in my room, I'll write it up next time I write.

Oh man. It was the best goodbye. The next day I hitchhiked to the airport. Goodbye Khao Lak, leaving a good part of my heart behind.

Khao Lak was the most amazing place. A community of people, a family, from all over the world, all walks of life, all ages, none of which really mattered. They were there to volunteer for people they would never really know, doing things they never would do back home. It was phenomonal.

Thankyou Khao Lak, you were an amazing place.

To all my roomates,

Jiri, one of my favourite people. I couldn't decide whether to kill him or marry him.

Jess, who's smile could disarm a bomb.

Anna, who loved to get into deep, deep conversations.

Coura, who was so strong and independent.

Carrie, who could laugh at anything.

Nikki, who everyone fell in love with.

Ali, who was strong and beautiful.

Mai, who was all smiles.

Chantelle, who had a way of putting things.

Adam, who was serious, and a seriously good friend.

Larry, who knew so much.

And Jenny, who was beautiful and crazy and shared too much, which I loved.

To everyone in town, too numerous to name, who came and went and left such wonderful impressions. I left a bit of myself with all of them,

Mona and Guy, who I fell in love with

Jenny, who is definitely the most beautiful person in the world

Helen and James, who were the best couple and the best people

Andy and Scott and Em and everyone at Thaptawan.

Goy who liked to stroke my arm hair (she was Thai, I dunno)

Eddie.

And everyone else. Too many. Too many goodbyes.

This was the single best experience of my life.

Peter.

Trouble in Paradise

2006-01-19T20:51:00.000+11:00

On Monday night, walking home from Khao Lak to Bang Niang, 3 of the Australian girls I live with, were mugged. 6 men, 3 on motorbikes, 3 on foot, ambushed them on the road. They're all ok, acted rather courageously, and got away with minimal physical loss or hurt.

Khao Lak is a 20 minute walk from Bang Niang (where we live). We're the only ones that make that walk at night with any regularity, as far as I know, so it almost feels planned. Suffice to say the girls don't want to be making this walk again, and so have moved to a new place in Khao Lak.
The whole thing is awful. The girls had a truly traumatic experience, and everyone else has lost a certain something as well. We've always felt so safe here. We never lock our door etc. Now that feeling of security is gone, gone, gone.

So the girls have moved out. There's not enough room in the new place for everyone, so us boys and 2 of the girls are staying put, for now.

It sucks. It feels like everythings moving out from underneath me, like this place is leaving me, not the other way around.

But I suppose this isn't true really. It is about time to leave. I've done all I'm going to do here. Things are changing, and I've gone through too many changes here. Too many goodbyes, too many hellos. I'm kind of over the work as well. So all in all, it feels sad leaving, but I think it's for the best. This was a transient thing. I've met so many people, done so much stuff, experienced so much, learnt so much. It's enough.

Peter.

2006-01-15T23:08:00.000+11:00

Monkey!

2006-01-15T23:07:00.001+11:00

The Thaptawan crew

2006-01-15T23:07:00.000+11:00

Blessed by monks

2006-01-15T23:06:00.001+11:00

Thailand is all about random elephants

2006-01-15T23:06:00.000+11:00

Christmas stuff in Singapore

2006-01-15T23:05:00.001+11:00

Australia

2006-01-15T23:05:00.000+11:00

Train bed (for Mel)

2006-01-15T23:04:00.000+11:00

Yoko chin chin

2006-01-15T23:02:00.001+11:00

Food skolling

2006-01-15T23:02:00.000+11:00

Hehehe.

2006-01-15T23:01:00.000+11:00

Mosque on the Water

2006-01-15T22:56:00.000+11:00

Huge Food - Penang

2006-01-15T22:55:00.000+11:00

The Creepiest Santa in the World - Malaysia

2006-01-15T22:54:00.000+11:00

Global Village - Malaysia NLDS

2006-01-15T22:52:00.002+11:00

View from KL tower

2006-01-15T22:52:00.001+11:00

Christmas Lunch

2006-01-15T22:52:00.000+11:00

The Twin Towers - Malaysia

2006-01-15T22:51:00.000+11:00

Christmas: Santa on an Elephant

2006-01-15T22:50:00.000+11:00

Christmas Lunch

2006-01-15T22:49:00.000+11:00

Sunset

2006-01-15T22:48:00.000+11:00

Anniversary of the Tsunami - 5000 paper lanterns

Hey hey kids

2006-01-12T21:02:00.000+11:00

So yeah, wow, in a week I’m finished, done, over. My traineeship will be complete. Holy crap right? 3 months of my life, spent in this little town called Khao Lak, and it’s almost done. Soon I’ll be heading up north and then meeting my friend Tim in Bangkok for a month of drunken revelry.

Quick update.

I’m still at Thaptawan, building walls. There was this damned wall, where the foundations were like, crazy slanted. I had to make the difference with huge amounts of mortar to make the wall straight. By the end, I was using 3 inches of mortar. Annoying, but satisfying now that it’s done.

Last weekend some Buddhist monks came to the Tsunami Volunteer Centre to bless it and bless us. Pretty cool. They sat in a line, about 8 of them, and chanted for like, an hour. Then chanted over this long piece of white string, blessing it, and finally they chopped up the string into little pieces. We then lined up in front of a monk and he tied a piece of string on our wrists and blessed us. It was kind of nice, all in all. I still have the little bit of blessed string on.

What else? I haven’t worked through my feelings about leaving yet, but I’ll keep you updated.

Peter.

Back in Thailand

2006-01-06T23:13:00.000+11:00

So the last time you heard from me, I was whinging away in Malaysia. I hear you thoughts, clearly. Oh! Peter is so boring these days, at first it was so funny, his high shenanigans (I don't know why you used the word shenanigans here) in China, then he just got boring, now he just whinges a lot.

Well, that's changing now, let me tell you. No more whinging out of me, I'm a new man.

Ok, lets get up to speed here.

Christmas! Oh man, it was great. I was really worried, because I've never spent Christmas away from my family. But it was wonderful, and I'm really glad I decided to come back to Khao Lak for it because I was thinking about staying in Malaysia.

First I went with the new volunteers (I'll speak about them later) to a Christmas lunch on the beach. There's a new restaurant opened up at Ban Niang (the town I live in) right on the beach. I had an entire fish.

Then there was a Christmas lunch organised by TVC, everyone got together, stuffed themselves full of turkey and cake and chicken, and there was even a secret santa! It was a really lovely day. Heaps of the volunteers were there, plus a few people who had returned.

Lastly there was a dinner organised by another group. I was pretty full by then, so I didn't eat too much, but it was nice as well.

So all in all, Christmas was a lovely occasion.

For New Years, I went with Jiri to Phuket. Leaving on the 27th, we had quite a while there. Unfortunately, on the 29th I had a motorcycle accident, Not too bad, but I banged up my knee a bit so I was limping around and couldn't go into the water.

I hadn't realised this before, but Phuket is a hole. Seriously. I could have fun there for a few days of heavy drinking and party going, but for the most part it's loud, rude and ugly. There's so many so many old fat men with young pretty Thai girls on their arm. They must have a club or something down there. All the beaches are filled with deck chairs and umbrellas which you have to rent, and there's no good sitting space otherwise. Once I'd hurt my knee it was ok, I just went down there when I woke up, sat down and read my book/slept underneath an umbrella.

