Bali April 2010

Bali 2010 Photos

Easter week holidays! My friend Marlee from the Melbourne Ukulele Kollective was going away to Turkey but some of her family were heading to Bali, and had - in an off-the-cuff moment - invited me along. So with only six days' notice I booked tickets and found myself making an early start for Tullamarine on my motorbike on Easter Sunday morning.

The smallish Pacific Blue flight wasn't quite full, slightly surprisingly; but there was a good holiday mood onboard. It's always fascinating to traverse the continent - over the top of Uluru and then Cape Leveque. I arrived around lunchtime - it took over an hour to get through the Visa on Arrival desk ($AUD30) and immigration. The interminable wait was made more frustrating by the lack of immigration staff - only to find around the corner a bunch of idle money-changer booths. I just used the ATM... the Commonwealth Bank one was the only one out-of-order. I played hard-to-get with the taxi drivers for a bit, paid the unwanted porter a $AUD2 tip, and settled in for the short ride to Legian. At a few intersections, small children carrying infants approached the car looking for a handout - not a very classy introduction to the place. On the other hand I was greatly amused by some of the loads being carried around on the small motor scooters; often substantial food stalls were cleverly mounted across the pack rack, so the bikes could be parked and business could start immediately.

Checking in at the hotel I was greeted by Cheryl and Amity - always great to have a wonderful welcome! And for approx $50/night, it was very comfy - 30m from the beach, 2 beds, fridge, TV and air conditioner. I met up with Joel and Janet as well - Wendy arrived late Wednesday night to complete the group. Sunday afternoon was a day for getting my bearings in the neighborhood and going for my first swim at the beach - brilliant water temperature and perfect waves for body surfing - wide sandy beaches though with a bit of mud, and quite a lot of rubbish in the murky water. I suspect that after the rainy season, heaps of street run-off brings all the chip packets to the beach. We went out for dinner at the Flying Piano - which I later discovered was also one of the recommendations of my cousins (Aarron & Peta) and were serenaded by the house buskers. On the way back to the hotel we took a shortcut through one of the big hotels - very swanky!

From Bali 2010

Then... disaster! The combination of early starts, my recent visit to the blood bank, some last minute inoculations, some excellent food and wine, possibly a couple of mouthfuls of sea water, and the change of climate and timezone, all conspired to cause some disruption to the standard operations of the stomach area and I spent much of the first night dashing to the bathroom. Rather spectacularly, I'd imagine. And frequently. Top end, if you're wondering.

So Monday was rather quiet for me. Our group went to a pub for lunch for my one indulgence for the week, of watching the Hawks v Cats AFL game from the MCG (bummer) - it was the Geraldton satellite signal, with lots of ads for big tractors and sheds. My lunch consisted of a couple of glasses of coke and I found myself scouting the venue of pot plants or other recepticles I might be able to reach in case of emergency but they weren't required. After a nap, I took an anti-nausea tablet that Chez had got for me, and I made it out for a late afternoon walk and a swim - then straight back to bed for an 11-hour sleep.

I felt much brighter on Tuesday. Chez had organised to visit Ketut - whose family they had become friends with over several visits. He and his family have been enduring more than the normal share of hardships of late (I'd performed with MUK at a fundraiser for them). Ketut came to pick us up and take us back to their flat in Denpasar, where I meet various members of his family including their niece Nyoman who is helping look after Ketut's son Wayan. Despite the language barriers it was great to be made welcome and to see a bit of daily life in Bali, and it was wonderful to see the bond between the two families from different cultures.

From Bali 2010

Back in Legian after lunch, I ventured out to buy stamps and postcards several blocks away and had fun poking the area. I must have been starting to look at home as I was stopped and asked for directions twice by other Australians - including a pair of deaf ladies. Fortunately "Double Six" is quite easy to mime. Back for a swim, then I thought I'd try the hotel masseuse (60000Rp for an hour - about $AU7) wihle several geckos looked on. Apparently my shoulder makes sounds like 'tak tak tak' in Indonesian. For dinner I managed just half a bowl of soup - the most sustenance I'd had in 2 days, but I was well on the mend.

From Bali 2010

On Wednesday, Ketut took Chez & I to see his family village on the north end of Bali. The road lead through the endless suburbs and traffic of Denpasar, past a flock of ducks being herded across the main road, then through the more stately Klungkung, past rice paddies and then up into the mountains; the mountain pass we took was quite new and apparently shortened the old journey considerably. At one lookout I was impressed by the local custodian walking around the carpark picking up litter... only to then dump it over the edge. On the way down the other side I noticed a couple of water pumps that had been donated by Rotary International Japan, which was interesting given my Dad's involvement in Rotary. We stopped at a general store, of sorts, where I managed a guava juice for breakfast, and we bought some supplies for the village. Then up the mountainside to Ketut's sister's place for a quick visit, and then finally a few minutes further to Ketut's family's farm/village. Cheryl commented that there'd been a number of improvements since her last visit: primarily electricity and a new building of several rooms. Again the language barrier was evident but smiles and gestures went a long way; the kids were playful but a bit shy, and when Ketut was showing me around the family temple next door, his parents taught Chez the right way to shell peanuts.

