Journey.to.the.Sun

terra australis

2007-04-11T20:28:00.000+10:00

well, after much travel, off the grid and being out of contact i find myself on australian soil once more. it is strange to be back and it will take some time to adjust, and then there are probably some aspects to being back which will never really feel the same. but rather than dwelling on being back which is an active experience in the process of unfolding i want to reflect a little on what has happened on my journey so far.

since being back i have found myself staring down the barrel of the question "so, what was it like?" which has accosted me like some of the locals who work the block in san francisco's "tenderloin". it is one of those questions which can't really be answered as it seems to be asking for the 30 second recap of last weeks episode before continuing on with the nights viewing. even with extened running time of a feature film with accompanying post screening drinks, only outlines are able to be projected. this is much like the relating of anything in life, but it is perhaps not noticed as distinctly as what is usually related is very close to the common experience of both the teller and the listener in everyday life. but in an effort to provide some meat to for the question to munch one let me say that it was something like being at a buffet in a vegas casino. you find yourself in front of a cornucopia of dishes from around the planet, some familiar; others completely new and sometimes more than just a little intimidating; others greasy and to be avoided; others obscured by the sneeze guard, or others displaying amazingly vibrant colours only for you to discover that appearance out stripped flavour by a country mile. and when proceeding to engage with the smash-pile of tastes on your hefty plate you found your self simultaneously feeling like you are about to projectile the contents of your maw in the faux-flower flower-box; scorch the roof of your mouth; fall asleep in your mash and gravy; confused as to what exactly this thing called chewing is all about; excited about the fact that they have cutlery here; in awe of the what can be achieved with some foil, a camp fire and some produce from bulgaria; completely at peace in the moment between chews before you take a chunk out of the inside of your cheek, as well as being overwhelmed by having way to much on your plate.

but crapping-on aside, there is much too much to write about and it is something that can never be fully related as their are so many different keepers of the moments, experiences and memories of the experiences - of mine, their's and our journeys. to all that i have shared time and space with, to those i remember and to those i have forgotten, to those who have forgotten me, to both those who i have had fleeting momentary encounters as well as to those with whom i shared lasting and momentous life altering ones - Namaste, Na zdraví, Kampai, Egészségetekre, Saúde, Skål, Salud and of course that amazing expressive utterance from my mates in Skopje, Braauuuuu!!! i hope to see you all again at some point but since we are all one (or more accurately - Everything is one) you are always with me and me with you while this so called "me" exists and probably even when it doesn't.

not totally sure of where my plans are to take me next but i am sure that paths will cross again, experiences will be shared and we will celebrate life in all its delectable manifestations. and until then; En Guete :)

out of contact

2006-11-10T08:35:00.000+11:00

hey folks,

sorry if i haven't gotten back to you all in a while. unfortuantly it is going to a while still before i am able to. i will be working out in the country for the next few months so it will be quite sporadic contact for next while. but rest assured i will be back online and in contact as soon as circumstances allow.

until then, peace and love

meta_zen

a few things to watch

2006-10-16T05:04:00.000+10:00

some trailers to check out while i try to get my act together and start blogging more regularly again.

the second offering in the One Giant Leap project is coming soon.

http://www.1gl19.com/

so is December 21st, 2012.

The Shift of the Ages

and something that is already here,

An Inconvient Truth

"Life, the Universe and Everything"

2006-09-24T22:07:00.000+10:00

get Wired

earthdance 2006

2006-09-14T18:00:00.000+10:00

hey everybody,

have a rocking earthdance day or weekend depending on which location you are attending the festival at. i will be in hungary for it this year - a three day outdoor fest, but will be thinking about all of you all around the globe. peace.

out of contact for a week.

2006-07-07T22:40:00.000+10:00

i'll be doofing around in the bulgarian hills with other psy-freaks, seekers and teachers. keeping rocking the free world, it is the only way that we will keep it.

journey to the east ... again

2006-07-03T19:00:00.000+10:00

well one of the things that i wanted to do last summer when i was in europe was head to bulgaria. in the end i ran out of time and i was not sure of the whole visa issue as some of the countries from the former soviet block require aussies to apply for a visa as well as receive an invite from a resident of that country in order to visit. tunrs out that this is no longer the case with bulgaria and we can visit for up to 30 days without requiring a visa. what made me decide on going this time was a friends insistence as as he was going for a psytrance festival there, which is thought be the first one of its kind in bulgaria - so the vibes should be amazing and raw, still untouched by the grimy hands of commercialism. either way it should be an experience. you can check out the festival details here:

tchmala festival

random entry from soulclipse 2006

2006-06-28T23:13:00.000+10:00

comrades in the consciouness revolution.

this is an image from soulclipse 2006 in turkey. it is of me and this cool guy from russia named zara who despite the language barrier made for inspiring interactions. it was good to get a pespective on what is happening in regards to consciousness and the psytrance scene in russia.

check out his website here:

http://zara.r-art.ru/

unless you can read russian though you might want to visit babelfish first to entry the url for translation.

more photos of soulclipse festival to come at some point.

just a thought

2006-06-28T22:54:00.000+10:00

language is an ever present filter on identity and world. it is through language that we make sense of our environment and indeed our very ourness. it is such an inherent part of of sensiblilty system, of mundane and fundamental cognition that it is almost always completely invisible to us. our internal monologue often operating on multiple levels simultaneously goes by unnoticed by itself for the most part. so what happens when we take away our decoding system - take away the virus called language - is there any me left to even be capable of having a thought? and how would i know, even if i had one, if it is not catagorized and inventoried by the frontlines of the consciousness field by my verbalizing it?

well, at first this seems to be a rather challenging and disconcerting existentialist laneway to find oneself wandering down, but then you might intuite that no, there is still someone there, for there have been times when music has allowed the mundane consciousness to transcend language and indeed transcend itself. you recall this happening, yet to make it present in this moment, the raw moment of experience is once again filtered through language as you reconstruct the narrative, interpret, and frame for recollection for that other, even if that other happens to be yourself. i imagine too that in the deeper moments of meditation a similar transcendence of the self also occurs as our language matrix dissolves and we exist beyond its limitations. the question that is suggested then, is who is having these experiences? or rather who is sharing in the being of these experiences? in the transcendental limitless moments in movements of pure music (from bach to shpongle take your pick) in which time and space are rendered to the abyss by the ever present now, language and local awareness couched for the meanwhile, which self is experiencing the experience? are we perhaps knocking on the door of the *Logos? are "(we) peeking up the skirt of the ineffable..."* do we really want our knock to be answered? to find out who is there?

Logos: 'A Greek term meaning "word." To the Gnostics, this was the terms for deity manifest in the universe. The creative principle and underlying law of the universe. Creator of the visible world who existed before the creation of the universe. Life and light of the world and initiator of all life, movement, evolution, and rhythm."

Definition taken from, The Tree of Life, by Israel Regardie.
* Vigorito, Tony. Just A Couple of Days

Do yourself a favour and buy this book. It is a rollicking display of cerebal and verbal joviality on the play-school monkey bars. It is the most fun I have had reading since Dr Seuss let the cat eat green eggs and ham and I have not even finished it yet. Although I am on the last 100 page dash to oblivion, or salvation or home, this will probably stand as my selection for most out-standing work of out-standing fiction. More to come on the subject in just a couple of days.

life

2006-06-07T01:09:00.000+10:00

what does it mean to be life? no, not to have a life in the sense of having multi-faceted social existence as in the case of having a work life, family life or social / party life, but life as in the grand unifying principle that runs beneath the All; the simplest principle; the ever changing constance - the running of the sacred code known by the letters g-a-t-t-a-c-a.

despite our involvement with our ego selves and the hang ups of everyday life we are from some perspectives arbitrary to a grander process that is under way. this is a process that began with the very first galactic burblings of life, the first appearance of the genetic code. since then there has been a steady march in which the theme and variety of life is constantly expanding, growing and mutating. it started with a simple self preservation program and here we find ourselves today, still a part of the process yet often quite (if not totally) oblivious to it.

this is not to undermine what we have achieved as human beings, not the least of which is our ability to cognate, generate ideas and the ability to bring these ideas into existence. however, that is not to say that these processes or ones similar to these are not being executed by other variations of life, it is just that from our perspective we tend not to recognise them, we are after all an egotistical species which my be our blessing and yet our ultimate down fall.

i write this entry not to espouse the dire warnings of our imminent doom nor to wax lyrical about some utopian ideal for the future, but merely to ask that we put aside our fragile pride for a minute - a pride which so often seems to be challenge by the mere existence of something that we perceive as other - and to think what it might mean to be life; just like all other examples of life that we can think of and all those that we can not. what does it mean for life to continue on after we are gone? (we the individual and also maybe one day the species).

more titles to add to the "just read" list

2006-05-08T21:58:00.000+10:00

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman M.D.

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.

a question finally answered

2006-05-03T18:53:00.000+10:00

a friend asked me quite a while ago over email "what is it that makes someone pack-up their life, say good-bye to family and friends and hit-the-road indefinately?" since then i have held this question with me and had started an email which was to address it. however while the answer was something that i felt within me it did not seem to want to be readily filtered through the language centers of the brain. i started one email, but perhaps due to circumstances at the time it came out sounding much harsher than the actuality - perhaps the severity was due in part to my surroundings at the time; the dark and sooty city of glasgow.

i still have not found expression of answer to this question but a friend of mine has published a post which i feel articulates my senitments for my decsision whole heartedly. (perhaps another factor for my trouble in noting the reasons for departure is that those reasons have faded from being a clear presence in my conscious mind now that i have been travelling for awhile and have been fulfilling, living those reasons rather than aspiring to do so.) in either case, i think that this is an excellent post for all in thinking about breaking out of there reality tunnel but not quite sure what that might mean or result in.

thanks Jit for this post.

http://comelets.multiply.com/journal/item/29

SOULCLIPSE

2006-03-23T22:50:00.000+11:00

well, i will probably be off-line again for a while as i leave for turkey tomorrow for the soulclipse festival near antalya. don't worry, i will make sure to wear the special glasses this time round as i learnt my lesson from the last eclipse; no more retinal burns for me thanks, i already have my share.

see y'all on the other side of the Sun...

notes from glasgow

2006-03-12T04:47:00.000+11:00

in a sky full of people only some want to fly,
ain't that crazy.

after the states nicole and i ended up back in the uk for a couple of months. as you know from my previous blog entry i didn't like london much, which is not to say that it is not great city, it just didn't gel with me. i have actually met a few folks from london on my travels and they too said that it is a cold city, especially when compared to other cities around the world, so i guess my experience was not entirely unique.

so with that on my mind we got out of there fast and ended up in glasgow for two months. the people there are great, and the city has a gotham city at the time of the industrial revolution kind of charm to it, with the weather doing a stellar job in adding to the gloomy atmosphere. it was also nice to be in a smaller city for a change where you could walk just about anywhere you needed to go.

one of the main lessons i learnt from glasgie-toon and the circumstances i found myself in there was that so many people seem adrift in the mire of a consumer life style. this is where i guess this post turns appropriately bleak given glasgow's gothic nature. (actually i am really fond of the town, my thoughts are based more on some of the observations i had while i was there). i ended up taking the first job that came along which happened to be doing office admin for a scottish provident. the job was basically processing life insurance surrenders, whoa!, glad thats over with. any way, the job gave me an insight into the life of so many people in middle management sectors through-out the first world. the mundane repetitveness of the role, the prevading sense of being hopeless trapped as no one seemed to believe they possesed the power to choose anything else. the job also made aspects of the films the matrix and fight club resonate more strongly experiencially.

coupled with this the fact that it was the time of the christmas frenzy where if people were not out shopping they were talking about what they will get when they do go shopping again. while walking around the city you felt as they you walking amongst a sea of automatons working for cash, to spend on useless items, to generate debt and to be force to continue work for the machine. (while i was there the song "cash machine" was on heavy rotation on the radio. now i don't doubt that there were people who were not caught up in this cycle of mindless economic compulsion but the dominant paradigm was (and is) that of the system.

my thoughts then turned to how if you could, would you wake these people up. the answer is that there is not really much chance, as they are likely to either rebel against the notion that they are slaves to consumer culture and say that they shop because they want to (of course it is that they 'want to' the question "what is driving them to 'want to'"), or they will admit that yes they are slaves but that there is nothing that they can do about it.

i think what brought these observations into sharper relief was the contrast of spending three months in northern california living in intentional communities, working on an organic farm and living off of the grid - coming from the prespective of the alternative approach to life in which day-to-day existence is fulfilling and rewarding; there is no empty dull ache or a faint notion that there might be something other. perhaps it is not really that bad, i guess it must not seem that way anyway when all we know is that which surrounds us, the ideas and beliefs which we have been taught to accept, i am reminded of the story of plato's cave. it might just be useful occassionally though if all of us extract ourselves from the immediacy of our present situation whatever that may be and observe ourselves obeserving, interacting and judging the world around us - it is the most confronting mirror we will ever face but one that can bring about tremendous change.

---

oh and while in scotland to try the haggis it is fantastic. and if you are vegetarian like me or just a little put off by the assortment of goodies that maybe be lurking inside try the veggie haggis which is fairly readily available in organics shops and the like. it has become one of my favourite all time dishes and something i will have to learn how to make at home.

Psyche

2006-03-11T03:04:00.000+11:00

If you can’t destroy it in a heart beat, it is not worth creating in the first place.

Some brief notes on Psyche – Burning Man 2005

Mmmmmmmm...

If there is one thing that was present in my mind about going to the Burning Man festival was,that no matter how much research, mental and physical preparation I did it would all fall way short of the mark –- nothing can prepare you for stepping into the collective imagining of 30,000 fringe dwellers of reality who gather to make Burning Man what it is. But first a little about getting there. It tooks us (a crew of 6) about 10 hour drive in an old half-loaf school bus from Northern California (NoCal), across the Sierra ranges near lake Tahoe down into Reno, Nevada where we stopped to pickup supplies. At this stop you could already feel the a change in the atmosphere, which was not just the dry desert air, as you start to notice vechiles and people who are most undoubtedly on the same pilgrims journey to Black Rock City and the open playa.