For New Years itself I went to a smaller beach nearby called Kata beach. There's a bar on the water there where we met up with Suki, who you might recall (the English Indian who felt me up when I was last in Thailand) his boyfriend Stee, and two of their friends. It was nice, I got very drunk, and there were even fireworks, right above our heads. Seriously, right above. Little bits of spent firework were falling in my drink.

So yeah, not a bad holiday season all things considered.

I took a few days off to make sure my knee was ok, and I've been back at work 2 days now. It's good to be back, working outside. I've been building walls, and have one wall to my name so far.

But the biggest news is! Gasp, the new roomates!

That's right. I got home and I now have 9 roomates. It's amazing. Coura and Carrie are gone, and there are now Jess and Anna, 6 new Australians from UNSW and a Malaysian guy.

The don't know the new guys too well so far. My fault entirely, but I'll work on it. They had a rather bad experience with AIESEC (apparently one of them outspokenly hates it), so thats something I don't really talk about with them.

People:

Nicole - very outspoken, killer smile, rather cheeky

Jenny - Lebanese which is interesting at the moment, very...deep (she always gets into deep conversations with people) very very nice though

Chantelle - Don't know very well so far, nice though, currently in Cambodia with Mai

Mai - Vietnamese Australian, very nice, soft spoken

Adam - The new Aussie bloke. Very serious, but again, rather nice.

I used nice a lot there, but it's true, as far as I can see they're all rather nice.

Then there's Larry from Malaysia. For some reason it kills me that a Malaysian Chinese guy would be called Larry. He makes extroadinary nasal noises in the bathroom. It scares the other roomates.

Umm, anything else? Not really no. I'll be here till January 21, then I'm flying to Bangkok on my way to Northern Thailand! Hooray! Hopefully I'll be meeting up with Kyle, who is apparently in Thailand right now, going to up North herself.

Anyway, thats enough of that. See ya!

Peter.

Things and stuff.

2005-12-21T22:27:00.000+11:00

I don't know if I'd even have admitted it to myself until today, but I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I suppose I could find reasons for it. I've been sick (I have this cough that just won't go away, annoyingly enough it gets worse when I lie down, ie try to go to sleep. It doesn't actually make me feel bad, other then a little embarrased because I know how much I'd be annoyed by this guy that keeps coughing all the time. ) Today I was planning to go to the hospital to deal with it, however on the way to pick up a something for a friend back in Thailand (Helen, one half of "Helen and James,") had left something at a clothing alteration store, and emailed me frantically (though quite politely) asking me to pick it up for her. So I went and picked that up for her, and noticed whilst there that there was not one, but two clinics within the very building. Rather useful really, they should have that in Australia. “I’d like a new pair of jeans, and a prescription for ritalin.”

Anyway, he gave me a quick check up, handed me some drugs, and sent me on my way, all for $20 or so. It would have been better if he’d thrown in a free meal or something, but perhaps the business advantages of working in a shopping centre haven’t struck him yet.

Anyway, I was feeling a bit low, which seems silly, because I’m traveling, seeing the world! Somehow though, rather then being in the shopping district of KL, I would have much rather been in bed. Not any bed, my bed, back home, in my room, underneath my doona. How do you spell doona? It’s all a bit silly really, I mean, it’s Summer in Australia, I’d have been stinking underneath my doona. Dooner. Doonur? Donut.

Things seemed to be conspiring against me, slightly. I suddenly felt the remarkable urge to find somewhere nice and quiet, away from traffic, underneath a tree, reading my book. Lately I’ve had a few quiet reading urges, normally satisfied by a couch in a Starbucks (yeah, I know, shutup – once I stomach saying the word “frappucino” – ugh – I see the couch and all I can think is, ooh, lovely.

Well, there’s only one place in KL which had even the remotest chance of quiet greenery, and that was the Lake Gardens. The taxi on the way over there ripped me off, but I wasn’t (nor am I generally) in the mood to fight it. I know how much taxis cost, and a rather long taxi trip in KL generally doesn’t cost much more then 10 ringit. This not very long ride was over 20 for some reason. ANYWAY.

It turned out the free green area of these gardens was closed, and the only thing left was paying bits, the bird garden and the butterfly garden. Deciding the butterfly garden might be nice, I headed over.

I paid, went in, found a very very nice spot, on a bench, surrounded by butterflies, with carp swimming happily underneath me in what I could only describe as a bubbling brook, in the true Enid Blighton sense of the word.

Peace and quiet though? Nothing doing. There was a guy doing “maintenance” with some sort of loud mechanical instrument. After a while I saw what it was. A leaf blower. I felt like taking it, and slapping him around the head with it. Whats the point of a leaf blower? You’re spoiling my expensive peace and quiet for no reason, you bastard!

I stopped his pointless blowing (of what? I don’t know. Butterflies maybe) after a while, but the funk continued. Right up until I returned here, to this internet café, to write this. I had come here earlier this morning, in order to look up where I needed to go to pick up Helen’s thing, and had accidentally left one of my most prized possessions here. It’s a leather bound book, given to me by Lucy and Nicole, which I haven’t used in any of the ways they gave it to me for, but rather for a million other little things. Numbers of people I meet, ideas for my novel, and to just generally write down stuff that takes my fancy. Anyway, I keep it with me always and had left it here this morning, in my usual absent minded stupidity. Anyway, I was so close to not coming here, in fact, I only decided to come here by some sort of off chance whim. I had no idea it was here, and I’m leaving the country tomorrow. Just one of those things, anyway, for whatever reason it made me feel better again.

But onto stuff I’ve been doing. I traveled to Melaka with two of the Japanese guys from the conference, Akira and Keichiro or something like that. Nice little town, with an interesting Portugese settlement. Interesting because it’s Portugese, not interesting in itself, because if it wasn’t labeled “Portugese” settlement there’s really nothing there that would have tipped me off.

Anyway, I stayed there 2 days, chilling out in the wonderful youth hostel and seeing the sights. Have I said I love youth hostels before? I love youth hostels. There’s something so wonderfully adventurous about them. I love the ones that are random, with rooms all over the place, comfy chairs scattered around. I can almost feel the adventure of everyone who’s ever stayed there coursing through them. This one was great, it had all sorts of little pockets in which to sit and read or write.

Anyway, after that it was a bus trip to Singapore, to see one of my favourite people in the world, Melissa Soh.

It was wonderful seeing Mel. We wondered around Singapore, not really going anywhere in particular, and I met her family. Her Mum is a very mum, if you catch my meaning. She was the one who told me to go see a doctor about the cough, otherwise I wouldn’t have, I mean, it’s just a cough right? But when she said you should go see a doctor, I heard little echoes in my mind of movies where the cancer ridden patient says to the doctor, “It just started with a cough.”

Her brothers are hilarious. The youngest one is full of energy and always wants the attention on him, now. But was surprisingly and continuously well spoken and polite, when he wasn’t punching his older brother in the arm. The older brother was also very polite, and obviously protective of his siblings. In bizarre fashion, he just ignored his brothers punch. When I was his age, if my sister did something to me, I did it back to her twice as hard. I was rather impressed.