From Bali 2010

We then headed back via the other side of the volcano - quite a spectacular uphill drive over many kilometres and past dozens of small villages, through the mists and rain - up to the ridge at about 1500m. Then back through the Denpasar traffic which I was starting to lose patience with, as interesting as it is to drive through neighborhoods of other cultures. For dinner we were back at the Flying Piano & I think I actually managed proper food.

From Bali 2010

The next day I did a downhill mountain biking tour - one of the great suggestions from Peta. It was fantastic - in 40km we barely had to turn the pedals. There was still the ordeal of traversing the city - and my fellow minibus travellers were very quiet, it turns out that most of them had been partying it up the night before and were rather seedy. It was good that the first stop was at a coffee plantation for a tour and a tasting, and I regret not buying a couple of packets to take home. Later, getting aboard the bikes on the rim of the crater we were able to start our gradual coast downhill, past fields and villages and towns, schools and shops - it was a great montage of Balinese life. We were constantly greeted by all the schoolkids and other locals, calling out "Hellooo", and giving lots of friendly waves & smiles. There were a couple of 'exciting bits' on the bike ride where we could let loose, on a steep section, but it was mostly quite gentle. We stopped and visited a small house as well. The tour finished with a very nice lunch and I could swap travel stories with my tour companions - as green as they were. The tour bus back lacked aircon and one fellow tourist in particular was torn - window open and get sunburnt, or window closed and feeling flustered and nauseous? I suggested to the driver to drop me off at the top of Legian (in order to bypass the time-consuming navigation of the Kuta streets that make my back laneway look spacious) but it was my turn to be last on the drop-off list. As a result I got the slow-motion tour of Kuta, past the crowds of Bintang-singletted tourists and had a glimpse of the Ground Zero monument - I hope never to require emergency services to be able to get to me in that neighborhood, the traffic logistics are prohibitive.

From Bali 2010

Chez had booked our Thursday evening dinner on the balcony of the hotel restaurant, hoping to catch the sunset. My final evening was a bit of a celebration - Joel proposed to Janet and she accepted, much to the delight of Amity who had been bursting with the secret all week. I got to provide the musical backing for the proposal song "500 Miles", and there was a bit of a singalong into the night - I think I managed to rather impress the waitress.

From Bali 2010

On Friday I had thought to maybe do another tour but I decided to just have a relaxing day. Chez and Amity preferred my room to their own so they moved their stuff down as I checked out. I went shopping (lunch at Mugshots), had another massage, went for a long body surf (brilliant conditions)... all the good holiday stuff. For my final excursion Ketut took Chez, Wendy and myself to Tanah Lot, an ancient temple just off the coast. It was hard to see too much as it was dusk when we arrived but it was quite the tourist spot, and a very nice place to visit.

From Bali 2010

Back in Legian, Ketut dropped the others back to the hotel but first he found me a taxi to the airport for my almost-midnight flight. In the end I was a quite a bit early, even with the numerous security checks and administrative stages. Departure tax was 150000Rp cash - lucky Wendy had told me about this because I wasn't expecting it. That left me with 40000Rp, just enough for a can and a packet of chips.

Huge thanks to Chez, Amity, Joel, Janet and Wendy for pointing me in the right direction, looking after lots of the details of finding my way around, and looking after me when I was crook!
Ideas for next time:
More of Kuta, either just stay in a resort, or stay completely away! Lombok, Gili, Dolphins, elephants + elephant caves, monkeys. But the next trip is looking like being the Cairns Ukulele Festival.

Outback November 2009

Aussie Icons Nov 2009

(Click album for more pictures)

With a few days off for Cup Week and a conference to attend at the end of the week in Katoomba, I checked my bucket list and set out for a drive... but first a practice run. I had been lucky to make the final of the Roddy Read Songwriting Competition at the Maldon Folk Festival with my song "The Room Next Door", so I had a day trip up on the motorbike. I was chuffed to make the top 3 - a step up from last year, it's great encouragement! The main trip was in the car though. After helping celebrate the family day at Werribee Mansion with the nephew & neice, and rocking the Empress Hotel with MUK, I headed up the freeway, getting as far as Charlton (as the only motel guest that night).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I started the next morning with a mountain climb; though don't be too impressed - it was Mt Wycheproff, the world's smallest mountain. Breakfast was at Ouyen, brunch (a couple of oranges and apples) at the fruit fly bins, and lunch at Mildura. It was a very enjoyable cruise, and it was great to catch a radio interview about Lake Mungo which was my first big destination. Mildura was abuzz - everything looked bright & energetic, with homemaker centres, endless motel strips and sports centres under a summer scorcher. I stopped to find out about Lake Mungo at the info centre - which doubles as a big aquatic centre and was full of school groups. The staff were great and my timing was perfect - I could put on my Melbourne Cup mystery bets (no good, again), have a quick walk along the Murray and still make the evening's tour.