Me cleaning the windscreen of our ride to the burn

In the organic store we are already running into people who are heading to the festival including some other aussies who are going to be camping with us. With supplies loaded it is back on the road for another 3 to 4 hour run across the grand, propotion distorting desert landscapes of Nevada. As we roll on into the site at just as the sun ducks behind the near by ranges we bid farewell to any last remenants of the calm and lush surrounds of our camping spot in amongst the redwoods and racoons back in NoCal and bid welcome to the harsh physical reality of life on the playa salt flat; what we are told several times through out the week, is the second largest area of completely flat area of ground on earth.

Our Guide and councilor for the Burn

Some playa facts

Playa is the name for the stuff that makes up the salt flat at Black Rock City. It is extremely alkaline which means that it is hard on the skin. As such it is a good idea to bring quite a few oranges along as they make a great refreshing snack out in the heat, and when you are finsihed you can rub the peel on any bits of exposed skin (it is really good for hands and feet which tend to take most of the beating.)

What is playa?

One theory which is espoused quite frequently which seems most likely is that what you are walking on out there on the flat is pre-historic fish poop that had constitued the lake bed back when gaints reptiles used party in these parts.

When you arrive on-site, unspoilt areas of playa look like this,...

... but as more and more people arrive, the crusted fish poop gets ground into an extremely fine powder which has the propensity to get into absoltuley everything!

Ground up fish poop

Dust masks and googles are absolutey essential, as extreme winds whip up the powder and can cause what is known as a white out. This is when you happen to get in a dust storm (and it will happen) and your vision is suddenly completely wiped out and you are not able to see a foot in any direction. You have to stop where you are and rely on your instincts to get you out of the way of any passing arts cars or other trepaditious cyclists.

The arrival

When you get to the site you are greated by friendly rangers dressed (and undressed) in all sorts of atire, and you truely feel that you are at the gates of another dimesion or about to walk onto the the battle field with Tank Grrl.

Modes of Transport

As the crowds file into the Burning Man site the population of the site swells to over 30,000 people to become the third biggest city in Nevada. The physical site is several miles all round, and arranged into a semi-circle network of streets -- with the theme for 2005 being Psyche the names of some of the cross streets include, Biopolar, Catharsis, Delerium, Ego, Fetish, while the streets which run directly to the Man are named from begining with the first as 2 o’clock to 10 o’clock being the last – there is a street at each half hour (a bit confusing to explain but makes complete sesne once you are on-site like some many other things that are ordinarily not meant to make any sense at all). It takes about 20 minutes to cycle direct from on side of the site to the other (2:00 o’clock to 10 o’clock), that is of course if you can avoid being side tracked in one direction or another by a beckoning art work, intriguing workshop or being kidnapped by some other playa dwellers. (There was one fellow out there that was catching passing cyclists with a massive butterfly net.) As such, due the largeness of the site it is essential that you have some mode of transport while you are on the playa. Bicycles are great as the site is completely flat, by as the days roll by the playa does become more erroded which makes it a bit harder to pedal through some areas. (Also expect saddle sores if you haven’t riden a bicycle for awhile.)

Art cars are your second option, so if you have the time and money you could convert an golf bug, car or tour bus into a fish, snail, post-apocalypitic battle-ship or anything else that tickles your spirit. If you don’t have the money, time or resources to create an art and your saddle sore become a really pain in the arse, don’t dispare as art cars love to pick up hitch –hikers and it is really cool way to allow yourself to be taken for a ride to some random spots around the site. Also, travel by foot is not out of the question, just make sure that you have enough water with you. I did venture out on foot on a few occassional, including for a visionary experience across the fench line at the very edge of the festival site and on the night of the Burn.

---

Some of the Artworks

The scale of everything is thrown out of proportionn at Burning Man,indeed it makes you reflect what and where you get your sense of proportion from any way as you come across a ...

a ten story metal ladded suspended by hightension wires on both sides which extends out of the emptiness of the playa into the nothingness of space.

Commerece

Bring goodies, drinks, trinkets, junkets, blankets, anklets, anything that might be regarded as good to trade as money won’t buy you much out on the playa where pretty well everything is run on the barter system – havign said that money can buy you a couple of things but maybe just an iced chai or other caffienated beverage from Center Camp.

Synchronicty, Sponaneity, Serendipity and Chaos

At first 9 days on a hot dusted salt flat seems an to be excessive amount of time, but it acually turns out to be too short as there is some much going on all of the time. You have a full schedule of workshops you can attend during the day and it is easy on paper to fill up your day but in reality you will probably miss half of what you want to see due to clashes or just getting swept along in a different direction or getting the address confused with the time of the workshop but it all works out magically. You will meet people and instantly find yourself talking about the most intense stuff and then get caught in a butter fly net by a mad scientist, stop at a bar and have a vodka/koolaid, get lost in the boonies, cruise around the playa and check out the art installations; enter the big gaint head just as another burner decides to test out its acoustic qualities in side the dome by demonstrating his Central Asian overtone singing skills sending absolute shivers up your spine with his Sygyte technique. You will be caught in dust storms, mental stupification (lets say due to the heat); spiritual tracendance (lets say also due to the heat) the good , the bad and the vile of port-a-potties; the surreal, the insane, the stupifying and all completely logical.

The Night of The Burn

'Cause I'm T.N.T. I'm dynamite
(T.N.T.) and I'll win the fight
(T.N.T.) I'm a power load
(T.N.T.) watch me explode (AC/DC)

The night of the Burn the is elecitricity in the air and people seem to be running around more frantically like ants right before a thunder storm. The environment takes on a majestic nature and the air feels much more still than usual as if anticapting the moment for a mighty release as the calm gives way to the storm.

The fire is massive!

Dust storms and whirl winds rip through.

Crowd in a frenzy.

And then all the art works get torched.

Street signs ripped down.

Noise, Choas and complete disorientation – it’s like being in the sea of nothingness in the yellow submarine, oh wait I think that was the yellow submarine.

Walked out to the ten story high ladder. Batteries on head lamp die. It is not fashion to glow and blink out here on the playa it is essential for survival with bicycles art cars and wonders wandering around in the dark.

As dawn approaches a calm rises over the site as the day of the temple burn approaches. The most spiritual day of the festival.

The Temple of Dreams

The Temple to Honor those who have passed.

For those parts of yourself which you want to lay to rest .

A sacred fire of transition.

Got real close to the flames, only a few feet away.

A forge for the soul in the primal light of the spirit.

The Temple of Dreams rising in the distance

After Burn

Burning man is such an extreme expereince in which every possible boundary can and is pushed. Your concept of what can constitute reality is completely transformed as you come face to face with the wildest imagining brought to life and as a result a widening of you imaginings. The event is so full that it is impossible to engage in everything you might want to, might no want to, might not kow you want to that it is something that calls you back despite the physical ordeal, financial outlay and the daunting trek. ... All of these things engendering it with the aspects of a pilgrimage, of trail-by-fire from which you emerge transformed – your soul drawn and forged anew from within the sacred flames of Burning Man.

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Check out the Burning Man image archive for 2005 here for over 1100 more images.

Freewill's destiny

2006-03-11T02:44:00.000+11:00

This seems to be a perennial topic that they creeps up from time to time, and indeed often serves to divide the pragmatist self-determinists from the etheral-fated souls at times when people gather. Indeed there exists excellent and rather persuasive rhetoric in both camps, but a final outcome seems elusive as opposing sides agree to disagree. And often times individuals find theselves being persuading back and forth from one view to the other as arguments and experiences validate and undermine both beliefs from time to time. All in all it is seems to be an entertaining but something of pointless topic of discussion which can be reverted to when the conversation seems to run out of places to go and/or when the chips are down (or up). But what value can it offer us as a means to help us make sense of this existance as is perhaps the essential underlying principle of this subject.

Someone I met recently mentioned something which triggered a phase shift in my perspective of the argument. The person said in passing on in regrards to a different subject "...that, i don’t think of it as destiny, but we all have a program..." It was this short fragment of a sentence, spoken in relation to a trivial topic which cleared the fog for me, as it brought together some of the ideas which I was already familiar with into a new and sharper relief.

What I saw in this phrase was that, yes we do all have programs, this is indeed a recognized notion that from birth we are programmed to behave, perceive and think in particular ways. Think for example of the classic example of a child who watches fire for the first time, how fascinating and delightful seem the flames, but as the child reaches out for the fire one of two things are likely to happen. Either they feel the stinging reprimand of their parent as they slap their childs hand away to protect it from the fire or they feel the sting of the of the flames. One way or the other the lesson is learned and the association has been changed. Fire the enchanting plaything is now a bringer of pain (whether physical or emotional) – nothing new here, psychology has called this imprinting and the less permanent associations which are created classical conditioning. There are thousands even millions of such programs which exist in all of us with out our being aware of them. Racism is one such program, so too is fear of new technology, a love for the mountains as opposed to the sea, hating to fly and what we choose to eat. As our collection of programs become greater and more dominant we can then see them being expressed through what we call character and personality traits, he is a vegetarian, she never leaves the house without full make-up, and she is a risk taker; he always plays the fool. And it is through examining these so called expressions of the self more closely that we can begin to become aware of where the nature of ourselves, the choices we make and the actions that we take stem from, and in this state of potential tranparency we see that maybe what we thought was an expression of our free will was not quite what we imagined it to be.

At the sophisticated end of the programming matrix you have of course language. Language is wonderful as it provides us with the ability to communicate our inner reality with others, all acheived with a fairly large degree of success. One other thing that it does is to provide us with a frame work with which to structure our thoughts – it is the means through which we create mental formula which can then be translated in to actuality. From, “Maybe I will wear my red pants today“ to “I think that we should incorporate lime-crete in the design of this school building.“ it is through our programming language that we structure and realise our intentions, but language also plays an intricate part in the structuring of our reality.

“I can’t go out like this, everyone else will be all dressed up"

“I can’t live without (insert your vice of choice)“ or

“I always get lost in this part of town“,

These are all trivial examples, yet everytime these phrases course through the brain they strengthen a neural pathway which reaffirms the expressed notion and the stronger the particular neural pathway becomes the more this thought becomes expressed in reality. What we think and more importantly what we verbalise have potentially massive implications on our true freedom – in using the phrase "true freedom" I aim to differentiate it from what might be called perceived freedom. For example, the perceived freedom to choose between pizza, fried kitchen and a burger is not necessarily exercising true freedom of choice as one is still captured within a limited framework of choices of fast-foods as limited by your particular collection of programs which dictate how we veiw the acquisition of nurishment.

In essence then it is the sum of our programs which results in a reality arc of potential outcomes which are prodominantly within our field of expectations whether these expectations be couscious or sub-conscious. So as a result when certain events (or eventualities) come to pass they seem to possess a strong sense of synergy to us (i.e. to our programming) in such a way as to make it seem as though the event was something that was destined to happen.

"I knew that I was meant to get that job."

"Who would have though I would have met that person at that club on that night."

"I knew I would get caught drink driving.

Okay, in an infinite universe there are an infinite possible outcomes, but save force majeure (the unforseeable acts of God) this infinite number of possiblities is limited to a much smaller range of possiblities by our collection of programs. Think for example of what you expect of your life and future. Is it to settle down, buy a house, raise a family? Is this your idea or something that has been implanted along the way? Think then of how this program is expressed in your everyday life, this might include the type of job you currently have or hope to get, the types of leisure activies you engage in (clubs you go to), the types of purchases you make (music, clothes, electronics). I am not making a qualitive judge here on this program, but I cite it as a means to illustrate to what extent we are programmed, how ingrained the programming is as to render it invisible to the conscious mind.

Well, it looks like there goes freewill, destiny seems to rein but has lost most of its charm in this treatment and doesn’t seem like a much better outcome.

Well that is not quite the case. The brain is capable of great mutablity as it is constantly processing new data, however we as the users of the brain can become stagnant in our thinking and as such utilize only a small portion of our total network potential, it is like having a computer system loaded with every software application program available and only using Notepad. Once an individual examines their psyche and starts to become aware of their programming then they suddenly find that they have the power to start re-programming their mind. You can now examine your mind and decide what works best, and maybe develop these programs further thus making them more efficient. Eliminating unwanted program; this is essentially what happens when people give up smoking or become vegatarian, however being aware of what is going on at the deeper level can greatly advance the process and potentially render it more successful. And develop new programs for anything else that you care to focus your will towards. Meta-programming is not necessarily something new to us as a species, how ever with the advent of the computer it has allowed the notion to be placed with in a new analogical framework which perhaps makes the concepts easier to grasp. You will find references to such notions in oriental and occidental esoterics writings like Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism, Druidism, Gnosticism and Alchemy, and that possibly most ancient expression of meta-programming, Shamanism.

These ramblings have been inspired by conversations had, articles read, strange encounters and the episode of Futurama.

I guess reality is what you make of it.

Futurama episode from season 4 titled Obsoletely Fabulous
July 27, 2003

For more on the topic check out:

Look up the articleCulture and the Individual by Aldous Huxley

John C Lilly

The works of Robert Anton WIlson

Buddhism and the Concept of Maya

Phillip K Dick - Valis

Transmigration

Gnosticism

Meta-Programming

Godel, Escher and Bach

Mindfullness

Ode to Mendo

2006-03-11T02:41:00.000+11:00

Sitting here in Mendo

Waiting for the tide to turn.

Yeah, now, sitting here in Mendo,

So many things I've got to learn.

Meanwhile, they're putting up a resistance,

But I know that my faith will lead me on.

Sitting here in Mendo

Waiting for the dice to roll.

Yeah, now, sitting here in Mendo,

Still got some time to search my soul.

Meanwhile, they're putting up a resistance,

But I know that my faith will lead me on.

I don't know where life will take me,

But I know where I have been.

I don't know what life will show me,

But I know what I have seen.

Tried my hand at the burn but never made it to the spring,

I may yet do it another time round

But for now I find myself on other ground.

Gonna lead me on now.

Meanwhile, they're putting up resistance,

But I know that my faith will lead me on.

Sitting in Mendo, Mendo, Mendo.

Sitting in Mendo, Mendo, Mendo.

Sitting in Mendo, Mendo, Mendo.

Meanwhile, they're putting up a resistance,

But I know that my faith will lead me on.