Anyway, the visit was short, but fulfilling. Gave me a bit of a friend hit, if you know what I mean. Help me with the missing of people for the last 2 months of my trip.

Yep, that’s right. I only have a little over 2 months remaining. I’ve been out of Australia now for 4 months. Can you believe it? Crazy. Crazy go nuts university.

I’ve said it before, I think. This trip hasn’t changed me, it’s made me realise who I really am. That’s probably the best thing about it, which isn’t to take away from the other amazing things I’ve done, it’s just to say that’s the most lasting. The major effect, if you will.

Ok, anyway, lasting impressions of Malaysia. I think it’s a wonderful country, with wonderful people, I just kind of think it tries to hard. Rather then letting the culture grow, it seems to force it, to force progression, without people being generally ready for it.

There’s plenty of funny things though, here’s a newspaper clipping a ripped out of the paper:

Booze, drugs making students randy?
KUCHING: A detailed study will be conducted to find out if increased alchohol and drug use among students in Sarawak is making them more randy and driving them to have sex with their teachers, the state assembly was told yesterday.
State Social Development and Urbanisation Minister Datuk William Mawan said his ministry would investigate whether such stimulants were behind recent cases of students involved in immoral activities, including having sex with their teachers.
“That (alchohol and drug use) may be possible but I have never tried these stimulants,” he said (-that’s word for word, I didn’t miswrite it)
Mawan said 35 students had tested positive for drug abuse since 2003 while 2507 students have admitted to the use of hard liquor this year: up 1697 last year.

This isn’t telling at all of the Malaysia I’ve seen, it’s just something I found that was so ludicrously funny I had to share.

Well, thats about it for now, I'm heading back to Khao Lak tommorrow for Christmas, then going to Phuket for new years.

Peter.

OCSEALDS

2005-12-16T02:57:00.000+11:00

My last AIESEC conference for this trip.

OCSEALDS was a blast, nice hotel, great people, heaps of fun. It was mainly aimed at new members, so while the sessions were fun, the best thing was the people I met.

Num: From Thailand, is perhaps my favourite Thai Aiesecer. Great guy, spiky hair, very odd in a way I like. He told me a story of how he'd accidentally kissed a Katoi (ladyboy).

The Newzealanders: couldn't help themselves, had to make fun of my accent etc, but they were charming anyway. I didn't much make fun of them, except accidentally when I couldn't understand them. Mostly because I was vastly outnumbered a suppose.

Japanese!: Cool people, I'm travelling with these guys to Malaca!

Sam, from Canada: Way too energetic, especially in the morning, very funny though.

Some girl from Nigeria, who knew Nick! I forget her name, everytime I talked to her she was whinging about something, so I stopped talking to her. It was cool that she knew Nick though. (Nick is a former AIESEC Sydney member, now a trainee in Nigeria).

Peter, from Poland: Really cool guy, gave me a poland t-shirt.

There were many others, but I can't think of them now. Oh yeah! Lots of cool crazy people from Indonesia. Maybe I have to go there sometime, they're great.

Man, I got a haul. I got AIESEC pants, an @ jumper, @ card holders and badges, and heaps of shirts. I've mailed them all home already with my suit and shoes.

As with the Malaysia NLDS, the "parties" were all essentially chaperoned. Rather then a party, there were "activities." First night, "skolling." Kind of. There was an eating competition. It was...gross.

First round, we were against Thailand. four on a side as usual, it as 2 bananas each. Thailand being the land of bananas, I was worried, however my team mates plowed through their bananas while the Thai captain, with a confessed aversion to them, ate them rather slowly. I started while he was finishing up, so I ate my bananas slowly, stopping for a banana cheers with Num, the second in the team.

I haven't talked about the Ozzy AIESECers there! Did I tell you how there's infinite more Malaysians in Australian then I ever knew? Well, there's a whole lot in AIESEC as well, and they were at this conference. So, I was the only born in Australia, Australian AIESECer there, but thats not to put the others down. There was Zhen an JT from Macca, very cool people, Fei from Melbourne who I enjoyed getting to know and a girl from Brisbane who's name escapes me, something I'm imensely ashamed of. Azalea or something.

Anyway, second round was bread and a cup of sweet chili sauce. We were against the Indonesians I think...I forget. Anyway, we were supposed to dip the bread in the chilli sauce, but I, as most people, downed the chilli sauce then ate the bread, with mouthfuls of water to get the job done. We won quite easily.

The final match up was Australia vs New Zealand. It was soup concentrate with 2 bananas in it. The match was close, but truth and justice prevailed and we won. The OCSEA skolling champs were us.

I forget what happened on the second night...the final night was a cross dressing competition, which I won't go into in detail. Here's where the lack of alchohol proved a difficulty. The Thais were far too good looking.

I didn't party too heavily, what with the lingering illness, but had a great time anyway.

Oop, need to head off going to Malaca tommorrow, then on to Singapore to see Mel.

Peter.

Penang

2005-12-16T02:19:00.000+11:00

Looking through my posts of China, I'm laughing my ass off. Man, it was sometimes crap, but some great memories there. I feel kind of boring now, because I'm really having a great time, essentially without problems. Essentially.

This cold lingers, sapping me of my youthful vitality. I feel like sleeping a lot, and I keep coughing things up of the most remarkable colours. Ooh, look at that. It's violently green. Yummy.

It wasn't a bad cold though, and I was lucky to have a place to crash while I waited it out.

I've been in contact with people from back home, and there's some crazy stuff happening, which worries me, but not that much. I'm in a different country, with a 3 month visa.

Ok, another few thoughts about Malaysia. The cops and the security guards are seriously packing heat here. It's crazy man. The security guards back home are lucky if they're allowed to carry a butterknife, here they have oversized shotguns. SHOTGUNS! Why do security guards need shotguns? To kill zombie shoplifters? The cops carry machine guns. Why do police need machine guns? It boggles the mind.

So yeah, Penang. I packed my bag last I don't know which day because I've completely lost track of time, and headed to Puduraya bus station. This place was crazy, I loved it. It was a mess. There's no centralised government bus system, instead there are many private companies of varying quality. Arriving quite late in the afternoon, I headed into a large building heaving with commuter chaos. People everywhere, all trying to get somewhere else.

All the good bus companies were booked out (I'd arrived at about 4:30 in the afternoon) so I widened my search to anyone that would take me. I found a company that had a bus scheduled for 5pm. Hooray! I thought, thats quite soon.

So I headed to the bus platform, downstairs from where I was. Loud and filled with noxious fumes. I was glad I didn't have to wait there long.

Wrong.

The bus was, count them, 3 hours late. Had I known it was 3 hours late I would have gone and purchased another ticket, however throughout this 3 hour process there was a man standing there, telling everyone the bus was coming "very soon, 15 minutes more probably." So of course I, and the rest of the unfortunate idiots taken in by these empty assurances, waited. And waited. And we were all worried to go anywhere to get food or anything, because what if the bus came in that time?

Anyway, it finally did come and I hopped on for the 4 hour trip up north.

I was meeting up with Bong, who's house I was staying at in KL. He came and picked me up from where the bus dropped me off, and we went straight to a club.