Just out of Mildura was the turn off towards Lake Mungo and things started to feel very 'outback' - notwithstanding the constant vapour trails of planes heading between Sydney and Adelaide/Perth. There were no problems keeping up with highway speeds on the wide dirt roads. Lake Mungo is part of a network of lakes that have been dry for about 15000 years, however there are records of human habitation stretching back around 40000 years; all pretty amazing! My room for the night was a fairly recently constructed "shearers' hut" - a bare room with a bed, and an airconditioner which was going to be handy that evening. The tour bus arrived from its various pick-ups to take us to afternoon tea at the lookout, a good chance to mingle. There were a lot of grey nomads but a few younger travellers as well. We then went to the visitor's centre next to my accommodation where the tour guides told us a bit about the place, and performed on the didgeridoo. Then a wander around shearing shed and an excellent spread for dinner.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

The tour then went across the dry and scrub-covered lake bed to the lunette at the far shore where the guides gave us a part-explanation, part-diatribe about the area. We headed up the lunette and watched the sun set and the full moon rise, with a gentle musical backing from one of the guides (alas the uke was back in the car, otherwise I'd have joined in). Underfoot were millenia-old fireplaces and middens, pointed out by the expert eyes of the guides. Altogether I had mixed feelings about the tour, the food was great & I enjoyed meeting the other travellers, and they kept us hydrated with lots of bottled water - but some of the stories and explanations were far fetched - and were usually very dismissive about western/scientific interpretation. I can imagine my more scientifically-inclined friends having some spirited debates with them! I was also a bit disappointed that the tour only went to the main public areas - I sort of expected that the tour would take us to some 'closed' areas, or at least places a bit more off the beaten track.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I'd been told to check out the Mungo Lodge bar, but it was closed. A violent cool change came through in the middle of the night; very welcome but a restless sleep. I made an early start the next morning on the self-drive tour, across to the Walls of China, across and around the back with a couple of excursions on short walks. There was some great wildlife - particularly kangaroos and emus, with a few rabbits as well, and at that time of day I had the place to myself.
It was now Cup Day and I planned to watch the race at Broken Hill, so I pointed north-west and zipped along some more dirt roads (lots of fun!) past some very colourful landscapes, with a coffee stop in Pooncarie and then back on made roads at Menindee. I had a pleasant surprise to hear former MUKker Tony Allan presenting the Country Hour news. In fact ABC Radio was a wonderful companion on the whole trip. Anyway I found a reasonable backpackers, just around the corner from the Visitor Centre and headed up the road to watch the race. The first pub I found wasn't operating as a pub, instead just as accommodation, but when I stuck my head in, I found it was covered in fantastic murals; and I had a good chat with the owner. Then to watch the race at the Demo. As the clouds opened, I went to the GeoCentre which was quite interesting (though the volunteer guide for the historic house was a bit eccentric).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Next morning I went out to Silverton and the (historic) Daydream Mine - the only mine tour in the area. Interesting as it was, I'd sort of expected to be able to poke around in current-day mines. A quick stop-off at the Silverton museum turned into a mini-odyssey - it was great! And I drove out to the lookout a few km out of town and then to the dam, I thought maybe I could cross into South Australia (presumably visible over towards the horizon) but there weren't any roads that continued west, they just went north. Gourmet scones for lunch - for a ghost town, Silverton threw up some unexpected indulgences. Meantime during all this I had a couple of reminders of home - Shelly called (having forgotten I was away) to let me know that uke practice was off because a building across the intersection had collapsed; then I turned on the morning TV news and saw that a car had driven into the front of Filou's Patisserie just up the road from home (I believe everyone was OK in both incidents).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Back in Broken Hill, I went to the Railway, Mineral and Train Museum - pretty interesting for any engineer - and then the Royal Flying Doctor Service at the airport which was a great highlight - for one thing, it was new & modern & spick & span, somewhat of a contrast to the rest of the town, and also, it was great to see how it worked as an operations base. I just had time to get back to see the Pro Hart Gallery, his work seemed a bit like caricature, but one of the other visitors voiced my exact thoughts, which was that it was a lot more interesting and entertaining than the Salvador Dali exhibition. (I gave the Desert Sculptures a miss.) I stopped for a cuppa at the Broken Earth Restaurant on top of the mullock heap. Dinner was at the Musicians Club - not one of the highlights. My overall impression of Broken Hill was that, despite its iconic status, it was rather shabby, old and worn out, and the inhabitants gave me a similar impression - although they were very hospitable, cheerful and friendly. The main street is stately for a couple of blocks, but there is little else to reflect the riches being dug up. I did enjoy seeing 'Lane Street' and the adjacent Lane Lane.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Time to head back East - my departure coinciding with the Perth-bound Indian Pacific's stop, and I could stop mentally subtracting half an hour from the time. Settling in for a long cruise, I passed lots of kangaroos, emus and goats (mostly live ones). I stopped for a breather at Wilcannia, and then for lunch at Cobar (which impressed me as being back to a much more urban place) for a good stretch of the legs. I took the suggestion to visit the lookout over the copper mine - most impressive, and the city park depicting mining activities in sculpture was very cool. I got to try some more of the umpteen-km-long straight roads on the way in to Dubbo, where I had a break & then decided to call it quits on the driving for the day after about 750km, and found a motel and a nice Chinese restaurant. There was the promise of an amateur observatory, but it looked pretty shonky when I drove past, and the sunset was spectacular enough.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Morning coffee in Orange, then to another tick on the bucket list - a lap of the Mount Panorama car curcuit at Bathurst. I completed the first lap in 6:57 (sticking to the 60km/h speed limit) which compares admirably with the lap record which I think is somewhere in the 2:20 region, and after a visit to the National Motor Racing Museum I decided to tackle it again, and this time I got 6:53 - although I paused the stop watch for a while to take some pictures at the top. It was awesome to see the track first hand, after growing up watching it on TV - at least on one Sunday a year. It looked very much like a racing circuit as opposed to the country roads of yesteryear, the views from the top were fantastic, and it is definitely very steep coming down into Conrod Straight. With a little bit of elbow room in the schedule, I stopped in town and happened upon the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum which hosts the Somerville Collection. The instructions explanation from the ticket lady went nearly as long as the tour of the museum - perhaps I'd just been geologied-out.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Finally on to main destination of trip: Katoomba (where I stayed at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge, like the rest of the town, a bit old & shabby with strong echos of former grandeur). The conference, at The Carrington Hotel was very interesting and there was lots of fun social stuff - I got to play Irving Berlin in the Murder Mystery. Katoomba itself was blanked by fog and mist during the entire weekend so there was no sightseeing, and the planned joyflight was cancelled; however I made my way down to Penrith to meet up with the Saturday practice of the Blue Mountains Ukulele Group - I'd fortuitously discovered their flyer in the window of a music shop in Katoomba - after which they invited me to join in with their performance at the Mulgoa Festival of Music... however the festival was running behind time so the group decided to bail out. I made my way back - alternating being frustrated by the frequent roadworks, and being full of admiration for some pretty clever engineering as the road and railway tied plaits up the mountain. The guest speaker at the gala dinner was astronomer & broadcaster Fred Watson which was very entertaining; it was good to have a chat with him later.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