Lyrics adapted for the Song "Sitting in Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff

This track as covered by Willie Nelson brings back memories of farm life and the coming of fall. Good friends and harvest fires. Peace.

hey bombastic

2006-02-22T01:29:00.000+11:00

sorry for the person specific post, but i have lost your email address. chances are about one in four that i will be in asia or oz soon. if you donßt have my email address anymore you can email me at my gmail account it is meta.zen

Fifth of Feburary 2005

2006-02-05T20:42:00.000+11:00

Well, it has been a year to the day now that I left on my travels. It doesn't feel like at all, and I still haven't done half of the things that I want to and done a bunch of things that were not on the plans but are expereinces that I cold not trade for anything.

I have been through 13 countries (although not all of them want to give you a stamp in your passport), travelled by air, rail, road, boat and foot. Slept in hotels, hostels, guest rooms in houses, in tents, on the floor, on a skate ramp, in geodesic dome and the occasional nap in a train station.

Expereinced extremes of weather from snow capped peaks to blazing desert flats. Been ill, depressed, elated, had transcendental moments and found emense joy in engaging with the mudane tasks of domestic living. Learnt to cook new dishes and encounter many a strange character, some that make yoou laugh, some that send shivers down your spine and others where kinship is born.

All in all it has been an amazing year and which ever direction I find myself heading in from here (home, east, west, north or south) the internal journey continues in leaps and bounds.

Oh yeah, and stay away from canned herring, particularly if you are sleeping in a tent at the time.

Gong Xi Fa Chai

2006-02-03T23:27:00.000+11:00

to one and all (a late though i know).

Books

2006-01-20T05:45:00.000+11:00

Read a few more on my travels:

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal

This book is marked by my interest in all things Czech and a book that I had picked up somewhat at random. It is short text, nore of a novella which is the subject telling of the last days of the central character who is in the waste paper business. A visceral ode the great works of text -- an exercise in emboding the text.
Ratner's Star by Don DeLillo

This was extremely hard going and felt a bit out of my depth at times as the narrative switched perspective from paragraph to paragraph, but there were certainly resonances with some of my experiences at this time and presentation of some of the ideas within did spark new perspectives and understandings of some the areas of maths, astrophysic and absudity (including gauno) which i am interested in (well maybe not some much the gauno).

---

The next three texts have come to be classed as a trilogy, even though they do not necessarily run on from each. While there is some narrative correlations between the first two, the third is included because of its themematic relationship, that of spirituality, gnosticism, Hagia Sopia and related areas. No this is not a reference to the recent set of thrillers which have dominated the bestseller lists, the texts which I am refering too run much deeper into these themes and come from the science fiction corner.

I will not write too much about these texts as I feel they willl speak to the reader if they are meant to. Indeed, I never was much of a fan of Bladerunner so never thought to explore any of the works of Phillip K Dick. After engaging in some intense conversations about some of the elements touched on in these books they were to come very highly recommended. Having now read them I will say one thing instead trying to explore anything mentioned in too great a depth which would be a massive task, and that is that these texts serve as an excellent jumping off point to further thought and study. Any way, in order, the books are:

Valis
The Divine Invasion
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Next I plan to tackle bio meta-programming with some help from Robert Anton Wilson.

Also to follow soon in depth reflections on the Symposium which was held in Switzerland this last week in celebration of Dr Hoffman's 100th birthday. As a friend I met there stated, "There is only one way that this weekend can be described and that is epic.

something noo to check out

2006-01-11T07:56:00.000+11:00

something i stumbled across today just drifting through the web.

and to elejit in lah land, a full account of this weekend will indeed be forth coming. pity it won't be over a pint sometime, but then again you never know.

the eleusian mysteries: encounters with the spirit and the gaian mind shift

2005-12-31T05:57:00.000+11:00

*well with monies transfered to a secure swiss bank account*

*cheap flights booked to and from switzerland*

*and finally getting some mileage out of my hostel international card*

i am off

"that banana was going way too fast for 8:30 and bi-polar" OR what is an art car?

2005-12-27T22:58:00.000+11:00

Here are just a few photos of some of the traffic hazards you will encounter at what becomes one of the largest cities in Nevada over the festival week. It is important to keep your wits about you as unlike a local saturday night bender in your home town, if you see a couch heading towards from down the road it most likely is.

Photos by Nicole

Some more madness from Black Rock City

Greeting from the city where the term "smog" was coined.

2005-12-24T22:48:00.000+11:00

A decidedly silly silly season to all out there in the multiverse and indeed the omniverse (that is of course based on the somewhat spurious notion that they have seasons in the multi- and omnivers(i), and that in fact that there is a "they" there to speak of). Bottom line though (unless looking at it for underneath) is have a raging time.

Playa Jaws

2005-12-10T22:11:00.000+11:00

Trouble with the auto on Highway 1

2005-12-03T21:20:00.000+11:00

Bohemia

2005-11-26T20:24:00.000+11:00

The following entry is one that I had written about 3 months ago but then I began the hectic pace of travlling through Europe before heading to the states for Burning Man and hanging out in Northern California - know as NoCal - where it was great to get away from technology for a while. That is another story completely and hopefully on that I won't take too long to get on to. Any way here is entry one on the Czech Republic, absolutely one of my top favourite places in the world. 27.11.2005.

---

Entry for sometime in May 2005.

So I bounced out of London after two weeks there. I just couldn't deal with the weather and the reality of a working life which was so similar to that in Australia so soon after leaving the laidback lifestyle of Thailand. And of course London is so damned expensive! I decided after consulting a friends "Europe On a Shoestring" guide book and talking to a few people that I would head to the Czech Republic.

In getting ready to head east, while the rest of the household I was staying with was heading south for the Cannes film festival, I was trying not to let the excitement of visiting a place that I had always wanted to go get the better of me. There is nothing like high expectations to ruin an experience entirely. With that thought in mind I tried to keep a sense of reality on the situation, telling myself that I only wanted to go there because of movies and what I had heard from others and that my experience might be nothing like that. But when the pilot tells you that it will be cold and raining when we are due to land only to find when you get there that it is only cool and beautifully sunny you can't help but feel a little welcome.

Ok so I catch the bus from the airport to the metro stop which will take me into the centre of Prague which seemed to me to be surprisingly quick journey - I guess it was the lack of Bangkok traffic.

Now Prague is full of tourists, that is a fact. And it is full of all kinds of tourists; from groups of guys down for a cheap-dirty-weekend-bucks-party, to Bus-about travellers on the slower version of a Contiki tour; to drifters just floating through in particular hurry or having no real direction. Prague is also a big city (although not in any ways comparable to London, Tokyo or Bangkok) so it is hectic. I must admit though, that in comparision to where I had just been, I found it quite manageable and tended to walk everywhere that I wanted to go, wasting the three day public transport pass that I had bought. For some reason it also reminded me of Melbourne in some ways, not just because of the trams, but something about the vibe of place that makes it feel a little bit like home, something that I can't quite articulate.

Prague is also one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever been to. I actually found myself still dealing with a type of sensory overload while walking through the city streets three days after I had arrived. The buildings all have intricate details set within the ornate archtecture. Walking around you might notice gaint frogs climbing up the sides of buildings or into windows; statues in unexpected locations and maze like designs set in the cobble stone paving.

Prague is a wonderful city to get lost in as it has the most bewitching labrynith of tiny cobbled stones streets, where around every corner you are greeted with some new vision of the city, her people and her art; both classic and contempory. All in all Prague is rich in art, with many galleries tucked away in the cobbled stoned streets, regular classical music concerts (which are targeted at tourists but hey this is the home of Dvorak after all), while jazz, and Czech folk music whisper from around corners and makes your senses drunk - or was that the beer, or maybe the Becherovka, Slivoitz, Fernet Citrus or absinthe - it doesn't really matter. There is a famous quote of which I was recently reminded of by my friend Juan from Mexico: the quote was from the French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire who said, 'Now is the time to get drunk! To stop being the martyred slaves of time, to get absolutely drunk - on wine, poetry, or on virtue, as you please.'

Jazz band on Kralov Most (Charles Bridge).

But what really makes a city? Bricks and steel and paint? The technology for its functioning? Its infrastructure? Transportation and irrigation systems? Its history maybe? There is certainly no absence of history in the Czech Republic and walking around Prague you are overcome by its premeating presence, as even if you don't know much of the histroy of the place you get a sense that it is steeped into the very soil that the city is built upon. Walking around the streets you can't help but to remember that these are the same streets Kafka traversed while composing and metomphising his musings into words - the same streets that Johannes Kepler was to become familiar with while listening to the music of the spheres, and the same streets too that John Dee visited once or twice and the same streets to which David Lynch is rumoured to frequent as place for what I can only imagine is get drunk on Prague. The Czechs have a saying To je stary jak Praha. which equates to the English "As old as the hills ", but translated directly from Czech to "As old as Prague".

But what about the people of Prague and the people of Czech Republic? What is a city if not a centre of culture and society and play of its people? Here I will speak of the people Czech Republic in a broader sense rather than base it purely on my experience in Prague. This is essentially due to the fact that I only spent a few days in Prague and having spent the majority of my time in a town called Cesky Krumlov. The story of how I got to Cesky Krumlow however does start in Prague and is tied intrinsically to my experience of the warmth, openess and solidness of the people here in Czech.

Ok so back to my arrival in Prague; I make my way from the Mustek metro stop to the Golden Sickle hostel. I find it with no real problem although I am walking down the street a little weary of my wallet as everyone has told me that pick-pocketing is rife in Prague. Apart from that however, I feel very comfortable walking down these streets, almost like walking down the streets of my home town. I find the hostel without any worries and while checking in I say that, "Yes I have booked through to Friday, but did not book through to Saturday as there was no availablity listed on the web." Kaca, the girl who is checking me in says that she can check the book for availablity but I say that that is ok as I am thinking of going to Cesky Krumlov on the weekend. "Oh you should go man! I was thinking of going - I might be driving up, if I am I can drive you up. Maybe we get a few other people to go along as well." With my head still dealing with the strange feelings of being at home, finding the hostel and dealing with cars driving on the wrong side of the road how you respond? Well, I say "Yeah sure that would be awesome." And with weekened travel plans now in the works, plus very happy and pleasant locals on the train who were happy to speak with us travellers despite the fact that we made the train so crowded with our back packs and luggage that they resembled some of the trains I watched go past me at Shibuya station in Japan, I checked in rested for short while before heading out to explore some of the sites that Kaca highlighted for me on the tourist map I was given when checking in. And here I was all nervous before leaving the UK, buying a pocket map of Prague and a phrasebook.

So I spent my time in Prague mainly just wondering the streets checking out old town, the astronomical clock, the castle and Charles bridge. At night I hung out with a few other travellers who were staying in the same dorm. I met some great folks from around the place, mmm and mmm fromt he states who were travelling Europe doing a bit of woofing along the way and we got to talking about organic living, travelling and ice hockey ...

Ok, I will pause here as the next chapter of my adventures in Cesky Krumlov, this awesome town in southern bohemia deserves its own entry. Also, this entry has been sitting in drafts box now for about 5 months and if I don't publish it I am not sure when I will.

Some Photos

2005-10-30T06:04:00.000+11:00

View some of my photos on my flickr account.

Raging it in Mendo

2005-10-09T05:02:00.000+10:00

Been out in the boonies of northern California now since getting back from Burning Man. I have limited communication to the outside world and things have been kind of hectic. Been doing a few things here and there. Went to Earthdance festival and checked out Kimock playing with differnet line-up (Alan Hertz on drums). Spent an expensive weekend in SF, with a stomach bug, then last weekend raged my buddies festival out near Santa Cruz - one of the best festivals I have ever been to bar none.

Check out the website at:

http://www.symbiosisgathering.com

Ok, that's it for now, will sit down and write about adventures from Europe to here once things get a little more whatever they need to be for me to be write more.

Keep raging what you love.

Burn baby Burn

2005-08-29T07:13:00.000+10:00

In Reno right now. Hit the Burn in about 2 or 3 hours. More details from the party-line after decompression. Or maybe, if things work out, from ground zero.

Visitations from the past

2005-08-15T21:47:00.000+10:00

Hmmm... when travlling you sometimes have those moments when you unexpectedly meet someone from your previous life. This often happens at the strangest of times in the strangest of places, like walking down a small alley in Bangkok two days before Songkran, or the kitchen at the hostel you are staying at in a small town in Southern Bohemia. You are just minding your own business when all of a sudden in walks someone one who used to be your student, someone who had just graduated at the end of last for whom the expereince of bumping into you is equally strange - this meeting of someone out of the once familiar and mundane context. Things can become stranger when they not only bring with them stories about the people and places back home, but also a DVD of the work that they had worked on and which I had become quite familiar with during the production process. What is even stranger is seeing the end product - the DVD which I had only seen begun now in its completed state - stranger still, the photos on the DVD of that one crazy and eventful night of the end of year screening. And then I have to ask, who decided on the photos, why so many of me? and why do I look so out of it? Hmmm .... ?

Quick update.

2005-08-06T01:18:00.000+10:00

I still have an entry from the 31st of May in my draft box which I hope to finish soon. Been travelling a bit too fast lately. For the last 2 months after leaving the Czech Republic spent about a week in each new place. The reason for this has been partly the schedule of festivals and events and partly economic. Some of the places that I have been travelling through have not necessarily been the cheapest places to hangout for a long time in.

Some quick highlights: Switzerland - lakes, Lusslingen, Mt Pilatus, Zurich, wild strawberries and wedding that required you to wear a red nose. France - small country town, nothing much to do except do nothing :). Germany, A day trip to Frieberg, and then a few weeks later the full on Full Moon Festival; also Berlin which has a wicked vibe to it. Denmark and the Roskilde Festival (Copehagen was a little boring). Sweden and some great summer weather, hanging out and walking around old town. Poland, via Germany and the Full Moon festival - went to Krakow, saw the Salt Mine and visited Auschwitz.

Now, I am back in the Czech Republic, back in Cesky Krumlov, just hanging out for a couple of weeks. More to come soon. :) And maybe even photos.

Up coming festival.

2005-08-06T01:17:00.000+10:00

Check out this festival a friend of mine in the states in putting together:

http://www.symbiosisgathering.com/

Some more books I have read.

2005-08-06T01:09:00.000+10:00

Immortality by Milan Kundera
The Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter) by J. K. Rowling
On Noticing by Alain de Botton
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
The second time I have read it.