Malaysia, for all it's apparent sobriety, has some awfully funky clubs. We went to a club with 5 different rooms, all playing different music, and reasonably good music at that. There was dancing, inordinately expensive alchohol (which I didn't much partake in - my wallet was decidedly thin), and much revelry in general. Apparently it was quite dark, or the lights were working in my favour, as my host let me know that several girls were "checking me out." I'm sure in the light of day and without a few drinks down, they would have reconsisidered this.

We met up with a few people, a guy from the Malaysia conference who danced like a maniac. A good maniac mind you, he was amazing. Legs all over the place. I'm have no aversion to this, so I joined him as best I could.

With him were 3 sisters he knew, that danced together in ways that made me very, very glad I had come. I didn't know sisters danced like that. There was much grinding. One of the sisters, the oldest one, was somewhat hilarious. Very good looking and knowing this fact completely, she shrank away everytime a boy got close, but flirted outrageously from afar. Whenever the camera was out, she worked herself into this amazing pose. Head slightly downward, eyes slightly wider then usual, and a mona lisa smile. This girl had practiced this shit in front of the mirror for hours, you could tell.

The club closed at 3 and we went eating (Malaysians of course, able to eat like they have hollow legs). I could't eat the extroardinarily large desert they ordered for me, but the watermelon juice was good.

Back to Bongs place ( he put me up), at about 5, we promised to get up at 8 and go on a food tour of Penang.

Getting out of bed at about 11, I looked in on Bong, but he was still in dreamland. Heading downstairs, there was nobody home but what I assume was the grandmother. I said Hi. Taking one look at me she started laughing. She was laughing her ass off, and pointing at me. This kind of scared me so I went to wake Bong up.

We headed out for food. Lots of food. Good god. We went to at least 10 places throughout the day, it was nuts. I ate till I couldn't eat anymore, then Bong ate for me. We took a break from food to go canoeing. Yeah I know, it is kind or random. It was fun though, I think I'll look into it when I get home. I'm definitely going to have to get more active physically when I get home, Malaysia is making me fat I believe. This is why you drink alchohol at night, not noodles.

The next day we woke up late, again, and had to go straight to the bus station. I was on a much comforier (and for some reason slightly cheaper) ride back to KL. I had this huge chair, more like a small sofa, to myself. It was rather nice. The ride back to KL was spent in quiet luxury.

Previous to my excursion I'd gone to the Australian High Commision to borrow a flag for the next conference, as well as the Thai embassy to get a long term tourist visa so I won't have to scare my parents anymore by going to Burma.

Next, was my final conference for this trip, OCSEALDS.

Peter.

Sick.

2005-12-07T23:21:00.000+11:00

Well I'm sick, which sucks. I got up early this morning and headed for the bus terminal to catch a bus to Tamen Negara, the jungle place. The bus was still a few hours away so I dumped my bag and went looking for food. It came on really fast, all of a sudden I was sneazing, my eyes were watering, and my throat hurt. Crazy.

Anyway, I returned my ticket and headed back to the house I'm staying. Trekking in the jungle probably isn't the best cold-time activity.

But while I'm here, wallowing in self pity, I might as well talk about a few funny things in KL.

KLs roads are made. Crazy. They were invented by a mad engineer who was possessed by crazy demons. They wind around each other, loop over each other. Everywhere there's a fly over or an underpass or a tunnel or a highway. It's completely mental. I'd be afraid to drive here.

The place is completely built for driving though. I walked to the shops closest to where I'm staying, and there's no footpath anywhere. Curiously enough though, there was a pedestrian overpass randomly placed across a road, however you had to risk your life walking to it, as it was on a rather busy road with no footpath.

I knew how to walk there, as I'd been driven there before. Of course, I was adviced that it was far too far to walk. This was only, however, in the strange asian world of walking distances. It took all of 15 minutes walking there, which for many of the asians I've met (not all, not most, just many. Don't jump down my throat you PC bastards) is like a lifetime of walking, so far as I can tell.

Oh! You'll get a kick out of this, especially Ralph and Tilly. At the conference, we all got split into fake LC countries. I was in Cameroon. I got everyone to headbutt each other in the arm as the countries' greeting. They didn't understand the head eating thing though.

I can't think of anything else right now. I'll post it if I can.

Peter.

Conference

2005-12-06T20:37:00.000+11:00

Again, this post is probably best understood by the AIESECers. Scroll down and you can read about my adventures to the previous post and you can read about my adventures in KL.

Ok, conference. The Malaysia conference was fantastic. I didn’t learn much AIESEC wise, but the amount of amazing, lovely people I met was extroadinary.

AIESEC Malaysia is at the cutting edge, I’ll tell you what. The amount of fantastic perojects and conferences and everything they organize is extroadinary. They had over 300 people at this conference, though they only have 6 LCs. Yeah. I’m going to be emailing a few LCPs to try and set up some links with Australia in terms of some of the great PBoxes they set up.

I was with the new members mostly, and saw my role as to help out where I could, give the thing a bit of an international flavour and to have fun (of course). Being an Islamic country (even though 90% of the Malaysian AIESECers are of Chinese background) there was no alchohol, nor any real time to drink it if there was as there were no parties (they sent us to bed at 11pm!?!)

Still, it was great. The Malaysian AIESECers were so warm and welcoming, it was amazing. Where as in the Thai NLDS I felt like an outsider, and very, very white, here I really felt accepted. Everytime I sat down someone talked with me, even when I went to sit by myself for a little while someone would come up and ask if I was ok. It was phenomenal.

I was pretty inspired, and I really want to set up my own PBox when I get home.

Peter.

Kuala Lumpur

2005-12-06T20:07:00.000+11:00

I had no trouble getting a hitch to the airport, I only had to wait for 20 or so minutes, when a nice man stopped and said he’d take me all the way to the airport. I love Thai people.

First let me tell you about my last night in Thailand. I didn’t actually sleep, preferring to stay up all night drinking with my new friends, many of whom I wouldn’t see again. Among these was a remarkable English Indian, who spent the night trying to chat me up, even though his boyfriend was pretty much right next to him. It was nice, if perhaps a bit of a waste of time on his part. He was very interesting though, as I’ve never met an openly gay Indian. As the night wore on and he got more and more drunk, he also got more and more lewd, and spent the final few hours asking people of both sexes whether he could squeeze their bosoms. This little story will of course further increase my grandmother’s suspicions about my sexuality. Nothing happened Kati, I am straight, and I managed to shoo away the predominant amount of this homosexual hindi’s advances towards my chest.

So KL. The flight was easy as anything, quite lovely really. Malaysia is…easy. You get out of the plane, get your passport stamped, hope no-ones slipped pot in your bag and hop a speedy train to the city. The first time you have to go outside you’re already in the middle of KL.

I was picked up outside KL Central by James, who I might at the Thai NLDS. He let me stay at his place, which was very nice of him, considering. There’s a bizarrely phenomenal amount of security at his place of residence. He had smuggle me into his room, and made me promise to say I lived there if asked by any of the many present security. I was never actually stopped and asked, but by all accounts this was some sort of small miracle.

First night we went to a fantastic Indian place, where they serve you great whopping portions on big leaves, which you’re supposed to eat with your right hand (the left hand of course reserved for wiping your ass), though I chose the fork and spoon option. All for about $4.