After lunch on the Sunday I farewelled the conference and headed down into Sydney to meet up with Katherine & any other swing dancers I could find. Google Maps on the iPhone was invaluable in helping me get to the Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain where it was great to find George Washingmachine launching into a set. In a fairly compact space there were several distinct flavours of patron, including a fun bunch of swing people. I tried to convince George to get out the uke, unsuccessfully. Time was pressing so I headed south - driving felt like it was somehow cushioned, perhaps it was a new freeway or a tailwind, but it was very smooth and quiet. I got as far as Queanbeyan and found a motel (and a slightly over-engaging proprietor).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I had an early start the next day but my head was a bit fogged up with hayfever; I drove to Cooma and needed a break. I stopped for a while at the Snowy Hydro visitors centre which was very informative. And then, passing a heap of motorcyclists cruising around the mountains, on to Thredbo, my base for an attempt at the summit of the highest point of the country - Mt Kosciuszko. Unlike every other continent, it's not really a spectacular achievement - I took a chairlift up much of the way, followed by a 4hr round trip undulating hike in spectacular warm and sunny weather, notwithstanding a number of patches of ice & snow, some across the boardwalk - my hiking boots, just about worn through, did the job. There were the headwaters for some icy streams, which probably all join up to start the Snowy River; and there were some unseen but noisily croaking frogs keeping me company. The views across the Snowy Mountains were great; although strangely the highest peak of the country was not particularly prominent, it just appeared to be one of quite a few modest rises along the high plains, and it certainly wasn't obvious that it was the tallest. There was a steady stream of hikers making their way up to the top. So it may be a modest achievement, but I'm glad I did it, despite a bit of sunburn.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Satisfied & worn out, I resumed the drive - there was some spectacular mountain scenery on the narrow mountain rows towards Khancoban, where the road levelled out. Back in Victoria there was a strange phenomenon a few times as I seemed to be driving through specks of foam; it might have been actual foam floating up on the breeze from a nearby river, or perhaps dandelion-like seeds, or even some sort of insect. The trip involved a short walk around Corryong, a spectacular sunset over Lake Hume, and dinner at a sweltering Wodonga. And then onto the freeway for the final cruise home.

Everything worked out perfectly - twice I had left my evening's accommodation plans until rather late (at Charlton and Queanbeyan), and twice my fuel gauge dropped a bit lower than I would like (into Broken Hill and into Wodonga), but my contingency plans weren't required.

Next time:
Wellington Caves - I had hoped to have time to do a tour but due to roadworks I got there a few minutes too late, and the schedule was a bit too tight to wait for the next tour.