Some Songkran Photos (Finally)

2005-06-23T03:03:00.000+10:00

Bangkok Psy Trance

Ice Water

Packing Ice

Psy Water Crowd

Spraying the Crowd

some news of past arrivals while preparing for a soon departure

2005-06-23T02:21:00.000+10:00

Today

just bought the new shpongle cd today. very excited, more music for the road.

---

09-06-2005

when i was driving across germany to switzerland with the family that the car pool agency hooked me up with (a pretty good deal; prague to zuerich for only 33€ where as the bus was double that) i was totally floored by my first glimpse of the alps - even though they were far away, something of that magnitude just did not seem real to the mind.

---

first stop in switzerland was maybe 30 meters from the border station so that we could buy swiss chocolate.

---

second stop was at house in the swiss country-side for lemon grass tea and biscuits. when we left there was a girl practicing riding a mono-cycle in the street. the cows in the field seem happy.

---

third stop zuerich. trams, over priced jumbo pretzels that have nothing on the german ones i was to try a week later in freiburg, and gaint fiberglass teddybears lining the streets.

after a short tram ride, dinner ...

---

Now

hitting the "publish" button

London - Some very brief notes

2005-05-18T00:28:00.000+10:00

was cold and grey most of the time
did not feel as big as i thought it would despite its sprawling nature. overall the streets are quite small -- even the main ones -- and there are not really very many highrises
it has been hard to make the conversion from a pot drinker to a pint drinking (although i am getting much better at it over here in the czech republic)
south africans and australians are a dime a dozen which means you get a two for one deal with me
they eat way too much bread. the staple food item seems to be sandwiches which they call sarnies
using the tube i felt a lot like a pinball in a pinball machine
tv sucks. lots of content but nothing really of quality

there are other things too but they escape me at the moment so will add them if and when they resurface from the dark pool that is the memory.

books i have read on my travels #01

2005-05-18T00:17:00.000+10:00

just wanted to make a list of the books that i have read on my travels, just for the hell of it. so here is what i have read so far.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
The Dhamapada (a free edition that I picked up int temple in Singapore).
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! by Sheldon Kopp
The Magus by John Fowles
No Second Chance by Harlan Coben
Ecstasy: The Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvin Welsh

"Do you like trance music?"

2005-04-19T20:42:00.000+10:00

Ok, I think that my brain is starting to fire-up again after Songkran. I spent the two days after Songkran basically just sitting in the lobby/restuarant at the guest house doing nothing but eating, drinking (water) and watching TV. I think that the most stressful thing that I did was to go to the 7/11 for Oreos and Sugas which is all of 20 - 30 seconds away. It was just what was needed -- that and a super greasey and cheese heavy pizza -- after three days of street doofing.

The Songkran festival for me started out with becoming engaged in the celebratory skirmish, where all particpants are armed with either high powered water guns, buckets of paste, or any type of vessel that will hold water. At first we didn't venture much further than the entrance to the guest house, going from dry to drenched in 10 seconds flat. People walk past and spray you, you spray them, they smear you with paste and then repeat. After a full day of this however I was pretty exhausted and went back into the guest house to lay down arms for a little while. Then on her way past in the lobby, this girl who I had spoken to briefly before asks out of the blue; "Do you like trance music?"

I say "Yes."

She says, "Cool there is this trance stage set up just across the main road. Do you want to join."

"Yeah. Why not?"

And thus began the schedule for the next three days.

When we get to the party -- it is best described as a party within this massive party -- I find that is not just any old trance but Psy-trance. After being a bit disappointed at the limited amount of psy-trance available at the Full Moon party, the last thing that I had expected to find in the middle of Bangkok is some awesome doofing.

You got the sense while simulateanously watching as well as participating in the spectacle of the entire party -- the one that was going on in all the major cities in Thailand -- was fueled by a good many buckets of vodka Red Bull, Sang Sorm (80% proof Thai Whisky)and Red Bull, Singha and Chiang Beer. There were people who were stumbling around on the verge of passing out at 4 in the afternoon who, some how managed to maintain that state and were still stubbling around at 9 at night.

The doof was insane, much more of an alcohol vibe than you would expect from a doof but the vibe was still amazing - a bit more raw as there were a few fights and that broke out, but they were usually between people who were just passing through the party -- some of these people are the ones who should have been passing out. On the dance floor there was a real sense of communal celebration and I think that it is this that held most of us up in states of massive inhebriation. Don't get me wrong though, there were casualities, and I think that on the morning of the fourth day (that is the day after) the entire city (or the area around Khao Sarn Road at least) woke up wishing it didn't exist with a ounding headache.

A few of us went for a walk to the pizza place the next day and the streets were still caked with white power which had settled in a film over the tarmac and filled in all the cracks. A few party casualties still stumbled in throught he streets, all the fight gone from them by now. Other people were out taking advantage of the chance to have a rare quiet moment on the normally busy streets.

The party was a like nothing else that I have ever experienced - I think that "raw" is a good way to describe it as "chaos" is a term that has been too over used. Moments of great eleation; of amazment; of incredulity; of unbalanced staggering (as oppsed of course to the balanced kind) and a swimming brain, of contemplation; of exhaustion and shock as they turned off the music at 10pm when everyone still wanted to keep going. Here the police made their presence felt, stepping in to pull the pin our little psy-trance corner of the New Years festivities. The music was stopped but the crowd would not budge. Yelling, chanting and clapping broke out. There was hope in the air backed by determination! ... Suddenly the crowd is sent scurrying as they whiff something strange in the air and a searing in the lungs. I guess in Thailand, at the toll of the pepper spray, the party is over.

We batted a retreat back to the guest house, me coughing uncontrollably, but feeling angry and confused at the use of such harsh methods. I am continue coughing and feel a bit panicky; later when I have recovered I feel like a bit of an idiot for it. Back at the guest house it is time to hang out which in Thailand is a constant unless you have to do something else to do like check email sleep, or go shopping, otherwise you just default back to the status quo. Bangkok daze, pizza and beer; what else do you really need?

---

Yeah I finally finished this post which has been sitting in my draft box for almost a month now. I will add some photos to this poat when I get a chane to upload them.

I have just arrived in Praha (Prague) today and still have to write about my time in London town. So far thought after only 4 hours Prague is amazing. There is art, sculpture and design ever where. It is psychedelic city in which it is customeray to get lost in the maze like streets where you, judging from your surrounding, you may just meet the Minotaur at the centre, or maybe just pass while heading the other way.

Songkran. Thai New Year! Holy F***!!!

2005-04-17T15:47:00.000+10:00

Ok; I have survived Thai New Year. Battered and quite fried but I can say that my vital functions are kicking back in gear.

What a party!!!

Photos and more to follow.

Roskilde

2005-04-10T14:38:00.000+10:00

The line for Roskilde is looking more and more insane, with some amazing artists who will be awesome to see, and whole bunch of exciting artists to discover.

I am still working on ways of getting there and things are very much up in the air, but will wait and see how things pan out.

On a second note, the offical days of Thai New Year are from the 13th to the 15th of April next week, but celebrations have already started with a massive parade yesterday and a few people already armed with water pistols. This will be the 3rd New Year I have seen in this calendar year which is pretty cool.

writing and memory and something being forged.

2005-04-07T13:16:00.000+10:00

a while back i posted that i would still write about my expereince trekking through the jungle north of chiang mai. so much has happened between then and now, and much of which i have not managed to capture in either my blog or my journal, and as such i feel it already fading into that obscurity where memories begin to feel like events and stories that happened to someone else. as such i have been using this blog as much to communicate what i have been up to as a way of recording the experiences and thoughts for my own person documentation. however having said that, my experiences trekking have already faded somewhat and will be difficult to resurrect here without them seeming forced so i will settle for some very brief, mostly factual notes and some images, but what i will say, is if you are ever in the north of thailand, then trekking is must, and better to opt for at least a three day venture - but longer if possible.

we had a small group, just 5 of us in total when there is usually 12.
stopped at a market on the way up to the start of the trekking site.
tried some beetle-nut from on of the local hill tribe woman selling water bottle holders at the market.

the beetle-nut gave me the biggest head spin and i had swallowed too much of it which made the bumpy winding road to the site hell.

it was appropriate however, as everyone else had had a big night the night before and, so i was now on a similar footing.
got to the site, had lunch and then elephant trekking. i must admit that the least memorable part of the trek was riding the elephant, not because the beast was not majestic and regal in its calm sure footed-ness, but more that it seemed to have no purpose in the context ot the tour - at least for me anyway. the route we travelled was not lengthy and could have quite easily been navigated on foot. i think that if we had gone for a longer trek it might have had more of an impact. as it was i felt that this part of the trek was just to humour the tourists that we were and as such did not give the credit due to both the elephants, the guides and the farangs - or this is just my cynical side coming through once again.
a long steep 3 - 4 hour hike up to the first village left us all exhausted upon arrival.
had an amazing dinner of sweet and sour veg, rice and curry.
sat with our guides around the fire on the balcony of the bamboo hut singing classic rock and folk songs from the 70's and 80's under a blanket of stars. our guide told us how once wanted to be a rock star between trying to remember the cords to the next song.
next morning, left by 10am for more trekking on foot.
had lunch in the jungle, pad thai style noddles, served off of leaves and eaten with jungle chopsticks.
ended the day at village with a small water fall.
finished up on the third day with white water rafting and then bamboo rafting in which time was both present and irrelevant, but we all knew that we would be back in the civilised much too soon.
getting off the raft we were greated by our guides and their black taxi truck. how much is that doggie in the window was blarring on the radio. i don't know why but the oddity of it seemed some how fitting.
the entire experience was book end by led zepplins, stairway to heaven as we rolled into our last lunch site with that pumping out of the back of the van. that had been the same track with which we journeyed to the first site three days before and one of the songs that we had sung on that first night sitting around the fire. wayne's world will no longer be there first that i think of when i hear stairway

Shelter for the first night.

Dinner beinging prepared.

Dinner beinging prepared #2.

Lunch in the Jungle #1

Lunch preparation.

Waking up on the second day.

the familiar

2005-04-06T20:53:00.000+10:00

One of the things I got to thinking about in the darkest moments of homesickness when I was enduring my turn at a bout of food poising was what exactly is it that makes home home. Of course one can name family members (including pets), list particular items and reminisce over food and certain ways of doing things - but what is about these things? Put simply, it is that they are familiar, and most the familiar of these are found at home, so much so that they exist beyond the point of conscious distinction. The sounds and smells of home are something that are never noticed until they are no longer there; it is the place where we find those things with which we have the most affinity.

For me putting family aside for the moment, there are still moments now when I miss the sanctity of my own bedroom and most of all my bed, however after traveling once through Tokyo and then on to Kyoto, returning to Tokyo the second time was a kind of welcome return to the familiar. So I started to think what it is about particular places that make people want to move and settle there. Disregarding the person motivated by a need to escape for the purposes of this discussion, it seems to me that there must be some kind of affinity that is felt for the new location; something in the air or water that speaks to some inarticulate part of a persons being that tells them, this is like home.

As yet on my travels I have not found such a place, nor do I really expect to -- in fact I have come to appreciate Australia on levels I never quite imagined -- however, on the road there have been many other travelers who have at various points of my passing through told me of how they have stopped where I have found them, and now call this or that place home. At the moment, apart from a new understanding of my feelings towards the home that is Australia, I feel the most affinity for the act of leaving, of bidding a pace farewell, and perhaps when I return home that is what I will miss most.

I never did get to experience Sakura

2005-04-06T12:39:00.000+10:00

All the while that I was in Japan there was a tension in the air, not just the usual stress of work, nor the nervous anticpation of the big one, but one where everyone was anticpating the arrival of the Sakura - the cherry blossoms. It has been a somewhat colder spring and as such it has been late in arriving this year. I was hoping that before I left I would be able to see the spectacle which for a foriegner is not so much the blossoms themselves but the mayhem that ensue around them. Apparently, once the blossoming has occured all the parks and gardens become packed with hordes of Japanese armed with Sake and Cherry Blossom liquor, picnic blankets and portable karoke machines. Each group sets up in a patch of clear space in the park and proceeds get sloshed belting out karoke favourites. Even if I get to witness and maybe even participate inI guess there are somethings I will just never understand.

Waiting for Sakura

A night in a ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru.

2005-04-05T13:56:00.000+10:00

When looking into where the venue for the Suzanne Vega concert was going to be I had noticed that their was a ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru (capsule hotel) about two minutes, so I made plans to spend the night in there. Capsule hotels basically exist so those poor salary men who, after a big night of Sake, or Karoke, or just plain old work have missed the last train will have a place to crash. The capsules are like catacombs where each guest has there own small cell to sleep in.

Casule hotles are meant to be a cheap place to sleep as an alternative to the very expensive cab ride home, although when comparing it to the price of a dorm bed in a hostel it is slightly more expensive. I was paying about 3500 yen for my dorm bed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimobocho while my night at the ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru cost 3700 yen. It was certainly worth it for the experience, but due to its price and the particular rules, it is not practical for travellers who are planning a long stay in the city. Check-in is at 5pm and check-out is at 10am, so there is no chance of catching a midday nap after a long flight, bus trip or stint on the Shinkensen (the bullet train). Most capsule hotels are also men-only which makes things it for any female travellers wanting to cross it off their "To do" list. I did meet two girls from Germany however, who managed to find one that allowed women somewhere in Osaka.

On arrival you enter what seems like any other average hotel lobby, with a front desk and the attendant standing behind it. I approached the desk and asked if the attendant spoke English. He said "Yes, a little." which was a refreshing change from the usual paniciked run around which ensues as the person tries to find someone who I can communicate in English with. I said that I wanted to book a capsule for the night, at which point I was directed to a vending machine to the side of the desk which looked like something out of a 1960's sci-fi movie. I was told in polite but broken english, that I needed to select what sort of accomodation I wanted for the night from the massive panel of butons. The basic option was a single capsule at 3700 yen, while the other option was the deluxe which was called the Business Man; however, apart from the price - which was almost double - I couldn't read what the differences might be.