James (actual name Ting Chong) appointed himself my personal tour guide, to show me around the city. First day we went shopping.

KL is a shoppers paradise. The amount and size of shopping centres and department stores is staggering. There’s shopping centres that are so big it boggles my mind. I went to one that has a theme park in it, complete with a roller coaster. There’s another that’s so big, to get from one side to the other it’s best to drive, and park in another car park. There’s an IKEA here that’s 2 miles across. People are adviced to wear walking shoes should they venture in. I didn’t want to go there, as it sounded like one of the lower levels of hell to me. How much cheap, Swedish furniture do you possibly need? Plus they don’t close till 10 pm.

First stop was to buy a new camera. For that, of course, we went to the electonics shopping centre. 5 levels of nothing buy gadgets. I bought a nice new Olympus with a gynormous screen, 6(!)mp, which I fell in love with because it makes a ch-kek sound when you turn it on and off. Ting Chong bargained for me and I go the very generous price of $460 Australian, including a 512meg memory card. Quite excellent really. It doesn’t have movies with sound, but I can live without. I’m being very careful with it, trust me.

Then onto more shopping, I needed formal shoes (I got some very nice ones for $50, which I’m mailing home), some new sneakers (I got a pair for at least half the price of what you’d pay back home), and a Halloween costume for the conference. I bought pirate stuff.

That night we ate at another great place, a all night outside eating place, situated along an expanse of footpath in front of closed shops, and serving Malay food. I had a very nice plate of coconut rice and chicken.

The next day I had a movie day. For those of you who don’t know, I love movies and had missed them terribly in Khao Lak. With my student card I could see movies for about $3 each, so I went and saw 4 in a row. It was wonderful. James and Bong (the other Malaysian I met in Thailand) met me for the last movie (The Machinist – seriously messed up), then took me to another Indian eatery. This place was intereting, as all the money went to charity, and you could pay as much or as little as you liked. It was manned by volunteers and all the ingredients were donated. This didn’t necessarily mean the food was any good, but it was cool going there. I hardly paid anything (James told me how much to give him), which I kind of feel bad about.

Anyway, that night I moved to Bong’s house, as he had a house, and all his roommates were away. I felt kind of bad shirking James’ hospitality, but he didn’t mind I don’t think.

The last day I spent relaxing before the conference.

Anyway, Malaysia thoughts: Malaysia sometimes acts like it has something to prove. Everything is the biggest this and the best that. Everything is about brand names and prestige. It doesn’t need to however. It has glorious food, truly interesting buildings (not just the twin towers or KL tower), and an extraordinary mix of cultures.

The mix of races here are 50% Malay, 25% Chinese, 10% Indian and a mix of a whole lot more. You get Islamic looking buildings with Chinese twists, or futuristic looking structures with an Indian air to them.

The racial mix has created an interesting climate. Malay’s are given a lot of advantages by the government. 80% of university places go to them. Racial divides run deep, and are put in place by law. When filling in a form, you have to tick, “Malay, Chinese, Indian or other.” Those of Chinese background aren’t happy about this, but those who stir the political cauldron have a habit of disappearing. The same party has been in basically since Malaysia won independence from England. It does seem to work however. People here lead a very good life, if a bit commercialistic.

You’d hardly notice, sometimes, that it’s an Islamic country, not in KL in any case.

Peter.

Malaysia and Mishaps

2005-11-24T19:01:00.000+11:00

So I'm heading to Malaysia on Saturday, from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is a great name for a city isn't it? I think I'm going to enjoy it there.

But nothing can happen without a few Peter mishaps of course. First of all, I lost my camera. I dunno how, maybe I put it down somewhere, maybe it was nicked, I have no idea. Basically it's gone. It got me down for a day or so, but it's all good, it's only a thing right? I can buy a new one. The only thing that really annoys me is I've lost all my pics from Thailand so far as well. I'm going to all the places I've been again, so it's not too big a deal. It's just annoying, and will cost a bit of money getting a new one.

I was pretty down, until another mishap occurred, which due to the shear ludicrous nature of it, made me laugh.

Here's how it went.

So it was my turn to clean the bathrooms. I was a bit down, but I couldn't shirk my responsibilities, so it was off to the bathrooms for me.

I'd almost finished, when I decided to hose down the windows of the downstairs bathroom.

Next to the toilet in Thailand, there are these little spray hoses. I think I may have mentioned them before. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they're used to clean your you-know after pooping. I've never been game enough to try.

So I aim this thing at the windows and let her rip. The head of the spray cracks, and water starts gushing everywhere. The water pressure to these things are incredible, it's going all over the place.

I put it down, carefully placed as I can, and run to the hardware store to buy some gaffer tape, there's a hardware store 300 metres down the road, probably less.

They don't have gaffer tape, but they do have replacement hose thingies, so I buy one of those. Back home, I try to figure this thing out. There's the hose, that plugs into the wall, and the spray gun thing, that plugs into the hose. Pretty simple right? There's some sort of tape they gave me as well, but I have no idea what to do with that.

First of all, I have no idea how to turn the water off, and it's coming out in torrents. Taking the hose off is hard enough, putting the new one on is almost impossible. You remember when you were a kid and you tried to block the water coming out of a hose with your hand? Yeah, like that.

So I struggle into the flood, force the hose on. Water starts coming out of all the bits of the hose and tap, where it shouldn't come out. I assume it's not good. Serves me right for buying the cheapest hose.

Back to the hardware store, and they go to get me the model up. Just a second though, you didn't put the washers in the hose bits.

Ohhh. Right. Yeah, I knew that. Not. Also that tape is for taping on all the screw bits to make them waterproof. So they basically build the thing for me.

Just then, genius strikes. It took it's time really.

I don't even need the hose right? I mean, it'd be ok just to turn the water off wouldn't it? So I ask them about this, and they get me a tiny little screw on tap. Genius!

Not really. I get back to the house and to the bathroom, and water is coming out the bottom of the door. Uh oh. Opening the door, I find that the mop has fallen over the rather small drain. Bear in mind here, the bathroom is set about 3 inches down, so there's a veritable flood in there. I wade in, remove the mop, and set to work on the river coming out of the wall.

The tap proves to be true genius, as I can screw it on whilst open, so water can come out and I don't have to fight it, then turn the tap off. Done. I screw the hose onto this contraption, and leave, letting the water recind.

Well, at least it was clean.

Anyway, after that I was laughing too hard to care about my camera too much anymore.

Other then that, it's pretty much same old. I've taken a few days off work today, to sort some things out before going to Malaysia.

That's about it see you in KL.

Peter.

Myanmar Etc

2005-11-16T20:25:00.000+11:00

So, just an update on normal regular life here, before I talk about my new adventure. I'm still working construction, still mainly bathrooms. Today I drilled holes in walls for piping. It was awesome. It's getting really hot recently though, and the suns a killer, in and out of the place. In the bathrooms it's like a sauna, because they're all made of brick. It gets really, really hot.

If I needed to go to the loo in one of these things, I'd hang on till night time. I can imagine someone fainting while doing they're business.