New Zealand - October 2009

Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

(Click image above for the photo album)

I've been lucky to have hosted Amanda for MLX a couple of times and she had extolled to me the virtues of the Big Band Festival in Christchurch, & it would be great to catch up with some of the other Kiwis I'd met around the place, and flights were so cheap! I booked a week there - 21st to 28th October. Flying in, my first impressions were (as expected) of some pretty stunning mountains, but also an inordinate number of horse training tracks - seemingly in every 4th paddock. It was neat that the terminal was adjacent to the hangers/depots of various nations' Antarctic programs (I'll get there one day!). Once in town I found my billet accommodation - thanks Andrew! Dinner was with Canberrans and Swedes and then off for some dancing - firstly the workshop, then to the Yellow Cross pub in the slightly-artificially-cool Sol Square. The band was placed on a balcony running around the dance floor, which gave an amazing stereo effect. There were some young Japanese tourists looking very intrigued by all the swing dancing, and were delighted when I taught them a few steps.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

On the Thursday I met up with Angeline at the Bus Exchange (almost a tourist attraction in its own right) for a trip to the International Antarctic Centre, which was fun - we got to hoon around in a Hagglund, and I got pecked by a penguin during the 'backstage tour'. It was a little bit overpriced perhaps, but pretty interesting. I caught the suburban bus ride back into town along with a group of Italian high school boys that were tossing a rugby ball around. I dropped in on Ernest Rutherford's Den at what used to be the University of Canterbury, and the neighbouring Botanic Gardens weren't on my to-do list, but were actually really good; there was a great sundial and a Japanese Peace Bell. On my way back to the house I bumped into Andrew going the other way, and realised I was running slightly late, so we headed straight down to Laser Strike. It was a lot of fun, and I am very suspicious about my low placing. Then back for some music and dancing at the Sol Square - Fat Eddies. I had met some of the guys at MLX or other places around the world, or at least had knew a lot of mutual friends, so it didn't take long to find plenty of people to dance with. There seemed to be a lot of Americans for some reason.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

Friday morning I met up with Suzanne and Angeline for a gourmet brekky down on High Street, followed by shopping for props for that nights GI Ball at the Army Disposals store, and then tackling the big tourist attractions. We went punting, and since I was carrying my ukulele I was encouraged by my fellow passengers to have a bit of a quiet strum; this made a passenger in a passing punt very excited, and when we returned to the bank he caught up with us and introduced himself as Wesley, the owner of the punting company and a ukulele (and penny farthing) buff. He offered me a lift to the ukulele singalong in New Brighton that evening. Meantime, back to the sightseeing, and the obligatory tram journey, and then Suzanne and I went to check out the gondola. There was a marginally lame multimedia 'train' journey up at the summit, but the views were fantastic and it was great to get amongst the volcanic terrain. Suzanne enjoyed a snooze on the bus back into town before we met back up with Angeline, and then I went off to the ukulele night. It was great to meet everyone there - it was a bit more of a casual sing-along compared with MUK, but they asked me to sing a number so I hit 'em with the extended version of Slow Dance Baby. Many of the group knew of MUK and had relatives in Melbourne. Leslie announced that the next song was in the key of J, with the chords Jay, Say, Eff and Day. Back to the swing event - the GI Ball - and I made it just in time for the performances and supper. Incidently mid-swing supper is a great institution and there should be more of it.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

The sun shone bright on the weekend - and I discovered that swing was not the only dancing that was to be found in town; there was a bunch of people acting out Michael Jackson's Thriller video in front of the Art Gallery. There was a great atmosphere in & around the craft market & I had a good poke around the Art Centre. In the evening we headed over to the Big Band Cabaret Ball - most of the bands were fantastic (there were a couple of exceptions) - I was very impressed that there were a whole lot of songs the MUK play, being performed by the big bands - including, strangely enough, Knock on Wood. I had a dance with Ruth which was quite an experience; it was remarkable how she could get from place to place, seemingly without passing through any of the intervening points. I also took the chance to sample some local beers; they were all quite tasty and went down very quickly what with all the dancing and supper.

Much of the weekend was spent doing dance workshops (I really must review my notes/videos to re-learn some of the moves) which were a good challenge; I found that despite expectations I was able to maintain concentration through to the end each day when a few of the others started to drop off, though I'm sure they all had me covered in actual skill! And my legs were seriously starting to sieze up, and my shoes were starting to disintegrate. The last workshop on the Sunday was a little bit late in starting so I serenaded the waiting dancers with Ghost Tram and All My Favourite Bits (they wanted a couple of fast ones) which went down a treat. Into the evening & more dancing and mingling - given the Hawaiian theme I was hoping to give the uke a bit more of a strum but I couldn't really compete with the DJ's sound system.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

The Recovery Day was a great idea and I think that it was the event that I was most looking forward to! A busload of swing dancers headed north, via a generous brunch and a wine tasting, to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. It would have been nice to spend another hour there... although I probably would say the same thing regardless of how long we'd spent there. They were wonderfully therapeutic and I found that many of the swing people went very quiet in a relaxed kind of way. On the way back into town we stopped at Prenzel for some liqueur tastings, then pizza at Yellow Cross. I was still finding new people to meet, but as I started to wind down my fingers started to itch and I found a quiet corner to have a bit of a strum of the uke. Unintentionally I drew a small & enthusiastic crowd - it was a nice way to wind down the festivities!