I fed my cash into the machine and with a much WRRRR-ing it spewed forth a ticket which I then turned and presented to the waiting attendant. He then presented me with a key marked 710, and proceeded to explain the rules of check-in and check-out, where the bathroom and the lockers and what were and floor my capsule was on. Reading that it all sounds quite easy but there was much to-ing an frow-ing and most of what he conveyed did not make sense until later when I was actually confronted with the item.

At first I pressumed that the key he had given me was for my capsule so I, noticing the shoes lined up at the edge of the carpet, went to continue on upstairs inmy socks.

"Sir!"

I turned back to the attendants as there were now two who where pointing to my shoes, to this I thought that they were asking if they were mine. I responded, "Yes." But there insistence and confused and bemused giggling told me there was more afoot here. After much dancing on the spot as I was not sure if they wanted me to move them, put on one of the pairs of slippers that lay next to them or just confirm ownership I managed to catch the words "shoe" and "locker" and looked to where they indicated noticing a series of small lockers next to the lift. I collected my shoes and went to the lockers with a collective sigh of relief from both the attendants and myself. I stowed my smell footware away eager to go upstairs and check out where I would be sleeping later that night.

I stepped out from the lockers ready to head up stairs when yet again I was called back to the front desk. Here through more confusion and bemused giggling by the attendants my shoe locker key was swapped for another key which comes securely attached to strap which looks like a mix between a watch band and those tags patients get in hospital. I guess there was no loosing this key.

Okay, now I was set to explore the rest of the establishment. I went up to the second floor where the lockers were located, and was glad that I had only brought my small day pack as the lockers, while being tall so that you may hang a suit are extremely narrow; so much so that I thought that if I put both my arms in there at once I would need the jaws of life to get free again. As it was, later that night when I got back from the concert I would have to unpack my day pack in order to have everything fit in the locker.

Next proceeded up to the floor where my capusle was. When you arrive it all feels very space age, glowing with a yellowish light to make it seem as warm and inviting as possible. My capsule was near the end of the corridor and looking in it actually looked quite spacious.

I guess this is how the series of capsules might look like through a space helmet?

My little hole in the wall for the night.

Happy with cleaniness of the place I went out for night. On leaving the hotel I had to swap my locker key (you don't need a key for the actualy capsule) for my shoe locker key - got my shoes and then had to return this key to the front desk as well. They made sure that I had my receipt so that I would be allowed back later that evening, and I was off to the Suzanne Vega gig.

Upon my return there was more bemused giggling and I was greeted warmly with a "Welcome home!" I said thank you and went through the ritual of swapping collecting and swapping once again. I went up to where the lockers and bath room was, packed my stuff away and then went to try and work out how the bath thing worked. There was a small foyer type area where a series of beige towels were stacked up on the shelves along with a collection of beige elastic waisted shorts. Still not overly sure what the deal was I poked my head through the door to the bathroom and realised it was a traditional communal Japanese kind of set up, where you have a number of seats set around the room in front of an extenable shower head. This set up in part explains why these establishments are primarily men-only. In the bath room are expected to soap and rinse your self first before hopping into the huge square bath tub. The tub is quite hot, but your body adjusts to it quite quickly. After a short sit in the tub I went to dry off and get dressed. At this point the purpose of the shorts became apparent; they were to put on over your regular shorts in a bid to maintain the cleaniness of the capsules.

I went up to capsule, and as it was already around 11pm the main lights were turned low. I clambered into my capsule, crashed head first into the back of the TV and then stupidly let down the heavy roller curtain which acts as your door which meant that I was fumbling around for the light switch in almost complete darkness. The plethora of switches on the wall far inside the unit meant that eventually I had to give into logic and draw up the curtain once more so that I had at least some light to make out what I was dealing with.

Major Tom to ground control... Err? Where is the ignition again?

For here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.

I finally managed to find the light switch and could settle into my cosy unit for the night. I let down the curtain and started to take noticemy surroundings. The structral components of the capsule is almost entirely plastic which gave it a look that reminded me of 2001: A Space Odssesy. Even the TV was encased in plastic. Overall the space was not as cramped as I had imagined, but I was a bit dissappointed that the door to the capsule was not like the doors that you get on washing dryers, as I had thought. It is probably jus as well that they are not however, as in the event of a fire or earthquake these cells would become sarcophiguy.

From examining my capsule I gathered that every capsule came with:

1 x Matteress (resonably comfortable)
1 x Pillow (filled with bean bag beans, not quite sure of the logic here but most pillows in Japan are of this sort.)
1 x Blanket covered in a sheet
1 x Light
1 x Television
1 x Radio / Alarm Clock with glowing green digital display
1 x Ear bud head phones
1 x Mirror

I began to try out the various switches and thought I'd check out what was on TV expecting a direct link to CNN Business news as I imagined that the salary men who used these hotels would probably want to check the market activity before going to bed and first thing when they woke up, instead I found that there was only one channel which carried Japanese porn. A bit of a shock, but I guess that that is another reason that these plces tend to be men-only. I then tried out the radio and accidentally ripped out the headphones from the jack which sent the radio program blaring out into the darkness. As these units are not sound proof, you can often hear the person below or even a few doors down snoring in the night, I received quite a few disgruntled groans as I fumbled for the off switch.

It took me a little while to get to sleep, reflecting on the concert and on the oddity of this whole experience, but when I did slept all the way through till morning. I awoke around 7:30 to the sounds of salary men getting ready for work and thought I would try to go back to sleep so I would not get in their way in their rush out the door, besides if I did get up and leave now I would be sure to caught in the morning peak hour commuter traffic at the station. I woke up again at around 9 and ventured out into the morning. Shibuya was only marginally quiter than it had been last night, although the working crowd had a very different vibe to the youth and party crowd of the evenings.

I got to Shibuya station at about 9:20 and waited for my train. The first train that arrived was completely packed, and even though a large number of commuters got off at the station it did not seem to make any differnce to the density of people on the train. I decided to wait for the next train, but it was the same thing again. This continued to happen for the next 30 minutes, until finally I decide to get on one of the trains that seemed a little less packed. Five stops later I was back at Jimbocho, Sakura Hotel and some semblance of the regular.

Back in the land of the Elephant

2005-04-04T17:15:00.000+10:00

Ah Thailand, the country you love to hate and hate to love.

Well it is good to be back where the living is cheaper, however I think that overall my savings are dwindling much too quickly. I wasn't planning on being back in Thailand but despite getting three job offers without even trying to look for work in Japan --no seriousy, I didn't even leave the hostel coffee shop in Tokyo and work just seemed appear -- I decided after experiencing a bit of what life is like in Japan, that it is not for me. The pace and intensity of work will be equal or perhaps greater than that in Melbourne which is the reason that I had to leave in the first place. There were also issues to do with the culture that just didn't gel with me - the image we have of Japan in the west and the reality can be quite different.

So I am back in Thailand until I work out my next move, which may be back to OZ for a short bit just get things back on track. China is still an option, but I am trying to be honest with myself and listen to what it is I really want to do. Maybe I will just keep travelling until my funds run out and then start on a new career once I get back home. In the mean time I am focusing on learning as much as I can about how life works in the places that I travel through.

Anyone who has been to Thailand will know about the Tuk Tuks in Bangkok and some of the other major cities. For those who don't a Tuk Tuk is kind of like a cross between a rickshaw and a motorbike and they are basically one of the chief modes of transport for tourists here.

Me taking a Tuk Tuk for a hoon around town.

One of my friends who has been living in Bangkok for a while now said that Tuk Tuks are bad news, as they are quite visibly unsafe and the drivers are looking to make a buck in whatever way they can. So this usually translates into quite high chargers to go from one location to another - so much so that it is sometimes cheaper to catch a metered cab (but do make sure that they put on the meter). However, like everybody these Tuk Tuk drivers are just trying to make enough money to get by and once you get to know a little bit more of how the market works you can actually get some really good deals.

One of the ways in which Tuk Tuk drivers (and taxi drivers too) make money is through commissions. Often times you will be offered a tour around the sites of Bangkok for just 20 baht (about 70 Aussie cents), the thing that is not mentioned however is that apart from taking you to this or that Wat (the standing Buddha is a common one which seems to be only open one day of the year, which always just so happens to be this one) you will also be taken to a tailor shop, or gems stone store, or seafood place. The reason for this is that one, if the drivers takes you to one of these places and you show enough interest within the shop (often times the merchant will try to back you into putting down a deposit) they will receive a petrol voucher - and secondly, if you buy something they will get a commission on that sale. The cab driver who drove me in from the airport said that he would a 25% commission from a tailors and 30% from a jewelery store sale. Basically commissions are available to anyone who brings in customers on everything from crocidle farms, to body massage places, to Muay Thai matches.

So it would seem that all of Bangkok, even all of Thailand run on a basis of commissions, where everyone gets a slice of the pie. Now, if you are aware of this and want to see the sites of Bangkok for 20 baht, or indeed for free as I did yesterday, you need just have a friendly chat witha Tuk Tuk driver about taking you around the sites while also taking you to some of these other businesses where you will show enough interest so that the Tuk Tuk driver can get his petrol voucher. You will be amazed at how appreciative the driver will be, which gives some sense of the level of poverty here. It helps of course if you are interested in the items you are enquiring about and it is a good way to shop around to get the best deal. Do be careful of the gem scam that runs here in Thailand, where you are told that for one time in the year you can get jewelery with gems stones set in them at whole sale and tax free prices, which will be worth double what you paid once you get home. If you are lucky, you might get half your money back.

Overall it can be a fun and educational exeperience where you get to a bunch of the city; the smog is major negative aspect to the deal however.

A day in Kyoto Station

2005-04-02T22:52:00.000+10:00

I spent my last day in Kyoto hanging around the huge grey cube like building that is Kyoto station. As I got to watch the the paricular movements of people through this space over a 12 hour period I started to notice the number of homeless people also hanging around. On yoru intial pass you can be forgiven for not seeingthem, perhaps even on your secod or third pass as they are quite inconspicuos. They do their best to blend in with background as much out of the way of the ebb and flow commuters as possible and wait out the daylight hours in whatever warmth they can find. At times the years of filth and grim do betray them however despite the super efficient air conditioning of this futuristic manga inspired megaplex. Mostly however they are invisible not entirely due to their methods of camoflague, for once you see through the veil they are there in bold presence. What realy makes they invisible at first and second glance is teh fact tat the comuters and shoppers just don"t see them. It is not that they don't notice, because that implies that they can be noticed - rather they will look straight through these ghosts who have been abandoned by the machine. I know that the homeless in any big city tend to be walked passed ignored, but in those cases there is still some level of acknowledgement even if it is only the acknowledgement not to outwardly acknowledge.

Kyoto Megaplex

The homeless n Japan don't or ask for money or seem to seek any form of recognition, they seem to exist as if behind a pane of gass, a seperate community unto themselves. Which reminds me how people find community among others in common circumstances to be endured.

Art in the megaplex

Inside the Megaplex

Outside the Megaplex

Walking around Kyoto and Tokyo, you might notice the occasional neat square bundle of stuff wrapped in a blue tarp. This is one of the few signs that you are passing someones home; it is just the case that its location is in such a public place that it has to be packed up for the day and rolled again at night. There are some more permanent structures though through the cities; little strectches of shanti towns made of tarps, tents, and some even with rice cookers, all very neatly laid -- meta-urban planning. The homeless here might have lost most or all of their possessions and status but they have not lost their sense of personal pride in their home.

Water front views (Asakusa - Tokyo).

The homeless in Shibuya (Tokyo).

View front Shibuya location (Tokyo).

So back in Kyoto station I watch as the homeless wait to get their homes back for the night, and I think how these men and women are the keepers of the secrets of this place as they watch its tide of workers, shoppers, officials and tourists flow n and out each day. These people are the ghosts of this place, their presence sometimes felt but never really chosen by the masses to be seen.

Leaving on a jet plane.

2005-04-02T10:29:00.000+10:00

Just a quick update as I sit here in the free internet cafe at Narita airport.

Yep, folks I am on the road again, heading back to Thailand for a bit to decide the next destination. Japan has been great but I know that if I can help this is not the place that I want to spend a year working. There a few reasons why, things like the language barrier and differnces in culture are there, but not something that is impossible to work around - all in all it gets quite easy staying in Japan after a while. The subway is easy enough to work out and once you break through the initial barrier of being lost in a land of foreign sites and sounds you will learn which dishes you like and which ones to avoid. Just on this subject, if you are coming to Japan avoid Natto at all costs. I was lucky enough to have had suffiient warnings froms friends that this is a no go zone. Natto is a traditional Japanese breakfast which is rice, sushi and fermented bean curd. It is stired together until it resemblems a kind of clear ectoplasm seen Ghostbusters.

Well, I think my decision to leave Japan is based in part of the work ethic here which is very high, and I was wary of falling back into a very full on job again. While I know that in China the work load may not be much differnt, but I think that over all the approach to it will be differnt. I know that China will be really hard in terms of language as well the lack of modern convenience, but ultimately I feel that these (and all the other yet seen challenges) will make the experience much more rewarding. (Hmmm, that has the ring of a classic set of famour last words).

I am also thinking that I may head to India for a while if I decide that I don't want to work just yet, while heading back to Thailand might give me the chance to go to Ankor Wat before making any final decisions. There is also the possiblity as Europe starts to warm up, of head north n the Trans-Siberian Express and hanging out in Scandanvia for a while. A friend wants to meet up for the Roskilde Festival in few months. So who knows; I could even end up at Burning Man. I guess things will become more solid over the next few weeks.Any way better go, want to grab a bite to eat before the plane. Hmmm, Natto!

Suzanne Vega in Tokyo 2005

2005-04-01T12:55:00.000+10:00

Travelling through Japan there are a few free publication for Gaijin with a few articles and gig listings. Scanning through one of these last week I noticed that Suzanne Vega was playing in Tokyo on the 31st of March and the 1st of April. When I was travelling through the US 2 years ago, I ran out of money at the end of my trip and could stay the extra week to catch her playing in New York. I was in something of a similar boat this time around having planned to hav already left Japan at this point - but I just couldn't miss this second oppourtunity.

So I did my research, trekked throught the chaotic neon maze of Shibuya to find out where the Duo Music Exchange was. I found but found out too that I had to call up to reserve a ticket. This was a truly comical undertaking as I got hand balled three times, and by the third time when I asked the person on the other end of the line if they spoken english, you could hear the entire office erupt in laughter in the background.