What else? I've gained 5 kilos. I have no idea how. And this is 5 kilos more then I was in Australia, because I'm sure I lost weight in China. I'm telling myself it's muscle from all the work I'm doing. It's probably a lie, as I am eating a lot. Though generally it's healthy food. Meh, I feel healthy anyway.

Ok, so on Sunday a guy who's been in contact with WYPS (the organisation I'm techinacally working for) came and visited. His name is Thom Henley, and I later found out we have a book written by him in how house, which is bizarre. Anyway, he's this environmental educator, who apparently wanders the world, seeking out new ways to make a difference with minority people or the environment. Cool huh? Bit crazy but whatever.

Anyway, he tells me he's about to head up to Burma, in order to meet with these street kids he's been helping out. I asked to come along, and he said it'd be ok.

So, these kids are Lambi, which means street kid. They're orphaned probably by the tsunami, most of their stories are, "My parents went to Thailand and never came back." There's a lot of illegal Burmese labour here, and a lot of them got killed in the tsunami.

So I went back home, chucked a few clothes in my bag and shipped out. He had a little car with a German name, though it looked just like a Barina.

So we headed up to Ranong, on the Thai/Burmese border. He had wanted to cross to Burma that day, but we arrived too late.

Ranong doesn't see a huge amount of tourism. We went and had a nice dinner at a "Western" (I made the mistake of ordering a Spaghetti Carbonara - you don't want to know) Restaurant. We then went and got a 1 1/2 hour massage after soaking in a hot spring for a while. Nice life huh?

We crashed that night in a motel, very reminiscent of seedy Australian motels, minus the cable tv.

The next morning we got up and headed off. First stop, Thai immigration, where we got stamped. Strangely, this isn't really on the border, but a little way down the road. Burmese people were just flowing through these parts, there wasn't even any effort to stop illegal immigration.

Then off to hire a little boat to take us across the river to Burma, or Myanmar.

The little thin boats were a lot of fun, chugging through the water. We saw jellyfish in the water, and there was people catching them, apparently for the Chinese market.The ride was maybe half an hour, across the river. The Burmese immigration point was a little shack on the water, it was hilarious. Once we got across we met the kids.

We were at the border town, called Victoria Point. It's not a very nice place, very dirty. There's a large islamic contingent there, as well as a lot of Buddhists. Buddhist monks wear saffron coloured robes rather then the orange robes of the Thai monks.The kids were thin, but not too dirty. They had quick eyes and ready smiles. They all wanted to shake my hand. For some reason a lot of them had orange dyed hair.

There were about 14 of them. They're a little gang of street kids that sleep under the dock at night apparently. We went and bought them new shirts and shoes, and then sat down to lunch with them. A few of them spoke a bit of English.

Thom was there to give them money for food, as well as little books so they could take tourists on tours and then give them the books write nice things in them, to show to the next tourist.

2 of the kids go to school, the rest don't like it and so don't go. It's hard, because they need to get clean and study etc. One kid, who Thom had worried about, because the last time he was in Burma the kid was gone, was back. The kid had been taken by a Farang, to Phuket, and then left there. He found his way back to Burma, on his own, somehow. He was probably sexually abused though he didn't want to talk about it. Thom had been worried he'd been taken for body parts.

Two of the kids had spent 2 months in prison, framed for murder. They'd found a dead body by the peer, and were standing around looking at it. When the police came they arrested the kids and threw them in jail. Luckily a witness came forward and they were released. One other kid hid in Thailand for the 2 months.

So Thom tries to help them as best he can. He leaves enough money with them so that they can eat every day for a month, (about a dollar a day) but that adds up when he's got 14 kids to consider, and this time it was out of his pocket. Previously he's gotten funding from schools.

We headed back to Thailand, and back to Khao Lak. Thom dropped me off at a bus stop close by and I took a bus back home. At the meeting that night, for TVC, I got up and asked everyone that when they go on visa runs, they looks out for these kids, and help them out.

I'd been thinking, a week or two ago, I wanted to see more Thai culture and make more of a difference. I got to see the Thai holiday last week, and this week I got to help these Burmese kids in a small way. The world provides.

I had some thoughts on my own experience here. How much of a difference am I really making? I'm building houses, but if I wasn't here someone else would do the same thing. But maybe that's good, I'm making a small difference as part of a larger entity.

I couldn't live Thom's life. He has not base, he wanders the earth. He's given up family, a proper home, in order to spend his life making a difference, but I don't think I could do that.

I think I want to seek out a life in the middle. He's one extreme, completely giving, and I guess the people that make the problems that he tries to fix are the other, completely selfish. I think I want to seek a middle path, between helping myself and helping the world.

I've decided I'm definitely going to become an author, no questions. Everything until the point where I can make a living out of writing is preperation for that point.

What else? Oh, on this thing I've been talking about, about positivity, it's working. I feel better. Whenever I have a bad thought about someone, I take a step back (mentally) look at their situation and find a good point about it. Example:

At the meeting, this rather old, rather large woman came in. This is in a meeting for people mainly doing very hard aid work, and my first thought was, "Why is that fat lady here?" Then I thought, "Hey, who cares why, it's cool that she's here and experiencing this." At this point, I stopped actually thinking about her. There was an emptiness in regards to thought about her, maybe a peace somehow. I don't know. It didn't make me happier, it just made me not have to think about her anymore. Kind of like, it's good she's here, and that's it. I think this positive thinking thing will give me a more peaceful, focussed mind. I still have to practice it, because I still have a first, negative reaction to a lot of things. I don't want to end up like one of those hippy types though, always too calm, like they're constantly high.

Well thats about it. As you can see, I'm having some personal growth here.

Yours,

Peter.

Weird assed shit

2005-11-09T15:37:00.000+11:00

Ok, so who remembers Kevin from China? For the non-AIESECers or anyone else who doesn't know, Kevin is a Chinese AIESECer that came to Australia last Summer to do some work for Sydney Uni AIESEC.

Ok, so I'm having a chat with this girl called Jacky, about China. She studied in Bangkok, like, 2 years ago. I mention I'm here through AIESEC. She says, she heard of AIESEC from her Chinese tutor in Beijing, named Kevin.

No way. It couldn't be. There's over a billion people in China.

It was.

Kevin has this memorable email address, livelylive or something. Yep, her Kevin had that as well.

Same Kevin.

I'm still spinning out.

Peter.

Elephants and Candle Boats

2005-11-08T03:33:00.000+11:00

So an interesting time is had by all.

Now, I want to start this post with something that's I've been thinking of. Whilst I am doing construction work here, I did actually choose to do it, over the other option of teaching English, and I really am enjoying it, I'm not just saying so.

Anyway,

On Saturday I rode an elephant. Yep, we went elephant trekking. For 500 Baht ( less the $20) we got to spend 45 minutes riding an elephant up and down a mountain.

The place we went to was quite close, like, 10 minutes drive probably. We arrived and the elephants started to lumber towards us, it was amazing. Jiri took a picture of me touching one if their trunks, I look like a freaking tard. Huge smile, vaguely shocked look.

So the elephants have these chairs strapped to them, big enough for 2. They were gorgeous, not too big, but big e-freaking-nough. So yeah, we clamber on and they start trotting up the mountain, in a lazy swaying walk. I was with Anna, who looked nothing short of an Indian princess on this thing. She has the regal portugese manner about her you see. Anyway, the guide jumps up and sits on the elephants head/neck, and proceeds to a) kick it in the ears or b) hit it in the head with a pointy metal pick. Yeah, I know. Still, it's not up to me to tell him off, he'd just smile and do it the same way.