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

I went on a daytrip on the last full day - the tour to Mt Cook wasn't running due to insufficient numbers, so instead I did the 4WD/Arthurs Pass tour. Many thanks to Melissa at The Adventure Centre who organised the booking with aplomb, despite having had a long day; and she even chased me up the street with my tickets when I left them on the counter. Anyway - to the tour. I have since theorised that the tour guide (who bears quite a resemblance to sports reporter Mark Beretta) didn't realise he was rostered on that day, so we started a bit late and I had to wait for half an hour in miserable weather. While I'm grumbling, what was promoted as an adventure tour was mostly full of retirees; but I guess they were pretty good value. And the tour guide's jokes weren't as lame as most. And the weather cleared up beautifully. We did some basic 4WDing around a farm in the foothills near Springfield, and then headed down to the river for a spin in the jet boat - good fun. Then up to the mountains to Arthur's Pass, just in time to meet the TranzAlpine for the trip back to Christchurch. The scenery was fantastic - the freshly-snowed-on mountains and braided rivers were astonishing. Back in town & I shouted Andrew dinner at Strawberry Fare - when I first heard the name, I thought it was called Strawberry Fear which would have been pretty good as well.

On the way home I had to get up at Stupid o'Clock for a 7am flight (ie 5am to the airport, ie 4am shuttle pick-up, ie 3:30am wakeup, ie 1:30am Melbourne time), but it was a spectacular morning and the Southern Alps were stunning. Landing was a little bit delayed and we had a bit of a slow tour of South Gippsland (good views of the Prom & the power stations; Melbourne was blanketed by cotton wool, with Mt Dandenong a prominent island).

Thanks to Amanda, Andrew and all at Hepcat Swing for hosting a great weekend, and thanks everyone for all the dances and I'll catch you all soon!

Next time: Mt Cook, the Pacific, perhaps the rest of the TranzAlpine.

Singapore - June 2008

Photos

Saturday 28 June: With only a few hours and a daypack, I took Jacqueline's advice to head straight to Sentosa. I had hoped to get by without any cash, but the train ticket machines didn't accept credit cards. The ticketing system took a slight leap of faith but once I got the hang of it, it was quite a nifty system. In fact my impression of Singapore was that it was cheap, good value, clean, efficient; it strikes me that you'll be fine as long as you don't mind being very well behaved - luckily that suits me quite well.

Sentosa is a small theme park/resort/island (seemingly staffed largely by minimum-age workers!), and I went up inside the statue of a mermaid lion 'Merlion' (I think I went to a few cities with lions as their emblem on my trip), a museum of sorts called Images of Singapore, the Sky Tower - a sort of observation deck on a list, and I had to go on the luge after missing out on the top of Mt Pilatus. I went for a very soothing swim and watched some beach volleyball as the sun went down, and the jet fighters screeched overhead.

On the monorail back a couple of the 'locals' struck up a delightful conversation with me which was a great finishing touch on my travels - Wenna, a Chinese girl studying in Singapore, was excellent company on the short trip back to the city. Then - back to Changi airport for the final leg.

Home: Thanks to Jeanette, Rob and Matty who met me at the airport; it was great to be home; but I'd had a brilliant time, thanks again everyone & I hope to catch you all again soon!

London 2 - June 2008

Photos

Tuesday June 22: I was heading back to London for a couple of days before heading home; Louisa was unwell so I had lined up a couple of nights' floorspace with newlyweds Leonie and Laurent. The problem was getting there... my flight into Gatwick was 3 1/2 hours late and instead of disembarking at a respectable 8pm we were heading headlong towards midnight - 1am Denmark time.

So, I arrived in Gatwick at a quarter past 11, my luggage didn't show up for half an hour - luckily I could bypass the 'EU Passport' queue at immigration, there were big crowds all pretty annoyed that they were up this late (who knows how everyone got home) then I have to decide on what train company to use, while the ticket machines were busy rejecting my card, and the single ticket window had a 20min delay and passengers behind me are asking to move in front because they need the same train that I do (we all made the train)... I got to London Victoria at 12:45 am, to find that the Tube had closed for the night, and none of the taxis would take Visa. Finally I relented and got out some cash, grabbed a taxi and arrived at Leonie's house at 1am (luckily I wasn't heading to Louisa's - maybe 4 times as far). A most frustrating night - but the next day made up for it!

Wednesday: I was still a bit rattled and woke early when I heard movement around the house a bit after 6am. I got up to say hi to my hosts, plus I thought it might be an idea to try to get to Wimbledon... it turned out that Leonie and Laurent were also planning to skip work and get along as well! We left about 7 and with a brisk hike to Tower Bridge tube we got to the Wimbledon queue at around 8am... I was queue ticket number 4323. Not low enough to get into centre court but no problems getting a ground pass. We had a couple of hours to kill but it passed quickly with nice weather, good company from the queue neighbours, and people selling newspapers (including a free radio!) and giving out suncream and chewing gum samples. The whole thing was very civil and well organised.

We paraded across to the stadium complex - Leonie and Laurent had a couple of matches they were keen to see and I decided to settle in to Casey Dellaqua vs Pauline Parmentier on Court 17 - Casey had a shaky start but came good and took out the match. I then watched a another great match where a small Italian girl who was a rank underdog took it right up to her seeded opponent. I went for a walk around the grounds, had the strawberries and cream, watched some of the big matches on the big screen, and then finished up watching a bit of Sam Stosur in the doubles.