Flyers, Pod and Map

The decor inside the duo Music Exchange can only be discribed as something akin to a neo-jazz/funk club, with sections of padded orange vinyl on the walls and raw concrete pillars on the main floor. Seating is set out at dinner tables across two levels. The stage is actually quite big for such an intimate space which with its particular layout never feels too crowded. All in all you are very much in the prescence of the artist in this space, as the tables at the foot of the stage often mean that these audience members and the performer are only 2 meters apart. Then, while scanning through the flyer of upcoming events at the duo Music Exchange, I spy one of the only bits of english on it, it says next to his picture "Total Produced by Jay Kay (Jamiroquai)." An "ah" moment follows as the Jamiroquai horned silloheutte used as the venums logo suddenly makes sense.

Crowd outside duo Music Exchange

So last night waiting for the show to begin, the crowd sit there mezmerised by the digital projections of music video from Suzanne Vega's Retrospective DVD and CD which is about to be released here. Paul Kelly is playing over the PA, singing about how "...every fucking city feels the same." There is something about those lyrics that speaks to the traveller, in the same way that songs about leaving do.

I sit there and notice there are a handful of Gaijin here, maybe seven in all including me. I think, how I never expected to be here, both in the immediate sense of my current surroundings as well in the larger sense of the surprising places that life can sometimes take us if we let it -- but then again I don't know if I really expected myself to be anywhere in particular. I find myself wondering why it is that when you find yourself doing the most unexpected things that often get the strongest sense of de ja vu. I decide to order another Canadian Club on the rocks and think about good times shared with friends over CC and Asahi.

I can feel my excitement build; like most people I first heard Suzanne Vega in the mid 80's with the song Luka and Tom's Dinner, which most people recognise from the dance remix version from the late 80's or early 90's as the "Doo do, do do doo do" song. It has been 20 years since I first discovered the LP "Solitude Standing" back in the time before CDs, and Suzanne's catalogue has grown steadily since.

Eight-o-clock rolls around and Suzanne Vega is introduced to a very warm reception. No opener in this setting, we are all here for the one thing. Well almost, quite a few members of the audience are here too for the dinner available on the:

Suzeanne Vega Live at duo Music Exchange
Special Menu

Dinner Plate

sauteed chicken served with pancetta & truffe flavou sauce & caesar salad

2,500

Special Wine

Redwood Creek Chardonnay 2003

Bottle 3,900
Glass 900

Set

Special Wine & Dinner Plate
3,000

Special Wine & Dinner Plate

8,000

But then again, who can blame them, as coming straight from a busy day at work to a 6:30pm door call, there probably wouldn't be much time to grab a bite. Also I think this is the way that more gigs are done here, a sort of a jazz club feel. I had a very similar experience at the Kaki King show last week at the Blue Note Jazz club in Omotesando.

Suzanne walks on stage followed by her bassist Mike Visceglia. She is respectful but warm towards the crowd as she starts to gauge where the audience is at. She practices a bit of her japanese on the crowd which is met with great appreciation. She picks up her guitar and the duo rock straight into the raw openess of Marlene on the Wall and instantly draws the crowd away in the individual collective experience of travelling the emotional pathways into the many gathered personal histroies and relationships we have with that song. Next we stay with songs from her debut as she and Mike fall into Small Blue Thing.

The show contiunes with Suzanne engaging with the crowd in a bit of English and Japanese banter, at one point almost sending Mike hurrying from the stage by threatening to put him and his Japanese skills to the test. Suzeanne then performs a few tracks solo and it is amazing to notice how her vice just drifts out into space as little as air with lyrics that resonate so deep.

Suzeanne puts her guitar down and it just voice and bass for the pulse quickening vocal gallop of Blood Makes Noise followed by Left of Center.

The set list for the evening also includes a couple of new tracks; Anniversary written about the one year anniversary of 9/11, and Edith Warton's Figurines which she explains will have an appropriate translation for the Japanese release, while joking that one is needed for the American release too so that people can get what she is singing about.

For the encore Suzanne came out and asked for what the audience wanted to hear and was bombarded by a wide range of titles from her entire collection - yells came, *Solitude Standing* - *Language* - *Cracking* - *Rosemary*. Suzanne apologized for not being able to do some of the titles as they either required the entire band or they were tracks that she and Mike had not played in a real long time. So with that Rosemary was decided upon. After finishing the song Suzeanne was already to go but Mike was keen to stick around and grant one of the requests - "Cracking". They joked about whether they would remember the how it went but it went flawlessly as far as we were concerned which was shown in the insistant appluading that went on well after the house lights brightened in an attempt to coax a second encore from the duo.

A fanatastic and intimate show which lived up to expectation much more than imagined -- and we all know the problems with expectations, that they are so much more often dashed than upheld, much less exceeded.

Through some chance timing, I went over to the edge of the stage near the exit after the show. I noticed another Gaijin waiting there after having spoken to Mike. I started speaking to the guy waiting there about what an amazing show it was and while trying to catch Mike to say what an awesome show it was. It turned out that the Gaijin, a guy from Spain who had also missed his previous chance of seeing Suzeanne perform, had asked Mike if he could just say a few words to Suzanne. Two minutes later Mike appears and ushers us in - well what could I do but go with the flow. Standing just off stage where the performs enter and exit from i wait my turn, I have not rehearse anything to say, again I was not expecting to be here so I kept what I had to say as short possible. I settle for just saying "Thank you"; saying too much and you can sometimes get lost in the maze of language trying to convey too many thoughts at once.

An amazing performance in a strange land and place, but like the line in Scarlett Begonias "Once in a while you get shown or expereince (the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right." Hmmm, but then again, I guess it is always there, we need just be open to it.

---

Set list for Suzeanne Vega Live at the duo Music Exchange 31.3.2005

Marlene on the Wall
Small Blue Thing
Caramel
When Heros Go Down
Gypsy
I'll Never Be Your Maggie May
Penitent
Solitaire
Blood Makes Noise
Left of Centre
Queen and the Solider
Anniversary
Edith Warton's Figurines
In Liverpool
Luka

Encore
Rosemary
Cracking

Some touristy photos of Singapore

2005-03-31T15:06:00.000+10:00

You can tell that I just got my digital camera from these photos at they are the typical tourist type of photos.

Durian building

Merlion - half fish half lion.

Singapore skyline.

Singapore at Night #1

Singapore at Night #2

Singapore at Night #3

---

I still have to back travk and write about my time in Malaysia which was great but much too short. I also hav a bunch of photos from that section of the trip.

Here is one image I took while heading out to Uncle Lim's with my friends Jeff and Jen. This shot was taken in Jeff's car just after we left the Batu Caves (translated it means Stone Cave).

Some strange quirks about Japan.

2005-03-30T12:39:00.000+10:00

They don't put fluoride in toothpaste so come well stocked if you are intending an extended stay.
Deodorant is a controversial issue. While woman sometimes wear perfume (something that is changing a bit with the younger generation), thee is no odor control regime for me - so again come well stocked.
bicycles are the silent killer on the road. There are many bicycles here which all drive on the footpath. As they tend not to be mountain bikes they are completely silent so you are constantly finding one trying ride over your heels.
It is really tricky to withdraw cash from an ATM as the only ATMs that accept foreign cards are at Citibanks, of which they are few and far between. ( I never fnd one in Kyoto).
When buying sliced bread you will find that the slices tend to be ridiculousy thick. This is obviously the preference for things here as the toaster are customised for the wider load.
Cab doors opened by the driver of the cab automatically by some form of remote control.
When crossing the street, you might here the sound similar to a polyphonic ring tone as this is the signal for the visually impaired that the light has changed to green.

There are many more which I can't recall at the moment and even more that I have yet to encounter. Will post them as they come up.

Some notes on Japan - First installment

2005-03-26T17:09:00.000+11:00

I have many things that I want to write about here so might just try to just get the jumbled mess of it down however it happens to flow out -- hopefully it will make some sort of sense.

Japan is a strange place, one which is associated in the west with ultra-hi-tech developments, effieceny a strong sense of tradition, Hello Kitty, neon and cramped spaces. All of the above has some truth in it but their are levels of truth here and things aren&t always as they seem.

One of the things that intimidated me about Japan before my arrival was the thought as too how far ahead of the rest of the world they must be in technological terms and the resultant effect of this on various industries and more specifically mine, that of media production. What I found instead is a production industry which, like any industry, has its quirks. No, it is not ahead of the game in terms of technology, they have programs on TV that look as tacky as anything that can be produced by Hollywood, Australia, or Singapore - or any production industry really. In fact, some things here are still done in what some would consider an old fashioned style -- for instance, when the news of the earthquake on Kyushu ran, they had a map of the island to show where the quake hit. In Australia, this would have been illustrate with computer graphics, animating the depreciation of magnatude as it expanded outwards from the epicentre. On Japanese TV the epicentre of the quake was shown on an actual physical map of the outline of the island and then the camera zoomed in on the affected area. Ok, so it was still effective in conveying the idea and has something to be said for its simplicity, it was just a technique that I haven't seen used for very many years, especially on national TV. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, something that harks back to models and minitures used in the old Godzilla movies.

Having spent over a week now here in Japan, one of the most surprising things is the extent of the language barrier. Now, of course this is Japan and for that reason alone it would be extremely ethno-centric of me to expect that most people have some command of english, however, I have been somewhat mis-informed by some people who have said that it is easy to communicate in Japan as most Japanese understand English. I have found that the opposite is true, which is also quite surprising when you see the number of different English language schools around the place (they are not quite as prevalent as Starbucks, but almost).

In many ways Japan is very closed to western travellers, as there is not much tourist information provided here for the foreign traveller, and indeed if you have left home without your guide book, you are making things harder for yourself (trust me, I am one of those who decided to try and step off the beaten track sans book). As a result however you find your self doing what all travellers do when in a new coutry, they network with other travellers and work out cool places to visit. You also take advantage of the knowledge base of the staff at the hostel (or hotel) as a way to find out interesting things to do.

Having said that, I have found Tokyo a very easy city to get around in. Sure it might take you a minute or five to work out the basics of the subway system, but once you have sussed that out, you are free to move about the city as you wish. Okay so it will take you a bit of staring a the complex map of the subway system everytime you want to buy a ticket or need to make a transfer but you will find many locals standing beside you doing the same thing.

Tokyo Subway Map. Looks intimadating, don't it.

Tokyo, like most cities, is about commerce, and as such many of the locations you will find yourself heading for are shopping districts. Whether it be the upmarket Ebisu, the funky and stylish Harajuku, or the hectic in face neon maze of Shinjuku or Shibya, when in Japan you are very much a part of the machine. At times when walking through Shibuya I felt like a pin-ball being bounced between one fractilising neon surface and another - and all this was in the daylight hours so I can only imagine what it will be like when I have to go through again at night sometime later this week.

Of the strange commercial expereinces to engage in is a trip to Tokyo Hands. Tokyo Hands is really just a kind of department store which has one of its outlets in Shibuya. It is about 7 stories high which sounds big but each floor is fairly small for a department store. So it is not the magnitude of the store which is so amazing, but rather the collect of products which it stocks. If you want iPod accessories, no worries, you want foam balls, Halloween costumes, wallets, dice, branches, steel capped boots, wool, a circular saw, nose putty or shower clocks and radios, its all here. This list does not do the store justice, it really has to be seen to be believed.

While still on things Shibuya, it is also the place where most Tokyo teenagers are known to hang out and as such can be thought of as the centre of youth culture in Tokyo. It is also the famous location of the statue of Hachiko, who is perhaps the most famous dog in Japan. Hachiko was an Akita who used to wait for his master at the trainstation each night for him to return from work. One day however, his master died while at work; it is then said that for the rest of his life Hachiko would go to the station to wait for his master arrival. You can read the whole story here. After already extending my stay in Japan until the 2nd of April, it seems that there might be another reason to extent it to after the 8th of April. Although I reckon it will only make me miss Kabu so much more, so maybe it is not such a good idea.

Is that frigging snow...!?!

2005-03-25T17:52:00.000+11:00

Caught the red eye coach from Tokyo to Kyoto last night. As the sun began to break through in the morning, looking out of the window on the bus I thought that I saw frost some of the cars, although it didn't quite look like the frost that I knew from back in South Africa. I did get an incling that it might have been snow but that was something I was not prepared for thus was something I chose not to believe. But then while I was walking around the city waiting for things to start opening up, like getting slapped by a gaint Buddha palm in the head, it began to snow. Sure it melted when it hit the ground, but you are talking about someone who has bnever seen snow in the process of falling, and whats more, someone who has basking in 30C plus degrees less than 2 weeks ago.

Having said that it was quite amazing to see snow falling - something that was unexpected, but adds a new perspective on things.

Thinking about the orgins of the journey.

2005-03-24T20:55:00.000+11:00

I just sent off a parcel back to OZ today of some cds that I picked up along the way as well as some books. After dinner I thought I would just stick my head into the CD shop next door. Hmmm... was it a good idea?

Hell yeah!, after not having a huge amount of luck finding the cds for the Outback Eclipse Festival in OZ (although I must admit that I did not look very hard, which probably the reason that I didn't find them) I find them sitting happily on the self in this tiny CD store in a back alley 5 mintues away from the hostel. Well since going to the Outback Eclipse Festival is one of the main reasons why I am sitting writing this now from Tokyo I just had to get those cds -- psytrance flashbacks, here I come!

I wanted to write about Outback Eclipse but uch too much to try and get down now, so check out this site to get an impression of what one expereince of the festival was like:

http://hamfisted.net/pictures/2002/eclipse/

For the ethnoes out there.

2005-03-24T18:01:00.000+11:00

Found an interesting little shop while wondering through Shibuya yesterday called On Air. Had your usual t'shirts, and glass wear but also had a good stock of Mimosa Hostilis, Peganum harmala, Tabernanthe Iboga and other ethno-botanicals that you might expect to find in the company of such items.

Good to know if I decide to settle here for a bit.

Small crises averted thanks to Japanese Convenience

2005-03-24T01:58:00.000+11:00

I broke my tooth brush this morning. I needed to get a new one. 10 steps and 300 yen later it was all sorted. You can get amlost anything in from a vending machine here. Someone told that there is a ratio of about 20 people to each vending machine here in Tokyo - I don't know how true that is but I wouldn't be surprised.