So yeah, it was cool. I clambered onto the elephants head as well for a few money shots. I forgot my camera (it was kind of a rush decision) so I have to get those pics off of Jiri.

Anyway, Sunday was a lazy day with my usual massage. I treated myself for dinner on Saturday night with a Wiener schnitzel. Lush.

Anyway, so today was another day at work. Work weeks go quickly, because you don't really have time to think at work. Mixing cement for instance is one step after another, when you finish one batch you start on the next.

Actually for the last few days it's been a bit slow, I'm not sure why. We haven't done as much as we normally do. We did 1 bathroom floor today, where as mostly we do 3 in a day.

I built a toilet the other day though, which was cool.

Actually, the reason we only did 1 floor today was because we got off work early for this festival. I think they actually hold this festival at the full moon (ie, not today) but it coincided with some tsunami rememberance day. Anyway, it was really cool.

Basically it's about making an offering to the water goddess, kind of thanking her. We made these extravigant gifts for her, basically, out of banana leaves and a circular piece of banana tree wood, we made these little circlar boats, with flowers and leaves on top. Then we lit a candle and some incense and set them in the river at night. It was quite amazing, all these little boats floating down the water. Apparently in the real festival theres hundreds of them. I'm told it's about letting your fears and worries be swept away by the river.

It was dark at this time, and as we walked back we saw the most spectacular sight. Hundreds of paper hot air balloons, flying up into the sky. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. I did one, it's this circle of flamable stuff undearneath a paper balloon, and when the air in the balloon is hot enough it floats away. They all went spiraling away, circling the moon. It was incredible, all these lights floating around the sky.

Anyway, thats about all really. Still working hard, still eating well. I'm staying in Khao Lak until I go to Malaysia to save some money. There's plenty to do here. Mostly relax when I'm not working.

Oh, one thing. I think I accidentally gave myself a new nickname, Steve. After I set my little boat in the water I came back to the group (none of them from V-Stay, it was a group of other volunteers) and said, "That's it, I'm starting over completely. I'm now Steve and I'm 6 foot 4." Anyway, they seemed to think it was funny and now they're calling me Steve. Go figure.

Anyway, it's past midnight now so time for bed.

Peter.

Life and Stuff

2005-10-31T21:57:00.000+11:00

So I don't know if I've said this, but life here is beautiful. No where else in the world could you live this well on this money. The food I eat, the places I go, the things I do, it's fantastic.

I'm really healthy here. I do a lot of excercise, eat well, lots of fruit.

I'm not sure if it's Thailand, but I'm changing, or perhaps I'm just learning who I really am. I've come up with two things that are important to me in how I deal with the world.

1: The world provides. I really believe that if you keep your ear to the ground, take opportunities when they come up, then the world provides you with everything you need.

2: Be positive. I've realised I'm quite a negative person, and it hasn't gotten me anywhere. I feel better about myself and everything when I try to think positively about situations. This is more a thing I want to change within myself, or perhaps shift.

Anyway, the work is still fantastic. It's hard, I'm using my body and different parts of my mind. I meet the most amazing people; Goey (no idea how to pronounce this) and Mona from Sweden are my latest find. They're amazing. Goey is a Beatles fanatic, and Mona is one of the loveliest people I've ever met. I have dinner with them quite often.

People come and go. Most stay for 2 weeks or so, so it's almost like the landscape changes as new friends leave and new acquantances come.

The landscape is changing though. New places pop up all the time. New restaurants, stores. Best of all, the first tourists are here. Tommorrow the high season starts, and the place will change considerably I'm sure.

I've booked my tickets to Malaysia, perhaps prematurely as I haven't gotten a 100% definite from either conference, but if they fall through I'll just travel instead. I'm quite sure they won't though. I couldn't pass up the tickets though, $100 return, including tax. Yeah, wow.

I'm also getting a suit made. Not buying a suit, I'm having one made. The material is beautiful, and so well made. The guys name is Monty, and all the volunteers go to him because he's so good, and gives a volunteer discount. Guess how much I'm paying? $150. For a designer, hand made suit. Yep. I need it for the conferences, then I'll mail it home.

So yeah. Life putters on. I've gotten over my home sickness, though I don't think I'll get very bad reverse culture shock when I get home. I'm loving it here, but I'm looking forward to getting home, and the things that wait for me there. I think reverse culture shock only happens if you don't want to come home. I think once my 6 months away finish, I'll miss my travels, but be happy to be home.

Peter.

e

2005-10-27T23:14:00.000+10:00

Quick update,

I'm working at a Sea Gypsy village called Thaptuwan atm.

For the last two days I’ve been digging holes. Not just any holes mind, septic tank holes. At home we’d build these with large earthmoving machines and be done quick smart, but not here,OH NO. We get in there, and do it by hand.

Here’s the process:

First, We dig with shovels and hoes till we’ve got a nice little pit going. As we’re very near the water in quite a wet country, within a metre of digging we've hit the water table and it all turns to mud. After a while we wheel over these quite large concrete rings which get placed in the hole. The aim here is to get 3 of these rings down the hole. How do you go about this you might ask? Well. You get in the hole, in the mud, and shovel out mud and water with a bucket, the aim of which is to get the rings to get sucked down deeper and deeper so you can place another ring on top.

Bare in mind, depending on water levels at any one time you'r up to you're knees, and sometimes your waist in water/mud.

Lovely.

So by this time, you're wet, dirty. Everyone forms a chain. Out with the bucket, pass it along, out with the water and mud, back into the hole. Using two buckets, we're able to get 3 rings down a day, or so.

Now, I complain, but it isn't that bad. It's good excercise, and we've finished today, so I only had to do 2 1/2 days of it. Now I'm doing concreting, which is a lot more frantic, but there's lots of people doing it, so it's fun.

I'm living very healthy, good food, 2 or more fruit shakes a day, excercise at work, a jog twice a week or so (when I'm not dead tired). I also do yoga twice a week, at the volunteer centre, which is great, really relaxing and makes you feel good.

I just have to concentrate on taking care of my back. Little things are really pleasurable with this kind of work though. That shower at the end of the day, a 5 minute sit down, a small job done well etc.

Anyway, that's my life for the next few weeks.

Peter.

Bangkok and Beyond

2005-10-24T18:09:00.000+10:00

This post might be boring/incomprehensible for those not in AIESEC. Actually I'll talk about the non-AIESEC things here so you can skip the rest. Read the last paragraph though.

So I spent most of my time in Bangkok living the high life. During the day I went to see a movie, do some shopping or sneak into Pete's gym to go swimming. This gym was at the bottom of a hotel, the pool was gorgeous. I sat there, book in one hand, fruit shake in the other, towel around my waste in a deck chair thinking "It's a hard life."

At night we went out drinking. We went clubbing on Khao San rd (the main bakcpacker rd), at a small Hip-Hop club. Heaps of fun. I got a hair cut, a massage. It was fun.

Anyway, the conference.

So yeah, I was assistant faci at the conference. Had to eat my pride a bit there, kind of "you either want me or you don't" but it was fun.