I had to keep moving though - I had a date with Louisa for dinner. It took us a little bit of time to find each other at London Bridge, but then we were off having a lovely Thai dinner just near Trafalgar Square. To top off what was already a magical day, we headed off towards the Wednesday Ukulele Jam, which was a hugely enjoyable dose of madness. It was great to meet all the guys and girls and belt out some tunes with them. What a day!

Thursday: My last full day was a bit of an anticlimax... I had originally hoped to be going to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, but their show was cancelled. I went to Greenwich, and saw the signs for the Cutty Sark but it was closed for repairs. I went to the Observatory (I had been there before) back in 1990, and just as I stepped into the room with the Transit Circle an alarm went off and everyone had to be evacuated. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me triggering the alarm! I did see the time ball drop. A programme listing in a newspaper said that there was a show at the Globe Theatre at 2:30 so I jumped on a train to get to Southbank, arriving just to find that the show started at 2:00 and it was sold out anyway. Exasperated, I went for a walk along the Thames riverbank, then back to Trafalgar Square - finally finding the plaque indicating where distances are measured from in London (across the road from the Square towards the river), and basically wandered around for a while... it was good to find a couple of neighbourhoods that aren't on the tourist trail. Finally I headed back to Leonie & Laurent's having decided that I'd had an awesome trip but it was probably a good time to be heading home. I contributed some Victorian wine bought from the local Threshers to dinner, and we settled in to watch some of Wimbledon and Euro2008 on the telly.

Friday: London still had a few hours with which to entertain me; I started with having a bit of a jam session with Laurent which was great fun! Then after packing all my gear I took my hosts' advice to go for a riverside walk to Museum in Docklands, where there were exhibits on Jack the Ripper, and Sugar and Slavery, and lots and lots of schoolkids. I picked up my suitcase from Leonie's, and feeling that I'd been around long enough to be on top of things I assertively swiped my Oystercard on the bus... before the bus driver told me I was heading in the wrong direction. I made it to Heathrow, and checked my bag through to Melbourne. I had budgeted the weight of the suitcase to be around 19kg for the journey which worked fine - until Leonie asked me to carry a couple of books, CDs and small items of clothing back to her family at home. I had a little bit of trepidation putting the suitcase on the scales - 20.0kg exactly!

Next: Singapore

Denmark - June 2008

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Sunday 22 June: Advertisements in the Tube in London promote Aalborg as having a big concentration of nightclubs, but I was just keen to catch up with Birgitte- my penfriend since highschool- and her household, including 10-month-old Laura. Birgitte met me at Aalborg and we went for a drink and a Greek dinner at Hos Costa. Then back at her house in Suldrup I got to meet her partner Ken, and Laura, who was very curious about my ukulele.

Monday: Birgitte had taken a couple of days off work which was fantastic - however on my first full day we were both pretty tired - Birgitte because her dog had been unwell during the night, and me because I think I had had too much chocolate at Zurich airport... Anyway, we stopped for some supplies at a huge shopping centre in Aalborg (there was a shop there where you can design your own teddy bear), and then headed up towards the seaside summer resort town of Løkken. It was blowing an absolute gale - we were driving at 100km/h and the clouds were easily overtaking us... good weather for windmills. It was also fairly chilly so no swimming today! But with a bit of imagination you could see how it'd be a great place when the sun was out. We had a great lunch at local pub. It's awesome to check in with Birgitte every so often... but we also had a nod to being tourists with a visit to Børglum Kloster, an ancient monastery. In the evening I went along with Ken to help him move some furniture for a friend in Aalborg.

Tuesday: Birgitte took me for a drive across Jutland and we stopped for a while at Mariager, where we enjoyed a leisurely wander around town and lunch, all the while getting up to date with all the news and reminiscing about our previous visits to each other. On the way back it became a bit of a mission to find an ice-cream shop and to that end we had a look around Hobro. Nice to visit, and a cool music shop to poke around, no ice-cream.

Our quest was finally resolved back at the shopping centre, and from there Birgitte dropped me off at Aalborg - it was just a quick visit this time, but always fantastic to cross paths, hopefully we'll organise it again soon!

My flight from Aalborg to Gatwick was around 3 1/2 hours late! I didn't find out until after I checked in, and the initial estimated departure time wasn't too bad, but there were several postponements and I started to get concerned about the time I'd arrive in London. The one redeeming aspect of the flight was that we took off just after sunset, and after we took off we had the interesting experience of seeing the sun reappear over the horizon and it was quite an amazing view over the West Jutland lakes.

Next: back to London

Switzerland - June 2008

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Tuesday 17 June: I got in to Zurich Airport about half an hour late and it was almost deserted - I think everyone was at the France v Italy!? Even so, the plane parked on the apron and we had to get a bus across the tarmac to the terminal. Luckily Jacqueline was there to meet me. Jacqueline's place was great - a little way along the shores of Lake Zurich, only a few minutes by train from the centre of town. It was great to meet her sons when they were about, and like everywhere in Zurich, a stunning view over mountains and lakes is no more than a few steps away.