Loaded (well loading).

2005-03-21T19:15:00.000+11:00

Super stoked! I have access to a eMac, and even though we speak different languages we have gotten around the communcation issues and I am loading the CD's that I have bought along the way onto my iPod. That includes an gayatri Mantra CD; an Asha Bhosle and R.D. live in the USA double disc; Stina Nordenstam - And She Closed Her Eyes; Umphrey's McGee - Anchor Drops, and Kaki King - Legs to Make Us Longer.

Tomorrow I am going to talk to the travel agent about travelling around Japan for a bit - might stay away from Kyushu though. Might check out Kyoto and Osaka. It would be cool to check out Akita so I can tell Kabuki that I have visited her ancestoral home. Depending on how much it costs, I might head up to Sapporo just for something different. I will also decide if I will head back to Thailand for a bit while I wait to see what happens on the job front.

I have emailed a couple of places in China and am waiting for a response. Still not sure where I will end up -- it is not that I won't be able to find work in Japan, I know that it will be quite easy, I am just not sure about such an organised and structured place - or maybe I just a sucker for punishment.

Indeed Good Things to those who wait.

2005-03-21T12:58:00.000+11:00

I might not decide to stay in Japan to work but have some of the synchronous moments which come when travelling. I won't go in too much detail now as it will probably end up costing $10 US just to post the update. I will say that while flicking through one of the local free magazines, I noticed that Kaki King was playing at the Blue Note jazz club. Kaki King is an amazing solo guitarist from Atlanta and first saw her play when I was in the states. Turns out she had just released a new album and was doing a few shows here in Tokyo. I thought that I missed the show as I knew that I would only arrive at the club once the advertised show was finsihed but chanced it any way. Turns out there were 2 shows scheduled for the night so I caught the second from the standing room only at the back of the room. It was amazing, not altogeher cheap, but worth it.

I am going to try and hold here until the 1st or 2nd of April, as there is something else I want to catch before I leave. Another unexpected event for the patient, and the frugal.

\\¥

2005-03-19T22:38:00.000+11:00

In Japan it is quite amazing. The language barrier is much more apparent than Thailand which has tken me somewhat by surprise. The cost of living here is expensive! I knew that it would be costly, but this is ridiculous! So there probably won't be as many or as frequent posts as the internet is expensive. On the up side there are plenty of jobs advertised here, but the cost of living as it is, I am not too sure about working here anymore.

Thinking about maybe moving sideways although not quite sure what that will translate into. Looked through several options already since last night and have ruled out most of them out for various reasons from weather conditions, cost, visa issues and getting an understanding of my real motives in considering some of the possible moves and destinations.

At the moment it seems that I have snookered myself, so might have take a bit of a gambit or maybe I should play the saftey shot. Well I have Sunday to work it out before setting the wheels in motion on Monday -- and maybe I will stop writing in cliched metaphors by then too.

Some photos from Singapore Zoo

2005-03-17T18:57:00.000+11:00

Took a day trip through Singapore zoo while I was there (they also have a night Safari, but I had seen enough of the animal kingdom for the one day). The Singapore zoo is really quite amazing and definately worth the visit if you are in Singapore -- I know what you are saying, "The zoo?! What am I, four?"

Here are a handful of photos from the day, unfortunately I didn't get any of the python who seemed very intent on communicating with me and my friend that day. It was kind of strange as I had dreamt of a python with very similar markings only a night or so before. Oh, and Han, I think I know what he was trying to say remind me to tell you some time.

White Tiger

White Tiger

White Tiger

Wormwood

In (i)Pod we trust

2005-03-17T18:15:00.000+11:00

The iPod is great modern tool. In many ways I feel it has become a neccessity at least in my life; however I am sure that most folks out there who own one will also agree. It is not the coolnes of the thing, although it is pretty cool; it is not just the compactness of it, although that is definately part of it, for me it is the fact that you have ready sanity in the palm of your hand. At any moment, when you are faced with the ordeals, boredoms, or those moments that just require a beat, you have your entire music collection at easy access. Sure there is room for improvement in the way the menus work, and lengthening the battery life (although the extrenal battery pack by Belkin is an excellent investment and work around for this issue), but for me those are minor concerns, which cast only a very faint shadow on the sleek sliver and white shell of the Pod.

Noise City

2005-03-16T16:33:00.000+11:00

I am back in Bangkok and it is the same assualt on the senses - penertrating sounds and even noisier smells; in your face sales men, tuk tuk drivers and hustlers -- although this time around I feel I am dealing with it with a much greater sense of detachment. Perhaps it is the knowledge that I only have one day left here before I leave for Japan, coupled with the fact that I have done most of what there is for traveller to do in this city already.

At the moment I feel that I sitting in the seething steamy center out of which all the chaotic flights of tourists, scam artist and taxi drivers (et al) are spun -- I am sittig in a small internet cafe / networked games parlour using a key board whose keys expect you to write from a well spring rage and determination within in order to get your key strokes to register. I reckon that it is hotter and steamier inside this tiny niche in the sidewalk than out there in the sun/rain which is bathing Bangkok in a cloak of sultry sluggishness today. But inside here it is the noise that most is formidiable as the frantic slaughter of digital beings rages on just behind me -- from the pitch of the atmosphere here one gets the sense that the fate of the world is depends on the happenings right over my shoulder.

It all makes for an interesting writing experience, as I feel that my thoughts are having to yell themselves within my own head.

I never did make it up to Pai, but I heard it was a very lovely place, alot calmer than Chiang Mai. I guess the challenge to find peace and calm wherever you are, rather than always feeling the need to search it out.

Some notes from the day after Full Moon

2005-03-14T19:39:00.000+11:00

I got the chance to go through some of my photos yesterday so here are a few more. These are all the day after the Full Moon party. The first few are of the ferry trip back to the main land. After leaving the party at around 9:30am, Han and I had a hellish car ride back to the bungalow which saw for a mostly quiet trip. Dresh and Mariah were fine if a bit tired and the three other random girls from Adelaide who also happened to be in the back of the cab seemed fine judging from their constant banter about how cute the guys were that they kissed at the party.

The end of the car ride saw Han and myself, heads over the embankment at the side of the road purging the sins of the night just gone. Dresh was at quite a loss at the spectacle of us kowtowing to the hot morning sun. It really must have been quite a funny spectacle for him and the German holiday makers who ventured past and offered friendly advice on how to control one's consumption during big party evenings.

We got back to the bungalow at 10am with the knowledge that we had to catch the ferry at midday. A daunting task for anyone after such a big night, however we had the added challenge of carrying out 2 extra packs as Matty and Nat had to leave direct from the party in order to get a connecting flight from Samui to Bangkok.

Han and I passed out for about an hour before Dresh got back from breakfast to say that it was 11 and we should get moving if we were going to make that ferry. At that point it looked like it wasn't going to happen. Our powers combined still only amounted to the equivalent of on person with their worst ever hang over. But something clicked, and I found myself heading out the door, packs and on hobbling up the hill for a cab. Han had his packs on and Dresh was ready roll so before you knew it all three of us were in the back of the cab heading for the ferry.

We got to the boat with time to spare and had to wait around for a while before getting to broad. Completely wiped out once we did, we along with other party goers, who no doubt had their own ordeals in making this departure, all collapsed in a collective heap of exhaustion.

I did manage to summon enough energy to do a bit of exploring to get some of the deck.

Packed in.

Packs.

The island had already disappeared.

Finding leg room.

Others also finding leg room.

The view from the dunny.

We then had to catch a train from Suratthani. Just a couple of pictures from this stretch of the journey. It was an over night train so most of the journey was spent in a very much needed state of unconsciousness.

Moving on.

I guess this is us (Han, Dresh and me) recovering.

Sun-set.

Passing view.

Temperature drop!!!

2005-03-14T14:55:00.000+11:00

I have been looking at the weather forecast for Tokyo over the last few days and am a little worried. The temperature there has been averaging in the low teens (centigrade). It is not so much the cold itself that worries me, more the drastic drop from experiencing temperatures averaging in the high 30's for the past month and a half, to an coping with an over night adjustment of almost 30 degrees.

Also, I have only really packed for mild autumn weather, thinking that I might find some more serious winter wear along my travels, but of course, Thailand being the tropical mecca that it is, there is not much in the way that sort of clothing. I did spy some woolen jumpers in some of the stalls on Khoa Sarn road, so I will have to pay them a visit before I leave Thailand late on Thursday night.

One thing that I have found to be fortunate though, is that the hostel that I am booked in at in Tokyo -- Sakura Hostel -- is right near the sporting, camping and hiking store district know as Supotsu Yotengai. So I am sure to find what I need there, but with stores like North Face and Patagonia I am likely to end up paying through the nose. Any how, I think it will be good to get a bit of a change of weather for a while.

The one main thing that I learnt in Singapore is that I need weather, and differentiation in temperature or else I start to go a bit loopy. My 12 days in Singapore seemed like one long day as there was very little temperature difference between day and night as well as between days. I found myself looking back with affection at Melbourne and her cool changes and general mixed bag of conditions. Malaysia and Thailand were much more manageable as the nights were noticeably cooler which helped in terms of subconsciously defining the days.

Well, now on to longer nights and shorter days, and the job hunt...

Koh Pha Ngan - Part 3

2005-03-13T16:50:00.000+11:00

Ok, so I have been lagging a bit I promised a bit more on Koh Pha Ngan so here it is although perhaps a much more condensed version than what I had imagined it would be.

---

The great thing about staying at Haad Yao on the island is that it was quieter area where you could lazy around all day, doing nothing more than lying on the beach, go for a swim, play frisbee, eat and drink. At night, a short hike up a very steep hill got you to a little bar called "The Magic Bar". It is set back from the beach front but because of its elevation affords a great view of the little bay over the top of the bunglows that line the shore. It was chilled-out place where you could go and sit on the Thai floor cushions (sorry not sure of their actual name), drinking a beer while watching the lights of the fishing boats as they bobbed up and down out at sea.

---

Scooters! Scooters every where. You can hire them for cheap and they are the favoured mode of transport. But definately keep your eyes open for them as the main rule of the road over here (here as in Thailand as a whole) is that the less wheels you have and the less technology involved, the less and less the rules of the road seem to apply.

---

There is more, but in the nature of blogging being a medium of the now, it seems that that "more" is now trapped in the amber of memory, waiting for some new connection to string it forth back in the living present. Until then, I think I will leave the Koh Pha Ngan story where it currently sits - awesome memories for all who were there, Matty, Nat, Han, Mariah, Dresh, Raoul, Nina, Zaza and Jules.

well duh!?

2005-03-12T17:56:00.000+11:00

walked around chaing mai today, took only about an hour to walk half
of the main city square, so you can get sense of how small a place
this. it is a welcome break from the frantic pace of bangkok, but
don't let that fool you in thinking you are not taking your life into your
own hands everytime you cross the road.

it seems that today in trying to find sanctuary and quiet in the heat i
was greeted only with the smirk of various golden Buddhas as they
reflected in their wisdom that which we are yet to discover, but which
we already know. in the smirk, i found a look saying you are looking
in the wrong place, you will not find it in temples, in aged mytical
or crazy old fools. look not in me but in you, perhaps that is why the
eye reflects as it does and does so infinitely.

so in some ways it seems quite fitting that i find that sanctuary that
i sought at the start of the day in the same place that i began it, in an
air conditioned internet cafe, at the technological altar that is the
keyboard. communicating with that other, outside of self and the self
all the same.

so now what for me? pause here for moment and then ... there really is
no "and then" though. all goes to plan i will be in japan before the week is out.

Every silver lining has a touch of grey.

2005-03-10T21:43:00.000+11:00

Today was probably the darkest day of my travels so far. I woke up at 4am not feeling fantastic and things just deteriorated from there. I was planning on getting an early start and heading to Pai, about 110 km out of Chiang Mai. I had my bags pretty much packed but wasn't counting on a viscous bout of food poisoning. It seems that the furtherest I would shuttling today would be between the bed to the convenience, which in this case thank God was quite convenient as it was all mine and only a few paces from the bed. Having said that, the move between the two felt like the hardest sections of the trek I completed only a few days ago now.

I tried to listen to music to take my mind off things, but not even Jerry could not pull me out of the dark emotional funk that I was descending into. I tried to talk myself around, trying to notice improvements in my condition, and trying to remain aware of any signs of dehydration. I gave myself a couple of time limits as to when I would try to take a shower and get a move on outofthe room, those time limits all came and went. Finally with thoughts of the joys of home, a home I now longed for like I never imagined I could, and with the knowledge that I was fast running out of a very precious paper commodity I willed myself (actually more like hobbled very disgruntled into the shower). I was conscious too of the fact that I was going a bit stir-crazy in the 7 by 5 meter cell I found myself in.

It was around 2 in the afternoon when I got out of the shower. It then took me, through a whole lot of debating and a lengthy self motivating dialogue another half an hour to get dressed and head out into the smoggy 37' degree day that awaited.

I got out of the guest house at about 2:30 and stumbled the 4 or so blocks down to this vegetarian restaurant I had discovered almost a week before - I remembered spying on their menu a couple of teas which were touted as being just the thing for food poisoning, dehydration and its usual accompaniments.

Upon getting there I was greated warmly as I had been one of their only repeat customer of late, which I no indication of the quality of food, which is excellent, but rather due to it heading into the low season and the restuarant being down a small side street. The place is called Baan Chock Dee - Restuarant & Cafe, and is run by Amm and Marc. It is the only all vegitarian food place that I have found in Chaing Mai and it has a great selection of western and Thai veggie dishes inculding a full range of veggies burgers. But the real charm of the place is not just in it's selection of food, but in the warmth of Amm and and her family and friends as they mill about the place - you get a real sense of community and a close knit unit who is always open to new company.

On the day that I arrived, I was shown genuine concern at my condition, as they advise the best course of dishes and teas. It was still very early in the game so my stomach wasn't up to the challenge, but they engaged with in conversation which took my mind off things and then in a few hours of dominoes which I highly reckomend as a distraction from disgruntled bowels.

---

I have actually written this post over a numbe of days, not feeling up to finishing it in one sittig for obvious reasons so the time might seem a little fluid as you read through it.