I had to catch a cab to the pick up point, a University way the fuck away from where I was staying, so I left at 5:30 to make sure I got there for the 7:00am pickup. I forgot about "Thai time."

Nothing in Thailand is ever on time, except the buses.

So it's getting towards 9:00 before the bus rocks up.

Anyway, this bus was pimpin' it was all decked out in the craziest colours and lights. Seriously, it was a party bus.

We got to the site at about 12:30, 2 hours out of schedule. Big fucking deal right MC members? The conference agenda was as tight as any other. Unfortunately, it was discovered on the first day, it was also completely useless.

First the site though. Holy cow. I prayed to god for a site like this for my conference. It was a horse riding resort. The rooms all had tvs with cable and everything. The place was gorgeous. Seriously nice.

So we rock up to opening plenary, 2 hours late. The plenary has the usual, though not as well organised at Australian ones. There wasn't any rattifying anything like that. The Chair was Chris, the AP director from AI, really nice girl from China, I had some great conversations with her.

I realised in the plenary I was the only white person at the conference, which was interesting.

Ok, so the opening plenary was about 2 hours. 1 hour of this was presentations from the various conference sponsors, not on anything particularly interesting, just on they're companies.

I spent the day in the EB flow learning about AIESEC 2010, which I missed out on being OCP. I learnt later that the facis made a startling discovery.

Oh, they facis were some cool people, Amzad from Bangladesh, Sapu from Sri Lanka, a girl from Malaysia whos name escapes me, and a few others.

The new members in their flow knew absolutely nothing about AIESEC. What it does, nothing. Some thought it was an English speaking club.

We were sent to bed that night with no party. Seriously. No nothing. I watched tv that night. The facis stayewd up all night re-writing the agenda from skills building to "What is AIESEC" sessions.

The next day I spent helping facilitate. It was hard. I did some facilitating in the EB and the new member flows, and both were the same. You talk to the group, ask if they understand. No response. No nods, no words, no nothing. So this must mean they don't understand right? No, they do understand, or at least some of them do, but they're so shy they don't say a word. Difficult. The EB guys didn't like @XP at all either, when asked to write down positive things about @XP they couldn't think of any.

That night we had a party, dancing and some alchohol. Guess what alchohol they had? Vodka cruisers. That's it. You can't get drunk on Vodka cruisers, believe me, I tried really hard. All they do is make your teeth a funny colour.

The party was funny for a different reason, and it's name was Bebe.

Bebe didn't say much during the conference. I never heard Bebe speak.

Bebe sure liked to dance th0ugh.

Bebe was a heshe. A ladyboy.

Yep, so he/she would get up on the stage and do incredibly flashy, showy dances. Pretty good actually apart from having NO DISCERNABLE SEX. Anyway, this was my first real culture shock. I had to go to bed early, it was a bit too weird for me honestly. I got used to her/him on the second day, it was just a bit surprising.

Apparently she'd already had the chop, if you know what I mean, and had an American boyfriend. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Anyway, the 3rd day things started looking up. The kids started talking and getting involved, becoming less shy, so it was easier to talk to them.

The final night was a lot of fun. First there was a fake MCP election. I'm not sure what it was for exactly, a lot of the sessions were vaguely pointless, but it was fun. The 4 most outspoken people were candidates.

During question time, someone asked them "If you were in an elevator for 30 seconds with Prime Minister Thaksin, what would you say to him."

I asked, "If you were in an elevator with prime minister Thaksin, and you farted really loudly, what would you say." One of the girls, whos english wasn't so good, said "I'd ask, how is my smell?"

Then there was a dance competition called "Hot couple." Couples had to dance sexy right? There were a lot more boys then girls, so I had to go up there. I asked Chris, but apparently she "doesn't dance" (anybody who knows her should give her shit about this.) Then I asked a rather attractive Thai girl.

So cultural knowledge right here. We danced, not touching, and she informed me that:

1. This was the first time she'd danced with a boy
2. This conference was the first time she'd had alchohol
3. She wasn't allowed out of home after 9pm.

Right, so I'm going to get lucky right?

Anyway, I only went as far as she was comfortable in terms of the "sexy dancing." We got kicked out in the finals or whatever, and sat back to watch.

The final was between 1 girl who danced like a maniac, and another girl who danced like a stripper. Stripper girl won. The girl I had danced with was SO shocked at this girl, her mouth was just open, and she kept saying "I can't believe she's doing that!" I asked if she thought badly of the girl and she said she liked to watch her, but she didn't want to be like her. Fair enough.

So that night we have this big room party with lots of proper alchohol, I went to bed about 4am, with it still going. Some rich kid had a bottle of Hennessy (Cognac) and mixed it with coke. Bloody hell.

Anyway, the next day I got up for plenary like usual. No one else did though. Plenary started at 10, when the MC could drag themselves out of bed.

The last day flew by, more fun, people were more comfortable, more confident. It was actually really cool to see.

Finally, we were sent home at about 7:30. The MC, facis and the chair stayed the night for a party. Sapu asked if I was staying for the party, and since no one had invited me I said no. He went to ask if I could stay and apparently not.

This just left a kind of sour taste in my mouth. I mean, I wasn't a faci sure, but I had helped without blinking whenever they asked me to, and I was the only trainee who had bothered coming to the conference, and in the end, what the hell was this conference about? Me, thats what. I'm the end product of everything they're trying to do. Whatever, I'm not angry much, I just think they should have invited the trainee to the party, you know what I'm saying?

Anyway, a few good things came out of it. I met some awesome Malaysian guys who told me about their conferences, and I've decided to go! There's a National Conference from the 1st to the 5th of December, then an International Conference from the 12th to the 15th, and I think I'm going to go to both. I'll take off the whole of December, visit Singapore for a bit after the conference, and make up the time I miss in January, so I will still be doing my full 3 months of work.

Anyway, thats about all for now,

Peter.

2005-10-16T18:48:00.000+10:00

Totally hardcore

2005-10-16T18:47:00.003+10:00

Pee Ya

2005-10-16T18:47:00.002+10:00

Terrorist?

2005-10-16T18:47:00.001+10:00

Mangroves

2005-10-16T18:47:00.000+10:00

My 2 walls

2005-10-16T18:46:00.001+10:00

Finished but for the roof

2005-10-16T18:46:00.000+10:00

That's what I call a drink

2005-10-16T18:45:00.001+10:00

Ronald Thai style

2005-10-16T18:45:00.000+10:00

Me and the girls (I threatened to call this one me and my bitches. Koura, in the yellow, hit me.)

2005-10-16T18:44:00.001+10:00

Kids in the mud?

2005-10-16T18:44:00.000+10:00

Labourer Peter

2005-10-16T18:42:00.002+10:00

Starting work

2005-10-16T18:42:00.001+10:00

My beach

2005-10-16T18:42:00.000+10:00

And again

2005-10-16T18:41:00.002+10:00

Police boat 200m from my house

2005-10-16T18:41:00.001+10:00

Fresh seafood

2005-10-16T18:41:00.000+10:00

My natural habitat

2005-10-16T18:40:00.001+10:00

The money shot

2005-10-16T18:40:00.000+10:00

I'm cool