Wednesday: The sun was finally out on my European trip! After a great breakfast Jacqueline pointed me in the direction of Küsnacht HB railway station and gave me a bunch of information to help me find my way around. I found a bank, and suitably cashed up I headed into the city. Zurich Public Transport has fantastic tickets - quite indecipherable for non-German speakers (fair enough), with bulk, patterns and silver thread to put many banknotes to shame. I went for a wander to get my bearings and found the lakeside football fanzone. I managed to spend 4 euro on a small bottle of Coca Cola, and decided that the fanzone wasn't going to be a place for me to grab any bargains!

Zurich was very picturesque - where in Edinburgh the citizens would walk around with golf clubs, in Zurich they had hiking poles. Also the fountains were brilliant!

I joined up with a city walking tour, then caught a suburban commuter ferry to Zürichhorn before walking back along more fanzone festivities to watch one of the Euro2008 matches on the big screen floating on the edge of Lake Zurich along with a few thousand other fans. I needed a fair bit of help finding the right train home, lots of stations and destinations have virtually the same names (eg Kusnacht and Kussnacht, Uerikon and Uetikon and Oerlikon), but some friendly locals saw my bewildered looks (it also doesn't help when you don't know the German word for 'express' and risk missing your station). The trains themselves were great but it was sometimes a logistical exercise to make it to the right platform in foreign.

Thursday: I had to go to Mount Pilatus since Dermott had recommended it on Getaway. Unfortunately I was suffering from almost debilitating hayfever for much of the day (was it being caught in the rain in Edinburgh? Or adjusting to the altitude or humidity, or perhaps the farmlands around were drying out and getting dusty?) but I still managed to soldier on, from Lucerne through to the cable car up to the Pilatus Kulm, then down by cogwheel railway to the lake cruise. We were worried on the approach to Pilatus that the clouds would be below the summit, but while we were up there the clouds just lifted enough that we could see down to Lucerne and all the neighboring towns and lakes, and quite often we would get a puff of cloud come across that didn't have the oomph to clear the summit first time, making for some quite spectacular effects. I had decided that a lot of things in Zurich were quite expensive, even coffees and lunches, so I ended up just ducking into a handy supermarket every time I felt like a snack and this worked quite well.

With a bit of a snooze on the coach I picked up a bit and met Jacqueline for dinner, after which we made the most of the plentiful evening light and headed across to the rotunda next to the harbour where there is a tradition of free-form DIY swing dancing each week. No matter that there was a huge crowd in the open air bars just across the road! I met up with Ursi and (in between my sneezing and apologising) had a good catch-up.

Friday: After another exceptional breakfast Jacqueline dropped me down at the station and organised with the ticket person a fun little DIY excursion for me. I caught the train to Uetliberg which is only a few kilometres out of town but is up on a mountain. There's a bit of a lookout and a hotel - all pretty spectacular. Then you hike 4 or 5 km along to Felsenegg and catch the cable car back down to the suburbs and get the train home. It was a brilliant day - the weather was perfect and I was really enjoying being on holidays. My camera's screen finally gave up the ghost but I decided that it was still taking photos OK, so I could make do. The path included a 1 to a billion(?) scale model replica of the solar system, the 'Planetenveg', which struck me as being peculiar but interesting all the same. The Sun is about 1-and-a-half metres across and up on a pole, each planet has its own stone plinth; Saturn and Uranus are a maybe 3 and 4 km away and are about the size of billiard balls. I had been set the challenge to write a song about Microwave Background Radiation by Ben from Melbourne when I was in Edinburgh, and this environment provided the perfect backdrop and I pretty much finished it in one hit.

I caught the bus back from the centre of town and Jacqueline had given me instructions to stay on an extra stop; we were having a BBQ at some neighbours'. As I found many times during my trip it was a delight to get to visit the homes of the locals in each place. On this occasion the big screen was set up for the night's soccer - it was a particularly boring game until the last 2 minutes of extra time when each team scored a goal and penalties proved the decider.

Saturday: a couple of Jacqueline's friends were going to climb a mountain, and we joined them. I got the feeling that for many of the locals it wasn't anything more than a bit of a weekend stroll, judging by some advanced ages and the things they took with them (eg novels, the newspaper) but for our little crew it was a good challenge to keep up. Again the weather was idyllic and there was a bunch of gliders overhead riding thermals. The mountain was 2101m and I think we started at around 1280m - we could just start to feel the effects of altitude by the summit. The whole way we were treated to spectacular landscapes and even when we reached the top we could see ridge lines all around that all seemed higher still.

I think it took about 6 hours to get up and back down again; we stopped for a drink near the base and I was ready to just about keel over after the exertions. But, back at Jacqueline's and after a bit of recovery time, we were ready to head out dancing! There are a few other swing dancers I know from Switzerland and I had hoped to see a few of them there but it was a very quiet night as it was only a week before Herrang and apparently lots of people were at a dance camp at Como. Still I managed quite a few dances and it was good fun.

Sunday: Off to Denmark! Jacqueline completed her stellar hosting duties by once more negotiating the picturesque yet very winding roads on the way to the airport. We boarded the plane at the scheduled time... and then it was nearly an hour before we pushed back. I've no idea why, but it seemed that the planes were taking off at half the normal rate. As soon as we were over Germany the weather closed in...

Next: Denmark