I went back to Amm's place last night and had a bigger meal and again the dominoes were brought out. A few more hours lost and then an early night.

Back in the world of the Wheel

2005-03-09T22:51:00.000+11:00

I already started to miss the jungle and the world of bamboo as soon as I got into the back of the truck after the final part of our organized trek which was bamboo rafting. Despite the harsh environment (actually it was quite beautiful, peaceful and understanding apart of course that is from the rooster which were intent to announce the arrive of dawn in every city in every time across the globe all through the night), and aching muscles, the jungle felt so much more like home than the hum, buzz and clang of the city as the wilderness was lost further and further behind the cross hatched tarmac of urban density.

Back at the guest house, I have a private room with a mattress which feels as though it has been compacted over the years by several processions of elephants so that it is now as firm as 6 by 4 piece of pine covered in cloth. On the up side however, I do have a private bathroom with a hot shower which is a God send.

Another down side however, is that the walls in the guest house are paper thin and as such you can hear the most intimate of whispers down the hall if only the guests were kind enough to discourse in whispers. Not to matter though, I have invested in a set of ear plugs through which only half of the noise seeps through, and then at such a distance as to only vaguely alter the course of your dreams. Other than that I am left to the gentle hum of my brain, or maybe that is just the noise ear plugs make as they try to expand inside your ears. Oh, bring back those roosters.

I think that I will check out tomorrow and head to a place called Pai, a bit further north. I am not exactly sure what is up there, but I have heard it is a good place to go and do nothing except lie in a hammock and read a book all day; or maybe even make a bit more head way with what I am doing with my life at the moment.

Back in Chiang Mai

2005-03-09T22:38:00.000+11:00

Got back to civilisation yesterday after a 3 day trek in the jungle which I will write more about once I have composed my thoughts a bit better. In the mean time however I have booked my ticket to Japan - I fly out on the 20th which gives me a little bit of time to look for a job when I get there before the start of school term. It actually only gives me one week, and most jobs will have already been filled so Iam really relying on the "cold feet" syndrome in which some teacher pull out at the last minute. I have been in contact with one Aussie over there who did rock up at about the same time and found a position no worries so I will just have to wait and see what happens. I still have the Aeon option, however, there is not as much stress there as they hire all year round. Once in Japan I will have to attend interviews all over the shop so it looks to be back to hectic schedule by the end of March.

I hope all goes well, however if things don't pan out I am thinking of heading across to Taiwan to try and get a teaching gig over there. Perhaps not as appealing as Japan, but I think over all I will be able to save a lot more money for the next leg of the journey if I do end up there.

I just can't seem to sit down and do my assignment.

2005-03-05T18:00:00.000+11:00

I have been trying now, since I was in Bangkok maybe three or four days ago (it is very easy too lose track of how much time has passed over here, not mention not having a clue as to what day of the week it is)to sit down and fix up my resume to apply for a English teachers position in Japan. The agency that I am planning to apply through is called Aeon, and they require a 500 words essay to be entitled, "Why I want to live and work in Japan". All that is not too difficult, a 500 word essay is a walk in the park compared to preparing a lecture the day before it is to be delivered, and while updating a resume can sometimes be a pain in the butt, it is essential merely a formal process. No, my main problem is that every Internet cafe that I have come across here in Chiang Mai is purely an Internet cafe. Ok, so I know that they are not claiming to be anything other than that, but when they offer services like CD burning, memory card reading etc. you would think that an occasional machine with Microsoft Word on it would not go astray.

Well I guess that it is all part of the strange challenge that rise up to meet you when you are on the road. I have to be out of Thailand by the 22nd of March, so am wanting to at least secure an interview or two before I arrive in Japan. Ah well, it looks like I am to get reacquainted with the limitations of using Word Pad and the accompanying frustrations.

Early line-up for Fuji Rock Festival released.

2005-03-04T17:16:00.000+11:00

Fuji Rock Festival from the 29th July to 31st.

Check it out the early list of artists to appear:

http://www.fujirockfestival.com/artist/

Fresh mountian air

2005-03-02T20:27:00.000+11:00

Bangkok is definately a city where it is good practice to breath through your nose -- while you will still be sucking in mega pollutants it is better than gulping it down by the mouthful.

I leave for Chang Mai tonight, and get there around mid-tomorrow - and I don't have to tell how much I am looking forward to cleaner air.

Koh Phangan ... Part 2 - some photos

2005-03-01T01:11:00.000+11:00

Just some photos of full moon party and aftermath. These are in no particular order:

Sitting spun on the rocks in a place we alikened to Mecca looking out at the party.

Super-spun.

Haad Rin Party Crowd No. 3

Haad Rin Party Crowd No. 2

Han, just making a quick call home to let the folks know that he hasn't caught the bird flu.

Car sick on the way home the next morning.

Car sick on the way home the next morning part 2 -- or -- "Why you so quiet Han?"

Party lights 01

Bucket Time

Morning set

Party ligths 02

Haad Rin Party Crowd No. 4

Han, Nat and Matty, warm up session before heading to Haad Rin

Haad Rin Party Crowd No. 1

Absolutely cooking.

Lunch (before) ... believe me you do not want to see the after photo.

Full Moon Gathering - from the bottom: Mariah, Matty, Nat, Han and me.

Waking up in Bangkok

2005-02-28T14:14:00.000+11:00

I am staying at Big John's hostel in Bangkok in the non-airconditioned rooftop room.As the rush hour draws nearer you will find yourself waking up in a wave of sound, which as a whole is really quite loud, but since all the noises are approximately the same level, and cover almos the full spectrum of sounds frequencies, you actually feel like you are floating in a gently rippling pool of sound.

Sort bank issues already this morning, got to go to the japanese embassy later today and the to Kao San road to get measured for a suit.

Caught in the downward spiral

2005-02-28T02:59:00.000+11:00

It is strange how people can get caught in the downward pull due to occurances and events. There was this strange, harrowed fellow who was hanging around the hostel during dinner tonight. He seemed to want to talk, but when I engaged him he responded in the most dejected and feeble series of shrugs and sways. It was clear that he was in a very dark place and the only person who could really pull him out of it was himself, although he seemed too far down the spiral to realise this fact. I sincerely hope that he works out whatever needs to be worked out, but then again it is all apart of the grand cosmic dance -- nothing is reallly out of order, even though at times it appears so to us, as that appearance is within the order of things as well.

"It's all in the mind ya know" and ultimaely we are more powerful than we can imagine, but relaise this we need to surrender all control first.

Ok, time for bed...

Koh Phangan

2005-02-27T17:10:00.000+11:00

Wow, ok I have finally found a minute to sit down and write. Things have been so hectic, between a hectic schedule in Singapore, a much too rushed (but enlightening) trip through Malaysia, to a full beach and party scedule in Koh Phangan -- all this is not counting the the travel times between places either.

I am currently in Bangkok, it is my second day here. I am still extremely exhausted from my time in Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is a beautiful island if a bit over run by tourist from around the world seeking beach time by day and wild party times at night.

We stayed in a place called Haad Yao on the island which is in the North West and had to travel about 30 - 45 minutes on a harrowing strectch of road which ascends and descends at impossible angles (it really makes you wonder how often the cab drivers have to change their brake pads), in order to get to Haad Rin, which is where the Full Moon party happens.

We went to Haad Rin on two occassions. The first ine was a couple of days before the full moon, and I must admit was not very impressed by what I foud down there. Essentially the beach is set up with a whole number of "nightclubs" jammed in next too one another, all trying to out power the other. This all makes for sme of the stranges and disorienting clashes of music - Blur vs Abba back with a psy-trance beat - yikes! In terms of the people, there was a large contingent from Canada, Sweden, Israel and Australia, although tha was not the complete extent of the mix - there were also kids from Singapore, India, the US, the UK, Germany, Japan etc. etc.

That first night on the beach inspired a great deal of cynicism, as all that seemed to be happening was a bunch of backpacker getting trashed and trying to get laid. Now some (perhaps many) would argue that that is exactly what the Full Moon party is about for them, which is all well and good, however I was looking for and expecting something a little different. So after that first night I was seriously reconsidereing whether or not I would head down that mountain goat trail they call a road in our coverted tin can... Of course I went though and whoa! What a party!

Ok, there are some gaps to fill in before we even get to the party. So after the first night were doubts about the whole visit to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon gathering began to sprout, we went back to our bungalow at Haad Yao, which while being on the other side of the island was ideal, a beatiful and chilled out stretch of beach, with amazing places to eat, have a massage or just pass out and roast. While just pondering over things about the island, about life and decisions made my friend Han and I decided to go for a bit of a hike - not a very easy thing to venture out on once you have experienced the geography of the island. Any way, we went exploring and made our way across to another small resort called My Way, where we had arraned to meet another couple of our frineds, Matty and Nat.

We all had lazy lunch before we decided to head back to our resort. After a few blind decisions abou which road to take we came across some folks on the side of a dirt road filling up sand bags. Of course we asked what they were doing and they gave he inevitable response "What does it look like we are doing?" With those formalities out of the way we then discovered that they were filling the bags for the construction of a super adobe sound dome, which was going to be a part of the Pyramid Yoga retreat.

When we went up to have a look we found the most amazing space for yoga, this huge covered pargola type structure. A class had just finished, and we spoke to a few of the participants as they made their way down. We had stubled across a teacher training course which was runnning for the next few weeks. They do hold classes for all levels, however we had just arrived at the wrong time of the month - not that we really would have been able to do much since we were all only there for a few days.

Next we went up to look at he sand bag, which was something quite phenomenal to stumble across in the middle of the jungle. There was such a strong sense of commuity as well amongst the participats of this work shop who had been working on the dome for the last 5, amlost 6 weeks. They were also all very warm and welcoming to us, two strangers wandering along through the jungle. I don't remember really any of your names, but to if any one who worked on this project ever reads this, thank for your time in entertaining our curiosity and sparking a new found interes in earth building. Also, thanks for the tip on the Indian restuarant in Thong Sala, the food was phenomenal and they did a great Chai.

---

Ok there is still much more to write but I will have to get back to it at a later stage...

Still to come:

The Magic Bar
Scooters
Friends met along the way (Hi Mariah, Julianna and Saskia)
More on our whole crew
Backyard (the big up yours that turned out not to be)
And pulling overselves out for the depths of a hell much deeper than any hangover to make the boat.

Also, photos to follow at some point.

Peace

A quick time out to say...

2005-02-24T18:35:00.000+11:00

so much to write, but so much to do. It has been hard to get to computer to sit down and write. Things are good - full moon party tonight which is probably going to be quite hectic.

Best moment of today, eating brakfast on the beach at 2 in the arvo with the place playing both jack Johnson cds back to back, then followed by Tracy Chapman. They didn't have any Asahi though, but it would have been extra awesome if you were chilling here too Sal. Enjoy the Jack show when he gets to Sydney.

Hello to everyone reading this, miss ya all. Peace.

Something in the meantime

2005-02-12T15:26:00.000+11:00

I have been scolded for not posting more often, which is something that I am quite conscious of, and while I will attempt to hide behind excuses, like my friends have had me on such a tight schedule of sight seeing and family traditions to experience, that I have not had any breathing space to sit down and write, the truth is I should perhaps strive harder for that breathing space. I blame the humidity!

Singapore is an intriguing place, which I am still formulating an impression of. The thing that surprises me the most is the number of ex-pats here, which makes for a much more multi-cultural Singapore than I had expected.

There is much more to write, but I now to get back to my scheduled program for the day - heading out on the MRT to Bugis to meet a friend from Melbourne. He is going to take me to check out a Buddhist temple out there. Out there... that makes it sound quite far - but nothing in Singapore is really "far".

Life in a Bag

2005-01-07T14:15:00.000+11:00

I now have the vessel in which I will be carrying my entire material life for next few years. It is a 75 litre pack by Black Wolf called Cedar Breaks. Now I just have to work out what I need to take with me and more importantly what I do not.

Tea in the Afternoon

2005-01-05T14:29:00.000+11:00

Yerba Matte and Nettle make an excellent tea.

Something to Check out in the meanwhile

2004-12-14T10:45:00.000+11:00

Things have been super hectic with tying things up at work, at home and plenty happening on the social front. Overseas fam have come and gone. We had an absolute blast catching up! Much mischief and trouble making was to be had and I think that I am still recovering. Any way, a friend who escaped to the UK is braving southern shores again. He arrives Friday I think, and then fam from Sydney arrives on the 21st - but too be honest, I think I just need some time out just to get things organised before the 5th of Feb when I leave the country. Any way, enough crapping on - here is something to check out inbetween posts.

www.zoeticart.com

www.alexgrey.com

Family Reunion

2004-11-24T16:42:00.000+11:00

A family reunion tonight. Very excited. It is quite amazing when resonating souls meet again.

Oh, and by family, I mean fellow journeyers.

Musik

2004-11-19T16:45:00.000+11:00

I was listening a track a while back, just on headphones while laying in bed. It was track by Susumu Yokota, which had no lyrics in it. I got completely lost in the present-ness of the track and the nature of music when my mind drifted off and started to wonder what it was about music that just goes through us, calms and sooths us, angers us and makes us feel anxious. Something in the psychicial ooze of our being, or perhaps something deeper yet?

The track made me feel intensly calm and connected and I thought, is it me or the patterns of firing neurons that were enjoying the harmonic coding of the music? Is there something deeper than what we like to call ourselves, something bigger and unnamable as whatever it is, it is something that can't be named or pointed to by language. An (the) experience without an experiencer?

The clock has just started counting.

2004-11-11T09:11:00.000+11:00

I just resigned, and I now have dates. My last day here at work will be the 21st of January, and my last day in the country will be February the 5th. Less than three before I walk out of this life...

Packing up your life

2004-10-13T15:46:00.000+10:00

It is a strange thing to do, deciding that you will pack up and sell everything you can, severe all ties and head out on the road.

The obvious question is what would someone who did this be in search of, and if and when it is all over, will they have found anything new along the way - while the answer is probably "no" in many cases it is not really about what you can grasp and point to so much as just walking the path.

It is all beginning to sound a bit trite and cliched now, but one thing I have found is that familiar sayings become that familiar precisely because they have quite a lot of truth to them, but when we hear and regard them intellectually they seem pat, but when experienced they resound with a penertrating truth.